George Harold Drew. 5 



In 1910 Sanford, and also Vaughan, published the conclusion that a 

 considerable portion of the calcareous muds in the bays and sounds of 

 southern Florida were precipitated out of the sea-water in some unknown 

 manner. It remained for Drew, in 191 1, to discover that there is in the 

 warm surface waters of the West Indian and Florida region, and especially 

 in the limestone mud itself, a bacillus which deprives the sea-water of its 

 nitrogen, thus causing the calcium to combine with the dissolved carbon 

 dioxide and to form the finely-divided limestone mud so characteristic of 

 coral-reef regions. Drew isolated this bacillus and found that it became 

 inactive in even moderately cold water, and thus it functions only in warm 

 or tropical seas, thriving best at depths of less than 100 fathoms. In the 

 surface waters of the Bahamas and Florida it is the most abundant marine 

 bacillus. 



Drew hoped to continue these studies and to extend them to the Pacific, 

 for this calcium precipitation is an important factor, and has resulted in the 

 formation of vast beds of limestone apparently far greater in bulk than that 

 formed by corals. 



The complex problem of the chemical balance of the constituents of sea- 

 water and their solvent powers under various conditions was being enthusi- 

 astically considered by Drew, and had he lived it was the hope of this Labo- 

 ratory that he might have had exceptional opportunities to continue these 

 studies — for truly he was the exceptionally brilliant man, for the coming 

 of whose like again the world must wait, we fear, for many years, for there 

 are but few in each generation who are gifted with his rare genius for 

 research. 



Alfred Goldsborough Mayer. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY. 



1. Some notes on parasites and other diseases of fish, in Parasitology, vol. 2, No. 3, p. 193, 



1909; also vol. 3, No. I, p. 54, 1910. Also a review of the same in Journal Marine 

 Biol. Association, Plymouth, vol. 9, No. 2, p. 246, 191 1. 



2. The reproduction and early development of Laminaria digitata and Laminaria sac- 



charina, in Annals of Botany, vol. 24, p. 177, 1910. Also reviewed in Journal Marine 

 Biol. Association, Plymouth, vol. 9, No. 2, p. 245, 191 1. 



3. Some points in the physiology of Lamellibranch blood-corpuscles, in Quart. Journal 



Microscop. Sci., vol. 54, pp. 605-622, 1910. 



4. A table showing certain culture characteristics of some of the commonest bacteria 



found in the laboratory tanks at Plymouth, in Jour. Marine Biol. Association, vol. 9, 

 No. 2, pp. 161-163, 1911. 



5. The action of some denitrifying bacteria in tropical and temperate seas, and the bacterial 



precipitation of calcium carbonate in the sea, in Journal Marine Biol. Association, 

 vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 142-155, 191 1. Also in the Report of the Department of Marine 

 Biology, Year Book of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, No. 10, pp. 136-141, 

 1911. 



6. Some cases of new growths in fish, in Journal Marine Biol. Association, Plymouth, 



vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 281-287, I plate, 1912. 



7. A note on some attempts to cause the formation of cytolysins and precipitins in certain 



invertebrates, in Jour. Hygiene, vol. II, No. 2, 1911. 



8. Experimental metaplasia. I. The formation of columnar ciliated epithelium from 



fibroblasts in Pecten, in Journal of Experimental Zoology, vol. 10, pp. 349-374, 3 

 plates, 191 1. 



