174: Obituary. 



with Alexander Agassiz at Harvard. He served as Mr. Agassiz 's 

 assistant and was given charge of the collection of radiates in the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology. He retained this position for 

 eight years, accompanying Mr. Agassiz on several expeditions to 

 the tropical seas and acquiring that knowledge of marine life and 

 the methods for its investigation which fitted him so well for the 

 special line of work which occupied his more mature years and 

 in which his reputation as a naturalist has been made. While at 

 Harvard he completed the requirements for the degree of Sc.D., 

 the degree being conferred in 1897. 



In 1900 Dr. Mayor became curator-in-chief of the museum of 

 the Brooklyn Institute as well as curator of natural sciences. 

 Four years later he was appointed director of the department of 

 marine zoology of the Carnegie Institution, in which position 

 he has contributed his most important services to biology. He 

 has also served as lecturer in biology at Princeton University 

 since 1913. 



The region where the Gulf Stream impinges on the southern 

 coast of Florida has long been known as one of the richest regions 

 of the world in the variety and abundance of its marine life. 

 In 1902, under the auspices of the Brooklyn Institute, Mayor 

 led an expedition to this locality, with which he was already 

 familiar, and hit upon the brilliant idea of utilizing the govern- 

 ment reservations of the Tortugas islands as a marine biological 

 laboratory. This plan was eventually supported by the Carnegie 

 Institution and through the enthusiasm and self-sacrificing 

 leadership of Dr. Mayor as director matured into the permanent 

 marine station which has ever since been available to the zoolo- 

 gists of the world. At this laboratory many of the most prom- 

 inent zoologists have gained their first acquaintance with 

 tropical marine life and their studies here inaugurated have 

 yielded results of far-reaching importance. 



Mayor's direct contributions to Zoology consist of numerous 

 papers mainly on coelenterates, which he studied intensively 

 both anatomically and physiologically, His most extensive pub- 

 lication, in three quarto volumes, is a superbly illustrated mono- 

 graph on the medusas of the world. To secure material for this 

 work he accompanied Mr. Alexander Agassiz for many years in 

 explorations of the tropical seas of both the Atlantic and Pacific 

 Oceans. He was later the leader of expeditions to the coral 

 reefs of Samoa, Fiji and other islands of the tropical Pacific. 



Mayor has also made contributions of importance on the evolu- 

 tion of snails, the coloration of insects, the nature of the nervous 

 impulse, the formation of coral reefs, the rate of growth of 

 corals, the palolo worm, and studies on the physical nature of 

 death. He had a brilliant mind, a friendly, modest and unselfish 

 personality, and a restless energy in his work; he naturally 

 became a member of many learned societies and an officer of 

 several. w. R. c. 



