Some Observations on Gonococcal Infection of the Fallopian Tubes and Ovaries *Read 10th January 1923.

the uterus and appendages was the direct result of gonorrhoea ; that the condition was very intractable to treatment; that it often remained latent for months or years before causing severe complications; that it led to subsequent sterility; and that where pregnancy did occur in association with it, the subsequent labour was often followed by sepsis. Following on the discovery of the gonococcus by Neisser2 in 1879, many of the clinical observations of Noeggerath were confirmed, and the ^etiological relationship between the initial gonorrhoea and the later salpingitis, oophoritis, and pelvic peritonitis established. With this knowledge available for the past fifty years, it is remarkable that there are an appreciable number of practising physicians and surgeons who still consider and treat gonococcal infection in the female as a vaginal lesion only, and rarely examine any other part of the genital tract for diagnostic information.