GREEN FLUORESCENT BACTERIA FROM WATER 65 



of each. The fluorescent characteristic played an important 

 role. Jordan (1903) made 27 groups when studying 543 strains 

 from the Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois rivers. Two of his 

 groups are; V. B. fiuorescens liquefaciens, VI. B. fluorescens non- 

 liquefaciens. Cornwall (1915) classified water bacteria from a san- 

 itary standpoint. He used, however, morphological data which 

 were too limited to allow a classification of wide application. 



This grouping of bacteria introduces the question as to what 

 is a "species." Ward pointed out that we may now be con- 

 sidering varieties of the same organism as separate species. 

 Upon this question there is no agreement among bacteriologists. 

 Winslow (1914) sumnpied up the present conception of this ques- 

 tion when he stated that "for practical purposes, however, we 

 must recognized certain types as 'species' or Varieties' even 

 though they may sometimes intergrade." 



The descriptive chart of the Society of American Bacteriologists 



Bacteriologists for some time have been working out a system 

 for classif5ang bacteria. The chart of the Society of American 

 Bacteriologists represents a stage in the development of this 

 effort. A history of the development of the card and of the 

 numerical system of recording characters of bacteria has been 

 prepared by Harding (1910), a very brief outUne of which is 

 given here. 



Doctor Wyatt Johnston (1894) first called attention to the 

 possibility of using some such method as the Dewey numerical 

 system in the classification of bacteria. A committee was ap- 

 pointed which in its reports suggested the beginnings of such a 

 procedure. Conn (1906) adopted these suggestions in the clas- 

 sification of dairy bacteria. The first real attempt to use such 

 a group number as our present one, reported by Gage and Phelps 

 (1902), was made by Kendall at the Lawrence Experiment 

 Station. The genus classification of bacteria proposed by 

 Migula was used as the basis for their chart. 



The present chart has a group number depending on the 

 determination of ten characteristics. It has been recently 

 described by Rahn and Harding (1914). This system of record- 



