OETHOGENESIS IN BACTERIA 



PROFESSOR CHAS. B. LIPMAN 



University of California 



It is well to understand at the outset that bacteria, un- 

 like plants and animals, can not be studied from the 

 orthogenetic standpoint in the strict sense, owing to the 

 lack of a proper vantage point, or, perhaps more correctly 

 speaking, a basis from which one may start such a study. 

 In my opinion, all attemps at the establishment of sys- 

 tems of bacteria, and there have been many, have ended 

 in creating greater confusion than there was at the start. 

 Such frustration of well-intentioned programs was inevi- 

 table for at least three reasons, to wit: (1) Every bac- 

 teriologist used criteria of his own for the establishment 

 of new species. This is bound to lead to chaos. (2) 

 Nearly all bacteriologists used a morphological basis for 

 classification. Owing to the relative simplicity of form 

 of bacteria, this must inevitably result in erroneous dis- 

 criminations. (3) Nearly all bacteriologists in the past 

 and even to-day are laboring under the misconception that 

 bacteria are simpler forms of living organisms than they 

 really are. That this is incorrect has been shown by the 

 studies of Lohnis and Smith in 1916^ and of Lohnis alone 

 verj^ recently.^ 



But assuming the foregoing to be true, it must follow 

 that it is impossible to trace the evolution of new species 

 of bacteria in a definitely directed course. Not being cer- 

 tain what constitutes a forward or what a backward step 



Agric^Bes., Vol.^ No. 18. (h) " Life Cycles of the Bacteria," paper read 

 at New Haven meeting of So«. Amer. Bacteriologist-s, Dec. 27, 1916. 



2 " Studies upon the Life C>'cles of the Bacteria," Part I, Eeview of the 

 Literature, 1838-1918, Nat. Acad. Sciences, Vol. XVI, Second Memoir. 

 105 



