264 S. OELA-JENSEN 



name of a chemical compound can be derived directly from the 

 formula. Even if the principles of chemical nomenclature 

 cannot be applied to bacteriology, there is no reason here to 

 form the names ser\dlely upon the principles of Linnaeus, and it 

 is so much the more meaningless to do so as the Committee has 

 already in its classification of bacteria discarded these principles 

 on the most important point, in giving the biological quahties 

 precedence over the morphological. 



In bacteriology as soon as the purely morphological principle 

 of classification is abandoned, the relatively few purely mor- 

 phological generic names do not suffice, but we must necessarily 

 form a whole series of new generic names. Precisely in this 

 connection I think I have displayed a great deal of conservatism 

 by simply adding to the old designations a prefix which char- 

 acterizes the genus more closely. From the generic name we 

 then are still able to conclude as to the appearance of the bac- 

 teria in question. In my later work on the lactic acid bacteria 

 I have given nearly related cocci and rod-forms the same prefix 

 (for instance, Streptococcus and Streptobacterium, Betacocciis and 

 Betabacterium) , which I think is also a practical arrangement. 

 The prefix of the generic name ought no more than the specific 

 name to allude to a person, not even to the person who first 

 described the bacteria concerned; for this question is only of 

 interest in the history of our science, but absolutely not from a 

 natural-history point of view, and we ought not to encum- 

 ber the bacteriologists of the future, who will have to handle 

 thousands of bacterial species, with the history of each. The 

 name of an organism ought to seem so natural to any one who is 

 thoroughly acquainted with the organism and knows where it is 

 to be found, that it will be nothing new to be remembered, but 

 will serve on the contrary to associate his conception of the 

 particular organism. 



As to the family names of the bacteria, it will be convenient 

 to let all of them end in -Bacteriaceae, by which it will be seen 

 directly what is in question. If there are to be formed families 

 of the cocci and spirilla, they must consequently be termed 

 Coccohacteriaceae and Spirillohacteriaceae (or by the older name 



