These gonococci, like other bacteria, have a great affinity for aniline dyes, such as methyl violet, fuchsin, gentian violet, and methyl blue, but they lose this stain readily when dipped into alcohol and acids according to "Gram's method", the details of which would be intelligible only to a microscopist. Suffice it to say that their staining in the aniline dyes, and decolorization by Gram's method, is a valuable means of distinguishing them from other organisms. The mucous membrane of the male and female genitalia, and that of the eye, furnish the best possible "soil", or medium for their culture, a constant, warm temperature, moisture, and fluids upon which the organism thrives.
These gonococci, after their proliferation upon the tissues, set up a virulent inflammation, soon resulting in the formation of pus, which pours out from the affected parts. In the interior of the pus cells will be seen microscopically, after staining reagents have been employed, innumerable colonies of gonoccocci, which multiply so rapidly that they eventually burst open the pus cells from over distention.
In the acute stages of gonorrhoea there is no difficulty in recognizing them with the microscope, in the pus discharge, but in the chronic stages they may be much harder to find, and perhaps may not be found at all in some of the specimens examined.
In cases of old standing gonorrhoea where the gonococci cannot be found microscopically, they frequently again come into evidence if the patient indulge in excessive venery, or in drinking alcoholic liquors, or in excessive exercise. As a rule it is not difficult to diagnose a case of gonorrhoea where there is a history of an impure intercourse and a pus like discharge, but the determination of the disease is absolutely confirmed by the finding of gonococci in the pus discharge.
Remember, then, (a) that gonococci are the cause of gonorrhoea, because they are invariably found in the pus discharge of clap, and never are found in diseases which are not gonorrhceal; (b) that contamination with pus which does not contain gonococci never produces gonorrhoea, while pus containing gonococci does; (c) that the gonococci may be conveyed by any vehicle, but that infection is almost always due to impure intercourse.
Signs, Symptoms and Mode of Onset of Gonorrhoea. Gonorrhoea, like all virulent processes, e.g., small pox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid fever, etc., has a period of incubation, of invasion, advance, persistence, decline and convalescence; only in this disease, as in syphilis, the period of convalescence is frequently very much prolonged. Every individual who contracts any specific disease has a definite road to go over, which he must pass, willy nilly.
For illustration let us take a country in which tablelands or plateaus exist, where the top of the mountain is occupied by an extent of nearly level land instead of a peak. As one advances toward this mountain the level plain represents health; the first foot hills represent the invasion of the disease; the abrupt ascent of the mountain represents the advance of the disease, and the plateau on top its persistence: then the descent of the mountain represents the decline of the disease, the foot hills on the other side convalescence, and the broad plan farther on health regained.
Travellers make this journey with varying degrees of comfort and celerity some on mule back, some with guides who pull them up with ropes, some walking alone, and some carrying heavy packs. In a corresponding manner the diseased patient has a difficult or easy experience according to his constitution and proclivities acquired by habit, the skill of the doctor's treatment, and the virulence of the attack. But once having set out on the mountainous journey, there is no turning back at any price.
Most of the severe diseases are accidental and beyond control; but gonorrhoea, syphilis, and chancroid are elective diseases, which the patient decides that he can run the risk of acquiring "for the fun of the thing", just as the mountain climber ascends the Matterhorn from choice and not necessity.