Bacteria and Viruses ix 



Foreword 



tures of such with a culture collection that they may be made 

 available to others interested. Particularly is it urged that the 

 adequate financial support of these culture collections by official 

 agencies, by educational and research instittitions and by the re- 

 search foundations constitutes an important and immediate need. 



It will be noted that in the action of the Congress the develop- 

 ment of an adequate Bacteriological Code was linked with the Botani- 

 cal Code. The specific suggestion was made that members of the 

 International Botanical Congress, 1930, be apprised of the resolu- 

 tions passed by the First Microbiological Congress and that the 

 Botanical Congress be asked to cooperate. This was done, and the 

 two secretaries of the International Nomenclature Committee for 

 Bacteriology (Dr. R. St. John-Brooks and Dr. R. S. Breed) were 

 designated by the Botanical Congress as a special committee on the 

 nomenclature of bacteria. 



THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS FOR 

 MICROBIOLOGY (London, 1936) 



The International Committee met during the sessions of the 

 second International Congress for Microbiology in London in 1986. 

 Proposals by R. E. Buchanan and H. J. Conn to conserve the generic 

 name Bacillus Cohn 1872, to designate as the type species Bacillus 

 subtilis Cohn 1872, and to fix the type or standard culture as the 

 'Marburg strain' were appro\ed by the Committee and by the Plenary 

 Session of the Congress. 



A further specific action of the Nomenclature Committee and of 

 the London Congress had to do with the duplication of generic names 

 in the Protista, the group ordinarily defined to include the protozoa, 

 algae, fungi and bacteria. Inasmuch as bacteria are usually inchided 

 among the plants, and subsequent plant homonyms are regarded as 

 illegitimate, the principal interest is the suppression as illegitimate 

 later homonyms in the protozoa and the bacteria. Prof. F. Mesnil 

 proposed and the Nomenclature Committee and the Congress agreed 

 that generic homonyms are not permitted in the group Protista; 

 fiuther that it is advisable to avoid homonymy amongst Protista on 

 the one hand, plants or animals (Mefazoa) on the other. 



The Committee and Congress also acted favorably on a proposal 

 by Prof. R. S. Breed relative to non-capitalization of specific epithets 

 in names of species of bacteria. 



"Bacteriologists should accept Article 13 of the International 



Rules of Zoological Nomenclature, as follows: 



'While specific substantive names derived from names of per- 

 sons may be written with a capital initial letter, all other 

 specific names are to be written with a small initial letter.' " 

 At this 1936 (London) meeting of the International Committee it 



