JAMES DWIGHT DANA. - Born in Utica (New York) on 12 Feb. 1813, died in New Haven (Connecticut) on 14 Apr. 1895. Professor of geology and natural history at Yale University from 1855 to 1892 and member of the Académie des Sciences (1873).
His fundamental work is the System of Mineralogy (New York 1837), whose successive editions were edited by his son and successor Edward Salisbury (1849-1935), in which the classification of minerals now universally in use is contained. Regarding creation and the Bible, he writes in his Manual of Geology (New York 1876, p. 770): «Between the two books of the sublime Author there can be no real contradiction: both are revelations made by Him to man. The first tells of the wonderful divine works that go back to the most remote past and reach their climax in the appearance of man. The other teaches the relationship of man to his Maker and speaks of works even more wonderful for eternal future.»