CONSIDERATIONS INFLUENCING CLASSIFICATION Y 



System der Bakterien (Bd. 1, 1897, 368 pp.; Bd. 2, 1900, 1068 pp., Jena). Only 

 one edition was published. 



During the same period K. B. Lehmann and R. E. Neumann of Wiirzburg, 

 Germany, began the publication of their Bakteriologische Diagnostik, the first 

 edition of which was published, as were later editions, in two volumes (J. F. 

 Lehmann Verlag, Miinchen). The first edition was soon followed by a second and 

 later editions, the work being seriously interrupted by the first World War after 

 the publication of the 5th edition. Following the war they republished the 5th 

 edition with a supplement as the 6 edition and later carried through a complete 

 revision of this text which appeared as the 7th edition in 1927. No further editions 

 have been issued. 



In the meantime, interest in taxonomic work had crystallized in the newly 

 organized (1899) Society of American Bacteriologists, led at first by F, D. 

 Chester. His Manual of Determinative Bacteriology, published in 1901 (The 

 MacMillan Co., New York), had great influence in guiding the thought of 

 American bacteriologists, but it never has been widely known outside of North 

 America. 



As the Society developed, others took an active interest in this work, among 

 them R. E. Buchanan (Jour. Bact., 1, 1916, 591-596; 2, 1917, 155-164, 347-350, 

 603-617; 3, 1918, 27-61, 175-181, 301-306, 403-406, 461-474, 541-545), who 

 organized an outline classification of all bacteria as then known. This was pub- 

 lished just as another member of the Society, C.-E. A. Winslow, who had, with 

 his wife, completed a monographic study of the Coccaceae (Winslow, C. -E. A., and 

 Winslow, A. R. Systematic relationships of the Coccaceae, 300 pp., 1908, John 

 Wiley & Sons, New York), urged the Society to form a Committee to organize 

 a better classification for bacteria. The Society of American Bacteriologists' 

 Committee, of which Winslow was made Chairman, combined forces with Bu- 

 chanan and published first a preliminary (Jour. Bact., 2, 1917, 505-566) and then 

 a final report (Jour. Bact., 5, 1920, 191-229) on the classification of bacteria. The 

 report of this Committee was accepted with the thought that further revisions 

 of this outline classification were to be expected as knowledge developed. 



Meanwhile in Europe, Orla-Jensen (Cent. f. Bakt., II Abt., 22, 1909, 305-346) 

 had made notable contributions to knowledge in this field. Still later A. J. Kluyver 

 and C. B. van Niel (Zent. f. Bakt., II Abt., 34, 1936, 369-403) and others con- 

 tinued the development of classifications of bacteria, but European workers have 

 been badly handicapped in their work because of the chaotic conditions that 

 have existed during two world wars fought largely in Europe. 



Developments in the field of systematic bacteriology led to the publication by 

 D. H. Bergey of a manuscript on which he had been working for a long time, his 

 thought being that a new edition of Chester's Manual of Determinative Bac- 

 teriology was badly needed, as indeed it was. In order to aid Bergey in securing 

 publication of his manuscript, the Society of American Bacteriologists appointed 

 a Committee to assist him, Dr. F. C. Harrison, Chairman. The first edition of 



