GONORRHEA. IoIr 
MeEtTHopD oF MakinG THE FILMs, 
The pus is to be spread out into thin films at the time 
at which it is taken, and this is true whether the prac- 
titioner intends to make the examination for himself, or 
is about to send the material to a laboratory. Gonor- 
rheeal pus should never be forwarded dried on a piece 
of cotton-wool or enclosed in vaccine tubes. 
The films are to be made thus:—Take, two clean 
slides and place two or three platinum loopfuls of the 
pus on the centre of one of them; sterilise the needle 
and lay it down. Now take the other slide and apply 
its centre to the pus and allow it to fall on to the, first 
slide by its own weight; do not squeeze the slides 
together. Then slide them apart, keeping each in its 
own plane until they are entirely separated. This will 
give you two excellent films. Allow them to dry and 
fix them in the flame. 
The films may also be made on cover-glasses, exactly 
the same process being adopted, except that it will be 
necessary to squeeze the two lightly together. The 
fixation is accomplished by passing the cover-glasses 
rapidly through the flame. 
These are the methods by which films are spread in 
all cases; the way in which the pus should be obtained 
varies somewhat with the nature of the case. 
In the male it is advisable to cleanse the meatus and 
to reject the first drop of pus, taking the second with a 
platinum loop and proceeding as before. Antiseptic 
precautions are entirely unnecessary, as no attempt is 
to be made to get cultures. If the patient is suffering 
from phimosis, and there is a purulent discharge which 
