210 GENERAL SYSTEMATIC BACTERIOLOGY 



description of a species which should be considered the type, but without 

 a scientific name being given to the species. There may be some ques- 

 tion under such circumstances of the validityof the generic name, though 

 there would seem to be no statement in the International Rules of 

 Botanical Nomenclature which would definitely make it invalid. It 

 should be noted that while this author repeatedly in later writings 

 used the term bacteridie, the generic name Bacteridium was not em- 

 ployed with a specific name to designate the anthrax bacillus (1864, 

 p. 393), (1865, p. 334). It is of interest to note that Davaine earlier 

 (1863, p. 222) used the designation bacterium du sang de rate. 



Schroeter (1872, p. 110) used this designation to include certain non- 

 motile pigment-producing bacteria, among them Bacteridium prodigo- 

 sum. This use of the genus name was discussed and disapproved by 

 Cohn (1872, p. 182) because the pigment producers have no marked 

 character in common with the anthrax bacillus other than lack of 

 motility. 



Cohn says, 



Wegen des Mangels der spontanen Bewegung hat Schroeter in dem voran- 

 stehenden Aufsatz die Kugelbacterien, welche Pigmente erzeugen, mit demsel- 

 ben Namen belegt, welchen Davaine fiir die unbeweglichen Stabchen des Milz- 

 brandblutes eingefiihrt hat (Bacteridium) . Die Milzbrandbacteridien unterschei- 

 den sich jedoch durchaus von den Pigmentbacterien, da sie stabchen- oder lang 

 fadenformig sind; sie konnen daher mit den Kugelbacterien nicht in einer Gat- 

 tung suzammengestellt werden, da der Mangel der Bewegung der einzige beiden 

 gemeinschaftliche Charakter ist. 



The name was abandoned by Schroeter (1886). Mace (1897, p. 485) 

 makes the following comments: / 



Davaine avait cru devoir distinguer autrefois un genre Bacteridium, caract^r- 

 ise par I'immobilite des elements a tou^ les stades de ^eur existence. II I'avait 

 etabli pour la Bacteridie du charbon et quelques autres observees dans I'intestin 

 et les infusions. Mais I'absence ou la presence de mouvements n'offre jamais de 

 Constance suffisante pour en faire un caract^re specifique. Un grand nombre 

 d'especes, tres mobiles a une certaine phase de leur existence, deviennent com- . 

 pletement immobiles a la periode suivante ou seulement quani les conditions de '^ 

 vie, tout en restant bonnes, viennent k changer; beaucoup deviennent inertes, 

 par exemple au moment de la sporulation. Les Bacteries mobiles ne different du 

 reste des immobiles par aucun caractere de valeur. 



Erwin F. Smith (1905, p. 158) claims that this genus name is invalid 

 because of the previous existence of the genus Bactridium Kunze 1817. 

 Whether or not this use invalidates Bacteridium Davaine depends upon 



