A STUDY OF GREEN FLUORESCENT BACTERIA 

 FROM WATERi 



FRED W. TANNER 



From the Laboratories of Bacteriology of the Illinois State Water Survey and of the 



University of Illinois 



Received for publication, December 29, 1916 

 INTRODUCTION 



In all branches of biology a systematic arrangement of the 

 living organisms is essential to good progress. Science has been 

 defined as an exact and systematic statement of knowledge con- 

 cerning some subject or group of subjects. Such a definition 

 requires that investigations be constantly carried on to incor- 

 porate new facts with the old ones into an orderly arrangement. 

 In bacteriology however, the early workers were too busy identi- 

 fying new forms to give much attention to classification, and 

 when they did turn their attention to this important branch of 

 the science the pleomorphists pointed out the difficulties of 

 systematizing a science the bases of which were constantly 

 changing. It is only in comparatively recent times that the 

 bacteria in water have been given any intensive study of this 

 kind. 



HISTORICAL 



Classification of water bacteria 



The water bacteriologists have been interested primarily in 

 the presence of certain bacteria which are of sanitary signifi- 

 cance. They have studied but superficially the large number of 

 other bacteria which may be present. This may have been due 



1 Prepared from a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements 

 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Bacteriology at the University of Illi- 

 nois, June, 1916. 



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