464 



NATURE 



[March 15, 1900 



the other three ; but those who are interested in this sub- 

 ject will have to study the series of memoirs on " Les 

 Races de I'Europe," by Dr. Deniker, of which the first 

 instalment on the cephalic index has been published by 

 I'Association Frangaise pour I'Avancement des Sciences 

 (26« Session, 1897), 1899. In the volume under review 

 there are, owing to the necessary limits of space, insuffi- 

 cient data to profitably discuss the author's position. It 

 is evident that Dr. Deniker has published the con- 

 clusions which he has already arrived at from a study of 

 the large amount of facts he has accumulated, and of 

 which one valuable section has alone yet been published. 

 Unfortunately, many anthropological terms are in- 

 sufficiently fixed, and all authors are not careful to 

 promote uniformity of definition — the term "race" is a 

 case in point — and our author admits of more races in 

 Europe than do other anthropologists ; indeed, in his 

 treatment of European ethnography he is more analytic 

 than synthetic. 



It is always easy to criticise ; especially does a book 

 like this lend itself to captious reviewing ; but it is not 

 every one who could write so sound and clear a summary 

 of the scattered information that has been accumulated 

 on an intricate subject. A. C. Haddon. 



SYSTEMATIC BACTERIOLOGY. 

 System der Bakterien. Von Dr. W. Migula. Zweiter 

 Band, Specielle Systematik der Bakterien. Pp. 

 X -I- 1068 -H xviii Plates. (Jena : Gustav Fischer, 

 1900.) 



THIS volume is the second part of a work, of which 

 the first part was reviewed in this journal in June 

 1898. It was then pointed out how meritorious was 

 this undertaking of Prof. Migula, well known by his 

 researches into the morphology of bacteria and allied 

 organisms, in attempting to scientifically group the 

 enormous number of« forms of bacteria that had been 

 discovered and described. No better index for the great 

 difficulties of classifying bacteria in a scientific manner 

 need be adduced than the fact that bacteriology within 

 the last fifteen or twenty years has advanced by leaps 

 and bounds, and that a host of workers — botanists, 

 chemists, and last, but not least, pathologists — have been 

 busy in discovering new forms, and describing and classi- 

 fying them in any but a scientific manner, and on 

 principles widely differing according to the actual point 

 of view of the individual observers. 



To classify and systematise on scientific principles, such 

 as obtain in other departments of natural history, is a task 

 which demands an enormous amount of labour and a 

 comprehensive knowledge, which few observers would be 

 willing to spare or able to command. Prof. Migula is to 

 be congratulated on having, with his thorough grasp of 

 this new and ever-widening field of research, and with a 

 truly prodigious industry, achieved this result in as 

 thorough a manner as can be expected in a branch of 

 natural history so new and so growing as systematic 

 bacteriology. 



It will be remembered that in the first volume bacteria 

 were considered in a general way as to their morphology 

 and activity, and by these studies the endless number of 

 NO. 1585, VOL. 61] 



bacterial species received their proper and scientific allo- 

 cation. Thus the bacteria, as a " class," were arranged 

 in two great groups or "orders," viz. : (i) Eubacteria, free 

 of sulfurgranules and bacteriopurpurin, and (2) Thio- 

 bacteria, including sulfurgranules, and their protoplasm 

 either colourless or coloured by bacteriopurpurin (pink, 

 red or violet j. 



The "order" of Eubacteria comprises four " families" : 

 {a) Coccacece, cells spherical ; {b) Bacteriaceae, cells 

 rod-shaped or cylindrical ; {c) Spirillaceae, cells more 

 or less curved and spiral ; {d) Chlamydobacteriaceic, 

 cells cylindrical, arranged in threads surrounded by a 

 common sheath. 



The first family, Coccaceae, comprises five " genera," 

 viz.: genus i, Streptococcus or Chaincocci ; genus 2, 

 Micrococcus ; genus 3, Sarcina ; genus 4, Planococcus ; 

 genus 5, Planosarcina. 



Genus Streptococcus comprises 50 different known 

 species; genus Micrococcus comprises 228 ; genus Sarcina 

 comprises 55 ; genus Planococcus, 7 ; and genus Plano- 

 sarcina three distinct known species. 



The second family, Bacteriaceae, is divided into three 

 genera, viz. : genus i. Bacterium, without flagella, com- 

 prising 302 different species ; genus 2, Bacillus, flagella 

 more or less over the whole body, comprising 452 species ; 

 and genus 3, Pseudomonas, flagella only at the ends, 

 comprising 79 different species. 



The third family, Spirillaceae, is divided into four 

 genera, viz. : genus i, Spirosoma, with 7 species ; 

 genus 2, Microspira, with 68 ; genus 3, Spirilla, 

 with 16 ; and genus 4, Spirochasta, with five different 

 species. These three families are minutely dealt with in 

 1030 pages ; the whole of the fourth family of Chlamy- 

 dobacteriaceae, with its four genera and nine species, and 

 the whole of the second "order" of Thiobacteria, with 

 its two families (five genera), and comprising twelve 

 species, altogether receive only twenty pages, so that 

 practically the volume is devoted to a description of 

 Coccaceae, Bacteriaceae and Spirillaceae. 



In looking over the description of the 1272 species 

 belonging to these three families, and while admiring the 

 prodigious labour, one cannot help sympathising with the 

 author in the difficulties to determine which is, and which 

 is not, a true species ; which is, or is not, merely a 

 variety ; so much so that it seems as if in distinguishing 

 "species" from "varieties," and vice versa, a certain 

 arbitrary plan had to be followed. For, in some instances, 

 the distinction between one " true " species and another 

 is based chiefly on very slight cultural differences in one 

 or the other artificial medium ; in others on minute 

 details of artificial staining, or on slight differences in 

 size on one or the other artificial mediums ; or even 

 slight shades of natural colouring on a particular medium, 

 or slight differences in physiological action. That is to 

 say, numerous instances occur where one or the other of 

 these points is used for distinguishing one species from 

 another, and other equally conspicuous instances occur 

 where these differences only suffice to mark off a 

 "variety." One example will suffice to illustrate this 

 difficulty. In the genus Streptococcus, the first species 

 dealt with is that of " Streptococcus pyogenes " of 

 Rosenbach ; to this "species" the author assigns as 



