STUDIES IN THE NOMENCLATURE AND CLASSIFICA- 

 TION OF BACTERIA 



THE PROBLEM OF BACTERIAL NOMENCLATURE^ 



R. E. BUCHANAN 

 From the Bacteriological Laboratories, Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa 



Received for publication, July 12, 1916 



Erwin F. Smith in the chapter on "Nomenclature and Classifi- 

 cation" in the first volume of his work on Bacteria in Relation 

 to Plant Diseases (1905), accepts as valid 33 different names of 

 bacterial genera. In addition he presents a list of 156 generic 

 names which he regards as definitely invalid or inappropriate 

 and to be rejected. In the preparation of material for a course 

 in systematic bacteriology given at Iowa State College for sev- 

 eral years, I have had occasion to use this list, and have added 

 to it. It appears that about 300 generic and pseudogeneric 

 names have been used by bacteriologists. In addition, about 

 100 names have been used for orders, classes, famihes, sub- 

 families, tribes, and subtribes. The problem as to which of 

 these names are to be regarded as valid, and which invalid, has 

 been increasingly emphasized as one of considerable importance, 

 and intimately associated with the development of a satisfactory 

 classification of the bacteria. 



To state that the classification of bacteria is in a chaotic 

 condition is to express a truism. That this is due to the inherent 

 difficulties in determining bacterial relationships, and to the 

 utter disregard of all rules of nomenclature is likewise generally 

 accepted. Is there any need of action? 



Of recent years some bacteriologists have apparently taken 

 delight in ignoring the well estabhshed customs of biological 

 nomenclature, and in creating special rules to fit occasions. In 



^ Presented at Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the Society of American Bac- 

 teriologists, Urbana, 111., December 28, 1915. 



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