FIELD E ; Taxomony Code 



Columns 18, 19, 20, 21, 



22, 23, 24, and 25 



CODING OF TEST ORGANISMS 



GENERAL DISCUSSION OF THE 

 CBCC TAXONOMY CODE 



1. S ymbols for organisms; the taxonomic significance of parts of the symbols for organisms 



Deriving the symbol for any specific test organism is itself a coding process. Once the 

 taxonomic information about a given organism has been coded, the assembled coding represents, as a 

 unit, the code symbol for the organism. The symbol remains constant for any given organism in the 

 same way that symbols remain constant for organs in Field H or physical states of chemicals in Field A, 

 etc. This coding of the taxonomic categories to which a specific organism belongs is dealt with here. 



Field E provides eight IBM punched card columns for identifying the test organism. The total 

 area of eight columns is divided into six sub- areas, each conveying unique taxonomic information. 

 The eight units of the Taxonomy Code symbols (i. e. , the eight IBM punched card columns of Field E) 

 are apportioned as follows: 1, the animal phylum or plant division; 2, the class; 3, the order; 4 and 5, 

 the family; 6 and 7, the genus; and 8, the species. This permits distinguishing 35 phyla; of each 

 phylum, 35 classes can be distinguished; and, of each class, 35 orders can be distinguished. The 

 two units for each of the family and genus designations permit distinguishing in each order hundreds 

 of families and, in each family, hundreds of genera. The CBCC has elected to use as far as possible 

 only numerical units for the familial and generic designations, (i. e. , 01 through 99, rather than 01 

 through 0Z followed by 11 through 1Z and 21 through 2Z, etc. ). This simplifies IBM punched card 

 sorting, since letter designations, incorporated into the code symbols, can be indicated only by a 

 combination of a zone punch and numerical punch and this double punch would require sorting the cards 

 twice to retrieve any given letter designation. 



Thus, when a coder uses a symbol for a specific organism, he is actually coding six pieces of 

 pre-coded information, the identity of the phylum, class, order, family, and genus to which the 

 organism species used in the test belongs. 



2. Limitation of the number of species for which biological responses to chemicals are 

 experimentally determined 



In devising the Taxonomy Code, the primary objective was to satisfy the needs of the CBCC in 

 the process of coding only the results of tests for biological responses. In other words, the ultimate 

 objective of the CBCC Taxonomy Code was not the coding of all organisms; information about responses 

 to chemicals may be expected for only a fraction of the total number of known species of organisms. 

 While the CBCC has no reason to provide code symbols for all organisms nor necessarily for all 

 organisms of any given group, its pattern for coding organisms has to permit coding taxonomic infor- 

 mation about any given organism. 



3. Essential taxonomic information about a test organism 



In a coding project in which the information being coded involves only a few organisms, the 

 identities of the organisms could conceivably be indicated very simply merely by assigning symbols 

 in sequence. For example, a species of Aspergillus might be assigned symbol 1; a species of 

 Clostridium, symbol 2; a species of Bacillus , symbol 3; a species of Amoeba , symbol 4; etc. 



The needs of the CBCC for coded taxonomic information exceed any such simple scheme. It is 

 necessary that the Center be able to associate all chemical-biological information related to all 

 organisms of a given family, or of a given phylum, or of any other taxonomic category. Also, an 

 organism is occasionally identified by the author only as a member of a broad taxonomic category, 

 such as a member of a specific order or of a specific family, and the CBCC must be able to code in 

 such a way that the code entry is clearly identified as a family or order and identified as to which 

 family or order. Therefore, the scheme as described above in Division 1 was established, by which 

 each organism species is coded to indicate the phylum, class, order, family, and genus to which it 

 belongs. 



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