4 RELATIONSHIPS OF THE COCCACE^l 



to the student of such systematic works as those of 

 Migula (1900) and Chester (1901). The great group 

 of the Schizomycetes is divided by these authors into 

 half a dozen genera, genera based on morphological 

 characters alone. Within these genera are hundreds 

 of " species, " grouped by a few arbitrary characters 

 with no attempt at natural relationship. The species 

 themselves are in most cases mere names. The descrip- 

 tions attached are so incomplete that dozens of them 

 could be eliminated as synonyms by internal evidence 

 alone. Those which are definitely described are fre- 

 quently identified by characters so slight that a thousand 

 more species of equal value could be created by a study 

 of other strains. It is small wonder that many bacteri- 

 ologists have abandoned any attempt at a natural classi- 

 fication and have sought refuge in such frankly arbitrary 

 schematic groupings as those of Fuller and Johnson 

 (1899), Weston and Kendall (1902), and Jordan (1903). 

 The same tendency, carried to its extreme, is shown in 

 the decimal systems of Gage and Phelps (1903) and 

 Kendall (1903), and in the modification of the former 

 recently adopted by the Society of American Bacteri- 

 ologists. 



Such systems are valuable for certain descriptive 

 work and for arranging and cataloguing records of 

 cultures. Yet it is eminently desirable to supplement 

 artificial analytical keys by a classification which shall 

 represent the natural relationships of the bacteria 



