THE FAMILIES AND GENERA OF THE BACTERIA 



FINAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIETY OF AMER- 

 ICAN BACTERIOLOGISTS ON CHARACTERIZATION AND 

 CLASSIFICATION OF BACTERIAL TYPES 



C.-E. A. WINSLOW, Chairman, JEAN BROADHURST, R. E. BUCHANAN, 

 CHARLES KRUMWIEDE JR., L. A. ROGERS, AND G. H. SMITH 1 



I. INTRODUCTION 



The first report of the Committee on Characterization and 

 Classification of Bacterial Types was published in the Journal 

 of Bacteriology for September, 1917, vol. 2, p. 505, and was dis- 

 discussed in some detail at the succeeding meeting of the Society. 



In this preliminary report the committee reviewed briefly the 

 historical development of systematic bacteriology from Ehrenberg 

 to Orla-Jensen, discussed the principles of botanical nomencla- 

 ture with extensive citations from the International Rules of 

 Botanical Nomenclature, and presented a tentative system of 

 classification of the Schizomycetes into families and genera. 



The detailed classification presented was criticised in certain 

 respects in the full discussion which followed, and in later corre- 

 spondence between the committee and other members of the 

 Society, and it was felt desirable that the scheme presented in 

 1917 should be revised in certain particulars and made more 

 definite and if possible supplemented by an index of genera 

 showing where the commoner bacterial species should be placed. 



It was found impossible to complete this task and to prepare 

 a list of approved genera for the 1918 meeting of the Society, 

 but the task set before the committee has been at last completed 

 and the committee is ready to make its final report at this time. 



t^ J Prof. R. S. Breed has cooperated actively in the work of the committee 



CVJ during the past two years, but has not felt that he could accept formal member- 

 t— ship on the committee. 





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THE JOURNAL OF BACTERIOLOGY VOL. V, NO. 3 



