552 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 954 



But the most needful change in the pen- 

 sion policy of the foundation ia a cessation 

 of change. The worst possible trait in any 

 system of annuities or insurance is the trait 

 which has hitherto conspicuously character- 

 ized the administration of those who have had 

 Mr. Carnegie's great gift in their charge — un- 

 trustworthiness. Whatever else it is, a pen- 

 sion system should be a thing which can be 

 depended upon, to which men can adjust their 

 plans with confidence. All its dealings should 

 be marked by an uberrima fides. Its rules 

 should be definite and comprehensive; and 

 they should not subsequently have read into 

 them meanings contrary to their natural sense. 

 It is imperative, therefore, that the founda- 

 tion take the necessary measures to ensure the 

 stability of its policy. It should first of all 

 determine with the utmost care and thorough- 

 ness what it is financially able to do. It 

 should thereafter confine its promises within 

 the limits of its possibilities. It should then 

 keep the promises it makes. 



Arthur O. Lovejoy 



GEORGE HAROLD DREW 

 George Harold Drew, B.A., of Cambridge, 

 one of the most brilliant of the younger biol- 

 ogists of England, died suddenly on January 

 30, 1913. 



He was the only son of George Samuel 

 Drew, Esq., of Paignton, Devon; and was 

 born on October 23, 1881, and educated at 

 New College, Eastbourne. 



He was entrance exhibitioner at Cam- 

 bridge in 1900 and was elected in June, 1901, 

 to a scholarship in the university, where he 

 paid special attention to the natural sciences 

 and to the more scientific aspects of the med- 

 ical courses. In 1906 he obtained a scholar- 

 ship in St. Mary's Hospital, and in 1908 he 

 studied in the Marine Biological Station at 

 Plymouth and was also lecturer in biology in 

 the Plymouth Technical School. In 1910 he 

 was appointed Beit memorial fellow in med- 

 ical research for the zoological department of 

 cancer, and in 1912 he was elected to the John 

 Lucas Walker studentship for pathology in 

 the University of Cambridge, and on January 



1, 1913, he was appointed research associate in 

 the department of marine zoology of the Car- 

 negie Institution of Washington. 



He was distinguished not only for his re- 

 markable breadth of knowledge, but even more 

 so for a rare aptitude and insight into meth- 

 ods of research which, had his life been spared, 

 would have led to his name being known 

 among the very few of England's great men 

 of science; but in the springtime of his high 

 promise he passed away and the all but un- 

 heeding vrorld has lost a great leader who was 

 to be. 



He was the author of only fifteen papers, 

 yet among them are some notable contribu- 

 tions to science. 



In coral reef regions naturalists have long 

 been familiar with the vast areas covered with 

 finely divided limestone which has commonly 

 been called " coral mud." In 1910, however, 

 Vaughan stated that these limestone muds 

 appeared to be of chemical origin, and in 1911 

 Drew discovered that there is in the warm 

 surface waters of the tropical Atlantic a bacil- 

 lus which is exceedingly abundant and which 

 denitrifies the sea water, thus enabling the 

 dissolved carbon dioxide to combine with the 

 calcium and to form a precipitate of calcium 

 carbonate. 



Thus the vast beds of limestone which in 

 coral reef regions are often hundreds of feet 

 in thickness and thousands of square miles in 

 area are formed mainly through the activity 

 of Drew's bacillus. 



Moreover, the presence of this denitrifying 

 bacillus in tropical seas accounts for the 

 paucity of sea-weeds in the warm oceans, and 

 the blue color of " coral seas " may in some 

 measure at least be due to the presence of the 

 finely divided particles of calcium carbonate 

 suspended in the water. 



Eeeent studies by Vaughan appear to indi- 

 cate that oolite is ultimately formed from this 

 precipitated calcium by attraction of the par- 

 ticles to the films of gas bubbles, or to solid 

 nuclei, in the manner described by Linch. 



Drew's interest, however, extended to sub- 

 jects other than those of oceanography; for 



