CHAPTER XXX. 
MICROCOCCUS GONORRH@A (@onococcus NEISSER). 
THIs micrococcus was first observed by Neisser, in 
1879, in gonorrheeal discharges, and described by him 
under the name of ‘‘ gonococcus’’; but though several 
attempted to discover a medium upon which it might 
be cultivated, it was reserved for Bumm, in 1885, to 
obtain it in pure culture and isolate it and then prove 
its infective virulence by inoculation into man. Since 
that time the gonococcus has been cultivated on various 
media, which, though modifications of Bumm’s, are an 
improvement on his original method, and as the result 
of various inoculation experiments there now remains 
no doubt that this organism is the specific cause of 
gonorrheea in man. 
Morphological Characters. Micrococci, occurring 
mostly in the form of diplococci—that is, in pairs or 
in groups of four. The bodies of the diplococci are 
elongated, and, as shown in stained preparations, have 
an unstained division or interspace between two flat- 
tened surfaces facing one another, which gives them 
their characteristic ‘‘ coffee-bean”’ or “biseuit’’ shape 
(Fig. 68). The diameter of an associated pair of cells 
varies from 0.8% to 1.6 in the long diameter— 
average about 1.254—by 0.64 to 0.8 in the cross 
diameter. In gonorrhcea gonococci are found mostly 
in small, irregular groups in or upon the pus-cells, and 
