Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-t5tsf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T15:52:04.976Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Note on the Generic Name of the Spirochaete of Syphilis (Treponema pallidum Schaudinn, 1905)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 April 2009

Clifford Dobell
Affiliation:
National Institute for Medical Research, London, N.W.3

Extract

In a note which I contributed in 1918 to Special Report, No. 19 of the Medical Research Council, I attempted to show that the “correct” generic name of the spirochaete of syphilis—according to the Rules of Nomenclature—is Spironema Vuillemin, 1905. The premisses from which this conclusion was drawn were briefly set out in the publication cited, and need not be repeated here: but my argument—put very shortly—was that, since the Spirochaetes are Bacteria, and not Protozoa, their nomenclature must be determined by the Botanical Rules, not those of Zoology; and that of the three generic names proposed for the spirochaete of syphilis in 1905, Spironema has priority, and must therefore be accepted. (Spironema was proposed by Vuillemin in June, Treponema by Schaudinn in October, and Microspironema by Stiles and Pfender in December, 1905.)

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1926

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Dobbll, (1918). On the nomenclature of the spirochaete of syphilis. Medical Research Council, Special Report Series, No. 19, p. 47. (Revised version (1923), p. 46.)Google Scholar
Gross, (1911). Zur Nomenklatur der Spirochaeta pallida Schaud. u. Hoffm. Arch. f. Protistenk. XXIV. 109.Google Scholar
Hochstetter, (21. IV. 1842). Nova genera plantarum Africae [etc.]. Flora (Bot. Ges. Regensburg), XXV. Jahrg., I Bd., No. 15, p. 226.Google Scholar
Lindley, (1840). Spironema fragrans, in: Edwards's Botanical Register, XXVI. Pl 47. (London.)Google Scholar
Rafinesque, (1836). Flora Telluriana, Pt. 4, p. 92. (Philadelphia.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schaudinn, (26. X. 1905). Korrespondenz, in Deutsche med. Wochenschr. XXXI. 1728.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stiles, and Pfender, (2. XII. 1905). The generic name …of the parasite of syphilis. Amer. Med. (Philadelphia), X. 936.Google Scholar
Vuillemin, (VI. 1905). Sur la dénomination de l'agent présumé de la syphilis. C.R. Acad. Sci. (Paris), CXL. 1567 (No. 23 (1 sem.)).Google Scholar
Willis, (1925). A Dictionary of the Flowering Plants and Ferns. 5th ed., p. 618. (Cambridge.)Google Scholar