The direct personal link of the institute to the person of Jose San Roman led to its disappearance on his death in 1961. The assistant professor since 1949, Antonio Castillo de Lucas, became the professor in charge of the chair. Castillo did not belong to the Doctors Corps of mineral medicinal waters and only applied for membership to the Spanish Society of Medical Hydrology in 1962. Once again the vulnerability of the discipline was put clear, but the dean Benigno Lorenzo Velazquez, Professor of Pharmacology, quickly decided to fill the vacant chair. Although Castillo de Lucas was the editor of Anales Hispanoamericanos de Hidrología Médica y Climatología (The Annals of Hispanic Medical Hydrology and Climatology), journal of the Institute between 1954 and 1958, and was publishing some educational papers on Medical Hydrology, he decided not to pay much attention to the chair until 1963 focusing his work mainly on significant research as paremiólogist.