528 BACTERIOLOGY. 
gonorrhea in normal urethral mucous membranes by 
inoculation of a pure culture on blood-serum in the 
second generation; Wertheim, in the thirtieth; Kiefer, 
in the sixth, and Heiman in the fifth generation. At 
the same time the distinctive morphological, staining and 
biological characters of the organism were carefully noted 
and confirmed to be those of the gonococcus by these ob- 
servers; the typical incubation and symptoms of the dis- 
ease resulted in all cases in the subjects experimented on. 
According to the observations of the most reliable 
investigators and those most familiar with the various 
forms of micrococci which are likely to be mistaken 
for the gonococcus, affections due to this organism are 
usually restricted to the mucous membranes of the 
urethra, conjunctiva, bladder, cervix uteri, and rectum. 
It rarely, if ever, produces a vaginitis in adults; but 
occasionally a vulvo-vaginitis in young children. For- 
merly the presence of gonococci could only be deter- 
mined microscopically; but since the introduction of the 
serum-agar the culture method has rendered the diag- 
nosis of gonorrhcea much more reliable. This method 
of investigation, moreover, has given valuable infor- 
mation with regard to the nature of many infections 
complicating or resulting from gonorrhcea, particularly 
in affections of the uterus and joints, about which there 
was heretofore considerable doubt, though the micro- 
cocci often found in these organs were morphologically 
identical with the gonococcus. It has now been shown 
by the culture method that gonococci may occur in the 
joints in gonorrhceal arthritis, in the Fallopian tubes in 
salpingitis, and in ovarian abscesses; and Wertheim 
asserts that he has found them in the infiltrated con- 
nective tissue in parametritis. 
