1900 | CURRENT LITERATURE 147 
it remains true that Migula’s system of classification is the best working 
classification now available, and the appearance of this comprehensive 
treatise based on his system is likely to facilitate its introduction. 
In the preface, the author states that. it was originally his intention to 
obtain cultures of all the bacteria described and to conduct extensive com- 
parative investigations, but after nine years of labor, and with much personal 
sacrifice, only about half of the forms described were obtained. He some- 
what naively continues: ‘‘Das Schlimmste war aber, dass von den ungefahr 
600 Kulturen, die ich nach und nach bekommen hatte, nur ein kleiner Teil 
den Original-beschreibungen wirklich entsprach, die meisten Arten jedoch 
entweder falsch bestimmt waren, oder sich in langjaihriger Kultur so in ihren 
kulturellen Eigenschaften verandert hatten, dass sie mit der urspriinglichen 
Beschreibung nicht in mindesten mehr iibereinstimmten.”” The original plan 
was consequently abandoned and the description of each species is given as 
nearly as possible in the words of the original discoverer, even where there is 
reason to think that two writers have independently described one and the 
Same microbe. It is but natural that there should be shrinking from the 
herculean task of welding together imperfect and incomplete descriptions, 
and it is perhaps more useful in the present state of investigation to possess 
in convenient form and in some one place all descriptions by all writers how- 
ever variable they may be in accuracy and completeness. At the same time 
it is probable that a more ruthless hand than Professor Migula’s would have 
eliminated some of the more obviously unfit descriptions that have been 
allowed to cumber his pages. 
The colossal work that has been performed by Dr. Migula may be best 
appreciated when it is stated that descriptions of over 300 different kinds of 
spherical bacteria, over 700 rod-shaped bacteria and 96 spiral forms have 
been carefully transcribed, arranged and supplied with an excellent artificial 
key. If defects in manner and matter are found, they are due quite as much 
to the chaotic condition of systematic bacteriology as to lapses on the part of 
the author. Careful examination of portions of the text has failed to reveal 
any errors of great moment, although several taults of omission and commission 
have been noticed. Exception, for instance, may be taken to the statement 
on p- 393 regarding B. Welchii (B. aerogenes capsulatus) that the germs 
“seem to possess no pathogenic properties,” a statement explained perhaps 
by the fact that no reference is given to the important study of this germ in 
volume I of the Journal of Experimental Medicine. We find also no notice 
of B. pyogenes filiformis (Flexner, Journ. Expt. Med.2: 211), an organism 
that presents many points of interest to the systematist. 
Among the more important omissions we have noticed are all the species 
of water bacteria described by two American writers, Wright (Memoirs 
National Academy of Sciences 7. 1895) and Ravenel (Memoirs National 
Academy of Sciences 8. 1896). However, only the continued practical use 
