New Algoid Vegetations. 41 



the slides of the microscope. The specimens thus obtained were 

 each examined carefully, often for many hours together, watching 

 the changes produced by gradual drying, and making accurate 

 notes of all the abnormal bodies and appearances present. I had 

 not pursued this mode of inquiry long, before I discovered the 

 spores (fig, 9) which I had previously found in the pus scattered 

 about among and in the parent epithelial cells, and here and there 

 found filaments, single and in little knots, in all stages of deve- 

 lopment. These filaments were soon discovered to emanate from 

 the minute spores previously mentioned. In the embryonic fila- 

 ments (fig. 13) a moniliform structure could be observed, exhibi- 

 ting the outlines of the individual spores, while the more advan- 

 ced and mature filaments were usually homogeneous throughout 

 their entire length (figs. 14 and 15). 



From 1862 to the present time I have worked up carefully 

 several hundred cases in this way, and have made careful dra- 

 wings, with full notes. In all of these cases this peculiar vege- 

 tation has been found: in some cases the spores only; in others, 

 the spores and embryonic filaments; and in still others, the spo- 

 res and filaments in all stages of development were found. Be- 

 lieving this plant to be the specific cause of gonorrhoea — not 

 being able to find it in mucous membranes affected with other 

 intiammatory derangements — I have given it the name Crypta 

 gonorrhoea. 



The spores (figs. 9 and 10) are very minute and well defined. 

 They are often discovered in twos and sometimes in fours (fig. 9), 

 undergoing the process of duplicative segmentation. They occur 

 and develop rapidly, in gonorrhoea, in and among the parent cells 

 of the mucous surfaces affected, producing great irritation and 

 inflammation, and a rapid formation of muco-pus cells, which often 

 form around the spores, and thus become vehicles for eliminating 

 the virus from the parent cells. In this way nearly every particle 

 of gonorrhoeal discharge becomes loaded with the specific cause. 

 The spores are represented at figs. 9, 10, 11, and 12. At fig. 12 

 they are developing in the nucleus of a parent epithelial cell. In 

 and among the epithelial cells this plant is frequently met with 

 in its filamentous stage of development. The filaments arc found 

 in all stages of growth, from a length double the diameter of a 

 spore to several inches, when magnified four or five hundred dia- 

 meters (fig. 14). In their embryonic stages, frequently a monili- 



