SUPPURATION, PYjEMIA, SEPTICEMIA, ERYSIPELAS. 189 



cultivation in broth or agar-agar tubes of nutrient gelatine can 

 be inoculated. Cover-glass-preparations from the growths on sohd 

 media can be made in the iisual way, and stained with either a 

 watery solution of fuchsine or gentian violet : but to stain prepa- 

 rations made from milk or broth, or from the liquid in agar-agar 

 tubes, use the method of Gram ; the stain will then be removed, 

 except fi'om the streptococci, and very beautiful pj'eparations 

 result. 



GONOKEHOEA. 



Gonorrhoea is the result of a catarrhal inflammation of the 

 mucous membrane of the urethra, vagina, or conjunctiva caused by 

 a characteristic pyogenic organism discovered by Neisser in 1879. 



GonococGUs of Neisser. — Cocci, usually in pairs 1-6 /i, in 

 length, -8 ft, in width, and tetrads, with those surfaces of the com- 

 ponent elements which are in contact, flattened. The elements 

 are more or less kidney-shaped, and are separated by a clear 

 unstained interval. They are found free in the pus and also in 

 the interior of the pus cells. They stain with the aniline dyes, 

 but are decolorised by Gram's solution. They do not grow on 

 the ordinary media, such as gelatine, agar, and potato, in mai'ked 

 contrast to the common pyogeiiic cocci ; but Bumm succeeded in 

 obtaining a cultivation by using human blood serum, which was 

 procured for the purpose from the placenta. They give rise to 

 a very delicate growth in the form of an almost invisible film, 

 with a moist appearance, which attains its full development in 

 a few days. Steinschneider used human blood serum and agar 

 incubated at 35° C. 



Krall recommended either agar with grape-sugar and blood serum, 

 or the same mixture with the addition of 5 per cent, glycerine. 

 Others have employed nutrient agar with the surface moistened with 

 sterilised human blood. More I'ecently Keifer has been successful 

 with a medium which is prepared in the following way : ascitic 

 fluid is filtered and sterilised by Tyndall's pi'ocess, to this is added 

 an equal quantity of the following mixture, agar 3-5, peptone 5, 

 glycerine 2, salt '5 (per cent.). The ascitic agar is solidified in a 

 Petri's dish, and the culture incubated at 36° C. 



They have also been cultivated in albumin from plovers' eggs, 

 and in the fluid obtained from a case of synovitis of the knee joint. 



Inoculation of rabbits, dogs, horses, and monkeys, has been 

 invariably unsuccessful, but sub-cultures produce the disease in 

 the healthy urethra. 



