352 ACTINOMYCETES 



The name Oospora has been applied to some members of the group 

 by certain French bacteriologists, and Thaxter named the organism 

 of potato scab Oospora scabies. The genus Oospora is rather poorly- 

 defined, but is usually considered to include certain of the higher 

 molds with septate mycelium. The actinomycetes do not belong here. 

 Nevertheless this name is preferred by Sartory. 



The name Nocardia, given by Trevisan to the group to honor 

 Nocard who discovered one of the important species, has been used 

 by some French authorities to designate the whole group, by some 

 writers to designate the saprophytic species. It has not come into 

 general use except in France and must be ruled out for the whole 

 group by the laws of priority. It is valid, however, for those aerobic 

 forms which fragment readily into arthrospores ; Nocardia will prob- 

 ably come into general use, but in this restricted sense. 



Rivolta coined the term Discomyces for the causative agent of 

 botryomycosis. Under the two mistaken impressions that the causa- 

 tive agent of botryomycosis is an actinomycete and that Actinomyces 

 is not a valid name, a few writers, especially in France, have used 

 Discomyces as the generic name for the actinomycetes. According 

 to Buchanan * the organism described and named by Rivolta is a 

 coccus and not a filamentous form at all. 



The name Actinomyces was given to the organism of lumpy jaw 

 in cattle by Harz. It has the advantage over all the other terms used 

 in that it fulfills the law of priority, being the first name applied to 

 a member of the group which had not been used for some other 

 fungus, in that it is descriptive, and in that it is more widely used 

 than the others. Fortunately the synonymy of the various terms is 

 coming to be generally recognized, as well as the validity of the term 

 Actinomyces. The name means ray fungus, and these organisms are 

 frequently referred to in English literature as ray fungi, and in Ger- 

 man literature as Strahlenpilze. 



The somewhat involved question of synonymy and terminology of 

 the actinomycetes is very thoroughly discussed by Breed and Conn - 

 and by Buchanan.* 



If only one genus is recognized, Actinomyces is the proper name 

 and has now come to be rather generally used. However, the large 

 number of described species running into the hundreds and the very 

 great diversity of characters, both morphological and physiological, 

 would seem to make a division into several genera advisable. The 

 system of Waksman and Henrici appears to be the best of the many 

 that have been proposed. Each of these authors has made a study 

 of the genus extending over a quarter of a century and each has 



