300 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



schools which have no facilities for 

 keeping bacterial cultures in condition 

 throughout the year. 



Even more important however are 

 the facilities which the Museum collec- 

 tion offers to the investigator. Syste- 

 matic bacteriology a decade ago was in a 

 pre-Linnpean stage; but it has developed 

 rapidly in the United States during re- 



and with so little red tape to be unwound before they 

 can be secured"'; Professor Ravenel, of the University 

 of Wisconsin, "The starting of this department is a 

 great help, not only to us, but, I am sure, to all other 

 teachers in the United States"; Professor Lipman, of 

 the New Jersey Agricultural College, "Such a station 

 will meet a long-felt want"; Professor Lyons, of Har- 

 vard, "Permit me to say that I think your selection of 

 fourteen organisms for teaching purposes is most happy 

 and that they have proved invaluable in our classes"; 

 Professor Rettger, of Yale, "It is a perfect godsend to 

 have an institution like yours furnish one with cultures 

 of all kinds"; Doctor Hill, of the Minnesota State 

 Board of Health, " I think this is a fine thing and 

 should have been done long ago"; Professor Church- 

 man, of Johns Hopkins, "Such a bacteriological station 

 as yours will tremendously ease the burden of research 

 work; it will make certain studies possible wliich would 

 otherwise be out of the question and it will make it 

 possible for bacteriologists to work with standard 

 cultures and so to obtain more accurate results. I 

 think that all those familiar with the facts hail the 

 establishment of your department as an advance of 

 great importance"; Professor Sedgwick, of the Massa- 

 chusetts Institute of Technology, "I feel sure that you 

 will be glad to know how highly we biologists with 

 bacteriological leanings value and appreciate this 

 generous scientific service on your part." 



cent years; and scarcely a paper upon 

 bacterial classification can be found in 

 which the types sent out from the 

 American Museum do not play a pri- 

 mary part. 



The museum of living bacteria does 

 not however, exist solely for the purpose 

 of aiding other investigators. The cura- 

 tor of the department of public health 

 of the American Museum is chairman 

 of the committee on classification of 

 the Society of American Bacteriologists, 

 and in this connection Dr. Kligler and 

 the other assistants have been steadily 

 at work on the systematic relationships 

 of various groups of bacteria (at present, 

 the group to which the typhoid germ 

 belongs). We expect to make a report 

 on a revision of bacterial genera at the 

 New Haven meeting of the Society next 

 fall. It is hoped that by attacking 

 group after group the whole family of 

 the bacteria, which has presented so 

 difficult a problem in the past, may be 

 mapped out and brought together in a 

 work which shall be as fundamental as 

 the contributions of the American Mu- 

 seum to systematic biology in other 

 fields. 



