Bacteria and Viruses 31 



Recommendation 5a. Sect. 1. Naming of Taxo 



from languages employing an alphabet other than Latin. Such, for 

 example, are the Arabic and Slavic languages. 



Recommendation 5a (3). In general bacteriologists have adhered to 

 the recommendation not to make inappropriate dedications. There 

 are very few generic names of bacteria derived from the names of 

 persons who were not concerned with microbiology. 



Recommeyidation 5a (4) . This recommendation, not to use adjec- 

 tives as generic names, has been ignored in a few instances. For 

 example, Castellani and Chalmers placed Bacillus faecalis alcaligenes 

 Petruschky 1896 in a new genus which they named Alcaligenes 

 ("alkali-producing") . "When used as a generic name it is treated as a 

 substantive ("that which forms alkali") . Among names proposed 

 for genera and having an adjectival form are Encapsidntus Castel- 

 lani and Chalmers, Dysenteroides Castellani and Chalmers, Fusiformis 

 Hoelling and Albofacieus Castellani and Chalmers. 



Recommendation 5a (5) . Generic names formed by combining stems 

 from different languages are common in microbiology, particularly 

 names which combine stems from Latin and Greek. This recom- 

 mendation is one of the oldest in biological nomenclature. Lin- 

 naeus voiced disapproval of nomiyia hybrida. But violations of the 

 spirit of the recommendation are numerous and continuing. There 

 are many reasons for apparent disregard for this recommendation. 



For example, an author in search of a name for a new genus may 

 wish to indicate that his organism has some of the characters of the 

 genus Bacillus but is not a true Bacillus. He coins the new generic 

 name Pseudobacillus, a false Bacillus. But the name is a hybrid and 

 hence undesirable; the first stem pseud- is Greek and bacillus is Latin. 

 The author could have chosen the Latin word falsus also meaning 

 false and could have coined Falsibacillus in which both component 

 stems are Latin. The Latins themselves occasionally used fals- as 

 the first component of a compound word. Even more frequently a 

 Latin prefix is the first component of a compound in which the 

 second is Greek. An author wishes to publish a generic name with 

 the meaning "short rod." He knows that the Greek word bac- 

 terium means rodlet. The Latin word for short is brevis, the Greek 

 is brachys. He chooses Brevibacterium and sponsors a Latin-Greek 

 compound rather than the etymologically more correct Brachybac- 

 terium. It has been argued, and perhaps with justification, that a 

 Greek word such as bacterium, when it becomes a generic name 

 (Bacterium) , is under the rules of all codes to be treated as Latin 

 (see Principle 4 of this Code.) If the generic name is to be regarded 

 and treated as Latin, why should not Latin prefixes be used? With 



