516 The American Naturalist. [May, 
James Dwight Dana was born Utica, N, Y., February 13, 1813, and 
was graduated at Yale in 1833. He was appointed instructor of math- 
ematics in the United States Navy, in which capacity he visited many 
remote parts of the world. In 1836 he returned to Yale as assistant 
in chemistry to Profossor Benjamin Silliman. In 1838 he went with 
the United States exploring expedition to the Pacific, under the com- 
mand of Captain Charles Wilkes. His reports on the Crustacea col- 
lected by the expedition, and on the geology of the regions visited are 
standard authorities on these subjects throughout the world. He did 
much important local work in Massachusetts and Connecticut. He 
was a defender of the doctrines of the permanency of continental nu- 
clei, and of the glacier theory of the glacial phenomena of the Plisto- 
cene system. . 
In 1850 he became associate editor of the “ American Journal of 
Science and Arts.” The Geological Society of London in 1872 con- 
ferred upon him the Wollaston medal. 
Professor Dana’s works in book form include “System of Mineral- 
ogy,” 1837; “ Manual of Mineralogy,” 1848; “Coral Reefs and 
Islands,” 1853 ; “ Manual of Geology,” 1863 ; “ Text Book of Geology,” 
1864 ; “ Corals and Coral Islands,” 1853; and ‘‘ The Geological Story, 
Briefly Told,” 1875. 
A joint meeting of members of the University of Pennsylvania, the 
American Philosophical Society, and the Academy of Natural Sciences, 
was held in the hall of the Academy of Natural Sciences on the even- 
ing of Wednesday, April 10, in memory of the late Professor John A. 
Ryder. General Isaac J. Wistar presided, and Philip P. Calvert 
acted as secretary. Addresses were made by Dr. Harrison Allen on 
“Dr. Ryder’s Relation to the Academy of Natural Sciences;” Dr. 
Bashford Dean, of Columbia College, on “ Dr. Ryder’s Work in the 
U.S. Fish Commission ;” Dr. Horace Jayne on “ Dr. Ryder and the 
School of Biology;” Professor E. D. Cope on “The Evolutionary 
Doctrine of Dr. Ryder;” H. F. Moore on “ Dr. Ryder as a Teacher,” 
and Dr. W. P. Wilson on “ Dr. Ryder as a Collegian.” The speakers 
all bore testimony to Prof. Ryder’s merits as an investigator and as a 
teacher, and to his amiability and honesty as a man. 
Charles D. Wolcott, of the United States Geological Survey, has 
had conferred upon him the Bigsby medal of the Royal Geological So- 
ciety of England. 
