Bacteria and Viruses 101 



Rule 27. Sect. 7. Orthography and Gender of Names 



NOTE 9. Diacritic signs are not used in names or in specific epithets in bac- 

 teriology. In names or epithets derived from words with such diacritic signs, 

 the signs must be suppressed and the letters transcribed as follows: 



1. ii, 6 and ii become respectively oe, oe, ue. (German) 



2. e, e and e become e. (French) 



3. (o), ae (ii) and a become oe, ae and aa, respectively. (Scandinavian) 

 Where diphthongs are not indicated by special type, the diaeresis should be 

 used where required to show that two consecutive vowels are to be separately 

 pronounced (are in separate syllables). 



NOTE 10. Certain consonants not found in classical Latin, namely w and y, 

 and the rarely used k, may be employed in bacteriology for names of taxa 

 and for specific epithets. 



ANNOTATIONS 

 Rule 27. A typographic error is an unintentional misspelling which 

 is found in a published name of a taxon or in an epithet. It is not 

 always easy to determine whether a misspelling is unintentional. If 

 the author later uses the word correctly spelled, the original spelling 

 is regarded as unintentional, and the corrected spelling as legitimate. 



An orthographic error is one resulting from the incorrect trans- 

 literation from languages having letters or an alphabet differing from 

 the Latin. For example, De Bary named an organism Bacillus mega- 

 terium. It has been urged that classic transliteration from the Greek 

 would give megatherium as the correct spelling. Both spellings have 

 been used by subsequent authors. However, De Bary himself con- 

 sistently used the spelling megaterium. An Opinion was issued con- 

 firming the use of the spelling megaterium. Similarly an Opinion 

 was issued confirming the spelling lysodeikticus in the species name 

 Micrococcus lysodeikticus Fleming as consistently used by the author 

 and generally accepted by bacteriologists, although the correct trans- 

 literation from the Greek is lysodicticus. 



Botanical Code. The rule is succinct: "The original spelling of 

 a name or epithet must be retained, except that typographic or ortho- 

 graphic errors should be corrected." 



It is noted that the words "original spelling" refer only to the 

 spelling of the name when validly published; they do not refer to 

 typography such as initial capital or small letter. 



Zoological Rules state that every "Valid Original Spelling" is to 

 be retained except for 22 emendations approved in Opinions "here- 

 tofore" and with the further exception that any author may propose 

 to the Secretary that an emendation of an original spelling in general 

 use be approved in the interests of stability and universality. The 

 proposal becomes provisionally efEective upon publication of a notice 



