The cardiac complications of gonorrhea are treated quite extensively in a recent contribution by Thayer and Lazear.1 The gonococcus has been shown to be capable of causing grave local as well as general septic complications. Cystitis, periurethral abscess, salpingitis and peritonitis, etc., have been quite clearly demonstrated to be caused by the gonococcus in a number of instances. The presence of the gonococcus in joints the seat of gonorrheal synovitis, has been demonstrated by many observers; it has also been obtained in pure culture from subcutaneous and other abscesses, from pleural effusions, and from the circulating blood (Thayer and Blumer, Thayer and Lazear). It would, therefore, not be remarkable that the gonococcus should be found as the cause of endocarditis and other inflammatory changes in connection with the heart.
Endocarditis is by far the most common of the cardiac complications of gonorrhea. Gurvich2 collected 110 clinical instances, in