January 16, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



89 



to Jensen, may be divided into four fami- 

 lies. The first, the Aeidobacteriacem, in- 

 cludes the non-spore-forming carbohydrate 

 fermenting types, among the principal 

 representatives being the colon-typhoid 

 group and practically all the cocci. His 

 second family, the Alkalibacteriacefe, shows 

 a higher development of the power of de- 

 composing nitrogenous bodies, and includes 

 the liquefying proteus forms, the actively 

 liquefying aerobic spore formers and cer- 

 tain urea fermenters. The last two fami- 

 lies, the Butyribacteriaceffi and the Putri- 

 bacteriacese, are made up of the strict 

 anaerobes. ^ 



Whatever minor criticisms may be made 

 of Professor Jensen's scheme, I believe 

 that no one who has thought seriously 

 about bacterial relationships can study it 

 carefully without feeling that it is by far 

 the most successful attempt yet made at a 

 real biological classification of the group 

 and that future progress will probably 

 consist in its modification and extension 

 rather than in any profound reversal of its 

 basic principles. 



Inertia in terminology is strong and it 

 is the business of no one in particular to 

 criticize and report on the value of sugges- 

 tions as to bacterial classification and 

 nomenclature. We are all too busy with 

 our own special field to undertake such 

 a task of our own accord. Yet I believe 

 that in the present state of bacteriology 

 such a critical examination of suggested 

 systematic arrangements is most essential. 

 A mass of work has been done in the last 

 ten years, potentially valuable, but almost 

 useless so long as it remains a sealed book 

 to all but its respective authors and their 

 pupils. 



What we need at this time is a court of 

 appeal on matters of systematic bacteriol- 

 ogy, a court to which all suggested classifi- 

 cations, past and future, may be referred 



for official acceptance or rejection, in whole 

 or in part. Such a court or commission 

 might take first Professor Jensen's classi- 

 fication as the most recent comprehensive 

 attempt to treat the whole group of the 

 bacteria, and after careful consideration 

 might adopt such of his families and genera 

 as seem well established and issue a report 

 in which they should be definitely and 

 clearly defined. Such a report from a com- 

 mission of a proper caliber would not be 

 ignored as work of any single worker may 

 be, but would be adopted and would be- 

 come at once a part of the practical work- 

 ing machinery of our science. The genera 

 and species suggested for the Coccacese, the 

 Andrewes and Horder species of the genus 

 St7'eptococcus, Chester's species of spore- 

 bearing aerobes, Dr. Morse's types of 

 pseudo-diphtheria bacilli, Edson's types of 

 fluorescent bacteria, etc., might be later 

 taken up so that ultimately a complete 

 scheme of bacterial classification would be 

 at our disposal. 



Such authoritative commissions on classi- 

 fication and nomenclature are well estab- 

 lished in the older biological sciences, as for 

 example, the International Commission on 

 Zoological Nomenclature appointed by the 

 Third International Zoological Congress in 

 1895 and made permanent at the Fourth 

 Congress in 1898. Its work has been 

 much more along the line of precise legal 

 definitions and the determination of prior- 

 ity in terminology, than would be the case 

 with a similar commission in bacteriology. 

 The broader constructive work which has 

 already been accomplished in zoology still 

 remains for us to do. Furthermore we 

 have no international congress to which 

 such a commission could profitably report 

 on all the phases of its work, although for 

 one group of the bacteria, the colon-typhoid 

 group, a commission on systematic rela- 

 tions was created by the last International 



