4IO 



NATURE 



[March i, 1900 



group, and the Carolines, Dana lost no opportunity of 

 testing the theory by application of it to the various 

 islands visited by the expedition. As is vi'ell known, 

 Dana, while differing from Darwin on some minor 

 questions, fully accepted the coral-reef theory of the 

 latter author, and remained, to the end of his life, its 

 most staunch and enthusiastic defender. While in 

 Magellan's Straits, the ship to which Dana was attached 

 only very narrowly escaped shipwreck, and, after leaving 

 the Sandwich Islands, the Peacock^ with Dana on board, 

 was totally lost near the mouth of the Columbia River. 

 After this unfortunate experience, in which Dana lost all 

 his personal effects and many of his collections, he joined 

 a party which crossed the mountains near Mount Shasta, 

 and made their way down the Sacramento River to San 

 Francisco. At San Francisco Dana joined the Vincennes, 

 and returned to New York by way of the Sandwich 

 Islands, Singapore, the Cape of Good Hope, and St. 

 Helena. 



The next twelve years of Dana's life were occupied in 

 working out the results obtained during the expedition. 

 In 1849 appeared a great quarto volume, with an atlas, 

 on the geology of the expedition, this having been the 

 part of the work which was especially under his charge. 

 But in 1846 he had already issued a large volume, with 

 folio atlas, a " Report on the Zoophytes," dealing with the 

 corals collected by the expedition ; and in 1853 two other 

 large volumes, with another folio atlas, his " Report on 

 the Crustacea," made their appearance. How unre- 

 mitting were his labours in connection with these three 

 reports will be manifest to all who have to consult these 

 volumes, especially if it be remembered that a large part 

 of the drawings in the plates are by Dana's own hands. 



In this combination of geological and zoological work, 

 by one who had so many opportunities for original 

 observation during a long voyage of circumnavigation, 

 we cannot fail to be struck by the parallelism between the 

 careers of Darwin and Dana. Unfortunately, we have to 

 add that, while both attained a great age, they were 

 alike, during the later years of their lives, sufferers from 

 ill-health — the result of the hardships they underwent in 

 their long and arduous journeys in the cause of science. 

 Dana and Darwin never met one another, but during 

 many years they maintained a friendly correspondence, 

 some of the letters that passed between them being 

 printed in the volume before us. 



In 1850 Dana was appointed Professor of Natural 

 History in Yale College, but in 1864 his duties were 

 restricted and he became Professor of Geology and 

 Mineralogy. There are many interesting pieces of 

 evidence in the work before us of the able and con- 

 scientious manner in which he discharged the duties 

 connected with his chair, and of the esteem and love 

 with which he was regarded by his students and col- 

 leagues. In addition to his " System of Mineralogy," 

 he wrote a " Manual of Mineralogy and Lithology," and 

 also a "Treatise on Geology," which is widely known 

 and has passed through four editions, and a little work 

 for beginners, entitled "The Geological Story briefly 

 Told." 



Another sphere of activity in which Dana was con- 

 stantly employed was the editing of the American 

 Journal of Science, which had been started by his father- 

 NO. 1583, VOL. 61] 



in-law, the elder Silliman, in 1818, and has long occupied 

 the foremost place among the scientific journals of the 

 United States. Dana became joint editor of the journal 

 with the elder and younger Silliman in 1846, and during 

 the later years of his life was chief editor of the work — 

 a task which has since devolved upon his son, Prof. 

 Edward Salisbury Dana. Silliman's Journal has now 

 existed for eighty-two years, and is widely known for 

 its scientific articles, not only in the United States, but 

 in every part of the British Islands and the Continent 

 of Europe,^ where science is cultivated. Besides many 

 of Dana's most important original contributions to science,, 

 the numbers of the American Journal of Science contairh 

 a long series of notes and reviews from the pen of it& 

 ever active editor. 



In spite of ill-health, Dana maintained his scientific 

 activity to the end. During his " Wanderjahr," his atten- 

 tion had been specially directed to the formation of coral- 

 reefs, and in addition to his great monograph upon 

 corals, he wrote a popular book, "Corals and Coral 

 Islands," which passed through two editions. In the con- 

 troversies on the rival theories of the formation of coral- 

 reefs, Dana contributed a masterly summary and review 

 of the whole question. Another subject which had 

 interested him during his first voyage to the Mediter- 

 ranean, and later in his visit to the Sandwich Islands, was 

 that of Vulcanology. Since his visit to Hawaii, in 1842, 

 so many changes had taken place in the volcanoes of the 

 island, that in 1887, although he had reached the age of 

 seventy-four, he determined to revisit them for the purpose 

 of settling various doubts and difficulties which had 

 arisen in his mind. His well-known work on " Volcanoes " 

 was the outcome of this expedition. 



We have spoken of the remarkable parallelism between 

 thecareersof Darwin and Dana. The reader of the interest- 

 ing volume before us will not fail to notice another resem- 

 blance between the English and the American naturalists, 

 namely, their singular simplicity and amiability of char- 

 acter. This is evidenced in the case of Dana by in- 

 numerable incidents and many expressions contained in 

 letters in the work before us, which show that by all 

 with whom Dana came in contact he was deeply loved- 

 Dana's long and active life had a very quiet and peaceful 

 ending early in 1895. The memoir is written by one 

 who is evidently full of sympathy and admiration for the 

 man, and he is to be congratulated upon having furnished 

 a vivid portrayal of the characteristics of a naturalist 

 whose memory men of science, all over the world, will 

 not willingly let die. * JOHN W. JUDD. 



BILLIARDS MATHEMATICALLY TREATED. 



Billiards Mathematically Treated. By G. W. Hemming, 

 Q.C. Pp. 45. (London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd.^ 

 1899.) 



THIS treatise will be useful to the amateur billiard 

 player who has a competent knowledge of mathe- 

 matics, though not, perhaps, to the very accomplished 

 player who may have attained to excellence by natural 

 gifts of eye and hand, and by long practice without theory. 

 Mr. Hemming had better state in his own words his 

 views upon this question. 



