THE IMPORTANCE OF PRESERVING THE ORIGINAL 



TYPES OF NEWLY DESCRIBED SPECIES 



OF BACTERIA 



C.-E. A. WINSLOW 



American Museum of Natural History, Neiv York City 



Received for publication July 10, 1920 



One of the most serious difficulties with which systematic bac- 

 teriology must contend is the incompleteness of the published 

 descriptions of new species and varieties. More care is now ex- 

 ercised than was formerly the case but even the most exhaustive 

 descriptions must become incomplete as new diagnostic tests are 

 introduced in the future. The systematists who deal with the 

 higher plants have established the custom of preserving in 

 museum collections the actual type specimen on which a specific 

 description is established so that a later worker with new ideas 

 in regard to specific characters can always examine the original 

 plant and determine its actual characteristics. 



In dealing with bacteria we cannot derive information of any 

 special value from the study of stained slides which would corre- 

 spond to the dead herbarium specimens of the botanist. The 

 only alternative is the preservation of living cultures and this is 

 a less satisfactory procedure in view of the fact that certam char- 

 acteristics may, and sometimes do, alter as a result of long-con- 

 tinued cultivation on artificial media. Nevertheless the preser- 

 vation of such living types of cultures offers the only possibility 

 of stabilizing bacteriological nomenclature. 



There are now at least three institutions in existence which 

 aim to preserve type cultures for the systematic bacteriologist. 

 Krai's Museum at Vienna (now under the direction of Dr. Pri- 

 bram) has survived the war and the revolution and has just 

 issued a new catalogue. The Museum of Living Bacteria at the 

 American Museum of Natural History in New York has now 

 been in operation for nearly ten years; and during the past year 



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