THE FAMILIES AND GENERA OF THE BACTERIA FINAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE SOCIETY OF AMERICAN BACTERIOLOGISTS ON CHARACTERIZATION AND CLASSIFICATION OF BACTERIAL TYPES

The first report of the Committee on Characterization and Classification of Bacterial Types was published in the Journal of Bacteriology for September, 1917, vol. 2, p. 505, and was disdiscussed in some detail at the succeeding meeting of the Society. In this preliminary report the committee reviewed briefly the historical development of systematic bacteriology from Ehrenberg to Orla-Jensen, discussed the principles of botanical nomenclature with extensive citations from the International Rules of Botanical Nomenclature, and presented a tentative system of classification of the Schizomycetes into families and genera. The detailed classification presented was criticised in certain respects in the full discussion which followed, and in later correspondence between the committee and other members of the Society, and it was felt desirable that the scheme presented in 1917 should be revised in certain particulars and made more definite and if possible supplemented by an index of genera showing where the commoner bacterial species should be placed. It was found impossible to complete this task and to prepare a list of approved genera for the 1918 meeting of the Society, but the task set before the committee has been at last completed and the committee is ready to make its final report at this time.