Abstract
BY the sudden death of Prof. J. D. Dana, from heart-failure, on April 15, America has lost a veteran man of science, who in his time has not only played many widely varied parts, but has reached the highest excellence in each. As a mineralogist he published, so long ago as 1837, the first edition of a “Descriptive Mineralogy,” which by reason of its completeness and accuracy soon became a standard work of reference throughout the civilised world, and of which the sixth edition (1134 pages), issued in 1892 under the superintendence of his distinguished son, Prof. Edward Salisbury Dana, still maintains the high reputation attained by the original work. As a geologist and palæontologist, he published in 1863 a similarly excellent and well-illustrated “ Manual of Geology” having special regard to the geology of the North American continent, and of which the fourth edition (1087 pages) was issued only two or three months ago. Of his work as a zoologist, we may cite as example his elaborate report on the zoophytes, collected by an expedition in which he took a very active part. The report is illustrated by 61 plates, and in it are described no fewer than 230 new species. Attainments so diverse belong only to the few.
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Professor James Dwight Dana. Nature 51, 611–612 (1895). https://doi.org/10.1038/051611b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051611b0