CLASSIFICATION OF ANAEROBIC BACTERIA 549 



I propose, therefore, the two subfamihes, Clostridioideae and 

 Putrificoideae. 



Clostridioideae: Clostridiaceae which on meat medium produce 

 after twenty days' incubation under oil at 37° a reaction of 

 pH 7.0 or a more acid reaction, the reaction being read after 

 the culture has been boiled. 



Putrificoideae: Clostridiaceae which on meat medium produce 

 after twenty days' incubation under oil at 37° a reaction of pH 

 7.1 or a more alkaline reaction, the reaction being read after 

 the culture has been boiled, i 



The name Clostridioideae is derived from Prazmowski's generic 

 name Clostridium. The name Putrificoideae is formed from 

 the specific name putrificus (Bienstock 1884). {Putrihacillus 

 vulgaris of Jensen.) We are hard put to it to find sufficient 

 generic names upon which to form appellations for higher groups 

 in the anaerobic field because Bacillus was the generic name 

 applied to any and almost every rod described. But I think 

 that bacteriologists will be justified in using ancient specific 

 names for the formation of the names of tribes and families. 

 Such a proceeding would have a basis in logic if not in precedent. 

 The name Putrificus has probably been used for various organ- 

 isms of the same genus (as well as for those of other genera) 

 and is as much a generic name in sense as though it had been 

 originally designated as such. I should, for example, on finding 

 a slender proteolytic rod that formed terminal oval spores and 

 did not split glucose or other sugars, term it putrificus type, 

 knowing that more organisms might be found that corresponded 

 to such a description but that would probably not be specifically 

 identical (see Rodella). Bienstock himself refers to his organ- 

 ism as B. putrificus and as Putrificus (1899). 



A Suggested Classification of the Anaerobic Bacteria 



Phylum 1. Bacteria (Nov. phyl.): Simple one-celled plants that multiply 



typically by binary fission and occasionally by budding. 

 They show no form of sexual multiplication. They rarely 

 contain cellulose and do not contain chlorophyll orphycocyanin. 



Class 1. Eubacterieae. 



Class 2. {Myxobaderieae, Bacteria which join to form a complex fruiting 



body (see Vahle, p. 196)). 



