General Systematic Bacteriology

Excerpt from General Systematic Bacteriology

The present volume is the first of a series of monographs in the general field of systematic bacteriology. The data presented have been collected, compiled and annotated largely in connection with courses of lectures in systematic bacteriology given to graduate students dents in bacteriology at the Iowa State College during the past fif teen years. It is an attempt to bring together material which may prove of value to those who are desirous of knowing the probable nomenclatural status of the various names which have been used in bacterial terminology. If science is to be defined as a system of classified knowledge, the subject of bacteriology is laboring under a serious handicap in lack ing, probably more than any other branch of science, the advantages conferred by a satisfactory system of terminology or of nomenclature. It would seem that systematic bacteriology is deserving of even more recognition at the hands of teachers and investigators than has been accorded to it in the past. Systematic bacteriology has two principal aims or functions which are of importance to the teacher and to the investigator. The first of these aims has to do with the presentation in graphic form of our present conception of the phylogeny and of the relationships of various groups of bacteria. The second is to give a greater degree of stability to the names used for particular groups of organisms and to prevent unnecessary nomenclatural confusion in literature. These aims are thoroughly scientific, their accomplishment will prove useful, we must therefore accord them careful consideration if our nomenclature is to be stabilized.