ABSTRACT

Before considering particular aspects concerning the future of viral taxonomy it may be instructive to compare briefly the state of viral taxonomy with the situation in bacteriology. The first moves towards international cooperation in developing a taxonomy for viruses were made in 1930 (Chapter 1). In the same year the International Society for Microbiology held its first meeting in Paris and constituted a Commission on Nomenclature and Taxonomy.' Bacteriologists moved much more rapidly than virologists and in 1947 a bacteriological Code of Nomenclature was published.