Bacterial Nomenclature

Abstract

Nomenclature has been called the handmaid of taxonomy. The need for a stable set of names for living organisms, and rules to regulate them, has been recognized for over a century. The rules are embodied in international codes of nomenclature. There are separate codes for animals, noncultivated plants, cultivated plants, procaryotes, and viruses. But partly because the rules are framed in legalistic language (so as to avoid imprecision), they are often difficult to understand. Useful commentaries are found in Ainsworth and Sneath (1962), Cowan (1978), and Jeffrey (1977). There are proposals for a new universal code for living organisms (see the Proposed BioCode).