544 HILDA HEMPL HELLER 



length. I had considered the ending -ella as used in 1900 by 

 Lignieres for Pasteiirella, and by Buchanan for Pfeifferella. 

 But -ella, like -ia, is a common ending for generic names among 

 the higher plants. Would it not, in view of the existence of 

 this recommendation, be appropriate to terminate the generic 

 names of bacillary forms with the ending -illus (from Bac-illus)? 

 (Patronymics ending in vowels may drop the final vowel before 

 adding -illus.) Perhaps the ending -erium may also be found 

 appropriate for names created in subdividing the old genus 

 Bacterium. Specific names should be adapted from the original 

 specific name, if such is valid, and new species can, of course, 

 be named according to the will of the author describing them. 



TYPE STRAINS 



Because of the factor of variation in the habits of cultures, 

 because many species of organisms must be frequently trans- 

 planted to keep them alive, and because of the 'mportant role 

 played by contaminations, the custom, so long accepted by the 

 botanists and zoologists, of preserving in museums type-speci- 

 mens of newly-described species, has never been popular with 

 bacteriologists. The facts as related to the anaerobic group 

 are as follows: No experienced investigator of anaerobes would 

 care unreservedly to turn over to anyone else his type-strains 

 for general distribution, because of the ease with which they 

 may become contaminated, and because of the difficulty that 

 the ordinary worker has in recognizing contaminations. The 

 rather generally disseminated view of Grassberger and Schatten- 

 froh (see Heller, (1920)) that the characters of anaerobes are 

 highly variable is one to which I cannot subscribe. This view, 

 which has cast a blight on modern German anaerobic studies 

 and caused grave misinterpretations (see Rahn), has also de- 

 terred workers from the use of type-strains to make their descrip- 

 tions definite. The anaerobic bacteria are fairly stable types 

 (when in pvire culture) and they have, in common with all other 

 organisms, that degree of variability which permits them to 

 adapt themselves somewhat to changing conditions and they 



