Observations on the Growth of the Gonococcus and the Staphylococcus Albus from the Urethra in Plate Culture (A Criticism of Warden's Work)

Abstract

The identity of some well known bacteria is being doubted by progressive bacteriologists. Variations in the so-called characteristic properties, which serve as criteria in the differentiation of bacteria, suggest the possibility that our predecessors have confused bacteriologic terminology by assigning names to many variations of a few bacteria, when growing in widely dissimilar environment. Much valuable knowledge will undoubtedly be obtained by a review of the subject of bacteriology in the new light. Yet this must be done with care. The Gram stain, a variable quantity in itself, and the elusive phantom, morphology, cannot give conclusive evidence that two bacteria, heretofore considered different, are the same, as has been contended in Warden's publications of last year, which we are about to discuss. Warden,' in his studies of the gonococcus and the staphylococcus albus from the urethra, concludes that Many, if not all, of the gramnegative, intracellular, biscuitor coffee-bean shaped cocci, observed in the purulent discharge in acute gonorrhea, which are regarded as gonococci, and which serve as criteria of diagnosis, are not gonococci, but belong to the staphylococcus group. The provisional name of Staphylococcus urethrae is suggested for this coccus. As a basis for this conclusion, Warden cites his observations on the Gram staining properties of the staphylococcus albus, obtained from urethral pus: (1) when grown on the usual media in pure culture and in mixed culture with the gonococcus; (2) when within leukocytes, in phagocytosis experiments made to obtain intracellular organisms, and (3) when in colonies. Pure cultures of the staphylococcus albus and gonococcus were grown on plate culture media spread in thin films on microscopic slides which permitted staining and study of colonies in situ.