68 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1438 



tions of an organization adapted for such co- 

 ordinate responsibility with tihe National K«- 

 search Council in designating electors, these are 

 essential: That it shall represent the interest 

 involved, shall be permanent, shall be progres- 

 sively adaptable to the evolution of its func- 

 tion, shall be so organized as to perform this 

 function with a genuine interest and fore- 

 thought, and shall command a position of rec- 

 ognized dignity and integrity. 



C. E. Seashore 

 Division of Anthropology 

 AND Psychology, 

 National Eesbarch Council 



ALFRED GOLDSBOROUGH MAYOR 



American men of science have lost a highly 

 esteemed colleague and friend in the untimely 

 death, at his laboratory at Tortugas, Florida, 

 on June 24, of Alfred Goldsborough Mayor. 

 For about three years past he has been making 

 a heroic struggle against a tubercular infection, 

 followed dui'ing the last winter by a severe 

 attack of influenza, while he was at Tucson, 

 Arizona; but the end came sooner than either 

 he or his intimate associates anticipated. 



Mayor was born at Frederick, Maryland, 

 April 16, 1868. His early life was spent at 

 Maplewood, New Jersey, where his family lived 

 while his distinguished father was professor of 

 physics at Stevens Institute of Technology. 

 His easy aptitude for learning in general 

 doubtless led hun to pursue a course of study 

 in that institute, and he was awarded the 

 degree of mechanical engineer there in 1889. 

 Later on he turned his attention to zoology and 

 pursued studies at Harvard University leading 

 to the degree of doctor of science in 1897. For 

 some years he was intimately associated with 

 Professor Alexander Agassiz as a trusted as- 

 sistant in the development of the museum of 

 comparative zoology at Harvard and in the 

 other fertile enterprises of Agassiz. From 1900 

 to 1904 he was curator of the natural sciences 

 of the museum of the Brooklyn Institute. Since 

 1904 he has been director of the department of 

 marine biology of the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, and the more important results 

 •of his investigations, and of the investigations 



of his numerous associates made at the Tortu- 

 gas laboratory and during his expeditions else- 

 where are to be found in the publications of the 

 institution of the past two decades. 



A just estimate of the scientific work of 

 Mayor must be left to more competent hands. 

 It is more fitting in a brief notice to call atten- 

 tion to the characteristics he manifested as a 

 man among men. He possessed and practiced 

 in high degree four cardinal virtues of which 

 the world at large is now in great need, namely, 

 the virtues of integrity, industry, reciprocity 

 and moral courage. Although of a distinctly 

 artistic and poetic temperament, he had unusual 

 capacity to see and to understand realities. Few 

 among our contemporaries have understood so 

 well as he the arithmetical limitations, for ex- 

 ample, of the Carnegie Institution of Washing- 

 ton. Few men approach the problems of life 

 with the degree of insight and foresight he 

 brought to bear upon them. It is commonly 

 held that men of science are incompetent in 

 fiscal affairs ; but this is only an obscure way of 

 stating the fact that men as a rule are inefficient 

 in business. Mayor was a marked exception 

 to the rule. Whatever he undertook was well 

 considered and well executed, and it was never 

 essential to even suggest the aid of a public 

 auditor to interpret his accounts. His versa- 

 tility was equal to almost any emergency. He 

 was equally at home in the navigation of a 

 ship, in the construction of a laboratory, in the 

 delineation of the delicate tissues of a jelly-fish, 

 and in his associations with the natives of the 

 South Sea Islands. He accepted the situation, 

 whatever it was, and without complaint sought 

 only to improve its conditions. Never aggres- 

 sive but always persuasive, he was one of the 

 most unselfish of men. In the conduct of his 

 laboratory and of his expeditions, his personal 

 interests were the last to be considered. He 

 afforded a continuous example of the joy in life 

 that comes from getting something worth while 

 well done. He made it easy for, and a source 

 of the highest pleasure to, his associates who 

 worked with him. His normal span was cut 

 short by insidious disease, but he left an im- 

 pressive and inspiring record in the fields of 



altruistic endeavor. x, ^ -ttt 



E. S. Woodvstaed 



