I042 



FUNGI IMPERFECTI 



1. It is the oldest name, against which no objections can be 



raised. 



2. It has been formally adopted by the Botanical Section of the 



First International Congress of Pathology. 



3. The objections to the other names in use are as follows :^ — 



{a) Streptothrix, as proposed by Rossi-Dpria, cannot be 

 used, as it was originally suggested by Corda in 

 1839 for S. fusca, which is quite a different fungus. 

 It was also used in 1875 by Cohn for another 

 organism closely allied to a ' Nocardia,' so that Cohn's 

 and Rossi-Doria's names can only be utilized as 

 synon3nns of the organisms to which they were 

 wrongly applied because of the priority of Corda' s 

 name. 



[b) Discomyces was used by Rivolta in 1878 merely as a 



trivial name, and though it has not been applied to 

 any other genus, still the word DiscomycetaccB was 

 introduced in 1836 by Fries for a large fungal 

 family, and has come into general use, and therefore 

 has the double claim of priority and general use; 

 and as its type genus should bear the name Dis- 

 ^ corny ces, confusion is bound to arise if the same term 



is retained as the generic name of Bollinger's 

 organism . 



(c) Bacterium was suggested by Affanasieff in 1888, but 



Ehrenberg had used this name in 1830 for the 

 organisms popularly known as bacteria, and there- 

 fore Affanasieff' s suggestion falls to the ground. 



{d) Odspora, as utilized by Sauvageau and Radais in 1892, 

 is not available because it is younger than the name 

 ' Nocardia,' and because it was previously used in 

 1833 by Wallroth for certain fungi previously classi- 

 fied as Torula Persoon, 1801. 



(e) Cladothrix, as brought forward by Mace in 1897, cannot 

 be used because the name ' Nocardia ' has priority, 

 and because it was originally used by Cohn in 1875 

 for the organism Cladothrix dichotoma, which is 

 septate and is only falsely branched, and hence is 

 quite different from Bollinger's fungus. 



Remarks. — The genus Nocardia contains a large number of species 

 which live saprophytically in soils, from whence their spores can be 

 spread by the agency of air or water to sewage, sputum, etc. Some 

 of them have acquired parasitic habits, living in plants in which 

 they cause root tubercles, or, in other instances, tumours with ray 

 fungi, thus somewhat resembling the actinomycosis of animals. 

 They have also been found living in molluscs and in the alimentary 

 canals of larval insects, as well as in the form of pathogenic fungi in 

 reptilia, aves, and mammalia, in which they mostly occur in the 



