Volume 26, Number 11—November 2020
Etymologia
Etymologia: Nocardia
Nocardia [no-kahr¢ e-əm]
The genus Nocardia is named in honor of Edmond Isidore Etienne Nocard (1850–1903), a French veterinarian and microbiologist who discovered the bacteria in 1888 from a bovine farcy case. He named this filamentous, branching bacteria Streptothrix farcinica (Greek streptós- “twisted” and thrix “hair”). Farcy (old French farcin), is a form of cutaneous glanders, characterized by superficial lymph node swelling and ulcerating nodule formation under the skin (Late Latin farcīminum “glanders,” from Latin farcīmen “a sausage,” from farcīre “to stuff”).
One year later, Trevisan characterized and termed the bacteria Nocardia farcinica (Figure), creating the genus Nocardia. In 1890, Eppinger isolated a similar organism from a brain abscess and called it Cladothrix asteroides (Greek kládos- “branch” and -thrix “hair”) because of its star-shaped colonies (Greek asteroeidēs “starlike”). Blanchard renamed the organism Nocardia asteriodes in 1896. Additional taxonomic work in 1962 resulted in Nocardia asteroides replacing Nocardia farcinica as the type species for the genus Nocardia.
References
- Blanchard R. 1896. Plant pests excluding bacteria [in French]. In: Bouchard C, editor. Treatise of general pathology. Volume II. Paris: Mason. p. 811–926.
- Gordon RE, Mihm JM. The type species of the genus Nocardia. J Gen Microbiol. 1962;27:1–10. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
- Nocard E. Note on the disease of oxen from Guadeloupe known as farcin [in French]. Ann Inst Pasteur (Paris). 1888;2:293–302.
- Saubolle MA, Sussland D. Nocardiosis: review of clinical and laboratory experience. J Clin Microbiol. 2003;41:4497–501. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
- Trevisan V. 1889. Genera and species of the batteries [in Italian]. Milan: Zanaboni and Gabuzzi; 1889.
Figure
Cite This ArticleOriginal Publication Date: October 05, 2020
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Please use the form below to submit correspondence to the authors or contact them at the following address:
Christoffel J. Opperman, National Health Laboratory Service, Department of Medical Microbiology, University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa.
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