Foreword 



Microbiologists who have occasion to use the scientific names of the 

 microorganisms with which they deal generally prefer to use correct 

 names and to use them correctly. Relatively few authors have special 

 or direct interest in the problems of nomenclature as such, but there 

 is general recognition that acceptance of the same names by various 

 authors is essential in a field such as microbiology which has 

 probablv more economic implications than any other subdivision of 

 biolog\ . One is confronted with the fact that the names given to micro- 

 organisms have been proposed by individuals whose major interest has 

 been the organisms themselves, not their names. Their economic sig- 

 nificance has commonly been stressed. These minute organisms were 

 found in some cases to produce disease in man, animals or plants; their 

 study became basic to the professions of medicine and veterinary medi- 

 cine; other microorganisms produced fermentation, decay and spoilage; 

 it was found that fundamental studies of celhdar physiology and 

 metabolism, cell structine, inheritance, enzymology, photos) nthesis, 

 production of antibiotics, preservation of foods and feeds, public 

 health, sanitation, soil fertility, plant pathology, and other fields re- 

 quired some basic knowledge of bacteriology. Those who discovered 

 and worked with these organisms recognized the need of giving names 

 to them, but frequently had little or no experience in scientific 

 nomenclature. What rules should be followed in the coining of these 

 names? Precedents to be followed were not clearly formidated in the 

 early days of bacteriology. 



Carl von Linne (Linnaeus) in the latter part of the eighteenth 

 century proposed certain nomenclatural principles which were adopted 

 with surprising unanimity by biologists of his day. Later the 

 botanists and zoologists in separate international meetings and con- 

 gresses developed two codes of nomenclature, which agieed in most 

 points but differed in some. Many bacteriologists followed the Botanical 

 Code, some the Zoological Code, and others named the organisms 

 which they discovered with scant attention to established rules. It 



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