REPORT OF THE PRESIDENT, 1913. 21 



may be had in Jamaica, where health conditions and transportation 

 facihties have been much improved in recent years, where the cost 

 of labor and subsistence is low, and where such an international scope 

 as best befits marine biology could be readily developed. It may be 

 anticipated that definite plans for an advantageous change of site 

 will be matured during the coming year and ready for submission to 

 the Board of Trustees in December, 1914. 



The department has suffered serious loss during the year in the un- 

 timely death of a remarkably able Research Associate, George Harold 

 Drew. It has met with a reverse also in the temporary illness of 

 another Research Associate, Dr. T. Wayland Vaughan. Drew and 

 Vaughan had under way important investigations, originating at 

 Tortugas, for the furtherance of which the departmental expedition 

 of this year to Torres Straits was largely planned and authorized. 

 Drew had made the discovery at Tortugas that the so-called coral 

 mud in that vicinity is not due to corals, but has been precipitated 

 through the chemical agency of a bacillus abundant in the surface 

 waters of the tropical Atlantic. Vaughan, on the other hand, had 

 made quantitative studies of the growths of coral organisms at 

 Tortugas and of the closely correlated deposits or reefs. Jointly 

 their investigations promised a solution of the long- vexed problem of 

 the origin of such reefs and it was hoped that the expedition to Torres 

 Straits and Great Barrier Reef would enable them to secure the 

 additional data essential to final proof. In spite of these adversities, 

 however, the Director and four associates sailed from San Francisco 

 for Sidney, Australia, on July 23, 1913, and arrived at Torres Straits 

 early in September. When last heard from, in September, the party 

 was reported all well on Murray Island. 



The laboratory season at Tortugas extended from April to June, 

 inclusive, and twelve collaborators availed themselves of the facilities 

 afforded for their researches. Summaries of these are given by the 

 Director in his current report, while more elaborate accounts are 

 furnished by the investigators themselves in appendices to that 

 report. Two additional volumes of contributions from the Tortugas 

 Laboratory are in press as publications Nos. 182 and 183. 



On the death, October 5, 1912, of Professor Lewis Boss, Director of 

 this department since its estabhshment in 1906, his son, Mr. Benjamin 

 De artment of ^^ss, long associatcd with his father in meridian 

 Meridian astrometry, was made Acting Director. Adherence 

 Astrometry. ^^ ^-^^ original program, so indispensable to the for- 

 midable enterprise this department has under way, is thus assured. 



