DIPLOCOCCUS GONORRHCE^ 



381 



The gonococcus is non-motile and does not form spores. It is easily 

 stained with the usual aqueous anilin dyes. Methylene-blue alone, 

 or eosin followed by methylene-blue, or the neutral red stain of Plato,' 

 gives good results. Gram's method of staining, however, is the only 

 one of differential value. With this method the gonococcus is rapidly 

 decolorized and can be counterstained with fuchsin or Bismarck brown. 

 The Gram stain applied to pus from the male urethra, while not 

 absolutely reliable, is, for practical purposes, sufficiently so to make 

 a diagnosis. In exudates from the vagina or from the eye the mor- 

 phological picture is not so reliable, owing to the frequent presence 



Fia. 80. — Gonorrheal Pus prom Urethra, showing the Cocci within a 



Leucocyte. 



in these regions of other Gram-negative cocci. The great scarcity of 

 gonococci in very chronic discharges necessitates thorough cultural 

 iavestigatibn; negative morphological examination in such cases can 

 not be regarded as conclusive.^ 



Cultivation. — ^The gonococcus is extremely delicate and is difficult 

 to cultivate. After many failures to grow it upon the ordinary media, 

 Bumm^ obtained his first growths upon human blood serum which 

 had been heated to partial coagulation. 



The medium most commonly used at the present day was introduced 



' Plato, Berl, klin. Woch., 1894. 'Heiman, Medical E-eqord, 1896. 



3 Bumm, Deut. med. Woch., 1885, 



