412 Gonorrhea 



observed. ' Those upon the surface showed a dark center, sur- 

 rounded by a delicate granular zone. 



Glycerin agar-agar stroked with defibrinated human blood, 

 heated to S5°C. for one-haK hour to destroy any bacteriolytic sub- 

 stances the blood may contain, and to aid in ensuring its steriUty, 

 answers quite well as a medium for starting a culture from an acute 

 case of gonorrhea, and ascitic-fluid bouillon (i part ascitic fluid and 

 2 parts bouillon) is an excellent medium for maintaining it and 

 growing large numbers of the cocci. Cultures grow only at 37°C. 



Young* had excellent success with a hydrocele-agar prepared as 

 follows: 



"The fluid (hydrocele or ascitic) is obtained sterile, the locality of the puncture 

 being carefully sterilized by modern surgical methods, the sterile trocar covered 

 at its external end with sterilized gauze so as not to be infected by the operator's 

 hand, and the fluid collected in sterile flasks, the sterile stoppers being then re- 

 placed. Collecting the fluid in this way we have very rarely had it contaminated, 

 often keeping it several months before using it. The fluid is mixed with ordi- 

 nary nutrient agar. A number of common slants are put in the autoclave for 

 five minutes. This liquefies the agar and at the same time thoroughly sterilizes 

 the tubes and cotton stopper's. The slants are then put in a water-bath at S5°C. 

 so as not to coagulate the albumin when mixed with the agar. The stopper hav- 

 ing been removed from a small flask of hydrocele fluid, the top of the flask is 

 flamed and the albuminous fluid is then poured into an agar tube (the top of 

 which has also been flamed) in proportions a little more than one to two." The 

 medium canbe allowed to solidify in tubes or can be poured into Petri dishes. 



When one of the colonies was transferred to a tube of human 

 blood-serum, or of one of the above-described mixtures obHquely 

 coagulated, isolated Uttle gray colonies occur, later becoming con- 

 fluent and producing a delicate smeary layer upon the medium. 

 The main growth is surrounded, by a thin, veil-like extension which 

 gradually fades away at the edges. A slight growth occurs in the 

 water of condensation. 



Heifnanf found that the gonococcus grows best in a mixture of 

 I part of pleuritic fluid and 2 parts of 2 per cent. agar. Wright J 

 prefers a mixture of urine, blood-serum, peptone, and agar-agar. 



Wassermann§ used a mixture of 15 cc. of pig-serum, 35 cc. of 

 water, 3 cc. of glycerin, and 2 per cent, of nutrose. The nutrose is 

 dissolved by boilirig and the solution sterilized. This is then added 

 to agar, in equal parts, and used in plates. || 



Laitinen** found agar-agar mixed with one-third to one-half its 

 volume of cyst or ascitic fluid, and bouillon containing i per cent, 

 of peptone and 0.5 per cent, of sodium chlorid, mixed with one- 

 third to one-half its volume of cyst or ascitic fluid, very satisfactory. 



* "Contributions to the Science of Medicine by the Pupils of William M. 

 Welch," Baltimore, 1900, p. 677. 

 t "Medical Record," Dec. 19, 1688. 



I "Amer. Jour. Med. Sci.," Feb., 1895. 

 § "Berliner klin. Wochenschrift," 1897. 



II See "Text-Book of Bacteriology," by Hiss and Zinsser, 1910, p. 383. 



** "Centralbl. f. Bakt. u. Parasitenk.," June i, 1898, vol. xii. No. 20, p. 874. 



