HOW BACTERIA ARE NAMED AND IDENTIFIED 27 



cated. Before a Latin name of a taxon is formed, the Greek word needs to be 

 spelled with Latin letters, and the whole word placed, when possible, in the corre- 

 sponding Latin declension with appropriate gender ending. How can the Greek 

 deri\'ations be indicated without confusion to the student who knows little or 

 nothing of Greek? In this Manual the following procedure has been adopted as 

 standard and as probably the most readily understood. The student must remem- 

 ber that the change is from Greek to Latin (not to English) orthography. The 

 system used here is not that usually found in giving derivations in medical or 

 general English dictionaries. Some illustrations may be helpful. 



The Greek word for sulfur is delov. The first letter, theta (6), has no Latin equiv- 

 alent; the Latins used th. The second letter, epsilon (e), is the equivalent of short 

 e in Latin. The third letter, iota (t), is equivalent to i, the fourth, omicron (o), is 

 short 0, and the last, nu (v), is n. One may transliterate as theion. But the et of the 

 Greek, a diphthong, was transliterated by the Latins as a long i. The ending ov 

 of the Greek indicates that the noun is neuter. The corresponding neuter ending 

 in Latin is um. In final form we may write deiop = theion = thium. In the Manual 

 the statement given is simply Gr. neut. n. (Greek neuter noun) thium sulfur. Thi 

 is the stem from which a great number of new Latin names of taxa have been 

 constructed, as Thioploca, Thioderma, Thiocystis. 



Some awkward transliterations are to be found in the literature. The Greek 

 diphthong at = ai was usually transliterated as ae by the Latins. The Greek 

 alfxa = haima = haema. Haemophilus is correctly spelled ; Hemophilus is not a 

 "simplified spelling" but an incorrectly spelled modern Latin word. 



One finds many errors of transliteration in bacteriological nomenclature. If 

 corrected, the words should be regarded as alternative spellings (variants) of 

 the same word and not as two different words. 



Sometimes there are incongruities in transliteration of Greek into Latin form 

 in a single word. For example, the specific epithet of the species Micrococcus lyso- 

 deikticus is an interesting mixture. The second component of the word is the Greek 

 8hktlk6(7. The first letter, delta (5), is d; the second, epsilon (e), is short e; the third 

 (and sixth), iota (t), is short i; the fourth (and seventh) is kappa (k), the Latin c; 

 the eighth, omicron (o), is short o; and the final, sigma (a-), is s. The Latins used 

 i for the diphthong et. There is no k in the Latin alphabet. The masculine ending 

 OS in Greek becomes us in Latin. Hence, beiKTiKocr = deicticos = dicticus. Correct 

 transliteration would have given lysodicticus instead of the current lysodeikticus. 



However, in general, it is well to observe the rule that the original spelling of 

 the word be conserved, unless it can be regarded definitely as a slip of the pen. 



A few generic names have been so commonly incorrectly accented as to consti- 

 tute accepted exceptions. Several examples may be cited. 



Many generic names in bacteriology and protozoology have as the final com- 

 ponent -monas, as Pseudomonas and Xanthomonas. The Greek word is nopas. 

 The first vowel is short. Correct accentuation would give Pseu.do'mo.nas, Xan.- 

 tho'mo.nas, etc. with the accent on the antepenult. There is a tendency to regard 

 the as long and to place the accent on the penult, giving Pseu.do.mo'nas, the 

 pronunciation accepted by such dictionaries as Century and Borland. 



