MICROCOCCUS GONORRHG@. 56381 
ring in other portions of the field and outside of the 
pus-cells should not be considered specific by this test 
only. It should also be remembered that the gonococci 
are decolorized by Gram’s method, while other similar 
micrococci which occur in the urethra are, as a rule, 
at least, not so decolorized. Organisms having these 
characteristics can for all practical purposes be con- 
sidered as certainly gonococci if obtained from the 
urethra. From the vulvo-vaginal tract the certainty is 
not so great; here cultures should also be made. Bumm, 
Heiman and others have shown that other diplococci 
are occasionally found in gonorrheeal pus from the vulvo- _ 
vaginal tract, and very rarely, indeed, from the urethra, 
which do not stain by this method. Cover-glass prepa- 
rations from subacute or chronic cases should be ex- 
amined, if possible, with a microscope provided with a 
mechanical stage, and should always be stained by 
Gram’s method and the examination repeated on three 
consecutive days. Should these specimens prove nega- 
tive, to exclude any possible doubt in the matter, 
cultures should then be made on chest-serum-agar, 
poured in dishes, as proposed by Heiman, also, if with 
negative results, on three consecutive days. His 
method of procuring the urine in chronic urethritis 
is to allow the patient to void his urine either imme- 
diately into two sterilized centrifugal tubes or first 
into two sterile bottles. The first tube will contain 
threads of the anterior urethra; the second tube will 
be likely to contain secretion from the posterior urethra 
and from the prostate gland if, while urinating, the 
patient’s prostate be pressed upon with the finger. 
Tubes containing such urine are placed in the centri- 
fuge and whirled for three minutes at twelve hundred 
