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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34912-8.txt b/34912-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..2d811ae --- /dev/null +++ b/34912-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,18150 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Woman in Science, by John Augustine Zahm + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Woman in Science + With an Introductory Chapter on Woman's Long Struggle for Things of the Mind + + +Author: John Augustine Zahm + + + +Release Date: January 11, 2011 [eBook #34912] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN IN SCIENCE*** + + +E-text prepared by Bryan Ness, Josephine Paolucci, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images +generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries +(http://www.archive.org/details/americana) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/womaninsciencewi00mozaiala + + + + + +WOMAN IN SCIENCE + +With an Introductory Chapter on Woman's Long Struggle +for Things of the Mind + +by + +H. J. MOZANS, A.M., PH.D. + +Author of "Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena," +"Along the Andes and Down the Amazon," etc. + +[Illustration] + +Que e piu bella in donna que savere? + +DANTE, CONVITO. + + + + + + + +New York and London +D. Appleton and Company +1913 + +Copyright, 1913, by +D. Appleton and Company + +Printed in the United States of America + + + +TO +MRS. CHARLES M. SCHWAB +AS A SLIGHT TRIBUTE +TO HER CHARMING PERSONALITY +GOODNESS OF HEART AND NOBILITY OF SOUL +THIS VOLUME +IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED +WITH THE BEST WISHES OF +THE AUTHOR. + + + + +PREFACE + + +The following pages are the outcome of studies begun many years ago in +Greece and Italy. While wandering through the famed and picturesque land +of the Hellenes, rejoicing in the countless beauties of the islands of +the Ionian and Ægean seas or scaling the heights of Helicon and +Parnassus, all so redolent of the storied past, I saw on every side +tangible evidence of that marvelous race of men and women whose +matchless achievements have been the delight and inspiration of the +world for nearly three thousand years. But it was especially while +contemplating, from the portico of the Parthenon, the magnificent vista +which there meets the charmed vision, that I first fully experienced the +spell of the favored land of Hellas, so long the home of beauty and of +intellect. The scene before me was indeed enchanting beyond expression; +for, every ruin, every marble column, every rock had its history, and +evoked the most precious memories of men of godlike thoughts and of + + "A thousand glorious actions that may claim + Triumphal laurels and immortal fame." + +It was a tranquil and balmy night in midsummer. The sun, leaving a +gorgeous afterglow, had about an hour before disappeared behind the +azure-veiled mountains of Ithaca, where, in the long ago, lived and +loved the hero and the heroine of the incomparable Odyssey. The full +moon, just rising above the plain of Marathon, intensified the witchery +of that memorable spot consecrated by the valor of patriots battling +victoriously against the invading hordes of Asia. Hard by was the +Areopagus, where St. Paul preached to the "superstitious" Athenians on +"The Unknown God." Almost adjoining it was the Agora, where Socrates was +wont to hold converse with noble and simple on the sublimest questions +which can engage the human mind. Not distant was the site of the +celebrated "Painted Porch," where Zeno developed his famous system of +ethics. In another quarter were the shady walks of the Lyceum, where +Aristotle, "the master of those who know," lectured before an admiring +concourse of students from all parts of Hellas. Farther afield, on the +banks of the Cephissus, was the grove of Academus, where the divine +Plato expounded that admirable idealism which, with Aristotelianism, has +controlled the progress of speculative thought for more than twenty +centuries, and enunciated those admirable doctrines which have become +the common heritage of humanity. + +But where, in this venerable city--"the eye of Greece, mother of arts +and eloquence"--was the abode of Aspasia, the wife of Pericles and the +inspirer of the noblest minds of the Golden Age of Grecian civilization? +Where was that salon, renowned these four and twenty centuries as the +most brilliant court of culture the world has ever known, wherein this +gifted and accomplished daughter of Miletus gathered about her the most +learned men and women of her time? Whatever the location, there it was +that the wit and talent of Attica found a congenial trysting-place, and +human genius burst into fairest blossom. There it was that poets, +sculptors, painters, orators, philosophers, statesmen were all equally +at home. There Socrates discoursed on philosophy; there Euripides and +Sophocles read their plays; there Anaxagoras dilated upon the nature and +constitution of the universe; there Phidias, the greatest sculptor of +all time, and Ictinus and Callicrates unfolded their plans for that +supreme creation of architecture, the temple of Athena Parthenos on the +Acropolis. Like Michaelangelo, long centuries afterwards, who "saw with +the eyes and acted by the inspiration" of Vittoria Colonna, these +masters of Greek architecture and sculpture saw with the eyes and acted +by the sublime promptings of Aspasia, who was the greatest patron and +inspirer of men of genius the world has ever known. + +I felt then, as I feel now, that this superb monument to the virgin +goddess of wisdom and art and science was in great measure a monument to +the one who by her quick intelligence, her profound knowledge, her +inspiration, her patronage, her influence, had so much to do with its +erection--the wise, the cultured, the richly dowered Aspasia. + +This thought it was that started the train of reflections on the +intellectual achievements of women which eventually gave rise to the +idea of writing a book on woman's work in things of the mind. + +The following day, as I was entering the University of Athens, I noticed +above the stately portal a large and beautiful painting which, on +inspection, proved, to my great delight, to be nothing less than a +pictorial representation of my musings the night before on the portico +of the Parthenon. For there was Aspasia, just as I had fancied her in +her salon, seated beside Pericles, and surrounded by the greatest and +the wisest men of Greece. "This," I exclaimed, "shall be the +frontispiece of my book; it will tell more than many pages of text." Nor +did I rest till I had procured a copy of this excellent work of art. + +Shortly after my journey through Greece I visited the chief cities and +towns of Italy. I traversed the whole of Magna Græcia and, to enjoy the +local color of things Grecian and breathe, as far as might be, the +atmosphere which once enveloped the world's greatest thinkers, I stood +on the spot in Syracuse where Plato discoursed on the true, the +beautiful and the good, before enthusiastic audiences of men and women, +and wandered through the land inhabited by the ancient Bruttii, where +Pythagoras has his famous school of science and philosophy--a school +which was continued after the founder's death by his celebrated wife, +Theano. For in Crotona, as well as in Athens, and in Alexandria in the +time of Hypatia, women were teachers as well as scholars, and attained +to marked distinction in every branch of intellectual activity. + +As I visited, one after the other, what were once the great centers of +learning and culture in Magna Græcia, the idea of writing the book +aforementioned appealed to me more strongly from day to day, but it did +not assume definite form until after I had tarried for some weeks or +months in each of the great university towns of Italy. And as I wended +my way through the almost deserted streets of Salerno, which was for +centuries one of the noblest seats of learning in Christendom, and +recalled the achievements of its gifted daughters--those wonderful +_mulieres Salernitanæ_, whose praises were once sounded throughout +Europe, but whose names have been almost forgotten--I began to realize, +as never before, that women of intellectual eminence have received too +little credit for their contributions to the progress of knowledge, and +should have a sympathetic historian of what they have achieved in the +domain of learning. + +But it was not until after I had visited the great university towns of +Bologna, Padua and Pavia, had become more familiar with their +fascinating histories and traditions, and surveyed there the scenes of +the great scholastic triumphs of women as students and professors, that +I fully realized the importance, if not the necessity, of such a work as +I had in contemplation. For then, as when standing in silent meditation +on the pronaos of the Parthenon, the past seemed to become present, and +the graceful figures of those illustrious daughters of _Italia la +Bella_, who have conferred such honor on both their country and on +womankind throughout the world, seemed to flit before me as they +returned to and from their lecture halls and laboratories, where their +discourses, in flowing Latin periods, had commanded the admiration and +the applause of students from every European country, from the Rock of +Cashel to the Athenian Acropolis. + +Only then did the magnitude and the difficulty of my self-imposed task +begin to dawn upon me. I saw that it would be impossible, if I were to +do justice to the subject, to compass in a single volume anything like +an adequate account of the contributions of women to the advancement of +general knowledge. I accordingly resolved to restrict my theme and +confine myself to an attempt to show what an important rôle women have +played in the development of those branches of knowledge in which they +are usually thought to have had but little part. + +The subject of my book thus, by a process of elimination, narrowed its +scope to woman's achievements in science. Many works in various +languages had been written on what women had accomplished in art, +literature, and state-craft, and there was, therefore, no special call +for a new volume on any of these topics. But, with the exception of a +few brief monographs in German, French and Italian, and an occasional +magazine article here and there, practically nothing had been written +about woman in science. The time, then, seemed opportune for entering +upon a field that had thus far been almost completely neglected; and, +although I soon discovered that the labor involved would be far greater +than I had anticipated, I never lost sight of the work which had its +virtual inception in the peerless sanctuary of Pallas Athena in the +"City of the Violet Crown." + +Duties and occupations innumerable have retarded the progress of the +work. But not the least cause of delay has been the difficulty of +locating the material essential to the production of a volume that would +do even partial justice to the numerous topics requiring treatment. My +experience, _parva componere magnis_, was not unlike that of Dr. +Johnson, who tells us in the preface to his _Dictionary of the English +Language_, "I saw that one inquiry only gave occasion to another, that +book referred to book, that to search was not always to find, and that +thus to pursue perfection was, like the first inhabitants of Arcadia, to +chase the sun, which, when they reached the hill where he seemed to +rest, was still beheld at the same distance from them." + +Although I have endeavored to give a place in this work to all women who +have achieved special distinction in science, it is not unlikely that I +may have inadvertently overlooked some, particularly among those of +recent years, who were deserving of mention. Should this be the case, I +shall be grateful for information which will enable me to correct such +oversights and render the volume, should there be a demand for more than +one edition, more complete and serviceable. And, although I have striven +to be as accurate as possible in all my statements, I can scarcely hope, +in traversing so broad a field, to have been wholly successful. For all +shortcomings, whether through omission or commission, + + "Quas aut incuria fudit, + Aut humana parum cavit natura," + +I crave the reader's indulgence, and trust that the present volume will +have at least the merit of stimulating some ambitious young Whewell to +explore more thoroughly the interesting field that I have but partially +reconnoitred, and give us ere long an adequate and comprehensive history +of the achievements of woman, not only in the inductive but in all the +sciences. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. WOMAN'S LONG STRUGGLE FOR THINGS OF THE MIND 1 + + II. WOMAN'S CAPACITY FOR SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS 106 + + III. WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS 136 + + IV. WOMEN IN ASTRONOMY 167 + + V. WOMEN IN PHYSICS 197 + + VI. WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY 214 + + VII. WOMEN IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 233 + + VIII. WOMEN IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY 266 + + IX. WOMEN IN ARCHÆOLOGY 309 + + X. WOMEN AS INVENTORS 334 + + XI. WOMEN AS INSPIRERS AND COLLABORATORS IN SCIENCE 356 + + XII. THE FUTURE OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE: SUMMARY AND EPILOGUE 390 + + BIBLIOGRAPHY 419 + + INDEX 427 + + + _Le donne son venute in excellenza + Di ciascun'arte, ove hanno posta cura; + E qualunque all'istorie abbia avvertenza, + Ne sente ancor la fama non oscura._ + + _What art so deep, what science so high, + But worthy women have thereto attained? + Who list in stories old to look may try, + And find my speech herein not false nor fain'd._ + + ARIOSTO, ORLANDO FURIOSO, + CANTO XX, STROPHE 2. + + _Ad omnem igitur doctrinam ... muliebres + animos natura comparavit._ + + MARIA GAETANA AGNESI. + + + + +WOMAN IN SCIENCE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +WOMAN'S LONG STRUGGLE FOR THINGS OF THE MIND + + +WOMAN AND EDUCATION IN ANCIENT GREECE + +I purpose to review the progress and achievements of woman in science +from her earliest efforts in ancient Greece down to the present time. I +shall relate how, in every department of natural knowledge, when not +inhibited by her environment, she has been the colleague and the +emulatress, if not the peer, of the most illustrious men who have +contributed to the increase and diffusion of human learning. But a +proper understanding of this subject seems to require some preliminary +survey of the many and diverse obstacles which, in every age of the +world's history, have opposed woman's advancement in general knowledge. +Without such preliminary survey it is impossible to realize the +intensity of her age-long struggle for freedom and justice in things of +the mind or fully to appreciate the comparative liberty and advantages +she now enjoys in almost every department of intellectual activity. +Neither could one understand why woman's achievements in science, +compared with those of men, have been so few and of so small import, +especially in times past, or why it is that, as a student of nature or +as an investigator in the various realms of pure and applied science, we +hear so little of her before the second half of the nineteenth century. + +To exhibit the nature of the difficulties woman has had to contend with +in every age and in every land, in order to secure what we now consider +her inalienable rights to things of the mind, it is not necessary to +review the history of female education, or to enter into the details of +her gradual progress forward and upward in the New and Old Worlds. But +it is necessary that we should know what was the attitude of mankind +toward woman's education during the leading epochs of the world's +history and what were, until almost our own day, the opinions of +men--scholars and rulers included--respecting the nature and the duties +of woman and what was considered, almost by all, her proper sphere of +action. Understanding the numerous and cruel handicaps which she had so +long to endure, the opposition to her aspirations which she had to +encounter, even during the most enlightened periods of the world's +history, and that, too, from those who should have been the first to +extend to her a helping hand, we can the better appreciate the extent of +her recent intellectual enfranchisement and of the value of the work she +has accomplished since she has been free to exercise those God-given +faculties which were so long held in restraint. + +The first great bar to the mental development of woman was the assumed +superiority of the male sex, the opinion, so generally accepted, that, +in the scheme of creation, woman was but "an accident, an imperfection, +an error of nature"; that she was either a slave conducing to man's +comfort, or, at best, a companion ministering to his amusement and +pleasure. + +From the earliest times she was regarded as man's inferior and relegated +to a subordinate position in society. She was, so it was averred, but a +diminutive man--a kind of mean between the lord of creation and the rest +of the animal kingdom. By some she was considered a kind of half man; by +others, as was cynically asserted, she was looked upon as a _mas +occasionatus_--a man marred in the making. She was, both mentally and +physically, what Spencer would call a man whose evolution had been +arrested, while man, as in the modern language of Darwin, was a woman, +whose evolution had been completed. + +When such views prevailed, it was inevitable that, so long as physical +force was the _force majeure_, a woman should be relegated to the +position of a slave or to that of "a mere glorified toy." Every man then +said, in effect, if not in words, of the woman who happened to be in his +power what Petruchio said of Katherine: + + "I will be master of what is mine own, + She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, + My household stuff, my field, my barn, + My horse, my ox, my ass, my everything." + +Even after civilization had superseded savagery and barbarism, it was +still inevitable, so long as such views found acceptance, that woman +should continue to be held in vassalage and ignorance and to suffer all +the disabilities and privations of "the lesser man." She was studiously +excluded from civic and social functions and compelled to pass her life +in the restricted quarters of the harem or gyneceum. This was the case +among the Athenians, as well as among other peoples; for, during the +most brilliant period of their history, women, when not slaves or +hetæræ, were considered simply child-bearers or housekeepers.[1] A +girl's education, when she received any at all, was limited to reading, +writing and music, and for a knowledge of these subjects she was +dependent on her mother. From her earliest years the Athenian maiden was +made to realize that the great fountains of knowledge, which were +always available for her brothers, were closed to her. Her duty was to +become proficient in the use of the needle and the distaff, and, later +on, to learn how to embroider, to ply the loom and make garments for +herself and for the other members of her family. + +Until she was seven years old, she was brought up with her brothers +under the eye of her mother. During this period of childhood she had a +certain amount of freedom, but, after her seventh year, she was kept in +the gyneconitis--women's quarters--"under the strictest restraint, in +order," as Xenophon informs us in his _Oeconomicus_, "that she might +see as little, hear as little and ask as few questions as possible." On +rare occasions she was permitted to be a spectator at a religious +procession, or to take part in certain of the choral dances that +constituted so important a part in the religious ceremonies of ancient +Greece. Whether in public or in private, silence was always considered +an imperative duty for a woman. + +But more than this. Not only was she expected to observe silence +herself, but she was also expected so to conduct herself that no one +would have occasion to speak about her. Pericles, in a celebrated +discourse, gave expression to the prevailing opinion regarding this +phase of female excellence when, on a notable occasion, he addressed to +a certain number of women the following words: "Great will be your glory +in not falling short of your natural character; and greatest will be +hers who is least talked of among men whether for good or for evil."[2] + +From the foregoing observations it will be seen that the general +attitude of the Athenians toward woman was anything but favorable to her +intellectual development, or to her exerting any influence beyond the +limits of her own household. And what is said of the Greeks can be +affirmed, with still greater emphasis, of the other nations of +antiquity. Indeed, it can be safely asserted that, had they all entered +into a solemn compact systematically to discredit woman's mental +capacity and to repress all her noblest aspirations, they could not have +succeeded more effectually than by the methods they severally adopted. +In ancient Greece the condition of woman was little better than it is in +India to-day under the law of Manu, where the husband, no matter how +unworthy he may be, must be regarded by the wife as a god. + +And yet, notwithstanding the dominant force of public opinion and the +strange traditional prejudices that possessed for the majority of people +all the semblance and commanding power of truth, woman was here and +there able to break through the barriers that impeded her progress in +her quest of knowledge and to defy the social conventions that precluded +her from being seen or heard in the intellectual arena. + +One of the first and most notable of Greek women to assert her +independence and to emerge from the intellectual eclipse which had so +long kept her sex in obscurity, was the Lesbian Sappho, who, as a lyric +poet, stands, even to-day, without a superior. So great was her renown +among the ancients that she was called "The Poetess," as Homer was +called "The Poet." Solon, on hearing one of her songs sung at a banquet, +begged the singer to teach it to him at once that he might learn it and +die. Aristotle did not hesitate to endorse a judgment that ranked her +with Homer and Archilochus, while Plato, in his Phædrus, exalts her +still higher by proclaiming her "the tenth Muse." Horace and Ovid and +Catullus strove to reproduce her passionate strains and rhythmic beauty; +but their efforts were little better than paraphrase and feeble +imitation. Her features were stamped on coins, "though she was but a +woman," and, after her death, altars were raised and temples erected in +honor of this "flower of the Graces," of + + "That mighty songstress, whose unrivaled powers + Weave for the Muse a crown of deathless flowers." + +Second only to the "violet-crowned, pure, sweetly-smiling Sappho," as +her rival, Alcæus, calls her, were Gorgo, Andromeda and Corinna. The +last of these was the teacher of Pindar, the celebrated lyric poet, whom +she defeated five times in poetic contests in Thebes.[3] She was one of +the nine lyrical muses, corresponding to "the celestial nine," who dwelt +on the sacred slopes of Helicon.[4] Telesilla and Praxilla were two +others. The last named was by her countrymen ranked with Anacreon. + +Scarcely inferior to Corinna were those ardent pupils of Sappho, who had +flocked from the sunny isles of the Ægean and the laurel-crowned hills +of Greece around "the fair-haired Lesbian" in her island home, which +was, at the same time, a school of poetry and music. The most gifted of +these were Danophila, the Pamphylian, and Erinna, whose hexameters were +said by the ancients to reveal a genius equal to that of Homer. She died +at the early age of nineteen and has always excited a pathetic interest +because, like so many others of her sex since her time--women and +maidens of the loftiest spiritual aspirations,--she was condemned to the +spindle and the distaff when she wished to devote her life to the +service of the Muses. The following is her own epitaph: + + "These are Erinna's songs, how sweet, though slight! + For she was but a girl of nineteen years. + Yet stronger far than what most men can write; + Had death delayed, whose fame had equaled hers?" + +Never before nor since did such a wave of feminine genius pass over the +fragrant valleys and vine-clad plains of Greece. Never in any other +place or time shone so brilliant a galaxy of women of talent and +imagination; never was there a more perfect flowering of female +intelligence of the highest order. According to tradition, there +appeared in the favored land of Hellas, when the entire population of +the country was not equal to that of a fair-sized modern city, within +the brief space of a century, no fewer than seventy-six women poets. +When we remember that the Renaissance produced only about sixty female +poets, though in a more extended territory and with a much larger +population, and that none of them could approach the incomparable +Sappho, or even many of her pupils, in the perfection of their work, we +can realize the splendor of the achievements of the female intellect in +the Hellenic world during the golden age of feminine poetic art.[5] + +One would think that this phenomenal outburst of mental vigor, and +especially the marvelous achievements of Sappho, Corinna and those of +their pupils and followers, would have compelled the world for all +subsequent time to recognize the innate power of the female mind, and +perceive the wisdom--not to say justice--of according to women the same +advantages for the development of their inborn gifts as were afforded to +men. They had proved that, under favorable conditions, there was +essentially no difference between the male and the female intellect, and +that genius knows no sex. And this they demonstrated not only in poetry, +but also in philosophy and in other branches of human knowledge as well. + +Among those who had especially distinguished themselves were Hipparchia, +the wife of the philosopher Crates; Themista, the wife of Leon and a +correspondent of Epicurus, who was pronounced "a sort of female Solon"; +Perictione, a disciple of Pythagoras, who distinguished herself by her +writings on _Wisdom_ and _The Harmony of Woman_, and Leontium, a +disciple and companion of Epicurus, who wrote a work against +Theophrastus, which was pronounced by Cicero a model of style. + +And was not the school of Pythagoras at Crotona continued after his +death by his daughter and his wife, Theano? And did not this fact alone +manifest woman's capacity for abstract thought, as effectively as the +Lesbian school had demonstrated her talent for consummate verse?[6] + +But it was all to no purpose. The comparative freedom and advantages +which Sappho, Corinna and their friends had enjoyed was soon--for some +reason scarcely comprehensible by us--taken from all the women of Greece +except the peculiar class known in history as _hetæræ_--companions. +These we should now rank among the _demimonde_, but the Greek point of +view was different from ours. The hetæræ were the friends and companions +of the men who spent most of their time in public resorts, and they +accompanied them to the gymnasium, to banquets, the games, to the +theater and other similar assemblies from which the wives and daughters +of the Athenians, during the golden age of Greece, were rigorously +excluded. For so great was the seclusion in which the wives of the +Greeks then lived that they never attended public spectacles and never +left the house, unless accompanied by a female slave. They were not +permitted to see men except in the presence of their husbands, nor could +they have a seat even at their own tables, if their husbands happened to +have male guests. + +It was by reason of this strict seclusion and the enforced ignorance to +which they were subjected that we hear very little of the virtuous women +of this period of Greek history. We have records of a few instances of +filial and conjugal affection, but, outside of this, the names of the +wives and daughters of even the most distinguished citizens have long +since passed into oblivion. Only the hetæræ attracted public notice, and +only among them, during the period to which reference is now made, do we +find any women who achieved distinction by their intellectual +attainments, or by the influence which they exerted over those with whom +they were associated. + +But strange as it may appear, these extra-matrimonial connections, far +from incurring the censure which they would now provoke, received the +cordial recognition of both legislators and moralists, and even those +who were considered the most virtuous among men openly entered into +these relations without exposing themselves to the slightest stigma or +reproach. Many of the hetæræ, contrary to what is sometimes thought, +were "of highly moral character, temperate, thoughtful and earnest, and +were either unattached or attached to one man, and to all intents and +purposes married. Even if they had two or three attachments but behaved +in other respects with temperance and sobriety, such was the Greek +feeling in regard to their peculiar position that they did not bring +down upon themselves any censure from even the sternest of the Greek +moralists."[7] + +The most famous men of Greece, married as well as unmarried, had their +"companions," many of whom were as distinguished for their +accomplishments as for their wit and beauty. Thus Epicurus had Leontium, +Menander Glycera, Isocrates Metaneira, Aristotle Herpyllis, and Plato +Archlanassa, while Aristippus, the philosopher, Diogenes, the cynic, and +Demosthenes, the great orator, each had a companion bearing the name of +Lais.[8] More than this. So strongly had many of the hetæræ impressed +themselves on the esthetic sense of the beauty-loving Greeks that not a +few of them had statues erected in their honor, especially in Athens and +Corinth, and thus shared in the honor that hitherto had been reserved +exclusively for the goddess of beauty and love, fair Aphrodite. + +The hetæræ from Ionia and Ætolia were particularly conspicuous for their +intelligence and culture. And all of them, whencesoever they came, +enjoyed unrestricted liberty and, unlike the wives of the citizens of +Athens, had free access to the Portico and the Academy and the Lyceum, +and were permitted to attend the lectures of the philosophers on the +same footing as the men. Thus, to mention only a few, Thais was a pupil +of Alciphron, Nicarete of Stilpo, and Lasthenia of Plato. + +And so keen were their intellects and so marked was their progress in +the most abstract studies, that many of them were recognized as the most +distinguished pupils of their masters. This accounts, in part, for the +popularity of their salons, at which were gathered the most eminent +statesmen, poets, artists, philosophers and orators of the day. The +nearest approach in modern times to such trysting-places, where beauty, +wit and talent found a congenial atmosphere, were the celebrated salons +of Ninon de Lenclos, Mlle. de l'Espinasse and Mme. du Deffand. At these +reunions were discussed, not only the news of the day, but also, and +especially, art, science, literature and politics, and always to the +advantage of both guests and hostesses. + +Possessing such freedom and enjoying such splendid opportunities for +culture and intellectual advancement, it is not surprising that the +hetæræ played so remarkable a rôle in the social and civic life of +Greece, and that they were able to wield such influence over their +associates, and that they often attained even the highest royal honors. +Nor is it surprising to read in Plato's _Symposium_ the splendid tribute +which Socrates renders to Diotima of Mantinea, when, in discussing the +true nature of divine and eternal beauty, he speaks of her as his +teacher. + +Many of the hetæræ were not only the models but also the inspirers of +the most famous painters and sculptors of antiquity. Thus, Lais was the +companion and inspirer of Apelles, the most noted painter of Greece, +while Phryne, said to have been the most beautiful woman who ever lived, +was the inspirer of the peerless Praxitiles, who, in reproducing her +form, succeeded in bequeathing to the world what was undoubtedly the +most lovely representation of "the human form divine" that ever came +from a sculptor's chisel.[9] + +On account of the relations of the hetæræ, especially those of the +fourth and fifth centuries B.C., with the greatest men of their time, +the writers of antiquity thought them of sufficient importance to +preserve their history. One author has left us an account of no fewer +than one hundred and thirty-five of them. But, of all those whose names +have come down to us, by far the most noted, accomplished and +influential was the famous Aspasia of Miletus. In many respects she was +the most remarkable woman Greece ever produced. Of rare talent and +culture, of extraordinary tact and finesse, of a fascinating personality +combined with the grace and sensibility of her sex, together with a +masculine power of intellect, "this gracious Ionian," as has well been +said, "stands with Sappho on the pinnacle of Hellenic culture, each in +her own field the highest feminine representative of an esthetic race." + +At an early age she won the passionate love of the great statesman +Pericles, after which she entered upon that marvelous career which +secured for her a place in the front rank of the most eminent women of +all time. "Her house became the resort of all the great men of Athens. +Socrates was often there. Phidias and Anaxagoras were intimate +acquaintances, and probably Sophocles and Euripides were in constant +attendance. Indeed, never had any woman such a salon in the whole +history of man. The greatest sculptor that ever lived, the grandest man +of all antiquity, philosophers and poets, sculptors and painters, +statesmen and historians, met each other and discussed congenial +subjects in her rooms. And probably hence has arisen the tradition that +she was the teacher of Socrates in philosophy and politics, and Pericles +in rhetoric. Her influence was such as to stimulate men to their best, +and they attributed to her all that was best in themselves. Aspasia +seems especially to have thought earnestly on the duties and destiny of +women. The cultivated men who thronged her assemblies had no hesitation +in breaking through the conventionalities of Athenian society, and +brought their wives to the parties of Aspasia; and she discussed with +them the duties of wives. She thought they should be something more than +mere mothers and housewives. She urged them to cultivate their minds, +and be in all respects fit companions for their husbands."[10] + +She is said to have written some of the best speeches of Pericles--among +them his noted funeral oration over those who had died in battle before +the walls of Potidæa. As to Socrates, he himself explicitly refers to +her, in the _Memorabilia_, as his teacher. She is a notable character in +the Socratic dialogues and appears several times in those of Æschines, +while there is every reason to believe that she strongly influenced the +views of Plato, as expressed by him in the _Republic_ respecting the +equality of woman with man. + +She was continually consulted regarding affairs of state, and her +influence in social and political matters was profound and far-reaching. +This is evidenced by the abuse heaped upon her by the comic dramatists +of the time. Referring to the ascendancy which she had over Pericles, +she was called Dejanira, the wife of Hercules; Hera, the queen of the +gods and wife of the Olympian Jove. It was asserted by her enemies that +the Samian war had been brought about at her instigation and that the +Peloponnesian war had been undertaken to avenge an insult which had been +offered her. These and similar statements which, when not absurd, were +greatly exaggerated, show the boundless influence she wielded over +Pericles, and what an important part she took in the government of +Greece in the zenith of its glory. + +But, however great her influence, we are warranted in asserting that it +was never exercised in an illegitimate manner. She was ever, as history +informs us, the good, the wise, the learned, the eloquent Aspasia. It +was her goodness, her wisdom, her rare and varied accomplishments, her +clear insight and noble purposes that gave her the wonderful power she +possessed and which enabled her, probably more than any one person, to +make the age of Pericles not only the most brilliant age of Greek +history, but also the most brilliant age of all time.[11] + +But, notwithstanding the beneficent influence which Aspasia ever exerted +on those about her, notwithstanding the heroic efforts she had made to +liberate her own sex from the restrictions that had so long harassed and +degraded it, the wives and daughters of the citizens of Athens were +still kept in almost absolute seclusion and denied the opportunities of +mental culture which were so generously accorded the free-born hetæræ +from Asia Minor and the islands of the Ægean. Socrates, as we learn from +Xenophon, asserted woman's equality with man, while Plato taught that +mentally there was no essential difference between man and woman. He +concluded, accordingly, that women of talent should have the same +educational advantages as men. In _The Republic_ as well as in the +_Laws_, when he refers to education--which he would make compulsory for +"all and sundry, as far as possible"--his views are far in advance of +those which have been entertained until the last half century. He would +have girls as well as boys thoroughly instructed in music and +gymnastic--"music for the mind and gymnastic for the body."[12] + +In the _Laws_ he contends that "women ought to share, as far as +possible, in education and in other ways with men. For consider:--if +women do not share in their whole life with men, then they must have +some other order of life." + +Again he asserts "Nothing can be more absurd than the practice which +prevails in our own country of men and women not following the same +pursuits with all their strength and with one mind, for thus the state, +instead of being a whole, is reduced to a half."[13] + +In _The Republic_ he expresses the same idea when he affirms that "the +gifts of nature are alike diffused in both"--men and women--"all the +pursuits of men are the pursuits of women."[14] + +These opinions of Socrates and Plato are so at variance with those of +their contemporaries, and so contrary to the custom that then obtained +of excluding all but free-born hetæræ from the advantages of education +and culture, that we cannot but think that they were due to the profound +influence which had been exercised directly or indirectly by Aspasia on +both of these great philosophers. Be this as it may, neither the efforts +of Aspasia nor the teachings of Socrates and Plato were able to remove +the bars to intellectual development from which the women of Greece had +so long suffered. A change in customs and laws concerning the rigid, +oriental seclusion of women did not come until much later, and then it +was under a new régime--that of the Cæsars--while complete equality of +men and women in school and college was not recognized until long +centuries afterward. + +It is interesting to speculate regarding what Greece would have become +had she developed her women as she developed her men. Never in the +history of the world were there in any one city so many eminent +men--poets, orators, statesmen, painters, sculptors, architects, +philosophers--as in Athens, and yet not a single native-born Athenian +woman ever attained the least distinction in any department of art or +science or literature. We cannot conceive for a moment that Greece's +fertility in great men and barrenness in great women was due to the fact +that the mothers of such illustrious men were ordinary housewives and +entirely devoid of the talent and genius which gave immortality to their +distinguished sons. The careers of Aspasia and the achievements of +Sappho, Corinna, Myrtides, Erinna, Praxilla, Telesilla, Myrus, Anytæ and +Nossidis, Theano and her daughter, to mention no others, absolutely +preclude such an assumption. + +The women in Greece, there can be no doubt about it, were as richly +endowed by nature as were the men, and only lacked the opportunities +that men enjoyed to achieve, in every sphere of intellectual activity, a +corresponding measure of success. They were extraordinary types, these +women of ancient Greece; for among them we find the dignified Roman +matron, the chatelaine of the Middle Ages, the brilliant woman of the +Renaissance and the cultured mistress of the French _salon_. But all +their talent, power and genius counted for naught. + +Had the civilization of Greece been a woman's civilization, as well as a +man's civilization, had there been a federation of all the Greek states, +as Aspasia seems to have striven for, instead of a number of small and +independent city-states; had the women of Hellas been allowed the same +liberty of action in intellectual work as was granted to the Italian +women during and after the revival of letters, and had they been +encouraged to develop all their latent powers that were so +systematically suppressed, and to work in unison with the men for the +welfare and advancement of a united nation, it is difficult to imagine +what a dazzling intellectual zenith a supremely gifted people, "full +summ'd in all their powers," would have attained. Their capacity for +work and for achieving great things would have been doubled and their +power as a political organization would have been practically +irresistible. + +"We are the only women that bring forth men," said Gorgo, the wife of +Leonidas. The Spartan mothers, who had more of liberty than their +Athenian sisters, did, indeed, bring forth warriors of undying renown; +but it was the mothers of Athens who, notwithstanding all their +grievous disabilities, gave to the world all the greatest masters in +art, literature, and philosophy--the men who through the ages have been +the leaders and the teachers of humanity, and who seem destined to hold +their exalted position until the end of time. + +The failure of the men of Greece to avail themselves of the immense +potential power, which they always kept latent in their women, was the +occasion of a terrible nemesis in the end. For this failure, coupled +with the frightful license introduced by a class of educated women, like +the hetæræ, without legal status or domestic ties, and the wave of +corruption that subsequently followed the advent of the countless +dissolute women who flocked to the Hellenic cities from every part of +the East, paved the way for the nation's downfall and for its ultimate +conquest by the resistless Roman legions that swept the once glorious +but ill-fated country of Pericles and Aspasia. + + +WOMAN AND EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ROME + +The condition of women in Rome, especially from 150 B.C. to 150 A.D., +was quite different from what it was in Athens, even during her palmiest +days. Owing to the lack of authentic documents we know but little of the +history of the Roman people during the first five hundred years of their +existence, but we do know that during this period many and important +changes were effected regarding the social and civil status of women. + +In the first place the Roman matron had much more freedom than was +accorded the Greek wife during the age of Pericles. Far from being kept +in oriental seclusion, like her Athenian sister, she was at liberty to +receive and dine with the friends of her husband, and to appear in +public whenever she desired. She went to the theater and the Forum; she +took part in all reputable entertainment, whether public or private. +Besides this, she had more and greater legal rights than Greek women +had ever known, and was treated rather as the peer and companion of man +than as his toy or his slave. + +Besides this, foreign women were never so conspicuous in Rome as in +Athens. Even after Greece had become a Roman province, and after _Græcia +capta Romam cepit_--when Greek ideas and Greek customs were introduced +into the capital of the Roman world--it was still the Roman matron that +was supreme. And, although many Greek women, some of them of rare beauty +and culture, found their way to Rome, especially under the empire, they +were always kept in the background and never succeeded in achieving +anything approaching the ascendancy which distinguished them during the +time of Aspasia. Their influence in literature and politics was almost +_nil_. + +In the case of the women of Rome, on the contrary, it may well be +questioned whether woman has ever wielded a greater influence than she +did during the three centuries that followed the reign of Augustus. But +she did not attain to this position of preëminence without a long and +bitter struggle. Every advance toward the goal of social and +intellectual equality was strenuously contested by the men, who wished +to limit the activities of their wives to the spindle, the distaff and +the loom and the other occupations of the household. For, as in Greece, +the generally accepted view was that woman, in the language of Gibbon, +"was created to please and obey. She was never supposed to have reached +the age of reason or experience." And her noblest epitaph, it was +averred, was couched in the following words: + + "She was gentle, pious, loved her husband, was skillful at + the loom and a good housekeeper."[15] + +As to her mental work, far from being considered on its own merits or as +a factor in the world's growth, it was flouted as + + "Mere woman's work + Expressing the comparative respect + Which means the absolute scorn." + +As early as 450 B.C., when the laws of the Twelve Tables were +promulgated, the girls of Rome received instruction in reading, writing +and arithmetic. "Up before dawn, with a lamp to light the way, and an +attendant to carry her satchel, the little Roman maiden of seven years, +or over, would trudge off to the portico where the schoolmaster wielded +his rod.[16] For some years this life continued, with but few holidays, +and those far between, until she attained some proficiency in the +rudiments. Then, most probably, her education in the scholastic sense +came to an end. Her brothers and boy schoolmates, if their parents +wished it, could proceed from the primary school to the secondary, where +geography, history and ethics were taught; where the art of elocution +was assiduously practiced and the works of the great Greek and Roman +poets were carefully read and expounded; but it was enough for the girl +to have learned how to read, write and cipher; she had then to learn her +domestic duties."[17] + +With the extension of the empire and the consequent enormous increase in +wealth and the rapid progress in social and intellectual freedom, there +was a notable change in the character of the education given to women, +at least to those of the wealthier and patrician families. This was, in +great measure, due to the wave of Hellenism which, shortly after the +conquest of Greece, broke upon the Roman capital with such irresistible +force. To the large and rapidly increasing number of women of keen +intellect and lofty aspirations, whose minds had hitherto been confined +to the comparatively barren field of Roman letters, the splendid +creations of Greek genius came as a revelation. To become thoroughly +versed in Greek poetry and proficient in the teachings of Greek +philosophy was the ambition of scores of Roman women, who soon became +noted for the extent and variety of their attainments, as well as for +their rare culture and charming personality. + +Among the pioneers of the intellectual movement in Rome, and one of the +most beautiful types of the learned women of her time, was the +celebrated daughter of the elder Scipio Africanus--Cornelia, mother of +the Gracchi. She is famous on account of her devotion to her two sons, +Tiberius and Caius. She was their teacher; and it was her educated and +refined mind that, more than anything else, contributed to the formation +of those splendid characters for which they were so highly esteemed by +their countrymen. Plutarch informs us that these noble sons of a noble +mother "were brought up by her so carefully that they became beyond +dispute the most accomplished of Roman youth; and, thus, they owed +perhaps more to their excellent upbringing than to their natural +parts."[18] One is not surprised to learn that this noble lady was +almost idolized by the Romans, and that they erected a statue to her +with the inscription, "Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi." + +Scarcely less distinguished and accomplished was another Cornelia, the +wife of Pompey, the Great. "Besides her youthful beauty," writes +Plutarch, in his _Life of Pompey_, "she possessed other charms, for she +was well versed in literature, in playing on the lyre, and in geometry, +and she had been used to listen to philosophical discourses with profit. +Besides this, she had a disposition free from all affectation and +display of pedantry--blemishes which such acquirements usually breed in +women."[19] + +Then there was the cultured and devoted Aurelia, the mother of Julius +Cæsar. It is safe to say that this eminent man was as much indebted to +his mother for his success and greatness as were Tiberius and Caius +Gracchus to the benign influence and careful teachings of the gentle and +virtuous Cornelia. Highly educated and of commanding personalities, both +these women, like many others of their time, contributed much to the +making of Roman history by the success they achieved in molding the +characters of some of the greatest men of their own or of any age. + +It is a splendid tribute that Cicero, in his _Orator_, pays to Lælia +when he tells of the purity of her language and the charm of her +conversation. "When I listen," he declares, "to my mother-in-law, +Lælia--for women preserve the traditional purity of accent the best +because, being limited in their intercourse with the multitude, they +retain their early impressions--I could imagine that I hear Plautus or +Nævius speaking, the pronunciation is so plain and simple, so perfectly +free from all affectation and display; from which I infer that such was +the accent of her father and his ancestors--not harsh like the +pronunciation to which I have just referred, not broad nor rustic nor +rugged, but terse, smooth and flowing."[20] + +These are a few of the cultured and learned women who shed glory on +their country by the refining influence which they exerted in the quiet +and unostentatious precincts of the family circle. But there were others +who chose a wider field for their activities, and who, by reason of +their unerring judgment, well-poised and highly cultivated minds, had so +won the confidence of the nation's greatest leaders that they were +frequently consulted on important affairs of state. Thus, Cicero tells +us of an interview which he had at Antium with Brutus and Cassius. +Besides the men, there were present on this occasion three women, who +took an active part in the discussion. These were Servilia, the mother +of Brutus, Porcia, the wife of Brutus and the daughter of Cato, and +Tertulla, the wife of Cassius and sister of Brutus. The views of the +women were not without effect, and so confident was Servilia of her +power that she engaged to have a certain clause in one of the decrees of +the Senate expunged. This is but one of many similar instances which +might be adduced from the lives of the women of Rome who took an active +part in politics. As we learn from Tacitus, their counsels and +assistance were considered of peculiar value by the Commonwealth. For, +when some of the sterner old moralists wished to exclude women from all +participation in public affairs, the Senate, after a heated debate, +decided by a large majority that the coöperation of women in questions +of administration, far from being a menace, as some contended, was so +beneficial to the state that it should be continued. + +Among other noteworthy makers of Roman history, besides those just +mentioned, is Livia, the wife of Augustus and the mother of Tiberius. So +great was her influence and so persistent was her activity in government +affairs, that it is sometimes asserted that she was the prime mover of +most of the public acts of both these rulers. This woman, whom Ovid +describes as having the features of Venus and the manner of Juno, and +who, he declares, "held her head above all vices," was credited with +having the benevolence of Ceres, the purity of Diana and the wisdom and +craft of Minerva--"a woman," as was said by one of her contemporaries, +"in all things more comparable to the gods than to men, who knew how to +use her power so as to turn away peril and advance the most deserving." + +Then there was the gracious, the virtuous, the self-sacrificing Octavia, +sister of the Emperor Augustus, who was so successful in composing grave +differences between her brother and her husband, and who so exerted her +influence for peace during the troublous times in which she lived that +she lives in history as a peacemaker. In marked contrast to this gentle +and sympathetic woman was the energetic and heroic Agrippina, the wife +of Germanicus. In many respects she was the most commanding personality +of her age, and exhibited in an eminent degree those sterling qualities +which we are wont to associate with the strong, dignified, courageous +women of ancient Rome, who gave to the world so many and so great men in +every sphere of human endeavor. "She was," as Tacitus informs us, "a +greater power in the army than legates and commanders, and she, a woman, +had quelled a mutiny which the emperor's authority could not check."[21] +She was, indeed, as has well been said, "a woman to whom one might +address an epic but never a sonnet." + +I have referred to these distinguished women because they are +embodiments of the best types of the noble, patrician families who made +the great Roman empire the admiration of all time, and because they +exhibit the wonderful advance that had been made in the general status +of women since the days of Pericles and Aspasia. I have referred to +them, also, to show what women are capable of achieving in the difficult +and complicated affairs of public life, when they are accorded the +necessary freedom of action and when they are properly equipped for work +by education and by association with men of learning and experience. +Comparing the secluded and illiterate Greek wife with the free and +highly accomplished Roman matron, we find almost as much difference +between the two as there is between a child and a fully developed +woman--all the difference there was between the unsophisticated young +wife, not quite fifteen, of whom Xenophon gives us such a charming +picture,[22] and the highly educated and competent mother of the +Gracchi. + +Of the Greek maiden we are told that, before her marriage she "had been +most carefully brought up to see and hear as little as possible and to +ask the fewest questions"; that her whole experience before her marriage +"consisted in knowing how to take the wool and make a dress, and in +seeing how her mother's handmaidens had their daily spinning tasks +assigned to them." Cornelia, on the contrary, was not only, as we have +seen, highly accomplished, but also one who, after her husband's death, +was quite prepared, as Plutarch assures us, to undertake the management +of the extensive property which he left his family, and who, we may well +believe, would also have been qualified, had the occasion demanded it, +to perform with distinction the same duties that fell to the lot of the +gifted wives of Germanicus and Augustus. + +Nothing in the history of Greek and Roman womanhood more strikingly +illustrates than the two instances given the vast difference in the +status of the wives of Greece and Rome, or exhibits more clearly the +advantages accruing to early training and thorough mental development. +If there was any difference in talent or intellect between the Greek and +the Roman woman it was, so far as we can determine, in favor of the +Greek. The sole reason, then, for such a marked difference in their +capacity for work and for achieving distinction in intellectual and +administrative fields of action arose from the lack of education in the +Athenian wife and the fullest measure of educational freedom enjoyed by +the Roman. That Aspasia, in spite of all the odds against her, was able +to rise to such a pinnacle of glory does not prove that she was the +superior of her countrywomen--the mothers of the greatest poets, artists +and philosophers of all time--but it exhibits rather her good fortune in +being able to effect a partnership with the greatest statesman of +Greece, and one who was at the same time fully able to appreciate all +her rare mental attainments and give her marvelous genius free scope for +development by coöperating with him in making the period during which he +held the reign of power the most brilliant one in the annals of human +progress. + +Plato, referring to the oriental seclusion to which Athenian wives were +condemned, speaks of them as "a race used to living out of the +sunshine," and that, too, among a people that habitually lived out of +doors. We have already seen how much greater freedom Roman women enjoyed +and how much more important was the rôle they played in public as well +as private life; but we have not told all. They not only went to, but +presided over, public games and religious ceremonies. They were admitted +to aristocratic clubs and had, under the empire, a regular assembly or +senate of their own, known as the _Conventus Matronarum_. Hortensia, the +daughter of the great orator Hortensius, pleaded the cause of her sex +before the tribunal of the triumvirs, and so eloquent and effective was +her speech that she not only won her case, but also won the praise of +the critic, Quintilian, for her splendid oratorical effort. + +Yet more. A certain woman in the Roman possessions in Africa had so +impressed her fellow citizens by her intellectual capacity and +administrative ability that she was chosen as one of the two chief +magistrates of the place. She is known in history as Messia Castula, +_duumvira_. It is true that the men of the older school, who would limit +woman's activities to the distaff and the loom, strongly objected to the +increasing freedom and power of women, and endeavored to counteract +their influence; but all to no purpose. And it was the crabbed old Cato, +the Censor, who growled in undisguised disgust:--"We Romans rule over +all men and our wives rule over us." + +But great as were the freedom and educational advantages of the Roman +women, the startling fact remains that, with the exception of a few +fragmentary verses of slight merit and of questionable authenticity, we +have absolutely no tangible evidence of the Roman woman's literary +ability while under pagan influence. We have seen, in considering her +intellectual attainments--especially after the introduction of Greek art +and letters into the City of the Seven Hills--that every woman who +pretended to culture was obliged to be familiar with the Greek as well +as with the Latin authors, that her education was deemed incomplete +without a knowledge of Greek poetry, oratory, history and philosophy, +but the fact is indisputable that Roman women were not producers like +their Greek sisters, and that in no instance did their productions reach +anything like the supreme excellence of the creations of a Corinna or a +Sappho. There was, it is true, Sulpicia, of whom Martial writes: "Let +every girl, whose wish it is to please a single man, read Sulpicia; let +every man, whose wish it is to please a single maid, read Sulpicia;" +but, if the few amatory verses that are credited to her represent the +highest flights of the Roman women in the domain of poetry, then, +indeed, were they far behind not only Sappho and Corinna, but also far +behind scores of their pupils. Martial does indeed speak of a young +maiden in whom were combined the eloquence of Plato with the austere +philosophy of the Porch, and who wrote verses worthy of a chaste Sappho; +but this was evidently a great exaggeration, for we have no other +evidence of her existence. + +The creative work of Roman women was, so far as we are able to judge, +quite as limited in prose as it was in poetry. Agrippina, the mother of +Nero, was one of the few prose writers whose name has come down to us. +From her memoirs it was that Tacitus received much of the material +incorporated in his _Annals_. + +That some of the women had literary ability of a high order is indicated +by a letter of Pliny to one of his correspondents, in which occurs the +following passage: + +"Pomponius Saturninus recently read me some letters which he averred had +been written by his wife. I believed that Plautus or Terence was being +read in prose. Whether they were really his wife's, as he maintains, or +his own, which he denies, he deserves equal honor, either because he +composes them or because he has made his wife, whom he married when a +mere girl, so learned and so polished."[23] + +Scarcely less distinguished for her taste in literature, and for her +talent as a letter writer, was Pliny's wife, Calphurnia, who, at his +request, wrote to him in his absence every day and sometimes even twice +a day. According to Cicero, his daughter Tulia was "the best and most +learned of women"; but her literary work, it is probable, did not extend +much beyond her letters to her illustrious father. Nevertheless, what +would we not give to possess these letters--to have as complete a +collection of them as we have of those of the great orator and +philosopher. They would be of inestimable value and would be absolutely +beyond compare, except, possibly, with the letters of Mme. du Deffand or +of Elizabeth Barrett Browning of a much later age. + +Considering the number of educated women that lived in the latter days +of the Republic and during the earlier part of the Empire, and their +well known culture and love of letters, it is reasonable to suppose that +they may have written much in both prose and verse of which we have no +record. Literary productions must have more than ordinary value to +survive two thousand years, and especially two thousand years of such +revolutions and upheavals as have convulsed the world since the time of +the _Pax Romana_, when all the world was at peace under Augustus. + +How much of the literary work of the women of to-day will receive +recognition twenty centuries hence? Some of it may, it is true, find a +place in the fireproof libraries of the time; but who, outside of a few +antiquarians, will take the trouble to read it or estimate its value? A +few anthologies containing our gems of prose and poetry will probably be +all that our fortieth century readers will deem worthy of notice. In +view of the chaotic condition of Europe for so many centuries, the +wonder is not that we have so little of the literary remains of Greece +and Rome, but rather that we have anything at all. + +As one might expect, the literary women of Rome, as well as those who +ventured to take part in public affairs, had their critics. The +satirists of the time were as unsparing of their ridicule as they were +long afterward when Molière wrote his _Femmes Savantes_ and his +_Précieuses Ridicules_. And as for men of the old conservative type, a +learned woman was as much an object of horror as is a militant +suffragette in conservative England to-day. "No learned wife for me," +exclaims Martial, "but rather a well-fed slave."[24] + +And Juvenal had no more love for educated women than have some of our +contemporaries for a blue-stocking housekeeper. He gives his opinion of +them in the following characteristic fashion: + +"That woman is a worse nuisance than usual who, as soon as she reclines +on her couch, praises Virgil; makes excuses for doomed Dido; pits bards +against one another and compares them, and weighs Homer and Mars in the +balance. Teachers of literature give way, professors are vanquished, the +whole mob is hushed, and so great is the torrent of words that no lawyer +or auctioneer may speak, nor any other woman."[25] + +But if learned women had their enemies and detractors they also had +friends and defenders. Among these was the Stoic philosopher, C. +Musonius Rufus, who lived in the time of Nero. Like Plato, he contended +that women should have the same training as men and that the faculties +of both should be equally developed. The gist of his teaching is +contained in the statement that: + +"If the same virtues must pertain to men and women, it follows, +necessarily, that the same training and education must be suitable for +both."[26] + +Our brief sketch of women's work in ancient Rome would be incomplete +without some reference to the famous _Ecclesia Domestica_--Church of the +Household--on the Aventine, and the distinguished women who were its +chief ornaments. During the time of Pope Damasus, and not long before +the sacking of Rome by Alaric, the _Ecclesia Domestica_ was a kind of +conventual home to which had retired, or in which were frequently +gathered, some of the most noble and learned women of the city. Among +the most notable of these were Marcella and her friends, Paula and +Eustochium. + +For beauty of character and nobility of purpose and rare mental +endowments they recall the best traditions of a Cornelia or a +Calphurnia, while so great was their purity of life and so unbounded was +their charity to the poor and suffering that they were honored by being +numbered among the saints of the early church. But what specially +distinguished them among all the great women of the Roman world was +their great and varied learning. In this respect they probably were far +in advance of all their predecessors. For, in addition to a thorough +knowledge of Latin and Greek literature, history and philosophy, they +had, under the great theologian and orientalist, St. Jerome, become +proficient in Hebrew and deeply versed in Scripture. + +Special mention should be made of Paula and her daughter Eustochium; for +it is probable that, had it not been for their influence on Jerome, and +their active coöperation in his great life work, we should not have the +Latin version of the Scriptures that is to-day known as the Vulgate. +This is evinced from the letters of the saint himself and from what we +know of the lives of these two remarkable women, who, as St. Jerome +informs us in the epitaph which he had engraved on Paula's tomb in the +Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, were descended from the Scipios, +the Gracchi and the Pauli on the mother's side, and on the father's side +from the half-mythical kings of Sparta and Mycenæ.[27] + +They aided him not only by their sympathy and by purchasing for him, +often at a great price, the manuscripts he needed for his colossal +undertaking, but also assisted him by their thorough knowledge of Latin, +Greek and Hebrew in translating the Sacred Books from the original +Hebrew into Latin. So great was Jerome's confidence in their scholarship +and so high was his appreciation of their ability and judgment that he +did not hesitate to submit his translations to them for their criticism +and approval. After he had completed his version of the first Book of +Kings, he turned it over to them, saying: "Read my Book of Kings--read +also the Latin and Greek translations and compare them with my version." +And they did read and compare and criticise. And more than this, they +frequently suggested modifications and corrections which the great man +accepted with touching humility and incorporated in a revised copy. + +More wonderful still, the Latin Psalter, as it has come down to us, is +not, as is generally supposed, the translation from the Hebrew of +Jerome, but rather a corrected version made from the Septuagint by his +illustrious collaborators--Paula and Eustochium. + +It is safe to say that no two women were ever engaged in a more +important or more difficult literary undertaking--one requiring keener +critical sense or more profound learning--than were Paula and +Eustochium, or one in which their efforts were crowned with more +brilliant success than were those of these two supreme exemplars of the +grace, the knowledge, the culture, the refinement of Roman +womanhood--the crowning glories of womanhood throughout the ages. + +St. Jerome showed his grateful recognition of the invaluable assistance +received from his devoted and talented co-workers by dedicating to them +a great number of his most important books. This scandalized the +pharisaical men of the time, who looked askance at all learned women and +resented particularly the preëminence given to Paula and her +accomplished daughter. But their reproaches provoked a reply from the +saint that was worthy of the most chivalrous champion of woman, and +revealed, at the same time, all the nobility of soul of the roused "Lion +of Bethlehem." It is not only a defence of his course, but also a +splendid tribute to his two illustrious friends, and a tribute also to +the great and good women of all time. + +"There are people, O Paula and Eustochium," exclaims the Christian +Cicero, vibrant with emotion and in a burst of eloquence that recalls +one of the burning philippics of Marcus Tullius, "who take offence at +seeing your names at the beginning of my works. These people do not know +that Olda prophesied when the men were mute; that while Barach was +atremble, Deborah saved Israel; that Judith and Esther delivered from +supreme peril the children of God. I pass over in silence Anna and +Elizabeth and the other holy women of the Gospel, but humble stars when +compared with the great luminary, Mary. Shall I speak now of the +illustrious women among the heathen? Does not Plato have Aspasia speak +in his dialogues? Does not Sappho hold the lyre at the same time as +Alcæus and Pindar? Did not Themista philosophize with the sages of +Greece? And the mother of the Gracchi, your Cornelia, and the daughter +of Cato, wife of Brutus, before whom pale the austere virtue of the +father and the courage of the husband--are they not the pride of the +whole of Rome? I shall add but one word more. Was not it women to whom +our Lord first appeared after His resurrection? Yes, men could then +blush for not having sought what the women had found."[28] + +Time has spared a joint letter of Paula and Eustochium to their friend +Marcella--a letter which exhibits so well the rare culture and literary +ability of the writers that we cannot but lament that we have not more +of the correspondence which was carried on between the learned inmates +of the Church of the Household on the Aventine and Paula's convent home +near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Such a collection would be +beyond price, as it would complete the picture of the age so well +sketched by St. Jerome; and, as a contribution to the literary world, it +would have a value not inferior to that of those exquisite classics of a +later age--the letters of Madame Sevigné to her daughter.[29] + + +WOMAN AND EDUCATION DURING THE MIDDLE AGES + +The period of nearly a thousand years intervening between the downfall +of Rome in A.D. 476 and the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in +1453 is usually known in history as the Middle Ages. By some it is +considered as synonymous with the Dark Ages, because of the decline of +learning and civilization during this long interval of time. The former +designation seems preferable, for, as we shall see, the latter is more +or less misleading. During the "wandering of the nations" in the fourth +and fifth centuries, and the long and fierce struggles between the +barbarian hordes from the north with the decadent peoples of the once +great Roman empire, there was, no doubt, a partial eclipse of the sun of +civilization; but the consequent darkness was not so dense nor so +general and long-continued as is sometimes imagined. The progress of +intellectual culture was, indeed, greatly retarded, but there was no +time when the light of learning was entirely extinguished. For even +during the most troublous times there were centers of culture in one +part of Europe or another. At one time the center was in Italy, at +another in Gaul, and, at still another, it was in Britain or Ireland or +Germany. + +But whether it was in the south, or the west or the north of Europe that +letters flourished, it was always the convent or the monastery that was +the home of learning and culture. Within these holy precincts the +literary treasures of antiquity were preserved and multiplied. Here +monks and nuns labored and studied, always keeping lighted the sacred +torch of knowledge--_Et quasi cursores vitaï lampada tradunt_--and +passing it on to the generations that succeeded them. That any of the +great literary masterpieces of Greece and Rome have come to us, in spite +of the destructive agencies of time and the wreck of empires, is due +wholly to the unremitting toil through long ages of the zealous and +intelligent inmates of the cloister. + +Of the monastic institutions for men there is no occasion to speak, +except in so far as they contributed to the intellectual advancement of +woman. In some cases the women of the cloister owed much to +ecclesiastics for their literary training; but there are not wanting +instances in which the nuns took the lead in education and had the +direction of schools which gave to the church priests and bishops of +recognized scholarship. + +Practically the only schools for girls during the Middle Ages were the +convents. Here were educated rich and poor, gentle and simple. And in +these homes of piety and learning the inmates enjoyed a peace and a +security that it was impossible to find elsewhere. They were free from +the dangers and annoyances that so often menaced them in their own homes +and were able to pursue their studies under the most favorable auspices. + +Among the first convent schools to achieve distinction were those of +Arles and Poitiers in Gaul, in the latter part of the sixth century. The +Abbess of Poitiers is known to us as St. Radegund. She not only had a +knowledge of letters rare for her age, but wrote poems of such merit +that they were until recently accepted as the productions of her master, +the poet Fortunatus,[30] who subsequently became bishop of Poitiers. + +Far more notable, however, than the convents of Arles and Poitiers was +the celebrated convent of St. Hilda at Whitby. Hilda, the foundress and +first abbess of Whitby, was a princess of the blood-royal and a +grand-niece of Edwin, the first Christian king of Northumbria. Her +convent and adjoining monastery for monks soon became the most noted +center of learning and culture in Britain. And so great was her +reputation for knowledge and wisdom that not only priests and bishops, +but also princes and kings sought her counsel in important matters of +church and state. + +As to the monks subject to her authority, she inspired them with so +great a love of knowledge, and urged them to so thorough a study of the +Scriptures, that her monastery became, as Venerable Bede informs us, a +school not only for missionaries but for bishops as well. He speaks in +particular of six ecclesiastical dignitaries who were sent forth from +this noble institution--all of whom were bishops. Five of them he +describes as men of singular merit and sanctity--"_singularis meriti et +sanctitatis viros_," while the sixth, he declared, was a man of rare +ability and learning--"_doctissimus et excellentis ingenii_." Of this +number was St. John of Beverly, who, we are told, "attained a degree of +popularity rare even in England, where the saints of old were so +universally and so readily popular."[31] Hilda governed her double +monastery with singular wisdom and success; and, so great was the love +and veneration she inspired among all classes that she merited the +epithet of "Mother of her Country." + +Celebrated, however, as Hilda was for her great educational work at +Whitby, she is probably better known to the world as the one who first +recognized and fostered the rare gifts of the poet Cædmon. "It is on the +lips of this cowherd," as Montalembert beautifully expresses it, "that +the Anglo-Saxon speech first bursts into poetry. Indeed, nothing in the +whole history of European literature is more original or more religious +than this first utterance of the English muse."[32] + +As soon as Hilda discovered the extraordinary poetic faculty of Cædmon, +she did not hesitate to regard it "as a special gift of God, worthy of +all respect and of the most tender care." And, in order that she might +the more readily develop the splendid talents of this literary prodigy, +the keen discerning abbess received Cædmon into the monastery of monks, +and had him translate the entire Bible into Anglo-Saxon. "As soon as the +Sacred Text was read for him he forthwith," as Bede declares, "ruminated +it as a clean animal ruminates its food, and transformed it into songs +so beautiful that all who heard were delighted." + +As his poetical faculty became more developed, his profoundly original +genius became more marked, and his inspiration more earnest and +impassioned. It was this Northumbrian cowherd, transformed into a monk +of Whitby, who sang before the abbess Hilda the revolt of Satan and +Paradise Lost, a thousand years earlier than Milton, in verses which may +still be admired even beside the immortal poem of the British Homer. So +remarkable, indeed, in some instances is the similarity in the +productions of the two poets that F. Palgrave, one of the most competent +of English critics, does not hesitate to declare that certain of +Cædmon's verses resembled so closely certain passages of the Paradise +Lost that some of Milton's lines seem almost like a translation from the +work of his distinguished predecessor. And M. Taine, in his _History of +English Literature_, referring to the "string of short, accumulated, +passionate images, like a succession of lightning flashes," of the old +Anglo-Saxon poet, asserts that "Milton's Satan exists in Cædmon's as the +picture exists in the sketch."[33] + +Well could Cædmon's first biographer, the Venerable Bede, say of him, +"Many Englishmen after him have tried to compose religious poems, but no +one has ever equaled the man who had only God for a master." And not +without warrant does the eloquent Montalembert, in the masterly work +just quoted, pen the following statement: "Apart from the interest which +attaches to Cædmon from a historical and literary point of view, his +life discloses to us essential peculiarities in the outward organization +and intellectual life of those great communities which in the seventh +century studded the coast of Northumbria, and which, with all their +numerous dependents, found often a more complete development under the +crozier of such a woman as Hilda than under the superiors of the other +sex."[34] + +Space precludes my telling of other convents which were centers of +literary activity, and of nuns who distinguished themselves by their +learning and by the benign influence which they exerted far beyond the +walls of the cloister. I cannot, however, refrain from referring to that +group of learned English nuns who are chiefly known by their Latin +correspondence with St. Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, and by the +assistance which they gave him in his arduous labors. Conspicuous among +these was St. Lioba, who, at the request of Boniface, left her home in +England to found a convent at Bischopsheim in Germany, which, under the +direction of its learned and zealous abbess, soon became the most +important educational center in that part of Europe. Teachers were +formed here for other schools in Germany and Lioba's biographer tells us +that there were few _monasteria feminarum_--monasteries of women--within +the sphere of Boniface's missionary activities for which Lioba's pupils +were not sought as instructresses. + +Like her illustrious countrywoman, St. Hilda, the abbess of Bischopsheim +was the friend and counselor of spiritual and temporal rulers. +Charlemagne, that eminent patron of scholars, had a great admiration for +her and gave her many substantial proofs of his esteem and veneration. +"Princes," writes her biographer, "loved her, noblemen received her, and +bishops gladly entertained her and conversed with her on the Scriptures +and on the institutions of religion, for she was familiar with many +writings and careful in giving advice. She was so bent on reading that +she never laid aside her book except to pray or to strengthen her slight +frame with food or sleep."[35] She was thoroughly conversant with the +books of the Old and the New Testaments and was, at the same time, +familiar with the writings of the Fathers. It is not surprising, then, +that she was regarded as an oracle, and that all classes flocked to her +as they did to the abbess of Whitby for guidance and assistance. + +From what has been said of the accomplishments and achievements of the +Anglo-Saxon nuns just mentioned, it is evident that they were, of a +truth, women of exceptional worth and of sterling character. And it is +equally clear that their pupils must have shared in the education and +culture of their distinguished teachers.[36] Many of them, in addition +to having a wide acquaintance with literature, sacred and profane, were +also mistresses of several languages. A woman's education, at this time, +was not complete unless she could write Latin and speak it fluently. The +author of that most interesting early English work, _Ancren Riwle_--Rule +of Anchoresses--presupposes in his auditors, for whose benefit his +instructions were given, a knowledge of Latin and French, as well as of +English. In certain convents Latin was almost the sole medium of +communication,--to such an extent, indeed, that a special rule was made +prohibiting "the use of the Latin tongue except under special +circumstances." + +"As long as the conventual system lasted the only schools for girls in +England were the convent schools where, says Robert Aske, 'the daughters +of gentlemen were brought up in virtue.' From an educational point of +view, the suppression of the convents was decidedly a blunder." Thus +writes Georgiana Hill in her instructive work on _Women in English +Life_, and there are, we fancy, but few readers of her instructive pages +who will not be inclined to agree with her conclusions.[37] Lecky speaks +of the dissolution of convents at the time of the Reformation as "far +from a benefit to women or the world."[38] And Dom Gasquet declares +"that destruction by Henry VIII of the conventual schools where the +female population, the rich as well as the poor, found their only +teachers, was the absolute extinction of any systematic education of +women for a long period."[39] + +But this is not all. The strangest and saddest result, consequent on the +suppression of the convents, was that men were made to profit by the +loss which women had sustained. The revenues of the houses that were +suppressed had been intended for the sole use and behoof of women, and +had been administered by them in this sense for centuries. When they +were appropriated by Henry VIII, it never occurred to him or his +ministers to make any provision for the education of women in lieu of +that which had so ruthlessly been wrested from them. Thus the nunnery of +St. Radegund, together with its revenues and possessions, was +transformed into Jesus College, Cambridge, while from the suppressed +convents of Bromhall in Berkshire and Lillechurch in Kent funds were +secured for the foundation and endowment of St. John's College, also at +Cambridge. Similarly, the properties of other nunneries, large and +small, were appropriated for the foundation of collegiate institutions +at Oxford, all of which were for the benefit of men. + +And so it was that, in a few short years, the great work of centuries +was undone and women were left little better educational facilities than +when the Anglo-Saxon nuns began their noble work in a land that was +enveloped in "one dark night of unillumined barbarism." + +One would have thought that Elizabeth, who was so highly educated, and +who did so much for the supremacy of her country on land and sea, would +have bethought herself of the necessity of doing something for the +education of her female subjects. But no. She did nothing for them, and +the founders of the endowed grammar schools, during her reign, gave +never a thought to the educational necessities of the girls. They made +provision only for the boys. In this respect, however, the "Virgin +Queen" was but following in the footsteps of the male sovereigns and +legislators who had preceded her, and who, although affecting an +interest in having women "sensible and virtuous, seem by their conduct +toward the sex to have entered into a general conspiracy to order it +otherwise." + +The truth is, when anything was achieved for the intellectual +advancement of women it was due either to private instruction or to the +result of a protracted struggle on the part of women themselves for what +they deemed their indefeasible rights. Had they relied on the +spontaneous action of men and on legislation in favor of female +education to which men had given the initiative, they would to-day be in +the same condition of ignorance and seclusion and servitude as was the +Athenian woman twenty-five centuries ago, and would occupy a status but +little above that of the inmates of oriental harems and zenanas. + +The Anglo-Saxon nuns were, as we have seen, specially distinguished for +their learning and for the splendid work they performed for the +education of their sex during the long period of the Middle Ages. But +however great their preëminence in these respects, they were not without +rivals. There were, besides the schools, already named, conducted by St. +Lioba and her companions, also flourishing schools in Germany under the +direction of native nuns, whose success as educators was as marked as +that of Lioba or Hilda, and who, in addition to their labors in the +class-room, achieved distinction by their productive work. The +Anglo-Saxon convents developed few writers, whereas those of Germany +produced several who not only shed luster on their sex but who also +showed what woman is capable of accomplishing when accorded some measure +of encouragement and full liberty of action. + +One of the most noted writers of her age was the famous nun of +Gandersheim, Hroswitha, who was born in the early part of the tenth +century. She was the pupil of the abbess Gerberg, who was of royal +lineage, and one of the most zealous promoters of learning and culture +in Saxony during the forty-two years of her rule in the convent to which +she and her favorite pupil gave undying renown. + +Hroswitha's literary work consists of legends and contemporary history +in metrical form and of her dramas written in the style of Terence. As a +writer of history and legends she ranks with the best authors of her +time, while as a writer of dramas she stands absolutely alone. Hers, +indeed, were the first dramatic compositions given to the world during +the long interval that elapsed between the last comedies of classic +antiquity and the first of the miracle plays which had such a vogue +between the twelfth and the sixteenth century. + +Her dramas, which, of all her works, have attracted the most attention, +are seven in number. They deal with the moral and mental conflicts which +characterized the period of transition from heathendom to Christianity. +Some of them exhibit poetic talent of a high order as well as the +inspiration and courage of genius. They reveal also a wide acquaintance +with the classic authors of Rome and Greece, besides a knowledge of many +of the Christian writers. They are, likewise, distinguished by +originality of treatment, complete mastery of the material used, as well +as by genuine beauty of rhyme and rhythm. In form, all the plays +preserve the simple directness of their model, Terence, while, in +conception, they embody the noblest ideals of Christian teaching. In +marked contrast to her model, who invariably exhibits the frailties and +lapses of woman, Hroswitha's plays turn on the resistance of her sex to +temptation, and on their steadfast adherence to duty and to vows +voluntarily assumed. A recent English writer, W. H. Hudson, in an +appreciative estimate of the work of this learned Benedictine nun +expresses himself as follows: + +"It is on the literary side alone that Hroswitha belongs to the classic +school. The spirit and essence of her work belong entirely to the Middle +Ages; for beneath the rigid garb of a dead language"--she wrote in +Latin--"beats the warm heart of a new era. Everything in her plays that +is not formal but essential, everything that is original and individual, +belongs wholly to the Christianized Germany of the tenth century. +Everywhere we can trace the influence of the atmosphere in which she +lived; every thought and every motive is colored by the spiritual +conditions of her time. The keynote of all her works is the conflict of +Christianity with paganism; and it is worthy of remark that in +Hroswitha's hands Christianity is throughout represented by the purity +and gentleness of woman, while paganism is embodied in what she +describes as the vigor of men--_virile robur_."[40] + +Among her legends the one entitled _The Lapse and Conversion of +Theophilus_ has a special interest as being the precursor of the +well-known legend of Faust. + +In Hroswitha's time, as in our own, there were people who were strongly +opposed to the higher education of women. There were others who would +deny them even the elements of an education--who declared that they +should be taught anything rather than reading and writing, which were a +cause of temptation and sin--that their knowledge should be confined +solely to the duties of an ordinary housewife, that their books should +consist solely of thimble, thread and needles--"_Et leurs livres, un dé, +du fil et des aguilles._" Some, it is true, were willing to make an +exception in favor of nuns; but, as to all others, the less they knew +the better it was for their spiritual, if not for their temporal, +welfare also.[41] To those who were thus minded, Hroswitha pithily +replied that it was not knowledge itself but the bad use of it that was +dangerous--"_Nec scientia scibilis Deum offendit, sed injustitia +scientis._" + +Among other women who were Hroswitha's equals in knowledge, if not in +literary attainments, were several other nuns who illumined the closing +centuries of the Middle Ages. Chief among these were St. Hildegard, "the +sybil of the Rhine"; Herrad, the noted author of the _Hortus +Deliciarum--Garden of Delights_--and Matilda and Gertrude, those +remarkable mystical writers, whose descriptions of heaven and hell so +closely resemble those in the _Divina Commedia_ that many writers are of +the opinion that the great Florentine poet must have been familiar with +the accounts which they gave of their visions. + +St. Hildegard was for a third of a century the abbess of the convent of +St. Rupert at Bingen. So great was her reputation for sanctity and for +the extent and variety of her attainments that she was called "the +marvel of Germany." She is without doubt one of the most beautiful and +imposing as well as one of the greatest figures of the Middle +Ages--great beside such eminent contemporaries as Abelard, Martin of +Tours and Bernard of Clairvaux. People from all parts of the Christian +world sought her counsel; and her convent at Bingen became a Mecca for +all classes and conditions of men and women. But nothing shows better +the immense influence which she wielded than her letters of which nearly +three hundred have been preserved. + +Among her correspondents were people of the humble walks of life as well +as the highest representatives of Church and State. There were simple +monks and noble abbots; dukes, kings and queens; archbishops and +cardinals and no fewer than four Popes. Letters came to her from the +orient and the occident, from the patriarch of Jerusalem, from Queen +Bertha of Greece, from Frederick Barbarossa, Philip the Count of +Flanders, St. Bernard, the professors of the University of Paris; from +Henry II of England, and from his grand-daughter Eleonora, "The Damsel +of Brittany." It is safe to say that no woman during the Middle Ages +exercised a wider or more beneficent influence than did this humble +Benedictine abbess of Bingen on the Rhine and had unsought so large a +number of distinguished correspondents. And, if we accept the criterion +that influence is measured by the number and nature of one's relations, +it would be difficult to find in any age relations that were more select +or more cosmopolitan. + +But her astonishing collection of letters is the slightest product of +her intellectual activity. She is without doubt the most voluminous +woman writer of the Middle Ages. Her works on theology, Scripture and +science make no less than six or eight large octavo volumes. The +Bollandists, than whom there is no more competent authority, express +their amazement at the amount and quality of Hildegard's work. Witness +the following language of one of their number: "Although we may not be +surprised that our saint was interrogated regarding secret things by so +many men eminent both by reason of their dignity and their learning, I +am nevertheless forced to recognize with stupefaction that a woman +without instruction, and who had not acquired knowledge by study, was +consulted concerning the most difficult questions of theology and the +most subtle of Holy Scriptures, and that she gave, without hesitation, +the answers that were demanded by theology and Scripture."[42] + +Is it, then, surprising that the famous William of Auxerre, after a +critical examination of her works, should compare her with Peter +Lombard, the celebrated "Master of the Sentences,"[43] and one of the +most learned of the Schoolmen, and write that Hildegard is +_Sententiarum Magistra_--Mistress of the Sentences--and that "in her +works the words are not human but divine"? Has any woman writer ever +received higher praise, and from one so competent to express an opinion +as the scholarly divine of Auxerre? + + +Herrad, the gifted abbess of Hohenburg in Alsace, was a contemporary of +Hildegard, and, like her, was noted for her culture and wide range of +knowledge. She is chiefly known for her _Hortus Deliciarum_, a +remarkable work, encyclopædic in character, which she wrote for the nuns +of her convent and which was designed to embody in words and in pictures +the knowledge of her age. + +Nothing that time has bequeathed to us gives us a clearer conception of +the manifold activities of a mediæval nunnery, of the industry, talents +and enthusiastic love of learning of its inmates, than Herrad's +wonderful _Garden of Delights_. Nor is there any other work that gives +us a better knowledge of the manners, customs and ideals of the twelfth +century, or one that, in its particular sphere, is of more value to the +student of art, philology and archæology. It exhibits Herrad's intense +interest in the intellectual advancement of her nuns and pupils as well +as her superior talent and acquirements. Unfortunately the manuscript +copy of this work was destroyed at the time of the bombardment of +Strasburg by the Germans in 1870, and our knowledge of it is limited to +portions of it which had previously been transcribed or to accounts left +of it by those who had examined it before its destruction. Of such +exceptional value was this unique work that the editor of the great +collection of pictures, which illustrates this remarkable book, does not +hesitate to declare that "Few illuminated manuscripts had acquired a +fame so well deserved as the _Hortus Deliciarum_ of Herrad."[44] + +No sketch, however brief, of the literary nuns of mediæval Germany would +be complete without some reference to the learned religious of the +convent of Helfta, near Eisleben in Saxony. Of the abbess Gertrude we +read that her enthusiasm for knowledge was so great that she not only +inspired others with the same enthusiasm, but that she was an incessant +collector of books, which she had her nuns transcribe. Among her most +distinguished subjects were two religious by the name of Matilda, one of +whom was her sister, and a third, who, to distinguish her from the +abbess, is known as "Gertrude the Great." + +The writings of these nuns were inspired by that great mystic movement +which then prevailed in various parts of Europe and are among the most +impassioned productions of the age. For this reason they still have a +special claim on the attention of students of art and literature, as +well as those of theology and mysticism. Impressed by the similarity of +their ideas and descriptions as compared with those found in Dante's +great masterpiece, there are not wanting scholars who contend that the +prototype of the Matelda in the earthly paradise of the _Purgatorio_ was +none other than one of the Matildas of the famous convent of Helfta.[45] + +The writings of Hroswitha, Hildegard, Herrad, Gertrude and the Matildas, +to speak of no others, are the best evidence of the studious character +of the nuns of mediæval times, and of their devotion to the cause of +education. They command, likewise, our admiration for the system of +training which made such development possible, and show that, in certain +departments, the schools as then conducted were on as high a plane as +any we have to-day.[46] They show us, too, that nuns and convent-bred +women of the age in question were of quite different mental calibre from +that of the "gentle lady of chivalry living in her bower, playing upon +her lute and waiting patiently for the return of her triumphant +knight," and quite different, too, from that of the castle +lady-loves--whose sole attractions were often no more than youth and +beauty--who inspired the impassioned lyrics of troubadour and +minnesinger. + +A recent writer sums up in a few words the status and the +accomplishments of the lady of the abbey in the following paragraph: + +"No institution of Europe has ever won for the lady the freedom and +development that she enjoyed in the convent in early days. The modern +college for women only feebly reproduces it, since the college for women +has arisen at a time when colleges in general are under a cloud. The +lady-abbess, on the other hand, was part of the two great social forces +of her time, feudalism and the Church. Great spiritual rewards and great +worldly prizes were alike within her grasp. She was treated as an equal +by the men of her class, as is witnessed by letters we still have from +popes and emperors to abbesses. She had the stimulus of competition with +men in executive capacity, in scholarship, and in artistic production, +since her work was freely set before the general public; but she was +relieved by the circumstances of her environment from the ceaseless +competition in common life of woman with woman for the favor of the +individual man. In the cloister of the great days, as on a small scale +in the college for women to-day, women were judged by each other as men +are everywhere judged by each other, for sterling qualities of head and +heart and character."[47] + +Nor is this all. Never was woman more highly honored, never was her +power and influence greater than during the period of conventual life +extending from Hilda of Whitby to Gertrude and the Matildas of Helfta, +and especially during that golden period of monasticism and chivalry +when cloister and court were the radiant centers of learning and +culture. Abbesses took part in ecclesiastical synods and councils and +assisted in the deliberations of national assemblies. In England, they +ranked with lords temporal and spiritual, and had the right to attend +the king's council or to send proxies to represent them, while in +Germany, where they held property directly from the king or emperor, +they enjoyed the rights and privileges of barons and, as such, took part +in the proceedings of the imperial diet either in person or through +their accredited representatives. In Saxony, the abbesses had the right +to strike coins bearing their own portraits, notably the abbesses of +Gandersheim and Quedlinburg. In England they were invested with +extraordinary powers, and in certain cases owed obedience to none save +the Pope. In Kent abbesses, as representatives of religion, came +immediately after bishops. + +Possessing such power and prestige, it is not surprising to learn that +abbesses wielded great influence in temporal as well as spiritual +matters; that it pervaded politics and extended to the courts of kings +and emperors. Thus, Matilda, the abbess of Quedlinburg, together with +Adelheid, the mother of Otto III who was but three years old at the time +of his father's death, practically ruled the empire. At a later period +during the prolonged absence in Italy of Otto III, the control of +affairs was entrusted to the abbess alone; and so successful was her +administration, and so vigorous were the measures which she adopted +against the invading Wends, that she commanded the admiration of all. In +view of these facts, the learned authoress of _Woman Under Monasticism_ +is fully warranted in declaring as she does "The career open to the +inmates of convents in England and on the Continent was greater than any +other ever thrown open to women in the course of modern European +history."[48] + +"The educational influence of convents during centuries," continues the +same writer, "cannot be rated too highly. Not only did their inmates +attain considerable knowledge but education in a nunnery, as we see from +Chaucer and others, secured an improved standing for those who were not +professed."[49] It prepared the way for, if it did not train, those +highly educated women who appeared during the time of the transition +between the Middle Ages and what is now designated as the Modern Period. + +Among these were Christine de Pisan, who was a prolific writer on many +subjects in both prose and verse, and who, it is said, was the first +woman to earn a livelihood by her pen.[50] There were also some of those +remarkable women who lectured on law in the University of Bologna, among +whom were Bettina Gozzadini,[51] who, some writers will have it, +occupied the chairs of law in her _alma mater_ as early as 1236, and the +celebrated Novella d'Andrea, of the following century, who frequently +acted as a substitute for her father, a professor of canon law in the +university, and who, by reason of her varied and profound knowledge, +held a prominent place among the most learned men of her time. Both of +these noted women were worthy prototypes of that long list of learned +Italian women who, during the Renaissance, won such honor for themselves +and such undying glory for their country. Not less remarkable were +several women of the school of Salerno, who, during its palmiest days, +distinguished themselves as teachers, writers and medical +practitioners,[52] and the still more remarkable daughters of one +Mangord, a professor of Paris, whose daughters taught Sacred +Scripture.[53] There were few in number, it is true, but they were the +worthy prototypes of those learned and brilliant women who achieved such +distinction and glory for their sex during that most interesting period +of history known as the Renaissance. + + +WOMAN AND EDUCATION DURING THE RENAISSANCE + +By the Renaissance we understand not only a phase in the development of +the nations of Europe but also that period of transition between the +mediæval and the modern world during which the latent spiritual energies +of the Middle Ages developed into the intellectual forces and moral +habits of thought which now pervade the civilized world. Various dates +are assigned for its starting point. Among them is the fall of +Constantinople in 1453, when there was a great influx of scholars from +the famed metropolis on the Bosphorus to the Italian peninsula, who +brought with them those forgotten treasures of science and literature +which were so instrumental in producing that interesting phenomenon +known in history as the Revival of Learning. But whatever date be +assigned for the beginning of the Renaissance, whether it be the year +when Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turk or the fateful +millennial year which was to witness the termination of all things, +there certainly was never at any period a distinct breach of historical +continuity between the old order and the new. + +This is particularly true of Italy where the Renaissance had its origin. +For here, during the entire mediæval period, there never was a time when +the study of antiquity was completely neglected; when the traditions of +the old Roman culture had died out, or when the art and the literature +of the classical ages of the past had ceased to exert an influence on +artists and scholars. Ozanam was, then, right when he declared that the +night of the Dark Age, which in Italy intervened between "the +intellectual daylight of antiquity and the dawn of the Renaissance," +was, in reality, like "one of those luminous nights in which the fading +brightness of evening is prolonged into the first beaming of the +morning."[54] + +So much, indeed, was this the case that those who have made the most +profound study of the Middle Ages recognize a first Renaissance in the +twelfth century, which was not less real than the Renaissance _par +excellence_ of the fifteenth century, a renaissance which counts such +masters of Latinity as Abelard, John of Salisbury and Hildebert of +Tours, and such schools as that of Chartres, where classical Latin was +taught with as much thoroughness as in the great universities of Europe +during the brilliant age of the humanists. It was then, as Rashdall +truly observes, that "a revival of architecture heralded, as it usually +does, a wider revival of Art. The schools of Christendom became thronged +as they were never thronged before. A passion for enquiry took the place +of the old routine. The Crusades brought different parts of Europe into +contact with one another and into contact with the new world of the +East--with a new religion and a new philosophy, with the Arabic +Aristotle, with the Arabic commentators on Aristotle, and eventually +even with Aristotle in the original Greek."[55] + +Roughly speaking, the Renaissance attained its culmination during the +second half of the fifteenth century. It was during this period that +gunpowder and printing with movable types were invented--the first +completely revolutionizing the methods of warfare and the second +marvelously facilitating the diffusion of knowledge. And it was during +the same period also that Vasco da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope, +that Columbus crossed the Sea of Darkness and that Copernicus laid the +foundation of modern astronomy. + +But this wonderful half-century constituted only a small portion of the +period embraced by the Renaissance. From the fall of Constantinople +until it attained the highest phase of development in England, the +Renaissance covers a period of nearly two centuries. The progress of the +intellectual and moral movement which it represented, from the land of +its birth, to the northern and western parts of Europe, was +comparatively slow. Thus, while Italy was exhibiting the full effulgence +of the re-birth, England was still in the feudal condition of the Middle +Ages. A striking illustration of this truth is seen in the fact that "a +brother of the Black Prince banqueted with Petrarch in the palace of +Galeazzo Visconti--that is to say, the founder of Italian humanism, the +representative of Italian despotic state-craft, and the companion of +Froissart's heroes met together at a marriage feast." "In Italy," as +Symonds has shown, "the keynote was struck by the _Novella_, as in +England by the drama."[56] The supreme exponents of the Renaissance as +manifested in literature were, without doubt, Ariosto in Italy, Rabelais +in France, Cervantes in Spain, Camoens in Portugal, Erasmus in the +Netherlands and Shakespeare in England. + +Considering the splendid achievements of men during the Renaissance in +every department of intellectual activity, one would imagine that women +also would have attained to a somewhat proportionate distinction, at +least in literature and the arts. But, outside of Italy, this was far +from being the case. In France, Spain, Portugal and England there were, +it is true, a certain number of women who won distinction by their +talents and learning, but these were the exceptions which but served to +throw into greater relief the prevailing ignorance of the great mass of +their sex, which had few, if any, of the advantages of instruction, even +in the most elementary branches of knowledge. + +The Italian women, as we have already seen, had commanded marked +recognition for their talents and learning even before the close of the +Middle Ages. The most famous of these were among those who, having +obtained the doctorate, became lecturers and professors in the great +university of Bologna. The existence and accomplishments of some of +these may, perhaps, be more or less legendary, but there can be no doubt +that many of them, some before the time of the Renaissance, had gained a +European reputation for the breadth and variety of their attainments. +But it was during the Renaissance that the remarkable flowering of the +intellect of the Italian woman was seen at its best. While the women in +the other parts of Europe, especially in England and Germany, were +suffering the ill effects consequent on the suppression of the convents, +which, for centuries, had been almost the only schools available for +girls, the women of Italy were taking an active part in the great +educational movement inaugurated by the revival of learning, and winning +the highest honors for their sex in every department of science, art and +literature. Not since the days of Sappho and Aspasia had woman attained +such prominence, and never were they, irrespective of class-condition, +accorded greater liberty, privileges or honor. The universities, which +had been opened to them at the close of the Middle Ages, gladly +conferred upon them the doctorate, and eagerly welcomed them to the +chairs of some of their most important faculties. The Renaissance was, +indeed, the heydey of the intellectual woman throughout the whole of the +Italian peninsula--a time when woman enjoyed the same scholastic freedom +as men, and when Mme. de Staël's dictum, _Le génie n'a pas de sexe_, +expressed a doctrine admitted in practice and not an academic theory. + +It would require a large volume, or rather many volumes, to do justice +to the learned women of Italy who conferred such honor upon their sex +during the period we are considering. Suffice it to mention a few of +those who achieved special distinction and whose memories are still +green in the land which had been made so illustrious by their talent and +genius. + +That which the modern reader finds the most surprising in the Italian +women of the Renaissance is their enthusiasm for the _literæ +humaniores_--the Latin and Greek classics--and the proficiency which so +many of them, even at an early age, attained in the literature and +philosophy of antiquity. It was no uncommon thing for a girl in her +teens to write and speak Latin, while many of them were almost equally +familiar with Greek.[57] Thus Laura Brenzoni, of Verona, had such a +mastery of these two languages that she wrote and spoke them with ease, +while Alessandra Scala was so familiar with them that she employed them +in writing poetry. Lorenza Strozzi, who was educated in a convent and +eventually became a nun, was distinguished for her great versatility, +for her profound knowledge of science and art, as well as for her +proficiency in Latin and Greek. Her Latin poems were so highly valued +that they were translated into foreign languages. Livia Chiavello, of +Fabriano, was celebrated as one of the most brilliant representatives of +the Petrarchan school. Her style was so pure and noble that, had +Petrarch not lived, she alone would have upheld the honor of the vulgar +tongue. So successful was Isotta of Rimini in the cultivation of the +Muses that she was hailed as another Sappho. Cassandra Fedele, of +Venice, deserved, according to Polizian, the noted Florentine humanist, +to be ranked with that famous universal genius, Pico de la Mirandola. So +extensive were her attainments that in addition to being a thorough +mistress of Latin and Greek, she was likewise distinguished in music, +eloquence, philosophy and even theology. Leo X, Louis XII of France, and +Isabella of Spain were eager to have her as an ornament for their +courts, but the Venetian senate was so proud of its treasure that it was +unwilling to have her depart. Catarina Cibo, of Genoa, was another +prodigy of learning; for, besides a knowledge of Latin and Greek, +philosophy and theology, she was well acquainted with Hebrew. Donna +Felice Rasponi, of Ravenna, devoted herself to the study of Plato and +Aristotle, of Scripture and the Fathers. But, for the extent and variety +of her attainments, Tarquinia Molza seems to have eclipsed all her +contemporaries. She had as teachers the ablest scholars of an age of +distinguished scholars. Not only did she excel in poetry and the fine +arts, but she also had a rare knowledge of astronomy and mathematics, +Latin, Greek and Hebrew. And so great was the esteem in which she was +held that the senate of Rome conferred on her the singular honor of +Roman citizenship, transmissible in perpetuity to her descendants. The +Sovereign Pontiff and the flower of the Roman prelacy begged her to take +up her residence in the Eternal City, but she could not be prevailed +upon to leave the land of her birth. + +In the arts of sculpture and painting the women of Italy, during the +Renaissance, were no less illustrious than they were in science, +literature and philosophy. Indeed, many of the treasures in the Italian +churches and art galleries that still delight all lovers of the +beautiful are from the chisel and the brush of women who achieved +distinction between three and four centuries ago.[58] + +Probably the most famous sculptress was Properzia de Rossi, whose +ability was so remarkable that she excited the envy of the men who were +her competitors.[59] Among painters there was Suor Plantilla Nelli, who +was a nun and prioress in the convent of Santa Catarina in Florence. +Both Lanzi and Vasari bestow high praise on her work and declare some of +her productions to be of rare excellence. There were also Maria Angela +Crisculo, of whose splendid work many examples are still preserved in +the churches of Naples, and Lavinia Fontana of Bologna, who exhibited +such extraordinary ability as an artist that some of her pictures passed +for the work of her great contemporary, Guido Reni.[60] Still more +remarkable were the achievements of four sisters of the noted family +Anguisciola of Cremona. So admirable was the work of the eldest sister, +Sofonisba, that Philip II invited her to his court in Spain, where she +excited the amazement of every one by the splendid canvases which she +executed for her illustrious patron and for the members of the royal +family. + +Of the fifty female poets who flourished in Italy during the Renaissance +the most eminent were Gaspara Stampa, Veronica Gambara, and Vittoria +Colonna. Of such merit and exquisite finish were the productions of +their Muse that they are still read with never failing pleasure. So +highly did Cardinal Bembo,--the famous "dictator of letters"--value the +scholarship and critical acumen of Veronica Gambara that he never +published anything without previously submitting it to her judgment. But +far more eminent as a poet was the noble and accomplished Marchesa of +Pescara, Vittoria Colonna, who, on account of her talents and virtues, +was named _La Divina_. The friend and adviser of scholars and the +confidante of princes, she represented, as has truly been said, "the +best phases of the Renaissance, its learning, its intelligence, its +enthusiasm, its subtle Platonism, combined with a profound religious +faith and the trace of the mysticism of a simpler age." The chorus of +universal praise which was sung by her contemporaries is well echoed by +Ariosto when he writes of her: "She has not only made herself immortal +by her beautiful style, of which I have heard not better, but she can +raise from the tomb those of whom she speaks or writes and make them +live forever." But it was as the friend and inspirer of Michaelangelo +that she is best known to us to-day. "Without wings," he writes to her, +"I fly with your wings; by your genius I am raised to the skies; in your +soul my thought is born." + +Among those who specially distinguished themselves for their profound +scholarship, as exhibited in the halls of universities, were Dorotea +Bucca, who occupied a chair of medicine in the University of Bologna, +where, by reason of her rare eloquence and learning, she had students +from all parts of Europe; Laura Ceretta, of Brescia, who, during seven +years, gave public lectures on philosophy; Battista Malatesta, of +Urbino, who taught philosophy with such marked success that the most +distinguished professors of the day were forced to recognize themselves +as her inferiors; and Fulvia Olympia Morati, who "at the age of fourteen +wrote Latin letters and dialogues in Greek and Latin in the style of +Plato and Cicero," and who, when she was scarcely sixteen, "was invited +to give lectures in the University of Ferrara on the philosophical +problems of the _Paradoxes of Cicero_." So great, indeed, was her +knowledge of the ancient languages that she was offered the +professorship of Greek in the University of Heidelberg; but death cut +short her brilliant career before she could enter upon her duties in +this famed institution of learning. It was female professors of this +type--masters of Greek and Latin letters, who in the words of a recent +writer, "sent forth from Italy such students as Moritz von Spiegelberg +and Rudolph Agricola, to reform the instruction of Deventer and Zwoll +and prepare the way for Erasmus and Reuchlin." + +In the preceding list of learned women--and but a few only have been +named of the many who in every city of importance conferred undying +glory on their sex--it is clear that the Renaissance in Italy was, +indeed, the golden age of women. Never in history had they greater +freedom of action in things of the mind; never were they, except +probably in the case of the English and German abbesses of the Middle +Ages, treated with more marked deference and consideration or fairness; +never were their efforts more highly appreciated or more generously +rewarded, and never was their success more highly and enthusiastically +applauded. Temporal and spiritual rulers, princes and cardinals, Popes +and emperors vied with one another in paying just tribute to woman's +genius as well as to woman's virtue. The nun in the cloister as well as +the lady in the palace shared in the general enthusiasm for learning, +and they enjoyed throughout the peninsula the same opportunities as men +and received the same recognition for their work. Everywhere the +intellectual arena was open to them on the same terms as to men. +Incapacity and not sex was the only bar to entrance. + +But the men of those days, especially scholars of the type of Bembo, +Politian and Ariosto, were liberal and broad-minded men, who never for a +moment imagined that a woman was out of her sphere or unsexed because +she wore a doctor's cap or occupied a university chair. And far from +stigmatizing her as a singular or strong-minded woman, they recognized +her as one who had but enhanced the graces and virtues of her sex by the +added attractions of a cultivated mind and a developed intellect. Not +only did she escape the shafts of satire and ridicule, which are so +frequently aimed at the educated woman of to-day, but she was called +into the councils of temporal and spiritual rulers as well. + +Woe betide the ill-advised misogynist who should venture to declaim +against the inferiority of the female sex, or to protest against the +honors which an appreciative and a chivalrous age bestowed upon it with +so lavish a hand. The women of Italy, unlike those of other nations, +knew how to defend themselves, and were not afraid to take, when +occasion demanded, the pen in self-defense. This is evidenced by +numerous works which were written in response to certain narrow-minded +pamphleteers--_miseri pedanti_, pitiful pedants,--who would have the +activities of women limited to the nursery or the kitchen.[61] + +A striking characteristic of these learned women was the entire absence +of all priggism or pedantry. Whether lecturing on law or philosophy, or +discoursing in Latin before Popes and cardinals, or taking part in +discussions on art and literature with the eminent humanists of the day, +they ever retained that beautiful simplicity which gives such a charm to +true greatness of mind and is the best index of true scholarship and +noble, symmetrical womanhood. + +Nor did the rare intellectual attainments of these daughters of Italy +destroy that harmony of creation which, some will have it, is sure to be +jeopardized by giving women the same educational advantages as men. So +far was this from being the case that there were never more loyal and +helpful wives nor more devoted and stimulating mothers than there were +among those women who wrote verses in the language of Sappho, or +delivered public addresses in the tongue of Cicero. Still less did their +serious and long-protracted studies entail any of the dangers we hear so +much of nowadays. The large and healthy families of many of them prove +that intellectual work, even of the highest order, is not incompatible +with motherhood; and still less that it, _per se_, conduces, as is so +often asserted, to race-suicide. These facts are commended to the +consideration of our modern opponents of the higher education of women +and to those militant conservatives and old-time reactionaries who are +still averse to opening the doors of some of our older universities to +women--even such universities as Oxford, several of whose colleges were +founded on the revenues derived from suppressed educational institutions +which had been built and used for generations for the sole behoof of +women. + +But distinguished as were the women of Italy for their culture and +scholarship, they were yet more distinguished as patrons of learning, as +leaders and inspirers of the eminent men who were the chief +representatives of the Renaissance. Reference has already been made to +the influence of Vittoria Colonna on Michaelangelo--"who saw with her +eyes, acted by her inspiration, was lifted by her beyond the stars"--but +this is only one of many similar instances that might be adduced. +Indeed, to the student of the Italian Renaissance, the most interesting +feature of it was, not its women doctors and professors, but those noble +and accomplished ladies who made the courts of Ferrara, Mantua, Milan +and Urbino the most noted intellectual centers of Europe. + +The most beautiful ornaments of the first three courts were Renée, +duchess of Ferrara; Isabella d'Este, marchioness of Mantua, and Beatrice +d'Este, duchess of Milan. They were all women of exceptional learning +and culture, and each was the center of a galaxy of talent such as is +rarely witnessed in any one place. + +Among the men attracted to their courts were the most illustrious +scholars, artists, poets and musicians of the Renaissance. Here they +found congenial homes and breathed an atmosphere made fragrant by the +appreciation shown by their charming hostesses for their power and +genius. Here they found inspiration and a stimulus that spurred them on +to their greatest achievements. In Ferrara, where it was said that +"there were as many poets as there were frogs in the country round +about," were gathered the most gifted poets of the Renaissance who had +been attracted there to recite their latest masterpieces. Among them +were Clement Marot, the first poet of modern France, and Ariosto, the +immortal author of _Orlando Furioso_. There were the great painters, +Titian and Bellini, and the illustrious poet, Torquato Tasso, whose love +subsequently immortalized Renée's youngest daughter Leonora. + +A similar artistic and intellectual supremacy was held by Isabelle +d'Este. For portrait painters she had Titian and Leonardo da Vinci, +while, as decorators of her home, she had Bellini and Perugino, whose +compositions she herself arranged, even in the minutest details. So it +was likewise in the gay and brilliant court of Beatrice d'Este, in +Milan,--a place where artists and scholars of all nationalities were +always sure of a cordial welcome. + +But the ideal center of intellectual culture was the court of Urbino, +the central figure of which was the learned and accomplished Elizabetta +Gonzaga. This picturesque city of the eastern slope of the Apennines was +then to Italy what Athens had been to Greece in the days of Pericles; +and Elizabetta was to its court what Aspasia was in her own matchless +salon--the magnet which attracted all the artists and men of letters of +the age. + +Castiglione, whose great work, _The Courtier_, was partly written as a +memorial of the peerless woman who inspired it, gives us a vivid picture +of "the fair ladies, with their quick intelligence and ready sympathy," +discussing questions of art, literature, philosophy and Platonism, with +the most eminent scholars and artists of Europe. But Castiglione +confesses that he is unable to give us more than the mere outline of the +picture. "To paint the polished society of Urbino," as has been well +said, "we should need colors no palette contains--transparencies of the +Grecian sky, the indigo of certain seas, the liquid azure of certain +eyes. For more than a century the court of Urbino was regarded as the +supreme exemplar. In the seventeenth century, the Hotel de Rambouillet +was still striving to make itself a copy of it; unluckily such things as +these are not easily copied."[62] + +We are not surprised, then, at being told that "men moulded by Italian +ladies"--such ladies as graced the court of Urbino--"could be +distinguished among a thousand." Still less are we surprised to note the +immense difference between the refined and brilliant discussions of _The +Courtier_ as compared with the coarse tales of the _Decameron_ and +_Heptameron_. And we can understand the marvelous influence which +Castiglione's matchless work--inspired by the beloved Duchess +Elizabetta--had upon the masters of English literature--on Shakespeare, +Ben Jonson, Spenser, Marlow, Shelley. + +Cardinal Bembo, who was one of the most assiduous frequenters of this +famous court, in writing of Elizabetta, does not hesitate to declare: "I +have seen many excellent and noble women, and have heard of some who +were as illustrious for certain qualities, but in her alone among women, +all virtues were united and brought together. I have never seen nor +heard of any one who was her equal, and know very few who have even come +near her." + +It was Castiglione's experience at the court of Urbino, where he was a +daily witness of the irresistible influence of Elizabetta, that made him +give expression to the sentiment, "Man has for his portion physical +strength and external activities; all doing must be his, all inspiration +must come from woman." It was also this keen student of the mysterious +workings of woman's genius and of her secret, all-pervading influence, +at times and in places least suspected, who penned the notable +statement--worthy of the Renaissance--"Without women nothing is +possible, either in military courage, or art, or poetry, or music, or +philosophy, or even religion. God is truly seen only through them." + +Only a few words are necessary to tell of the learned women of the +Renaissance outside of Italy. On account of its intimate connection with +the Italian peninsula, Spain was the second country in Europe to +experience the effects of the new intellectual movement. Among the +educated Italians whom Isabella, the Catholic, had attracted to her +court were the brothers Geraldini, whom she appointed as teachers of her +children. Of her daughter, Juana, Juan Vivès, the eminent Spanish +scholar, says she was able to make impromptu speeches in Latin, while +Catherine, who became the wife of Henry VIII, excited the admiration of +Erasmus by the extent and accuracy of her knowledge. It was from +Salamanca that Isabella summoned her own teacher of Latin, the learned +Beatrix Galindo,[63] who was a professor of rhetoric in the university +long before Elizabeth of England had studied the language of Virgil +under Ascham. + +Then there was Francisca de Lebrixa who often filled the chair of her +father, who was professor of history and rhetoric in the University of +Alcala, and Isabella Losa, of Cordova, who, among her other +acquirements, counted a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. To his learned +daughters, Gregoria and Luisa, Antonio Perez, minister of Philip II, +wrote saying: "Do not imagine, when you are writing to me, that you are +addressing Cicero or some Greek author; lower your style to my level." +There were also Isabella de Joya, who commented on Scotus Erigena; +Catherine Ribera, the bard of love and faith; Doña Maria Pacheco de +Mendoza; Bernarda Ferreyra, to whom, on account of her rare scholarship, +Lopez de Vega dedicated his beautiful elegy _Phillis_; Juana Morella, +who, besides having a profound knowledge of music, philosophy, divinity +and jurisprudence, was the mistress of fourteen languages; Juana de la +Cruz, the famous Mexican nun whose poetry of superior merit, as well as +her exceptional attainments in many branches of knowledge, won for her +the epithet of the "Tenth Muse"; Luisa Sigea, who besides being a poet +was a mistress of the classical and several oriental languages, +including Hebrew and Syro-Chaldaic, and other learned women whom "no one +was astonished to see taking by main force the first rank in the spheres +of literature, philosophy and theology." + +So profoundly had the Renaissance affected the women of a limited circle +in England, that Erasmus could declare without exaggeration: "It is +charming to see the female sex demand classical instruction. The queen +is remarkably learned and her daughter writes good Latin. The home of +More is truly the abode of the Muses." + +The queen of whom Erasmus speaks is Catherine of Aragon, who was +educated in Spain, who was a pupil of Vivès, and who, besides having a +thorough knowledge of Latin and Greek, was well acquainted with several +modern languages. The daughters of Sir Thomas More were among the most +learned women of their time and were, indeed, worthy of dwelling in "the +home of the Muses." + +Lady Jane Grey read Plato in the original at the age of thirteen.[64] +Anne, Margaret and Jane Seymour were likewise celebrated for their +knowledge of the classics, as were Anne Boleyn and Mary Stuart, who both +received their education in France, and especially Queen Elizabeth, who +was not only one of the most learned women of her time but was probably +also the most learned queen England has ever produced. There were, +however, no university professors or poets of eminence among the English +women, as there were in Italy and Spain, and their creative work was +practically nothing. + +Since the time of Hroswitha, Gertrude, the Matildas and Hildegard, the +learned woman has never been the ideal woman in Germany. When Olympia +Morati was on her way from Ferrara to Heidelberg to take the chair of +Greek, she found the daughters of professors and humanists devoting +themselves to sewing and embroidery instead of art and literature. Anna, +the eldest daughter of Melanchthon, was almost alone among the German +women of the Renaissance who had a knowledge of Latin. + +In France the most learned woman of her time was undoubtedly Margaret of +Angoulême, queen of Navarre. So great was her knowledge and so +enthusiastic was she in promoting the study of the Latin and Greek +classics that Michelet, with something of exaggeration, perhaps, calls +her "the amiable mother of the Renaissance in France."[65] She was noted +for her devotion to the study of Scripture and theology as well as Greek +and Hebrew. She always had around her, or was in correspondence with, +the most distinguished scholars, poets, artists, philosophers and +theologians of the age, and undoubtedly did much, as a patroness of men +of letters, toward furthering the literary movement in France. She is, +however, chiefly known to modern readers by her _Heptameron_--a work +which reveals too clearly the tastes of her associates and the manners +and customs of the time. + +With the exception of Margaret of Navarre, there were but few literary +women of more than ephemeral reputation during the French Renaissance. +Among these Louise Labé deserves mention, as she was the most +distinguished poetess in France during the sixteenth century.[66] She, +like Margaret, was the center of a coterie of men of letters; but the +reunions over which she presided, as well as those of the author of the +_Heptameron_, were entirely lacking in the dignity and refinement of +those of the polished court of Urbino in the days of the peerless +Elizabetta Gonzaga. + +From what has been said respecting the rare learning of the women of the +Renaissance, one might infer that women in general enjoyed special +educational facilities during this period of intellectual activity. +Paradoxical as it may seem, the very contrary was the case. For, as +history tells us, the education of the Renaissance was essentially +aristocratic. It was only for the women of the nobility and for the +wives and daughters of scholars, while the great majority of the sex +remained in a state of complete illiteracy. + +The environment of the daughters of scholars was peculiarly favorable to +their intellectual development, and learning was in a certain measure +their natural heritage. They did not receive their education in schools, +for there were then few or no schools for girls, but from their fathers +or from the men of letters who frequented their homes. A typical home of +this kind was that of the noted savant, Robert Estienne of Paris, +printer to Francis I. Here the language of conversation was Latin, not +only for the members of the family but also for the servants as +well.[67] Under such conditions we are not surprised to be informed +that the girls, as well as the boys, learned to speak Latin as well as +their mother tongue. And listening, as they did, to the daily +discussions on art and literature by the most learned men of a most +learned age, it was inevitable that they should acquire those vast +stores of knowledge on all subjects that so excite the astonishment of +our less studious women of to-day. + +With the daughters of the nobility it was the same. In their youth they +had, under the paternal roof, the benefit of the instruction of the most +eminent masters of the time. And as they grew up their constant +intercourse with learned men and the part they took in all literary and +social assemblies, which were so prominent a feature of the period, +enabled them to complete their education under the most favorable +auspices, and to have, before they were out of their teens, a fund of +information on all subjects that could not be obtained so well, even in +the best of our modern institutions of learning. + +It was to these daughters of the élite--_ingenuæ puellæ_--that Erasmus +and Vivès addressed their treatises on education. They were the +privileged class at whose disposition were placed all the treasures of +Greek and Latin letters. It was, then, an easy matter for them to write +poetry and dissertations in the languages of Horace and Plato. And it +was often a necessity for them to speak Latin, for it was then the +universal language of the learned--the language that was understood +everywhere--in England as in Italy, in Germany as in France, in Flanders +as well as in Spain and Portugal. + +It was then that The Republic of Letters was a reality as never before; +that the man of letters was, of a truth, "a citizen of the world"; that +his country was wherever the cult of letters had priests or devotees. He +was what the ballad singer was during the Middle Ages, but with more +dignity and seriousness. He was the agent and representative of +intellectual life, the living symbol of the unity and solidarity of the +human mind. And as in time he linked the past to the present so likewise +in space he bound all peoples together and belonged equally to all. Such +was Erasmus of Holland, who was equally at home in France and +Switzerland, in Italy and England--everywhere received with the honor +accorded to princes of the blood royal. Such was Vivès, of Spain, the +teacher of Catherine of Aragon, of Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII--at +one time professor in Louvain, at another in Oxford--always and +everywhere an ardent exponent of humanism for women as well as for men. +Such was Politian and such were scores of his contemporaries, who +carried the torch of knowledge from castle to castle and from court to +court, where maidens equally with youths enjoyed all the advantages +derivable from the lessons of such distinguished teachers and such +eminent leaders of culture. + +For it was a peculiarity of the scholar of the Renaissance that he was a +great traveler--seeking knowledge wherever it was to be found--and +carrying it with him whithersoever he went. He journeyed from university +to university, everywhere exchanging views with his intellectual +compeers, and everywhere diffusing the knowledge he had so laboriously +acquired. The consequence was a wonderful uniformity of education among +the higher classes--among women as well as among men--something that was +never known before. Through the generally diffused knowledge of Latin, +the common literary medium of communication, all the nations of Europe, +even those at war with one another, were brought together in an +intellectual brotherhood and in a way which gave scholarship a power and +a prestige that accrued to the benefit of women and men alike. + +But the educational advantages enjoyed by the women of the Renaissance +were not for the bourgeoisie--not for the daughters of peasants, +tradesmen and artisans. They were solely, as has been stated, for the +benefit of the children of princes or of scholars--of those only who +could claim either nobility of birth or nobility of genius.[68] Even the +most zealous of the humanists would have been surprised if they had been +asked to diffuse a portion of their light among the women of the masses. +For education, as they viewed it, was something solely for the +elect--for ladies of the court and not for women of a lower condition. +So far as the rest of womankind was concerned, their occupation was +limited, according to a Breton saying, to looking after altar, hearth, +and children--"_La femme se doit garder l'autel, le feu, les enfants_." + +It was about this time, too, that men began, especially in France and +Germany, to revive the anti-feminist crusade which had so retarded the +literary movement among the women of ancient Greece and Rome. They +refused to hear women and intellect spoken of together. The Germans +recognized no intelligence in them apart from domestic duties, and +seemed to belong to that strange race, that has not yet died out, which +believes woman to be "afflicted with the radical incapacity to acquire +an individual idea." "What the Italians called intelligence a German +would call tittle-tattle, trickery, the spirit of opposition. They +rejected such gratifications and had no intention of allowing Delilah to +shear them."[69] + +In the estimation of Luther, the intellectual aspirations of women were +not only an absurdity, but were also a positive peril. "Take them," he +says, "from their housewifery and they are good for nothing." He treated +the humanist Vivès, preceptor of Mary Tudor, as "a dangerous spirit," +because the learned Spaniard was an ardent advocate of the higher +education of women. As to abstract and severe studies they were for +girls, according to one of Luther's contemporaries, but "vain and futile +quackeries." For an accomplished woman to quote the Fathers or the +ancient classical writers was to provoke ridicule, because to do so was +considered an indication of pedantry or affectation. Montaigne gave +expression to the age-old prejudice against woman by refusing to regard +her as anything but a pretty animal, while Rabelais, the coryphæus of +the French Renaissance, declared that "Nature in creating woman lost the +good sense which she had displayed in the creation of all other things." + +Such being the views of the great leaders of thought and formers of +public opinion respecting the mental inferiority of woman--views which, +outside of Italy, had, with few exceptions, the cordial approval of the +supercilious, cockahoop male--is it necessary to add that the +Renaissance did nothing for popular education? The masses of women, +especially after the suppression of the convent schools in England and +Germany, were, in many parts of Europe, and notably in the two countries +mentioned, in a worse condition than they were during the Dark Ages.[70] + + +WOMAN AND EDUCATION BETWEEN THE RENAISSANCE AND THE TWENTIETH CENTURY + +The period following the Renaissance was not a brilliant one for woman, +especially outside of Italy. For in this favored land, even after the +decadence in literature that followed the glorious cinquecento, +intellectual life opposed so effective a barrier to the forces of +extinction which were at work in other parts of Europe, notably Germany +and England, that there were still in every part of the peninsula from +the fertile plains of Lombardy to the sunny Ionian sea, learned and +cultured women who were eager to emulate the achievements of their +illustrious sisters of Italy's golden age of art, and letters. We do +not, it is true, find among them a Properzia de Rossi, a Veronica +Gambara, or a Vittoria Colonna; but we find many earnest and +enthusiastic students in every department of knowledge. + +That which most impresses the student of education during this period of +Italian history is not the splendor of art and letters in court and +castle, which so dazzled Europe during the time of Renée of Ferrara and +Elizabetta Gonzaga of Urbino. We find, it is true, a goodly number of +women who won distinction as poets and artists; but it is rather those +who were devoted to more serious studies that arrest our +attention--women who attained eminence in physical and natural science, +in mathematics, in the classical and oriental languages, in philosophy, +law and theology. Space precludes the mention of more than a few of +these, but these few may be accepted as typical of many others almost +equally distinguished. + +Chief among those of whom their countrymen are specially proud are +Rosanna Somaglia Landi, of Milan, linguist and translator of Anacreon; +Maria Selvaggia Borghini, of Pisa, translator of the works of +Tertullian; Eleonora Barbapiccola, of Salerno, who translated into +Italian the _Principa Philosophiæ_ of Descartes; Maria Angela +Arginghelli, of Naples, who was famed for her profound knowledge of +physics and the higher mathematics and who gave an Italian version of +Stephen Hales' _Vegetable Statics_. Then there was Clelia Grillo +Borromeo, of Genoa, who was so distinguished in science, mathematics, +mechanics and languages that a medal was struck in her honor bearing the +inscription, _Gloria Genuensium_--glory of the Genoese; and the still +more famous Elena Cornaro Piscopia, of Venice, who was truly a prodigy +of learning as well as a paragon of virtue. In addition to a knowledge +of many modern, classical and oriental tongues, she exhibited remarkable +proficiency in astronomy, mathematics, music, philosophy and theology. +After a course of study in the University of Padua and after the usual +examination and discourse in classic Latin on some of the questions of +Aristotelian philosophy, she had the doctorate of philosophy conferred +on her in the cathedral of Padua, in the presence of thousands of +learned men and applauding students from all parts of Europe. But not +content with conferring on this extraordinary woman the ring, wreath of +laurel and the ermine mozetta--the usual insignia of the doctorate--the +University, as a special mark of distinction, had a medal coined in +honor of the illustrious graduate bearing her effigy, with the words, as +the decree of the University expressed it, _ad perpetuam rei memoriam_. +That there was nothing superficial about this young woman's knowledge of +languages, it suffices to state that she was able to speak Latin and +Greek as fluently as her own Italian, and that so profound was her +knowledge of divinity that there were many distinguished ecclesiastics +in both Italy and France who favored conferring on her the doctorate in +theology. + +Among other young women who obtained the doctorate in various +universities were Maddalena Canedi-Noe and Maria Vittoria Dosi who, +after the usual course of study in the university of Bologna, obtained +the degree of doctor of civil law, and Maria Pellegrina Amoretti, who +received the degree of doctor in both canon and civil law in the +University of Pavia and with it the doctor's cap--_berreto dottorale_. +But more remarkable for learning than any of these university graduates +was Maria Gaetana Agnesi, one of the most extraordinary women scholars +of all time. On account of her wonderful knowledge of languages she was +called "The Oracle of Seven Tongues." This, however, is not her chief +title to fame. It is rather her marvelous achievements in the domain of +the higher mathematics. After the appearance of her most noted work, +_Instituzioni Analytiche_, she would at once have been elected a member +of the French Academy of Sciences had not the laws of this learned body +precluded the admission of women.[71] That great Mæcenas of learning, +Benedict XIV, showed his appreciation of Maria Gaetana's exceptional +attainments by appointing her--_motu proprio_--to the chair of higher +mathematics in the University of Bologna. A similar honor had, in the +preceding century, been conferred on Marta Marchina, of Naples, when, on +account of her rare knowledge of letters, philosophy and theology, she +was offered a chair in the Sapienza, in Rome, an honor which her modesty +and love of retirement caused her to decline. + +We have seen that women professors achieved distinction in the Italian +universities even as early as the closing centuries of the Middle Ages. +The same was true during the Renaissance, and it has been equally true +during the period that has elapsed since the cinquecento. + +Among the most eminent of those who taught in the universities were +Laura Bassi, who had the chair of physics in the University of Bologna, +and Clotilde Tambroni, professor of the Greek language and literature in +the same institution of learning. So thorough was her knowledge of the +language of Plato that it was the opinion of her contemporaries that +there were then only three persons in Europe who equaled her in her +mastery of this classic tongue. It was this distinguished Hellenist who +graciously delivered the address when one of her countrywomen, Maria +dalle Donne, received her doctorate in medicine and surgery. After her +graduation Dr. dalle Donne was given charge of a school for midwives in +which she rendered the greatest service to her sex. Even the chair of +anatomy in the University of Bologna was held by a woman, Anna +Morandi-Menzolini, and her work was of the highest order. The same +position was held by another woman, Maria Petraccini-Terretti, in the +University of Ferrara. + +What a contrast between the attitude of the universities of Italy and +those of other parts of the world toward women as students and +professors! For a thousand years the doors of the Italian universities +have been open to women, as well as to men; and for a thousand years +women, as well as men, have received their degrees from these noble and +liberal institutions, and occupied the most important positions in their +gift, and that, too, with the approval and encouragement of both +spiritual and temporal rulers. For these wise and broad-minded men did +not regard it unwomanly for Laura Bassi to teach physics, for Clotilde +Tambroni to teach Greek, for Dorotea Bucca to teach medicine, for Maria +Gaetana to teach differential and integral calculus, for Anna Morandi to +teach anatomy, for Novella d'Andrea to teach canon law, or even, if we +may believe Denifle, one of the best of authorities, for the daughters +of a Paris professor to teach theology.[72] Yes, what a contrast, +indeed, between the Universities of Bologna and Padua, with their long +and honored list of women graduates and professors, and the +Universities of Cambridge and Oxford from which women have always been +and are still excluded, both as students and professors. + +Contrast, also, the honors shown to women as students and professors of +medicine in Salerno, in the thirteenth century, with the riots excited +among the chivalrous male students of the University of Edinburgh, when, +less than a half century ago, seven young women applied for the +privilege of attending the courses of lectures on medicine and surgery +in that institution. And contrast the sympathy and encouragement of +Italy with the almost brutal opposition which women in our own country +encountered when, but a few decades ago, they applied for admittance to +the medical schools of New York and Philadelphia. The difference between +the Italian and the Anglo-Saxon attitude toward women in the +all-important matters in question requires no comment.[73] + +One reason for the great difference between the women of Italy and those +of other parts of Europe in the matter of higher education during the +period we have been considering was the old Roman spirit of independence +of the former and their always insisting on what they regarded as their +natural and indefeasible rights. Following the example of the matrons of +ancient Rome, they insisted on being treated as the equals of men, and, +as a consequence, they demanded in the intellectual order all the +advantages that were accorded to men. They would never admit their +mental inferiority to man, and woe betide the luckless wight who even +insinuated such inferiority. The shafts of satire and ridicule were at +once directed against him by a score of women who were able to use the +pen as well as, if not better than, himself. Sometimes, however, such an +one was taken seriously, and then the result was a book by some clever +woman to prove that there was no difference in the intellectual power of +the two sexes--that, if there was a difference, it was in favor of the +gentler sex. There is quite a large number of such works in Italian; and +it must be said that the women always met the arguments of their +adversaries in a manner that does them the greatest credit. + +It was probably because of their insistence on the equality of the +sexes, as well as because of their achievements in every department of +mental activity, that the educated women of Italy enjoyed so many +privileges denied their sisters in other parts of Europe. Thus, in +addition to being treated as the equals of men in the universities, they +met them on an equal footing in the art, literary and scientific +societies and academies, in the proceedings of which they always +exhibited an active and enthusiastic interest. In these reunions the +women gained strength of mind and independence of character from the +men, while the men imbibed refinement and gentleness from the women. +Compare this condition with the systematic exclusion of women from +similar societies in other countries--even in this twentieth century of +ours--and one of the not least potent reasons for the intellectual +supremacy of the women of Italy will be apparent. + +Next after Italy, France was the country in which, during the +post-Renaissance period, women enjoyed the greatest advantages of mental +development. But we look in vain, even during the age of Louis XIV, for +that flowering of the female intellect that, at the same period, +rendered the daughters of Italy so famous. It is true that there was a +certain number of learned women in France during the seventeenth +century, and notably during the golden age of Louis XIV, for during this +period the traditions of the Renaissance were perpetuated and there was +still a lingering love of letters, at least among certain classes of the +aristocracy. + +Prominent among those who attracted attention for their learning were +Gilberte and Jaqueline Pascal, of the celebrated convent of Port Royal; +Marie-Eleanore de Rohan and Gabrielle de Rochechouart, both, like the +Pascal sisters, inmates of the cloister; Marie Cramoisy, wife of the +first director of the royal printing office, and Mlle. de Luynes, a +friend of Pascal. All these counted among their attainments a writing +knowledge of Latin, but were far from being able, like the Italian women +above mentioned, to speak it with the same fluency as they did their +mother tongue. + +In addition to the learned French women just named, there was Elisabeth +de Rochechouart, a niece of Mme. de Montespan, who was able to read +Plato in Greek, and Anne de Rohan, Princess of Guéméné, who surprised +her countrymen by studying Hebrew. Then there were Mme. de Grignan, +Marie Dupré, Louise Serment, Anne de La Vigne, who, like the Princess +Palatine, Elisabeth, and Christine of Sweden, were ardent disciples of +Descartes, and took the lead among the _femmes philosophes_ of their +time. + +But for profound and varied scholarship Mme. Dacier, the daughter of the +erudite Tanquil Le Fevre, was the most famous of all the women of her +time in France. Possessed of rare power of eloquence and beauty of +style, together with an extraordinary capacity for criticism, there was +not a man in Europe who did not respect her judgment in matters of +literature and culture. But that for which she was specially celebrated +was her exceptional knowledge of Latin and Greek. She not only +translated the Iliad and the Odyssey but also several other of the +ancient classics. None of her contemporaries had a more thorough mastery +of the tongues of Homer and Virgil, nor did any of her countrymen +contribute more than she toward the advancement of the knowledge of the +literature of ancient Greece and Rome. So highly prized was her version +of the Iliad that it was translated by Ozell into English. Her version +of Plato's Phædo was also translated into English and published by a +New York bookseller more than a century after her death. The scholarly +Menagius, in his _Historia Mulierum Philosopharum_, did not hesitate to +pronounce her the most learned woman of all time--_Feminarum quot sunt, +quot fuere doctissima_.[74] + +To Mme. de Maintenon, the morganatic wife of the Great Monarch, is due +the Institut de Saint-Cyr, the first state school for girls founded in +France. It was, however, solely for the daughters of the nobility. And, +although it was from the first under the direction of the foundress, a +woman who was before all else a teacher as well as one of the most +enlightened women of the most literary and philosophic age France ever +knew--the age when the French language was perfected, the age of the +Academy, of Boileau, Molière, Racine, Bossuet, Descartes--the studies +prescribed in this institution, which was under the special patronage of +the king, were of the most elementary character. They comprised reading, +writing, arithmetic, grammar, music, drawing, dancing, and the elements +of history, mythology and geography. As to history, Mme. de Maintenon +was satisfied if the pupils of Saint-Cyr knew enough not to confound the +kings of France with those of other nations, and were able to avoid +mistaking a Roman emperor for the Emperor of China or Japan; or the King +of Spain or England for the King of Persia or Siam. And yet, restricted +as it was, her programme of studies was more complete than that of any +other girls' school in the kingdom. One of her reasons for not insisting +on a more thorough course was that "women never know but by halves, and +the little that they do know usually makes them proud, haughty and +talkative and disgusted with solid things."[75] + +In Saint-Cyr, the best girls' school in the kingdom, there was not a +word about the first principles of philosophy, nor about the physical +and natural sciences recommended by Fénelon. The elements just referred +to, combined with a goodly amount of esprit--_bien de l'esprit_--were +considered quite sufficient to prepare the future wives of the nobility +for all the duties they would be called upon to perform. + +Mme. de Maintenon had probably been unconsciously influenced by what she +had seen at the court of her liege lord, where the greater part of the +women were extremely ignorant. Even Mme. de Montespan, the king's +favorite, and for years the leading figure at the court, was no +exception. So ignorant was she that she was not even able to spell the +simplest and most common words.[76] + +And so it was with the most illustrious ladies of France. Many of them +were so devoid of instruction that they were unable either to read or to +write. Even the teachers in Saint-Cyr were so deficient in the simplest +rudiments of an education that Mme. de Maintenon found it necessary to +correct their letters, in order to teach them the most essential rules +of epistolary correspondence. In reality, the women of the age of Louis +XIV did not trouble themselves about an education as we understand it. +Endowed with esprit, with a natural and acquired taste for things +intellectual, they were satisfied with such knowledge as they could +glean from reading or conversation, and with comparatively few +exceptions, showed no disposition to devote long years to study in +school, much less in a university, as did their sisters to the south of +the Alps. + +The foundress of Saint-Cyr had likewise been influenced by her +environment as well as by the court--an environment which was becoming +daily more and more unfavorable to the education, especially anything +approaching the higher education, of women. A young woman's education +was considered complete when she was able to read, write, dance and play +some musical instrument. Anything more was deemed superfluous and +deserving of censure and ridicule rather than praise. + +It was at this time that Molière's two celebrated plays, _Les Femmes +Savantes_ and _Les Précieuses Ridicules_, were given to the world. These +well-known productions, replete with the author's brightest flashes of +wit, and abounding in his most effective shafts of satire, produced at +once an immense sensation. As soon as published, they were in the hands +of everybody. Those who were opposed to the education of women--and the +number was daily increasing--had recourse to them as to arsenals which +supplied them with just the arms they had so long needed to decide in +their favor the long warfare which they had been conducting against the +gentler sex. The views of the bourgeois Chrysale as expressed to his +sister, Belise, were so in harmony with their own that they loved on +every occasion to repeat with him: + + "No, + It isn't decent, and for many reasons, + That womankind should study and know too much. + To teach her children what is right and wrong, + Manage her household, oversee her servants, + And keep expenses within bounds, should be + Her only study and philosophy. + Our fathers, on this point, showed great good sense; + They said a woman always knows enough + If but her understanding reaches + To telling, one from t'other, coat and breeches. + Their wives, who couldn't read, led honest lives, + Their households were their only learned theme, + And all their books were thimble, thread and needles. + With which they made their daughters' wedding outfits. + But now our women scorn to live like that; + They want to write and all be authoresses. + They think no knowledge is too deep for them."[77] + +Molière's intention in writing these justly famous comedies was not, as +is so often asserted, to ridicule women of learning, but only those +superficial pedants who affected knowledge or loved to make a display of +the little knowledge they happened to possess. The result, however, was +quite different from what had been intended, for the poet's pleasantries +were taken so seriously, that even women of real learning, in order to +avoid ridicule, were condemned to absolute silence. The comic dramatist, +Destouches, expressed the prevailing opinion when he wrote: + + "Une femme savante + Doit cacher son savoir, ou c'est une imprudente."[78] + +Few French women thereafter had the courage to defend their sex, as did +their sisters in Italy, and the result was that, with a few exceptions, +like Mme. du Châtelet, Sophie Germain, and Mme. Lepaute, there were no +more learned women in France for fully two centuries. + +Never did satire and ridicule accomplish more, except probably in the +case of _Don Quixote_--that masterly creation of Cervantes which dealt +the death-blow to knight-errantry--than did _Les Femmes Savantes_ and +_Les Précieuses Ridicules_. The learned woman became as much an object +of derision in France as was the knight-errant in Spain. + +It was not, however, in the nature of the French woman, with all her +vivacity and energy, to be suppressed entirely or to be relegated for +long to the background in things of the mind. But, not then daring to +face the ridicule which was inevitable, if she devoted herself to +science or philosophy, she sought a substitute for her intellectual +activity in the salon. + +The first salon was established by an Italian woman, the Marquise de +Rambouillet, in 1617, and was modeled after the famous reunions held at +the court of Urbino under Elizabetta Gonzaga, a century before. Although +it never exhibited the splendor of its Italian prototype, the Hôtel de +Rambouillet was for more than fifty years the most important literary +center of the kind in France. Here, owing to the tact, esprit, and +magnetic personality of Mme. de Rambouillet, were gathered the most +distinguished men and women of the time. Among them were poets, +philosophers, statesmen, ecclesiastics and ladies of rank, whose names +still dazzle us by their brilliancy. Bossuet, Molière, La Fontaine, +Corneille and the great Condé were there; so were Fléchier, Balzac, +Voiture, Saint-Evremont, Descartes and La Rochefoucauld; and so, too, +were Mme. de Sevigné, the Duchess of Montpensier, Madeleine de Scudéry, +La Comtesse de La Fayette, Charlotte de Montmorency, and Cardinal +Richelieu who got from this noted salon the idea which led to his +greatest foundation--the French Academy. + +It was Mme. de Rambouillet who, through her reunions in her exquisite +_Chambre Bleue_, for the first time brought together elements that were +previously considered as belonging to different castes. It was she, +also, who created modern society with its purely intellectual hierarchy, +by having the representatives of the nobility meet men of science and +letters on an equal footing. It seems to us now the most natural thing +in the world for a great savant, a great poet, or a great philosopher, +to be received in the same salon with the Duchess of Montpensier--_La +Grande Mademoiselle_--but it was far from being so when the brilliant +young Italian matron--for she was a daughter of the noble Roman family +of the Savelli--began her epoch-making work in the Hôtel de Rambouillet, +where, after overcoming countless difficulties and prejudices, she +eventually succeeded in bringing together, and in enlisting in a common +cause, the nobility of birth and the nobility of intellect, and +introducing into the exclusive set of Paris the same kind of social +coteries that had so long been popular in Urbino and Ferrara. + +The Hôtel de Rambouillet was the exemplar of that long series of salons +which, for two centuries, were the favorite trysting-places of the +talent, the wit, the beauty of Europe, and which exerted such a potent +influence on society and on the progress of science and literature. The +mistress of the salon was supreme, and she maintained her supremacy by +her tact, sympathy, intelligence and mental alertness, rather than by +learning and superior mental power. + +Indeed, it is a singular fact that very few of the _salonières_ were +learned women. The most gifted and the most learned of them were Mlle. +Lespinasse, Mme. de Staël, and Mme. Swetchine. Mme. Geoffrin, who was of +bourgeois origin, was so devoid of education that Voltaire said she was +unable to write two lines correctly. And yet, despite her educational +limitations, she became, by her own unaided efforts, the queen of +intellectual Europe. + +And, if we may judge by their portraits, most of the great leaders of +salons were homely, if not positively ugly, and many of them were +advanced in years. Thus, Mme. du Deffand--the female Voltaire--was +sixty-eight years old and blind when her friendship with Horace Walpole, +one of the wittiest Englishmen who ever lived, began--a friendship that +endured until her death at the age of eighty-three. The face of Mlle. de +Lespinasse was disfigured by small-pox and her eyesight was impaired; +and yet, without rank, wealth or beauty, she was the pivot around which +circled the talent and fashion of Paris, and whose personal magnetism +was so great that the state, the church, the court, as well as foreign +countries, had their most distinguished representatives in her salon. + +Here she received and entertained her friends every evening from five +until nine o'clock. "It was," writes La Harpe, "almost a title to +consideration to be received into this society." So great was the +influence exerted by Mlle. de Lespinasse that she bent savants to her +will by the sheer force of genius. Her salon became known as "the +ante-chamber of the French Academy"; for it was asserted that half the +academicians of her time owed their fauteuils to her active canvass in +their behalf. And so successful was she in opening the lips and minds of +her habitués, whether an historian like Hume, a philosopher like +Condillac, a statesman like Turgot, a mathematician like d'Alembert, a +litterateur like Marmontel or an encyclopedist like Condorcet, that it +was said of her that she made "marble feel and matter think." + +She was a veritable enchantress of the great and the learned of her +time. She did not, however, wield her magic wand through her learning, +or the accident of birth, or the physical attractions of person, but +solely by reason of her wonderful vivacity, charm of mind, and exquisite +tact, which consisted, as those who knew her well tell us, "in the art +of saying to each that which suits him," and in "making the best of the +minds of others, of interesting them, and of bringing them into play +without any appearance of constraint or effort." This rare faculty it +was which secured for her a supremacy in the world of thought and action +that has been accorded to but few women in the world's history. Vibrant +with emotion and passion, she reminds one of the gifted but hapless +Heloise. Marmontel, who had such a high opinion of her judgment that he +submitted his works for her criticism, as Molière had submitted his to +Ninon de Lenclos, describes her as "the keenest intelligence, the most +ardent soul, the most inflammable imagination that has existed since +Sappho." + +But aside from what she achieved indirectly through the habitués of her +salon, what has this supremely clever woman left to the world? Only a +few love letters to a heartless coxcomb. + +And what have the other noted salonières from the time of the Marquise +de Rambouillet to that of Mme. Swetchine--full two centuries--bequeathed +to us that is worth preserving? With the exception of the works of Mme. +de Staël, whom Lord Jeffrey declared to be "the greatest female writer +in any age or country," we have little more than certain _Mémoires_ and +_Correspondances_ whose chief claims to fame rest on the vivid pictures +which they present of the manners and customs of the time and of the +celebrities who were regarded as the chief ornaments of the salons which +they severally frequented. Most of these works were posthumous; for few +women, after Molière's merciless scoring of learned women, had the +courage to appear in print. Even Mme. de Scudéry, one of the most gifted +and prolific writers of the period, gave her first novel to the world +under her brother's name. And so tabooed was female authorship that Mme. +de La Fayette, one of the most brilliant of the _précieuses_, disclaimed +all knowledge of her _Princesse de Clèves_, while her masterpiece, +_Histoire d'Henriette d'Angleterre_, was not published until after her +death. + +The truth is that the period of the salon was for the most part a period +of contrasts and contradictions. At first the better educated +_salonières_ were chiefly interested in belles-lettres. Then they +devoted themselves more to science and philosophy, and finally, during +the years immediately preceding the Revolution, they found their +greatest pleasure in politics. As for the men, while professing to adore +women, they had little esteem for them, and still less respect. Often, +it is true, the women who frequented the salons were deserving neither +of respect nor of esteem. + +Sydney Smith spoke of those under the old régime as "women of brilliant +talents who violated all the common duties of life and gave very +pleasant little suppers." It was certainly true of many of them--even of +some of the most distinguished--such, for instance, as Mme. d'Epinay, +Mme. du Deffand, Ninon de Lenclos and Mme. Tencin, the mother of +D'Alembert. There was little in their manner of life to distinguish them +from the _hetæræ_ of ancient Athens, and it was probably owing to this +fact, as well as their wit and brilliancy, that many of them attained +such preëminence as social leaders. The statesmen, philosophers, men of +science and letters of France, like those of Greece more than two +thousand years before, wanted distraction and amusement. That the +mistresses of the salons should be women of learning was of little +moment. The all important thing for their habitués was that they should +be good entertainers--that they should be witty, tactful and +sympathetic--and, if ignorant, that they should be brilliantly ignorant, +and, at the same time, enchantingly frank and naïve. + +Strange as it may appear there was as much hostility to learned women at +the close of the eighteenth century as there was in the time of Louis +XIV. And the remarkable fact is that the strongest opponents of women's +education were found among the most prominent writers and scholars of +the day--men who, like their predecessors of old, based their opposition +on the assumed mental inferiority of woman. Thus, to Rousseau, woman was +at best but "an imperfect man," and, in many respects, little more than +"a grown-up child." Search after abstract and speculative truths, +principles and axioms in science, "everything that tends to generalize +ideas is outside of her competence." That means that women are to be +excluded from the study of mathematics and the physical sciences, +because they are incapable of generalization, abstraction, and the +mental concentration that these subjects demand. Even the masterpieces +of literature, according to him, are beyond their comprehension. In a +word, feminine studies, Rousseau will have it, should relate exclusively +to practical and domestic matters and he endorses the words of Molière +that + + "It is not seemly, and for many reasons, + That a woman should study and know so many things." + +Diderot, Montesquieu, Voltaire and the Encyclopedists share the views of +Rousseau. Diderot declares that serious studies do not comport with +woman's sex, while Montesquieu would limit female education to mere +accomplishments. + +But this is not all. Antagonistic as these men were to the education of +the daughters of the nobility and the well-to-do, they were entirely +opposed to the education of the children of the poor. "The good of +society," it was averred, "demands that the instruction of the people +extend not beyond their occupations." "The poor," declares Rousseau, +"have no need of instruction," and Voltaire and the Encyclopedists say, +"Amen."[79] + +Very little need be said about the education of women in Germany during +the period we have been considering. When there was any at all, it was +of the most rudimentary character, while as to books, they were limited +to the kind recommended by Byron for the women of modern Greece--"books +of piety and cookery." The attitude of the Germans generally toward +female education, for centuries past, was clearly defined by the Kaiser +Wilhelm II, when, a few years ago, he publicly stated: "I agree with my +wife. She says women have no business to interfere with anything +outside of the four K's, that is, _Kinder_, _Kirche_, _Küche_, +_Kleider_--children, church, kitchen, clothes." + +There was, however, during the period we are now considering, one +remarkable example of a learned woman of Teutonic origin. This was the +famous Anna Maria van Schurman, who was one of the most gifted women +that ever lived. She was, probably, as near to being a universal genius +as any one of her sex of whom we have knowledge. Artist, musician, poet, +philosopher, theologian, linguist, she was the admiration of the +scholars of the world and the pride of the Low Countries--the land of +her birth. She lived when Holland was in the van of human progress and +amidst of the splendors of the Dutch Renaissance. She was the friend and +correspondent of the most distinguished scholars and most noted +celebrities of her time. Among these were Voet, Spanheim, Descartes, +Gassendi, Constantine Huyghens, Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, Queen +Christina of Sweden, and Cardinal Richelieu. To go to the Netherlands, +it was then said, without seeing Anna van Schurman, was like going to +Paris without seeing the king. She was hailed as "The Tenth Muse," "The +Sappho of Holland," "The Oracle of Art," "The Star of Utrecht." + +That, however, which gave the greatest renown to the "Learned Maid," as +Anna was called, was her extraordinary knowledge of languages. For, +besides being proficient in the chief modern tongues of Europe, she was +well acquainted with Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syro-Chaldaic and Ethiopic. +The oriental languages she studied as an aid to the better understanding +of Holy Scripture. + +She was the author of several works, among which was an Ethiopic grammar +which was acclaimed by the professors of the Dutch universities as a +marvelous achievement. Her best known volume is designated _Opuscula_. +It was brought out by the Elzevirs in Leyden and went through several +editions. It is composed of letters and short treatises in French, +Latin, Greek and Hebrew--in verse as well as prose. + +Of more value, if less striking, than the productions named were the +"Learned Maid's" writings in favor of the intellectual enfranchisement +of her own sex. In a letter to Dr. Rivet, Professor of Theology in +Leyden, she declares: + +"My deep regard for learning, my conviction that equal justice is the +right of all, impel me to protest against the theory which would allow +only a minority of my sex to attain to what is in the opinion of all men +most worth having. For, since wisdom is admitted to be the crown of +human achievement, and is within every man's right to aim at in +proportion to his opportunities, I cannot see why a young girl, in whom +we admit a desire of self-improvement, should not be encouraged to +acquire the best that life affords." + +To those who objected that the distaff and the needle were sufficient to +occupy women's minds, Anna Maria made answer that the words of +Plutarch--"It becomes a perfect man to know what is to be known and to +do what is to be done"--applied with equal truth to a perfect woman.[80] + +In England, until the latter part of the nineteenth century, the +educational status of women was but little better than in Germany. +During the Stuart period schools for girls were so scarce that most of +those who received any education at all obtained it at home under +private tutors. Even then it rarely embraced more than reading, writing, +needlework, singing, dancing and playing on the lute or virginal.[81] + +As to the higher studies for women, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu writes as +follows: "My sex is usually forbid studies of this nature and folly +reckoned so much our proper sphere that we are sooner pardoned any +excesses of that than the least pretensions to reading or good sense. We +are permitted no books but such as tend to the weakening or effeminating +of the mind. Our natural defects are in every way indulged, and it is +looked upon as in a degree criminal to improve our reason or fancy we +have any.... There is hardly a creature in the world more despicable or +more liable to universal ridicule than that of a learned woman: these +words imply, according to the received sense, a tattling, impertinent, +vain and conceited creature."[82] + +Higher studies for their daughters were regarded by the generality of +men, the same writer tells us, "as great a profanation as the clergy +would do if the laity would presume to exercise the functions of the +priesthood." + +Referring to the handicaps suffered by the women of England in the +pursuit of knowledge, the same writer declares: "We are educated in the +grossest ignorance, and no art is omitted to stifle our natural reason; +if some few get above their nurses' instructions, our knowledge must be +concealed and be as useless to the world as gold in the mine." + +Lord Chesterfield, in _His Letters to His Son_, expresses the opinion of +his contemporaries when he writes on the same subject as follows: "Women +are only children of a larger growth; they have an entertaining tattle, +sometimes wit; but, for solid reasoning, good sense, I never in my life +knew one who had it, or who reasoned or acted consequentially for +twenty-four hours together.... A man of sense only trifles with them, +plays with them, humors and flatters them as he does a sprightly forward +child; but he neither consults them about nor trusts them with serious +matters, though he often makes them believe he does both, which is the +thing in the world which they are proud of; for they love mightily to be +dabbling in business, which, by the way, they always spoil, and, being +distrustful that men in general look upon them in a trifling light, they +almost adore that man who talks to them seriously and seems to consult +and trust them."[83] + +And this was written by that "mirror of politeness and chivalry" whose +name has for two centuries been synonymous with that of a perfect +gentleman! And Lady Montagu was compelled to pen her caustic and +pathetic plaints during the age of Pope, Steele, Addison, Swift,[84] +Johnson, Dryden and Goldsmith--the most brilliant pleiad of literary men +that England had known since the days of Shakespeare. + +So unnatural for women were literary and scientific pursuits regarded by +all classes that the few who attained any eminence in them were classed +as abnormal creatures who deserved no more consideration than did the +_Précieuses_ across the Channel. And so great was the power of public +sentiment against women writers that Fanny Burney was afraid to +acknowledge the authorship of _Evelina_. Even in Jane Austen's days, the +feeling that a woman, in writing a book, was overstepping the +limitations of her sex was so pronounced that she never actually avowed +the authorship of those charming works which have been the delight of +three generations of readers. It was this same sentiment that caused the +Brontë sisters and George Eliot, as well as many other notable women, to +write under pseudonyms. They feared to disclose their sex lest their +works, if known as the productions of women, should be _ipso facto_ +branded as of inferior merit. + +During the period in question women fared no better in the United States +than in England. They were subject to the same educational debarment and +were the victims of the same snobbery and intolerance. The Pilgrim +Fathers and their descendants for many generations made no secret of +their belief in the mental inferiority of woman, and applied to her the +gospel of liberty contained in the following words of Eve to Adam as +given in _Paradise Lost_: + + "My author and dispenser, what thou bidst + Unargued I obey; so God ordains; + God is thy law, thou mine: to know no more + Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise." + +To the Puritan of New England, as to the Puritan Milton, the relative +attainments of woman and man were tersely expressed in Tennyson's +couplet: + + "She knows but matters of the house, + And he, he knows a thousand things." + +To us one of the most astounding facts in the educational history of New +England is the long time during which girls were without free school +opportunities. Thus, although schools had been established within twenty +years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, it was not until a +century and a half later that their doors were opened to girls. The +public schools of Boston were established in 1642, but were not opened +for girls until 1789; and then only for instruction in spelling, reading +and composition, and that but one half of the year. There was no high +school in Boston, the vaunted Athens of America, until 1852. + +Harvard College was founded in 1636 for the education of "ye English and +Indian youth of this country in knowledge and godlyness," but in this +institution no provision was made for women and its doors are still +closed to them. + +"The prevailing notion of the purpose of education," declares Charles +Francis Adams, in speaking of Harvard College, "was attended with one +remarkable consequence--the cultivation of the female mind was regarded +with utter indifference; as Mrs. Abigail Adams says in one of her +letters, 'it was fashionable to ridicule learning.'"[85] + +It was not until 1865 that Matthew Vassar, "recognizing in women the +same intellectual constitution as in man," founded the first woman's +college in the United States. This was soon followed by similar +institutions in various parts of this country and Europe. In less than +ten years thereafter Girton and Newnham colleges were founded at +Cambridge, England, in order that women might be enabled to enter upon a +regular university career. + +In all the universities of England, Scotland and Ireland, except Oxford, +Cambridge[86] and Trinity College, Dublin, women are now admitted to +all departments, pass the same examinations as the men and receive the +same academic degrees. Germany, whose institutions for the higher +education of men have so long been justly famous, was exceedingly slow +to open its universities to women, and then only after the most stubborn +opposition of those who still maintained that the studies of women +should be limited to the three R's and their occupations confined to the +four K's. But even in this conservative country the cause of woman has +at length triumphed, and she now enjoys educational advantages that a +few decades ago were deemed forever impossible. + + +And so it is in every civilized country. Woman's long struggle for +complete intellectual freedom is almost ended, and certain victory is +already in sight. In spite of the sarcasm and ridicule of satirists and +comic poets, in spite of the antipathy of philosophers and the +antagonism of legislators who persisted in treating women as inferior +beings, they are finally in view of the goal toward which they have +through so many long ages been bending their best efforts. Moreover, so +effective and so concentrated has been their work during recent years +that they have accomplished more toward securing complete intellectual +enfranchisement than during the previous thirty centuries. + +From the former home of the Vikings to the romantic land of the Cid, +from the capital of Holy Russia to the fair metropolis of the Golden +Gate, women are now welcomed to the very institutions from which but a +few years ago they were so systematically excluded. They attend the same +courses as men, pass the same examinations and receive the same degrees +and honors. Their sex is no longer a bar to positions and employment +that only a generation ago were considered proper only for the proud +and imperious male. They have proved beyond cavil that genius knows not +sex, and that, given a fair opportunity, they are competent to achieve +success in every department of human effort. + +Thus, to speak only of Europe, there are to-day women professors in the +universities of Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Greece and Russia, +as there have been in Italy since the closing years of the Dark Ages. +They lecture on science, literature, law and medicine, and in a manner +to extort the admiration of their erstwhile antagonists. In Germany and +Hungary there are women chemists and architects, while it is a matter of +record that the best construction work done on the trans-Siberian +railroad was that in charge of a woman engineer. + +As an illustration of the marvelous change which has been brought about +during the last three-quarters of a century in the educational status of +woman, I can do no better than transcribe a few passages from a work by +Sir Walter Besant describing the transformation of woman during the +reign of Queen Victoria; for it applies to all civilized countries as +well as to England. + +"The young lady of 1837 has been to a fashionable school; she has +learned accomplishments, deportment and dress. She is full of sentiment; +there was an amazing amount of sentiment in the air about that time; she +loves to talk and read about gallant knights, crusaders and troubadors; +she gently touches the guitar; her sentiment, or her little affectation, +has touched her with a graceful melancholy, a becoming stoop, a sweet +pensiveness. She loves the aristocracy, even although her home is in +that part of London called Bloomsbury, whither the belted earl cometh +not, even though her papa goes into the City; she reads a deal of +poetry, especially those poems which deal with the affections, of which +there are many at this time. On Sunday she goes to church religiously +and pensively, followed by a footman carrying her prayerbook and a long +stick; she can play on the guitar and the piano a few easy pieces which +she has learned. She knows a few words of French, which she produces at +frequent intervals; as to history, geography, science, the condition of +the people, her mind is an entire blank; she knows nothing of these +things. Her conversation is commonplace, as her ideas are limited; she +can not reason on any subject whatever because of her ignorance; or, as +she herself would say, because she is a woman. In her presence, and +indeed in the presence of ladies generally, men talk trivialities. There +was indeed a general belief that women were creatures incapable of +argument, or of reason, or of connected thought. It was no use arguing +about the matter. The Lord had made them so. Women, said the +philosophers, can not understand logic; they see things, if they do see +them at all, by instinctive perception. This theory accounted for +everything, for those cases when women undoubtedly did 'see things.' +Also it fully justified people in withholding from women any kind of +education worthy the name. A quite needless expense, you understand." + +Her amusements, we are told, were "those of an amateur--a few pieces on +the guitar and the piano and some slight power of sketching or flower +painting in water-colors." The literature she read "endeavored to mold +woman on the theory of recognized intellectual inferiority to man. She +was considered beneath him in intellect as in physical strength; she was +exhorted to defer to man; to acknowledge his superiority; not to show +herself anxious to combat his opinions.... + +"This system of artificial restraints certainly produced faithful wives, +gentle mothers, loving sisters, able housewives. God forbid that we +should say otherwise, but it is certain that the intellectual +attainments of women were then what we should call contemptible, and the +range of subjects of which they knew nothing was absurdly narrow and +limited. I detect the woman of 1840 in the character of Mrs. Clive +Newcome, and, indeed, in Mrs. George Osborne, and in other familiar +characters of Thackeray." + +Then Sir Walter, turning to the young Englishwoman of 1897, thus +describes her: + +"She is educated. Whatsoever things are taught to the young man are +taught to the young woman; the keys of knowledge are given to her; she +gathers of the famous tree; if she wants to explore the wickedness of +the world she can do so, for it is all in the books. The secrets of +nature are not closed to her; she can learn the structure of the body if +she wishes. The secrets of science are all open to her if she cares to +study them. + +"At school, at college, she studies just as the young man studies, but +harder and with greater concentration. She has proved her ability in the +Honors Tripos of every branch; she has beaten the senior wrangler in +mathematics; she has taken a 'first-class' in classics, in history, in +science, in languages. She has proved, not that she is a man's equal in +intellect, though she claims so much, because she has not yet advanced +any branch of learning, of science, one single step, but she has proved +her capacity to take her place beside the young men who are the flower +of their generation--the young men who stand in the first class of +honors when they take their degree.... + +"Personal independence--that is the keynote of the situation. Mothers no +longer attempt the old control over their daughters; they would find it +impossible. The girls go off by themselves on their bicycles; they go +about as they please; they neither compromise themselves nor get talked +about; for the first time in man's history it is regarded as a right and +proper thing to trust a girl as a boy insists upon being trusted. Out of +this personal freedom will come, I dare say, a change in the old +feelings of young man to maiden. He will not see in her a frail, tender +plant which must be protected from cold winds; she can protect herself +perfectly well. He will not see in her any longer a creature of sweet +emotions and pure aspirations, coupled with a complete ignorance of the +world, because she already knows all that she wants to know.... + +"Perhaps the greatest change is that woman now does thoroughly what +before she only did as an amateur."[87] + +Yes, the world is beginning at last to realize the truth of the +proposition which the learned Maria Gaetana Agnesi so eloquently +defended nearly two centuries ago--to wit, that nature has endowed the +female mind with a capacity for all knowledge, and that, in depriving +women of an opportunity of acquiring knowledge, men work against the +best interests of the public weal.[88] + +We are at the long last near that millennium which Emerson had in mind +when, in 1822, he predicted "a time when higher institutions for the +education of young women would be as needful as colleges for young +men"--that millennium for which women have hoped and striven ever since +Sappho sang and Aspasia inspired the brightest, the noblest minds of +Greece. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Demosthenes _In Neæram_, 122. [Greek: Tas men gar hetairas hêdonês +henek' echomen, tas de pallakas tês kath' hêmeran therapeias tou +sômatos, tas de gynaikas tou paidopoieisthai gnêsiôs kai tôn endon +zylaka pistên echein]. + +As indicative of the comparative value of men and women, as members of +society, in the estimation of the Greeks, Euripides makes Iphigenia give +utterance to the following sentiment: + + "More than a thousand women is one man + Worthy to see the light of life." + +[2] [Greek: Tês te gar, hyparchousês zuseôs mê cheirosi genesthai hymin +megalê ê doxa' kai hês an ep' elachiston arétês peri ê psogou en arsesi +kléos ê.] Thucidides, _History of the Peloponnesian War, II_, 45. + +"Phidias," Plutarch tells us in his _Conjugal Precepts_, "made the +statue of Venus at Elis with one foot on the shell of a tortoise, to +signify two great duties of a virtuous woman, which are to keep at home +and be silent. For she is only to speak to her husband or by her +husband." + +[3] Ariosto, referring to the undying fame of Sappho and Corinna, +expresses himself in words as beautiful as they are true, as witness the +following couplet: + + Saffo e Corinna, perche furon dotte, + Splendono illustri, e mai non veggon notte. + + --ORLANDO FURIOSO, Canto XX, strophe I. + +[4] The nine "Terrestrial Muses" were Sappho, Erinna, Myrus, Myrtis, +Corinna, Telesilla, Praxilla, Nossis and Anyta. + +The Greek poet Antipater embodies the names of the "Terrestrial Nine" in +an epigram which is well rendered in the appended Latin translation: + + Has divinis linguis Helicon nutrivit mulieres + Hymnis, et Macedon Pierias scopulus, + Prexillam, Myro, Anytæ os, foeminam Homerum, + Lesbidum Sappho ornamentum capillatarum. + Erinnam, Telesillam nobilem, teque Corinna, + Strenuum Palladis scutum quæ cecinit. + Nossidem muliebri lingua, et dulsisonam Myrtin, + Omnes immortalium operatrices librorum. + Novem quidem Musas magnum coelum, novem vero illas + Terra genuit hominibus, immortalem lætitiam. + +[5] Cf. _Poetriarum octo, Erinnæ, Myrus, Mytidis, Corinnæ, Telesillæ, +Praxillæ, Nossidis, Anytæ fragmenta et elogia_, by J. C. Wolf Hamburg, +1734. See also the charming memoir "Sappho" by H. T. Wharton, London, +1898, and _Griechische Dicterinnen_, by J. C. Poestion, Vienna, 1876. + +[6] See _Mulierum Græcarum quæ oratione prosa usæ sunt fragmenta et +elogia Græce et Latine_, by J. C. Wolf, London, 1739, _Historia Mulierum +Philosopharum_, scriptore Ægidio Menagio, Lugduni, 1690, _Griechische +Philosophinnen_, by J. C. Poestion, Norden, 1885, and _Le Donne alle +Scuole dei Filosofi Greci_ in _Saggi e Note Critiche_, by A. Chiappelli, +Bologna, 1895. + +[7] _Woman: Her Position and Influence in Ancient Greece and Rome and +Among the Early Christians_, pp. 58 and 59, by James Donaldson, London, +1907. + +[8] There were several hetæræ named Lais. One of them, apparently a +native of Corinth, was celebrated throughout Greece as the most +beautiful woman of her age. + +[9] For information respecting the hetæræ the reader is referred to the +_Letters_ of Alciphron, to Lucian's _Dialogues_ on courtesans, and more +particularly to the _Deipnosophists_ of Athenæus, Chap. XIII. See also +_The Lives and Opinions of the Ancient Philosophers_, by Diogenes +Laertius, Bohn Edition, London. + +[10] Donaldson, op. cit., pp. 61 and 62. + +Adolph Schmidt, one of the late biographers of Aspasia, accepts these +statements as true and credits to Aspasia the making of both Pericles +and Socrates. His views are also shared by other modern writers who have +made a special study of the subject. + +According to some writers an indirect allusion to Aspasia's intellectual +superiority is found in the _Medea_ of Euripedes in the following verses +of the women's chorus: + + "In subtle questions I full many a time + Have heretofore engaged, and this great point + Debated, whether woman should extend + Her search into abstruse and hidden truths. + But we too have a Muse, who with our sex + Associates to expound the mystic lore + Of wisdom, though she dwell not with us all." + +[11] It is proper to add that certain modern writers will not admit that +Aspasia was ever an hetæra in the sense of being a courtesan. After +Pericles had divorced his first wife, he lived with Aspasia as his +second wife, to whom he was devoted and faithful until death. According +to Greek law, which forbade Athenian citizens to marry foreign women, he +could not be her legal husband; but, there can be no doubt that he +always treated her with all the respect and affection due to a wife. His +dying words: "Athens entrusted her greatness and Aspasia her happiness +to me," clearly evince her nobility of character and the place she must +ever have occupied in the great statesman's heart. + +The most important notices in ancient writings, respecting Aspasia, are +found in Plutarch's _Pericles_, Xenophon's _Memorabilia_ of Socrates and +Plato's _Menexenus_. Among the most valuable of modern works on the same +subject is _Aspasie de Milet_, by L. Becq de Fouquières, Paris, 1872. +Cf. also _Aspasie et le Siècle de Pericles_, Paris, 1862; _Histoire des +Deux Aspasies_, by Le Comte de Bièvre, Paris, 1736, and A. Schmidt's +_Sur l'Age de Pericles_, 1877-79. + +[12] Under the term music, Plato, like his contemporaries, included +reading, writing, literature, mathematics, astronomy and harmony. It was +opposed to gymnastic as mental to bodily training. Both music and +gymnastic, however, were intended for the benefit of the soul. + +[13] _The Dialogues of Plato, Laws_, VII, 805, Jowett's translation, New +York, 1892. + +[14] Op. cit., _The Republic_, V, 451 et seq. and 466. + +[15] It was the boast of the Emperor Augustus that all his clothes were +woven by his wife, sister or daughter. Suetonius, in his _Lives of the +Twelve Cæsars_, informs us that this great master of the world _filiam +et neptes ita instituit ut etiam lanificio assuefaceret_. + +[16] This type of the old Roman schoolmaster is alluded to in the +following well known verses of Martial: + + "Quid tibi nobiscum est, ludi scelerate magister, + Invisum pueris virginibusque caput? + Nondum cristati rupere silentia Galli + Murmure jam saevo verberibusque tonas." + + --Lib. IX, 79. + +which have been rendered as follows: + + Despiteful pedant, why dost me pursue, + Thou head detested by the younger crew? + Before the cock proclaims the day is near + Thy direful threats and lashes stun my ear. + +Martial elsewhere refers to "Ferulaeque tristes, sceptra +pedagogorum"--melancholy rods, sceptres of pedagogues--and it appears +from one of Juvenal's satires that "to withdraw the hand from the rod" +was a phrase meaning "to leave school." + +[17] _Woman Through the Ages_, Vol. I, pp. 110, 111, by Emil Reich, +London, 1908. + +Schoolhouses among the Romans, as well as among the Greeks, were quite +different from our modern, well-equipped buildings. Usually, at least, +in earlier times, instruction was given in the open air, in some quiet +street corner or in _tabernæ_--sheds or lean-tos--as in certain +Mohametan countries to-day. Horace refers to this in _Epistola_ XX, Lib. +I, when he writes: + + "Ut pueros elementa docentem + Occupet extremis in vicis balba senectus." + +In such schools the pupils sat on the floor or the bare ground, or, if +the lessons were given on the street, they sat on the stones. There were +no desks, or, if there were any benches, they had no backs. The pupils +were, therefore, perforce obliged to write on their knees. + +Cf. _Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Education_, pp. 278 and 346, by +S. S. Laurie, London, 1900. + +[18] Cf. his _Tiberius Gracchus_. Cicero says of them, "Non tam in +gremio educatos quam sermone matris." + +[19] Ibidem, _Life of Pompey_. + +[20] _De Oratore_, Lib. III, Cap. XII. + +[21] "Potiorem iam apud exercitus Agrippinam quam legatos, quam duces; +compressam a muliere seditionem, cui nomen principis obsistere non +quiverit." _Annales_, Lib. I, Cap. 69. + +[22] _Oeconomicus_, VII, 5, 6. + +[23] _Epistolæ_, Lib. I, 16. + +[24] Sit mihi verna satur, sit non doctissima conjux. _Epigrammata_, +Lib. II, 90. + +Martial's taste in this respect was the same as that of Heine, who said +of the woman he loved: "She has never read a line of my writings and +does not even know what a poet is," and the same as that of Rousseau, +who declared that his last flame, Therèse Lavasseur, could not tell the +time of day. + +[25] Satire VI, 434-440. + +[26] _Joannis Stobæi Florilegium_, Vol. IV, p. 212, Teubner's edition, +1857. + +[27] The following is the epitaph as written by St. Jerome, "the +Christian Cicero": + + Scipio quam genuit, Pauli fudere parentes, + Gracchorum soboles, Agamemnonis inclyta proles, + Hoc jacet in tumulo, Paulam dixere priores, + Euxtochii genetrix, Romani prima senatus, + Pauperiem Christi et Bethlehemitica rura secuta est. + +[28] In his preface to the _Commentary on Sophonius_. + +[29] For an exhaustive account of the lives and achievements of St. +Jerome and his noble friends, Paula and Eustochium, the reader is +referred to _L'Histoire de Sainte Paule_, by F. Lagrange, Paris, 1870, +and _Saint Jerome, La Société Chrétienne à Rome et l'Émigration Romaine +en Terre Sainte_, by A. Thierry, Paris, 1867. Cf. also _Woman's Work in +Bible Study and Translation_, by A. H. Johns in _The Catholic World_, +New York, June, 1912. + +[30] See _Histoire de Sainte Radegonde, Reine de France_, in Chap. XX, +par Em. Briand, Paris, 1897. + +[31] _Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum_, Lib. IV, Cap. 23. + +[32] _The Monks of the West_, Book XI, Chap. II. + +[33] Vol. I, pp. 46 and 49, New York, 1871. + +[34] Op. cit., Book XI, Chap. II. + +It will interest the reader to know that Cædmon has a place among the +saints in the _Acta Sanctorum_ of the Bollandists. See the special +article on him in Vol. II, p. 552, under the caption of "_De S. Cedmono, +cantore theodidacto_." + +[35] _Woman Under Monasticism._ Chapter IV, § 2, by Lina Eckenstein, +Cambridge, 1896. In this chapter is an interesting account of the +Anglo-Saxon nuns who were among the correspondents of Boniface. + +[36] The reader will recall Chaucer's account in the _Canterbury Tales_ +of the wife of the well-to-do miller of Trumpyngton: + + "A wyf he hadde y-comen of noble kyn; + + She was y-fostred in a nonnerye. + + There dorste no wight clepen hir but 'Dame;' + + What for hire kynnrede and hir nortelrie, + That she had lerned in the nonnerie." + + --_Reeve's Tale._ + +[37] Pp. 78, 79, London, 1897. + +[38] _History of European Morals_, Vol. II, p. 369, New York, 1905. + +[39] _Henry VIII and the English Monasteries_, London, 1895. + +[40] _The English Historical Review_, July, 1888. + +Another recent writer affirms without hesitation that "Hroswitha has +earned a place apart in the Pantheon of women poets and writers. She +alone in those troublous times of the tenth century recalls to our minds +the existence of dramatic art; her name, indeed, deserves to be rescued +from oblivion and to become a household word." _Fortnightly Review_, p. +450, March, 1896. + +[41] _Histoire de l'Éducation de Femmes en France_, Tom. I, p. 72 et +seq. par Paul Rousselot, Paris, 1883. + +A certain jurisconsult of the thirteenth century, one Pierre de Navarre, +expressed the sentiment of many of his contemporaries when he wrote the +following paragraph: + +"Toutes fames doivent savoir filer et coudre; car la pauvre en aura +mestier et la riche conoistra mieux l'oeuvre des autres. A fame ne +doit-on apprendre lettre ni escrire, si ce n'est especiaument pour estre +nonain, car par lire et escrire, de fame sont maint mal avenu." + +[42] _Opera Omnia S. Hildegardis_, Tom. 197, Col. 48 of Migne's +_Patrologiæ Cursus Completus_. Cf. also _Nova S. Hildegardis Opera_, +edidit Cardinalis Pitra, Paris, 1882, and _Das Leben und Wirken der +Heiligen Hildegardis_, von J. P. Schmelzeis, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1878. + +[43] It was Peter Lombard, whose _Sentences_ "became the very canon of +orthodoxy for all succeeding ages," who, in marked contrast with those +of ancient and modern times that regarded woman as the inferior or slave +of man, asserted her equality with him in a sentence that should be +written in letters of gold. "Woman," he declares, _Sententiarum_, Lib. +II, Disp. 18, "was not taken from the head of man, for she was not +intended to be his ruler, nor from his foot, for she was not intended to +be his slave, but from his side, for she was intended to be his +companion and comfort." + +In this view the great Schoolman but follows the teachings of St. +Augustine. For in his commentary, _De Genesi ad Litteram_, Lib. 9, Cap. +13, the learned bishop of Hippo writes: "Quia igitur viro nec domina nec +ancilla parabatur, sed socia, nec de capite, nec de pedibus, sed de +latere fuerat producenda, ut juxta se producendam cognosceret, quam de +suo latere sumptam didecisset." Again the same illustrious doctor +declares that woman was formed from man's side in order that it might be +manifest that she was created to be united with him in love--in +consortium creabatur dilectionis. + +[44] Cf. _Hortus Deliciarum_, by Herrad de Lansberg, folio with one +hundred and ten plates, Strasburg, 1901, and _Herrade de Landsberg_, by +Charles Schmidt, Strasburg. + +The erudite academician, Charles Jourdain, says of Herrad's great work +"L'encyclopédie qu'on lui doit, _l'Hortus Deliciarum_, embrasse toutes +les parties des connaissances humaines, depuis la science divine jusqu'à +l'agriculture et la métrologie, et on s'étonne à bon droit qu'un tel +ouvrage, qui supposait une érudition si variée et si méthodique, soit +sorti d'une plume féminine. Quelle impression produirait aujourd'hui +l'annonce d'une encyclopédie qui aurait pour auteur une simple, +religieuse? Parlerons-nous des femmes du monde? Il n'existe d'elles, au +XXe siècle, non plus que dans les siècles précédents aucun ouvrage +comparable à _l'Hortus Deliciarum_." _Excursions Historiques et +Philosophiques_, p. 480, Paris, 1888. + +[45] See _Revelationes Mechtildianæ ac Gertrudianæ_, edit, Oudin, for +the Benedictines at Solesmes, 1875. + +[46] In her scholarly work on _Woman Under Monasticism_, p. 479, Lina +Eckenstein writes as follows regarding the studies pursued in the +convents of the Middle Ages: + +"The contributions of nuns to literature, as well as incidental remarks, +show that the curriculum of study in the nunnery was as liberal as that +accepted by the monks, and embraced all available writing whether by +Christian or profane authors. While Scripture and the writing of the +Fathers of the Church at all times formed the groundwork of monastic +studies, Cicero at this period was read by the side of Boethus, Virgil +by the side of Martianus Capella, Terence by the side of Isidore of +Seville. From remarks made by Hroswitha we see that the coarseness of +the Latin dramatists made no reason for their being forbidden to nuns, +though she would have seen it otherwise; and, Herrad was so far +impressed by the wisdom of the heathen philosophers of antiquity that +she pronounced this wisdom to be the 'product of the Holy Spirit also.' +Throughout the literary world, as represented by convents, the use of +Latin was general, and made possible the even spread of culture in +districts that were widely remote from each other and practically +without intercourse." + +[47] _The Lady_, p. 71, by Emily James Putnam, New York, 1910. + +[48] Eckenstein, op. cit., p. 478. + +[49] Ut. Sup., 479-480. + +[50] See _Womankind in Western Europe_, p. 288 et seq., by Thomas +Wright, London, 1869. + +[51] "Pertinere videtur ad hæc tempora Betisia Gozzadini non minus +generis claritate quam eloquentia ac legum professione illustris.... +Betisiam Ghirardaccius et nostri ab eo deinceps scriptores eximiis +laudibus certatim extulerunt." _De Claris Archigymnasii Bononiensis +Professoribus a Sæculo XI usque ad Sæculum XIV_, Tom. I, p. 171, +Bologna, 1888-1896. + +[52] L'École de Salerne, p. 18, par C. Meaux, Paris, 1880. Among the +most noted of these women was Trotula, who, about the middle of the +eleventh century, wrote on the diseases of women as well as on other +medical subjects. Compare the attitude of the school of Salerno towards +women with that of the University of London, eight hundred years later. +When, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, women applied to +this university for degrees in medicine, they were informed, as H. +Rashdall writes in _The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages_, Vol. +II, Part II, p. 712, Oxford, 1895, that "the University of London, +although it had been empowered by Royal Charter to do all things that +could be done by any University, was legally advised that it could not +grant degrees to women without a fresh Charter, because no University +had ever granted such degrees." Cf. also Hæser's _Lehrbuch der +Geschichte der Medicin_, Band I, p. 645, et seq., Jena, 1875. Verily, +the so-called dark ages have risen up to condemn our vaunted age of +enlightenment! + +[53] _Die Entstehung der Universitäten des Mittelalters bis 1400_, Band +I, p. 233, Berlin, 1885, von P. Heinrick Denifle, assistant archivist of +the Vatican Library, and _Histoire Litéraire de la France, Commencé par +des Religieux Bénédictins de S. Maur et Continué par des Membres de +l'Institut_, Tom. IX, 281, Paris, 1733-1906. + +[54] "Une de ces nuits lumineuses ou les dernières clartés du soir se +prolongent jusqu'aux premières blancheurs du matin." _Documents +Inédits_, p. 78, Paris, 1850. + +[55] _The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages_, Vol. I, p. 31, +Oxford, 1895. + +[56] _A Short History of the Renaissance in Italy_, p. 277, London, +1893. + +[57] Cecelia Gonzaga, a pupil of the celebrated humanist, Vittorino da +Feltre, read the Gospels in Greek when she was only seven years old. +Isotta and Ginevra Nogorola, pupils of the humanist, Guarino Verronese, +likewise distinguished themselves at an early age by their rare +knowledge of Latin and Greek. In later years all three enjoyed great +celebrity for their learning, and were, like Battista di Montefeltro, +women of genuine humanist sympathies. Cecelia Gonzaga's scholarship was +in no wise inferior to that of her learned brothers, who were among the +most noted students of the famous Casa Zoyosa in Mantua, where Vittorino +da Feltre achieved such distinction as an educator in the early part of +the Italian Renaissance. The learned Italian writer, Sabbadini, +beautifully expressed the relation of women to Humanism, when he +declares, in his _Vida di Guarino, "L'Humanismo si sposa alla gentilezza +feminile_,"--humanism weds feminine gentility. + +[58] Among them are the pictures of Caterina Vigri, which are preserved +in the Pinacoteca of Bologna and in the Academia of Venice. + +[59] No less an authority than the illustrious sculptor, Canova, +declared that her early death was one of the greatest losses ever +suffered by Italian art. + +[60] It was also said of the Venetian artist, Irene di Spilimbergo, that +her pictures were of such excellence that they were frequently mistaken +for those of her illustrious master, Titian. + +[61] Among these works may be mentioned _Il Merito delle Donne_, by +Modesta Pozzo di Zorgi, Venice, 1600; _La Nobilità e l'Excellenza delle +Donne_, by Lucrezia Marinelli, Venice, 1601; _De Ingenii Muliebris ad +Doctrinam et Meliores Litteras Aptitudine_, by Anna van Schurman, +Leyden, 1641; _Les Dames Illustres_, by Jaquette Guillame, Paris, 1665, +and _L'Egalité des Hommes et des Femmes_, by Marie le Jars de Gournay, +Paris, 1622. The last named work was by the celebrated _fille +d'alliance_--adopted daughter--of Montaigne. It is to her that we owe +the _textus receptus_ of the _Essais_ of the illustrious litterateur. + +[62] _The Women of the Renaissance_, p. 290, by R. de Maulde la +Clavière, New York, 1901. + +[63] Called _La Latina_, because of her thorough knowledge of the Latin +language. + +[64] The famous Hellenist, Roger Ascham, tells of his astonishment on +finding Lady Jane Grey, when she was only fourteen years of age, reading +Plato's Phædo in Greek, when all the other members of the family were +amusing themselves in the park. On his inquiry why she did not join the +others in their pastime, she smilingly replied: "I wit all their sport +in the park is but a shadow to that pleasure I find in Plato. Alas, good +folk, they never knew what true pleasure meant." + +[65] To the poet Ronsard, she was a woman beyond compare, as is evinced +by the following lines of a pastoral ode addressed to her: + + "La Royne Marguerite, + La plus belle fleur d'élite + Qu'onques la terre enfanta." + +[66] Cf. Oeuvres de Lovize Labé, nouvelle edition emprimée en caractères +dits de civilité, Paris, 1871. + +[67] The French poet, Jean Dorat, who was then professor of Latin in the +Collège de France, expresses this fact in the following strophe: + + "Nempe uxor, ancillæ, clientes, liberi, + Non segnis examen domus, + Quo Plautus ore, quo Terentius, solent + Quotidiane loqui." + +[68] A prominent writer of the time, Jean Bouchet, expressed the +prevailing opinion regarding the education of the women of the masses in +the following quaint sentence: "Je suis bien d'opinion que les femmes de +bas estat, et qui sont contrainctes vaquer aux choses familières et +domestiques, ne doivent vaquer aux lettres, parce que c'est chose +repugnante à rusticité; mais, les roynes, princesses et aultres dames +qui ne se doib vent pour révérence de leur estat, appliquer à mesnage." +Cf. Rousellot's _Histoire de l'Éducation des Femmes en France_, Tom. I, +p. 109, Paris, 1883. + +His ideal of a woman of the peasant type was apparently Joan of Arc, +who, according to her own declaration, did not know a from b--"_elle +déclarait ne savoir ni a ni b_." + +[69] Clavière, op. cit., p. 415. + +[70] The noted English divine, Thomas Fuller, chaplain to Charles II, +recognized the irreparable loss to women occasioned by the destruction +of the nunneries by the Reformers. "There were," he tells us in his +quaint language, "good she schools wherein the girls and maids of the +neyghborhood were taught to read and work.... Yea, give me leave to say, +if such feminine foundations had still continued, ... haply the weaker +sex, besides the avoiding modern inconveniences, might be heyghtened to +a higher perfection than hitherto hath been attained." _Church History_, +Vol. III, p. 336, 1845. + +[71] M. Thureau Dangin, the perpetual secretary of the French Academy, +wrote, "La tradition ne veut pas d'académiciennes." + +[72] Carlyle, in a lecture on Dante, and the _Divina Commedia_, declares +that "Italy has produced a greater number of great men than any other +nation, men distinguished in art, thinking, conduct, and everywhere in +the departments of intellect." He could with equal truth have said that +Italy has produced more great women than any other nation. + +[73] _Medical Women_, p. 63, et seq., by Sophia Jex-Blake, Edinburgh, +1886, and _Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women_, +Chap. III, by Elizabeth Blackwell, London, 1895. + +[74] Mme. Dacier was a remarkable exception chiefly because she was the +daughter and pupil of one Hellenist before becoming the wife of another. + +[75] _Lettres et Entretiens sur l'Éducation de Filles_, Tom. I, pp. +225-231. + +Compare this superficial course of study at Saint-Cyr with the elaborate +course mapped out by Lionardo d'Arezzo in a letter addressed to the +illustrious lady, Baptista Malatesta. In the broad programme of +education for women recommended by this eminent man of letters, "poet, +orator, historian, and the rest, all must be studied, each must +contribute a share. Our learning thus becomes full, ready, varied, +elegant, available for action or for discourse on all subjects." + +Lionardo's curriculum of studies for women was quite as comprehensive as +that required for men, "with perhaps a little less stress upon rhetoric +and more upon religion. There was no assumption that a lower standard of +attainment is inevitably a consequence of smaller capacity." + +Nor was this thorough study of letters by the women of Italy +"unfavorably regarded by social opinion"; neither did it introduce "a +new standard of womanly activity. Women, indeed, at this epoch, seem to +have preserved their moral and intellectual balance under the stress of +the new enthusiasm better than men. The learned ladies were, in actual +life, good wives and mothers, domestic and virtuous women of strong +judgment and not seldom of marked capacity in affairs." Cf. _Vittorino +da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators_, pp. 122, 132, 197, by W. H. +Woodward, Cambridge, 1905. + +[76] Thus, in a letter of hers to Mme. de Lauzun occurs a sentence like +the following: "Il lia sy lontant que je n'ay antandu parler de vous." +The duchess of Monpensier, daughter of Gaston d'Orleans, in a letter to +her father exhibits a similar ignorance of her own language, when she +writes: "J'ai cru que Votre Altesse seret bien ése de savoir sete +istoire." Quoted by Rousselot in his _Histoire de l'Éducation des Femmes +en France_, Tom. I, p. 287. + +[77] _Les Femmes Savantes_, Act II, Scene 7. + +[78] Destouches, in his _L'Homme singulier_, makes one of his female +characters, who loves study, speak in the following pathetic fashion: + + "A learned woman ought--so I surmise-- + Conceal her knowledge, or she'll be unwise. + If pedantry a mental blemish be + At all times outlawed by society, + If 'gainst a pedant all the world inveighs, + Shall pass unchecked in woman pedant's ways? + I hold it sure, condemned my sex is quite + To trifling nothings as its sole birthright; + Ridiculous 'tis thought outside its 'sphere'; + The learned woman dare not such appear; + Nay, she must even cloak her brilliancy + So envy leave in peace stupidity; + Must keep the level of the common kind, + To subjects commonplace devote her mind, + And treating these she must be like the rest. + Lo, in such garb refinement must be dressed: + That knowledge shall not make her seem unwise, + She must herself in foolishness disguise." + + --Act III, Scene 7. + +[79] No one, however, went so far in his opposition to the education of +women as the notorious Silvain _Maréchal_, the author of _Projet d'une +Loi portant Defense d'Apprendre à Lire aux Femmes_, who would have a law +passed forbidding women to learn to read. He maintained that a knowledge +of science and letters interfered with their being good housekeepers. +"Reason," he avers, "does not approve of women studying chemistry. Women +who are unable to read make the best soup. I would rather," he declares +in the words of Balzac, "have a wife with a beard than a wife who is +educated." See pp. 40, 50 and 51, of the edition of this strange work, +published at Brussels, 1847. + +[80] In her _Problema Practicum_, addressed to Dr. Rivet, Anna van +Schurman states and develops in true syllogistic form a series of +propositions in defense of her thesis in favor of the higher education +of women. Two of these propositions are here given as illustrative of +her points of view: + +I. Cui natura inest scientiarum artiumque desiderium, ei conveniunt +scientiæ et artes. Atque feminæ natura inest scientiarum artiumque +desiderium. Ergo. + +II Quidquid intellectum hominis perficit et exornat, id femmæ Christianæ +convenit. Atqui scientiæ et artes intellectum hominis perficiunt et +exornant. Ergo. See _Nobiliss. Virginis Annæ Schurman Opuscula_, pp. 35 +and 41, Leyden, 1656, and her _De Ingenii Muliebris ad Doctrinam et +Meliores Literas Aptitudine_, Leyden, 1641. Cf. also _Anna van +Schurman_, Chap. IV, by Una Birch, London, 1909. + +[81] A writer of the seventeenth century gives the following as the +popular programme of female study: "To learn alle pointes of good +housewifery, spinning of linen, the ordering of dairies, to see to the +salting of meate, brewing, bakery, and to understand the common prices +of all houshold provisions. To keepe account of all things, to know the +condition of the poultry--for it misbecomes no woman to be a hen-wife. +To know how to order your clothes and with frugality to mend them and to +buy but what is necessary with ready money. To love to keep at home." +How like the German four K's and the words on the sarcophagus of a Roman +matron--_lanifica_, _frugi_, _domiseda_--a diligent plyer of the +distaff, thrifty and a stay-at-home. + +[82] _The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu_, Vol. II, p. +5, Bohn Edition, 1887. + +[83] Letter XLIX, London, Sept. 5, O. S., 1748. + +Walpole, writing in 1773, makes the following curious declaration: "I +made a discovery--Lady Nuneham is a poetess, and writes with great ease +and sense some poetry, but is as afraid of the character, as if it was a +sin to make verses." And Lord Granville tells us of an eminent statesman +and man of letters who, in the early part of the last century, was so +troubled on discovering in his daughter a talent for poetry that he +"appealed to her affection for him, and made a request to her never to +write verses again. He was not afraid of her becoming a good poetess, +but he was afraid of the disadvantages which were likely to be suffered +by her, if she were supposed to be a lady of literary attainments." + +[84] It was Swift who had such a low opinion of woman's intellect that +in writing to one of his fair correspondents he told her that she could +"never arrive in point of learning to the perfection of a schoolboy." +Lady Pennington, strange to say, seems to have shared his views, for in +a manual of advice to young ladies, she declares: "A sensible woman will +soon be convinced that all the learning the utmost application can make +her master of will be in many points inferior to that of the schoolboy." +"At the time the Tatler first appeared in the female world any +acquaintance with books was distinguished only to be censured," and it +was then considered "more important for a woman to dance a minuet well +than to know a foreign language." + +[85] The wife of President John Adams, descended from the most +illustrious colonial families, writing in 1817, regarding the +educational opportunities of the girls of her time and rank, expressed +herself as follows: + +"Female education in the best families went no farther than writing and +arithmetic, and, in some few and rare instances, music and dancing." +According to her grandson, Charles Francis Adams, "The only chance for +much intellectual improvement in the female sex was to be found in the +families of the educated class, and in occasional intercourse with the +learned of the day. Whatever of useful instruction was secured in the +practical conduct of life came from maternal lips; and, what of farther +mental development depended more upon the eagerness with which the +casual teachings of daily conversation were treasured up than upon any +labor expended purposely to promote it." _Familiar Letters of John Adams +and His Wife, Abigail Adams, During the Revolution, With a Memoir of +Mrs. Adams_, by Charles Francis Adams, pp. X and XI, New York, 1876. + +[86] When the students of Girton and Newnham in 1897, after passing the +Cambridge examinations--many of them with the highest honors--applied +for degrees, "the undergraduate world was stirred to a fine frenzy of +wrath against all womankind," and an astonished world saw re-enacted +scenes scarcely less disgraceful than those which characterized the +riotous demonstrations which, seventeen years before, had greeted seven +young women at the portals of the University of Edinburgh. + +[87] _The Queen's Reign_, Chap. V, London, 1897. + +[88] Proposition third, of her _Propositiones Philosophicæ_, Milan, +1738, reads as follows: + +"Optime etiam de universa Philosophia infirmiorem sexum meruisse nullus +infirmabitur; nam præter septuaginta fere eruditissimas, Mulieres, quas +recenset Menagius, complures alias quovis tempore floruisse novimus, quæ +in philosophicis disciplinis maximam ingenii laudem sunt assecutæ. Ad +omnem igitur doctrinam, eruditionemque etiam muliebres animos Natura +comparavit: quare paulo injuriosius cum feminis agunt qui eis bonarum +artium cultu omnino interdicunt, eo vel maxime, quod hæc illarum studia +privatis, publicisque rebus non modo haud noxia futura sint verum etiam +perutilia." + +This admirable work, with its one hundred and ninety-one propositions, +is commended to those who may have any doubt regarding the learning or +capacity of the Italian women who have been referred to in the preceding +pages. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +WOMAN'S CAPACITY FOR SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS + + +In a curious old black-letter volume entitled _The Boke of the Cyte of +Ladyes_, published in England in 1521 by Henry Pepwell, occurs the +following passage: "I mervayle gretely of the opynyon of some men that +say they wolde in no wyse that theyr daughters or wyves or kynnes-women +sholde lerne scyences, and that it sholde apayre theyr condycyons. This +thing is not to say ne to sustayne. That the woman apayreth by conynge +it is not well to beleve. As the proverb saythe, 'that nature gyveth may +not be taken away.'" + +The book from which this remarkable quotation is taken is a translation +of Christine de Pisan's _La Cité des Dames_, which was written early in +the fifteenth century. It is a capital defence against the slanderers of +the gentler sex and an armory of arguments for all time against those +men who declare that "women are fit for nothing but to bear children and +spin." It shows conclusively that conynge--knowledge--far from tending +to injure women's character--apayre theyr condycyons--as was asserted by +Christine's antagonists, contributes, on the contrary, to elevate and +ennoble them and to render them better mothers and more useful members +of society. + +Notwithstanding that it was written five hundred years ago, and +notwithstanding its "antiquated allegorical dress and its quaint +pre-Renaissance notions of history," it is in many of its aspects a +surprisingly modern production. The line of argument adopted by the +writer is virtually the same as that which is adopted to-day in the +discussion of the same questions which are so ably treated in this +long-forgotten book[89] and show that Christine de Pisan was in every +way a worthy champion of her sex. + +No woman of her time was more competent to discuss the capacity of her +sex for science as well as for other intellectual pursuits than was this +learned daughter of Italy. She was not only a woman of profound and +varied knowledge, but was also, as stated in the preceding chapter, the +first woman to earn her living by her pen. Besides writing _The City of +Ladies_ and more verses--mostly ballads and virelays--than are contained +in the _Divina Commedia_, she was also the author of many other works on +the most diverse subjects. She is best known to historians as the author +of _Livre des Fais et Bonnes Meurs du sage Roy Charles V_, which is a +graphic account of the court and policy of this monarch, and of the +_Livre des Faits d'Armes et de Chevalerie_. The latter work is not, as +might be imagined from its title, a collection of tales of chivalry, +but, incredible as it may seem, a profound and systematic treatise on +military tactics and international law. It deals with "many topics of +the highest policy, from the manners of a good general and the minutiæ +of siege operations to the wager of battle, safe-conducts and letters of +marque," and was deemed so important by Henry VII that at his expressed +desire it was translated into English and published by Caxton under the +title of _The Boke of Fayettes of Armes and Chyvalrye_. Even so late as +the time of Henry VIII it was regarded as an authoritative manual on the +topics treated. + +So great, indeed, was the extent and variety of Christine's attainments, +so thoroughly had she studied the Latin and Greek authors, sacred and +profane, and so profound was her knowledge of all the subjects which she +dealt with in her numerous books that "one cannot but feel a certain +astonishment when one finds in a woman in the fourteenth century an +erudition such as is hardly possessed by the most laborious of men." + +When we read the eloquent plea which this learned woman of five +centuries ago makes in behalf of her sex, when we note the examples she +quotes of women "illumined of great sciences," and consider the +arguments by which she demonstrated the capacity of women for all +scientific pursuits, we can easily fancy that we are reading the brief +of some modern exponent of the woman's rights movement and are almost +disposed to believe that La Bruyière was right when he declared, _Les +anciens ont tout dit_. For so cogent is Christine's reasoning and so +thoroughly does she traverse her subject from every point of view that +she has left later writers little to add to the controversy except +matters of detail which were not available in her time. + +In spite, however, of Christine's _Cyte of Ladyes_, "in which," +according to our mediæval paragon, "women, hitherto scattered and +defenceless, were forever to find refuge against all their slanderers," +in spite of the fact that the foundations of this city were laid by +Reason, that its walls and cloisters were built on Righteousness, and +its battlements and high towers on Justice, in spite of the fact that +the material entering into its construction was "stronger and more +durable than any marble," and that it was, as our author declares, "a +city right fair, without fear and of perpetual during to the world--a +city that should never be brought to nought," Christine's work was soon +lost sight of, and the right of women to the same intellectual +advantages as men was as strongly denied as it had been before she had +so valiantly championed their cause, and denied, too, on the assumed +ground of their innate incapacity. + +It mattered not that during the succeeding centuries other women took up +the cause for which the author of _La Cité des Dames_ had so nobly +battled; it mattered not that countless women in every civilized country +of the globe distinguished themselves by their achievements in every +department of science and gave evidence of talent and genius of the +highest order; it mattered not that chivalrous representatives of the +sterner sex, like John Stuart Mill, came forward to plead the case of +that half of humanity which had so long been held in cruel subjection. +The attitude of the world toward the intellectually disfranchised sex +remained unchanged almost until our own time. + +But, although women now enjoy advantages in the pursuit of science which +were undreamed of only a generation ago, the age-old prejudices +respecting woman's mental powers and her capacity for the more abstract +branches of science still prevail. It is useless to cite instances of +women who have attained eminence in astronomy, mathematics, archæology, +or in any other science whatever. Such instances, we are assured, are +only exceptions and prove nothing. Men like Lombroso are willing to +admit the existence of an occasional woman of talent, but they deny the +existence of genius in one who is truly a womanly woman.[90] For, with +Goncourt, they flippantly assert, _Il n'y a pas de femmes de génie: +lorsqu'elles sont des génies, elles sont des hommes_--there are no women +of genius; when they have genius they are men. + +The reasons that now influence men for affirming the intellectual +disparity of the sexes are, it must be observed, quite different from +what they were in the time of Christine de Pisan--quite different from +what they were half a century ago. Our forebears, in their endless +disputations regarding woman's mental inferiority, based their arguments +on _a priori_ deductions, or on metaphysical considerations which proved +nothing and which were often irrelevant, if not absurd. + +Thus the Aristotelians, accepting as true the doctrine of the four +elements as well as the superimposed doctrine of the four elemental +qualities, sought to explain the properties of all compound bodies by +these primal qualities. In this way they explained the various virtues +of drugs and medicines. And by the same process of reasoning they +explained the assumed difference between male and female brains. They +assumed, to begin with, that there was a difference between the +intellectual capacities of men and women. They then assumed that this +difference in capacity was due to the difference in character and +texture of the female as compared with those of the male brain. They +next further assumed that the doctrines of the four elements and of the +four elemental qualities were established beyond question, and then +assumed again that the reason of woman's inferior capacity was due to +the fact that her brain was moister and softer, and, therefore, more +impressionable than that of man. No wonder that the old Spanish +Benedictine, Benito Jeronimo Feijoo, in his chivalrous _Defensa de la +Mujer_, lost all patience with such fantastic theorizers and wrote: "Did +I write ... to display my wit, I could easily, by deducting a chain of +consequences from received principles, shew that man's understanding, +weighed in the balance with female capacity, would be found so light as +to kick the beam."[91] + +Abandoning the Aristotelian method of envisaging the question under +discussion, our modern philosophers have recourse to the recent +sciences of biology and psycho-physiology to prove what they, too, +assume to be true--viz., woman's incurable mental weakness. Like their +predecessors, they are dominated by passion, prejudice, the errors of +countless centuries, and, like them, they approach the subject on which +they are to pronounce judgment, with minds warped by long ages of +imperious instincts, ignorant preconceptions and social bias. They will +quote the opinions of Proudhon and Schopenhauer--as if they had the +value of mathematical demonstrations--on the mental inferiority of +women, and will declare with unblushing assurance that no woman has ever +produced a single work of any kind of enduring worth. With the German +pessimist, they will blatantly declare, taken as a whole, "women are and +remain thoroughgoing Philistines and quite incurable."[92] With the +French socialist they will assert, as if it were an axiomatic truth, +that "thought in every living being is proportional to force"--that +"physical force is not less necessary for thought than for muscular +labor." + +They have apparently no more doubt respecting the truth of these +assumptions than had their predecessors, the Aristotelians, respecting +their assumptions of the four elements and their first qualities. Their +process of reasoning is somewhat as follows: "Woman is smaller and +weaker than man. This is a matter of simple observation, confirmed by +the teachings of physiology. Therefore, woman is physically and +intellectually inferior to man. Therefore she is incapable of any of +those great conceptions and achievements in science or philosophy which +have so distinguished the male sex in every age of the world's history. +That she is thus weaker and inferior physically and intellectually and +forever incapacitated from successfully competing with man in the +intellectual arena is a fatality for which, we are gravely told, there +is no remedy, and to which women, consequently, must resign themselves +as to one of the inexorable laws of nature." + +It would be difficult to cite a more preposterous example of +ratiocination. If it were true that there is a necessary relation +between vigor of body and vigor of mind; that mental power is +proportional to physical power; that thought is but a special form of +energy and capable of transformation, like heat, light and electricity; +that it, like the various physical forces, has its chemical and +mechanical equivalents; that psychic work corresponds to a certain +amount of chemical or thermic action; that intellectual capacity in man +is proportional to muscular strength; it would follow that the great +leaders of thought and action through the ages have been Goliaths in +stature and Herculeses in strength. But so far is this conclusion from +being warranted that it is almost the reverse of the truth. For many, if +not the majority, of the great geniuses of the world in every age have +been either men of small frame or men of delicate and precarious health. + +Among the men of genius who were noted for their diminutive stature were +Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Archimedes, Epicurus, Horace, +Albertus Magnus, Montaigne, Lipsius, Spinoza, Erasmus, Lalande, Charles +Lamb, Keats, Balzac and Thiers. Many others were remarkable for their +spare form. Among these in the prime of life were Aristotle, +Demosthenes, Cicero, St. Paul, Kepler, Pascal, Boileau, Fénelon, +D'Alembert, Napoleon, Lincoln and Leo XIII. Others, like Æsop, +Brunelleschi, Leopardi, Magliabecchi, Parini, Scarron, Talleyrand, Pope, +Goldsmith, Byron, Sir Walter Scott, to mention only a few of the most +eminent, were either hunchbacked, lame, rachitic or clubfooted. + +Others, still, were the victims of chronic ill health, or of nervous +disorders of the most serious character. Virgil was of a delicate and +frail constitution. He essayed the bar, but shrank from it and turned to +the "contemplation of diviner things." Nor was Horace, though less +completely a recluse and more of a _bon vivant_, a strong man. Both of +them, as scholars will remember, sought the couch, while Mæcenas went +off to the tennis court. Pope's life, says Johnson, was a long disease. +Johnson himself, though large and muscular, had queer health and a +tormenting constitution. Schiller wrote most of his best work while +struggling against a painful malady, and Heine's "mattress grave" is +proverbial. France furnishes an excellent example in Pascal.[93] + +Some of the most noted leaders of thought in our own era were likewise +chronic invalids. Among these were the scholarly theologian, E. B. +Pusey, and J. A. Symonds, the historian of the Renaissance. There was +also Herbert Spencer, who was frequently forced by nervous breakdowns to +take long periods of absolute rest. More remarkable still was the case +of the famous naturalist, Charles Darwin. "It is," writes his son, "a +principal feature of his life that for nearly forty years he never knew +one day of the health of ordinary men, and that thus his life was one +long struggle against the weariness and the strain of sickness."[94] +But, notwithstanding his continued ill health and the spinal anemia from +which he suffered, he was able to conduct those epoch-making researches +which put him in the forefront of men of science, and to write those +famous books which have completely revolutionized our views of nature +and nature's laws. + +But a still more remarkable illustration of the fact that there is no +necessary relation between muscular and mental power, between physical +well-being and intellectual energy, is afforded by the illustrious +discoverer of the world of the infinitely little, Louis Pasteur. +Stricken by hemiplegia shortly after he had begun those brilliant +investigations which have rendered him immortal, he remained affected by +partial paralysis until the end of his life. His friends had reason to +fear that this attack, even if he should survive it, would weaken or +extinguish his spirit of initiative, if it did not make further work +entirely impossible. But this was far from the case. For a quarter of a +century he continued with unabated activity those marvelous labors which +are forever associated with his name. And it was after, not before, his +misfortune that he made his most famous discoveries in the domain of +microbian life, and placed in the hands of physicians and surgeons those +infallible means of combatting disease which have made him one of the +greatest benefactors of suffering humanity. The complete separation of +the intellectual from the motor faculties was never more clearly +exhibited than in this case, nor was it ever more completely +demonstrated by an experiment, whose validity no one could question, +that power of mind does not necessarily depend on strength or health of +body. It proved, also, in the most telling manner that it is not +muscular but psychic force which avails most, whether to the individual +or to society. And it showed, at the same time, the utter absurdity of +those theories which would fatally connect intellectual with physical +debility in woman, and would forever adjudge the physically weaker sex +to be of hopeless inferiority in all things of the mind. + +What has been said of men achieving renown, notwithstanding ill health, +may likewise be affirmed of women. The case of Elizabeth Barrett +Browning is scarcely less remarkable than that of Darwin. In spite of +being a chronic invalid the greater part of her life, she attained a +position in letters reached by but few of her contemporaries. The same +almost may be said of the three Brontë sisters. The deadly seeds of +consumption were sown in their systems in early youth, but, although +fully aware that life had "passed them by with averted head," they +were, through their indomitable wills, able to send forth from their +bleak home in the wild Yorkshire moors works of genius that still +instruct and delight the world. + +From the foregoing it is clear that valetudinarianism, if it prove +anything, proves not that it renders intellectual effort impossible, but +that it serves as a discipline for the soul. It forces the mind to +husband its strength, and thus enables it to accomplish by economy and +concentration of effort that which the same mind in a healthy body, with +the distractions of society and the allurements of life, would be unable +to accomplish. It exemplifies in the most striking manner the truth of +what Socrates says in Plato's _Republic_ about the beneficent action of +the "bridle of Theages," preventing an infirm friend of his from +embracing politics and keeping him true to his first love--philosophy. + +Failing to show any necessary connection between superior physique and +intellectual capacity, between health of body and mental activity, +between the amount of food consumed and the degree of intelligence, the +class of thinkers whose theories are now under consideration found +themselves forced to abandon the argument based on robust health and +physical strength and seek elsewhere for support of their views. This, +they soon announced, was found in the greater cranial capacity and +greater brain weight of the male as compared with that of the female. +Following up this fancied clew, anthropologists the world over began +measuring skulls and weighing brains in order to determine the supposed +ratio of sex-difference. + +The results of these investigations were far from corroborating the +preconceived notions of those who had fancied a necessary correlation +between mental capacity and size of cranium, between the weight of +encephalon and degree of intelligence. For it was soon discovered that +cranial capacity depended on many causes--many of them unknown--and that +people having the largest skulls were often far from being the ones +dowered with the greatest intellectual power. It was found, for +instance, that climate was a determining factor--that the inhabitants of +northern regions have larger heads than those who live farther south. +Thus the Lapps, in proportion to their stature, have the largest heads +in Europe. After these come in order the Scandinavians, the Germans, the +French, the Italians, the Arabs. + +It was found also that the least cranial capacity of the ancient +Egyptians coincides with the most brilliant period of their +civilization--that of the eighteenth dynasty. Measurements of skulls +unearthed at Pompeii showed that the heads of the Romans who lived two +thousand years ago were larger than the heads of the Romans of to-day. +Similarly, the skulls of the lake-dwellers of Switzerland were larger +than those of the Swiss people of the present time, while the average +circumference of the skulls measured in the catacombs of Paris is more +than an inch greater than that of the Parisians who have died during the +last half century. The circumference of the skulls of a large number of +mound-builders, excavated some years ago near Carrollton, Illinois, +exceeded that of the average head of white men in New York of our day by +nearly three inches. This shows that the culture of the white race +during long centuries has not developed its cranial capacity to equal +that of the uncultured Indians who flourished in the Mississippi valley +untold generations ago. + +The skulls of Quaternary men were likewise very voluminous, although +they belonged to a race whose mental manifestations were infantile in +the extreme. Even the celebrated Engis skull, one of the most ancient in +existence, has been described by the late Professor Huxley as well +formed and considerably larger than the average of the European skulls +of to-day, not only in the width and height of the forehead, but also in +the cubic capacity of the whole. Furthermore, the eminent craniologist, +Broca, has proved that the illiterate peasants of Auvergne have a much +greater cranial capacity than that of the learned and cultured denizens +of Paris. And, as if to show conclusively that there is no necessary +connection between intellectual capacity and size of cranium, authentic +measurements disclose the fact that some of the most gifted men the +world has known had small heads. Among these were Dante and Voltaire. +The skull of the latter is one of the smallest which has thus far been +observed. + +What has been said regarding the relation of cranial volume to +intellectual capacity, as revealed by the measurements of the skulls of +ancient and modern, savage and civilized peoples may likewise be +predicated of the differences in the sizes of the crania of men and +women. No argument as to the greater or less intelligence of either sex +can be based on mere craniometric determinations. "At the best, cranial +capacity is but a rough indication of brain size; and to measure brain +size by the external size of the skull furnishes still rougher and more +fallacious approximations, since the male skull is more massive than the +female." + +Even the slight morphological differences between male and female +skulls--some anthropologists deny that there are any at all--afford no +more ground for conclusions in favor of the superiority of one or the +other sex than the relative differences in size. Such trifling +differences as do exist exhibit, as Virchow has pointed out, an +approximation of men to the savage, simian and senile type, and an +approach of women to the infantile type. Havelock Ellis, commenting on +this difference, pertinently remarks, "It is open to a man in a +Pharisaic mood to thank God that his cranial type is far removed from +the infantile. It is equally open to woman in such a mood to be thankful +that her cranial type does not approach the senile."[95] + +But much stress as has been laid on physical power, health and cranial +capacity, as determining factors of intellectual capacity and sexual +differences, far greater stress has been laid on conclusions deducible +from the relative brain weights of different classes of people as well +as of different sexes. It was assumed that by a critical study of the +brain, by careful weighings of many brains of both sexes and of many +races, it would be easy to secure conclusive evidence that the size and +weight of the brain increase with the amount of intelligence of the +individual. It was also assumed that function not only makes the organ, +but also develops it. Brain became synonymous with mind. A large brain +implied vigor of thought; a small brain was evidence of mental +inferiority. + +Physiology had demonstrated unquestionably that the muscles of the body +are enlarged by exercise. It was assumed by those who are wont to +measure mind in terms of matter that the brain, being the organ of +thought, was also developed by exercise. It was also assumed that the +development of the brain was in a direct ratio to its activity. The +greater its activity the greater its mass, and the greater the mass the +greater the degree of intelligence. In other words, it was assumed that +there was an exact and invariable proportion between weight of brain and +amount of brain power. + +None of the theories which have already been adverted to have been so +full of assumptions and prejudices or vitiated by so many fallacies and +over-hasty generalizations as this. No subject has possessed a greater +fascination for anthropologists, and no subject has been prolific in +more diverse and conflicting conclusions. Many men of science who, in +other matters, were noted for their care in weighing evidence, before +formulating theories, completely lost the scientific spirit when they +began to weigh brains and to draw conclusions respecting the relations +of brain weight and mental power, and to establish ratios between the +character of the convolutions of the organ of thought and the degree of +intelligence of its possessor. + +Contrary to what is generally believed, a large brain is not always an +indication of superior capacity or intelligence. There have been, it is +true, a number of men of genius who were the possessors of large brains, +but there have also been others whose brains were of but medium weight. + +The largest known brains of intellectual workers were those of Cuvier, +the noted zoölogist, and Turgenieff, the distinguished novelist. The +brain of the Frenchman weighed 1830 grams, while that of the Russian +totaled 2012 grams. Among other large brains--even larger than +Cuvier's--were those of a bricklayer, which weighed 1900 grams, and of +an ordinary laborer, which reached 1924 grams. The largest brains on +record were that of an ignorant laborer named Rustan, which weighed 2222 +grams; that of a weak-minded London newsboy, which weighed 2268 grams, +and that of a twenty-one-year-old epileptic idiot, which had the unheard +of weight of 2850 grams.[96] + +The seven largest recorded female brains were three weighing 1580 grams +each, one of which belonged to a medical student of marked ability, +while the other two belonged to quite undistinguished women. There were +two others weighing 1587 each, one of which belonged to an insane woman. +Still heavier than these by far were the brains of an insane woman who +died of consumption, and of a dwarfed Indian squaw. The brain of the +first weighed 1742 grams; while that of the second was no less than 2084 +grams. + +From the foregoing examples it is evident that a large brain is far from +being a certain index of mental capacity or of superior intelligence. It +is frequently the very reverse. If, for instance, it fail to receive +the necessary supply of blood, it will be inert or disordered and will +prove to be a dangerous possession rather than a precious endowment. +Epileptics usually have brains that are large relatively to the size of +the body. And, while it is probably true that the great thinkers and men +of action of the world have, in most instances, had comparatively large +brains, it is also true that the brain weights of but few of them +exceeded 1500 grams, while those of many fall below 1200 grams. + +Thus the brain of Gambetta, "the foremost Frenchman of his time," +weighed only 1159 grams, while the weight of the brain of Napoleon I was +1502 grams--barely equal to that of a negro described by the +anthropologist Broca, and but little superior to that of a Hottentot +mentioned by Dr. Jeffries Wyman.[97] + +The late Dr. Joseph Simms found the average brain weight of sixty +persons who were either imbeciles, idiots, criminals or men of ordinary +mind to be 1792 grams, while that of sixty famous men was 1454 grams, a +difference in favor of men not noted for intellectual greatness of 338 +grams. These figures are far from showing that large brains are a +necessary concomitant of mental capacity. + +In view of these and many similar facts, we are not surprised that the +eminent German anatomist and anthropologist, Rudolph Wagner, should +declare that "very intelligent men do not differ strikingly in brain +weight from less gifted men," and that the noted French physician, +Esquirol, should assert that "no size or form of head or brain is +incident to idiocy or superior talent." + +So far as civilized races are concerned, there can be no doubt that the +absolute weight of the male is greater than that of the female brain. +According to the investigations of seven of the most notable +anthropologists, who have given special attention to the subject under +consideration, and who, collectively, have carefully weighed many +thousands of brains, the average brain weight of men in Europe is 1381 +grams, while that of women is 1237 grams. This shows a difference +between the average weight of the brain in man and woman of 144 grams. + +But, if it must be conceded that the absolute weight of man's brain is +greater than woman's, is it likewise true that the relative weight is +greater? This is a question which demands an answer, as it is impossible +to come to any just conclusion respecting the intellectual capacity of +woman expressed in terms of brain weight, unless we can affirm with +certainty that men's brains are relatively, as well as absolutely, +larger than those of women. + +Speaking of the relative weight of brain in man implies a term of +comparison. Several methods of estimating the sexual proportions of +brain mass have been suggested, but only two of them have met with any +favor. These are determining the ratio of brain weight to body weight or +body height. + +According to the investigations of anthropologists of acknowledged +authority, the average brain weight of woman is to that of man in +England and France as 90 is to 100. The average stature of men and women +in the same countries is as 93 to 100. This gives man an excess of brain +weight over that of woman of something more than an ounce. But this +slight difference in weight has been considered sufficient to constitute +it "a fundamental sexual distinction." When, however, it is considered +that men are not only taller but also larger than women, this apparent +advantage of an ounce in favor of the male entirely disappears, and the +result is that the relative amount of brain mass in the two sexes is +practically equal. + +Because of the manifest inaccuracy of the stature criterion, many +eminent anthropologists have prepared to estimate sexual differences in +brain weight by adopting the method based on the ratio of brain mass to +body weight. According to this method, women are found to possess +brains which are equal to or even somewhat larger than those of men. If +the comparative excess of non-vital tissue in the form of fat in woman +be eliminated and estimates be based only on the active organic mass of +her body, as compared with the same mass in man, the excess of brain +weight in woman over that in man will be still more marked. + +A careful study, then, of the brain as a whole, far from proving woman's +inferiority to man, rather proves her superiority. The same may be said +regarding sexual distinctions based on certain parts of the brain. + +Some years ago it was positively asserted that the development of the +frontal lobe exhibited a pronounced difference in the two sexes. It was +said to be much greater in man than in woman and was regarded as a +distinguishing characteristic of the male sex. This was in keeping with +the generally accepted assumption that this portion of the brain is the +seat of the higher intellectual processes. Further investigation, +however, showed that there was practically no sexual difference in the +frontal lobe of the brain, or, if there was a difference, it was +probably in favor of woman. + +It has also become recognized that there is no valid reason for +considering the anterior portion of the brain as the seat of the higher +mental functions. It is possible, but in the present state of science it +can neither be affirmed nor denied. So far as our present knowledge +goes, it seems more likely that the whole of the brain, especially the +sensori-motor regions of its middle part, have a part in mental +operations. At all events, it can certainly be affirmed that Huschke's +distinction of man and woman into _homo frontalis et homo parietalis_ is +utterly devoid of foundation in fact. + +Many anthropologists have fancied that a certain index of the degree of +intelligence is to be found in the convolutions of the brain. The +tortuous foldings of the female brain, it is asserted, are less ample, +less pronounced and less beautiful. "Behold," they exclaim, "a most +positive evidence of inferiority." These men overlook the fact that +certain animals, notably the elephant and divers species of cetaceans, +have cerebral convolutions that are more complex than those of man. If, +then, brain convolutions were, as claimed, a certain index of the degree +of intelligence, the whale or the elephant, and not man--_pace_ +Shakespeare--would be "the paragon of animals." + +But men of science are by no means at one on this alleged sexual +difference in brain convolutions. On the contrary, there are many +eminent physiologists and anatomists who contend that the superficies of +brain convolutions in women is relatively greater than in men. For those +who believe--and they are probably the majority at present--that the +seat of mental activity is in the gray matter of the brain, this greater +brain surface, due to its convolutions, would be a decided compensation +for woman's relatively smaller brain volume.[98] + +In whatever way, then, we consider the brains of men and women, whether +we compare the ratio of brain weight to height of body or to weight of +body, or compare the relative amounts of gray matter in the two sexes, +the advantage, in spite of her smaller body, is distinctly in favor of +woman. + +From the preceding considerations it seems clear that there is no ground +from the point of view of brain anatomy for considering one sex as +superior to the other. They evince, too, that quality as well as +quantity of brain tissue must be considered in all our discussions on +the relations between the volume of brain and the intelligence of its +possessor. Whales and elephants have much larger brains than men, but +they nevertheless stand far below him in intelligence. + +It must be remembered, also, that the brain is not only an organ of +mental function. It is likewise the center of the entire nervous system, +and its volume, therefore, must correspond with the size and number of +nerve trunks under its control. In man, as in animals, the brain +elements are to a great extent but sensori-motor delegates whose +function is the regulation and government of every part of the body. The +superior size of the whale's brain, as compared with that of man, can +readily be understood when we reflect on the much greater amount of +territory which these sensori-motor delegates represent. When this fact +is borne in mind it will be found that the whale's brain, relatively to +that of man, is extremely small. For while the ratio of man's brain +weight to that of his body is as 1 to 36, the ratio of the whale's brain +weight to its immense body is but 1 to 3,000. + +As an evidence that quality often counts for more than quantity, brain +anatomists would do well to reflect on the marvelous intelligence +displayed by ants and termites, those mites of animated nature which so +excited the admiration of the naturalist Pliny and caused Darwin to +declare, "The brain of an ant is one of the most marvelous atoms of +matter in the world, perhaps more so than the brain of man."[99] + +Moreover, when discussing the relative brain weights of the two sexes, +we must not lose sight of the fact that we have, with the solitary +exception of the eminent Russian mathematician, Sónya Kovalévsky,[100] +no record of the brain weights of any eminently intellectual woman. The +brains of scores of men of genius and exceptional mentality have been +weighed, but we are utterly ignorant of the weight of brain of such +women as Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Madame de Staël, Maria Theresa, Sophie +Germain, George Sand, Harriet Martineau, George Eliot, Eleanor Ormerod, +Mary Somerville, and others of the same caliber. The only data so far +available, regarding the average brain weight of women, are such as have +been obtained from the inmates of hospitals, prisons and pauper +institutions. And yet we are asked to accept the average based on such +data as a fair term of comparison with the average male brain weight as +increased by the superior weight of brain of such men as Cuvier and +Turgenieff. And this is called science![101] + +The attempt, then, to prove by weighing and measuring and studying +brains that man is the intellectual superior of woman has been an +ignominious failure. The old belief that woman is by nature and cerebral +organization less intelligent than man is not borne out by the +investigations of those best qualified to pronounce an opinion on the +subject. To assert, as so many do, that woman was created man's +intellectual inferior is begging the question. Science can adduce no +proof of such a gratuitous statement. Broca, the most eminent of French +anthropologists, regarded as an absurdity the attempt to establish a +necessary relation between the development of intelligence and the +volume and weight of the encephalon. With the ripe knowledge of his +mature years he was inclined to believe that the apparent difference in +intelligence in the two sexes was owing, not to a difference of brain +organization, but rather to a difference of education, physical as well +as mental, and that, with equal opportunities for intellectual and +physical development, the present sexual differences that we have been +considering--differences which are due not to nature but to the long +ages of restraint and subjection under which women have lived--would +gradually be lessened, and that men and women would eventually approach +that equality which characterizes them in the state of nature.[102] + +Realizing the impossibility of arriving, by the study of brain sizes and +structure, at any satisfactory conclusion respecting the relative +intellectual capacities of men and women, seekers after truth cast about +for other methods that were free from the errors and fallacies of those +which had proved so unreliable. The attempt to base the alleged mental +inferiority of woman upon the facial angle of Camper, the metafacial +angle of Serres, the craniofacial angle of Huxley, the sphenoidal angle +of Welcker, or the nasobasal angle of Virchow had issued in utter +failure, and had proved for the thousandth time that it is easier to +formulate theories than to establish their validity. It was evident, +notwithstanding the assertions of certain materialistic theorists, that +the brain did not secrete thought as the liver secretes bile; it was +evident, too, that intelligence could not be estimated in terms of any +kind of mechanical units. Psycho-physiologists had no sort of +dynamometer for measuring brain power as they would measure muscular +energy. By means of the plethysmograph they might determine the amount +of blood sent to the brain in a given time, but they had no psychometer +of any description which would enable them to estimate the quantity, +much less the quality, of psychic force such a blood supply was +competent to produce. + +Many, of course, still remained adherents of the old view that woman +must ever remain the mental inferior of man because she is by nature +physically weaker. These persons, however, seemed to lose sight of the +fact that women who lead a rational life--who are not the slaves of +fashion or the victims of luxury--have little to complain of on the +score of physical weakness. This is evidenced by the life and habits of +the women of the people, as well as by the tasks performed by women +among savage tribes, who in health and strength are little, if at all, +inferior to their male companions. + +The late Professor Huxley, in referring to this subject, exhibited his +usual acumen and sanity in such matters when he indited the following +paragraph: + +"We have heard a great deal lately about the physical disabilities of +women. Some of these alleged impediments, no doubt, are really inherent +in their organization, but nine-tenths of them are artificial--the +products of their mode of life. I believe that nothing would tend so +effectually to get rid of these creations of idleness, weariness and +that 'over-stimulation of the emotions' which in plainer spoken days +used to be called wantonness, than a fair share of healthy work, +directed toward a definite object, combined with an equally fair share +of healthy play, during the years of adolescence; and those who are best +acquainted with the acquirements of an average medical practitioner will +find it hardest to believe that the attempt to reach that standard is +like to prove exhausting to an ordinarily intelligent and well-educated +woman."[103] + +Substantially the same views are held by Mrs. Henry Fawcett and Dr. Mary +Putnam Jacobi, whose rare experience and knowledge give their opinions +on the subject under consideration special weight and value. + +After men of science had tried the various theories above enumerated and +found them wanting, they finally bethought themselves of investigating +the relative intellectual standing of male and female students in +coeducational institutions, and inquiring into their comparative +capacity for different branches of knowledge, as made known by their +professors and by the results of oral and written examinations. +Considering the simplicity of this method and the fact that it is the +more rational way to reach reliable conclusions, the wonder is that it +was not thought of sooner. It excludes the bias of prepossessions and +preconceived theories and lends itself to the discussion of results +based on incontestable facts. + +The first coeducational institution in which the intellectual capacity +of women, in competition with men, was fairly tested was, strange to +say, in the Royal College of Science for Ireland. This was somewhat more +than half a century ago. When the time of examinations came, both the +men and women students were handed the same examination papers. At the +public distribution of prizes, at the close of the session, "the +ladies," in the words of a Dublin paper, "vindicated the genius of their +sex by carrying off the highest prizes." In zoölogy, botany, physics, +chemistry and mathematics they proved themselves the peers, and +frequently the superiors, of their male competitors. + +"The success of the female students disturbed, of course, very much the +preconceived notions of some people, who had always taken for granted +that the female intellect was inferior to the male; and, not being able +to combat the stubborn facts that appeared from time to time in the +newspapers, when the results of the examinations were published, they +tried to account for them."[104] + +These cavillers, however, soon discovered that there was no way of +accounting for the disconcerting fact which confronted them, except by +confessing that their theory regarding the mental inferiority of women +was not substantiated by fact. This unexpected demand for the +unconditional surrender of their long-cherished theory of male +superiority was a crushing and humiliating blow to their pride of +intellect, but there was no remedy for it, nor was it accompanied by any +balm of consolation that they, at the time, felt disposed to regard as +adequate compensation for their lost prestige--a prestige which their +overweening sex had claimed from time immemorial. + +Similar experiments under even more trying conditions were subsequently +made in the United States and in other parts of the world, and +everywhere with the same results. In the universities of Switzerland, +France, England, Germany and Russia women, when given a fair +opportunity, were able to demonstrate to the satisfaction of all +unprejudiced judges that the long-vaunted superiority of the male +intellect was a myth; that intelligence, like genius, has no sex. + +One of the most interesting and comprehensive investigations ever +undertaken regarding this long-debated question was made some years ago +by Arthur Kirchhoff, an enterprising German journalist.[105] It +consisted in collecting and collaborating the opinions of more than a +hundred of the most distinguished professors of the Fatherland, besides +the opinions of a number of eminent writers and teachers in girls' high +schools. These constitute a volume of nearly four hundred pages, and +embody the views on the capacity of woman for science of professors of +theology, jurisprudence, anatomy, physiology, surgery, psychology, +history, gynecology, psychiatry, philology, philosophy, art, +mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry, zoölogy, botany, geology, +paleontology and technology. The investigation, indeed, covered every +branch of knowledge and evoked the deliberate views of those who were +looked upon as the leading representatives of German thought and +culture. + +This book possesses a special value from the fact that, of all peoples +in Europe, the Germans have been the most refractory to the claims of +women to be received at the universities on the same footing as men. The +German professors, naturally, share the conservatism of their +countrymen, and, like them, are wedded to routine when there is question +of introducing innovations into their social, political or educational +systems. One would anticipate, then, that, when called upon to give +their honest opinions respecting the intellectual capacity of women, as +compared with that of men, their answer would be decidedly in favor of +the sterner sex. "For," they will ask, "have not all the achievements in +science which have given the Fatherland such prestige in the eyes of the +world been due entirely to men? Have the women of Germany ever +undertaken the solution of any great scientific problem, or have they +ever made any notable contribution to scientific advancement? They have +not." + +Yet, notwithstanding all these facts, notwithstanding all traditions and +prejudices and social bias, the unexpected has happened, even in +conservative, old-fashioned Germany. The German professor may be +tenacious of preconceived views; he may be a stickler for ancient +customs and usages; nevertheless, when he is called upon to give a +question a categorical answer which can be arrived at by observation or +experiment, he may generally, in spite of his likes or dislikes, be +counted on to give a decision in accord with the principles of +legitimate induction. He may have his prejudices--and who has not?--but, +when one appeals to him in the name of science and justice, he will +rarely be found wanting. Regardless of all personal consideration, he +will feel that loyalty to science, of which he is the avowed devotee, +requires him to consider a question proposed to him as he would a +scientific problem--something to be decided solely by such evidence as +may be available. + +To the exceeding gratification of the believers in the intellectual +equality of the sexes, this proved to be the case in Herr Kirchhoff's +investigation. The answers of the German professors, contrary to what +most people would have anticipated, were, by a surprising majority, in +favor of women. But their answers were in keeping with the changed +educational conditions in Germany, as well as in other parts of the +civilized world. Had Herr Kirchhoff undertaken his investigation a few +decades earlier, the result would undoubtedly have been different, for +women were then excluded from the universities and the professors had +not had an opportunity of accurately testing their intellectual +capacities. But having, during the latter part of the nineteenth +century, had them as students in their lecture halls and laboratories, +where they were able to study their mental powers and determine the +value of their work by strict scientific methods, they were in a better +position to express an opinion on the question at issue than would, a +few years previously, have been possible. + +Accordingly, even the declared enemies of the woman's movement among the +German professorate were forced to admit the intellectual equality of +the two sexes. For they, too, as well as men of science in other parts +of Europe, had been measuring skulls and weighing brains; they, too, had +been studying woman's mental caliber in the light of the new psychology; +they, too, had been watching her work in the various departments of the +university; and, notwithstanding all their observations and experiments, +they were unable to detect any difference between men and women in brain +organization or in intellectual capacity. And, as might have been +foreseen, results harmonized perfectly with those arrived at by +investigators in other parts of the world--namely, that in things of the +mind there is perfect sexual equality. + +Among the hundred and more professors whose opinions are given in Herr +Kirchhoff's book there were, of course, a few who were not prepared to +subscribe to the findings of the great majority of their colleagues. But +the reasons they assign for dissent were, at least in some instances, +little better founded than that of a certain professor of chemistry in +the University of Geneva, who, a few years ago, gravely declared that +women have no aptitude for science because, forsooth, in chemical +manipulations they break more test-tubes than men. Verily, "a Daniel +come to judgment." + +What probably more deeply impressed the German professors than anything +else was the marked talent and taste of many of the women students for +the abstract sciences, especially for the higher mathematics. For it had +always been asserted that these branches of knowledge were beyond +woman's capacity and that she had an instinctive antipathy for abstruse +reasoning and for abstractions of all kinds. When, however, they +discovered women whose delight was to discuss the theory of elliptic +functions or curves defined by differential equations; when they found a +mathematical genius like Sónya Kovalévsky speculating on the fourth +dimension, and carrying away from the mathematicians of the world the +most coveted prize of the French Academy of Sciences, they were forced +to confess that another of their illusions was dissipated, and to +acknowledge that they had no longer anything on which to base their long +and fondly cherished opinion of the mental inequality of the sexes. + +As an evidence of the extraordinary change that had been effected among +the conservative Germans in the course of a few years respecting their +attitude toward the admission of the "Academic Woman" to the +universities, and, consequently, toward her intellectual capacity, it +will suffice to reproduce a sentence from the elaborately expressed +opinion of Dr. Julius Bernstein, professor of physiology in the +University of Halle. "After reflection on the subject," he declares, "I +am convinced that neither God nor religion, neither custom nor law, and +still less science, warrants one in maintaining any essential difference +in this respect between the male and the female sex."[106] + +The controversy of centuries regarding woman's intellectual capacity was +now virtually settled beyond all peradventure. Woman had conquered, and +her final victory had been won in the heart of the enemy's country, yea, +even in what was thought to be the impregnable fortress of her +relentless foes. It was achieved where the proud Teuton male had +imagined that he was unapproachable and beyond compare--in the +laboratories and lecture rooms of his great universities--more +irresistible, in his estimation, than the Kaiser's trained legions in +battle array. + +It finally dawned upon the leaders of thought in the Fatherland, as it +had but shortly before dawned upon philosophers and men of science in +other lands, that the reputed sexual difference in intelligence was not +due to difference in brain size or brain structure, or innate power of +intellect, but rather to some other factors which had been neglected, or +overlooked, as being unessential or of minor importance. These factors, +on further investigation, proved to be education and opportunity. + +As far back as 1869 that keen observer and philosopher, John Stuart +Mill, had expressed himself on the subject in the following words: "Like +the French compared with the English, the Irish with the Swiss, the +Greeks or Italians compared with the German races, so women compared +with men may be found, on the average, to do the same things with some +variety in the particular kind of excellence. But that they would do +them fully as well, on the whole, if their education and cultivation +were adapted to correcting instead of aggravating the infirmities +incident to their temperament, I see not the smallest reason to +doubt."[107] + +It would be difficult to find a better illustration of the sluggishness +of the male as compared with the female mind than the tardiness of men +of science in arriving at a sane conclusion respecting the subject of +this chapter. For five hundred years ago Christine de Pisan arrived at +the same conclusion which the learned professors of Germany reached only +in the last decade of the nineteenth century. Discussing in _La Cité des +Dames_ the question at issue she writes as follows: "I say to thee +again, and doubt never the contrary, that if it were the custom to put +the little maidens to the school, and they were made to learn the +sciences as they do to the men-children, that they should learn as +perfectly, and they should be as well entered into the subtleties of all +the arts and sciences as men be. And peradventure, there should be more +of them, for I have teached heretofore that by how much women have the +body more soft than the men have, and less able to do divers things, by +so much they have the understanding more sharp there as they apply it." + +Christine de Pisan's statement is virtually a challenge demanding the +same educational opportunities for women as were accorded to men. But it +was a challenge that men did not see fit to accept until full five +centuries had elapsed, and until it was no longer possible to deny +giving satisfaction to the long-aggrieved half of humanity. It was also +an appeal to experiment and an appeal, likewise, to the teachings of +history in lands where women have enjoyed the same educational +advantages as men. + +Having reviewed the many disabilities which so long retarded woman's +intellectual advancement, and considered some of the objections which +were urged against her capacity for scientific pursuits, we are now +prepared to consider the appeal of Christine de Pisan and deal with it +on its merits. This we shall do by a brief survey of woman's +achievements in the various branches of science in which she has been +accorded the same intellectual opportunities that were so long the +exclusive privilege of her male compeer. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[89] An edition of this work, based on an old manuscript in La +Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris, in French, is announced to appear in +France at an early date. An interesting account of this precious volume +has recently been published by Mlle. Mathilde Laigle, Ph. D., under the +title of _Le Livre de Trois Vertus de Christine de Pisan et son Milieu +Historique et Littéraire_. It is to be hoped that some enterprising +English publisher will soon favor us with a reprint of the quaint old, +but none the less valuable, volume, _The Boke of the Cyte of Ladyes_. + +[90] Quando la genialita compare nella donna è sempre associata a grandi +anomalie: e la più grande è la somiglianza coi maschi--la virilità. +_L'Uomo di Genio_, sesta edizione, p. 261, Torino, 1894. + +[91] _An Essay on the Learning, Genius and Abilities of the Fair Sex, +Proving Them Not Inferior to Man_, p. 142, London, 1774. + +[92] Schopenhauer, _Studies in Pessimism_, p. 115, London, 1891. + +[93] _The Literary Advantages of Weak Health_, in the _Spectator_ for +October, 1894. + +[94] _The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin_, edited by his son, +Francis Darwin, Vol. I, p. 136, New York, 1888. + +[95] _Man and Woman_, p. 94, London, 1898. + +[96] Cf. _Das Hirngewicht des Menschen_, pp. 21 and 137, by Theodor L. +W. von Bischoff, Bonn, 1880, and Dr. G. van Walsem in _Neurologisches +Centralblatt_, pp. 578-580, Leipsic, July 1, 1899. + +[97] _L'Anthropologie_, pp. 336-337, by Paul Topinard, Paris, 1876. + +[98] The importance of gray matter in mental processes has evidently +been greatly overestimated, for it has been found to be thicker in the +brains of negroes, murderers and ignorant persons than it was in the +encephalon of Daniel Webster. It is also much thicker in the brains of +dolphins, porpoises and other cetaceans than it is in the most +intellectual of men. + +[99] _The Descent of Man_, Vol. I, p. 145, London, 1871. + +[100] The brain of Sónya Kovalévsky was not weighed until it had been +four years in alcohol. Prof. Gustaf Retzius then wrote an elaborate +account of it and estimated that its weight, at the time of Sónya's +death, was 1385 grams. The brain-weight of her illustrious contemporary, +Hermann von Helmholtz, was 1440 grams. But when the body-weights of +these two eminent mathematicians are borne in mind--Sónya was short and +slender--it will be seen that the relative amount of brain tissue was +greater in the woman than in the man. Cf. _Das Gehirn des Mathematikers +Sónja Kovaléwski in Biologische Untersuchungen_, von Prof. Dr. Gustaf +Retzius, pp. 1-17, Stockholm, 1900. + +[101] The reader who desires more detailed information respecting the +brain-weights of men and women of various races and the relation of +brain-weight to intelligence may consult with profit the following works +and articles: _Mémoires d'Anthropologie de Paul Broca_, 5 Vols., Paris, +1871-1888; _Alte und Neue Gehirn Probleme nebst einer 1078 Falle +umfassenden Gehirngewichstatistik aus den Kgl. pathologisch-anatomischen +Institut zu München_, von W. W. Wendt, München, 1909; Gehirngewicht und +Intelligenz, by Dr. F. K. Walter, Rostok, 1911; _Gehirngewicht und +Intelligenz_, by Dr. J. Dräseke, Hamburg, in _Archiv für Rassen und +Gesellschafts Biologe_, pp. 499-522, 1906; _Brain Weights and +Intellectual Capacity_, by Joseph Simms, M. D., in the _Popular Science +Monthly_, December, 1898, and _The Growth of the Brain_, by H. H. +Donaldson, London, 1895. + +[102] "Quand on songe à la différence qui sépare de notre temps +l'éducation intellectuelle de l'homme de celle de la femme, on se +demande si ce n'est pas cette influence qui rétrécit le cervaux et le +crane féminins, et si, les deux sexes étant livres a leur spontanéité, +leur cervaux ne tendraient pas à se ressembler, aussi qu'il arrive chez +les sauvages." _Bulletin de la Société d'Anthropologie_, p. 503, Paris, +July 3, 1879. + +[103] _Times_, London, July 8, 1874. Cf. Chap. XVII, on "Adolescent +Girls and Their Education," in _Adolescence_, Vol. II, by G. Stanley +Hall, New York, 1904. + +[104] _The Study of Science by Women in the Contemporary Review_ for +March, 1869. + +[105] _Die Akademische Frau. Gutachten hervorragender +Universitäten-professoren, Frauenlehrer und Schriftsteller über die +Befähigung der Frau zum wissenschaftlichen Studium and Berufe +herausgegeben von Arthur Kirchhoff_, Berlin, 1897. + +[106] "Ich komme beim Nachdenken hieruber zu der Ueberzeigung, dass kein +Gott und keine Religion, kein Herkommen und kein Gesetz, aber +ebensowenig die Wissenschaft uns das Recht erteilen, in dieser Beziehung +zwischen dem mannerlichen und weiblichen Geschlect einen principiellen +Unterschied zu statuiren." _Die Akademische Frau_, p. 41. + +[107] _The Subjection of Women_, p. 91, London, 1909. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS + + +"All abstract speculations, all knowledge which is dry, however useful +it may be, must be abandoned to the laborious and solid mind of man.... +For this reason women will never learn geometry." + +In these words Immanuel Kant, more than a century ago, gave expression +to an opinion that had obtained since the earliest times respecting the +incapacity of the female mind for abstract science, and notably for +mathematics. Women, it was averred, could readily assimilate what is +concrete, but, like children, they have a natural repugnance for +everything which is abstract. They are competent to discuss details and +to deal with particulars, but become hopelessly lost when they attempt +to generalize or deal with universals. + +De Lamennais shares Kant's opinion concerning woman's intellectual +inferiority and does not hesitate to express himself on the subject in +the most unequivocal manner. "I have never," he writes, "met a woman who +was competent to follow a course of reasoning the half of a quarter of +an hour--_un demi quart d'heure_. She has qualities which are wanting in +us, qualities of a particular, inexpressible charm; but, in the matter +of reason, logic, the power to connect ideas, to enchain principles of +knowledge and perceive their relationships, woman, even the most highly +gifted, rarely attains to the height of a man of mediocre capacity." + +But it is not only in the past that such views found acceptance. They +prevail even to-day to almost the same extent as during the ages of +long ago. How far they have any foundation in fact can best be +determined by a brief survey of what woman has achieved in the domain of +mathematics. + +Athenæus, a Greek writer who flourished about A.D. 200, tells us in his +_Deipnosophistæ_ of several Greek women who excelled in mathematics, as +well as philosophy, but details are wanting as to their attainments in +this branch of knowledge. If, however, we may judge from the number of +women--particularly among the hetæræ--who became eminent in the various +schools of philosophy, especially during the pre-Christian era, we must +conclude that many of them were well versed in geometry and astronomy as +well as in the general science of numbers. Menagius declares that he +found no fewer than sixty-five women philosophers mentioned in the +writings of the ancients[108]; and, judging from what we know of the +character of the studies pursued in certain of the philosophical +schools, especially those of Plato[109] and Pythagoras, and the +enthusiasm which women manifested in every department of knowledge, +there can be no doubt that they achieved the same measure of success in +mathematics as in philosophy and literature.[110] + +The first woman mathematician, regarding whose attainments we have any +positive knowledge, is the celebrated Hypatia, a Neo-platonic +philosopher, whose unhappy fate at the hands of an Alexandrian mob in +the early part of the fifth century has given rise to many legends and +romances which have contributed not a little toward obscuring the real +facts of her extraordinary career. She was the daughter of Theon, who +was distinguished as a mathematician and astronomer and as a professor +in the school of Alexandria, which was then probably the greatest seat +of learning in the world. Born about the year 375 A. D., she at an early +age evinced the possession of those talents that were subsequently to +render her so illustrious. So great indeed was her genius and so rapid +was her progress in this branch of knowledge under the tuition of her +father that she soon completely eclipsed her master in his chosen +specialty. + +There is reason to believe--although the fact is not definitely +established--that she studied for a while in Athens in the school of +philosophy conducted by Plutarch the Younger and his daughter +Asclepigenia. After her return from Athens, Hypatia was invited by the +magistrates of Alexandria to teach mathematics and philosophy. Here in +brief time her lecture room was filled by eager and enthusiastic +students from all parts of the civilized world. She was also gifted with +a high order of eloquence and with a voice so marvelous that it was +declared to be "divine." + +Regarding her much vaunted beauty, nothing certain is known, as +antiquity has bequeathed to us no medal or statue by which we could form +an estimate of her physical grace. But, be this as it may, it is certain +that she commanded the admiration and respect of all for her great +learning, and that she bore the mantle of science and philosophy with so +great modesty and self-confidence that she won all hearts. A letter +addressed to "The Muse," or to "The Philosopher"--[Greek: Tê +Philosophô]--was sure to be delivered to her at once. Small wonder, +then, to find a Greek poet inditing to her an epigram containing the +following sentiment: + +"When I see thee and hear thy word I thee adore; it is the ethereal +constellation of the Virgin, which I contemplate, for to the heavens thy +whole life is devoted, O august Hypatia, ideal of eloquence and +wisdom's immaculate star."[111] + +But it was as a mathematician that Hypatia most excelled. She taught not +only geometry and astronomy, but also the new science of algebra, which +had but a short time before been introduced by Diophantus. And, singular +to relate, no further progress was made in the mathematical sciences, as +taught by Hypatia, until the time of Newton, Leibnitz and +Descartes,--more than twelve centuries later. + +Hypatia was the author of three works on mathematics, all of which have +been lost, or destroyed by the ravages of time. One of these was a +commentary on the _Arithmetica_ of Diophantus. The original treatise--or +rather the part which has come down to us--was found about the middle of +the fifteenth century in the Vatican Library, whither it had probably +been brought after Constantinople had fallen into the possession of the +Turks. This valuable work, as annotated by the great French +mathematicians Bachet and Fermat, gives us a good idea of the extent of +Hypatia's attainments as a mathematician. + +Another of Hypatia's works was a treatise on the _Conic Sections_ by +Apollonius of Perga--surnamed "The Great Geometer." Next to Archimedes, +he was the most distinguished of the Greek geometricians; and the last +four books of his conics constitute the chief portions of the higher +geometry of the ancients. Moreover, they offer some elegant geometrical +solutions of problems which, with all the resources of our modern +analytical method, are not without difficulty. The greater part of this +precious work has been preserved and has engaged the attention of +several of the most illustrious of modern mathematicians--among them +Borelli, Viviani, Fermat, Barrow and others. The famous English +astronomer, Halley, regarded this production of Apollonius of such +importance that he learned Arabic for the express purpose of translating +it from the version that had been made into this language. + +A woman who could achieve distinction by her commentaries on such works +as the _Arithmetica_ of Diophantus, of the _Conic Sections_ of +Apollonius, and occupy an honored place among such mathematicians as +Fermat, Borelli, and Halley, must have had a genius for mathematics, and +we can well believe that the glowing tributes paid by her contemporaries +to her extraordinary powers of intellect were fully deserved. If, with +Pascal, we see in mathematics "the highest exercise of the +intelligence," and agree with him in placing geometers in the first rank +of intellectual princes--_princes de l'esprit_--we must admit that +Hypatia was indeed exceptionally dowered by Him whom Plato calls "The +Great Geometer." + +There is still a third work of this ill-fated woman that deserves +notice--namely, her _Astronomical Canon_, which dealt with the movements +of the heavenly bodies. It is the general opinion that this was but a +commentary on the tables of Ptolemy, in which event it is still possible +that it may be found incorporated in the work of her father, Theon, on +the same subject. + +In addition to her works on astronomy and mathematics, Hypatia is +credited with several inventions of importance, some of which are still +in daily use. Among these are an apparatus for distilling water, another +for measuring the level of water, and a third an instrument for +determining the specific gravity of liquids--what we should now call an +areometer. Besides these apparatus, she was likewise the inventor of an +astrolabe and a planisphere. + +One of her most distinguished pupils was the eminent Neo-platonist +philosopher, Synesius, who became the Bishop of Ptolemais in the +Pentapolis of Libya. His letters constitute our chief source of +information respecting this remarkable woman. Seven of them are +addressed to her, and in four others he makes mention of her. In one of +them he writes: "We have seen and we have heard her who presides at the +sacred mysteries of philosophy." In another he apostrophizes her as "My +benefactress, my teacher,--_magistra_--my sister, my mother." + +In science Hypatia was among the women of antiquity what Sappho was in +poetry and what Aspasia was in philosophy and eloquence--the chiefest +glory of her sex. In profundity of knowledge and variety of attainments +she had few peers among her contemporaries, and she is entitled to a +conspicuous place among such luminaries of science as Ptolemy, Euclid, +Apollonius, Diophantus and Hipparchus.[112] + +It is a matter of regret to the admirers of this favored daughter of the +Muses that she is absent from Raphael's _School of Athens_; but, had her +achievements been as well known and appreciated in his day as they are +now, we can readily believe that the incomparable artist would have +found a place for her in this masterpiece with the matchless form and +features of his beloved Fornarina. + +After the death of Hypatia the science of mathematics remained +stationary for many long centuries. Outside of certain Moors in Spain, +the only mathematicians of note in Europe, until the Renaissance, were +Gerbert, afterward Pope Silvester II, and Leonardo da Pisa. The first +woman to attract special attention for her knowledge of mathematics was +Heloise, the noted pupil of Abelard. According to Franciscus Ambrosius, +who edited the works of Abelard and Heloise in 1616, the famous prioress +of The Paraclete was a prodigy of learning, for besides having a +knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, which was something extremely rare +in her time, she was also well versed in philosophy, theology and +mathematics, and inferior in these branches only to Abelard himself, who +was probably the most eminent scholar of his age.[113] + +Many Italian women, as we have seen in a preceding chapter, were noted +for their proficiency in the various branches of mathematics. Some of +the most distinguished of them flourished during the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries. Among these were Elena Cornaro Piscopia, +celebrated as a linguist as well as a mathematician; Maria Angela +Ardinghelli, translator of the _Vegetable Statics_ of Stephen Hales; +Cristina Roccati, who taught physics for twenty-seven years in the +Scientific Institute of Rovigo, and Clelia Borromeo, fondly called by +her countrymen _gloria Genuensium_--the glory of the Genoese. In +addition to a special talent for languages, she possessed so great a +capacity for mathematics and mechanics that no problem in these sciences +seemed to be beyond her comprehension.[114] Then there was also Diamante +Medaglia, a mathematician of note, who wrote a special dissertation on +the importance of mathematics in the curriculum of studies for women, +_Alle matematiche, alle matematiche prestino l'opera loro le donne, onde +non cadano in crassi paralogismi_--"To mathematics, to mathematics," +she cries, "let women devote attention for mental discipline."[115] + +The most illustrious, by far, of the women mathematicians of Italy was +Maria Gaetana Agnesi, who was born in Milan in 1718 and died there at +the age of eighty-one. At an early age she exhibited rare intelligence +and soon distinguished herself by her extraordinary talent for +languages. At the age of five she spoke French with ease and +correctness, while only six years later she was able to translate Greek +into Latin at sight and to speak the former as fluently as her own +Italian. At the early age of nine she startled the learned men and women +of her native city by discoursing for an hour in Latin on the rights of +women to the study of science. This discourse--_Oratio_--was not, as +usually stated, her own composition, but a translation from the Italian +of a discourse written by her teacher of Latin. That a child of nine +years should speak in the language of Cicero for a full hour before a +learned assembly and without once losing the thread of her discourse +was, indeed, a wonderful performance, and we are not surprised to learn +that she was regarded by her countrymen as an infant prodigy.[116] + +In addition to Italian, French, Latin and Greek, she was acquainted with +German, Spanish and Hebrew. For this reason she was, like Elena Cornaro +Piscopia, the famous "Venetian Minerva," called Oracolo +Settilingue--Oracle of Seven Languages.[117] + +But it was in the higher mathematics that Maria Gaetana was to win her +chief title to fame in the world of learning. So successful had she been +in her prosecution of this branch of science that she was, at the early +age of twenty, able to enter upon her monumental work--_Le Instituzioni +Analitiche_--a treatise in two large quarto volumes on the differential +and integral calculus. To this difficult task she devoted ten years of +arduous and uninterrupted labor. And if we may credit her biographer, +she consecrated the nights as well as the days to her herculean +undertaking. For frequently, after working in vain on a difficult +problem during the day, she was known to bound from her bed during the +night while sound asleep and, like a somnambulist, make her way through +a long suite of rooms to her study, where she wrote out the solution of +the problem and then returned to her bed. The following morning, on +returning to her desk, she found, to her great surprise, that while +asleep she had fully solved the problem which had been the subject of +her meditations during the day and of her dreams during the night. Could +the psychiatrist who so loves to deal with obscure mental phenomena find +a more interesting case to engage his attention or one more worthy of +the most careful investigation? + +Finally Maria Gaetana's _opus majus_ was completed and given to the +public. It would be impossible to describe the sensation it produced in +the learned world. Everybody talked about it; everybody admired the +profound learning of the author, and acclaimed her: "Il portento del +sesso, unico al Mondo"--the portent of her sex, unique in the world. By +a single effort of her genius she had completely demolished that fabric +of false reasoning which had so long been appealed to as proof positive +of woman's intellectual inferiority, especially in the domain of +abstract science. Maria Gaetana's victory was complete, and her victory +was likewise a victory for her sex. She had demonstrated once for all, +and beyond a quirk or quibble, that women could attain to the highest +eminence in mathematics as well as in literature, that supreme +excellence in any department of knowledge was not a question of sex but +a question of education and opportunity, and that in things of the mind +there was essentially no difference between the male and the female +intellect. + +The world saw in Agnesi a worthy accession to that noble band of gifted +women who count among their number a Sappho, a Corinna, an Aspasia, a +Hypatia, a Paula, a Hroswitha, a Dacier, an Isabella Rosales who, in the +sixteenth century, successfully defended the most difficult theological +theses in the presence of Paul III and the entire college of cardinals. +And so delighted were the women--especially those in Italy--with the +signal triumph of their eminent sister that they defied the traducers +of their sex--_muliebris sapientiæ infensissimis hostibus_--to continue +any longer their unreasonable campaign against the rights of women which +were based on the intellectual equality of the two sexes. + +So highly did the French Academy of Science value Agnesi's achievement +that she would at once have been made a member of this learned body had +it not been against the constitutions to admit a woman to membership. M. +Motigny, one of the committee appointed by the Academy to report on the +work, in his letter to the author, among other things, writes: "Permit +me, Mademoiselle, to unite my personal homage to the plaudits of the +entire Academy. I have the pleasure of making known to my country an +extremely useful work which has long been desired, and which has +hitherto"--both in France and in England--"existed only in outline. I do +not know any work of this kind which is clearer, more methodic or more +comprehensive than your _Analytical Institutions_. There is none in any +language which can guide more surely, lead more quickly, and conduct +further those who wish to advance in the mathematical sciences. I admire +particularly the art with which you bring under uniform methods the +divers conclusions scattered among the works of geometers and reached by +methods entirely different." + +As an indication of the exceptional merit of Agnesi's work, even long +after its publication in 1748, it suffices to state that the second +volume of the_ Instituzioni Analitiche_ was translated into French in +1775 by Antelmy and annotated by the Abbé Bossuet, a member of the +French Academy and a collaborator of D'Alembert on the mathematical part +of the famous _Encyclopédie_. + +A still greater proof of the estimation in which Agnesi's work was held +by men of science is the fact that it was translated in its entirety +into English by the Rev. John Colton, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics +in the University of Cambridge, and published in 1801, fifty-two years +after it had appeared in Italian. His impression of the methods followed +by the Milanese _savante_ was so favorable that, in the words of a +contemporary writer, it "gave rise to his very spirited resolution of +learning a new language at an advanced period of life, that he might +make himself perfect master of them."[118] + +Gratifying, however, as were the tributes of admiration and appreciation +which came to Agnesi from all quarters, from learned societies, from +eminent mathematicians, from sovereigns--the Empress Maria Theresa sent +her a splendid diamond ring and a precious crystal casket bejeweled with +diamonds--that which touched her most deeply was, undoubtedly, the +recognition which she received from the great Mæcenas of his age, Pope +Benedict XIV. As Cardinal Lambertini and Archbishop of Bologna, he had +taken a conspicuous part in the honors showered on Laura Bassi when she +received her doctorate, and was specially delighted when she was made +professor of physics in his favored university. Being himself familiar +with the higher mathematics, he recognized at once the exceptional merit +of Maria Gaetana's work and showed his appreciation of it not only by +letters and presents, but also by having her, _motu proprio_, appointed +by the Bolognese senate as professor of higher mathematics in the +University of Bologna. + +In advising her of this appointment, he writes her that he had in view +the honor of the University in which he had always taken a special +interest, and that the appointment carried with it no obligation of +thanks on her part but rather on his--_che porta seco ch'ella non deve +ringraziar Noi, ma che Noi dobbiamo ringraziar lei_. The interest that +this wise and broad-minded pontiff exhibited in the advancement of +learned women and the rewards he was ever ready to accord to their +achievements in science and literature--especially in the cases of Laura +Bassi and Maria Gaetana Agnesi--is in keeping with the policy pursued by +his predecessors, and accounts in great measure for that large number of +learned women in Italy who, since the opening of the first universities, +have been the glory of their sex and country. + +But ardent as was the desire of the Supreme Pontiff to have Agnesi +occupy the chair of mathematics, and numerous as were the appeals of her +friends and the members of the university faculty to have her accept the +appointment that carried with it such signal honor, she could never be +induced to leave her beloved Milan. For, after completing her +masterpiece, she resolved to retire from the world and devote the rest +of her life to the care of the poor, the sick and the helpless in her +native city. She did not, however, as is so frequently asserted, enter +the convent and become a nun.[119] During many years after her +retirement from the world, she lived in her own home, a part of which +she had converted into a hospital. During the last fifteen years of her +life she had charge of the Pio Albergo Trivulzio--a large institution +founded by Prince Trivulzio for the aged poor who were without home or +assistance. + +She had devoted ten years of the flower of her life to the writing of +her _Instituzioni Analitiche_--prepared primarily for the benefit of one +of her brothers who had a taste for mathematics--and, after it was +finished, she entered upon that long career of heroic charity which was +terminated only at her death at the advanced age of eighty-one. + +One loves to speculate regarding Maria Gaetana's possible achievements +if she had continued during the rest of her life that science in which, +during a few short years, she had won such distinction. She had made her +own the discoveries of Newton, Leibnitz, Roberval, Fermat, Descartes, +Riccati, Euler, the brothers Bernouilli, and had mastered the entire +science of mathematics then known. Her pinions were trimmed for essaying +loftier flights than any hitherto attempted, and her intellect was +prepared, as one of her scientific friends expressed it, "for fixing the +limits of the infinite." But while the world of science was still +sounding her praises and predicting for her still greater triumphs in +the field of analysis, it learned with surprise and sorrow that she had +bid adieu to those studies in which she had achieved such extraordinary +success, and had consecrated her life to the service of the poor and the +afflicted. She disappeared completely from those literary and scientific +reunions where she had so long been the most conspicuous figure, and was +thenceforth known only as the ministering angel of the suffering and the +abandoned. For half a century hers was a life of the most heroic charity +and self-abnegation. Very readily, therefore, we can understand why a +recent representative of the scientific world should desire to see her +name placed on the calendar of saints.[120] + +Had Agnesi devoted her entire life to science instead of abandoning it +just when she was prepared to do her best work, she might to-day be +ranked among such supreme mathematicians as Lagrange, Monge, Laplace and +the Bernouillis, all of whom were her contemporaries. Even as it was, +she has been placed beside Cardan, Leibnitz and Euler for her remarkable +powers of analysis of infinitesimals, while the best proof of the +literary value of her _Instituzioni Analitiche_ is the fact that it has +been selected by the famous society Della Crusca as a _testo di +lingua_--a work considered as a classic of its kind and used in the +preparation of the great authoritative dictionary of the Italian +language. + +But by consecrating herself to charity she probably accomplished far +more for humanity and for the well-being of her sex than if she had +elected to continue her work in the higher mathematics. There had been +many learned women in Italy before her time and many since; many who +were distinguished as Hellenists, as Latinists, as polyglots, as +mathematicians--women like the Roccati, the Borghini, the Brassi, the +Ardinghelli, the Barbapiccola, the Caminer Turra, the Tambroni; but +Maria Gaetana Agnesi surpasses them all, not only in knowledge, but as a +potent influence for the diffusion of culture and the spirit of +brotherhood, for the expansion of benevolence and charity, and, above +all, for the elevation of woman. She was also, as her latest and best +biographer beautifully expresses it, "an inspired _condottiera_ who, in +the field of civility, anticipated the conquests of these latter days." +She was, indeed, as her epitaph informs us, _pietate_, _doctrina_, +_beneficentia insignis_, and as such she will live in the memory of our +race as long as men shall admire genius and love virtue. + +In the year following the publication of Agnesi's _Instituzioni +Analitiche_ was recorded the premature and tragic death of the +distinguished French mathematician, the Marquise Émilie du Châtelet. She +has been described as a "thinker and scientist, précieuse and pedant, +but not the less a coquette--in short, a woman of contradictions."[121] +To most readers she is better known by reason of her liaison with +Voltaire, of whom she is regarded as a mere satellite, than for her work +in science. But she was far more than a satellite that shone by the +light received from the sage of Ferney. For there can be no doubt that +she was a highly gifted woman who, besides having a thorough knowledge +of several languages, including Latin, possessed a special talent for +mathematics. It was said of her that "she read Virgil, Pope and algebra +as others read novels," and that she was able "to multiply nine figures +by nine others in her head." No less an authority than the illustrious +Ampère declared her to be "a genius in geometry." + +Among her teachers in mathematics were Clairaut, Koenig, Maupertuis, +Père Jaquier and Jean Bernouilli, the immediate predecessors of such +distinguished mathematicians as Monge, Lagrange, d'Alembert and Laplace. +At her Chateau of Cirey, where she and Voltaire spent many years +together, she was visited by learned men from various parts of Europe. +Among these was the Italian scholar, Francisco Algarotti, who was the +author of a work entitled _Newtonism for Women_. And as Mme. du Châtelet +was an ardent admirer of Newton, the author of the _Principia_ soon +became a strong bond of union between her and the brilliant Italian. She +called the savants who frequented her château at Cirey the _Émiliens_ +and purposed writing memoirs to be entitled _Emiliana_--a design, +however, which she was never able to execute. + +The first work of importance from the pen of the Marquise was entitled +_Institutions de Physique_. In it she gave an exposition of the +philosophy of Leibnitz and dissertations on space, time and force. In +the discussion of the last topic she seems to have anticipated some of +the later conclusions of science respecting the nature of energy. + +Her most noted achievement, however, was her translation of Newton's +_Principia_, the first translation into French of this epoch-making +work. To translate this masterpiece from its original Latin, it was +necessary that the Marquise, in order to make it intelligible to others, +should have a thorough understanding of it herself. To the translation +she added a commentary, which shows that Mme. du Châtelet had a +mathematical mind of undoubted power. She labored assiduously on this +great undertaking for many years and completed it only shortly before +her death; but it was not published until ten years after her demise. + +In his _Élogie Historique_ on the Marquise's translation of the +_Principia_, Voltaire, in his usual flamboyant style, declares "Two +wonders have been performed: one that Newton was able to write this +work, the other that a woman could translate and explain it." In an +effort to express in a single sentence all his admiration for his +talented friend he does not hesitate to state: "Never was woman so +learned as she, and never did anyone less deserve that people should say +of her, 'She is a learned woman.'" Again he refers to her with +characteristic Frenchiness as "a woman who has translated and explained +Newton, in one word a very great man--_en un mot un très grand +homme_."[122] + +But, although the extent of her attainments and her ability as a +mathematician were unquestionable, she fell far short of her great +contemporary, Gaetana Agnesi, both in the depth and breadth of her +scholarship and in her power of infinitesimal analysis. As to her moral +character, she was infinitely inferior to the saintly savante of +Milan. She was by inclination and profession an Epicurean and an +avowed sensualist. In her little treatise, _Réflexions sur le +Bonheur_--Reflections on Happiness--she unblushingly asserts "that we +have nothing to do in this world except procure for ourselves agreeable +sensations." Considering her profligate life, bordering at times on +utter _abandon_, we are not surprised that one of her countrymen has +characterized her as "_Femme sans foi, sans moeurs, sans pudeur_,"--a +woman without faith, without morals, without shame.[123] + +Anna Barbara Reinhardt of Winterthur in Switzerland was another woman of +exceptional mathematical talent. She is remarkable for having extended +and improved the solution of a difficult problem that specially engaged +the attention of Maupertuis. According to so competent an authority as +Jean Bernouilli, she was the superior, as a mathematician, of the +Marquise de Châtelet. + +Of a more original and profound mathematical mind was Sophie Germain, a +countrywoman of the Marquise du Châtelet. Hers was the glory of being +one of the founders of mathematical physics. A pupil of Lagrange and a +co-worker with Biot, Legendre, Poisson and Lagrange, she has justly been +called by De Prony "the Hypatia of the nineteenth century." + +Her success, however, was not achieved without overcoming many and great +difficulties. In the first place, she had to overcome the opposition of +her family, who were decidedly averse to her studying mathematics. "Of +what use," they asked, "was geometry to a girl?" But in trying to +extinguish her ardor for mathematics they but augmented it. Alone and +unaided she read every work on mathematics she could find. The study of +this science had such a fascination for her that it became a passion. It +occupied her mind day and night. Finally her parents, becoming alarmed +about her health and resolved to force her to take the necessary repose, +left her bedroom without fire or light, and even removed from it her +clothing after she had gone to bed. She feigned to be resigned; but when +all were asleep, she arose and, wrapping herself in quilts and blankets, +she devoted herself to her favorite studies, even when the cold was so +intense that the ink was frozen in her ink-horn. Not infrequently she +was found in the morning chilled through, having been so engrossed in +her studies that she was not aware of her condition. Before such a +determined will, so extraordinary for one of her age, the family of the +young Sophie had the wisdom to permit her to dispose of her time and +genius according to her own pleasure. And they did well. Like the great +geometer of Syracuse, Archimedes, who had ever been her inspiration in +the study of mathematics, she would have died rather than abandon a +problem which, for the time being, engaged her attention. + +She first attracted the attention of savants by her mathematical theory +of Chladni's figures. By the order of Napoleon, the Academy of Science +had offered a prize for the one who would "Give the mathematical theory +of the vibration of elastic surfaces and compare it with the results of +experiment." Lagrange declared the problem insoluble without a new +system of analysis, which was yet to be invented. The consequence was +that no one attempted its solution except one who, until then, was +almost unknown in the mathematical world; and this one was Sophie +Germain. + +Great was the surprise of the savants of Europe when they learned that +the winner of the _grand prix_ of the Academy was a woman. She became at +once the recipient of congratulations from the most noted mathematicians +of the world. This eventually brought her into scientific relations with +such eminent men as Delambre, Fourier, Cauchy, Ampère, Navier, +Gauss[124] and others already mentioned. + +It was in 1816, after eight years of work on the problem, that her last +memoir on vibrating surfaces was crowned in a public séance of the +_Institut de France_. After this event Mlle. Germain was treated as an +equal by the great mathematicians of France. She shared their labors and +was invited to attend the sessions of the _Institut_, which was the +highest honor that this famous body had ever conferred on a woman. + +The noted mathematician, M. Navier, was so impressed with the +extraordinary powers of analysis evinced by one of Mlle. Germain's +memoirs on vibrating surfaces that he did not hesitate to declare that +"it is a work which few men are able to read and which only one woman +was able to write." + +Biot, in the _Journal de Savants_, March, 1817, writes that Mlle. +Germain is probably the one of her sex who has most deeply penetrated +the science of mathematics, not excepting Mme. du Châtelet, _for here +there was no Clairaut_.[125] + +Like Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mlle. Germain was endowed with a profoundly +philosophical mind as well as with a remarkable talent for mathematics. +This is attested by her interesting work entitled _Considérations +Générales sur l'État des Sciences et des Lettres aux Différentes Époques +de Leur Culture_. All things considered, she was probably the most +profoundly intellectual woman that France has yet produced. And yet, +strange as it may seem, when the state official came to make out the +death certificate of this eminent associate and co-worker of the most +illustrious members of the French Academy of Sciences he designated her +as a _rentière_--_annuitant_--not as a _mathématicienne_. Nor is this +all. When the Eiffel tower was erected, in which the engineers were +obliged to give special attention to the elasticity of the materials +used, there were inscribed on this lofty structure the names of +seventy-two savants. But one will not find in this list the name of that +daughter of genius, whose researches contributed so much toward +establishing the theory of the elasticity of metals,--Sophie Germain. +Was she excluded from this list for the same reason that Agnesi was +ineligible to membership in the French Academy--because she was a +woman? It would seem so. If such, indeed, was the case, more is the +shame for those who were responsible for such ingratitude toward one who +had deserved so well of science, and who by her achievements had won an +enviable place in the hall of fame.[126] + +Four years after the birth of Sophie Germain was born in Jedburgh, +Scotland, one whom an English writer has declared was "the most +remarkable scientific woman our country has produced." She was the +daughter of a naval officer, Sir William Fairfax; but is best known as +Mary Somerville. Her life has been well described as an "unobtrusive +record of what can be done by the steady culture of good natural powers +and the pursuit of a high standard of excellence in order to win for a +woman a distinguished place in the sphere naturally reserved for men, +without parting with any of those characteristics of mind, or character, +or demeanor which have ever been taken to form the grace and the glory +of womanhood."[127] + +The surroundings of her youth were not conducive to scientific pursuits. +On the contrary, they were entirely unfavorable to her manifest +inclinations in that direction. Having scarcely any of the advantages of +a school education, she was obliged to depend almost entirely on her own +unaided efforts for the knowledge she actually acquired. She, like +Sophie Germain, was essentially a self-made woman; and her success was +achieved only after long labor and suffering and in spite of the +persistent opposition of family and friends. + +When she was about fifteen years old, the future Mrs. Somerville +received her first introduction to mathematics; and then, strange to +say, it was through a fashion magazine. At the end of a page of this +magazine, "I read," writes Mrs. Somerville, "what appeared to me to be +simply an arithmetical question; but in turning the page I was surprised +to see strange-looking lines mixed with letters, chiefly X's and Y's, +and asked 'What is that?'" She was told it was a kind of arithmetic, +called algebra. + +Her interest was at once aroused; and she resolved forthwith to seek +information regarding the curious lines and letters which had so excited +her curiosity. "Unfortunately," she tells us, "none of our acquaintances +or relatives knew anything of science or natural history; nor, had they +done so, should I have had courage to ask of them a question, for I +should have been laughed at." + +Finally she was able to secure a copy of a work on algebra and a Euclid. +Although without a teacher she immediately applied herself to master the +contents of these two works, but she had to do so by stealth in bed +after she had retired for the night. When her father learned of what was +going on, he said to the girl's mother, "Peg, we must put a stop to +this, or we shall have Mary in a straightjacket one of these days." The +mother, who had no more sympathy with her daughter's scientific pursuits +than had the father, and, fully convinced, like the great majority of +her sex, that woman's duties should be confined to the affairs of the +household, strove to divert her daughter's mind from her "unladylike" +pursuits. But her efforts were ineffectual. The young woman, in spite of +all obstacles and opposition, contrived to continue her cherished +studies; and, through her uncle, the Rev. Dr. Somerville, afterward her +father-in-law, she was able to become proficient in both Latin and +Greek. When she was thirty-three years of age she became the happy +possessor of a small library of mathematical works. "I had now," she +writes, "the means, and pursued my studies with increased assiduity; +concealment was no longer necessary, nor was it attempted. I was +considered eccentric and foolish, and my conduct was highly disapproved +of by many, especially by some members of my own family."[128] + +In March, 1827, Mrs. Somerville received a letter from Lord Brougham, +who had heard of her remarkable acquirements, begging her to prepare for +English readers a popular exposition of Laplace's great work--_Mécanique +Céleste_. She was overwhelmed with astonishment at this request, for her +modesty made her diffident of her powers; and she felt that her +self-acquired knowledge of science was so far inferior to that of +university men that it would be sheer presumption for her to undertake +the task proposed to her. She was, however, finally persuaded to make +the attempt, with the proviso that her manuscript should be consigned to +the flames unless it fulfilled the expectations of those who urged its +production. + +In less than a year her work, to which she gave the name of _The +Mechanism of the Heavens_, was ready for the press. But it was far more +than a translation and epitome, as originally intended by its projector, +Lord Brougham; for, in addition to the views of Laplace, it contained +the independent opinions of the translator respecting the propositions +of the illustrious French savant. No sooner was the work published than +Mrs. Somerville found herself famous. She had, as Sir John Herschel +expressed it, "written for posterity," and her book placed her at once +among the leading scientific writers and thinkers of the day. She was +elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society at the same +time as Caroline Herschel, they being the first two women thus honored. +Her bust, by Chantry, was placed in the great hall of the Royal Society, +and she was made a member of many other scientific societies in Europe +and America. In recognition of her services to science she was granted +by the government a pension of £200 a year--a sum which was shortly +afterward increased to £300. In addition to all this, Mrs. Somerville +had the satisfaction of learning that her work was so highly esteemed by +Dr. Whewell, the great master of Trinity, that it was, chiefly on his +recommendation, introduced as a textbook in the University of Cambridge +and prescribed as "an essential work to those students who aspire to the +highest places in the examinations." What Mme. du Châtelet had done for +Newton, Mrs. Somerville did for Laplace. + +Among other books from the pen of this highly gifted woman is her +_Connection of the Physical Sciences_ and a work entitled _Physical +Geography_, which, together with the _Mechanism of the Heavens_, was the +object of the "profound admiration" of Humboldt. Then there is a number +of very abstruse monographs on mathematical subjects, one of which is a +treatise of two hundred and forty-six pages _On Curves and Surfaces of +Higher Orders_, which, she tells us, she "wrote _con amore_ to fill up +her morning hours while spending the winter in Southern Italy." + +Her last work was a treatise _On Molecular and Microscopic Science_ +embodying the most recondite investigations on the subject. This book, +begun after she had passed her eightieth birthday, occupied her for many +years and was not ready for publication until she was close upon her +ninetieth year. Her last occupations, continued until the day of her +death at the advanced age of ninety-two, were the reading of a book on +_Quaternions_ and the review and completion of a volume _On the Theory +of Differences_. + +Like her illustrious friend, the great Humboldt, Mary Somerville was +possessed of extraordinary physical vigor, and, like him, she retained +her mental powers unimpaired until the last. And like her great rival in +mathematics, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, she was always "beautifully womanly." +Her scientific and literary occupations did not cause her to neglect +the duties of her household or to disregard "the graceful and artistic +accomplishments of an elegant woman of the world." Her daughter Martha +writes of her: "It would be almost incredible were I to describe how +much my mother contrived to do in the course of the day. When my sister +and I were small children, although busily engaged in writing for the +press, she used to teach us for three hours in the morning, besides +managing her house carefully, reading the newspapers--for she was always +a keen and, I must add, a liberal politician--and the most important new +books on all subjects, grave and gay. In addition to this, she freely +visited and received her friends.... Gay and cheerful company was a +pleasant relaxation after a hard day's work."[129] + +The life of Mary Somerville, like that of Gaetana Agnesi, proves that +the pursuit of science is not, as so often asserted, incompatible with +domestic and social duties. It also disposes of the fallacy, so +generally entertained, that intellectual labor is detrimental to the +health of women and antagonistic to longevity. The truth is that it is +yet to be demonstrated that intellectual work, even of the severest +kind, is, _per se_, more deleterious to women than to those of the +stronger sex. + +Scarcely less remarkable as a mathematician was Mrs. Somerville's +distinguished contemporary, Janet Taylor, who was known as the "Mrs. +Somerville of the Marine World." She was the author of numerous works on +navigation and nautical astronomy which in their day were highly prized +by seafaring men. In recognition of her valuable services to the marine +world she was placed on the civil list of the British government. + +As an eminent mathematician as well as a "representative of the highest +intellectual accomplishments to which women have attained," Sónya +Kovalévsky will ever occupy an honored place among the votaries of +science. In many respects this richly endowed daughter of Holy Russia +was _par excellence_ the woman of genius of the latter half of the +nineteenth century. + +She was born in Moscow in 1850, but although her career was brief it was +one of meteoric splendor. At an early age she exhibited an unusual +talent for mathematics and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Not +being able to obtain in her own country the educational advantages she +desired, she resolved at the age of eighteen to go to Germany with a +view of pursuing her studies there under more favorable auspices. + +She first matriculated in the University of Heidelberg, where she spent +two years in studying mathematics under the most eminent professors of +that famous old institution. Thence she went to Berlin. She could not +enter the University there, as its doors were closed to female students; +but she was fortunate enough to prevail on the illustrious Professor +Weierstrass, regarded by many as the father of mathematical analysis, to +give her private lessons. He soon discovered to his astonishment that +this child-woman had "the gift of intuitive genius to a degree he had +seldom found among even his older and more developed students." Under +this eminent mathematician Sónya spent about three years, at the end of +which period she was able to present to the University of Göttingen +three theses which she had written under the direction of her professor. +The merit of her work and the testimonials which she was able to present +from Weierstrass, Kirchhoff and others were of such supreme excellence +that she was exempted from an oral examination and was enabled, by a +very special privilege, to receive her doctorate without appearing in +person. + +Not long after receiving her doctor's degree--one of the first to be +granted to a woman by a German university--she was offered the chair of +higher mathematics in the University of Stockholm. She was the first +woman in Europe, outside of Italy, to be thus honored. But her +appointment had to be made in the face of great opposition. No other +university, it was urged by the conservatives, had yet offered a +professor's chair to a woman. Strindberg, one of the leaders of modern +Swedish literature, wrote an article in which he proved, "as decidedly +as that two and two make four, what a monstrosity is a woman who is a +professor of mathematics, and how unnecessary, injurious and out of +place she is."[130] + +The fame that came to Sónya through her achievements in the German and +Swedish universities was immensely enhanced when, on Christmas eve, +1888, "at a solemn session of the French Academy of Sciences, she +received in person the _Prix Bordin_--the greatest scientific honor +which any woman had ever gained; one of the greatest honors, indeed, to +which any one can aspire." + +She became at once the heroine of the hour and was thenceforth "a +European celebrity with a place in history." She was fêted by men of +science whithersoever she went and hailed by the women of the world as +the glory of her sex and as the most brilliant type of intellectual +womanhood. + +Mme. Kovalévsky's printed mathematical works embrace only a few memoirs +including those which she presented for her doctorate and for the _Prix +Bordin_. But brief as they are, all of these memoirs are regarded by +mathematicians as being of special value. This is particularly true of +the memoirs, which secured for her the _Prix Bordin_; for it contains +the solution of a problem that long had baffled the genius of the +greatest mathematicians. + +The prize had been opened to the competition of the mathematicians of +the world, and the astonishment of the committee of the French Academy +was beyond expression when it was found that the successful contestant +was a woman.[131] + +Everyone admired her varied and profound knowledge, but, above all, her +amazing powers of analysis. A German mathematician, Kronecker, did not +hesitate to declare that "the history of mathematics will speak of her +as one of the rarest investigators."[132] + +Shortly before her premature death, she had planned a great work on +mathematics. All who are interested in the intellectual capacities and +achievements of woman must regret that she was unable to complete what +would undoubtedly have been the noblest monument of woman's scientific +genius. She was then in the prime of life and perfectly equipped for the +work she had in mind. Considering the extraordinary receptive and +productive power of this richly dowered woman, there can be little +doubt, had she lived a few years longer, that she would have produced a +work that would have caused her to be ranked among the greatest +mathematicians of the nineteenth century. + +It is pleasant to record that this woman of masculine mind, masculine +energy and masculine genius, far from being mannish or unwomanly, was, +on the contrary, a woman of a truly feminine heart; and that, although a +giantess in intellectual attainments, she was in grace and charm and +delicacy of sentiment one of the noblest types of beautiful womanhood. +She could with the greatest ease turn from a lecture on _Abel's +Functions_ or a research on Saturn's rings to the writing of verse in +French or of a novel in Russian or to collaborating with her friend, the +Duchess of Cajanello, on a drama in Swedish, or to making a lace collar +for her little daughter, Fouzi, to whom she was most tenderly +attached.[133] + +Little more than a quarter of a century has elapsed since Strindberg, +expressing the sentiment of the great majority of the men of his time, +declared that a woman professor of mathematics is a monstrosity. But +during this short period what a change has been effected in the attitude +of the world toward women who devote themselves to the study and the +teaching of science! Women mathematicians are found to-day in all +civilized countries, and no sane person now considers it any more +"unwomanly" or more "monstrous" for them to study or teach mathematics +than for them to teach music or needlework. Yet more. They are now +frequent contributors to mathematical magazines and to the official +bulletins of learned societies, and not infrequently they are on the +editorial staffs of publications devoted exclusively to mathematics. +They are also found as computers in some of the largest astronomical +observatories, where the speed and accuracy of their work have evoked +the most favorable comment. + +Of women in America, who have distinguished themselves by their work in +the higher mathematics, it suffices to mention the name of Miss +Charlotte Angas Scott, recently deceased, who was for years professor of +mathematics in the College of Bryn Mawr. Her writings on various +problems of the higher mathematics show that she faithfully followed in +the footsteps of her illustrious predecessors,--Hypatia, Agnesi, du +Châtelet, Germain, Somerville and Kovalévsky. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[108] "Ipse mulieres Philosophas in libris Veterum sexaginta quinque +reperi," _Historia Mulierum Philosopharum_, p. 3, Amstelodami, 1692. + +[109] Plato had inscribed above the entrance of his school, [Greek: +Oudeis ageômetrêtos eisitô]. Let no one enter here who is not a +geometer. + +[110] Menagius in referring to this matter, op. cit., p. 37, writes as +follows: "Meritrices Græcas plerasque humanioribus literis et +mathematicis disciplinis operam dedisse notat Athenæus." + +[111] The sentiment of the Greek epigram is well expressed in the +following Latin verses: + + "Quando intueor te, adoro, et sermones, + Virginis domum sideream intuens. + E coelis enim tua sunt opera, + Hypatia casta, sermonum venustas, + Impollutum astrum sapientis doctrinæ." + +[112] Among modern works on Hypatia may be mentioned _Hypatia, die +Philosophin von Alexandria_, by St. Wolt, Vienna, 1879; _Hypatia von +Alexandria_, by W. A. Meyer, Heidelberg, 1886; _Ipazia Alessandrina_, by +D. Guido Bigoni, Venize, 1887, and _De Hypatia_, by B. Ligier, Dijon, +1879. + +[113] Ambrosius in his preface to the works of Abelard and Heloise +refers to the latter as "Clarum sui sexus sidus et ornamentum," and +declares "necnon mathesin, philosophiam et theologiam a viro suo edocta, +illo solo minor fuit." + +[114] Mazzuchelli says of her in his _Museo_, "Sembra non avervi nella +Natura cosa la piu intralciata ed oscura nelle storie, ne finalemente la +piu astrusa nelle matematiche e nelle mecchaniche, che a lei conta non +sia e palese, e che sfugga la capacita del suo spirito." _Dizionario +Biografico_, Vol. I, p. 122, by Ambrogio Levati, Milano, 1821. + +[115] _Delle Donne Illustri Italiane del XIII al XIX Secolo_, p. 268, +Roma. + +[116] The full title of this celebrated discourse is _Oratio qua +ostenditur Artium liberalium studia a Fæmineo sexu neutiquam abhorere, +habita a Maria de Agnesis Rhetoricæ Operam Dante, Anno ætatis suæ nono +nondum exacto, die 18, Augusti, 1727_. It is found at the end of a work +entitled _Discorsi Academici di varj autori Viventi intorno agli Stuj +delle Donne in Padova_, 1729. This subject, it may be remarked, +frequently engaged the attention of Maria Gaetana as she advanced in +years, for we find it among the questions discussed in her +_Propositiones Philosophicæ_, pp. 2 and 3, Mediolani, 1738. + +[117] M. Charles de Brosses, in his _Lettres Familières écrites de +l'Italie en 1739 et 1740_, speaks of Agnesi in terms that recall the +marvelous stories which are related of Admirable Crichton and Pico della +Mirandola. "She appeared to me," he tells us, "something more +stupendous--_una cosa piu stupenda_--than the Duomo of Milan." Having +been invited to a _conversazione_ for the purpose of meeting this +wonderful woman, the learned Frenchman found her to be a "young lady of +about eighteen or twenty." She was surrounded by "about thirty people +... many of them from different parts of Europe." The discussion turned +on various questions of mathematics and natural philosophy. + +"She spoke," writes de Brosses, "wonderfully well on these subjects, +though she could not have been prepared beforehand any more than we +were. She is much attached to the philosophy of Newton; and, it is +marvelous to see a person of her age so conversant with such abstruse +subjects. Yet, however much I was surprised at the extent and depth of +her knowledge, I was still more amazed to hear her speak Latin ... with +such purity, ease and accuracy, that I do not recollect any book in +modern Latin written in so classical a style as that in which she +pronounced these discourses.... The conversation afterwards became +general, everyone speaking in the language of his own country, and she +answering in the same language; for, her knowledge of languages is +prodigious." + +[118] At the conclusion of an elaborate review of Colton's translation +of Agnesi's _Instituzioni Analitiche_ in the _Edinburgh Review_ for +January, 1804, the writer expresses himself as follows: "We cannot take +leave of a work that does so much honor to female genius, without +earnestly recommending the perusal of it to those who believe that great +talents are bestowed by nature exclusively on man, and who allege that +women, even in their highest attainments, are to be compared only to +_grown children_, and have, in no instance, given proofs of original and +inventive powers, of a capacity for patient research, or for profound +investigation. Let those who hold these opinions endeavor to follow the +author of the _Analytical Institutions_ through the long series of +demonstrations, which she has contrived with so much skill and explained +with such elegance and perspicuity. If they are able to do so, and to +compare her work with others of the same kind, they will probably +retract their former opinions, and acknowledge that, in one instance at +least, intellectual powers of the highest order have been lodged in the +brain of a woman. + +"At si gelidus obstiterit circum præcordia sanguis; and if they are +unable to attend this illustrious female in her scientific excursions, +of course, they will not see the reasons for admiring her genius that +others do; but they may at least learn to think modestly of their own." + +[119] It is surprising how many legends have obtained respecting the +life of Agnesi after the publication of her _Instituzioni Analitiche_. +Thus, the writer of the article in the _Edinburgh Review_, above quoted, +declares that "she retired to a convent of _blue nuns_,"--a statement +that has frequently been repeated in many of our most noted +encyclopedias. + +In a _Prospetto Biografico delle Donne Italiane_, written by G. C. +Facchini and published in Venice in 1824, it is stated that Maria +Gaetana was selected by the Pope to occupy "the chair of mathematics +which had been left vacant by the death of her father," while Cavazza in +his work _"Le Scuole dell," Antico Studio Bolognese_, pp. 289-290, +published in Milan in 1896, assures us that Gaetana Agnesi taught +analytical geometry in the University of Bologna for full forty-eight +years. The facts are that neither the father nor the daughter ever +taught even a single hour either in this or in any other university. Cf. +_Maria Gaetana Agnesi_, p. 273 et seq., by Luisa Anzoletti, Milano, +1900. This is far the best life of Milan's illustrious daughter that has +yet appeared. The reader may also consult with profit the _Elogio +Storico_ di Maria Gaetana Agnesi, by Antonio Frisi, Milano, 1799, and +_Gli Scrittori d'Italia_, of G. Mazzuchelli, Tom. I, Par. I, p. 198 et +seq., Brescia, 1795. + +[120] M. Rebière, in _his Les Femmes dans la Science_, p. 13, Paris, +1897, writes, "Ne pourrait-on aller plus loin et canonizer notre Agnesi? +J'estime, moi profane, que ce serait une sainte qui en vaudrait bien +d'autres." + +[121] _An Eighteenth Century Marquise, a Study of Émilie du Châtelet_, +p. 5, by F. Hamel, New York, 1911. + +[122] Preface to Mme. du Châtelet's translation of the _Principia_ of +Newton, Paris, 1740. + +[123] Voltaire's last tribute, "The Divine Émilie," or, as Frederick II +was wont to call her, "Venus-Newton," concluded with the following +verses: + + "L'Univers a perdu la sublime Émilie; + Elle aimait les plaisirs, les arts, la veritè; + Les dieux, en lui donnant leur âme et génie, + N'avaient gardé pour eux que l'immortalité." + +The universe has lost the sublime Émilie; she loved pleasure, the arts, +truth; the gods, in giving her their soul and genius, retained for +themselves only immortality. + +For further information of this extraordinary woman, see _Lettres de la +Mme. du Châtelet, Reunies pour la première fois_, par Eugène Asse, +Paris, 1882. + +[124] At the beginning of her correspondence with Gauss, Legendre and +Lagrange Mlle. Germain concealed her sex under a pseudonym, "in order," +as she declared, "to escape the ridicule attached to a woman devoted to +science"--_craignant le ridicule attaché au titre de femme savante_. +She, too, suffered from the widespread effects of Molière's _Les Femmes +Savantes_, as had many a gifted woman before her time and as have many +others of a much later date. + +[125] This celebrated mathematician, as is well-known, was a +collaborator with Mme. du Châtelet in her translation of Newton's +_Principia_. + +[126] For further information respecting this remarkable woman the +reader is referred to _Oeuvres Philosophiques de Sophie Germain Suivies +de Pensées et de Lettres Inédites et Précédées d'une Étude sur sa Vie et +ses Oeuvres_, par. H. Stupy, Paris, 1896. One may also consult +Todhunter's _History of the Theory of Elasticity and of the Strength of +Materials_, Vol. I, pp. 147-160, Cambridge, 1886, in which is given a +careful résumé of Mlle. Germain's mathematical memoirs on elastic +surfaces. + +[127] _Saturday Review_, January 10, 1874. + +[128] _Personal Recollections, From Early Life to Old Age, of Mary +Somerville_, p. 80, Boston, 1874. + +[129] _Personal Recollections_, ut sup., p. 5. + +[130] _Sónya Kovalévsky, Her Recollections of Childhood, With a +Biography_, by Anna Carlotta Leffler, p. 219, New York, 1895. + +[131] "The prize was doubled to five thousand francs, on account of the +'quite extraordinary service rendered to mathematical physics by this +work,' which the Academy of Sciences pronounced 'a remarkable work.' The +competing dissertations were signed with mottoes, not with names, and +the jury of the Academy made the award in utter ignorance that the +winner was a woman. Her dissertation was printed, by order of the +Academy, in the _Mémoires des Savants Etrangers_. In the following year +Mme. Kovalévsky received a prize of fifteen hundred kroner from the +Stockholm Academy for two works connected with the foregoing." + +[132] Men of science will realize the capacity of this gifted Russian +woman as a mathematician when they learn that she gave in the University +of Stockholm courses of lectures on such subjects as the following: + +Theory of derived partial equations; theory of potential functions; +applications of the theory of elliptic functions; theory of Abelian +functions, according to Weierstrass; curves defined by differential +equations, according to Poincaré; application of analysis to the theory +of whole numbers. How many men are there who give more advanced +mathematical courses than these? + +[133] To a friend, who expressed surprise at her fluttering to and fro +between mathematics and literature, she made a reply which deserves a +place here, as it gives a better idea than anything else of the +wonderful versatility of this gifted daughter of Russia. "I understand," +she writes, "your surprise at my being able to busy myself +simultaneously with literature and mathematics. Many who have never had +an opportunity of knowing any more about mathematics confound it with +arithmetic, and consider it an arid science. In reality, however, it is +a science which requires a great amount of imagination, and one of the +leading mathematicians of our century states the case quite correctly +when he says that it is impossible to be a mathematician without being a +poet in soul. Only, of course, in order to comprehend the accuracy of +this definition, one must renounce the ancient prejudice that a poet +must invent something which does not exist, that imagination and +invention are identical. It seems to me that the poet has only to +perceive that which others do not perceive, to look deeper than others +look. And the mathematician must do the same thing. As for myself, all +my life I have been unable to decide for which I had the greater +inclination, mathematics or literature. As soon as my brain grows +wearied of purely abstract speculations it immediately begins to incline +to observations on life, to narrative, and _vice versa_, everything in +life begins to appear insignificant and uninteresting, and only the +eternal, immutable laws of science attract me. It is very possible that +I should have accomplished more in either of these lines, if I had +devoted myself exclusively to it; nevertheless, I cannot give up either +of them completely." + +From Ellen Key's _Biography of the Duchess of Cajanello_, quoted in Anna +Leffler's biography of Sónya Kovalévsky, ut sup, pp. 317-318. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +WOMEN IN ASTRONOMY + + +Urania, the muse of astronomy, was a woman; and, although most of her +devotees have been men, the number of the gentler sex who have achieved +success in the cultivation of the science of the stars has been much +larger than is usually supposed. + +There is reason to believe that woman's interest in astronomy dates back +to early Egyptian and Babylonian times when the star-gazers in the +fertile valley of the Nile and on the broad plains of Chaldea were so +active, and when they made so many important discoveries respecting the +laws and movements of the heavenly bodies. According to Plutarch, +Aganice, the daughter of Sesostris, King of Egypt, tried to predict +future events by the aid of celestial globes and by the study of the +constellations. Her observations, however, were in the interests of +astrology rather than of astronomy, as we now understand the science. + +The first woman whose name has come down to us, who deserved to be +regarded as an astronomer, was most probably Aglaonice, the daughter of +Hegetoris of Thessaly. By means of the lunar cycle known as the Saros, a +period discovered by the Chaldean astronomers and embracing a little +more than eighteen years, during which the eclipses of the moon and sun +recur in nearly the same order as during the preceding period, this +Greek woman was able to predict eclipses. The people among whom she +lived regarded her as a sorceress; but she flouted them all, and +declared that she was able to make the sun and moon disappear at will. + +The first woman, however, to attain eminence as an astronomer was +undoubtedly Hypatia, that universal genius of the ancient world, who +seemed equally at home in literature, philosophy and mathematics, and +who may justly be regarded as one of the most highly gifted women that +has ever lived. In Alexandria, where she was born and lived, this +accomplished daughter of Theon taught not only philosophy, but also +algebra, geometry and astronomy. One of her pupils, Synesius, who became +Bishop of Ptolemais, informs us that she was the inventor of two +important astronomical instruments: an astrolabe and a planisphere. In +addition to two mathematical works, a _Treatise on the Conics of +Apollonius_ and a _Commentary on the Arithmetic of Diophantus_, which +was in reality a treatise on algebra, she was the author of an +_Astronomical Canon_, which contained tables regarding the movements of +the heavenly bodies. It is generally supposed that this was an original +work; but there are some who think it was but a commentary on the tables +of Ptolemy. In this latter case Hypatia's work may still exist in +connection with that of her father, Theon, on the same subject.[134] + +If the works of Hypatia had not been destroyed by the ravages of time, +they would undoubtedly prove that she fully merited all the encomiums +bestowed on her by antiquity for her genius; and they would also prove, +we may well believe, that she deserved to be ranked not only with the +eminent mathematicians upon whose works she commented, but also with +such masters of astronomic science as Ptolemy, Eratosthenes and +Aristarchus. + +After the tragic death of Hypatia many centuries elapsed before any +other woman attracted attention for her work in astronomy. Indeed, so +neglected was the study of the heavens between the time of Hypatia and +the Arab prince and astronomer, Albategni, who flourished during the +latter part of the ninth century and the early part of the tenth, that +only eight observations, it is asserted, were recorded during this long +period. The works and observations of Albategni, it may be remarked, +have a particular interest from the fact that they form a connecting +link between those of the Alexandrine astronomers and those of modern +Europe. + +Antoine Hamilton, in his _Gaufrey_--a parody on _The Thousand and One +Nights_--tells of a Saracen princess, _Fleur d'Épine_, who, before she +was fifteen years of age, was able not only to speak Latin and Romance, +but who was also "better acquainted than any woman in the world with the +movements of the stars and the moon." + + "Et du cours des étoiles et de la lune luisant + Savoit moult plus que fame de chest siècle vivant." + +If any woman between the time of Hypatia and Galileo deserved such high +praise for her astronomical knowledge it was certainly Saint Hildegard, +the famous Benedictine abbess of Bingen on the Rhine. She has well been +called "the marvel of the twelfth century," not only on account of her +sanctity, but also on account of her extraordinary attainments in every +branch of knowledge then cultivated. + +When treating of the sun, Hildegard tells us that it is in the center of +the firmament and holds in place the stars that gravitate around it, as +the earth attracts the creatures which inhabit it. This view of a +twelfth century nun is indeed remarkable. For, in her time, the earth +was by everyone considered as the center of the firmament, while +universal gravitation--the sublime discovery of Newton--had not as yet +entered into the scientific theories of that epoch. + +Hildegard likewise anticipates subsequent discoveries regarding the +alternation of the seasons. "If," she writes, "it is cold in the winter +time on the part of the earth which we inhabit, the other part must be +warm, in order that the temperature of the earth may always be in +equilibrium." That she should have arrived at this conclusion before +navigators had visited the southern hemisphere is truly +astonishing.[135] + +"The stars," she continues, "have neither the same brightness nor the +same size. They are kept in their course by a superior body." Here again +is her idea of universal gravitation. + +These stars, she further declares, are not immovable, but they traverse +the firmament in its entirety. And to make clearer her conception of the +motion of the stars, she compares this motion to that of the blood in +the veins. To hear one of this early period speaking of blood coursing +through the veins and thus traversing the whole body of man seems to +presage, in a remarkable manner, the beautiful discoveries of Cesalpino +and Harvey regarding the circulation of the blood. + +The most celebrated astronomer of the early Renaissance was John Müller, +of Königsburg, better known as Regiomontanus. In his observatory in +Nuremberg he was ably assisted by his wife who exhibited a special +interest in astronomy. At the end of the sixteenth century, Sophia +Brahe, the youngest sister of Tycho Brahe, following in the footsteps of +her illustrious brother, attained great celebrity as an astronomer. + +More distinguished for her astronomical work than either of these two +women was Maria Cunitz, a Silesian, who, from her tenderest years, +displayed extraordinary zeal for study and who eventually became +mistress of seven languages, among which were Latin, Greek and Hebrew. +She also cultivated poetry, music and painting; but her favorite studies +were mathematics and astronomy. At the solicitation of her husband, she +undertook the preparation of an abridgment of the _Rudolphine Tables_. +Her work, under the name of _Urania Propitia_, was published after her +death by her husband, and gained for the talented authoress the name of +"The second Hypatia."[136] + +Shortly after the completion of _Urania Propitia_, a French woman, +Jeanne Dumée, distinguished herself by writing a work on the theory of +Copernicus entitled _Entretiens sur l'Opinion de Copernic Touchant la +Mobilité de la Terre_. So far as known, this work was never published, +but the original manuscript is still preserved in the National Library +of Paris. The authoress deems it necessary it apologize for writing on a +subject that is usually considered foreign to her sex and to explain why +she was ambitious to discuss questions to which the women of her time +never gave any thought. It was that she might "prove to them that they +are not incapable of study, if they wish to make the effort, because +between the brain of a woman and that of a man there is no +difference."[137] + +How often before had not women endeavored to prove the equality of brain +power of the two sexes, and how often since have they bent their efforts +in this direction! And yet the majority of men still remain skeptical +about such equality. + +Among the contemporaries of Jeanne Dumée were two other women who gained +more than ordinary distinction by their attainments in astronomy. These +were Mme. de la Sablière, in France, and Maria Margaret Kirch, of +Germany. + +Mme. de la Sablière evinced from an early age a special aptitude for +science, especially for physics and astronomy. She studied mathematics +under the eminent mathematician, Roberval, and at the age of thirty was +famous. Her home became the resort of learned and eminent men, including +some of the most noted characters of the age. Among these was Sobieski, +King of Poland. But it is as the friend and protectress of La Fontaine +and as the object of Boileau's satire that she is best known. + +For a woman to devote herself to the study of science so soon after the +appearance of Molière's _Les Femmes Savantes_ argued more than ordinary +courage. But for her to become distinguished for her scientific +acquirements was almost tantamount to defying public opinion. The great +majority of men had come to regard learned women in the same light as +those who were so mercilessly derided in the _Précieuses Ridicules_; and +they had, accordingly, no hesitation in treating them as unbearable +pedants. No one could have made less parade of her learning than Mme. de +la Sablière, or striven more successfully to conceal her admirable +gifts. But this was not sufficient. She was known to have devoted +special study to science, particularly to astronomy, and this was +sufficient to make her the target of the satirists of her time. + +By an act that wounded the self-love of Boileau this Venus Urania, as +she has been called, soon found herself the victim of the satirist's +well-directed shafts. The poet does not name her, but refers to her as + + "Cette savante + Qu'estime Roberval et que Sauveur fréquente----" + +this learned woman whom Roberval esteems and whom Sauveur frequents. And +with the view of pricking the object of his spleen in her most sensitive +part, he tells, in his _Satire contre les Femmes_, how she, with +astrolabe in hand, spends her nights in making observations of the +planet Jupiter and how this occupation has had the effect of weakening +her sight and ruining her complexion.[138] + +Mme. de la Sablière does not, however, seem to have been greatly +perturbed by the ungracious effusions of the satirist, for she continued +her cultivation of astronomy as before the poet's ill-natured outburst. +She probably found ample compensation in the writings of La Fontaine, +who addressed her as his muse and proclaimed her as one in whom were +combined manly beauty and feminine grace--_beauté d'homme avec grace de +femme_. + +Maria Kirch, born at Panitch, near Leipsic, in 1670, was the wife of a +Berlin astronomer, Gottfried Kirch. After her marriage she, like her +three sisters-in-law, became her husband's pupil in astronomy. In 1702, +as his assistant in observations and calculations, she was fortunate +enough to discover a comet. She was the friend of Leibnitz, and was by +him presented to the court of Prussia. It is a matter of regret to those +of her own sex that this comet was not, as it should have been, named +after its discoverer. + +The death of Herr Kirch, which took place in 1710, caused no +interruption in Frau Kirch's astronomical occupations. Among the +evidences of her activity is a work which she wrote in 1713 on the +conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the year following. In our day the +conjunction of planets is for the laity a mere matter of curiosity, +while for professional astronomers it is quite devoid of particular +interest. But it was not so in the time of Maria Kirch, for then +astronomy was so intimately associated with astrology that mankind +attributed to such special positions of the planets a certain occult and +capricious influence on the destiny of the earth and its inhabitants. As +theoretical astronomy progressed, such erroneous notions were +abandoned, because it was then recognized that the conjunction of the +superior planets was not something fortuitous, but something that was +reproduced at fixed periods by the known movements of these bodies. +Writers on the subject made it a point to warn the public that they had +nothing in common with astrologers. Among these was Christopher Thurm, +who published a work on the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 1681. +Similarly, the book of Maria Kirch contains only astronomical +calculations and nothing more--a fact that redounds to the honor of the +author and to the age in which she lived. + +The daughters of Maria Kirch, even long after their mother's death, +continued to occupy themselves with astronomy. They calculated for the +Berlin Academy of Sciences its _Almanac_ and _Ephemeris_, which were +among the sources of revenue of this learned body. + +During the same period a number of French and Italian astronomers had +female collaborators in their own families. Celsus, the celebrated +professor of Upsala, and a pupil of the son of Gottfried Kirch, had been +accorded a most cordial reception, while passing through Paris on his +way to Bologna, by De L'Isle who had a sister who was devoted to +astronomy. On his arrival in Italy he found that his new master, the +director of the observatory at Bologna, had two sisters, Teresa and +Maddalena, both of great learning, who, like their brother, were engaged +in the study of the heavens and collaborated with him in the preparation +of the _Ephemeris_ of Bologna. This caused Celsus, in a letter to Kirch, +to declare "I begin to believe that it is the destiny of all the +astronomers whom I have had the honor of becoming acquainted with during +my journey to have learned sisters. I have also a sister, although not a +very learned one. To preserve the harmony, we must make an astronomer of +her."[139] + +The Polish astronomer, Hevilius, who had an observatory at Dantzig, is +noted for having made the most accurate observations that had been known +before the adaptation of the telescope to astronomical instruments. He +is also noted for his _Prodromus Astronomiæ_, a catalogue of 1,888 +stars; for his _Selenographia_, containing accurate descriptions and +drawings of the moon in her different phases and librations, and for his +_Machina Coelestis_, which contained the results of forty years of +observations and labor. Much of his success and eminence, however, was +due to his intelligent and devoted wife, Elizabeth, who, during +twenty-seven years, was a zealous collaborator and should share the +credit usually given to her husband. It was she who, after his death, +edited and published their joint work, the _Prodromus Astronomiæ_. + +Among the women most distinguished in the eighteenth century for +astronomical pursuits was the Marquise du Châtelet, who was likewise +famous for her knowledge of mathematics. It was she who accomplished the +difficult task of translating Newton's _Principia_ into French. "This +translation," writes Voltaire, "which the most learned men of France +should have made and which the others should study, was undertaken by a +woman and completed to the astonishment and glory of her country."[140] + +France was at this time devoted to the doctrines of Descartes and to his +theory of elementary vortices; and Voltaire, who had been deeply +impressed by the admirable simplicity of Newton's theory of universal +attraction as a means of explaining the seemingly complex motions of +the heavenly bodies, resolved to make his countrymen acquainted with the +teachings of the great English geometer and, at the same time, dethrone +Descartes in the French Academy. It was, indeed, a huge undertaking; +but, thanks to the ability which Mme. du Châtelet displayed in +translating and elucidating Newton's immortal masterpiece, he lived to +see his dream realized. + +How proud Mme. du Châtelet's countrywomen must have been of her! How +they must have rejoiced in her success and acclaimed her as the +intellectual glory of her sex! How they must have pointed to her work as +a triumphant refutation of the age-old belief in woman's incapacity for +mathematics and all abstract science! How they must have been elated to +find one of their number successfully executing a task which would have +taxed the powers of the most eminent mathematicians of France! How they +must have associated her truly notable performance with similar +achievements of Hypatia and Maria Gaetana Agnesi and discerned in it +concrete evidence of the falsity of all those imputations of mental +inferiority which had been fostered by "man's huge egotism and woman's +carefully coddled superstition." How they must have been encouraged by +her achievement and spurred on to emulate her by similar contributions +to the advancement of science! + +That is what we think now; but the light and frivolous women who +constituted the leaders of society in Mme. du Châtelet's day, and who +were devoured by envy and jealousy of one who was so much their superior +in intellect were not so minded. Far from sympathizing with her work, +they proved to be her most virulent critics and most pronounced enemies. +Neither Molière nor Boileau could have heaped more ridicule on the +pedantic women of their time than was meted out to the translator of the +_Principia_ by certain noble dames of provincial châteaux or by +distinguished habituées of prominent Parisian salons. + +Thus the petulant _ennuyée_, Mme. de Staël, in a letter to her friend, +Mme. du Deffand, writing of Mme. du Châtelet, who was then her guest at +Sceaux, tells us that "she is now passing in review her principles. This +is a task she performs every year, else they might, perhaps, make their +escape and run to such a distance that she would never be able to +recover any of them. I verily believe that they are in durance vile +while in her possession, as they were certainly not born with her. She +does well to keep a strict watch over them."[141] + +And, in her turn, Mme. du Deffand, who was wont to pose as the intimate +friend of Mme. du Châtelet, did not hesitate to write and circulate a +pen portrait of this friend--and that after the unhappy woman was in her +grave--which for bitter reviling and brutal villification has probably +never been equalled. A witty Frenchman observed of this portrait that it +reminded him of an observation once made by a medical acquaintance of +his concerning one of his patients: "'My friend fell ill; I attended +him. He died; I dissected him.'"[142] + +Among other women astronomers of the eighteenth century who deserve +mention are Mme. du Pierry, the Duchesse Louise of Saxe-Gotha, and Mme. +Hortense Lepaute. + +According to Lalande, Mme. du Pierry was the first woman professor of +astronomy in Paris. He dedicated to her his _Astronomie des Dames_, and +incorporated in his own works many of her memoirs on astronomical +subjects. She devoted much time to calculating eclipses with a view to +accurately determining the motion of the moon, and was, besides, the +author of numerous astronomical tables which exhibit patient research +and unquestioned skill. + +The Duchesse Louise had a great reputation as a rapid and accurate +computer, and was celebrated for the number and variety of her +computations. Her modesty, however, prevented her from publishing +anything or even having her work quoted. + +Considering, however, the amount and character of her work, the most +eminent woman astronomer that France has yet produced was, without +doubt, Mme. Hortense Lepaute, the wife of the royal clockmaker of +France. She first distinguished herself by her investigations on the +oscillations of pendulums of different lengths, an account of which is +to be found in her husband's valuable work, _Traité d'Horlogerie_, +published in 1755. + +In 1759 Lalande, who was then the Director of the Paris Observatory, +engaged Mme. Lepaute and the celebrated mathematician, Clairaut, to +determine the amount of the attraction of Jupiter and Saturn on Halley's +comet, whose return was expected in that year. So difficult was this +problem, and so numerous were the complications involved, that Lalande +frankly confesses that he would not have dared to undertake its solution +without Mme. Lepaute's assistance. For it necessitated calculating for +every degree, and for one hundred and fifty years the distances and +forces of each of the planets with reference to the comet. "It would be +difficult," declares Lalande, "to realize the courage which this +enterprise required, if one did not know that for more than six months +we calculated from morning until night, sometimes even at meals, and +that at the end of this enforced labor I was stricken by a malady which +affected me during the rest of my life." Clairaut was so impressed by +Mme. Lepaute's energy and skill during this time that he declared "her +ardor was surprising," and he did not hesitate to call her _La savante +calculatrice_--the learned computer.[143] + +The eclipse of 1762 also engaged Mme. Lepaute's attention, as did also +the annular eclipse of 1764. The latter was a curious phenomenon for +France, as it had never before been observed. Mme. Lepaute calculated it +for the whole of Europe and published a chart showing its path for every +quarter of an hour. She also published another chart for Paris, in which +were exhibited the different phases of the eclipse. + +On the occasion of the different eclipses which she had calculated, Mme. +Lepaute recognized the advantage of having a table of parallactic +angles. She accordingly prepared a very extended table of this kind +which was published by the French government. Besides this table, she +was the author of numerous memoirs on astronomical subjects. Among them +was one embracing calculations based on all the observations which had +been made on the transit of Venus in 1761. + +"In 1759," again writes Lalande, "I was given charge of the +_Connaissance des Temps_, a work which the Academy of Sciences published +every year for the use of astronomers and navigators, the calculations +for which gave occupation to several persons. I had the good fortune to +find in Mme. Lepaute a co-worker without whom I should not have been +able to undertake the labor required. She continued in this occupation +until 1774, when another Academician assumed this laborious task. But +she thereupon began work on the _Ephemeris_, of which the seventh volume +in quarto, which appeared in 1774, goes to 1784, and of which the +eighth, published in 1783, extends to the year 1792. In this latter +volume she made, unaided, all the computations for the sun, the moon and +all the planets. + +"This long series of calculations finally enfeebled her eyesight, which +had been excellent, and she was in the last years of her life obliged to +discontinue them."[144] + +In view of her extraordinary and long-continued work in her chosen +specialty, M. Lalande was quite warranted in stating that "Mme. Lepaute +is the only woman in France who has acquired veritable knowledge in +astronomy; and she is now replaced only by Mme. du Pierry, who has +published divers astronomical calculations, and who has deserved to have +dedicated to her _L'Astronomie des Dames_, which appeared in 1786." + +It is gratifying to know that the beautiful Japan Rose--originally +called _Pautia_, but changed to _Hortensia_ by Jussieu--was named after +this distinguished woman. It is also gratifying to be assured that her +engrossing work in astronomy in no wise caused her to neglect her home +duties or to lose that sweetness of character and delicacy of refinement +for which she was noted before she entered upon the absorbing and taxing +career of astronomical computer. + +The wife of Lalande's nephew, Mme. Lefrançais de Lalande, proved herself +in many respects a worthy successor of Mme. Lepaute. "My niece," writes +her uncle, Jérôme Lalande, "aids her husband in his observations and +draws conclusions from them by calculation. She has reduced the +observations of ten thousand stars, and prepared a work of three hundred +pages of horary tables--an immense work for her age and sex. They are +incorporated in my _Abrégé de Navigation_. + +"She is one of the rare women who have written scientific books. She has +published tables for finding the time at sea by the altitude of the sun +and stars. These tables were printed in 1791 by the order of the +National Assembly.... In 1799 she published a catalogue of ten thousand +stars, reduced and calculated." + +This distinguished observer and computer had a daughter in whom her +grand-uncle was particularly interested. "This daughter of astronomy," +he tells us, "was born the twentieth of January, 1790, the day on which +we at Paris saw for the first time the comet which Miss Caroline +Herschel had just discovered. The child was accordingly named Caroline; +her godfather was Delambre." + +The discoverer of the comet referred to was, in many ways, a most +remarkable woman. She was the sister of Sir William Herschel, the +illustrious pioneer of modern physical astronomy and the virtual founder +of sidereal science, as we know it to-day. She was also the aunt of Sir +John Herschel, who was the only rival of his uncle, Sir William, as an +explorer of the heavens. + +But she was far more than a mere relative of these immortal leaders in +astronomic science. She herself was an astronomer of distinction, and +is known, in the annals of astronomy, as the discoverer of no fewer than +eight comets. Great, however, as was her skill as an observer and +computer, it was as her brother's assistant that she is entitled to the +most distinction. Her affection for him was as unbounded as her devotion +to his life work was abiding and productive of great results. For fifty +years, after joining him in England--they both had been born and bred in +Hanover--she was ever at his side, to assist him in his labors and to +cheer him by her words of counsel and encouragement. She helped him to +grind and polish the mirrors that were used in his epoch-making +reflectors. This was a most arduous task; for, at that time, there was +no machinery sufficiently exact for grinding specula, and, as a +consequence, the work had all to be done by hand. So interested was the +great astronomer in his work, when polishing his larger specula, that he +forgot all about the passage of time, and on these occasions his sister +was constantly obliged, as she herself informs us, "to feed him by +putting the victuals by bits into his mouth by way of keeping him +alive." When finishing his seven-foot reflector he was on one occasion +found so intent on his work that "he had not taken his hands from it for +sixteen hours together." + +In our day, when all kinds of astronomical apparatus are made by +machinery, it is difficult for us to realize what stupendous labor was +required to produce those giant telescopes with which the Herschels made +their great discoveries and by which they, at the same time, +revolutionized the science of the stars. For they had not only to design +and make the specula, but also the mountings of the mirrors as well. +And, in order to obtain the money required for material and workmen, +they were obliged to make telescopes for sale. This meant an immense +loss of precious time that would otherwise have been devoted to the +study of the heavens. + +After long years of struggle, during which the devoted brother and +sister overcame countless difficulties of every kind, their condition +was somewhat ameliorated by financial aid from the government and by +William's appointment to the position of astronomer royal with a salary +of £200 a year. When Sir William Watson heard that this limited sum had +been granted by George III to the discoverer of Georgium Sidus--the +planet now known as Uranus--he exclaimed, "Never bought monarch honor so +cheap." + +Shortly afterwards Caroline was appointed as assistant to her brother at +a salary of £50 a year. This we should now consider but a nominal sum, +but she managed to live on it. When she received the first quarterly +payment of twelve pounds she wrote in her memoirs, "It was the first +money I ever in all my lifetime thought myself to be at liberty to spend +to my liking." Her appointment as assistant to her brother is notable +from the fact that she was the first woman in England, if not in the +world, to hold such a position in the government service. + +Miss Herschel held this official appointment until Sir William's death +in 1822. When not acting as her brother's assistant or secretary, she +devoted her time to what she quaintly called "minding the heavens." It +was during this period that she made her most important discoveries. As +assistant, however, to so indefatigable an observer as Sir William +Herschel, she had but little time for sweeping the heavens, for, when at +home, Sir William "was invariably accustomed to carry on his +observations until day-break, circumstances permitting, without regard +to seasons; it was the business of his assistant to note the clocks and +to write down the observations from his dictations as they were made. +Subsequently she assisted in the laborious numerical calculations and +reductions, so that it was only during his absence from home or when any +other interruption of his regular course of observation occurred that +she was able to devote herself to the Newtonian sweeper, which she used +to such good purpose. Besides the eight comets by her discovered, she +detected several remarkable nebulæ and clusters of stars, previously +unnoticed, especially the superb nebulæ known as No. 1, Class V, in Sir +William Herschel's catalogue. Long practice taught her to make light of +her work. 'An observer at your twenty-foot when sweeping,' she wrote +many years after, 'wants nothing but a being who _can_ and _will_ +execute his commands with the quickness of lightning; for you will have +seen that in many sweeps six or twice six objects have been secured and +described in one minute of time.'"[145] + +It was her quick, intelligent action, combined with a patience, +enthusiasm and powers of endurance that were most extraordinary, that +made Caroline Herschel so valuable as an assistant to her brother, and +enabled him to achieve the unique position which is his among the +world's greatest astronomers. Had she been able to devote all her time +to "minding the heavens," it is certain that she would have made many +more discoveries than are now credited to her; but her service to +astronomy would have been less than it was as the auxiliary of her +illustrious brother. No two ever did better "teamwork"; no two were ever +more devoted to each other or exhibited greater enthusiasm in the task +to which they so heroically devoted their lives.[146] + +In addition to her arduous and engrossing duties as secretary and +assistant to her brother, Caroline found time to prepare a number of +works for the press. Among these were a _Catalogue of Eight Hundred and +Sixty Stars Observed by Flamsteed but not Included in the British +Catalogue_ and _A General Index of Reference to Every Observation of +Every Star in the Above-mentioned British Catalogue_. She had the honor +of having these two works published by the Royal Society. Another, and a +more valuable work, was _The Reduction and Arrangement in the Form of +Catalogue, in Zones, of All the Star-Clusters and Nebulæ Observed by Sir +W. Herschel in His Sweeps_. It was for this catalogue that a gold medal +was voted to her by the Royal Astronomical Society in 1828--a production +that was characterized as "a work of immense labor" and "an +extraordinary monument to the unextinguished ardor of a lady of +seventy-five in the cause of abstract science." To her nephew, Sir John +Herschel, it proved invaluable, as it supplied the needful data "when he +undertook the review of the nebulæ of the northern hemisphere." It was +also a fitting prelude to Sir John's _Cape Observations_, a copy of +which great work she received from her nephew nearly twenty years +subsequently, after he had completed his famous observations of the +southern heavens in his observatory at the Cape of Good Hope. + +"By a most striking and happy coincidence," writes Mrs. John Herschel, +"she, whose unflagging toil had so greatly contributed to its successful +prosecution in the hands of her beloved brother, lived to witness its +triumphant termination through the no less persistent industry and +strenuous labor of his son; and her last days were crowned by the +possession of the work which brought to its glorious conclusion Sir +William Herschel's vast undertaking--_The Survey of the Heavens_." + +That Miss Herschel's labors in the cause of astronomy were appreciated +by her contemporaries is evidenced by the honors of which she was the +recipient. The first of these honors came in the form of a gold medal, +unanimously awarded by the Royal Astronomical Society for her reduction +of twenty-five hundred nebulæ "discovered by her illustrious brother, +which may be considered as the completion of a series of exertions +probably unparalleled either in magnitude or importance in the annals of +astronomical labor." + +It was on this occasion, when referring to the immensity of the task +which Sir William Herschel had undertaken, that the vice-president of +the society paid a deserving tribute to the great astronomer's devoted +sister, in which is found the following statement: + +"Miss Herschel it was who by right acted as his amanuensis; she it was +whose pen conveyed to paper his observations as they issued from his +lips; she it was who noted the right ascensions and polar distances of +the objects observed; she it was who, having passed the night near the +instrument, took the rough manuscripts to her cottage at the dawn of day +and produced a fair copy of the night's work on the following morning; +she it was who planned the labor of each succeeding night; she it was +who reduced every observation, made every calculation; she it was who +arranged everything in systematic order; and she it was who helped him +to obtain his imperishable name."[147] + +Besides this gold medal from the Royal Astronomical Society, Miss +Herschel also received two others, one from the King of Denmark and the +other from the King of Prussia. The latter was accompanied by a most +eulogistic letter from Alexander von Humboldt, who informed her that the +medal was awarded her "in recognition of the valuable services rendered +by her as the fellow worker of her immortal brother, Sir William +Herschel, by discoveries, observations and laborious calculations." + +In 1835, when she was eighty-five years of age, Miss Herschel had the +signal honor of being elected, along with Mrs. Somerville, an honorary +member of the Royal Astronomical Society. As they were the first two +women in England to receive such recognition for their contributions to +science, it seems desirable to reproduce here an extract from the report +of the council of the society regarding the bestowal of an honor which +marked so distinct a change in England of the attitude that should be +taken toward women who excelled in intellectual achievements. The +extract reads as follows: + +"Your council has no small pleasure in recommending that the names of +two ladies distinguished in different walks of astronomy be placed on +the list of honorary members. On the propriety of such a step, in an +astronomical point of view, there can be but one voice; and your council +is of the opinion that the time is gone by when either feeling or +prejudice, by whichever name it may be proper to call it, should be +allowed to interfere with the payment of a well-earned tribute of +respect. Your council has hitherto felt that, whatever might be its own +sentiment on the subject, or however able and willing it might be to +defend such a measure, it had no right to place the name of a lady in a +position the propriety of which might be contested, though upon what it +might consider narrow grounds and false principles. But your council has +no fear that such a difference could now take place between any men +whose opinion could avail to guide the society at large; and, abandoning +compliment on the one hand and false delicacy on the other, submits +that, while the tests of astronomical merit should in no case be applied +to the works of a woman less severely than to those of a man, the sex of +the former should no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any +acknowledgment which might be held due to the latter. And your council, +therefore, recommends this meeting to add to the list of honorary +members the names of Miss Caroline Herschel and Mrs. Somerville, of +whose astronomical knowledge, and of the utility of the ends to which it +has been applied, it is not necessary to recount the proofs."[148] + +Three years after this splendid recognition of Miss Herschel's +astronomical labors she was elected an honorary member of the Royal +Irish Academy. + +But exceptional as were the honors conferred on her by sovereigns and +learned societies, none of them afforded her the extreme satisfaction +that she experienced on the receipt of a copy, shortly before her death, +of her nephew's epochal _Cape Observations_; for, as has well been said, +"nothing in the power of man to bestow could have given such pleasure on +her death-bed as this last crowning completion of her brother's work." +We are told that a copy, just from the press, of his immortal work, _De +Orbium Celestium Revolutionibus_, in which he had established the +heliocentric theory of the planetary system, was placed in the hands of +Copernicus on the day of his death, just a few hours before he expired. +He seemed conscious of what it was; but, after touching it and +contemplating it for a moment, he lapsed into a state of insensibility +which soon terminated in death. With Miss Herschel the case was +different. Although in her ninety-seventh year, she still retained +possession of all her faculties and was fully able to appreciate the +volume which told of the crowning of her brother's life work--a volume +which must have given her additional satisfaction when she recalled her +fifty years of loyal service at her brother's side as his associate and +ministering angel in the greatest work ever undertaken by a single man +in the history of astronomy. + +Caroline Herschel died at the advanced age of ninety-seven years and ten +months, retaining to the last her interest in astronomy which had +occupied her mind for more than three-quarters of a century. + +Her epitaph, composed by herself, is engraved on a heavy stone slab +which covers her grave and contains the following words: "The eyes of +her who is glorified were here below turned to the starry heavens. Her +own discoveries of comets and her participation in the immortal labors +of her brother, William Herschel, bear witness of this to future ages." + +Space precludes any extended reference to Miss Herschel's distinguished +associate in the Royal Astronomical Society, Mrs. Somerville, whose +masterly translation and exposition of Laplace's _Mécanique Céleste_ +secured for her so enviable a place among the mathematicians of her +time, and placed all English students of mathematical astronomy under +such deep obligations. It is true that she ever manifested a lively +interest in celestial phenomena; but it is rather as a mathematician +than as an astronomer that she will be remembered by the devotees of +science. + +The first American woman to win distinction in astronomy was Miss Maria +Mitchell. Born in the island of Nantucket in 1818, she, at an early age, +displayed remarkable talent for astronomy and mathematics. Her first +instructor was her father, who, besides being a school teacher, had +from his youth been an enthusiastic student of astronomy, and that, too, +at a time when very little attention was given to its study in this +country, and when the observatory of Harvard College consisted of only a +little projection to an old mansion in Cambridge, in which there was a +small telescope. + +At the age of thirteen little Maria counted seconds by the chronometer +for her father while he observed the annular eclipse of the sun in 1831; +and from that time on she was his assiduous co-worker in the study of +the heavens. After teaching school for some years, she became the +librarian of the Nantucket Atheneum, a position which she held for +nearly twenty years. Here she continued the study of her favorite +science, and read all the books on astronomy which she could obtain. It +was during this period that she read Bowditch's translation of Laplace's +_Mécanique Céleste_ and Gauss's _Theoria Motus Corporum Cælestium_ in +the original. + +On the evening of October 1, 1847, she was the discoverer of a comet +that attracted great attention because it secured for her a medal +offered by the King of Denmark in 1831 for the first one who should +discover a telescopic comet. The same comet was observed by Father de +Vico in Rome two days subsequently, by Dawes in England on October +seventh, and by Madame Rümker, wife of the director of the observatory +of Hamburg, on the eleventh of the same month. As there was no Atlantic +cable in those days, it was not known who was the fortunate winner of +the prize until nearly a year afterward, when word was received from +Denmark announcing that the priority of Miss Mitchell's discovery had +been recognized and that she would be the recipient of the prize, which, +for a while, it was thought would go to De Vico or Madame Rümker.[149] + +In 1849 Miss Mitchell was appointed a compiler for the _Nautical +Almanac_, a position she held for nineteen years. During the same period +she was employed by the United States Coast Survey. + +When Vassar College was opened in 1865 for the higher education of +women, Miss Mitchell was called to fill the chair of astronomy and to be +the first director of the observatory. In this position she soon +succeeded in giving astronomy a prominence that it never had had before +in any other college for women, and in but few for men. + +Miss Mitchell was a member of several learned societies and the author +of a number of papers containing the results of her observations on +Jupiter and Saturn and their satellites. But she is notable chiefly for +being the first woman astronomer in the United States and for training +up a number of young women who have followed in her footsteps as +enthusiastic astronomers. She held her position at Vassar until 1889, +when she died, a few months before her seventy-first birthday. + +Since the pioneer days of Miss Caroline Herschel, the number of women +throughout the world who have achieved distinction in astronomy has +rapidly augmented. One of the most noted of these was Caterina +Scarpellini, niece of Feliciano Scarpellini, professor of astronomy in +Rome, restorer of the Academy of the Lyncei, and founder of the +Capitoline Observatory. Born in 1808, she manifested at an early age a +decided taste for astronomy, which was carefully developed by her uncle. +She it was who organized the Meteorologico Ozonometric station in Rome +and edited its monthly bulletin. She exhibited a special interest in +shooting stars and prepared the first catalogue of these meteors +observed in Italy. In 1854 she discovered a comet. She has also left +valuable studies on the probable influence of the moon on +earthquakes--studies which brought her distinction from several of the +learned societies of Europe. In 1872 the Italian government decreed her +a gold medal for her statistical labors in science. Since her death her +countrymen have recognized the value of her contributions to science by +erecting a statue to her memory. + +Another woman who has won enduring fame in the annals of astronomy is +Miss Dorothea Klumpke, of San Francisco. While yet quite young, she and +her sisters were taken to Europe to be educated. There she soon became +proficient in a number of languages, and then devoted herself to the +study of mathematics and astronomy. After securing her baccalaureate and +licentiate in Paris, she applied for admission as a student to the Paris +observatory. "The directors of the observatory consulted the statutes. +No woman had hitherto proposed herself as a colleague, but there was no +rule opposing it. They themselves approved, and gave her a telescope to +make her own observations. After a time she completed the work begun by +Mme. Kovalévsky on the rings of Saturn, which she made the subject of +her thesis, and, when she had become Doctor of Science, she was given a +decoration by the Institute and made an _Officier de l'Académie_." + +After Miss Klumpke had brilliantly defended her thesis in the Sorbonne, +M. Darboux, the president of the jury, complimented the young American +doctor on her splendid work and concluded a notable address in her honor +in the following laudatory words: + +"The great names of Galileo, of Huyghens, of Cassini, of Laplace, +without speaking of those of my illustrious colleagues and friends, are +attached to the history of every serious step forward made in this +attractive and difficult theory of Saturn's rings. Your work constitutes +another valuable contribution to the same subject and places you in an +honorable rank beside those women who have consecrated themselves to the +study of mathematics. In the last century Maria Agnesi gave us a +treatise on the differential and integral calculus. Since then Sophie +Germain, as remarkable for her literary and philosophical talent as for +her faculty for mathematics, won the esteem of the great geometricians +who honored our country at the commencement of this century. It is but a +few years since the Academy awarded one of its most beautiful prizes +which will place the name of Mme. Kovalévsky beside those of Euler and +Lagrange in the history of discoveries relative to the theory of the +movement of a solid body about a fixed point.... And you, mademoiselle, +your thesis is the first which a woman has presented and successfully +defended before our faculty for the degree of doctor in mathematics. You +worthily open the way, and the faculty unanimously makes haste to +declare you worthy of obtaining the degree of doctor." + +Besides her thesis just referred to, Miss Klumpke is the author of +numerous communications to scientific journals and learned societies +regarding her researches on the spectra of stars and meteorites and +other allied subjects. For many years she was at the head of the bureau +in the Paris Observatory for measuring the photographic plates that are +to be used in the large catalogue of stars and map of the heavens which +are to constitute the crowning achievements of the International +Astronomical Congress. She was the first woman to be elected a member of +the Astronomical Society of France, and the character of her work as an +observer as well as a computer has given her an enviable position among +the astronomers of the world.[150] + +In America another woman has won renown among astronomers by +successfully executing the same kind of work as was entrusted to Miss +Dorothea Klumpke in Paris. For many years Mrs. W. Fleming, with her +large corps of women assistants, had charge of the immense collection of +astronomical photographs in the Observatory of Harvard University. To +her and her staff were assigned the reductions and measurements of the +photographic and photometric work done in Cambridge and Arequipa, Peru. +She was singularly successful in her studies of photographic plates and +made many discoveries which astronomers regard of the greatest +importance. By such studies she and her assistants detected many new +nebulæ, double and variable stars, besides spectra of different types +and of rare interest. In addition to this they examined and classified +tens of thousands of photographs of stellar spectra, a labor which +involved countless details of reduction and measurements of exceeding +delicacy and skill. + +A complete list of the women who, during the past half century, have +devoted themselves to the study of astronomy and who have contributed to +its advancement by their observations and writings would be a very long +one. Among those, however, whose labors have attracted special notice, +mention must be made of the Misses Antonia C. Maury, Florence Cushman, +Louisa D. Wells, Mabel C. Stephens, Eva F. Leland, Anna Winlock, Annie +J. Cannon and Henrietta S. Leavitt, all of whom are on the staff of the +Harvard Observatory. + +Then, too, there are many women who occupy important positions as +professors or assistant professors in our colleges and universities. +Chief among these in the United States are Sarah F. Whiting, of +Wellesley; Mary W. Whitney, of Vassar; Mary E. Boyd, of Smith; Susan +Cunningham, of Swarthmore, and Annie S. Young, of Mt. Holyoke. Nor must +we forget such able computers as Mrs. Margaretta Palmer, of Yale, and +Miss Hanna Mace, the clever assistant of the late Simon Newcomb in the +Naval Observatory in Washington. + +In the Old World among the women who, during the last few decades, have +materially contributed to the progress of astronomy, either as observers +and computers or as writers, are Miss Alice Everett, who has done +splendid work in the observatories of Greenwich and Potsdam, Misses M. +A. Orr, Mary Ashley, Alice Brown, Mary Proctor--daughter of the late +astronomer, R. A. Proctor--Agnes M. and Ellen M. Clerke, and Lady +Huggins, of England; Mmes. Jansen, Faye, and Flammarion, in France; the +Countess Bobinski, in Russia; and Miss Pogson, in the Observatory of +Madras, India. + +In conclusion, it is but just to observe that women's work in astronomy +has by no means been confined to their contributions as observers, +writers and computers. Reference must also be made to the financial aid +which they have given to various observatories and learned societies for +the furtherance of astronomical research both in the New and the Old +World. It must suffice here to recall the endowment at Harvard +University of the Henry Draper Memorial, by Mrs. Henry Draper, in order +that the work of photographing stellar spectra, which occupied her +husband's later years, might be continued under the most favorable +auspices, and the munificent sum of fifty thousand dollars given by Miss +C. Bruce, of New York, for the construction of a large telescope +especially designed for photographing faint stars and nebulæ. The +photographs taken with this instrument will be used in the preparation +of the great chart of the heavens which is to be the joint production of +the chief observatories of the world. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[134] Cf. the preceding chapter, p. 140. See also _Histoire de +l'Astronomie Ancienne_, Tom. I, p. 317, par. M. Delambre, Paris, 1817. + +[135] "Calor etiam solis in hieme maior est sub terra quam super terram, +quod si tunc frigus tantum esset sub terra quam super terram, vel si in +æstate calor tantus esset sub terra quantus est super terram, de +immoderatione ista terra tota scinderetur." _Hildegardis Causæ et Curæ_, +p. 7, Lipsiæ, 1903. + +[136] _Commentaire de Theon d'Alexandrie_, p. X, translated by the Abbé +Halma, Paris, 1882. + +[137] "Enfin de leur faire connoistre qu'elles ne sont pas incapable de +l'estude, si elles s'en vouloient donner la peine puisqu'entre le +cerveau d'une femme et celui d'un homme il n'y a aucune difference." Cf. +_Journal de Savans_, Tom. III, p. 304, à Amsterdam, 1687. + +[138] + + D'ou vient qu'elle a l'oeil troublé et le teint si terni? + C'est que sur le calcul, dit-on, de Cassini, + Un astrolabe à la main, elle a, dans la gouttière, + A suivre Jupiter passé la nuit entière. + +[139] "Celebre inter observatores hujus ævi nomen adeptus est Godfredus +Kirchius, astronomus nuper regius in Societate Scienciarum Berlinensi; +mense Julio A, 1710 mortuus. Ejus vidua, Maria Magdalena Winckelmannia, +non minore in observando et calculo astronomico dexteritate pollet, ac +in utroque labore maritum, cum viveret, fideliter juvit ... quod laudi +ducitur foeminæ ea animo comprehendisse, quæ sine ingenii vi studiique +assiduitate non comprehenduntur," _Acta Eruditorum_, pp. 78, 79, Lipsiæ, +1712. + +[140] _Préface Historique_ to _Principes Mathématiques de la Philosophie +Naturelle_ par feue Madame la Marquise du Chastellet, Tom. I, p. V, +Paris, 1759. + +[141] _The Unpublished Correspondence of Madame du Deffand_, Vol. I, pp. +202-203, London, 1810. + +[142] Mme. du Deffand's venomous letter, somewhat abridged, reads as +follows: "Imagine a tall, hard and withered woman, narrow-chested, with +large limbs, enormous feet, a very small head, a thin face, a pointed +nose, two small sea-green eyes, her color dark, her complexion florid, +her mouth flat, her teeth set far apart and very much decayed; there is +the figure of the beautiful Émilie, a figure with which she is so well +pleased that she spares nothing for the sake of setting it off. Her +manner of dressing her hair, her adornments, her top-knots, her jewelry, +all are in profusion; but, as she wishes to be lovely in spite of +nature, and as she wishes to appear magnificent in spite of fortune, she +is obliged, in order to obtain superfluities, to go without necessaries +such as under-garments and other trifles. + +"She was born with sufficient intellect, and the desire to appear as +though she had a great deal made her prefer to study the most abstract +sciences rather than more general and pleasant branches of knowledge. +She thought she would gain a greater reputation by this peculiarity and +a more decided superiority over other women. + +"She did not limit herself to this ambition. She wished to be a princess +as well, and she became so, not by the grace of God nor by that of the +King, but by her own act. This absurdity went on like the others. One +became accustomed to regard her as a princess of the theatre, and one +almost forgot that she was a woman of rank. + +"Madame worked so hard to appear what she was not that no one knew what +she really was. Even her faults were perhaps not natural. They may have +had something to do with her pretensions, her want of respect with +regard to the state of princess, her dullness in that of _savante_, and +her stupidity in that of a _jolie femme_. + +"However much of a celebrity Mme. du Châtelet may be, she would not be +satisfied if she were not celebrated, and that is what she desired in +becoming the friend of M. de Voltaire. To him she owes the _éclat_ of +her life, and it is to him that she will owe immortality." See _Lettres +de la Marquise du Deffand à Horace Walpole_, Tom. I, pp. 200-201, Paris, +1824. + +As a contrast to this atrocious caricature, it is but due to the memory +of Mme. du Châtelet to give her portrait by Voltaire, to whom she was +ever the beautiful, the charming Urania, the + + "Vaste et puissante génie, + Minerve de la France, immortelle Émilie." + +It is contained in the following verses: + + "L'esprit sublime et la delicatesse, + L'oubli charmante de sa propre beauté + L'amitié tendre et l'amour emporté + Sont les attraits de ma belle maîtresse." + +If the whole truth were known, it would, doubtless, be found somewhere +between the above extreme and contradictory views, and the cause of the +caustic statements of Mesdames de Staël and du Deffand would probably be +found to be quite accurately expressed in the first part of Voltaire's +_Epistle on Calumny_, which was written about the beginning of his +particular relationship with "the divine Émilie." The first lines of +this epistle, as translated by Smollett, are: + + "Since beautiful, 'twill be your fate, + Emelia, to incur much hate; + Almost one-half of human race + Will even curse you to your face; + Possesst of genius, noblest fire, + With fear you will each breast inspire; + As you too easily confide, + You'll often be betrayed, belied; + You ne'er of virtue made parade, + To hypocrites no court you've paid, + Therefore, of Calumny beware, + Foe to the virtuous and the fair." + +[143] In his work on _Comets_, Clairaut at first gave Mme. Lepaute full +credit for her work which had been of such inestimable service to +himself; but, in order to gratify a woman who, having pretensions +without knowledge, was very jealous of the superior attainments of Mme. +Lepaute, he had the weakness subsequently to suppress his generous +tribute to merit. Commenting on this strange conduct of his assistant, +Lalande expresses himself as follows: "We know that it is not rare to +see ordinary women depreciate those who have knowledge, tax them with +pedantry and contest their merit in order to avenge themselves upon them +for their superiority. The latter are so few in number that the others +have almost succeeded in making them conceal their acquirements." + +[144] _Bibliographie Astronomique_, pp. 676-687, par Jérôme de la Lande, +Paris, 1803. + +[145] _Memoirs and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel_, p. 144, by Mrs. +John Herschel, London, 1879. + +[146] So sensitive was Miss Herschel in her old age regarding the +reputation of her brother, William, who had always been her idol and the +one in whom she had concentrated all her affection, that she came to +look askance at every person and thing that seemed calculated to dull +the glory of his achievements. Thus her niece, in writing to Sir John +Herschel, after her death, declares: "She looked upon progress in +science as so much detraction from her brother's fame; and, even your +investigations would have become a source of estrangement had she been +with you." In a letter to Sir John Herschel, written four years before +her death, she exhibits, in an amusing fashion, her jealous spirit anent +the great telescope of Lord Rosse. "They talk of nothing here at the +clubs," she writes, "but of the great mirror and the great man who made +it. I have but one answer for all--_Der Kerl ist ein Narr_--the fellow +is a fool." + +Even "Every word said in her own praise seemed to be so much taken away +from the honour due to her brother. She had lived so many years in +companionship with a truly great man, and in the presence of the +unfathomable depths of the starry heavens, that praise of herself seemed +childish exaggeration." And notwithstanding the honor and recognition +which she received from learned men and learned societies for her truly +remarkable astronomical labors, her dominant idea was always the +same--"I am nothing. I have done nothing. All I am, all I know, I owe to +my brother. I am only a tool which he shaped to his use--a well-trained +puppy-dog would have done as much." Op. cit., pp. IX, 335 and 346. + +[147] Op. cit., p. 224. + +[148] _Memoirs and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel_, ut. sup., pp. +226-227. + +[149] _Maria Mitchell, Life, Letters and Journals_, compiled by Phebe +Mitchell Kendall, p. 267 et seq., Boston, 1896. + +[150] Miss Klumpke, the reader may be interested in knowing, belongs to +a singularly gifted family. Her sister, Augusta, is a distinguished +physician and an authority on nervous diseases. Hers is the glory to be +the first woman permitted, after an exceptionally severe examination, to +serve as _interne_ in the Paris hospitals. Julia, her youngest sister, +who achieved distinction as a violinist with Ysaye, was one of the first +to pass the examination required of women entering the Paris _Lycées_, +while Anna, the eldest, has won fame as an artist, and as the friend, +heiress and executrix of France's famous daughter, Rosa Bonheur. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WOMEN IN PHYSICS + + +Physics, being one of the inductive sciences, received little attention +until modern times. True, the Greeks were familiar with some of the +fundamental facts of the mechanics of solids and fluids, and had some +notions respecting the various physical forces; but their knowledge of +what until recently was known as natural philosophy was extremely +limited. Aristotle, Pythagoras and Archimedes were among the most +successful investigators of their time respecting the laws and +properties of matter, and contributed materially to the advancement of +knowledge regarding the phenomena of the material universe; but the sum +total of their information of what we now know as physics could be +embodied in a few pages. + +In view of the foregoing facts, we should not expect to find women +engaged in the study, much less in the teaching, of physical science +during ancient times. And yet, if we are to credit Boccaccio, who bases +his statements on those of early Greek writers, there was at least one +woman that won distinction by her knowledge of natural philosophy as +early as the days of Socrates. In his work, _De Laudibus Mulierum_, +which treats of the achievements of some of the illustrious +representatives of the gentler sex, the genial author of the _Decameron_ +gives special praise to one Arete of Cyrene for the breadth and variety +of her attainments. She was the daughter of Aristippus, the founder of +the Cyrenaic school of philosophy, and is represented as being a +veritable prodigy of learning. For among her many claims to distinction +she is said to have publicly taught natural and moral philosophy in the +schools and academies of Attica for thirty-five years, to have written +forty books, and to have counted among her pupils one hundred and ten +philosophers. She was so highly esteemed by her countrymen that they +inscribed on her tomb an epitaph which declared that she was the +splendor of Greece and possessed the beauty of Helen, the virtue of +Thirma, the pen of Aristippus, the soul of Socrates, and the tongue of +Homer.[151] + +This is high praise, indeed, but, when we recollect that Arete lived +during the golden age of Greek learning and culture, that she had +exceptional opportunities of acquiring knowledge in every department of +intellectual effort; when we recall the large number of women who, in +their time, distinguished themselves by their learning and +accomplishment, and reflect on the advantages they enjoyed as pupils of +the ablest teachers of the Lyceum, the Portico, and the Academy; when we +remember further that they lived in an atmosphere of intelligence such +as has since been unknown; when we call to mind the signal success that +rewarded the pursuit of knowledge by the scores of women mentioned by +Athenæus and other Greek writers; when we peruse the fragmentary notices +of their achievements as recorded in the pages of more recent +investigators regarding the educational facilities of a certain class +of women living in Athens and the eminence which they attained in +science, philosophy and literature, we can realize that the character +and amount of Arete's work as an author and as a teacher have not been +overestimated. + +Living in an age of prodigious mental activity, when women, as well as +men, were actuated by an abiding love of knowledge for its own sake, +there is nothing surprising in finding a woman like Arete commanding the +admiration of her countrymen by her learning and eloquence. For was not +the learned and eloquent Aspasia her contemporary? And did not Theano, +the wife of Pythagoras, take charge of her husband's school after his +death; and does not antiquity credit her with being not only a +successful teacher of philosophy, but also a writer of books of +recognized value? Such being the case, what is there incredible in the +statements made by ancient writers regarding the literary activity of +Arete, and about her eminence as a teacher of science and philosophy? +She was but one of many of the Greek women of her age that won renown by +their gifts of intellect and by their contributions to the educational +work of their time and country. + +Better known than Arete, but probably not superior to her as a teacher +or writer, was the illustrious Hypatia of Alexandria. She, too, like her +distinguished predecessor in Athens, was an instructor in natural +philosophy, as well as other branches of science. Of her we know more +than we do of the daughter of Aristippus, but even our knowledge of the +acquisitions and achievements of Hypatia is, unfortunately, extremely +meager. We do, however, know from the historian, Socrates, and from +Synesius, bishop of Ptolemais, who was her pupil, that she was one of +the most richly dowered women of all time. Born and educated in +Alexandria when its schools and scholars were the most celebrated in the +world, she was even at an early age regarded as a marvel of learning. +For, not satisfied with excelling her father, Theon, in mathematics, of +which he was a distinguished professor, she, as Suidas informs us, +devoted herself to the study of philosophy with such success that she +was soon regarded as the ablest living exponent of the doctrines of +Plato and Aristotle. "Her knowledge," writes the historian, Socrates, +"was so great that she far surpassed all the philosophers of her time. +And succeeding Plotinus, in the Platonic school which he had founded in +the city of Alexandria, she taught all the branches of philosophy with +such signal success that students flocked to her in crowds from all +parts."[152] Her home, as well as her lecture room, was the resort of +the most noted scholars of the day, and was, with the exception of the +Library and the Museum, the most frequented intellectual center of the +great city of learning and culture. Small wonder, then, that her +contemporaries lauded her as an oracle and as the most brilliant +luminary in Alexandria's splendid galaxy of thinkers and +scholars--_sapientis artis sidus integerrimum_. + +Among the many inventions attributed to Hypatia, besides the planisphere +and astrolabe which she designed for the use of astronomers, are several +employed in the study of natural philosophy. Probably the most useful of +these is an areometer mentioned by her pupil Synesius. He calls it a +hydroscope and describes it as having the form and size of a flute, and +graduated in such wise that it can be used for determining the density +of liquids. That Hypatia was thoroughly familiar with the science of +natural philosophy, as then known, there can be no doubt. That she also +contributed materially to its advancement, as well as to that of +astronomy, in which she always exhibited a special interest, there is +every reason to believe.[153] + +After the death of Hypatia, the study of natural philosophy was almost +entirely neglected for more than a thousand years. The first woman in +modern times to attract attention by her discussion of physical problems +was the famous Marquise du Châtelet, although she was better known as a +mathematician and as the translator into the French of Newton's +_Principia_. In her château at Cirey she had a well-equipped physical +cabinet in which she took special delight. But in her time, as in that +of Hypatia, natural philosophy was far from being the broad experimental +science which it has become through the marvelous discoveries made in +heat, light, electricity and magnetism during the last hundred years, as +well as through those countless brilliant investigations which have led +up to our present doctrine of the correlation and conservation of the +various physical forces. There was then no occasion for those delicate +instruments of precision which are now found in every physical +laboratory by means of which the man of science is able to investigate +phenomena and determine laws that were quite unknown until a few years +ago. + +In the time of Mme. du Châtelet, as during the century following, +natural philosophy consisted rather in the mechanical and mathematical +than in the physical study of nature. This is illustrated by the title +of the great work on the translation of which she spent the best years +of her life--Newton's immortal _Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia +Mathematica_. + +The Marquise's first scientific work was an investigation regarding the +nature of fire. The French Academy of Sciences had offered a prize for +the best memoir on the subject. Among the contestants for the coveted +honor were the chatelaine of Cirey and the celebrated Swiss +mathematician, Leonard Euler. The Marquise was unsuccessful in the +contest, but her paper was of such value that the eminent physicist and +astronomer, Arago, was able to characterize it as an "elegant piece of +work, embracing all the facts relating to the subject then known to +science and containing among the experiments suggested one which proved +so fecund in the hands of Herschel." In this remarkable _Mémoire sur le +Feu_, which is printed in the _Collections_ of the Academy, the Marquise +anticipates the results of subsequent researches of others by +maintaining that both heat and light have the same cause, or, as we +should now say, are both modes of motion. + +The second book written by this remarkable woman is entitled +_Institutions de Physique_, and was dedicated to her son, for whose +benefit it was primarily written. It deals specially with the philosophy +of Leibnitz and discusses such questions as force, time and space. Her +views respecting the nature of the force called _vis viva_, which was +much discussed in her time, are of particular interest, as they are not +only opposed to those which were held by Descartes and Newton, but also +because they are in essential accord with those now accepted in the +world of science. + +All things considered, the Marquise du Châtelet deservedly takes high +rank in the history of mathematical physics. In this department of +science she has had few, if any, superiors among her own sex. And, when +we recollect that she labored while the foundations of dynamics were +still being laid, we shall more readily appreciate the difficulties she +had to contend with and the distinct service which her researches and +writings rendered to the cause of natural philosophy among her +contemporaries. + +The first woman to occupy a chair of physics in a university was the +famous daughter of Italy, Laura Maria Catarina Bassi. She was born in +Bologna in 1711--but five years after the birth of Madame du +Châtelet--and from her most tender years she exhibited an exceptional +facility for the acquisition of knowledge. + +After she had, through the assistance of excellent masters, become +proficient in French and Latin, she took up the study of logic, +metaphysics and natural philosophy. In all these branches of learning +her progress was so rapid that it far exceeded the fondest expectations +of her parents and teachers. Thanks to a wonderful memory and a highly +developed reasoning faculty, she was able, while still a young maiden, +to prove herself the possessor of knowledge that is ordinarily obtained +only in the maturity of age and after long years of systematic study. + +When she had attained the twenty-first year of her age she was induced +by her family and friends--much against her own inclination, however--to +take part in a public disputation on philosophy. Her entering the lists +against some of the most distinguished scholars of the time was made the +occasion for an unusual demonstration in her honor. The hall of the +university in which such intellectual jousts were generally held was too +small for the multitude that was eager to witness the young girl's +formal appearance among the scholars and the notables of the old +university city. It was, accordingly, arranged that the disputation +should be held in the great hall of the public Palace of the Senators. + +Among the vast assemblage present at the disputation were Cardinal +Grimaldi, the papal legate; Cardinal Archbishop Lambertini, afterwards +Pope Benedict XIV; the gonfalonier, senators, literati from far and +near, leading members of the nobility and representatives of all the +religious orders. + +When the argumentation began the young girl found herself pitted against +five of the most distinguished scholars of Bologna. But she was fully +equal to the occasion and passed the ordeal to which she was subjected +in a manner that excited the admiration and won the plaudits of all +present. Cardinal Lambertini was so impressed with the brilliant defence +which she had made against the five trained dialecticians and the +evidence she gave of varied and profound learning that he paid her a +special visit the next day in her own home to renew his congratulations +on her signal triumph and to encourage her to continue the prosecution +of her studies. + +In less than a month after this interesting event Laura Bassi, in +response to the expressed desire of the whole of Bologna, presented +herself as a candidate for the doctorate in philosophy. This was the +occasion for a still more brilliant and imposing ceremony. It was held +in the spacious Hall of Hercules in the Communal Palace, which was +magnificently decorated for the splendid function. In addition to the +distinguished personages who had been spectators of the fair student's +triumph a few weeks before, there was present in the vast audience the +noted French ecclesiastic, Cardinal Polignac, who was on his way from +Rome to France. + +The heroine of the hour, dressed in a black gown, was ushered into the +great hall, preceded by two college beadles and accompanied by two of +the most prominent ladies of the Bolognese nobility. She was given a +seat between the chancellor and the prior of the university, who, in +turn, were flanked by the professors and officials of the institution. + +After the usual preliminaries of the function were over the prior of the +university, Doctor Bazzani, rose and pronounced an eloquent discourse in +Latin to which Laura made a suitable response in the same language. She +was then crowned with a laurel wreath exquisitely wrought in silver, and +had thrown round her the _vajo_, or university gown, both symbols of the +doctorate. After this the young doctor proceeded to where the three +cardinals were seated, and in delicately chosen words, also in Latin, +expressed to them her thanks for the honor of their presence. All then +withdrew to the apartments of the gonfalonier, where refreshments were +served in sumptuous style, after which the young _Laureata_, accompanied +by a numerous cortege and applauded by the entire city, was escorted to +her home. + +So profound was the impression made on the university senate by the deep +erudition of Laura Bassi that it was eager to secure her services in its +teaching body. But, before she could be offered a chair in the +institution, long-established custom required that she should pass a +public examination on the subject matter which she was to teach. Five +examiners were chosen by lot, and all of them proved to be men whose +names, says Fantuzzi, "will always be held by our university in glorious +remembrance." They had all to promise under oath that the candidate for +the chair should have no knowledge before the examination of the +questions which were to be asked, and that the test of the aspirant's +qualifications to fill the position sought should be absolutely free +from any suspicion of favoritism or partiality. + +Notwithstanding the difficulties she had to confront, Laura acquitted +herself with even greater credit than on former occasions of a similar +character. There was no question in the mind of any one present at the +examination of the candidate's ability to fill the chair of physics, and +it was, accordingly, offered to her by acclamation. + +The first public lecture of the gifted young _dottoressa_ was made the +occasion of a demonstration such as the old walls of the university had +rarely witnessed. Her lecture room was thronged by the élite of the +city, as well as by a large class of enthusiastic students. All were +charmed by her eloquence and amazed at the complete mastery she evinced +of the subject she had selected for discussion. From that day forth her +reputation as a scholar and a teacher was established, and her lectures +were attended by appreciative students from all parts of Europe. She +was especially popular with the students from Greece, Germany and +Poland, and her popularity, far from waning, waxed greater with the +passing years. + +At the time of Laura's entering upon her professional career the senate +of Bologna had a medal coined in her honor, on the obverse of which was +her name and effigy, while on the reverse there was an image of Minerva, +with the inscription, _Soli cui fas vidisse Minervam_. + +Far from interrupting her studies, which had hitherto been the joy of +her life, Laura's university work gave new zest to the literary and +scientific pursuits which had always such a fascination for her. Among +the subjects that specially engaged her attention were studies so +diverse as Greek and the higher mathematics. She was particularly +interested in the great physico-mathematical work of Newton, and did not +rest until she had thoroughly mastered the contents of his epoch-making +_Principia_. + +A few years after she had become a member of the university faculty +Laura was a European celebrity, and no one eminent by learning or birth +passed through Bologna without availing himself of the opportunity of +making the acquaintance of so extraordinary a woman. Men of science and +letters vied with princes and emperors in doing honor to one who was +looked upon by many as being, like Arete of old, endowed with a soul and +a genius far above that of ordinary mortals, and as being the possessor +of a talent that indicated something superhuman. + +Laura Bassi was in constant correspondence with the most celebrated +scholars of Europe, and more especially with those who had attained +eminence in her special line of work. Among the letters received from +her illustrious correspondents were two from Voltaire. They were written +shortly after the author had been refused admittance into the French +academy. He then bethought himself of securing membership in the Academy +of Sciences of Bologna. This, he reasoned, would be a splendid tribute +to the versatility of his genius and would, at the same time, be a +biting satire on the demigods of French literature who had dared to +exclude him from their society. + +That he might not meet the same refusal on the part of the Academy of +Bologna as he had experienced in Paris, Voltaire determined not to rely +entirely on the good will of the male members of the Bolognese academy. +He accordingly resolved to enlist the services of Laura Bassi, who was +one of the leading members of this distinguished body, and trust to her +influence in his behalf on the hearts of her colleagues. + +The first letter, written in Italian, is so characteristic of the writer +that it will bear reproduction. + +"Most Illustrious Lady," he writes from Paris, the 23d of November, +1744, "I have been wishing to journey to Bologna in order to be able one +day to tell my countrymen I have seen Signora Bassi; but, being deprived +of this honor, let it at least be permitted me to place at your feet +this philosophic homage and to salute the honor of her age and of women. +There is not a Bassi in London, and I should be more happy to be a +member of the Academy of Bologna than of that of the English, although +it has produced a Newton. If your protection should obtain for me this +title, of which I am so ambitious, the gratitude of my heart will be +equal to my admiration for yourself. I beg you to excuse the style of a +foreigner who presumes to write you in Italian, but who is as great an +admirer of yours as if he were born in Bologna." + +The second letter of Voltaire is in response to one received from Laura +Bassi announcing that he had been elected to membership in the Bologna +Academy. The first sentence of it suffices to indicate its tenor. +"Nothing," he writes, "was ever more grateful to me than to receive from +your hand the first advice that I had the honor, by means of your favor, +of being united by this new link to one who had already bound me to her +car by all the chains of esteem and admiration."[154] + +Like so many of her gifted sisters of sunny Italy, Laura was in every +way "a perfect woman nobly planned." Of a deeply religious nature, she +was as pious as she was intelligent, and was throughout her life the +devoted friend of the poor and the afflicted. The mother of twelve +children, she never permitted her scientific and literary work to +conflict with her domestic duties or to detract in the least from the +singular affection which so closely united her to her husband and +children. She was as much at home with the needle and the spindle as she +was with her books and the apparatus of her laboratory. And she was +equally admirable whether superintending her household, looking after +her children, entertaining the great and the learned of the world, or in +holding the rapt attention of her students in the lecture room. She was, +indeed, a living proof that higher education is not incompatible with +woman's natural avocations; and that cerebral development does not lead +to race suicide and all the other dire results attributed to it by a +certain class of our modern sociologists and anti-feminists. + +Considering her manifold duties as a professor in the university and the +mother of a large family, it was scarcely to be expected that Laura +Bassi would have much time for writing for the press. She was, however, +able to devote some of her leisure moments to the cultivation of the +Muses, of whom, Fantuzzi informs us, she was a favorite. Her verses, as +well as her contributions to the science of physics, are scattered +through various publications, but they suffice to show that the accounts +of her transmitted to us by her contemporaries were not +exaggerated.[155] + +A learned French traveler who visited Laura in Bologna describes her as +having a face that was sweet, serious and modest. Her eyes were dark and +sparkling, and she was blessed with a powerful memory, a solid judgment, +and a ready imagination. "She conversed fluently with me in Latin for an +hour with grace and precision. She is very proficient in metaphysics; +but she prefers modern physics, particularly that of Newton." + +How many of our college women of to-day could readily carry on a +conversation in Latin, if this were the sole medium of communication, or +discuss the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle in the tongue of Cicero, +or give public lectures on the physico-mathematical discoveries of +Descartes and Newton in what was the universal language of the learned +world, even less than a century ago? + +It must not, however, be inferred from the foregoing statements +regarding the great intellectual capacity of Laura Bassi or the +enthusiastic demonstrations that were so frequently made in her honor +that she was unique in this respect among her countrywomen. Special +attention has been called to her as a type of the large number of her +sex who, by their learning and culture, graced the courts and honored +the universities of her country for full ten centuries. Scarcely had +death removed Laura Bassi from a career in which for twenty-eight years +she had won the plaudits of the whole of Europe, when the University of +Bologna welcomed to its learned halls two other women who, in their +respective lines of research, were fully as eminent as their departed +countrywoman. These were Maria dalle Donne, for whom Napoleon +established a chair of obstetrics, and Clotilda Tambroni, the famous +professor of Greek, of whom a noted Hellenist declared, "Only three +persons in Europe are able to write Greek as well as she does, and not +more than fifteen are able to understand her." + +Burckhardt, in his thoughtful work on the culture of the Italian +Renaissance, has a paragraph which expresses, in a few words, what was +always the attitude of the Italian father toward the education of his +daughter. + +"The education of the woman of the upper class was absolutely the same +as that of the man. The Italian of the Renaissance did not for a moment +hesitate to give his son and daughter the same literary and +philosophical training. He considered the knowledge of the works of +antiquity life's greatest good, and he could not, therefore, deny to +woman participation in such knowledge. Hence the perfection attained by +the daughters of noble families in writing and speaking Latin."[156] + +This attitude of the members of the nobility toward the education of +their daughters was essentially the same as that of the universities of +Italy toward women who had a thirst for knowledge. For from the dawn of +learning in Salerno to the present there never was a time when women +were not as cordially welcomed to the universities as students and +professors as were the men; and never a time when the merit of +intellectual work was not determined without regard to sex. + +In Bologna, where were passed the sixty-seven years of her mortal life, +the name of Laura Bassi, like that of her illustrious colleague, Luigi +Galvani, is one to conjure with, and a name that is still pronounced +with respect and reverence. Her last resting place is in the Church of +Corpus Domini, the same sacred shrine in which were deposited all that +was mortal of the renowned discoverer of galvanic electricity.[157] + +Two years after Signora Bassi was gathered to her fathers there was born +near Edinburgh to a Scotch admiral, Sir William George Fairfax, an +infant daughter who was destined to shed as much luster on her sex in +the British Isles as the incomparable Laura Bassi had diffused on +womankind in Italy during her brilliant career in "Bologna, the +learned." She is known in the annals of science as Mary Somerville, and +was in every way a worthy successor of her famous sister in Italy, both +as a woman and as a votary of science. + +Although her chief title to fame is her notable work in mathematical +astronomy, especially her translation of Laplace's _Méchanique Céleste_, +she is likewise to be accorded a prominent place among scientific +investigators for her contributions to physics and cognate branches of +knowledge. Chief among these are her works on the _Connection of the +Physical Sciences_ and _Physical Geography_. As to the last production, +no less an authority than Alexander von Humboldt pronounced it an exact +and admirable treatise, and wrote of it as "that excellent work which +has charmed and instructed me since its first appearance." + +In a letter from the illustrious German savant to the gifted authoress +of the two last-named volumes occurs the following paragraph: "To the +great superiority you possess and which has so nobly illustrated your +name on the high regions of mathematical analysis, you add, Madam, a +variety of information in all parts of physics and descriptive natural +history. After the _Mechanism of the Heavens_, the philosophical +_Connection of the Physical Sciences_ has been the object of my profound +admiration.... The author of the vast _Cosmos_ should more than any one +else salute the _Physical Geography_ of Mary Somerville.... I know of +no work on physical geography in any language that can compare with +yours." + +Among the other works by Mrs. Somerville, treating of physical subjects +or of subjects intimately related to physics are _The Form and Rotation +of the Earth_, _The Tides of the Ocean and Atmosphere_, and an abstruse +investigation _On Molecular and Microscopic Science_. The last volume +was published in 1869, when its author was near her ninetieth year, and +bore as its motto St. Augustine's sublime words: _Deus magnus in magnis, +maximus in minimis_--God is great in great things, greatest in the +least. + +After Mrs. Somerville's death, in 1872, at the advanced age of +ninety-two, the number of women who devoted themselves to the study and +teaching of physics was greatly augmented. The brilliant success of +Laura Bassi and Mary Somerville had not been without results, and their +notable achievements as authors and teachers had the effect of +stimulating women everywhere to emulate their example, and encouraging +them to devote more attention to a branch of science which, until then, +had been regarded by the general public as beyond the sphere and +capacity of what was assumed to be the intellectually weaker sex. + +One of the most eminent scientific women of the present day in England +is Mrs. Ayrton, the wife of the late Professor W. E. Ayrton, the +well-known electrician. Her chosen field of research, like that of her +husband, has been electricity, in which she has achieved marked +distinction. Her investigations on the electric arc and on the sand +ripples of the seashore won for her the first medal ever awarded to a +woman by the Royal Society. When, however, in 1902, she was formally +nominated for fellowship in this same society, she failed of election +because the council of the society discovered that "it had no legal +power to elect a married woman to this distinction." + +How different it was in the case of Laura Bassi, who was an active +member of all the leading scientific and literary societies of Italy, +where from time immemorial women have been as cordially welcomed to +membership in its learned societies as to the chairs of its great +universities. + +The list of the women who in Europe and America are now engaged in +physical research and in teaching physics in schools and colleges is a +long one, and the work accomplished by them is, in many cases, of a high +order of merit. It is only, indeed, during the present generation that +such work has been made generally accessible to them; and, considering +the success which has already attended their efforts in this branch of +science, we have every reason to believe that the future will bring +forth many others of their sex who will take rank with such intellectual +luminaries as Hypatia, Mme. du Châtelet, Laura Bassi and Mary +Somerville. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[151] "Publice philosophiam naturalem et moralem in scholis Academiisque +Atticis docuit hæc foemina annis XXXV, libros composuit XL, discipulos +habuit philosophos CX, obiit anno ætatis LXXVII, cui tale Athenienses +statuere epitaphium: + + Nobilis hic Arete dormit, lux Helladis, ore + Tyndaris at tibi par, Icarioti, fide. + Patris Aristippi calamumque animamque dederunt, + Socratis huic linguam Mæonidaeque Dii." + + --Boccaccio, _De Laudibus Mulierum_, Lib. II. + +Cf. Wolf's _Mulierum Græcarum quæ Oratione Prosa Usæ Sunt Fragmenta et +Elogia_, pp. 283 et seq., London, 1739. + +[152] "Mulier quædam fuit Alexandriæ, nomine Hypatia, Theonis filia. Hæc +ad tantam eruditionem pervenerat ut omnes sui temporis philosophos longo +intervallo superaret, et in Platonicam scholam a Plotino deductam +succederet, cunctasque philosophiæ disciplinas auditoribus exponeret. +Quocirca omnes philosophiæ studiosi ad illam undique confluebant." +_Socrates, Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ_, Lib. VII, Cap. 15. + +[153] For extracts from the ancient authors regarding Hypatia, as well +as for the extant letters to her from her friend and pupil, Synesius, +the reader is referred to Wolf's erudite _Mulierum Græcarum quæ Oratione +Prosa Usæ sunt Fragmenta et Elogia_, pp. 72-91, ut sup. + +[154] Ernesto Masi, _Studi e Ritratti_, p. 166 et seq., Bologna, 1881. + +[155] Two of her Latin dissertations on certain physical problems were +published in the _Commentaries of the Bologna Institute_. One of them is +entitled _De Problemate quodam Mechanico_; the other _De Problemate +quodam Hydrometrico_. Many of her lectures on physics still exist in +manuscript, and it is to be hoped that at least the titles of them may +be given in a biography of the learned author which has been long +desired and long promised. + +[156] _Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien_, Vol. I, p. 363, 1869. + +[157] As no satisfactory biography of Laura Bassi has yet been written, +most of our knowledge respecting her is limited to that found in +Fantuzzi's _Notizie degli Scrittori Bolognesi_, Tom. I, pp. 384-391, and +Mazzuchelli's _Gli Scrittori d'Italia_, Vol. II, Part I, pp. 527-529, +Brescia, 1758. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY + + +The first woman deserving special mention in the history of chemistry is +the wife of the immortal Lavoisier, the most famous of the founders of +modern chemical science. While yet in her teens, this remarkable woman +gave evidence of exceptional intelligence and will power. She was +thoroughly devoted to her husband, and had the greatest admiration for +his genius. Her highest ambition was to prove herself worthy of him and +to render herself competent to assist him in those investigations that +have given him such imperishable renown. With this end in view, she +learned Latin and English, and she thus became an accomplished +translator from these languages of any chemical works which might aid +her spouse in his epoch-making researches. It was she who translated for +him the chemical memoirs of Cavendish, Henry, Kirwan, Priestly and other +noted English scientific investigators. + +Arthur Young, well known in his day as a traveler and author, who in +1787 made the acquaintance of Madame Lavoisier, describes her as a woman +full of animation, good sense and knowledge. In referring to a breakfast +she had given him, he declares that "unquestionably the best part of the +repast was her conversation on Kirwan's _Essay on Phlogiston_, which she +was then translating, and on other subjects which a woman of sense, +working in the laboratory of her husband, knows so well how to make +interesting." + +She was an ardent co-worker with her husband in his laboratory and +materially aided him in his labors. Under his direction she wrote the +results of the experiments that were made, as is evidenced by the +records of his work. As a pupil of the illustrious painter, David, she +was naturally skillful in drawing. Besides this, she was a good +engraver, and it is to her that are due the illustrations in Lavoisier's +great _Traité de Chimie_, which contributed so much toward +revolutionizing the science of chemistry. It was, indeed, the first work +that deserved to be regarded as a textbook of modern chemistry. Among +her drawings are two of special interest. They represent her as seated +at a table in the laboratory, taking notes, while her husband and his +assistant, Seguin, are making an experiment on the phenomena of +respiration.[158] + +All Mme. Lavoisier's writings testify to her great admiration of the +genius of her husband. Intimately associated with him in his work, she +combatted for the triumph of his ideas and sought to make converts to +them. One of her most notable converts was the Swiss chemist, de +Saussure. "You have, Madame," he writes her, "triumphed over my doubts, +at least in the matter of phlogiston, which is the principal object of +the interesting work of which you have done me the honor of sending me a +copy." + +After Lavoisier's tragic death on the guillotine, it was his devoted +wife who edited his _Memoirs on Chemistry_, of which Lavoisier had +himself projected the publication. The two volumes constituting this +work were not for sale, but were gratuitously distributed by the +bereaved widow among the most eminent scientific men of the epoch. +Cuvier, in acknowledging the receipt of these precious memoirs, +declares: "All the friends of science are under obligations to you for +your sorrowful determination to publish this collection of papers and to +publish them as they were written--a melancholy monument of your loss +and theirs--a loss which humanity will feel for centuries." + +To realize the importance of the work in which Mme. Lavoisier +participated, it suffices to recall the fact that her husband, as one of +the creators of modern chemistry, was the first to demonstrate the +existence of the law of the conservation of matter, which declares that +in all chemical changes nothing is lost and nothing is created. The +co-discoverer with Scheele and Priestly of oxygen, he was the first one +to exhibit the rôle of this important element in the phenomena of +combustion and respiration and the first, also, to lay the foundations +of a chemical nomenclature. We are not, then, surprised to learn that +Mme. Lavoisier's salon, even long after her lamented husband's death, +was frequented by the most eminent savants of the time. For here were +gathered such scientific luminaries as Cuvier, Laplace, Arago, Lagrange, +Prony, Berthollet, Delambre, Biot, Humboldt, and others scarcely less +brilliant. + +After the conclusion of Mme. Lavoisier's work in the laboratory of her +husband, little was accomplished by women in chemistry for more than +half a century. The reason was simple. Chemistry was not a part of the +curriculum of studies for girls either in Europe or America. Even +"during the sixties," writes a teacher of one of the prominent female +seminaries of the United States, "the study of chemistry was mostly +confined to the textbook, supplemented once a year by a course of +lectures from an itinerant expert, who with his tanks of various gases +produced highly spectacular effects." + +When one recollects that the first institution in America--Vassar--for +the higher education of women was not opened until 1865, one will +understand that there were previously to this date few opportunities for +women to study either chemistry or any of the other sciences. + +The first scientific institution to open its doors to women was the +Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This was on May 11, 1876, when +the governing board of the institute decided that "hereafter special +students in chemistry shall be admitted without regard to sex." In less +than a year after this event every department of this institution was +open to women, and any one who could pass the requisite examination was +admitted as a student. + +Five years, however, before women were formally admitted to the courses +of chemistry an energetic young graduate from Vassar, eager to devote +her life to the pursuit of science, had, as an exceptional favor, been +allowed to enter the Institute as a special student in chemistry. As she +was the first woman in the United States to enter a strictly +professional scientific school, her entrance marks the beginning of a +new epoch in the history of female education. The name of this ardent +votary of science was Miss Ellen Swallow, better known to the world as +Mrs. Ellen H. Richards. + +Mrs. Richards had not devoted herself long to the study of her favorite +science before she resolved to apply the knowledge thus gained to the +problems of daily life. She saw, among other things, the necessity of a +complete reform in domestic economy, and resolutely set to work to have +her views adopted and put in practice. She was, in consequence, one of +the first leaders of the crusade in behalf of pure food, and her +lectures and books on this all-important subject contributed greatly +toward the diffusion of exact knowledge respecting the dangers lurking +in unwholesome food. + +She was likewise one of the first to apply the science of chemistry to +an exhaustive study of the science of nutrition--to the study of food +and the proper preparation of food materials. In this she was eminently +successful, and was able to achieve for home economics what the +illustrious Liebig had many years before accomplished for agricultural +chemistry--put it on a firm and lasting basis. To her the kitchen was +the center and source of political economy. + +The facts of science, indeed, were to Mrs. Richards more than mere +uncorrelated facts. They are potential agencies of service, and their +chief value consists in their enabling us to control our environment in +such wise as to secure the maximum of physical well being. Hence her +constant insistence on personal cleanliness, on the cleanliness of food, +of the house we live in, and, above all, of the kitchen. Hence, also, +her preaching, in season and out of season, on the necessity of pure +air, pure water and abundance of vitalizing sunshine. + +We cannot, then, wonder that sanitary chemistry eventually became the +life work of Mrs. Richards, and that, when the course of sanitary +engineering was inaugurated in the Institute of Technology--the first +course of its kind in the world--she became an important agent in its +development and contributed immensely to its popularity and prestige. + +She held the position of instructor of sanitary chemistry in the +institute for twenty-seven years. During this time she trained a large +number of young men in her chosen specialty, and these, after +graduating, engaged in similar work in various parts of the New and the +Old World. + +The branch of sanitary chemistry to which Mrs. Richards devoted most +attention was air, water and sewage analysis. In this she was a +recognized expert, and her advice and services were sought in all parts +of the country. During the last three years of her life she acted, +according to her own testimony, as general sanitary adviser to no fewer +than two score corporations and schools. In addition to this she was +also during this brief period consulted on the subject of foods by +nearly two hundred educational and other institutions. + +What, however, constituted the greatest contribution of Mrs. Richards to +the public health was the part she took in the great sanitary survey of +the waters of the State of Massachusetts. During this long and +laborious investigation she analyzed more than forty thousand samples of +water. These analyses exhibited the condition of the water from all +parts of the state during all seasons of the year and were of the +greatest value in solving a number of important problems in state +sanitation. + +But notwithstanding the drafts made on her time and energy by her +classwork in the laboratory and her occupation as sanitary engineer for +scores of public and private institutions, she still found leisure to +engage in many important movements which had in view the public health +and the betterment of sanitary conditions in city and country. It is +safe to say that no one ever put her knowledge of chemical science to +more practical use or made it more perfectly subserve the public weal +than did Mrs. Richards. To spread among the masses a knowledge of the +principles of sanitation, to make them realize how indispensable to +health are pure food, pure water, pure air and life-giving sunshine was +her great mission in life, and in this she displayed an energy and a +tireless zeal which were an inspiration to all with whom she came into +contact. + +This indefatigable woman, it is proper to record here, might have +distinguished herself as a discoverer in chemical science had she +elected to devote her life to original research rather than to utilizing +the knowledge already available for the welfare of her fellows. Thus, +after a careful analysis of the rare mineral samarskite, she found an +insoluble residue which led her to believe might contain unknown +elements. This view she repeatedly expressed to her co-workers in the +laboratory. But she was unwilling to take from what she regarded more +important work the time necessary for making investigations which might +have given her undying fame as a discoverer. For not long afterward this +insoluble residue, in the hands of two French chemists, yielded the +exceedingly rare elements, samarium and gadolinium. + +Another chemist of a less altruistic nature than Mrs. Richards would not +have resisted the temptation to achieve distinction in the domain of +original research. But where there was so much suffering to be relieved +and so much ignorance to be removed regarding the most fundamental +principles of sanitation, this philanthropic woman preferred to put to +practical use what she called "the considerable body of useful knowledge +now lying on our shelves." + +Her duty, as she conceived it, is well indicated in the following +paragraph, taken from a thoughtful discussion by her of the subject of +home economics a short time before her death in 1911. "The sanitary +research worker in laboratory and field," she declares, "has gone nearly +to the limit of his value. He will soon be smothered in his own work, if +no one takes it. Meanwhile children die by the thousands; contagious +diseases take toll of hundreds; back alleys remain foul and the streets +are unswept; school-houses are unwashed and danger lurks in the drinking +cups and about the towels. Dust is stirred up each morning with the +feather duster to greet the warm, moist noses and throats of the +children. To the watchful expert it seems like the old cities dancing +and making merry on the eve of a volcanic outbreak."[159] + +From the day in 1873 when Mrs. Richards received from the Institute of +Technology the degree of Bachelor of Science--a degree which made her +not only the first woman graduate of this institution, but also the +first graduate in the United States of a strictly scientific seat of +learning--the number of women who have devoted themselves to chemical +pursuits is legion. They are now found in every civilized country in +both hemispheres and their number is daily increasing. They are +everywhere doing excellent work as teachers in classrooms and +laboratories and holding their own with men as chemical experts in +manufacturing establishments and government institutions. Many of them +have done original work of a high order, and distinguished themselves by +their valuable contributions to contemporary chemical literature. Space, +however, precludes more than a general reference to their achievements, +for the names only of those who have done meritorious work in chemistry +would make a very long list. + +Passing over, then, all the lesser feminine lights in chemistry who, in +various fields of activity, have rendered such distinct service during +the past generation, we come to one who for nearly two decades has stood +in the forefront of the great chemists of the world. This is that +renowned daughter of Poland, Mme. Marie Klodowska Curie, whose name will +always be identified with some of the most remarkable discoveries which +have ever been made in the long-continued study of the material +universe. + +Marie Klodowska was born in Warsaw, in 1868. Her father was a professor +of chemistry in the university of the former Polish capital; and it is +undoubtedly from him that his brilliantly dowered daughter has inherited +her love of chemistry and her extraordinary genius for scientific +research. Owing to the paltry salary he received, Professor Klodowska +was obliged to make little Marie his laboratory assistant while she was +quite a young girl. Instead, then, of playing with tops and dolls, her +time was occupied in cleaning evaporating dishes and test tubes and in +assisting her father to prepare for his lectures and experiments. And it +was thus that, at an early age, she acquired a taste for that science in +which she was subsequently to achieve such world-wide fame. + +While still a young woman, her love of science drew her to Paris, where +she arrived with only fifty francs in her purse. But, possessed of +dauntless courage and unfaltering perseverance, she was prepared to make +any sacrifice in the pursuit of knowledge. + +Her first home in the gay French metropolis was a poorly furnished +garret in an obscure part of the city, and her diet was for so long a +time restricted to black bread and skimmed milk that she afterward +avowed that she had to cultivate a taste for wine and meat. And so +intensely cold was her cheerless room in winter that the little bottle +of milk which was daily left at her door was speedily congealed. At this +time the poor girl was living on less than ten cents a day, but still +cherishing all the while the fond hope that she might eventually secure +a position as a student assistant in some good chemical laboratory. + +After a long struggle with poverty and after countless disappointments +in quest of a position where she could gratify her ambition as a student +of chemistry, she finally found occupation as a poorly paid assistant in +the laboratory conducted by Professor Lipmann. She was not, however, at +work a week before this distinguished investigator recognized in the +young woman one whose knowledge of chemistry and faculty for original +research were far above the average. She was accordingly transferred +without delay from the menial employment in which she had been engaged +and given every possible facility for prosecuting work as an original +investigator. + +It was shortly after this event that Marie Klodowska met the noted +savant, Pierre Curie. He was not long in discovering in her a kindred +spirit--one who, besides having exceptional talent in experimental +chemistry, was actuated by an ardent love of science. It was then that +he determined to make her his wife. A single sentence in a letter he +wrote at this time to the object of his admiration and affection +reveals, better than anything else, the devotion of this matchless pair +in the cause of science. "What a great thing it would be," he exclaims, +"to unite our lives and work together for the sake of science and +humanity." These simple words were the keynote to the ideal life led by +this incomparable couple during the eleven years they worked together +in perfect unity of thought and aspiration before the sudden and +premature extinction of the husband's life gave such a shock to the +entire scientific world. + +After her marriage the gifted young Polish woman had reached the goal of +her ambition. She was able to devote herself exclusively to what was +henceforth to constitute her life work in one of the best laboratories +of Paris, that of the École de Physique et de Chimie, and that, too, in +collaboration with her husband, from whom she was never separated during +the entire period of their married life for even a single day. + +It was about this time that Mme. Curie had her interest aroused by the +brilliant discoveries of Röntgen and Becquerel regarding radiant matter. +After a long series of carefully conducted experiments on the compounds +of uranium and thorium, she, with the intuition of genius, opened up to +the world of science an entirely new field of research. But she soon +realized that the labor involved in the investigations which she had +planned was entirely beyond the capacity of any one person. It was then +that she succeeded in enlisting her husband's interest in the +undertaking which was to lead to such marvelous results. + +Confining their work to a careful analytical study of the residue of the +famous Bohemian pitchblend--an extremely complex mineral, largely +composed of oxide of uranium--they soon found themselves confronted by +most extraordinary radio-active phenomena. Continuing their researches, +their labor was rewarded by the discovery of a new element which Mme. +Curie, in her enthusiasm, named in honor of the land of her birth, +polonium. + +As their investigations progressed, they became correspondingly +difficult. They were dealing with substances which exist in pitchblend +residue only in infinitesimal quantities--not more than three troy grams +to the ton. The difficulties they had to contend with were enough to +discourage the stoutest heart. Few believed in their theories, while +the majority of those who had some intimation of the character of their +work were persuaded that they were pursuing a phantom. But the +indefatigable pair toiled on day and night and continued their +experiments through long years of poverty and deferred hopes. + +Considering the herculean task in which they were engaged for so many +years, we scarcely know which to admire most, their clearness of vision, +which made them divine success; their profound knowledge, which guided +them in the choice of reagents; or the indomitable perseverance which +characterized them in their laborious task and in the countless +sacrifices which they were obliged to make before their efforts were +crowned with success. + +During this long search into the inner heart of nature, Pierre Curie was +often so discouraged and depressed that, had he not been sustained by +his more sanguine wife, he would time and again have given up his +investigations in despair. But Marie Curie never faltered. She never +lost faith in their theories or confidence in the outcome of their great +undertaking. Before her deft hands and fertile brain difficulties +vanished as if under the magic wand of Prospero. + +At length, after countless experiments of the most delicate character, +after bringing to bear on the solution of the problem before them the +most refined methods of chemical analysis, they were rewarded by one of +the most extraordinary discoveries recorded in the annals of science. +With the announcement of the discovery of radium, the Curies sprang into +world-wide fame, and the name of the wonderful woman who had been the +prime mover in the supreme achievement was on every lip. Pierre Curie +himself declared that more than half of the epochal discovery belonged +to his wife. It was she who began the work. It was she who, after her +marriage, enlisted in it the coöperation of her husband. It was she +whose invincible patience and persistence--typical of the noblest +representatives of her race--supported him during periods of doubt and +despondency and fanned his flagging spirits to new endeavor. It can +indeed be truthfully asserted that had it not been for her penetrating +intelligence, her tenacity of purpose and her keenness of vision, which +were never at fault, the great victory which crowned their efforts would +never have been achieved.[160] + +Compare their work with that which was accomplished by their illustrious +predecessors, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, and his wife, a century +earlier. The latter, by their discovery of and experiments with oxygen, +were able to explain the until then mysterious phenomena of combustion +and respiration and to coördinate numberless facts which had before +stood isolated and enigmatic. But the reverse was the case in the +discovery of that extraordinary and uncanny element, radium. It +completely subverted many long-established theories and necessitated an +entirely new view of the nature of energy and of the constitution of +matter. A substance that seemed capable of emitting light and heat +indefinitely, with little or no appreciable change or transformation, +appeared to sap the very foundations of the fundamental principle of the +conservation of energy. + +Subsequent investigations seemed only to render "confusion worse +confounded." They appeared to justify the dreams of the alchemists of +old, not only regarding the transmutation of metals but also respecting +the elixir of life. For was not this apparently absurd idea vindicated +by the observed curative properties--bordering almost on the +miraculous--this marvelous element was reputed to possess! Its virtues, +it was averred, transcended the fabled properties of the famous red +tincture and the philosopher's stone combined, and many were prepared to +find in it a panacea for the most distressing of human ailments, from +lupus and rodent ulcer to cancer and other frightful forms of morbid +degeneration.[161] + +And the end is not yet. Continued investigations, made in all parts of +the world since the discovery of radium by the Curies, have but +emphasized its mysterious properties, and compelled a revision of many +of our most cherished theories in chemistry, physics and astronomy. No +one single discovery, not even Pasteur's far-reaching discovery of +microbic life, it may safely be asserted, has ever been more subversive +of long-accepted views in certain domains of science, or given rise to +more perplexing problems regarding matters which were previously thought +to be thoroughly understood. + +Never in the entire history of science have the results of a woman's +scientific researches been so stupendous or so revolutionary. And never +has any one achievement in science reflected more glory on womankind +than that which is so largely due to the genius and the perseverance of +Mme. Curie. + +After their startling discovery, honors and tributes to their genius +came in rapid succession to the gifted couple. On the recommendation of +the venerable British savant, Lord Kelvin, they were awarded the Davy +gold medal by the Royal Society. Shortly after this they shared with M. +H. Becquerel in the Nobel prize for physics bestowed on them by Sweden. +Then came laggard France with its decoration of the Legion of Honor. But +it was offered only to the man. There was nothing for the woman. Pierre +Curie showed his spirit and chivalry by declining to accept the +proffered honor unless his wife could share it with him. His answer was +simple, but its meaning could not be mistaken. "This decoration," he +said, "has no bearing on my work."[162] + +Shortly after her husband's death Mme. Curie was appointed as his +successor as special lecturer in the Sorbonne. This was the first time +that this conservative old university ever invited a woman to a full +professorship. But she soon showed that she was thoroughly competent to +fill the position with honor and éclat. She has the élite of society and +the world's most noted men of science among her auditors. The crowned +heads of the Old World eagerly seek an opportunity to witness her +experiments and hear her discourse on what is by all odds the most +marvelous element in nature. + +Mme. Curie has not allowed her lectures in the Sorbonne to interfere +with the continuation of the researches which have won for her such +world-wide renown. Since the sudden taking off of her husband by a +passing truck on a Paris bridge, she has succeeded in isolating both +radium and polonium--only the chlorides and bromides of these elements +were previously known--besides doing other work scarcely less +remarkable. And besides all this, she has also found time to write a +connected account of her investigations under the title of _Traité de +Radio-Activité_--a work that reflects as much honor on her sex as did +_Le Instituzioni Analitiche_ of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, which won for her, +through that celebrated patron of learning, Benedict XIV, the chair of +higher mathematics in the University of Bologna. + +The list of learned societies to which Mme. Curie belongs is an extended +one. To mention only a few, she is an honorary or foreign member of the +London Chemical Society, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the +Royal Swedish Academy, the American Chemical Society, the American +Philosophical Society, and the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. +Petersburg. From the universities of Geneva and Edinburgh she has +received the honorary degree of doctor. + +In 1898 she received the Gegner prize from the French Academy of +Sciences for her elaborate researches on the magnetic properties of iron +and steel, as also for her investigations relating to radio-activity. +The same prize was again awarded to her in 1900, and still again in +1903. With her husband she received in 1901 the La Caze prize of ten +thousand francs; and in 1903 she received a part of the Osiris prize of +sixty thousand francs. Since her husband's death in 1906 Mme. Curie has +been awarded the coveted Nobel prize in chemistry, which was placed in +her hand by the King of Sweden on December 11, 1911--a prize which +increased the exchequer of the fair recipient by nearly two hundred +thousand francs. Having before been the beneficiary of the Nobel prize +for physics, in conjunction with her husband and M. H. Becquerel, Mme. +Curie is thus the first person to be twice singled out for the world 's +highest financial recognition of scientific research. + +It would take too long to enumerate all the medals and prizes and honors +which have come to this remarkable woman from foreign countries. But she +has doubtless been the recipient of more trophies of undying fame +during the last decade and a half than any other one person during the +same brief period of intellectual activity. And all these tokens of +recognition of genius were showered upon her not because she was a +woman, but in spite of this fact. Had she been a man, she would have +been honored with the other distinctions which tradition and prejudice +still persist in denying to one of the proscribed sex, no matter how +great her merit or how signal her achievements. + +At a recent scientific congress, held in Brussels, it was decided to +prepare a standard of measurement of radium emanations. It was the +unanimous opinion of the congress that Mme. Curie was better equipped +than any other person for establishing such a standard; and she was +accordingly requested to undertake the delicate and difficult task--a +commission which she executed to the satisfaction of all concerned. + +This unit of measurement, it is gratifying to learn, will be known as +the curie--a word which will enter the same category as the volt, the +ohm, the ampère, the farad, and a few others which will perpetuate the +names of the world's greatest geniuses in the domain of experimental +science. + +When, not long since, there was a vacancy among the immortals of the +French Academy, there was a generally expressed desire that it should be +filled by one who was universally recognized as among the foremost of +living scientists. The name of Mme. Curie trembled on every lip; and the +hope was entertained that the Academy would honor itself by admitting +the world-famed savante among its members. Considering her achievements, +she had no competitor, and was, in the estimation of all outside of the +Academy, the one person in France who was most deserving of the coveted +honor. + +But no. She was a woman; and for that reason alone she was excluded from +an institution the sole object of whose establishment was the reward of +merit and the advancement of learning. The age-old prejudice against +women who devote themselves to the study of science, or who contribute +to the progress of knowledge, was still as dominant as it was in the +days of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, a century and a half before. Mme. Curie, +like her famous sister in Italy, might win the plaudits of the world for +her achievements; but she could have no recognition from the one +institution, above all others, that was specially founded to foster the +development of science and literature, and to crown the efforts of those +who had proven themselves worthy of the Academy's highest honor. The +attitude of the French institution toward Mme. Curie was exactly like +that of the Royal Society of Great Britain when Mrs. Ayrton's name was +up for membership. The answer to both applicants was in effect, if not +in words, "No woman need apply." + +When one reads of the sad experiences of Mme. Curie and Mrs. Ayrton with +the learned societies of Paris and London, one instinctively asks, "When +will the day come when women, in every part of the civilized world, +shall enjoy all the rights and privileges in every field of intellectual +effort which have so long been theirs in the favored land of Dante and +Beatrice--the motherland of learned societies and universities?" For not +until the advent of the day when such exclusive organizations as +the Royal Society and the French Academy of Sciences, such +ultra-conservative universities as Oxford and Cambridge shall admit +women on the same footing as men, will these institutions be more than +half serving the best interests of humanity.[163] + +Women, it is true, are now eligible to many literary and scientific +associations from which they were formerly debarred, and are, in most +countries, admitted to colleges and universities whose portals were +closed to them until only a few years ago; but until they shall be +welcomed to all universities and all societies whose objects are the +advancement of knowledge, until they shall participate in the +advantages and prestige accruing from connection with these +organizations, they will have reason to feel that they are not yet in +the full possession of the intellectual advantages for which they have +so long yearned--that they have been but partially liberated from that +educational disqualification in which they have been held during so many +long centuries of deferred hopes and fruitless struggles. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[158] _Lavoisier 1743-1794, d'après sa Correspondence, Ses Manuscrits, +Ses Papiers de Famille et d'Autres Documents Inédits_, p. 42 et seq., +par E. Grimaux, Paris, 1896. + +[159] _The Life of Ellen H. Richards_, p. 273 et seq., by Caroline L. +Hunt, Boston, 1912. + +[160] Mme. Curie, in an article which she wrote shortly after her +discovery of radium, shows that she possesses a genius for inductive +science of the highest type. "It was at the close of the year 1897," she +writes, "that I began to study the compounds of uranium, the properties +of which had greatly attracted my interest. Here was a substance +emitting spontaneously and continually radiations similar to Röntgen +rays, whereas ordinarily, Röntgen rays can be produced only in a vacuum +tube with the expenditure of electrical energy. By what process can +uranium furnish the same rays without expenditure of energy and without +undergoing apparent modification? Is uranium the only body whose +compounds emit similar rays? Such were the questions I asked myself; and +it was while seeking to answer them that I entered into the researches +which have led to the discovery of radium." _Radium and Radio-Activity +in The Century Magazine_, for January, 1904. + +[161] _Notice sur Pierre Curie_, p. 20 et seq., by M. D. Gernez, Paris, +1907, and _Le Radium, Son Origine et ses Transformations_, by M. L. +Houllerigue, in _La Revue de Paris_, May 1, 1911. + +[162] The day following Pierre Curie's refusal of the decoration offered +by the Government, the elder of his two daughters, little Irene, climbed +upon her father's knee and put a red geranium in the lapel of his coat. +"Now, papa," she gravely remarked, "you are decorated with the Legion of +Honor." "In this case," the fond father replied, "I make no objection." + +[163] A few days before Mme. Curie's name was to come before the Academy +of Sciences as a candidate for membership, the French Institute in its +quarterly plenary meeting of the five academies, of which the Institute +is composed, decided by a vote of ninety to fifty-two against the +eligibility of women to membership, and put itself on record in favor of +the "immutable tradition against the election of women, which it seemed +eminently wise to respect." + +Commenting on this decision of The Immortals, a writer in the well-known +English magazine, _Nature_, under date of January 12, 1911, penned the +following pertinent paragraph: + +"It remains to be seen what the Academy of Sciences will do in the face +of such an expression of opinion. Mme. Curie is deservedly popular in +French scientific circles. It is everywhere recognized that her work is +of transcendent merit, and that it has contributed enormously to the +prestige of France as a home of experimental inquiry. Indeed, it is not +too much to say that the discovery and isolation of the radio-active +elements are among the most striking and fruitful results of a field of +investigation preëminently French. If any prophet is to have honour in +his own country--even if the country be only the land of his +adoption--surely, that honour ought to belong to Mme. Curie. At this +moment, Mme. Curie is without doubt, in the eyes of the world, the +dominant figure in French chemistry. There is no question that any man +who had contributed to the sum of human knowledge what she has made +known, would years ago have gained that recognition at the hands of his +colleagues, which Mme. Curie's friends are now desirous of securing for +her. It is incomprehensible, therefore, on any ethical principles of +right and justice that, because she happens to be a woman, she should be +denied the laurels which her preëminent scientific achievement has +earned for her." + +Compare this frank and honest statement with that of a contributor, +about the same date, to _La Revue du Monde_, of Paris. Guided by his +myopic vision and diseased imagination, this writer discerns in the +admittance of women into the grand old institution of Richelieu and +Napoleon the imminent triumph of what Prudhon called pornocracy and the +eventual opening of the portals of the Palais Mazarin to representatives +of the type of Lais and Phryne, on the Hellenic pretext that "Beauty is +the supreme merit." + +It is gratifying, however, to the friends of woman's cause to learn that +Mme. Curie's candidacy was defeated by only two votes. Her competitor, +M. Branly, received thirty votes against the Polish woman's +twenty-eight. She thus fared far better than did Mme. Pauline Savari, +who aspired to the fauteuil made vacant by the death of Renan, regarding +whose candidature the Academy curtly declared, "Considering that its +traditions do not permit it to examine this question, the Academy passes +to the order of the day." Thus, it will be seen that, in spite of the +long-continued opposition to women members, the French Academy is more +than likely to offer its next vacant chair to the pride and glory of +Poland,--the immortal discoverer of radium and polonium. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +WOMEN IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES + + +It is reasonable to suppose that women, who are such lovers of nature, +have always had a greater or less interest in the natural sciences, +especially in botany and zoölogy; but the fact remains that the first +one of their sex to write at any length on the various kingdoms of +nature was that extraordinary nun of the Middle Ages, St. Hildegard, the +learned abbess of the Benedictine convent of St. Rupert, at Bingen on +the Rhine. Of an exceptionally versatile and inquiring mind, her range +of study and acquirement was truly encyclopædic. In this respect she was +the worthy forerunner of Albert the Great, the famous _Doctor +Universalis_ of Scholasticism. + +Although St. Hildegard has much to say about nature in several of her +works, the one of chiefest interest to us as an exposition of the +natural history of her time is her treatise entitled _Liber Subtilitatum +Diversarum Naturarum Creaturarum_. It is usually known by its more +abbreviated name, _Physica_, and, considering the circumstances under +which it was written, is, in many ways, a most remarkable production. It +consists of nine books treating of minerals, plants, fishes, birds, +insects and quadrupeds. The book on plants is composed of no fewer than +two hundred and thirty chapters, while that on birds contains +seventy-two chapters. + +In reading Hildegard's descriptions of animated nature we are often +reminded of Pliny's great work on natural history; but, so far as known, +there is no positive evidence that the learned religieuse had any +acquaintance whatever with the writings of the old Roman naturalist. Had +she had, the general tenor of her work would have been quite different +from what it actually is. + +The mystery, then, is, what were the sources of _Physica_? Some have +fancied that Hildegard in preparing this made use of the writings not +only of Pliny and Virgil, but also of those of Macer, Constantinus +Africanus, Walafrid Strabo, Isodore of Seville, and other writers who +were in great vogue during the Middle Ages. The general consensus of +opinion, however, of those who have carefully studied this interesting +problem is that the gentle nun was not acquainted with any of the +authors named, except, possibly, Isodore of Seville, whose works were +all held in high esteem, especially during the period of Hildegard's +greatest literary activity. + +Hildegard's _Physica_ has a special value for philologists, as well as +for students of natural history, for it contains the German names of +plants still used by the people of the Fatherland seven hundred years +after they were penned by the painstaking abbess of St. Rupert's.[164] + +Referring to the Saint's work entitled _De Natura Hominis, Elementorum, +Diversarumque Creaturarum_--a treatise on the nature of man, the +elements and divers created things--no less an authority than Dr. +Charles Daremberg declares that it will always hold an important place +in the history of medical art and of inanimate and animate +nature--_insignis semper locus debetitur in artis medicæ rerumque +naturalium historia_.[165] + +He even goes further and affirms that Hildegard was familiar with +numerous facts of science regarding which other mediæval writers were +entirely ignorant. More than this. She was acquainted with many of +nature's secrets which were unknown to men of science until recent +times, and which, on being disclosed by modern researches, have been +proclaimed to the world as new discoveries.[166] + +One reason why St. Hildegard's writings on botany, zoölogy and +mineralogy are not better known is that few students care to make the +effort to master her voluminous works. They require long and assiduous +study and a knowledge of her peculiarities of style and expression which +is acquired only after patient and persistent labor. But the labor is +not in vain, as is evidenced by the numerous monographs which have +appeared in recent years, especially in Germany, on the scientific works +of this marvelous nun of the twelfth century. All things considered, the +Abbess of Bingen may be said to hold the same position in the natural +sciences of her time as was held in the physical and mathematical +sciences seven hundred years earlier by the illustrious Hypatia of +Alexandria. + +After the death of St. Hildegard, full six centuries elapsed before any +one of her sex again achieved distinction in the domain of natural +science. And then, strange to relate, the first woman who won fame by +her knowledge of science and by her contributions to it, did so in the +field where a woman would, one would think, be least disposed to +exercise her talent and least likely to find congenial work. It was in +the then comparatively new science of human anatomy--a science which had +been inaugurated in the famous medical schools of Salerno and which was +subsequently so highly developed in the great University of Bologna. + +The name of this remarkable woman was Anna Morandi Manzolini. She was +born in 1716 in Bologna, where, after a brilliant career in her favorite +branch of science, she died at the age of fifty-eight. She held the +chair of anatomy in the University of Bologna for many years, and is +noted for a number of important discoveries made as the result of her +dissections of cadavers. + +But she won a still greater title to fame by the marvelous skill which +she exhibited in making anatomical models out of indurated wax. They +were so carefully fashioned that some of them could scarcely be +distinguished from the parts of the body from which they were modeled. +As aids in the study of anatomy they were most highly valued and eagerly +sought for on all sides. The collection which she made for her own use +was, after her death, acquired by the Medical Institute of Bologna and +prized as one of its most precious possessions. + +Three years after her demise, Luigi Galvani, professor of anatomy in the +same university in which Anna had achieved such fame, made use of these +wax models for a course of lectures on the organs and structure of the +human body. + +These famous models, first perfected by Anna Manzolini, were the +archetypes of the exquisite wax models of Vassourie as well as of the +unrivaled _papier-mâché_ creations of Dr. Auzoux and of all similar +productions now so extensively used in our schools and colleges. + +Even during the lifetime of the gifted modeler there were demands for +specimens of her work from all parts of Italy. From many cities in +Europe, even from London and St. Petersburg, she received the most +flattering offers for her services. So eager was Milan to have her +accept a position which had been offered her that the city authorities +sent her a blank contract and begged her to name her own conditions. But +she could never be induced to leave the home of her childhood and the +city which had witnessed and applauded her triumphs of maturer years. + +Men of learning and eminence, on passing through Bologna, invariably +made it a point to call on the learned _professora_ in order to make her +acquaintance and to see her wonderful anatomical collection, which was +celebrated throughout Europe as _Supellex Manzoliniana_. Among these +visitors was Joseph II of Austria. So greatly was His Majesty impressed +by Anna's rare intellectual attainments and by her marvelous skill in +reproducing the various parts of the "human form divine" that he could +not take leave of her without showing his appreciation of them by +loading her with gifts worthy of a sovereign.[167] + +A contemporary of Anna Manzolini, who also distinguished herself in the +preparation of anatomical models, was the French woman, Mlle. Biheron. +Her facsimiles of parts of the human body were, according to Mme. de +Genlis, so true to nature that they could not be distinguished from the +originals. This led the facetious Chevalier Ringle, after examining a +specimen of her handiwork, to declare, "Verily, it is so perfect that it +lacks only the odor of the natural object." + +While yet prince royal, Gustavus of Sweden visited the French Academy of +Sciences in Paris. Here he was entertained by a number of experiments in +anatomy. The demonstrator was Mlle. Biheron, who is said to have had a +veritable passion for both anatomy and surgery. So impressed was +Gustavus with the extraordinary skill and knowledge of this gifted +daughter of France that he offered her the position of demonstrator of +anatomy in the royal University of Sweden. + +Other branches of science, apparently quite as alien as anatomy to +women's taste and talent, are mineralogy and metallurgy. Yet as early as +the first half of the seventeenth century, the Baroness de Beausoleil +had achieved a great reputation by her investigations into the mineral +treasures of France. Indeed, she may, strange as it may appear, be +regarded as the first mining engineer of her native land. She details +the qualifications of a mining engineer and tells us he must, among +other things, be well versed in chemistry, mineralogy, geometry, +mechanics and hydraulics. As for herself, she assures us that she +devoted thirty years of unremitting study to these divers branches. + +To Mme. de Beausoleil is also attributed the glory of awakening her +countrymen's interest in the mineral resources of France, and of showing +them how their proper exploitation would inure not only to the credit of +the nation abroad but also to its prosperity at home. + +She was the author of two works which prove that she was a woman of rare +attainments combined with exceptional breadth of view and political +acumen. She was deeply concerned in the development of the mineral +resources of her country and foresaw how greatly they could be made to +contribute to the augmentation of the nation's finances. + +Her work entitled _La Restitution de Pluton_ is a report on the mines +and ore deposits of France, and is a document as precious as it is +curious. It was addressed to Cardinal Richelieu, and shows how the +French monarch could, if the subterranean treasures of the country were +properly developed, become the greatest ruler in Christendom and his +subjects the happiest of all peoples. + +Another report by this energetic and enthusiastic woman is in the same +strain. In it she proves how the King of France, by utilizing the +underground riches of his country, could make himself and his people +independent of all other nations.[168] + +In these two productions Mme. de Beausoleil treats of the science of +mining, the different kinds of mines, the assaying of ores and the +divers methods of smelting them, as well as of the general principles of +metallurgy, as then understood. But, unlike the majority of her +contemporaries, this enlightened woman had no patience with those who +believed that the earth's hidden treasures could not be discovered +without recourse to magic or to the aid of demons. She was unsparing in +her ridicule of those who had faith in the existence of gnomes and +kobolds, or thought that ore deposits could be located only by +divining-rods or similar foolish contrivances which were relics of an +ignorant and superstitious age. + +The same century that witnessed the exploring activity of the Baroness +de Beausoleil saw the beginnings of the notable achievements of a +daughter of Germany, well known in the annals of science as Maria +Sibylla Merian. Born in Frankfort in 1647, she died in Amsterdam in +1717, after a somewhat checkered career, most of which was devoted to +the pursuit of natural history. So fond was she of flowers and insects +that it is said they told her all their secrets. + +After having familiarized herself with the fauna and flora of her native +land, she proceeded to investigate the collections of the principal +European cabinets of natural history. This only fired her ambition to +see more of the world and study Nature where she is seen in her greatest +splendor and luxuriance. + +She accordingly resolved to undertake a journey to the equatorial +regions of South America. Such a voyage can now be made with comparative +ease, but in her days it was fraught with discomforts and dangers of all +kinds, and one that no woman thought to venture on unless obliged to do +so by stern necessity. + +But she was set on investigating animals and plants in their own +habitats in the glorious and exuberant flora of the tropics and, +accompanied by her two daughters, Helena and Dorothea, she embarked for +Surinam. Here, assisted by her daughters, who, like their mother, were +both skillful artists, the intrepid naturalist spent two years in +studying the wonders of plant and animal life that everywhere greeted +her delighted vision. All the time not occupied in research work was +devoted to sketching and painting those superb insects that are so +abundant in tropical fields and forests.[169] + +Returning to Holland with her precious scientific treasures, she began +the preparation of a work that will long endure as a monument to her +knowledge and industry. It was a magnificent volume in folio on the +insects of Surinam. It appeared simultaneously in Dutch and Latin, and +was subsequently translated into French. + +In illustrating this sumptuous work, Frau Merian was greatly assisted by +her younger daughter, Dorothea. The etchings and hand-colored +reproductions of the gorgeous butterflies and flowers of Surinam +commanded universal admiration, and marked a new epoch in book-making. +Even to-day this noble volume is eagerly sought by both book-lovers and +men of science, for it is not only a work of rare conception and beauty +but also one of exceptional accuracy in illustration and statement of +fact.[170] + +Besides etchings of multiform insects, lizards and batrachians +indigenous to Dutch Guiana, there were in this unique volume carefully +executed illustrations of plants and trees peculiar to tropical America, +such as vanilla, cacao, and the species of manihot which constitutes the +staff of life of so large a portion of the population in the basins of +the Amazon and the Orinoco. + +A new and enlarged edition of this work was published after Frau +Merian's death by her daughter Dorothea. The same gifted daughter showed +her interest in her parent's work and her devotion to her memory by +bringing out a beautifully illustrated edition of her mother's earliest +work which treated of the wonderful life-history of silkworms.[171] + +The century following that which had celebrated the scientific triumphs +of Maria Merian found in Josephine Kablick, born in 1787 in Hohenelbe, +Bohemia, a woman who was destined to prove a worthy successor, as a +nature-student, of the noted daughter of Frankfort-on-the-Main. + +From her tenderest years she exhibited a passionate love for every form +of plant life. In addition to this, she had, while yet young, the good +fortune of studying under the best botanists of her time. + +Soon she became an enthusiastic collector and was in a short time the +happy possessor of a herbarium which contained many new species of +plants which she had discovered during her frequent botanical +excursions. From making collections for her private herbarium, she was +gradually led to make collections for the schools and colleges of her +native country, as well as for the museums and learned societies of +various parts of Europe. Many public institutions owed to her cordial +coöperation some of the choicest treasures in their herbaria, and not a +few botanical writers of her day found in her an intelligent and +sympathetic collaborator. + +But Frau Kablick's interest in nature was not confined to plants. She +was an assiduous student of paleontology as well as of botany, and the +many fossil animals and plants named in her honor testify to her success +in the pursuit of her favorite branches of science. + +There was nothing of the conventional blue-stocking about this ardent +votary of nature. Strong and healthy, neither wind nor rain interfered +with her fieldwork in botany or paleontology. It was her greatest +pleasure to roam through dark forests and scale high mountains in search +of new species of plants and fossils. And the success which rewarded her +efforts was such that the old and trained naturalists among her male +friends had reason to envy her good fortune as an explorer. + +But Frau Kablick never permitted her frequent excursions, or her +devotion to science, to cause her to neglect the duties of her +household. Fortunately, her husband was also an ardent student of +nature, and while his wife was devoting her attention to botany and +paleontology, he was making investigations in zoölogy and mineralogy. +They spent fifty happy years together in the pursuit of science and +their joint efforts contributed not a little toward the advancement of +the branches of science to which they had devoted their lives with such +well-directed effort and enthusiasm. + +As the fruitful life of Josephine Kablick who had shed such luster on +her sex in Bohemia was drawing to a close, a young woman in Germany, +Amalie Dietrich by name, was preparing herself to fill the void which +would be occasioned by her predecessor's death. Her first love, as a +young girl, was plant life, and this was subsequently accentuated by her +husband, who was not only a botanist himself but also one who belonged +to a distinguished family of botanists. + +A keen observer and an indefatigable collector, Frau Dietrich soon +became known throughout Europe as a botanist of marked ability and +daring. She was wont, unaccompanied, to climb the highest peaks of the +Salzburg Alps, and spend entire weeks there seeking new species of +Alpine flora. During the day she explored the deep ravines and clambered +along the brambly ledges of beetling precipices, and during the night +she sought shelter and repose in the humble hut of some hospitable +herdsman. + +Valuable, however, as was Amalie Dietrich's work in the Austrian Alps, +it was but a preparation for that which some years later she was to +enter upon in far-off Australia. Here she devoted twelve of the best +years of her life to the cultivation of botany in the virgin soil of +Queensland. Here, too, she surprised everyone by her venturesome spirit +no less than by her irrepressible zeal in making collections. Heedless +of danger, she plunged quite alone into the wilderness and spent days +and weeks at a time with the wild aborigines. + +But she secured what she went in quest of,--a large and valuable +collection of plants, containing many new and interesting species. +Besides these, she was able to bring back with her to Europe a large +mass of zoölogical specimens as well as countless domestic utensils and +implements of warfare and husbandry employed by the savages among whom +she so frequently journeyed and with whose manners and customs she +eventually became so familiar. + +Modest and trustworthy, Frau Dietrich had a host of friends in the +scientific world, and the number of plants which bear her name are not +only a tribute to her worth, but a striking evidence of the extent of +her activity in the pursuit of the science which became the absorbing +passion of her life.[172] + +Of Russian women who have become specially noted for their contributions +to natural science, a very prominent place must be assigned to Sophia +Pereyaslawzewa. After receiving the doctorate of science in the +University of Zurich, she became director of the biological station at +Sebastopol, a position she held with great éclat during twelve years. +Here she made numerous important researches on manifold forms of marine +life and prepared many works for the press in German and French, as well +as in her native Russian. Her _Monographie de Turbellaries de la Mer +Noire_, a large and beautifully illustrated volume published at Odessa +in 1892, placed her at once among biologists of the first rank. Indeed, +so meritorious was this production of the talented daughter of Holy +Russia that the Congress of Naturalists in 1893 did not hesitate to +recognize its exceptional value by conferring on the fair authoress a +special prize. + +This gifted biologist has since rendered distinct service in the cause +of science by her explorations of the Gulf of Naples and the coasts of +France. Her activity is prodigious, and the long list of books and +monographs which she has published on the lower forms of marine life in +the Black and Mediterranean seas shows that she has a capacity for work +that is truly extraordinary. + +Here is, probably, the place to make mention of a woman of encyclopædic +mind, Clemence Augustine Royer, who was born in 1830 in Nantes, France. +She wrote on such a variety of subjects that it is difficult to classify +her. She was in no sense of the word a specialist, and she seems by +temperament to have been averse to confining herself to any one branch +of knowledge. + +Her first work to attract particular attention was one on a topic +connected with political economy. A prize had been offered for the +discussion of this subject, and the little French woman acquitted +herself so well that she had the honor of sharing the prize with the +noted Proudhon. She has also written many works on philosophy and +physics. Among these are two which attracted considerable notice at the +time of their publication. In one of them she attacks the positivism of +Comte; in the other she assails Laplace's hypothesis regarding the +origin of the material universe. + +But the work which made her famous, particularly in France, was her +translation into French in 1862 of Darwin's _Origin of Species_. It is +safe to say that this version created as much of a sensation in France +as the original had caused in Great Britain and America. Her preface to +the work of the English naturalist, in which she indicates the results +which flow from an acceptance of the transformist theory, created a +veritable storm in both religious and scientific circles. + +So gratified was Madame Royer by the impression made by this preface and +so pleased was she with the controversy which she had started, that she +expanded her summary of the theory of evolution as therein given and +published it in 1870 under the title of _Origine de l'Homme et de +Sociétés_. This production was so revolutionary in character and so +subversive of teachings long held sacred that it provoked an indignant +protest from all quarters, and the author was at once ranked with such +radical exponents of the new science as Voght, Büchner and Hæckel. + +After the appearance of this production, she wrote numerous other works, +several of them on subjects relating to natural science, especially in +its connection with anthropology and prehistoric archæology. And so +great was her breadth of view and so exceptional was her grasp of all +subjects discussed by her that Renan declared of her, _Elle est presque +un homme de génie_--She is almost a man of genius. + +Mme. Royer was frequently spoken of as a candidate for the French +Institute, but she was so well aware of the prejudices against the +admission of women to membership in this learned body that she never +allowed herself to consider the proposal seriously. She was certainly a +brainy woman, and in her own department of intellectual effort she +exhibited as much talent as did George Sand and Mme. de Staël in +literature and history. + +An entirely different type of woman from the radical and disputatious +Mme. Royer was the charming and cultured lady, Miss Eleanor Ormerod, her +contemporary, who, in her chosen department of science, won both fame +and the lasting gratitude of her fellowmen. + +Miss Ormerod, unlike Mme. Royer, was preëminently a specialist, and the +branch of science in which she achieved distinction was entomology, or +rather that branch of it known as economic entomology. From her +childhood she manifested an unusual interest in all forms of insects, +but particularly in those which are serviceable to mankind or are +destructive to farms and gardens, orchards and forests. + +Fortunately for the gratification of her peculiar bent of mind, nearly +half of Miss Ormerod's life was spent in a locality which was specially +favorable to the study of insects which are obnoxious to the gardener, +the farmer and the forester. This was at the confluence of the Wye and +the Severn, where her father owned a large landed estate, part of which +was under cultivation and part wood and park land. + +Here the young girl made her first collection of insects, and here she +began her studies on the cause and nature of the parasitic attacks upon +crops. Here she first realized the frightful ravages that were +occasioned by the manifold insect pests that infest not only trees, +shrubs, cereals and vegetables, but also flocks and herds as well. And +here, too, she resolved to devote her life to devising preventive and +remedial treatment for the evils which were robbing the husbandman of so +great a part of the fruits of his toil. + +After taking this generous resolution, the life of our young heroine +was, like that of Liebig and Pasteur, devoted to the welfare of her +fellowmen. And like these noble benefactors of their race, her thought +was always how she might prevent the losses and increase the products of +the tillers of the soil. Entomology with her was not mere +nomenclature--a knowledge of strange and fantastic names, which, with +the ignorant, constitutes a distinction--but one of the most practical +and useful of the sciences. + +Miss Ormerod might, had she so elected, have won fame as a systematic +entomologist and as a distinguished contributor to the already long list +of genera and species of insects. She might have devoted herself to +theoretical work, or bent her energies towards the general advancement +of the science, like Fabricius, Swammerdam, Westwood and Burnmeister; +but she preferred to forego all the glory that might accrue from +pursuing such a course, and to direct her efforts in such wise as to be +of most service to humanity. + +Like the great Pasteur, after his long and laborious experimental +researches on silkworm diseases, Miss Ormerod could, at the end of her +illustrious career, declare with truth: "The results which I have +obtained are, perhaps, less brilliant than those which I might have +anticipated from researches pursued in the field of pure science, but I +have the satisfaction of having served my country in endeavoring, to the +best of my ability, to discover the remedy for great misery. It is to +the honor of a scientific man that he values discoveries which at their +birth can only obtain the esteem of his equals, far above those which at +once conquer the favor of the crowd by the immediate utility of their +application; but, in the presence of misfortune, it is equally an honor +to sacrifice everything in the endeavor to relieve it."[173] + +Miss Ormerod's labors were not, it is true, instrumental in rescuing +from destruction a nation's chief industries, as were Pasteur's in the +case of his famous researches on the phyloxera of the grape vine or the +pebrine of the silkworm. Nor had they to do with such frightful +industrial disturbances as have frequently been occasioned by rinderpest +or by the potato blight in Ireland in 1845. + +This is true in so far as any one pest is concerned. But when one +reflects on the scope of Miss Ormerod's investigations and considers how +far-reaching were her researches and how many and diverse industries +were embraced by the remedial and prophylactic measures which she +proposed, one cannot but realize the immense importance of her +life-work. + +The fact that her activities were confined chiefly to old and well-known +pests--insects from which the farmer and the gardener and the forester +had suffered for centuries, and which they had come to regard as +necessary and inevitable evils--does not detract from the merit and the +value of her labors. That she should have taken up a work which affected +so many people and have been so successful in abating, or in entirely +removing evils which had so long afflicted agriculturists and +stock-growers, shows that she was a woman of rare courage and +determination as well as one of invincible persistence and of +intellectual resources of a very high order. + +During more than a quarter of a century Miss Ormerod devoted practically +the whole of her time to the study of economic entomology and to +spreading a knowledge of it among her countrymen. From 1877 to 1898 she +published annual reports on injurious insects and sent them broadcast +throughout Great Britain and her colonies. In addition to this she wrote +a number of manuals and textbooks on insects injurious to food crops, +forest trees, orchards and bush fruits. + +Nor was this all. She also prepared for gratuitous distribution a large +number of four-page leaflets on the most common farm pests. Of the +leaflet, for instance, on the warble-fly, its life-history, methods of +prevention and remedy, no less than a hundred and seventy thousand +copies were printed. And so great was the demand for her leaflet on the +gooseberry red spider that a single mail brought her an order for three +thousand copies. + +Miss Ormerod, it is proper to state here, received no remuneration +whatever for her great services to the public. On the contrary, she gave +not only all her time gratuitously, but bore a great part of the expense +of printing and distributing her publications. The amount of good she +thus did unaided and alone cannot be estimated. + +In her leaflet on the warble-fly, also known as bot-fly, she estimates +the annual damage to the stock-growers of the United Kingdom from this +pest at from £3,000,000 to £4,000,000. The losses due to fruit, grain +and vegetable insects of various kinds, before she began her insect +crusade, were much greater. In Great Britain and her colonies they +amounted to very many millions of pounds sterling every year.[174] + +And most of these losses, as she demonstrated, were preventable by +simple precautions which she eventually succeeded in inducing the people +to adopt. How much she was instrumental in saving annually to the +farmers and gardeners of England by her writings and lectures can only +be imagined, but the sum must have been immense. + +When we recollect that Miss Ormerod accomplished all her work before it +occurred to the English Board of Agriculture to appoint a government +entomologist, we shall realize what a pioneer she was in the career in +which she achieved such distinction and through which she conferred such +inestimable benefits upon her fellows. + +Miss Ormerod's entomological publications, especially her annual +reports, brought her into relations with people of all classes +throughout the whole world. Her correspondence, in consequence, was +enormous, and not infrequently amounted to from fifty to a hundred +letters a day. The great entomologists of Europe and America held her in +the highest esteem, and had implicit faith in her judgment in all +matters pertaining to her specialty. + +One day she would receive a letter from an English gardener begging for +a remedy against the strawberry beetle. The next day she would have a +similar letter regarding mite-galls on black currants, or pea-weevil +larvæ or clover-eel worms. Again there would be a communication from +Norway requesting advice about the Hessian fly, or from Argentina asking +information concerning a certain kind of destructive grass beetle, or +from India appealing for help against a pernicious species of forest +fly, or from South Africa seeking a relief from the boot-beetle. And +still again, she was consulted by her foreign correspondents about +termites, which were causing havoc among the young cocoa trees of +Ceylon, or about certain peculiar species of Australian larvæ, or about +the devastating action of the pine beetle in the Scotch forests, or +about the wheat midge and antler moth in Finland. + +One day she had a communication from the Austrian Embassy regarding a +beetle that was eating the oats about Constantinople, and not long +afterwards she received a letter from the Chinese Minister in London +begging for information as to how to prevent the ravages of certain +noxious bugs in the lee-chee orchards of China. + +In view of all these facts it is not surprising that Miss Ormerod became +an active and valued colleague of some of England's most noted +scientific men. Professor Huxley said of her in connection with certain +work performed by her as a member of one of the committees to which he +belonged that "she knew more about the business" than all the rest put +together. + +Miss Ormerod's services and attainments, it is gratifying to note, were +not without recognition in high quarters. Besides being in constant +correspondence with the most eminent entomologists of the world, +consulting entomologist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England and +examiner in agricultural entomology in the University of Edinburgh, she +was a member of many learned societies in both the Old and the New +World. She was also the recipient of many medals, two of which came from +Russia. + +The honor, however, which gave her the most pleasure was the degree of +Doctor of Laws, which was conferred on her by the University of +Edinburgh. It was the first time this old and conservative institution +thus honored a woman, but in honoring Miss Ormerod it honored itself as +well.[175] + +But when one considers the magnitude of Miss Ormerod's services to her +country and to the world, when one reflects on the tens of millions of +pounds sterling which she saved to the British Empire by her researches +and writings, these honors seem trivial and unworthy of the great nation +which she so signally benefited. If any of her countrymen had labored so +long and so successfully and made so many sacrifices for the welfare of +the nation as she had, he would have been knighted or ennobled. But +age-long prejudices and traditions will not yet permit England to bestow +the same honors on women as on men, no matter how brilliant their +attainments or how distinguished their services to the crown and to +humanity. Recognition of this kind may possibly come as one of the +desirable innovations of the twentieth century. No lover of fair play +can deny "'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished."[176] + +The names of the women in the United States who have become prominent by +their researches and writings in the various branches of the natural +sciences would make a long list. And when one recalls the fact that it +was only in the latter part of the nineteenth century that American +women were afforded an opportunity to study science, it is a matter of +surprise that the list is so extended. For practically no provision was +made for the serious pursuit by them of the natural sciences until the +opening of Vassar College in 1865, and it was not until the closing +years of the century that the portals of many men's colleges were +unlocked and thrown open to the hitherto proscribed sex. Considering all +the obstacles they had to overcome, the ignorance, the prejudice, the +opposition of all kinds they had to combat in the United States, women +have already accomplished wonders and bid fair to achieve much more in +the near future. + +Now almost every educational institution in the land, private or state, +has one or more women professors or associate professors. They teach all +the branches of the natural sciences that are taught by their male +colleagues,--botany, geology, mineralogy, zoölogy, anatomy, bacteriology +and all the numerous subdivisions of these sciences,--and they teach +them with success and éclat. + +They also occupy responsible scientific positions in various state and +federal institutions. Thus one woman has been the principal of the +Denver School of Mines, while another has been the state entomologist +for Missouri. Women are also found doing important work in the National +Museum, in the Smithsonian Institution, and in the Agricultural +Department in Washington, as well as in the various museums, botanical +gardens and public laboratories of the country from the Atlantic to the +Pacific. + +Among those who have deserved well of science in the United States by +their investigations and writings are Olive Thorne Miller and Florence +Merriam in ornithology; Susanna Phelps Gage, Dr. Ida H. Hyde, Mary H. +Hinckley, Cornelia M. Clapp, Edith J. and Agnes M. Claypole in biology; +Rose S. Eigenman in icthyology; Edith M. Patch, Elizabeth W. Peckham, +Emily A. Smith, Cora H. Clarke, J. M. Arms Sheldon, Mary Treat, Mary E. +Murfeldt, Annie T. Slosson in entomology; Elizabeth G. Britton and Clara +E. Cummings in cryptogamic botany; Sarah A. Plummer Lemmon, Katherine E. +Golden, Alice Eastman and Almira Lincoln Phelps in general botany; Ada +D. Davidson, Ella F. Boyd and Florence Bascom in geology. Besides these, +special mention should also be made of Dr. Julia W. Snow for her work on +the microscopical forms of fresh-water algæ; Anna Botsford Comstock for +her contributions to our knowledge of microscopic insects; Katherine J. +Bush for her monographs on shallow and deep-water molusca; Harriet +Randolph and Fannie E. Langdon for their studies on worms, and Katherine +Foot for her papers on cellular morphology. Particularly notable, too, +is the work that has been done on marine invertebrates by Mary J. +Rathbun in the United States National Museum and by Florence Wambaugh +Patterson in vegetable physiology and pathology in the Department of +Agriculture in Washington. + +But much as the women just named deserve recognition for their +achievements in the various branches of science to which they have +severally devoted themselves, the one who will always be specially +remembered, not only for her valuable contributions to divers branches +of natural science, but also for her labors in behalf of higher female +education--particularly as president of Radcliffe College--is Mrs. +Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, the wife of the celebrated Swiss-American +naturalist, who gave such an impetus to the study of natural science in +the United States, and whose influence on the general advancement of +science in all its departments has proved so enduring and so +far-reaching. As an inspirer of and collaborator with her gifted +husband, Mrs. Agassiz deserves a large page in the annals of science, +while as an enthusiastic student of nature and as one who communicated +her enthusiasm to her students, and at the same time held up before them +the highest ideals of womanhood, she is sure of a portion of that +immortality which has been decreed to her illustrious life-partner, Jean +Louis Agassiz. + +This chapter would not be complete without some reference to that large +class of women travelers who, directly or indirectly, have contributed +so much to the advancement of the natural sciences. The gifted Roumanian +writer and traveler, Princess Helena Kolzoff Massalsky,--better known +under her pseudonym, Doria d'Istria,--somewhere expresses the opinion +that a woman traveler admirably supplements the scientific work of the +male explorer by bringing to it aptitudes that the latter does not +possess. For she notes many things in nature, as well as in the national +life and popular customs of the countries which she traverses, which +escape the more hebetudinous perceptions of men, and thus a vast field, +that would otherwise remain unknown, is opened to observation and +critical study. + +One of the most noted travelers of her sex in the nineteenth century was +the famous Ida Pfeiffer, of Austria. During the years intervening +between 1842 and 1858, the date of her death, she traveled nearly two +hundred thousand miles and, in so doing, visited nearly every quarter of +the globe. When one recalls the difficulties and discomforts of +transportation in the early part of the last century, as compared with +our present facilities and conveniences, and bears in mind the fact that +her traveling expenses for an entire year were less than those of a +Lamartine or a Chateaubriand for a single week, we must admit that her +achievements were, indeed, extraordinary. + +Besides being the author of numerous books which had for many years a +great vogue--books which, by reason of the keen observations and the +absolutely truthful narratives of their author, are still of special +value to the student of geography and ethnology--she made collections +illustrative of botany, mineralogy and entomology which were +subsequently secured for the British Museum and other similar +institutions in Europe. + +No one more highly appreciated Frau Pfeiffer's efforts in behalf of +science than did the illustrious Alexander von Humboldt, whose +friendship was one of the greatest joys of this remarkable woman's life. +Through his recommendation and that of the noted geographer, Karl +Ritter, she was made an honorary member of the Geographical Society of +Berlin. Besides this, the King of Prussia conferred on her the gold +medal for arts and sciences. + +Three other women, all representatives of Great Britain, likewise +deserve notice for their extensive travels and the interesting and +instructive accounts which they published of them. These are Constance +Gordon Cumming, Isabella Bird Bishop and Amelia B. Edwards. + +More notable in many respects than these three distinguished women were +Miss Mary H. Kingsley and Madame Octavie Coudreau. For their +contributions to science and for their daring adventures in savage +lands, they have won for themselves an unique position among women +explorers. + +Miss Kingsley--the niece of the well-known writer and naturalist, +Charles Kingsley--exhibited much of her uncle's literary ability and +love of nature. So complete was her intellectual grasp of the most +difficult problems, and so rare was her overflowing sympathy for all of +God's creatures, that she was well described as possessing "the brain of +a man and the heart of a woman." + +In order to get at first-hand information that was necessary to complete +a work which her father, George Kingsley, had, owing to his premature +death, left unfinished, she determined to visit that part of West Africa +"where all authorities agreed that the Africans were at their wildest +and worst." Accompanied only by the natives, she travelled among +cannibals, pushed her way through mangrove swamps and pestilential +morasses. She spent months in a canoe exploring the territory watered by +the Calabar and Ogowé rivers, often in imminent peril of death from wild +animals or wilder men. + +When not studying the manners and customs of the native tribes, she was +hunting fishes and reptiles in streams and quagmires and collecting +insects in the weird, grim twilight of the equatorial forest with its +inextricable tangle of creepers, its great hanging tapestries of vines +and flowers, its myriads of bush-ropes, suspended from the summits of +tall buttressed trees, "some as straight as plumb lines, others coiled +round and intertwined among each other until one could fancy one was +looking on some mighty battle between armies of gigantic serpents that +had been arrested at its height by some mighty spell." + +The results of Miss Kingsley's wanderings in this dark and uncanny +wilderness and among the savage tribes visited by her were her two +instructive volumes entitled _Travels in West Africa_ and _West African +Studies_. In addition to these two works from her pen there are +deposited in the British Museum an interesting collection of insects, +fishes and reptiles--many of them new species and some of them named in +her honor--which testifies to her activity as a collector and her +enthusiasm as a naturalist. + +Her brilliant and useful career was cut short in Cape Colony, whither +she had gone as an army nurse during the Boer war. In view of her +achievements one is not surprised to learn that her countrymen regarded +her premature taking-off as a national misfortune. The noblest monument +to her memory is "The Mary Kingsley Society of West Africa," whose +object is to carry on, as far as may be, the beneficent work she began +on the West African coast and to accomplish for English rule in this +part of the world what the "Royal Asiatic Society" has achieved for +British administration in India. + +Madame Coudreau is designated in _Qui Etes-Vous_--the French Who's +Who--as an _exploratrice_. This well characterizes her; for, if not the +first woman explorer by profession, she is certainly the most energetic +and successful. + +Her first work was in French Guiana, under instructions from the +colonial minister of France. This was in 1894. The following year she +began the scientific exploration of the province of Pará in northern +Brazil, in collaboration with her husband, Henri Coudreau, who had +previously distinguished himself by his achievements as a writer and as +an explorer in French Guiana. The fruit of their joint work from 1895 to +1899 was six quarto volumes profusely illustrated by photographs which +they had taken and by carefully executed charts of the various rivers +which they had explored. + +While engaged in the exploration of the Trombetas, a tributary of the +Amazon, Henri Coudreau was taken seriously ill, and, after a few days' +struggle against the disease with which he was stricken, he expired in +the depths of the forest primeval, where he was buried by his desolate +and disconsolate widow. After such a calamity any other woman would +have left the tropics at once and returned to her home and friends. Not +so Mme. Coudreau. With matchless courage and determination she buried +her grief in the work in which her husband had been so interested, and, +after completing the unfinished survey, published the results of this +expedition under the title _Voyage au Trombetas_. + +Having completed this work, she was engaged by the states of Pará and +Amazonas to explore a number of other rivers in the vast territory known +as Amazonia. This commission involved the most arduous and dangerous +kind of labor and was a task which few men would have been willing to +undertake. It is doubtful if any other woman would have ventured on such +an expedition, and it is quite certain that no other one could have been +found that was so well equipped for this herculean undertaking or who +would have carried it to a more successful issue. + +Mme. Coudreau was in the service of Amazonia, in the capacity of +official explorer, from 1899 to 1906. Most of this time she spent in a +canoe on the affluents of the Amazon, or in her tent in the dense +forests under the equator. Her only companions were negroes, or Indians, +or Brazilian halfbreeds who served her as porters, cooks and boatmen. +Frequently they were in the forest wilds for many months at a time and +far away from every vestige of civilized life. As it was impossible to +take sufficient provisions with them to last them during the whole of +their journey, they had to depend on wild fruits and such fish and game +as they were able to secure. Often they were forced to live for weeks at +a time on an unchanging diet of manioc and tapir meat. + +But their sufferings were not confined to hunger and disagreeable--often +indigestible--food. There were the heavy steaming atmosphere and the +broiling rays of a superheated sun, especially when reflected from the +mirror-like surface of lake or river, which were so debilitating and +exhausting that physical exertion of any kind was at times almost +impossible. There were also the torrential and incessant rains--making +it impossible for them to cook their food or dry their clothing--which +added to their miseries whether in camp or in their canoe. + +Great, however, as were their trials on the river, they were trifling in +comparison with those in the woods. Here locomotion was impeded by +tangled undergrowth which was bound together by strands of lianas and +thorny vines which constituted an impenetrable barrier until a passage +was hewn through it with a machete. Under foot was a yielding morass +which threatened to absorb them. Overhead were countless chigoes, +garapatas and fire-ants which infested the body or buried themselves in +the flesh. Or there were clouds of mosquitoes which gave no rest day or +night. And worst of all was the ever-present danger of fever and +dysentery, not to speak of the dread diseases so common in certain +sections of the equatorial regions. It was then that Mme. Coudreau had +to act the part of a physician, as well as of a leader, even though she +was at the time such a sufferer herself that she was barely able to +stand. + +To make matters still more difficult for Mme. Coudreau, her employees at +times, especially when under the influence of liquor which they +contrived to obtain some way or other, became mutinous and refused to +accompany her to the end of her journey. At other times the expedition +was halted by their fear of wild beasts or savage Indians, or by +imaginary evils of many kinds, suggested to them by their superstitious +minds. On such occasions Mme. Coudreau never failed to show herself a +born leader of men, for she invariably--alone as she was with a crew who +were often half savages--was successful in suppressing incipient +rebellion and in restoring obedience and order.[177] + +Continually confronted, as she was, by such trials and difficulties, +privations and dangers, one would imagine that the delicately reared +Frenchwoman would have sought immediate release from an engagement that +necessitated so much exposure and suffering and sought surcease of +sorrow in the distractions and gaieties of pleasure-loving Paris. + +Nothing, however, was farther from her thoughts. Intrepid and +resourceful, she feared no danger and hesitated before no difficulty, +however great. As an explorer she was as venturesome as Crevaux and as +conscientious as La Condamine. Like them, who were both her countrymen, +she spent many years of her life in the equinoctial regions, and, like +them, she contributed immensely to our knowledge of the Land of the +Southern Cross. + +Never did the tropics have a greater fascination for anyone than for +Mme. Coudreau. During the twelve years she spent there, exploring its +rivers and traversing its interminable forests, the spell of Amazonia +was ever upon her and was never broken, even for a moment. + +"I have," she writes, "loved everything in Amazonia, the great majestic +woodland and the mysterious virgin forest, the beautiful rivers with +their traitorous waters and thundering cataracts, the suffocating air +and the perfumed breeze, the burning sun and the sweet freshness of +night, the impressive voice of the wind among the trees and the +torrential rain. And, contrary to the usual custom of man of bringing +everything under his domination, it is I who have become a captive of +this savage life which I love, and have permitted it to take possession +of all my soul and all my will."[178] + +Elsewhere she declares: "In the solitude of the virgin forest I am calm, +tranquil, experience no ennui and am almost merry. When I am obliged to +leave the great woodland the power to struggle grows less in me. I +become of an excessive sensibility. I feel more keenly life's blows. I +am not armed for elbowing my way and making a place for myself in the +sunshine. I neither love nor understand anything except my virgin +forest. There, indeed, I suffer from the inclemency of the weather, from +hunger, from sickness; but these are only physical sufferings and are +soon forgotten, while moral and interior pains, on the contrary, are +ineradicable."[179] + +And still again she tells us: "The solitude of the virgin forest has +become a necessity for me; it attracts me by its mysterious silence, and +only in the great woods have I the impression of being at home."[180] + +Can we wonder that such an ardent lover of Nature and such a strenuous +votary of science was able to forget herself in her work and was able, +notwithstanding her toils and her sufferings, to produce six quarto +volumes of reports, in as many years, on the unexplored regions which +she had so carefully surveyed and charted? Can we be surprised that her +labors received due recognition from learned societies in both the New +and the Old World, and that she was acclaimed as an explorer who had +rendered distinct service to the cause of natural science, as well as to +geography?[181] + +When we recall the labors of this lone daughter of France in the wilds +of the tropics, with no one to communicate with except her +half-civilized servants and boatmen, we instinctively hark back to days +not long past and estimate the enormous progress women have made in +social and intellectual freedom within but a few decades. + +Owing to the policy of repression which so long prevailed regarding the +intellectual efforts of women, and the social obstacles which prevented +them from publicly acknowledging the offspring of their genius, women +like the Brontë sisters, George Sand and George Eliot were compelled to +conceal their identity under male designations. Because it was +considered immodest for a woman to appear before the public as an +author, Lady Nairne, after Burns, the most popular song writer in +Scotland, felt obliged to keep secret the authorship of her beautiful +poems. + +Similarly, family honor made it incumbent on Fanny Mendelssohn to +refrain from publishing her musical compositions under her own name. +Accordingly, they appeared along with those of her brother Felix, and so +similar are they in color and sentiment to his own productions that they +are indistinguishable from them, unless the author's signature be +attached. To satisfy an inane public opinion, they long contributed "to +swell the volume of her brother's fame," and there is reason to believe +that some of them still appear under his name at the present day. + +Yes, truly, when one recalls these and similar facts, one cannot help +exclaiming: "What a marvelous change in the attitude of the world toward +women within the memories of those still living!" Women like Miss +Ormerod, Miss Kingsley and Mme. Coudreau would have been ostracized if +they had dared to attempt, in the days of Lady Nairne, the Brontë +sisters and Fanny Mendelssohn, what they may now do not only without +censure but without exciting more than passing comment. The ban has been +lifted from what was for ages tabu for women, and the sphere of their +intellectual activities is now almost coëxtensive with that of the +sterner sex. Not only does society no longer point the finger of scorn +at the woman naturalist or the woman explorer, but it showers honors on +her while living and erects monuments to her memory when dead. A great +change, indeed, and one long and ardently desired. Verily, _tempora +mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[164] In his erudite work, _Geschichte der Botanik_, Vol. III, p. 517, +Koenigsberg, 1856, Ernest H. F. Meyer gives in a few words his estimate +of the excellence of Hildegard's _Physica_: "Aber als ehrwürdiges +Denkmal des Alterthums und einer zu jener Zeit nicht gemeinen +Naturkentniss empfehlen sich zumal deutschen Naturforschern ihre vier +Bücher der _Physica_.... Denn nicht nur der deutsche Botaniker und +Zoologe finden in ihrer Physik fast die ersten rohen Anfänge +vaterländische Naturforshung, auch dem Artzt bietet sic für jene Zeit +überraschende Erscheinung dar, eine nicht von Dioskorides abgeleitete, +sondern unverkennbar aus der Volksüberlieferung geschöpfte +Heilmittellehre; und der Sprachforscher stösst im lateinischen Text +beinahe Zeile um Zeile auf deutsche Ausdrücke seltener Sprachformen." + +[165] Hildegardis _Opera Omnia_, p. 1122, Migne's Edition, Paris, 1882. + +[166] "Constat permulta S. Hildegardi nota jam fuisse, quæ caeteri medii +ævi scriptores nescierunt, quæque sagaces demum recentiorum temporum +indagatores reperierunt ac tamquam nova ventitarunt." Ibid. Dr. Karl +Jessen, in his thoughtful _Botanik der Gegenwart und Vorzeit in +Culturhistorischer Entwickelung_, p. 123, Leipzig, 1864, expresses +himself on the extraordinary medical knowledge of the abbess of Bingen +as follows: "Wer deutsche Volkarznei studieren will, der studiere +Hildegard und er wird Respect davor bekommen." + +[167] _Compendio Storico della Scuola Anatomica di Bologna_, p. 358, by +Michele Medici, Bologna, 1857, and _Notizie degli Scrittori Bolognesi_, +Tom. VI, p. 113, by Giovanni Fantuzzi, Bologna, 1788. + +Certain writers tell us of another woman who distinguished herself in +anatomy in the early part of the fourteenth century. Her name was +Alessandra Giliani, who is said to have been a pupil and an assistant of +the celebrated Mondino, father of modern anatomy. In addition to +possessing great skill in dissection, she is reputed to have devised a +means of drawing the blood from the veins and arteries--even the most +minute--and then filling them with variously colored liquids which +quickly solidified. By this means, we are told, she was able to exhibit +the circulatory system in all its details and complexity, and to have +always on hand, for purposes of instruction, a model that was absolutely +true to nature. + +How much truth there may be in these statements regarding a young girl, +who was only nineteen when she died, is difficult to determine. Medici, +in concluding his account of her and referring to the inscription on her +tomb, which seems to authenticate all the claims made for her, expresses +himself as follows: "In quoting this document, I do not intend that my +readers shall accord to it a credence that I myself abstain from giving +it, but only that they may know of it, if for no other reason than to +satisfy their curiosity." Op. cit., pp. 30 and 362, note I. Should the +traditions regarding this precocious girl be verified, it would be most +gratifying to the people of Bologna, for it would add one more to the +long list of her illustrious women. + +[168] The titles of the two works of this remarkable woman are of +sufficient interest to be given in full. They are as follows: + +1. _Véritable Déclaration de la Découverte des Mines et Minières par le +Moyen desquelles Sa Majesté et Sujets se peuvent passer des Pays +Etrangers_, Paris, 1632. + +2. _La Restitution de Pluton à Mgr. l'Eminent Card. de Richelieu, des +Mines et Minières de France, cachées jusqu'à present au Ventre de la +Terre, par la Moyen desquelles les Finances de sa Majesté seront +beaucoup plus Grandes que celles de tous les Princes Chrestiens et ses +Sujets plus Heureux de tous les Peuples._ Paris, 1640. + +[169] _Die Verdienste der Frauen um Naturwissenschaft and Heilkunde_, p. +169, von Dr. C. F. Harless, Göttingen, 1830. + +[170] The Latin title of this interesting work is _De Generatione et +Metamorphose Insectorum Surinamensium_, Amsterdam, 1705. + +[171] The Latin edition of this work is entitled _Erucarum Ortus, +Alimenta et Paradoxa Metamorphosis_, Amsterdam, 1718. It was afterwards +translated into French and published under the title _Histoire des +Insectes de l'Europe_. + +[172] _Die Leistungen der deutschen Frau in den letzen vierhundert +Jahren auf wissenschaftlichem Gebiebte_, p. 85, von Elise Oelsner, +Guhrau, 1894. + +[173] In his preface to _Les Maladies des Vers à Soie_. + +[174] It is estimated that the loss to the United States from cattle +ticks alone is $100,000,000 a year. According to the year-book of the +Agricultural Department for 1904, the annual losses to agriculture from +destructive insects reach the enormous sum of $420,000,000. + +[175] The dean of the law faculty in presenting Miss Ormerod to the +vice-chancellor on this occasion and speaking before an audience of +three thousand people said, among other things: "The preëminent position +which Miss Ormerod holds in the world of science is the reward of +patient study and unwearying observation. Her investigations have been +chiefly directed towards the discovery of methods for the prevention of +the ravages of those insects which are injurious to orchard, field and +forest. Her labors have been crowned with such success, that she is +entitled to be hailed as the protectress of agriculture and the fruits +of the earth--a beneficent Demeter of the nineteenth century." _Eleanor +Ormerod, Economic Entomologist, Autobiography and Correspondence_, +Edited by Robert Wallace, p. 96, London, 1904. + +[176] _The Canadian Entomologist_, September, 1901, in an obituary +notice of Miss Ormerod, well voiced the high appreciation in which she +was held throughout the civilized world in the following paragraph: +"Miss Ormerod was one of the most remarkable women of the latter half of +the nineteenth century and did more than any one else in the British +Isles to further the interests of farmers, fruit-growers and gardeners +by making known to them methods for controlling and subduing their +multiform insect pests. Her labors were unwearied and unselfish; she +received no remuneration for her services, but cheerfully expended her +private means in carrying out her investigations and publishing their +results. We know not now by whom in England this work can be continued; +it is not likely that anyone can follow in the unique path laid out by +Miss Ormerod; we may, therefore, cherish the hope that the Government of +the day will hold out a helping hand and establish an entomological +bureau for the lasting benefit of the great agricultural interests of +the country." Professor J. Ritzema Bos, the distinguished entomologist +of Holland, had no hesitation in proclaiming Miss Ormerod the first +economic entomologist in England and one of the most famous economic +entomologists in the world. + +[177] The following dialogue between Mme. Coudreau and one of her +boatmen, Joas-Felix, who was the spokesman of his companions, +illustrates not only the bravery of the daring explorer, but also the +pusillanimity of her half-breed personnel when in the depths of the +forest at night: + +"'Madam has no fear?' + +"'Fear of what?' + +"'Of tigers.' + +"'No, it is not of tigers that I have fear.' + +"'Of Indians?' + +"'Neither have I fear of Indians.' + +"'Then, madam, it is something which is in the woods, which we do not +know, that can harm us.' + +"'You know very well what frightens me. I am afraid that the bats will +attack my chickens during the night. If you hear them making a noise you +must get up.' + +"I laugh heartily in observing their astonished look and ask myself how +men whose consciences are stained with many bloody crimes can have fear +here. Joas-Felix gives me the explanation: + +"'Madam makes game of us. None the less, madam, I am a man in the city +and in the savanna. With my poignard and machete I fear nothing, neither +man nor beast. But here, madam, where everything is dark, even in the +daytime; where an enemy may be lying in wait for us behind every tree; +it is not the same thing. It would be impossible for me to live in the +forest. One cannot see far enough in it.' + +"Now I understand better their terror. The mysterious depth of the +virgin forest impresses them. The opaque obscurity of the night in the +underwood contrasts too strongly with the moonlit savanna where they +have been reared. The low and sombre vault of the woods oppresses them +and they imagine they are going to be crushed. They lose their heads and +see in every tree a phantom enemy. To reason with them is useless, for +when fear takes possession of them, there is nothing to be done." +_Voyage au Maycurú_, p. 127. + +[178] _Voyage au Maycurú_, p. 1, Paris, 1903. + +[179] _Voyage au Rio Curuá_, p. 85, Paris, 1903. + +[180] Ibid., p. 1. + +[181] In order that the reader may realize the immense extent of +territory that was covered by this strenuous woman's explorations, +during the twelve years she spent in Amazonia, it suffices to give the +titles of her books, all of which are profusely illustrated by +photographs taken by herself and by accurate charts of rivers, whose +courses were previously almost unknown. + +The books written in collaboration with her husband are _Voyage au +Tapajos_, _Voyage au Xingu_, _Voyage au Tocantins-Araguaya_, _Voyage au +Itaboca et à l'Etacayuna_, _Voyage entre Tocantins et Xingu_, _et Voyage +au Yamunda_. + +The books written by Mme. Coudreau after her husband's death are _Voyage +au Trombetas_, _Voyage au Cuminá_, _Voyage au Rio Curuá_, _Voyage a la +Mapuerá_ and _Voyage au Maycurú_. + +When one remembers that many of the watercourses here named would be +considered large rivers outside of South America; that, notwithstanding +their countless rapids and waterfalls, necessitating numberless +portages, Mme. Coudreau explored all these rivers from their embouchures +to as near their sources as the water would carry her rude dugouts, we +can form some idea of the miles she traveled and of the stupendous labor +that was involved in making these long journeys in the sweltering and +debilitating and insect-laden atmosphere of the Amazon basin. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WOMEN IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY + + +As woman was the first nurse, so was she also the first practitioner of +the healing art. Among savages the world over it is the women, in the +great majority of cases, who have the care of the sick and wounded, and +who, by reason of their superior knowledge of simples for the cure of +diseases, occupy the position of doctors. In certain parts of the +uncivilized world there are, it is true, shamans or medicine men; but +these are conjurers or exorcists, who profess to expel disease, or +rather the evil spirits causing the disease, by sorcery or incantation, +rather than physicians who essay to cure ailments or relieve suffering +by the use of substances which experience has showed to possess remedial +properties. In a word, the shaman is a kind of a religious functionary +who imposes on the ignorance of his tribe and who holds his position by +the fear he excites, and not by any knowledge he possesses of the +healing art. It was the same, we may believe, in the early history of +our race--women, and not men, were the first physicians; and they were +also most probably the first surgeons. + +According to Greek mythology, the god of the medical art was Æsculapius, +a male; but his six daughters, as antiquity beautifully expressed it, +were not only goddesses but were also medical mistresses--_artifices +medici_--of suffering humanity. Of these Hygiea was specially +distinguished as the goddess of health, or, rather, as the conserver of +good health, while Panacea was invoked as the restorer of health after +it had been impaired or lost. + +One of the most beautiful pictures in the Iliad is that representing the +daughter of Augea, King of the Epei, caring for the wounded and +suffering Greeks on the plain before Troy. She was: + + "His eldest born, hight Agamede, with golden hair, + A leech was she, and well she knew all herbs on ground that grew." + +Nothing deterred by the din of battle around her, she provided cordial +potions for the disabled warrior and prepared + + "The gentle bath and washed their gory wounds." + +What a beautiful prototype of another ministering angel in the same land +nearly thirty centuries later, amid similar scenes of suffering--of one +who, though unsung by immortal bard, the world will never let die--the +courageous, the self-sacrificing Florence Nightingale. + +That there were in Greece from the earliest times numerous women +possessed of a high degree of medical skill is evidenced by many of the +ancient writers. They were what we would call medical herbalists, and +not a few of them exhibited a natural genius for determining the +curative virtues of rare plants and a remarkable sagacity in preparing +from them juices, infusions and soothing anodynes. Others there were +who, in addition to evincing the cunning of leechcraft in the +therapeutic art, were distinguished for nimble hands in treating painful +lesions and festering sores, and who, when occasion required, were +experts in "quickly drawing the barb from the flesh and healing the +wound of the soldier." + +In the Odyssey special mention is made of the surpassing expertness of +the Egyptian female leech, Polydamna, whose name signifies the subduer +of many diseases. The land of the Nile, the poet tells us, "teems with +drugs," and + + "There ev'ry man in skill medicinal + Excels, for these are sons of Pæon all." + +In this favored cradle of civilization, to which Greece owed so much of +its knowledge and culture, there were many women who, like Polydamna, +achieved distinction in the healing art, and many, too, we have reason +to think, who communicated their knowledge to their sisters in the fair +land of Hellas. + +But not only were there in Greece women physicians like Agamede, who +were noted for their general medicinal knowledge and practice, but there +were also others who made a specialty of treating ailments peculiar to +their own sex. This we learn from a passage in the _Hippolytus_ of +Euripides, wherein the nurse of Phædra addressed the suffering queen in +the following words: + + "If under pains + Thou labor, such as may not be revealed, + To succor thee thy female friends are here. + But if the other sex may know thy sufferings + Let the physician try his healing art." + +More positive information, however, is afforded us by the ancient Roman +author Hyginus, who, in writing of the Greek maiden, Agnodice, tells us +how the medical profession was legalized for all the free-born women of +Athens. Instead of a literal translation of Hyginus, the version of his +story is given in the quaint language of one Mrs. Celleor, a noted +midwife in the reign of James II. + +"Among the subtile Athenians," writes Mrs. Celleor, "a law at one time +forbade women to study or practice medicine or physick on pain of death, +which law continued some time, during which many women perished, both in +child-bearing and by private diseases, their modesty not permitting them +to admit of men either to deliver or cure them. But God finally stirred +up the spirit of Agnodice, a noble maid, to pity the miserable condition +of her own sex, and hazard her life to help them; which, to enable +herself to do, she apparelled her like a man and became the scholar of +Hierophilos, the most learned physician of the time; and, having learnt +the art, she found out a woman that had long languished under private +diseases, and made proffer of her service to cure her, which the sick +person refused, thinking her to be a man; but, when Agnodice discovered +that she was a maid, the woman committed herself into her hands, who +cured her perfectly; and after her many others, with the like skill and +industry, so that in a short time she became the successful and beloved +physician of the whole sex." + +When it became known that Agnodice was a woman "she was like to be +condemned to death for transgressing the law--which, coming to the ears +of the noble women, they ran before the Areopagites, and, the house +being encompassed by most women of the city, the ladies entered before +the judges and told them they would no longer account them for husbands +and friends, but for cruel enemies, that condemned her to death who +restored to them their health, protesting they would all die with her if +she were put to death. This caused the magistrates to disannul the law +and make another, which gave gentlewomen leave to study and practice all +parts of physick to their own sex, giving large stipends to those that +did it well and carefully. And there were many noble women who studied +that practice and taught it publicly in their schools as long as Athens +flourished in learning."[182] + +After the time of Agnodice many Greek women won distinction in medicine, +some as practitioners in the healing art, others as writers on medical +subjects. Nor were their activities confined to the land of Hellas. They +were also found succoring the infirm and instructing the poor and +ignorant in Italy, Egypt and Asia Minor. Among these was Theano, the +wife of Pythagoras, who, after her husband's death, assumed charge of +his school of philosophy, and who, like her husband and teacher, was +distinguished for her attainments in medicine. The names of many others +occur in the pages of Hippocrates, Galen and Pliny; and frequent +references are made to the works and prescriptions of women doctors who +enjoyed more than ordinary celebrity during their time. Of these female +practitioners many confined their practice to the diseases of women and +children, while others excelled in surgery and pharmacy, as well as in +general medical practice. + +Among the medical women whom antiquity especially honored, particularly +during the Greco-Roman period, were Origenia, Aspasia--not the famous +wife of Pericles--and Cleopatra, who was not, however, as is often +asserted, the ill-fated queen of Egypt. Likewise deserving of special +mention was Metradora, of whom there is still preserved in Florence a +manuscript work on the diseases of women,[183] and Antiochis, to whom +her admiring countrymen erected a statue bearing the following +inscription: "Antiochis, daughter of Diodotos of Tlos; the council and +the commune of the city of Tlos, in appreciation of her medical ability, +erected at their own expense this statue in her honor." + +Pliny, the naturalist, felicitates the Romans on having been for nearly +six hundred years free from the brood of doctors. These he does not +hesitate to berate roundly. His statement regarding the non-existence of +physicians, it must be observed, is somewhat exaggerated. It is true +that during the first five centuries there were no professional doctors +who lived entirely on their practice. There were, however, many men who +had by long experience gained an extensive knowledge of drugs and +simples, and who were able to dress wounds and treat diseases with +considerable success. + +The first Greek freeman to practice medicine in Rome was one Archagatos, +about two centuries B.C. He was soon followed by one of his countrymen +named Asclepiades. These two soon built up a great reputation as +successful practitioners, and were held in the highest esteem by the +people of Rome. In consequence of this and of the favorable conditions +offered foreigners for the practice of the healing art, there was soon a +large influx of physicians and surgeons from Greece, not only into Rome +but also into other parts of Italy. + +Not long after the arrival of Greek doctors in the capital of the Roman +world we learn of certain women physicians in Rome who were held in high +repute. Among these were Victoria and Leoparda, both mentioned by the +medical writer, Theodorus Priscianus. To Victoria, Priscianus dedicates +the third book of his _Rerum Medicarum_, and in the preface to this book +he refers to her as one who has not only an accurate knowledge of +medicine, but also as one who is a keen observer and experienced +practitioner. + +The word _medica_, which occurs in Latin authors of the classical +period, testifies to the existence of the woman doctor as early as the +age of Augustus. + +But the most important documents bearing on women physicians, not only +in the city of Rome but also in Italy, Gaul and the Iberian peninsula, +are the large body of epigraphic monuments which have recently been +brought to light, and which prove beyond all doubt that women were not +only obstetricians, but that they were successful practitioners in the +entire field of medical art. Thus a funeral tablet found in Portugal +tells of a woman who was a most excellent physician--_medica +optima_--while another describes the deceased not only as a woman +incomparable for her virtues, but also as a mistress of medical +science, _antistes disciplinæ in medicina fuit_. + +The Greek word for _medica_--_iatromaia_--occasionally found in some of +the inscriptions, seems to refer specially to women of Greek origin or +birth. This is particularly true of a monument erected to one Valiæ, who +is designated as _Kalista iatromaia_--the best doctor.[184] + +Among the many women who became converts to Christianity during the +early ages of the church a goodly number were physicians. Unfortunately, +our information respecting these votaries of the healing art is not as +complete as we could wish. One of the most noted of them is St. +Theodosia, whose name is given in the Roman martyrology for the +twenty-ninth of May. She was the mother of the martyr, St. Procopius, +and was distinguished for her knowledge of medicine and surgery, both of +which she practiced in Rome with the most signal success. She died a +heroic death by the sword during the persecution of Diocletian. + +Another woman who was as eminent for her knowledge of medicine as for +her holiness of life was St. Nicerata, who lived in Constantinople +during the reign of the emperor Arcadius. She is said to have cured St. +John Chrysostom of an affection of the stomach from which he was a +sufferer. + +To the Roman lady Fabiola, remarkable as the daughter of one of the most +illustrious patrician families of Rome, but more remarkable for her +sanctity and her boundless charity toward the poor, was due the erection +of the first hospital--a noble structure which she founded in Ostia, at +the mouth of the Tiber, which was then the port of entry to the capital +of the Roman empire. Here the noble matron received the poor and +suffering from all parts, and did everything in her power to afford +them succor in their wants and infirmities. + +It is difficult for us now, when hospitals and charitable institutions +of all kinds are so common, to understand what an innovation Fabiola's +unheard-of institution was considered by her contemporaries. For her +method of treating the needy and the suffering was as different from +that which had hitherto obtained as were the debasing lessons of +heathendom from the elevating precepts of the Gospels. + +No wonder that the news of this godlike work was soon wafted to the +uttermost bounds of the earth; that, in the words of St. Jerome, "summer +should announce in Britain what Egypt and Parthia had learned in the +spring." No wonder that the same eloquent hermit of Bethlehem should +proclaim the foundress of this home of the indigent and the afflicted to +be "the glory of the church, the astonishment of the Gentiles, the +mother of the poor and the consolation of the saints." No wonder that, +in contemplating her countless acts of charity, he should ignore the +fact that Fabiola was a daughter of the Fabii and a descendant of the +renowned Quintus Maximus, who, by his sage counsel, had saved his +country from her enemies, and that, recalling the words of Virgil, he +should declare: "If I had a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths and +iron lungs, I should not be able to enumerate all the maladies to which +Fabiola gave the most prodigal care and tenderness--to the extent even +of making the poor who were in health envy the good fortune of those who +were sick."[185] No wonder that Fabiola's funeral, which brought +together the whole of Rome, was more like an apotheosis than the +transfer of the remains of the deceased to their last resting-place, and +that Jerome should declare, "the glory of Furius and Papirius and +Scipio and Pompey, when they triumphed over the Gauls, the Sammites, +Numantia and Pontus" was less than that which was spontaneously accorded +to Fabiola, the solace of the sick and the comforter of the distressed. +For she had in her hospital at Ostia established a type of institution +that was to effect more for ameliorating the condition of suffering +humanity than anything that had before been dreamed of; something that +was to contribute immensely to the efforts of physicians and surgeons in +minimizing the sad ravages of wounds and disease; something whose +beneficent effects were to be felt through the centuries and in every +part of the world down to the wards of the military hospital at Scutari, +guarded by the watchful eyes of Florence Nightingale, and to the +leper-tenanted lazarettos, blessed by the ministrations of Father Damien +and the Sisters of Charity, on the desolate shores of plague-stricken +Molokai. + +After the fall of the Roman empire and through the long period of the +Middle Ages, when the monasteries and convents were almost the only +centers of learning and culture for the greater part of Europe, the +practice of medicine was to a great extent in the hands of monks and +nuns. For every religious house was then a hospital as well as a school, +a place where drugs and ointments were compounded and distributed, as +well as a place where manuscripts were transcribed and illuminated. At a +time when there were but few professional physicians and when these few +were widely separated from one another, the only places where the poor +could always be sure to find free medical treatment as well as abundant +alms were those sanctuaries of knowledge and charity where the love of +one's neighbor was never lost sight of in the love of science and +literature. And during this time, too, the care of the sick was regarded +as a duty incumbent on everyone, but particularly on those devoted to +the service of God in religion. It was considered, above all, as a duty +devolving on women, especially on the lady in the castle and on the nun +in the convent. + +The old romance of _Sir Isumbras_ gives us a charming picture of the +nuns of long ago receiving the wounded knight and ministering unto him +until he was made whole and strong, as witness the following verses: + + "The nonnes of him they were full fayne, + For that he had the Saracenes slayne + And those haythene houndes. + And of his paynnes sare ganne them rewe. + Ilke a day they made salves new + And laid them till his woundes; + They gave him metis and drynkis lythe, + And heled the knyghte wunder swythe." + +So universally during mediæval times was the healing art considered as +pertaining to woman's calling that it became a part of the curriculum in +convent schools; and no girl's education was considered complete unless +she had an elementary knowledge of medicine and of that part of surgery +which deals with the treatment of wounds. For during those troublous +times a woman was liable to be called upon at any time to nurse the sick +wayfarer or dress the wounds of those who had been maimed in battle or +in the tourney. + +Illustrations of these facts are found in many of the romances and +fabliaux of the Middle Ages. Thus, when a sick or wounded man was given +hospitality in a château or castle it was not the seigneur, but his wife +and daughters, as being better versed in medicine and surgery, who acted +as nurses and doctors and took entire charge of the patient until his +recovery. + +In the exquisite little story of _Aucassin et Nicolette_, the heroine is +pictured as setting the dislocated shoulder of her lover in the +following simple but touching language: + +"Nicolette searched his hurt, and perceived that his shoulder was out of +joint. She handled it so deftly with her white hands, and used such +skillful surgery that, by the grace of God, who loveth all true lovers, +the shoulder came back to its place. Then she plucked flowers and fresh +grasses and green leafage, and bound them tightly about the setting with +the hem torn from her shift, and he was altogether healed." + +And in the mediæval Latin poem, _Waltharius_, written by a German monk, +Ekkehard, reference is made to a sanguinary contest in which one of the +combatants falls to the earth seriously wounded. Seeing this, +Alpharides, in a loud voice, summons a young girl, who timidly comes +forward and dresses the unfortunate man's wound.[186] + +Still more to our purpose is a passage from the famous epic poem, +_Tristan and Isolde_, written by _Godfrey of Strasburg_, in which +Isolde, accompanied by her mother and cousin, is represented as +administering restoratives to Tristan, who had fallen exhausted after +his combat with the dragon. It shows that women, in accompanying an army +to the field of battle, always went provided with bandages and +medicaments for dressing wounds and fractured limbs. Similarly Angelica, +in _Orlando Furioso_, and Ermina, in _Jerusalem Delivered_, are +portrayed as surgeons with deftness of hand and leeches with rare +knowledge and skill. + +The frequent introduction of women doctors into the poems and romances +of the Middle Ages would of itself, if other evidence were wanting, +suffice to show what an important rôle women played in medicine and +surgery at a time when, in many parts of Europe, women were far better +educated and far more cultured than men--"when the knights and barons of +France and Germany were inclined to look upon reading and writing as +unmanly and almost degrading accomplishments, fit only for priests or +monks, and especially for priests or monks not too well born."[187] + +In the instances just quoted, as well as those mentioned by Homer and +Euripides, the writers do no more than faithfully reflect conditions +which then obtained, and truthfully report what were the occupations of +women when their status was so different from what it is to-day. But, +fortunately, we do not have to rely on works of the imagination for our +knowledge respecting the women practitioners of the healing art, either +during the Homeric period or during that which intervened between the +downfall of Rome and the dawn of the Renaissance. For the history of +medicine during mediæval times affords too many examples of women who +became famous for their knowledge of medicine, as well as for their +success in surgical and medical practice, to leave any doubt about the +matter. Besides this, we have still the writings of many of these women, +and are thus able to judge of their competency in those branches of +knowledge on which they shed so great luster. + +One of the most noted of them was the Benedictine abbess, St. Hildegard, +of Bingen on the Rhine, who was eminent not only as a theologian but +also as a writer whose treatises on various branches of science are +justly regarded as the most important productions of the kind during the +Middle Ages prior to the time of Albertus Magnus. Besides this, she not +only wrote many books on _materia medica_, on pathology, physiology and +therapeutics, but, as a practitioner, she gloriously sustained the best +traditions of her sex in both theoretical and practical medicine. + +Her work entitled _Liber Simplicis Medicinæ_, which deals with what in +the Saint's time was called "simples"--for the belief was then current +that each plant or herb was or provided a specific for some +disease--contains accounts of many plants used in _materia medica_, as +well as statements of their importance in therapeutics. Her descriptions +often indicate an observer of exceptionally keen perception and one +whose knowledge of science was far in advance of her epoch. The same +observations may be made respecting Hildegard 's work, _Liber Compositæ +Medicinæ_, in which she treats of the causes, signs and treatment of +diseases.[188] + +Still more remarkable, in many respects, is a treatise in nine books, +entitled _Physica_ or _Liber Subtilitatum Diversarum Naturarum +Creaturarum_, which, among other things, treats of the various elements, +of plants, trees, minerals, fish, birds, quadrupeds, and of the manner +in which they may be of service to man. Of so great importance was this +book considered that several editions of it were printed as early as the +sixteenth century. No less an authority than the late Rudolph Virchow, +the founder of cellular pathology, characterizes it as an early _materia +medica_, curiously complete, considering the age to which it +belongs.[189] And Hæser, in his history of medicine, directs attention +to the historical value of the book, declaring it to be "an independent +German treatise, based chiefly on popular experience." + +Dr. F. A. Reuss, of the University of Würtzburg, at the conclusion of +his _Prolegomena_ to the _Physica_ published in Migne's _Patrologia_, +expresses himself as follows regarding the writings and medical +knowledge of the illustrious abbess of Bingen: "Among all the saintly +_religieuses_ who, during the Middle Ages, practiced medicine or wrote +treatises on it, the first, without contradiction, is Hildegard. +According to the monk Theodoric, who was an eye witness, she had to so +high a degree the gift of healing that no sick person had recourse to +her without being restored to health. There is among the books of this +prophetic virgin a work which treats of physics and medicine. Its title +is _De Natura Nominis Elementorum Diversarumque Creaturarum_, and it +embodies, as the same Theodoric fully explains, the secrets of nature +which were revealed to the saint by the prophetic spirit. All who wish +to write the history of the medical and natural sciences should read +this book, in which the holy virgin, initiated into all the secrets of +nature which were then known, and having received special assistance +from above, thoroughly examines and scrutinizes all that which was, +until then, buried in darkness and concealed from the eyes of mortals. +It is certain that Hildegard was acquainted with many things of which +the doctors of the Middle Ages were ignorant, and which the +investigators of our own age, after rediscovering them, have announced +as something entirely new."[190] + +The life and works of St. Hildegard throw a flood of light on many +subjects that have long been veiled in mystery. It explains why the +convents of the later Middle Ages were so famed as curative centers and +why the sick flocked to them for relief from far and near. It reveals +the real agencies employed in effecting the extraordinary cures that +were reported in so many religious houses--cures so extraordinary that +they were usually regarded by the multitude as miraculous--and discloses +the secret of the success of so many nuns in the alleviation of physical +and mental sufferings. It was not because they were thaumaturges, but +because they were good nurses, and because of their thorough knowledge +of the healing art, that they were able to diagnose and prescribe for +diseases of all kinds with a success which, in the estimation of the +multitude, savored of the supernatural. + +There was also another reason for the fame of convents as sanctuaries of +health. They were usually situated in healthy locations where there was +an abundance of pure water, fresh air and cheerful sunshine. Then there +were likewise a wholesome diet, good sanitary conditions, and, above +all, regularity of life. + +The same can be said of the hospitals connected with the convents. They +were not like some of the public hospitals of the eighteenth and +nineteenth centuries in many of the large cities of Europe--repulsive, +prison-like structures, with narrow windows and devoid of light and air +and the most necessary hygienic appliances--institutions that were +hospitals in name, but which were in reality too frequently breeding +places of disease and death.[191] + +Unlike these, the hospitals presided over by nuns of the type of +Hildegard were splendid roomy structures with large windows and +abundance of light, pure air, with special provisions for the privacy of +the patients, and with sanitary arrangements that not only precluded the +dissemination of disease but which contributed materially to those +marvelous cures which the good people of the time attributed to +supernatural agencies rather than to the medical knowledge and skill of +the devoted nuns,[192] who were the real conquerors of disease and +death. + +But the inmates of the cloister were not the only women who, during the +Middle Ages, achieved distinction by their writings on medical subjects +and by their signal success in the practice of the healing art. In +various parts of Europe, but especially in Italy and France, there were +at this time among women, outside as well as inside convent walls, many +daughters of Æsculapius and sisters of Hygeia who stood in such high +repute among their contemporaries that they received the same honors and +emoluments as were accorded to their masculine colleagues. + +This was particularly the case in Salerno, which was the venerated +mother of all Christian medical schools, and which, for nine centuries, +was universally regarded as "the unquestioned fountain and archetype of +orthodox medicine." Situated on the Gulf of Salerno, and laved by the +cerulean waters of the Tyrrhenian sea, the _Civitas Hippocratica_, as it +was called on its medals, rejoiced in a salubrious climate, and was +celebrated throughout the world as the "City sacred to Phoebus, the +sedulous nurse of Minerva, the fountain of physic, the votary of +medicine, the handmaid of Nature, the destroyer of disease and the +strong adversary of death."[193] For to this favored city flocked from +all quarters the lame and the halt and those afflicted with the tortures +of disease and the disabilities of advancing years. The noble and the +simple, crowned heads as well as the poorest of the poor, were found +there, all of them in quest of life's most precious boon--health and +strength. + +Never did the far-famed sanctuary of the god of medicine in Epidaurus +witness such an influx of invalids as gathered in the hospitals of +Salerno and pressed through the streets of the Hippocratic city, seeking +the aid of those doctors whose marvelous cures had given them a +world-wide reputation. Small wonder, then, that the _Regimen Santatis +Salernitanum_--that famous code of health of the school of Salerno--has +been translated into almost all the languages of modern Europe, and that +since 1480 no fewer than two hundred and fifty editions of it have been +published. "Not to have been familiar with it from beginning to end, not +to have been able to quote it orally as occasion might require, would, +during the Middle Ages, have cast serious suspicion upon the +professional culture of any physician."[194] But the noblest claims of +the Hippocratic city to the gratitude of humanity yet remain to be told. +A German traveler in the thirteenth century wrote: + + "Laudibus æternum nullum negat esse Salernum + Illuc pro morbis totus circumfluit orbis."[195] + +This was because Salerno was universally recognized as the "day star" +and "morning glory" of the best culture in the healing art, and, still +more, because of the thorough instruction she gave in her schools of +medicine and the preëminence she so long held in every department of +medical lore. + +The course of study in medicine was long and thorough, and the candidate +applying for a degree had to pass a rigid examination and give proof not +only of his proficiency in every branch of the healing art, but also of +perfect acquaintance with the various branches of science and letters as +well. At the time of Frederick II, who organized all the different +schools of Salerno into a single university, a three years' course in +philosophy and literature was required before one could present himself +for entrance into the school of medicine. The courses in medicine lasted +five years, at least, after which a year of practice with an old +physician was required. In addition to this, if the candidate wished to +practice surgery he was obliged to devote one year to the study of human +anatomy and to the dissection of human bodies. Considering the progress +of knowledge since the time of Frederick II, it must be admitted that +the legal requirements enforced by the faculty of Salerno compare +favorably with those of the best of our medical schools of to-day. + +Still more to the credit of Salerno, long known as the Athens of the +two Sicilies, was her boundless liberality toward scholarship and +culture regardless of sex. For, with a chivalrous admiration for +intellect, wherever found, and with a sense of intellectual justice that +has put to shame all medical schools outside of Italy, until less than +fifty years ago, the school of Salerno was the first to throw open its +portals to women as well as men, and give to an admiring world a number +of women--those celebrated _mulieres Salernitanæ_--who were eminent not +only as physicians, but also as professors of the theory and practice of +medicine. For this reason, if for no other, it can be truly affirmed +that "No school of medicine in any age or country, if only for this, can +ever over-peer her in renown; and, even as formerly in the universities +of Europe, at the bare mention of the name of the learned Cujacius, +every scholar instinctively uncovered himself, so at the very name of +Salernum, the fount and nurse of rational medicine, every physician +should recall her memory 'with mute thanks and secret ecstasy' as among +the most spotless and venerated chapters in the history of his +art."[196] + +The most noted professor and successful practitioner among the women of +Salerno was Trotula, wife of the distinguished physician, John +Platearius, and a member of the old noble family of the Ruggiero. She +flourished during the eleventh century and enjoyed a reputation as a +physician that was not inferior to that of the most noted doctors of her +time. Besides occupying a chair in the school of medicine and having an +extensive practice, she was the author of many works on medicine which +had a great vogue among her contemporaries. Some of them, especially +those relating to diseases of her own sex,[197] were published several +times after the invention of printing, and many manuscript copies of her +works are still found in various libraries of Europe. But she did not +confine her practice to the diseases of women. She was also well versed +in general medicine and exhibited, besides, as her works testify, marked +skill as a surgeon in many cases that would even now be considered as +peculiarly difficult of treatment. + +One of her books was entitled _De Compositione Medicamentorum_--the +Compounding of Medicaments--and it was this work, doubtless, that gave +her much of the fame she enjoyed beyond the confines of Italy. +Ruteboeuf, a noted French trouvère of the thirteenth century, gives us +a quaint picture of a scene frequently witnessed in his day. Crowds were +frequently attracted by herbalists--venders of simples--who, stationed +at street corners or in other public places, near tables covered with a +cloth of flaring colors, were wont to descant, somewhat after the style +of certain of our patent-medicine hawkers and quack-salvers, upon the +extraordinary curative properties of the various drugs and panaceas +which they had for sale. + +"Good people," one of these traveling herb doctors would begin, "I am +not one of those poor preachers, nor one of those poor herbalists who +carry boxes and sachets and spread them out on a carpet. No, I am a +disciple of a great lady named Madame Trotte of Salerno, who performs +such marvels of every kind. And know ye that she is the wisest woman in +the four quarters of the world." + +Ordericus Vitalis, an English Benedictine monk, in his _Historia +Ecclesiastica_, tells us of the impression made by Trotula on Rudolfo +Malacorona, one of those famous itinerant scholars of the Middle Ages, +who spent their lives in wandering from one university to another in +pursuit of knowledge. He had been a student from his youth and was a man +of remarkable attainments in every department of learning. After +visiting and conferring with the learned men of the most celebrated +universities of France and Italy, he finally arrived at Salerno, where, +he informs us, he found no one who could cope with him in disputation +except _quandam sapientem matronam_--a certain very learned woman.[198] +This was Trotula, who, by reason of the extraordinary cures she +effected, was known among her contemporaries as _magistra operis_--a +consummate practitioner. When, however, we consider the thorough course +of study that every one aspiring to a degree in medicine was obliged to +complete, women as well as men, it is not so surprising that Trotula +should be regarded both as a learned woman and as a successful +physician. + +Among other women doctors who did honor to Salerno and whose names have +come down to us were three who are known in history as Abella, Rebeca de +Guarna and Mercuriade. All of them achieved a great reputation by their +writings on medical subjects, especially Mercuriade, who distinguished +herself in surgery as well as in medicine. Still another woman deserving +special mention is Francesca, wife of Matteo de Romana, of Salerno. +After passing a very severe examination before a board composed of +physicians and surgeons, she was accorded the doctorate in surgery. An +official document of the time referring to this event reads as follows: +"Whereas the laws permit women to practice medicine, and whereas, from +the viewpoint of good morals, women are best adapted to the treatment of +their own sex, we, after having received the oath of fidelity, permit +the said Francesca to practice the said art of healing," etc.[199] + +In view of the facts above mentioned regarding the University of +Salerno--the excellence of its work, its liberality and breadth of view, +its attitude toward the higher education of women, and its preëminence +for so many centuries as a school of medicine--is it surprising that it +was, until comparatively recent times, considered "the _mater et caput_ +of medical authority in ethical matters," and that, so late as 1748, the +Medical Faculty of Paris should address an official letter to the +faculty of Salerno requesting its judgment regarding the rights of +precedence as between physicians and surgeons? But what is surprising, +and what, too, passes all understanding, is that the University of +London, after being empowered by royal charter to do all things that +could be done by any university, was legally advised that it could not +grant degrees to women without a fresh charter, because no university +had ever granted such degrees.[200] + +While women were winning such laurels in Salerno in every department of +the healing art, their sisters north of the Alps were not idle. As early +as 1292 there were in Paris no less than eight women doctors--called +_miresses_ or _mediciennes_--whose names have come down to us, not to +speak of those who practiced in other parts of France. There was also a +certain number of women who devoted themselves to surgery and called by +the old Latin authors of the time _cyrurgiæ_. + +In Paris, however, conditions for studying and practicing medicine and +surgery were far from being as favorable to women as they were in +Salerno. As there were no schools open to them for the study of these +branches, they had to depend entirely for such knowledge as they were +able to acquire on the aid they could get from practicing doctors, the +reading of medical books and their own experience. The consequence was +that they were not at all so well equipped for their work as were the +women who enjoyed all the exceptional advantages offered the students at +Salerno. None of them was noted for scholarship, none of them was a +writer of books, and only one of them--Jacobe Felicie, about whom more +presently--rose above mediocrity. + +The reason for the great difference between the conditions of the women +doctors of Paris and those of Salerno is not far to seek. The Faculty of +Medicine in Paris was, from the beginning of its existence, unalterably +opposed to female medical practitioners. As early as 1220 it promulgated +an edict prohibiting the practice of medicine by any one who did not +belong to the faculty, and, according to its constitutions and by-laws, +only unmarried men were eligible to membership. + +For a long time the edict remained a dead letter. But eventually, as the +faculty grew in power and influence, it was able to enforce the +observance of its decrees. One of its first victims was Jacobe Felicie, +just mentioned, who was hailed before court for practicing medicine in +contravention of its edict issued many years before. + +Jacobe Felicie was a woman of noble birth, and had won distinction by +her success in the healing art. As the testimony at her trial revealed, +she never treated the sick for the sake of gain. In nearly all cases the +sick who had addressed themselves to her had been abandoned by their own +physicians. All the witnesses who had been called testified that they +had been cured by Jacobe Felicie, and all expressed their deepest +gratitude to her for her care and devotion. But, in spite of all these +facts, and in spite of the brilliant defence that this worthy woman +made, she was condemned to pay a heavy fine--condemned because, as the +indictment read, she had presumed to put her sickle into the harvest of +others-_falcem in messem mittere alienam_--and this was a crime.[201] +The faculty was a close corporation and insisted that its members should +have a monopoly of all the honors and emoluments that were to accrue +from the treatment of the sick and suffering. What a curious +adumbration of similar proceedings within the memory of many still +living! + +The prosecution of Jacobe Felicie recalls that of Agnodice in Greece +long ages before. And the plea urged for the necessity of a female +physician--that many a woman would rather die than reveal the secrets of +her infirmity to a man[202]--was the same as that offered by the women +of Athens before the council of the Areopagus. It was the same agonizing +cry that had been heard thousands of times before and which has been +heard thousands of times since. Isabella of Castile was not the first of +the long list of victims who, for lack of a doctor of their own sex, +have been sacrificed through womanly modesty, and, more's the pity, she +will not be the last. + +Unfortunately for the women of France, the result of the prosecution of +Mme. Felicie was the very reverse of that instituted against Agnodice; +for the latter came off victorious, while the former was condemned and +punished. So crushing was the blow dealt to women practitioners, outside +of obstetrics, that they did not recover from its effects for more than +five hundred years. For it was not until 1868 that the École de Medicine +of Paris opened its doors to women, and it was not until nearly twenty +years later that female physicians were able to enter the hospitals of +the French capital as _internes_.[203] + +Until quite recent years there is very little to be said of women +physicians in England and Germany. Their practice, outside of that of +certain herb doctors, was confined chiefly to midwifery. There was no +provision made in either of these countries for the education of women +in medicine and surgery, and such a thing as a college where they could +receive instruction in the healing art was unknown. It is true that an +ecclesiastical law of Edgar, King of England, permitted women as well as +men to practice medicine, but this law was subsequently abolished by +Henry V.[204] + +During the reign of Henry VIII a law was again enacted in favor of women +physicians; for at that time an act was passed for the relief and +protection of "Divers honest psones, as well men as women, whom God +hathe endued with the knowledge of the nature, kind and operaçon of +certeyne herbes, rotes and waters, and the using and ministering them to +suche as be payned with customable diseases, for neighbourhode and +Goddes sake and of pitie and charitie, because _that_ 'The Companie and +Fellowship of Surgeons of London, _mynding only their owne lucres and +nothing the profit or case of the diseased or patient_, have sued, vexed +and troubled' the aforesaid 'honest psones,' who were henceforth to be +allowed 'to practyse, use and mynistre in and to any outwarde sore, +swelling or disease, any herbes, oyntments, bathes, pultes +or emplasters, according to their cooning, experience and +knowledge--without sute, vexation, penaltie or loss of their +goods.'"[205] + +The italicized words in this quotation prove that the women doctors of +England had the same difficulties as their sisters in France, and that +the real reason of the opposition of the male practitioners was that +they wished to monopolize the practice of medicine. They, like the +medical faculty of Paris, strenuously objected to women "putting the +sickle into their harvest," and they, accordingly, left nothing undone +to circumvent the intrusion of those whom they always regarded as +undesirable competitors. + +It was argued by the men that women, to begin with, lacked the strength +and capacity necessary for medical practice. It was also urged that it +was indelicate and unwomanly for the gentler sex to engage in the +healing art, and that, for their own good, they should be excluded from +it at all costs. Those who were willing to waive these objections +contended that women had not the knowledge necessary for the profession +of medicine and should be excluded on the score of ignorance. When women +sought to qualify themselves for medical practice by seeking instruction +under licenced practitioners or in medical schools, they found a deaf +ear turned to their requests. The doctors declined to teach them and the +medical schools, one and all, closed their doors against them. + +Thus it was that in England, France and Germany the practice of medicine +and surgery was always practically in the hands of men until only a +generation ago. Even the English midwives gradually "fell from their +high estate," and were left far behind the female obstetricians of +Germany and France. For these two countries can point to a number of +midwives who, by their knowledge, successful practice, and the books +they wrote, achieved a celebrity that still endures. + +Chief among these in Germany were Regina Joseph von Siebold, her +daughter Carlotta, and Frau Teresa Frei, all of whom, in the early part +of the last century, enjoyed an enviable reputation in the Fatherland. + +The first named, after following a course of lectures on physiology and +the diseases of women and children, and passing a brilliant examination +in the medical college of Darmstadt, devoted herself to the practice of +obstetrics, and with so great success that the University of Giessen in +1819 conferred on her the degree of doctor of obstetrics. Her daughter, +Carlotta, after studying obstetrics under her mother, went to the +University of Göttingen, where she devoted herself to physiology, +anatomy and pathology. After passing an examination and successfully +defending a number of theses in the University of Giessen, she was also +proclaimed a doctor of obstetrics. At a later date Frau Frei received a +similar degree.[206] + +More noted as _accoucheuses_ and gynecologists than the three +distinguished women just mentioned were Mme. Marie Louise La Chapelle +and Mme. Marie Bovin, who, shortly after the French Revolution, entered +upon those wonderful careers in their chosen specialties which have +given them so unique a place in the annals of medicine. + +Mme. La Chapelle was particularly celebrated for the numerous +improvements she effected in lying-in hospitals, for the large number of +skilled midwives whom she furnished, not only to France, but also to the +whole of Europe, and, above all, for the excellent treatises which she +wrote on obstetrics, which gave her a reputation second to none among +her contemporaries, men or women. Her _Pratique des Accouchements_, in +three volumes, based on the immense number of fifty thousand cases at +which she presided, reveals an operator of rarest skill and genius. This +production was long regarded as a standard work on the topics discussed, +and for years exerted an immense influence in the medical world. + +Less skillful as an operator, but of greater ability as a doctor than +Mme. La Chapelle, was her illustrious contemporary, Mme. Bovin. +Possessing extraordinary insight as an investigator and marvelous +sagacity as a diagnostician, Mme. Bovin achieved the distinction of +being the first really great woman doctor of modern times. Her marvelous +success as a practitioner--Dupuytren said she had an eye at the tip of +her finger--her extended knowledge of the entire range of gynecology, +but above all her numerous treatises on the subject matter of her life +work, gave her a prestige that none of her sex had ever before enjoyed, +and commanded the admiration of the doctors of the world. Her _Memorial +de l'Art des Accouchements_ passed through many editions and was +translated into several European languages. And so highly were her +scientific attainments valued in Germany that the University of Marburg +recognized them by conferring on her--_honoris causa_--the degree of +doctor of medicine and, had its rules permitted the admission of women, +the Royal Academy of Medicine would have honored her with a place among +its members. She was also the recipient of many other honors, besides +being a member of several learned societies. But the greatest monument +to her genius is a large illustrated treatise in two volumes, in which +she exhibits a wonderful knowledge of anatomy, physiology, surgery, +pathology and therapeutics. It gave her a large following in Germany as +well as in France, and there were not wanting distinguished German +_accoucheurs_ who followed Mme. Bovin's teachings to the letter. + +The remarkable German and French women just named were all practically +self-made women. They won fame as they had acquired knowledge--chiefly +by courage, in spite of the countless obstacles that beset their paths. +They owed nothing to schools or universities, nothing to government +patronage or assistance, nothing to the medical fraternity as a whole. +Universities would not admit them to their lecture rooms or +laboratories, and the various medical faculties opposed them as +intruders into their jealously guarded domain, and as competitors whose +aspirations were to be frustrated, whatever the means employed. It is +true that, when some of the women mentioned had won world-wide renown by +their achievements, they were made the recipients of belated honors by +certain universities and learned societies; but these societies and +universities were then honoring themselves as much as the women who +received their degrees and diplomas of membership. + +How different it was in Italy, which, since the fall of the Roman +Empire, has ever been in the van of civilization, and which has always +continued the best traditions of Græco-Roman learning and +culture--Italy, which has been the home of such supreme masters of +literature, science, art as Dante, Petrarch, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, +Raphael, Michaelangelo, Brunelleschi--Italy, the mother of universities, +the birthplace of the Renaissance, and the recognized leader of +intellectual progress among the nations of the world. Here in the +favored land of the Muses and the Graces, women enjoyed all the rights +and privileges accorded to men; here the doors of schools and +universities were open to all regardless of sex; and art, science, +literature, law, medicine, jurisprudence counted its votaries among +women as well as among men; here, far from encountering jealousy and +opposition in the pursuit of knowledge or in the practice of the +professions, women never found aught but generous emulation and +sympathetic coöperation. + +For a thousand years women were welcomed into the arena of learning and +culture on the same footing as men. In Salerno, Bologna, Padua, Pavia, +they competed for the same honors and were contestants for the same +prizes that stimulated the exertions of the sterner sex. Position and +emolument were the guerdons of merit and ability, and the victor, +whether man or woman, was equally acclaimed and showered with equal +honor. Women asked for no favors in the intellectual arena and expected +none. All they desired were the same opportunities and the same +privileges as were granted the men, and these were never denied them. +From the time when Trotula taught in Salerno to the present, when +Giuseppina Catani is professor of general pathology in the medical +faculty of Bologna, the women of Italy always had access to the +universities and were at liberty to follow any course of study they +might elect. We thus find them achieving distinction in civil and canon +law, in medicine, in theology even, as well as in art, science, +literature, philosophy and linguistics. No department of knowledge had +any terrors for them, and there was none in which some of them did not +win undying fame. They held chairs of language, jurisprudence, +philosophy, physics, mathematics, medicine and anatomy, and filled these +positions with such marked ability that they commanded the admiration +and applause of all who heard them. + +This is not the place to tell of the triumphs of the women professors in +the Italian universities, or to recount the achievements of those who +were honored with degrees within their classic walls. Let it suffice to +recall the names of a few of those who won renown in medicine and +surgery and whose names are still in their own land pronounced with +respect and veneration. + +One of the most noted practitioners in Southern Italy, after the death +of Trotula and her compeers, was one Margarita, who had studied medicine +in Salerno. One of her patients was no less a personage than Ladislaus, +King of Naples. Among those that had diplomas for the practice of +surgery were Maria Incarnata, of Naples, and Thomasia de Matteo, of +Castro Isiae. + +That women enjoyed in Rome the same privileges in the practice of +medicine and surgery as their sisters in the southern part of the +peninsula is manifest from an edict issued by Pope Sixtus IV in +confirmation of a law promulgated by the Medical Faculty of Rome, which +reads as follows: "No man or woman, whether Christian or Jew, unless he +be a master or a licentiate in medicine, shall presume to treat the +human body either as a physician or as a surgeon."[207] + +In central and northern Italy--in Florence, Turin, Padua, Venice--as +well as in the southern part, we find constantly recurring instances of +women practicing medicine and surgery and winning for themselves an +enviable reputation as successful practitioners. + +But after the decline of Salerno, consequent on the establishment by +Frederick II of a school of medicine in Naples, the great center of +medicine and surgery, as of civil and canon law, was Bologna.[208] So +renowned did it become as a teaching and intellectual center that it +was, as Sarti informs us, known throughout Europe as _Civitas +Docta_--the learned city--and _Mater Studiorum_--the mother of studies. +On its coins were stamped the words _Bononia Docet_--Bologna +teaches--and on the city seal, which is still used for certain public +documents, were the words _Legum Bononia Mater_--Bologna, the Mother of +Laws. + +Here, more than in Salerno, more than in any other city in the world, +was, for long centuries, witnessed a blooming of female genius that has, +since the time of Gratian and Irnerius, given the University of Bologna +preëminence in the estimation of all friends of woman's education and +woman's culture. For here, within the walls of what was for centuries +the most celebrated university in Christendom, women had, for the first +time, an opportunity of devoting themselves at will to the study of any +and all branches of knowledge. And it can be truthfully affirmed that no +seat of learning can point to such a long list of eminent scholars and +teachers among the gentler sex as is to be found on the register of +Bologna's famous university. For here, to name only a few, achieved +distinction, either as students or as professors, such noted women as +Bitisia Gozzadina, Bettina and Novella Calendrini, Dorotea Bocchi, +Giovanna and Maddalena Bianchetti, Virginia Malvezzi, Maria Vittoria +Dosi, Elisabetta Sirani, Ippolita Grassi, Properzia de Rossi, Maria +Mastellagri, Laura Bassi, Maddelena Noe-Candedi, Clotilda Tambroni and +Anna Manzolini. In this honor list we have a group of savantes that +were famed throughout Europe for their attainments in law, philosophy, +science, ancient and modern languages, medicine, and surgery--the +rivals, and sometimes the superiors, in scholarship of the ablest men +among their distinguished colleagues. + +It would be a pleasure to recount the achievements of these justly +celebrated daughters of Italy; but lack of space precludes the mention +of more than one of them. This was Maria dalle Donne, who was born of +poor peasants near Bologna, and who at an early age exhibited +intelligence of a superior order. After pursuing her studies under the +ablest masters, she obtained from the University of Bologna, _maxima cum +laude_, the degree of doctor in philosophy and medicine. On account of +her knowledge of surgery, as well as of medicine, she was soon afterward +put in charge of the city's school for midwives. When Napoleon, in 1802, +passed through Bologna he was so struck by the exceptional ability of +the young _dottoressa_ that, on the recommendation of the savant +Caterzani, he had instituted for her in the university a chair of +obstetrics--a position which she held until the time of her death, in +1842, with the greatest credit to herself and to the institution with +which she was identified. + +Maria dalle Donne is a worthy link between that long line of women +doctors, beginning with Trotula, who have so honored their sex in Italy, +and those still more numerous practitioners in the healing art who, +shortly after her death, began to spring up in all parts of the +civilized world.[209] + +For it was about this time that the movement which had long been +agitated in behalf of the higher education of women began suddenly to +assume extraordinary vitality, not only throughout Europe but in America +as well. And to no women did this movement appeal so strongly as to +those who had long been looking forward to an opportunity to qualify +themselves for the learned professions, especially medicine. No sooner +did they descry the first flush of dawn on their long-deferred hopes +than they began to consider ways and means for putting their fondly +nurtured projects into execution. + +Seven years, almost to the day, after the death of Maria dalle Donne, +Miss Elizabeth Blackwell, a young woman in America, of English birth, +decided to enter college with a view of studying medicine and surgery. +But, at the very outset, she encountered all kinds of unforeseen +difficulties--difficulties that would have caused a less courageous and +determined woman to give up her plans in despair. She was told, in the +first place, that it was highly improper for a woman to study medicine +and that no decent woman would think of becoming a medical practitioner. +As to a lady studying or practicing surgery that, of course, was out of +the question. + +But a more serious obstacle than the conventionalities in the case was +the difficulty of finding a medical college that was willing to admit a +woman to its lecture rooms and laboratories. Miss Blackwell applied to +more than a dozen of the leading institutions of America, and received +a positive refusal to her request. Finally, when hope had almost +vanished, she received word from a small college in Geneva, New York, +announcing that her application had been favorably considered and that +she would be admitted as a student whenever she presented herself. + +The truth is that the faculty of the college was opposed to the young +woman's admission, but wished to escape the odium incident to a direct +refusal by referring the question to the class with a proviso which, it +was believed, would necessarily exclude her. "But in this it was greatly +surprised and disappointed. For the entire medical class, to the number +of about one hundred and fifty, decided unanimously in favor of the fair +applicant's admission. And they did more than this. They put themselves +on record regarding the equality of educational opportunities for women +and men in a way that must have put their timid professors to shame. +Their resolution, accompanying an invitation to the young woman to +become a member of the student body, was worded as follows: + +"'Resolved, That one of the radical principles of a republican +government is the universal education of both sexes; that to every +branch of scientific education the door should be equally open to all; +that the application of Elizabeth Blackwell to become a member of our +class meets our entire approbation, and, in extending our unanimous +invitation, we pledge ourselves that no conduct of ours shall cause her +to regret her attendance at this institution.'" + +The students were as good as their word. Their conduct, as Miss +Blackwell wrote years afterward, was always admirable and that of "true +Christian gentlemen." But the women of Geneva were shocked at the female +medical student. They stared at her as a curious animal; and the theory +was fully established that she was "either a bad woman, whose designs +would gradually become evident, or that, being insane, an outbreak of +insanity would soon be apparent."[210] + +In due time Miss Blackwell finished her course in medicine and surgery, +and graduated at the head of her class. The orator of the day, who was a +member of the faculty, naturally referred to the new departure that had +been made--the admission of a woman for the first time to a complete +medical education--and among other things declared that the experiment, +of which every member of the faculty was proud, "had proved that the +strongest intellect and nerve and the most untiring perseverance were +compatible with the softest attributes of feminine delicacy and +grace."[211] + +The awarding of the degree of M.D. for the first time to a woman in +America excited general comment and widespread interest, not only in the +United States, but in Europe as well. The public press was not +unfavorable in its opinion of the new departure, and even _Punch_ could +not resist writing some verses, sympathetic, albeit humorous, in honor +of the fair M.D.[212] + +After spending some time abroad studying in the great hospitals of +Europe, Miss Blackwell started the practice of medicine in New York +City. At first, as she declares in her autobiographical sketches, it was +"very difficult, though steady, uphill work. I had," she tells us, "no +medical companionship, the profession stood aloof, and society was +distrustful of the innovation." + +The aloofness of the profession arose from a dread of successful +rivalry, and the men did not wish to encourage "the invasion by women of +their own preserves." "You cannot expect us," one of them frankly +admitted to her, "to furnish you with a stick to break our heads with." + +But, undeterred by opposition, Miss Blackwell continued her work, daily +making converts to the new movement and receiving substantial aid, as +well as sympathetic coöperation, from many people, both men and women, +prominent in society and public life. In 1854 she started a free +dispensary for poor women. Three years later she founded a hospital for +women and children, where young women physicians as well as patients +could be received. These were the humble beginnings of the present +flourishing institutions known as the New York Infirmary and the College +for Women. And in less than ten years after her graduation, Miss +Blackwell saw the new departure in medical practice successfully +established, not only in New York, but also in other large cities of the +United States. In 1869 the early pioneer medical work by women in +America was completed. + +"During the twenty years which followed the graduation of the first +woman physician, the public recognition of the justice and advantage of +such a measure had steadily grown. Throughout the northern states the +free and equal entrance of women into the profession of medicine was +secured. In Boston, New York and Philadelphia special medical schools +for women were sanctioned by the legislatures, and in some +long-established colleges women were received as students in the +ordinary classes."[213] + +Meanwhile, the women in Europe were not idle nor heedless of the example +set by their brave sisters in America. The University of Zurich threw +open its portals to women, and was soon followed by those of Bern and +Geneva. The first woman to obtain a degree in medicine in Zurich--it was +in 1867--was Nadejda Suslowa, a Russian. She was soon followed by scores +of others from Europe and America, who found greater advantages and more +sympathy in Swiss universities than elsewhere. + +In 1869 the Medico-Chirurgical Academy of St. Petersburg conferred the +degree of M.D. upon Madame Kaschewarow, the first female candidate for +this honor. When her name was mentioned by the dean it was received with +an immense storm of applause which lasted several minutes. The ceremony +of investing her with the insignia of her dignity being over, her fellow +students and colleagues lifted her on a chair and carried her with +triumphant shouts throughout the halls. + +The first woman graduate from the University of France was Miss +Elizabeth Garrett, of England. She received her degree in medicine in +1870, and the following year the same institution conferred the doctor's +degree on Miss Mary C. Putnam, of New York. + +After these precedents had been established, the universities of the +various countries on the continent, following the examples set by those +in the United States and Switzerland, opened one after the other their +doors to women, and in most of them accorded them all the privileges of +_cives academici_ enjoyed by the men. + +Great Britain held out against the new movement long after most of the +continental countries had fallen into line, nor did she surrender until +after a protracted and bitter fight, during which the men leading the +opposition exhibited evidences of selfishness and obscurantism that now +seem incredible. + +The leader in Great Britain of pioneer medical work for women was Miss +Sophia Jex-Blake, whose academic pathway was beset with difficulties far +sterner than had in the United States confronted her friend and +colleague, Miss Blackwell. + +Hearing much of the tolerance and liberality of the University of +London, she applied to it for admission as a student, but was informed +at once that the charter of the institution "had purposely been so +worded as to exclude the possibility of examining women for medical +degrees." + +After this rebuff she made application to the University of Edinburgh, +which, like the other Scotch universities, had always boasted of its +broad-mindedness and freedom from educational trammels. She was received +provisionally, and was, after a while, joined by six other women who had +in view the same object as herself. For a time, notwithstanding +opposition from certain quarters, everything was quiet and apparently +satisfactory. But the gathering storm soon broke, and the seven young +women, as they were one day entering the university gates, were actually +mobbed by a ruffianly band of students who had all along been opposed to +the presence of women in the class and lecture rooms. They pelted the +helpless females with street mud and hurled at them all the vile +epithets and heaped upon them all the abuse that their foul tongues +could command. These outrageous proceedings on the part of the rabble of +rowdies were allowed to continue for several days, and, had it not been +for a brave band of chivalrous young Irishmen among the students, who +formed themselves into a bodyguard for the protection of their fair +classmates, and were, in consequence, known as "The Irish Brigade," the +hapless women students would not have escaped bodily harm. What a marked +contrast between the conduct toward Miss Blackwell of the gallant +students of the modest little American town and that of the cowardly +ruffians of the vaunted "Athens of the North!" + +But this was not all. The seven young women in question had matriculated +as students of the university with the understanding that they were to +have all the rights and privileges of the male students. But after the +disgraceful conduct of the mob just referred to, they discovered that +the authorities of the university were prepared to break faith with +them, and prevent them from getting their coveted degrees, and thus +debar them from all chance of medical practice. + +The reason why the university was induced to annul its contract, after +the women on their part had fully complied with all its stipulations, +soon became apparent. It was purely and simply to make it impossible for +women to secure a license as medical practitioners. Both in and outside +of Edinburgh the conviction daily grew stronger that women doctors were +a menace to the monopoly so long enjoyed by the medical fraternity, and +that the movement in their favor should be crushed by fair means or foul +before it got beyond control. The _Spectator_ made this clear by stating +at the time of the controversy that "every profession in this +country"--England--"is more or less of a trades union," and yet the +members of these professions "would shake their heads and prate about +the necessity of stamping out trades unionism among workmen." "Women," +whined one of the doctors, "would snatch the bread from the mouths of +poor practitioners." Another doctor who had championed the cause of +women physicians, when commenting on the hypocritical objection that it +was unbecoming for women to practice medicine or surgery, expressed the +same idea in other words. "It appears," he declared, "that it is most +becoming and proper for a woman to discharge all the duties which are +incidental to our profession for thirty shillings a week; but, if she is +to have three or four guineas a day for discharging the same duties, +then they are immoral and immodest and unsuited to the soft nature that +should characterize a lady." + +After Miss Jex-Blake and her companions learned that the university was +determined to refuse them the degrees to which they were entitled, they +brought suit against it for breach of contract. But, after a long and +expensive trial, the judge rendered a decision against them. They then +appealed to Parliament, and, after a protracted and strenuous campaign +on the part of friends whom they had enlisted in their cause, they saw +their opponents not only dragged at the chariot wheels of progress but +forced to help to turn them; for, in 1878, after nearly ten years of a +persistent, continuous struggle such as had rarely been witnessed in +woman's long battle for things of the mind--a struggle in which the +intrepid, dauntless Miss Jex-Blake "made the greatest of all the +contributions to the end attained"--the women of Great Britain had the +supreme satisfaction of winning what was probably the most glorious +victory which their sex had ever won.[214] The war was over and +henceforward they were free--as were their sisters in other parts of the +world--as the women in Italy had been for a thousand years--to devote +themselves at will to the study and practice of the healing art without +let or hindrance. + +What a wonderful change has taken place in the medical world almost +within the space of a single generation! The tiny grain of mustard that +was sown by two lone women, the Misses Blackwell and Jex-Blake, in their +chosen field of effort has grown and "waxed a great tree." Women +doctors are now found in all parts of the civilized world and are +numbered by thousands. And so great has been their professional success, +so widespread is the desire to secure their services, especially in +countries like America and England, where opposition was in the +beginning especially bitter, that the proportion of women practitioners +in medicine and surgery is now regarded as the best index of a nation's +enlightenment. + +The healing art of Greece and Rome has broadened out into the noble +sciences of medicine and surgery of to-day. For, based as they now are +on the sciences of chemistry, botany, biology, hygiene, physiology, +anatomy and bacteriology, which have all witnessed such extraordinary +developments during the last half century, they both deserve a +preëminent place in the history of the sciences. And the success which +has crowned woman's efforts in surgery and medicine is not only a +conclusive indication of her capacity, so long denied by her +self-interested opponents, but also the most convincing indication that +she is at last properly occupied in a field of activity from which she +was too long excluded. Her contributions as writer and investigator +toward the progress of both sciences, even during the short time in +which she has been able to give proof of her ability, have been notable +and augur well for the share she will have in their future advancement. +But more important still is the refining influence she has already +exerted on both professions, and the relief she has been able to afford +to countless thousands of her own sex who would otherwise have been the +voluntary victims of untold misery. Women doctors are, indeed, not only +worthy representatives of Æsculapia Victrix and of the two sciences +which they have so elevated and so ennobled, but are also ministering +angels to poor, suffering humanity comparable only with the heroic +Sisters of Charity and the devoted nurses of the Red Cross. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[182] Quoted in _Medical Women_, p. 11, by Sophia Jex-Blake, M. D., +Edinburgh, 1886. Cf. Hyginus, _Fabularum Liber_, No. 274. + +[183] Charles Daremberg, who, at the time of his death in 1872, was +professor of the history of medicine in the Faculty of Medicine in +Paris, had the intention of publishing this work [Greek: Peri tôn +gynaichaiôn tazôn].--On the Diseases of Women--but his premature death +prevented him from executing his project. It is to be hoped that some +one else, interested in woman's medical work, may at an early date give +this production to the public with an appropriate commentary. + +[184] Cf. Hertzen et Rossi _Inscriptiones Urbis Romæ Latinæ_, p. 1245, +No. 9478, Berlin, 1882. + +[185] "Non mihi si linguæ centum, oraque centum, ferrea vox ... omnia +morborum percurrere nomina possim quæ Fabiola in tanta miserorum +refregeria commutavit ut multi pauperum sani languentibus inviderent." +_Epistola ad Oceanum._ + +[186] Hæc inter timidam revocat clamore puellam Alpharides, veniens quæ +saucia quæque ligavit. + + --Ekkehardi Primi _Waltharius_, Berlin, 1873. + +[187] That the Germans, at the time under discussion, regarded learning +as having an effeminating effect on men is well illustrated by the +following characteristic anecdote: "when Amasvintha, a very learned +woman who was a daughter of the Ostrogoth King, Theodoric, selected +three masters for the instruction of her son, the people became +indignant. 'Theodoric,' they exclaimed, 'never sent the children of the +Goths to school, learning making a woman of a man and rendering him +timorous. The saber and the lance are sufficient for him.'" Procopius, +_De Bello Gothico_, I, 2, Leipsic, 1905. + +If we may judge by a letter from Pace to Dean Colet, the noted classical +scholar and founder of St. Paul's school in London, such views found +acceptance in England as late as the time of More and Erasmus. For we +are told of a British parent who expressed his opinion on the education +of men in these words: "I swear by God's body I'd rather that my son +should hang than study letters. The study of letters should be left to +rustics." + +[188] This work was for a long time regarded as lost, but a manuscript +copy was recently found in Copenhagen, and it has since been published +by Teubner of Leipsic, under the title of _Hildegard's Causæ et Curæ_. + +[189] _Archiv für Pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und für +Klinische Medicin_, Band 18, p. 286, Berlin. + +[190] _S. Hildegardis Opera Omnia_, Ed. Migne, p. 1122, Paris, 1882. + +[191] "In the municipal and state institutions of this period the +beautiful gardens, roomy halls and springs of water of the old cloistral +hospital of the Middle Ages were not heard of, still less the comforts +of their friendly interiors." _A History of Nursing_, Vol. I, p. 500, M. +Adelaide Nutting and Lavinia L. Dock, New York, 1907. + +The mortality in some of the state hospitals from the latter part of the +seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century was appalling, often +as high as fifty and sixty per cent. This was due not only to shockingly +unsanitary conditions, but also to inordinate overcrowding. A large +proportion of the beds, incredible as it may seem, were purposely made +for four patients, and six were frequently crowded into them. "The +extraordinary spectacle was then to be seen of two or three small-pox +cases, or several surgical cases, lying on one bed." John Howard, in his +_Prisons and Hospitals_, pp. 176-177. Warrington, 1874, tells us of two +hospitals that were so crowded that he had "often seen five or six +patients in one bed, and some of them dying." + +It is gratifying to learn that the chief agents in changing this +revolting condition, due to faulty construction and management of +hospitals, were women. Prominent among these benefactors of humanity +were Mme. Necker, Florence Nightingale, and the wise and alert superiors +of the various nursing sisterhoods. + +[192] How like Chaucer's prioress who + + "Was so charitable and so piteous, + And al was conscience and tender herte." + +[193] Cf. _Lib. de Virtutibus et Laudibus_, by Ægidius, head physician +to Philip Augustus of France, in which occur the following verses: + + Urbs Phoebo sacrata, Minervæ sedula nutrix, + Fons physicæ, pugil eucrasiæ, cultrix medicinæ, + Assecla Naturæ, vitæ paranympha, salutis + Promula fida; magis Lachesis soror, Atropos hostis. + Morbi pernicies, gravis adversaria mortis. + +quoted in the appendix, p. xxxii, to S. de Renzi's, _Storia Documentata +della Scuola Medica di Salerno_, Naples, 1857. + +[194] Cf. The introduction to the English translation of the _Regimen +Sanitatis Salernitanum_, p. 28, by J. Ordronaux, Philadelphia, 1870. + +[195] + + "Immortal praise adorns Salerno's name + To seek whose shrine the world once came." + +[196] See _Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno_, ut. sup., +p. 474 et seq., and p. lxxvi et seq. of Appendix; also Ordronaux, ut +sup., p. 16. + +[197] Probably her most noted work is the one which bears the title _De +Morbis Mulierum et Eorum Cura_--The Diseases of Women and Their Cure. + +[198] "Physicæ quoque scientiam tam copiose habuit ut in urbe +Psaleritana, ubi maxime medicorum scholæ ab antiquo tempore habentur, +neminem in medicinali arte, præter quandam sapientem matronam, sibi +parem inveniret." Migne, Patrologiæ Latinæ, Tom. 188, Col. 260. + +[199] As this decree is of singular interest and importance, a copy of +the original is here given in full: + +"Karolus, etc., Universis per Justitieratum Principatus citra Serras +Montorii constitutis presentes litteras inspecturis fidelibus paternis +et suis salutem, etc. In actionibus nostris utilitati puplice libenter +oportune perspicimus et honestatem morum in quantum suadet modestia +conservamus. Sane Francisca uxor Mathei de Romana de Salerno in Regia +Curia presens exposuit quod ipsa circa principale exercitium cirurgie +sufficiens circumspecto in talibus judicio reputatur. Propter quod +excellentie nostre supplicavit attentius ut licentiam sibi dignaremus +concedere in arte hujusmodi practicandi. Quia igitur per scriptum +puplicum universitatis terre Salerni presentatum eidem Regie Curie, +inventum est lucide quod Francisca prefata fidelis est et genere orta +fidelium ac examinata per medicos Regios paternos nostrosque cirurgicos, +in eadem arte cirurgie tamquam ydiota sufficiens est inventa, licet +alienum sit feminis conventibus interrese virorum, ne in matronalis +pudoris contumelia irruant et primum culpam vetite transgressionis +incurrant. Quia tamen de juris indicto medicine officium mulieribus est +concessum expedienter attento quod ad mulieres curandas egrotas de +honestate morum viris sunt femine aptiores, not recepto prius ab eadem +Francisca solito fidelitatis et quod iuxta tradiciones ipsius artis +curabit fideliter corporaliter Juramento, licentiam curandi et +practicandi sibi in eadem arte per Justitieratum jam dictum auctoritate +presentium impartimus. Quare fidelitati vestre precipimus quatenus +eandem Franciscam curare et practicari in prefata arte per Justitieratum +predictum ad honorem et fidelitatem paternam et nostram ac utilitatem +fidelium presentium earumdam libere permittatis, nullum sibi in hoc +impedimentum vel obstaculum interentes. Datum Neapoli per dominum +Bartholomeum de Capua, etc., Anno domini mcccxxi, die x Septembris v, +indictionis Regnorum dicti domini patris nostri anno xiii." + +_Collectio Salernitana_, Tom. III, p. 338, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg, +and S. de Renzi, Naples, 1852-59. + +[200] _Universities in the Middle Ages_, Vol. II, Part II, p. 712, by H. +Rashdall, Oxford, 1895. The most exhaustive work on the University of +Salerno and its famous doctors, men and women, is a joint work in five +volumes entitled _Collectio Salernitana; ossia Documenti Inediti e +Trattati di Medicina appartenenti alla scuola Salernitana, raccolti e +illustrati_, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg e S. Renzi, Naples, 1852-59. +Cf. also, _Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno_, by S. de +Renzi, Naples, 1857; _L'École de Salerne_, by C. Meaux, with +introduction by C. Daremberg, Paris, 1880, and Piero Giacosa's _Magistri +Salernitani Nondum Editi_, Turin, 1891. + +[201] _Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis_, Tom. II, p. 150, and pp. +255 and 267, by Denifle and Chatelain, Paris, 1889-1891. + +[202] "Mulier antea permitteret se mori, quam secreta infirmitatis sui +homini revelare propter honestatem sexus muliebris et propter +verecundiam quam revelando pateretur." _Chartularium Universitatis +Parisiensis_, Tom. II, p. 264, Paris, 1891. + +[203] It may interest the reader to know that the first two women to get +the doctorate in the Paris School of Medicine were Miss Elizabeth +Garret, an English woman, and Miss Mary Putnam, an American. The first +woman permitted to practice in the Paris hospitals was likewise an +American, Miss Augusta Klumpke, of San Francisco. + +[204] "Possunt et vir et foemina medici esse." Cf. Chiappelli, _Medicina +negli Ultimi Tre Secoli del Medio Evo_, Milan, 1885. + +[205] Quoted in _Woman's Work and Woman's Culture_, p. 87, Josephine E. +Butler, London, 1869. Dom Gasquet in his _English Monastic Life_, p. +175, tells us that in the Wiltshire convents "the young maids learned +needlework, the art of confectionery, surgery--for anciently there were +no apothecaries or surgeons; the gentlewomen did cure their poor +neighbors--physic, drawing, etc." + +[206] The first woman to receive the doctorate of medicine in Germany +was Frau Dorothea Christin Erxleben. Hers, however, was a wholly +exceptional case, and required the intervention of no less a personage +than Frederick the Great. In 1754, Frau Erxleben, who had made a +thorough course of humanities under her father, presented herself before +the faculty of the University of Halle, where she passed an oral +examination in Latin which lasted two hours. So impressed were the +examiners by her knowledge and eloquence that they did not hesitate to +adjudge her worthy of the coveted degree, which was accorded her by +virtue of a royal edict. + +Her reception of the doctorate was made the occasion of a most +enthusiastic demonstration in her honor. Felicitations poured in upon +her from all quarters in both prose and verse. One of them, in lapidary +style, runs as follows: + + "Stupete nova litteraria, + In Italia nonnumquam, + In Germania nunquam + Visa vel audita + At quo rarius eo carius." + +This, freely translated, adverts to the fact that an event, which before +had been witnessed only in Italy, was then being celebrated in Germany +for the first time, and was, for that very reason, specially deserving +of commemoration. + +[207] "Nemo masculus aut foemina, seu Christianus vel Judæus, nisi +Magister vel Licentiatus in Medicina foret, auderet humano corpori +mederi in physica vel in chyrurgia." Marini, _Archiatri Pontifici_, Tom. +I, p. 199, Roma, 1784. + +[208] Thomas Aquinas, the Angel of the Schools, who had taught in +Salerno, and was well acquainted with the leading universities of +Europe, was wont to say "Quattuor sunt urbes cæteris præeminentes, +Parisius in Scientiis, Salernum in Medicinis, Bononia in legibus, +Aurelianis in actoribus--" there are four preëminent cities: Paris, in +the sciences; Salerno, in medicine; Bologna, in law; Orleans, in actors. +Op. 17. _De Virtutibus et Vitiis_, Cap. ult. + +The mediæval poet, Galfrido, expressed the same idea in verse when he +wrote: + + "In morbis sanat medici virtute Salernum + Ægros: in causis Bononia legibus armat + Nudos: Parisius dispensat in artibus illos + Panes, unde cibat robustos: Aurelianis + Educat in cunis actorum lacte tenellos." + +[209] It may be remarked that it was a woman, Lady Mary Montagu, who +introduced inoculation with small-pox virus into Western Europe, and +that it was also a woman--a simple English milkmaid--who communicated to +Jenner the information which led to his discovery of a prophylactic +against small-pox. But of far greater importance was the introduction +into Europe of that priceless febrifuge and antiperiodic--chinchona +bark. This was due to the Countess of Chinchon, vicereine of Peru. +Having been cured by its virtues of an aggravated case of tertian fever +in 1638, while living in Lima, she lost no time, on her return to Spain, +in making known to the world the marvelous curative properties of the +precious quinine-producing bark. The powder made from the bark was most +appropriately called _Pulvis Comitessæ_--the countess's powder--and by +this name it was long known to druggists and in commerce. Thanks to +Linnæus, the memory of the gracious lady will always be kept green, +because her name is now borne by nearly eight score species of the +beautiful trees which constitute the great and incomparable genus +Chinchona. See _A Memoir of the Lady Ana de Osorio, Countess of +Chinchon, and Vice-Queen of Peru_, by Clements R. Markham, London, 1874. + +[210] _Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women_, p. 70, +by Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, London, 1895. + +[211] Ibid., p. 91. + +[212] + + "Young ladies all, of every clime, + Especially of Britain + Who wholly occupy your time + In novels or in knitting, + Whose highest skill is but to play, + Sing, dance or French to clack well, + Reflect on the example, pray, + Of excellent Miss Blackwell. + + ...*...*...*...* + + "For Doctrix Blackwell, that's the way + To dub in rightful gender-- + In her profession, ever may + Prosperity attend her. + Punch a gold-headed parasol + Suggests for presentation + To one so well deserving all + Esteem and Admiration." + +[213] Op. cit., p. 241. + +[214] For an interesting account of the long campaign for the admission +of women to medical schools and practice, see _Medical Women--A Thesis +and a History_, by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, Edinburgh, 1886. + +For a more elaborate work on women in medicine, the reader may consult +with profit, _Histoire des Femmes Médecins_, by Mlle. Melanie Lepinska, +Paris, 1900. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WOMEN IN ARCHÆOLOGY + + +Archæology, in its broadest sense, is one of the most recent of the +sciences, and may be said to be a creation of the nineteenth century. In +its restricted sense, however, it dates back to the beginning of the +Italian Renaissance. For it was at this period that the collector's zeal +began to manifest itself, and that were brought together those priceless +treasures of ancient art which are to-day the pride of the museums of +Rome and Florence. It was then that Pope Sixtus IV and Julius II, his +nephew, laid the foundations of the great museums of the Capitol and the +Vatican, and enriched them with such famous masterpieces as the Ariadne, +the Nile, the Tiber, the Laocoön and the Apollo Belvidere. Their example +was quickly followed by such cardinals as Ippolito d'Este, Fernando de' +Medici, and by representatives of the leading princely houses of the +Italian peninsula. In rapid succession the palaces of the Borghese, +Chigi, Pamphili, Ludovisi, Barbarini and Aldobrandini became filled with +the choicest Greek and Roman antiques. In the course of time many of +these treasures found their way to the museums of Venice, Madrid, Paris, +Munich and Dresden, while still others were purchased by wealthy art +connoisseurs in various parts of Europe and Great Britain. + +In the beginning these antiques in marble and bronze were used chiefly +for decorative purposes. "Courts, stairs, fountains, galleries and +palaces were adorned with statues, busts, reliefs and sarcophagi applied +in such a manner as to become incorporated in contemporary art and +thereby to gain fresh life."[215] + +These treasures of antiquity, statues, bas-reliefs, mosaics, coins, +medals, busts, sarcophagi, and productions of ceramic art, although at +first used almost exclusively for decorating palaces and villas and +enriching museums, were eventually to become of inestimable value in the +study of the history of art and the civilization of Greece and Rome, as +well as of the various nations of antiquity with which they had come +into contact. Besides this, they supplied the necessary raw material not +only for classical archæology, but also for that more comprehensive +science of archæology which deals with the art, the architecture, the +language, the literature, the inscriptions, the manners, customs and +development of our race from prehistoric times until the present day. + +Among the women who took a prominent part in collecting material toward +the advancement of archæologic science were those illustrious ladies--as +celebrated for their knowledge and culture as for their noble lineage +and their patronage of men of letters--who presided over the brilliant +courts of Urbino, Mantua, Milan and Ferrara. + +Preëminent among these were Elizabetta Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, and +Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua. The palace of the former--"that +peerless lady who excelled all others in excellence"--was famous for its +precious antiques in bronze and marble, but above all for its superb +collection of rare old books and manuscripts in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. + +Isabella d'Este, who was through life the most intimate friend of +Elizabetta Gonzaga, was acclaimed by her contemporaries as "the first +lady in the world." She was a true daughter of the Renaissance, in the +heart of which she was brought up; and "the small, passing incidents of +her everyday life are to us memorials of the classic age when the gods +of Parnassus walked with men."[216] She was an even more enthusiastic +collector than the Duchess of Urbino, and her magnificent palace in +Mantua was filled with the choicest works of Greek and Roman art that +were then procurable. + +She has been described as one who secured everything to which she took a +fancy. She had but to hear of the discovery of a beautiful antique, a +rare work in bronze or marble uncovered by the spade of the excavator, +when she forthwith made an effort to procure it for her priceless +collection. If that was not possible, she would not rest until she could +secure something else even more precious. She aimed at supremacy in +everything artistic and intellectual, and would be content with nothing +short of perfection. Hence it is that her collection of antiques, like +those of her friend, the Duchess of Urbino, is rightly regarded as +having been of singular value in preparing the way for the foundation of +scientific archæology--a foundation that was laid by the eminent German +scholar, Winckelmann, in the eighteenth century by the publication of +his masterly work--_History of the Art of Antiquity_. + +The first woman of eminence to take an active part in archæologic +excavation was the youngest sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, "the +beautiful, clever and ambitious Caroline." When Joachim Murat became +king of Naples, after his brother-in-law, Joseph Bonaparte, had in 1808 +been transferred to the throne of Spain, his wife, Queen Caroline, gave +at once a new impetus to the work of the excavation of Pompeii along the +lines planned a few years before by the eminent Neapolitan scholar, +Michele Arditi. She exhibited the keenest interest in the work, and the +notable discoveries which were made under her inspiring supervision of +this important undertaking show how much classical archæology owes to +her intelligent and munificent patronage. + +Queen Caroline proved her interest in the excavations that were to +contribute so much to our knowledge of antiquity "by appearing +frequently at Pompeii and stimulating the workmen to greater efforts. +She frequently spent entire days, during the great heat of summer, at +the excavations, to encourage the lazy workmen and to reward them in the +event of success. The funds were increased so as to make the employment +of six hundred men possible. The Street of Tombs was next uncovered, +forming a complete and solemn picture, greatly impressing the beholder +even to-day. For the first time a complete outline of an ancient +marketplace and its surroundings could be obtained. The market, closed +and inaccessible to wheeled traffic, was surrounded by a colonnade +filled with monuments, with the great temple in the background, and +beyond the arcades were other temples or public buildings, among the +principal being the stately Basilica. Constant and increased efforts +were thus crowned by important results. The Queen did not withhold +generous assistance. The French architect, Fr. Mazois, received from her +fifteen hundred francs while preparing his monumental work at +Pompeii."[217] + +It is not too much to say that Queen Caroline's archæological work at +Pompeii was as far-reaching in its results as was that of her +illustrious brother in the land of the Pharaohs. It drew in the most +impressive manner the attention of the world to the vast treasures of +art which lay concealed under the earth-covered ruins of the once noted +cities of the ancient world, and stimulated scholars and learned +societies to undertake similar researches in Sicily, Greece, +Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and the almost forgotten islands of the Ægean +Seas. + +While this energetic sister of the great Napoleon was occupied in +bringing to light those priceless treasures of art which had for +seventeen centuries lain beneath the ashes of Vesuvius, a bright, +refined, _spirituelle_ young girl, born in Dublin and bred in England, +was unconsciously preparing herself for a brilliant career in the branch +of archæology known as Christian iconography. Her name was Anna Murphy, +better known to the world as Mrs. Jameson. At an early age she gave +evidence of unusual intelligence, and she had hardly attained to +womanhood when she was noted for her knowledge of languages and for her +remarkable attainments in art and literature. Numerous journeys to +France, Italy and Germany and a systematic study in the great museums +and art galleries of these countries, but, above all, her association +with the most distinguished scholars of Europe, completed her education +and prepared her for those splendid works on Christian art which have +made her name a household word throughout the world. + +Mrs. Jameson was a prolific writer, but those of her works on which her +fame chiefly rests are the ones which are classed under the general +title, _Sacred and Legendary Art_. They treat of God the Father and Son, +of the Madonna and the Saints, as illustrated in art from the earliest +ages to modern times. So masterly and exhaustive was her treatment of +the difficult subjects discussed in this _chef d'oeuvre_ of hers that +no less an authority than the eminent German archæologist, F. X. Kraus, +writes of this elaborate production as follows: + +"Neither before nor since has the subject matter of this work been +handled with such skill and thoroughness. The older iconographic works +were mere dilettanteism. For the first time since classical archæology +had applied the principles of modern criticism to Greek and Roman +iconography, and had presented an example of scientific treatment free +from such reproach, was a serious iconography of our early Christian +monuments possible. Mrs. Jameson was the first to attempt this on a +large scale. It was clear to her--and here lay the advance which her +work reveals--that in order to accomplish her colossal task two things +must be realized. She must not build on a foundation of material that is +imperfect or brought together in a haphazard way. She must not only see +and test everything available in the way of monuments, but she must +likewise place the productions of literature and poetry beside those of +the plastic arts. It was clear to her, also, that, in this case, one +would throw light on the other, and that the investigator who would lay +claim to the name of archæologist must, moreover, study the spirit of a +people in all its monumental and literary manifestations. + +"Mrs. Jameson strove to learn the mind and the mode of early Christian +times from the works of the Fathers. She saw in the hymns of the Middle +Ages and in the writings of the mystics the sources of the art ideas +which disclose themselves in the wall and glass paintings of our +cathedrals and in the entrancing creation of a Fiesole. She had also the +special advantage of being thoroughly imbued with Dante's ideas of the +plastic arts of the Middle Ages. + +"And all this is evidenced in a form which exhibits neither dry +dissertation nor wearisome nomenclature. Each of her articles is a +little essay. It teaches us what place the Madonna, or St. Catherine, or +some other saint has held in the memory and in the imagination of past +centuries. We behold the sainted forms flitting before our eyes in all +the charm of poetic perfection which was given them by the childlike +phantasy of the Middle Ages, and in all the power which they exercised +over men's minds, and which, however we may view the religious side of +the question, certainly had the effect of creating forms of infinite +beauty and pictures of unspeakable reality."[218] + +When we recollect that Mrs. Jameson achieved so much before the +foundations of Christian archæology had been fully laid; before de +Rossi's monumental publications had supplied the means of interpreting +early Christian sculpture; before critics and archæologists were at one +regarding the significance of early Christian and Middle Age symbolism, +or agreed on the principles that were to guide to a correct +understanding of the pictures of Roman and Gothic art, and while +students were yet in ignorance as to the real influence of Byzantine art +on that of western Europe, we cannot but wonder at the courage and the +energy of this gifted woman in undertaking and in bringing to a happy +issue a work which, even to-day, with all our increased facilities and +greater array of facts, would be considered a herculean task. + +As we read her admirable volumes on _Sacred and Legendary Art_ we can, +as did a close friend of hers, see the enraptured author "kindle into +enthusiasm amidst the gorgeous natural beauty, the antique memorials and +the sacred Christian relics of Italy," and we are prepared to believe, +with the same friend, that there was not "a cypress on the Roman hills, +or a sunny vine overhanging the southern gardens, or a picture in those +vast somber galleries of foreign palaces, or a catacomb spread out, vast +and dark, under the martyr churches of the City of the Seven Hills, +which was not associated with some vivid flashes of her intellect and +imagination." And we can also understand how "the strange, mystic +symbolism of the early mosaics was a familiar language to her," and why +she should experience special delight when she found herself "on the +polished marble of the Lateran floor or under the gorgeously somber +tribune of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, reading off the quaint +emblems or expounding the pious thoughts of more than a thousand years +ago."[219] + +It is gratifying to know that Queen Victoria recognized the surpassing +merits of this noble woman by placing her on the civil list, and that +our own Longfellow was able to say of her masterpiece, _Sacred and +Legendary Art_, "It most amply supplies the cravings of the religious +sentiment of the spiritual nature within." + +A countrywoman of Mrs. Jameson and her contemporary, who also deserves +an honorable place in the literature of archæology, is Louise Twining. +Although inferior in intellectual attainments and literary activity to +the accomplished author of _Sacred and Legendary Art_, her two works on +_Types and Figures of the Bible Illustrated by Art_ and _Symbols and +Emblems of Early Mediæval Christian Art_ have given her a well-deserved +reputation on the Continent as well as in the British Isles. The latter +volume Mrs. Jameson herself declares in her _Legends of the Madonna_ to +be "certainly the most complete and useful book of the kind which I know +of." + +A third woman who has won fame for her sex in the island kingdom in the +domain of archeology is Miss Margaret Stotes. Her activities, however, +have been chiefly confined to the antiquities of Ireland, on which she +is a recognized authority. + +The notable part she took in editing Lord Dunraven's great work, _Notes +on Irish Architecture_, established her reputation on a firm basis. +Among her other important works are _Early Christian Art in Ireland_ and +_Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language_, chiefly collected and +drawn by George Petrie, one of the annual volumes of the Royal +Historical and Archæological Association of Ireland. This work has +justly been described as an epoch-making contribution to Christian +epigraphy and to our rapidly developing knowledge of Keltic language +and literature. The learned Dr. Krauss, than whom there is no more +competent judge, in referring to this splendid performance, does not +hesitate to affirm, "No man could have done better than this brave +college girl, whom I would wish to greet across the Channel with a +cordial _Macte virtute_." + +The women archæologists so far mentioned, with the exception of Queen +Caroline Murat, were conspicuous as writers rather than active +investigators in the field. There have been, however, quite a number who +have won distinction as "archæologists of the spade"--women who, either +alone or with their husbands, have superintended excavations in +different lands, which have yielded results of untold scientific value. +Among the most conspicuous of these are Mme. Sophia Schliemann, Mme. +Dieulafoy and the enterprising Yankee girl, Miss Harriet A. Boyd. + +Of these the first named is the wife of the late Dr. Henry Schliemann, +who immortalized himself by his famous excavations at Troy, Tiryns and +Mycenæ--enterprises which solved for us the great problem of nearly +thirty centuries and demonstrated in the most startling manner "the +truth of the foundations on which was framed the poetical conception +that has for thousands of years called forth the enchanted delight of +the educated world." During his meteoric career as an archæologist, +Schliemann was able to realize the dreams of his youth, and succeeded in +unveiling the mystery that had so long hung over Sacred Ilios, and to +give the heroes of the Iliad a local habitation on the rediscovered +Plain of Troy. And his glorious achievements we must credit largely to +that brave and devoted woman--his wife--who was ever at his side to +share in his trials and labors and to raise his drooping spirits in +hours of depression, or when hostile criticism treated him as a +visionary in the pursuit of a chimera. + +Mrs. Schliemann is a Greek lady who was born and bred under the shadow +of the Acropolis and a worthy descendant of those proud Athenian women +who wore the golden grasshopper in their hair as a sign that they were +natives of the City of the Violet Crown. She was not only dowered with +intellectual gifts of a high order, but she was also her husband's most +congenial companion and sympathetic friend in all his literary work, +while she was his very right hand in those glorious enterprises at +Hissarlik and Mycenæ, which secured for both of them undying fame. + +Dr. Schliemann was the first to attest the never-failing assistance +which he received from this noble woman who, as he informs us, was "a +warm admirer of Homer" and "with glad enthusiasm" joined her husband in +executing the great work which he had conceived in his early boyhood. +Usually they worked together, but at times Mrs. Schliemann superintended +a gang of laborers at one spot while the Doctor was occupied at another +in the immediate vicinity. Thus it was she who excavated the heroic +tumulus of Batieia in the Troad--that Batieia who, according to Homer, +was a queen of the Amazons and undertook a campaign against Troy.[220] + +Mme. Jane Dieulafoy is noted as the collaborator of her husband, Marcel +Dieulafoy, in the important archæological mission to Persia that was +entrusted to him by the French government. The results of this mission, +in which Mme. Dieulafoy had a conspicuous part, were published in Paris +in 1884 in five octavo volumes. + +It was during this expedition to the ancient empire of Cyrus and +Artaxerxes that this indefatigable couple became interested in the ruins +of Susa, the ancient capital of the Persian kings. On their return to +France they succeeded in securing money and supplies for conducting +excavations among these ruins which, in the end, yielded results which +were, in some respects, as important as those which rewarded the labors +of the Schliemanns in Greece and Asia Minor. + +So completely had Susa--the City of the Lilies--been buried and +forgotten for nearly two thousand years that even its site was almost as +much a matter of dispute as was that of ancient Troy. And yet it was one +of the greatest and richest cities of antiquity--the city of Esther and +Daniel, the city of the mighty Assuerus who reigned from India even unto +Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces--the city where the +great Alexander celebrated his nuptials with Statira, the daughter of +Darius, with a magnificent festival at which, according to Plutarch, +"there were no fewer than nine thousand guests, to each of which he gave +a golden cup for the libations." + +In December, 1884, the two brave and venturesome explorers were on their +way to Susa with high hopes, but not without a full knowledge of the +difficulties and dangers that they would have to confront among the +fanatical nomads of Arabistan, where the very name of Christian inspires +rage and horror. It meant, as Mme. Dieulafoy herself tells us, "to +cross the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf +and the deserts of Elam three times in less than a year; to pass whole +weeks without undressing; to sleep on the bare ground; to struggle +nights and days against robbers and thieves; to cross rivers without a +bridge; to suffer heat, rain, cold, mists, fever, fatigue, hunger, +thirst, the stings of divers insects; to lead this hard and perilous +existence without being guided by any interest other than the glory of +one's country."[221] + +In spite, however, of all the opposition which they encountered among +the fanatical Mussulmans of Arabistan and of the dreadful sufferings +incident to living in a desert where it was at times impossible to +secure the necessaries of life, their mission was successful, and their +account of their finds in the ancient capital of Elam was as thrilling +in its way as anything reported of the excavations at Troy or Pompeii. +Their splendid collection of specimens of ancient Persian art and +architecture, now on exhibition in the Museum of the Louvre, testifies +to the successful issue of their expedition and to their indomitable +energy in conducting researches under the most untoward +conditions.[222] So highly did the French government value the part +Mme. Dieulafoy had taken in this arduous enterprise that it conferred on +her a distinction rarely awarded to a woman for scientific work--that of +Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. + +As an archæologist, the gifted and energetic American woman, Miss +Harriet Boyd--now Mrs. C. H. Hawes--has achieved an international +reputation for her remarkable excavations in the island of Crete. She is +a frequent contributor to archæological journals; but it is upon her +splendid work in the field that her fame will ultimately rest. + +Her first work of importance was undertaken as Fellow of the American +School of Classical Studies at Athens. This was in 1900, and the field +of her investigations was the Isthmus of Hierapetra in Crete. Here she +excavated numerous tombs and houses of the early Geometric Period, +_circa_ 900 B.C., and paved the way for those brilliant discoveries +which rewarded her labors during the following three years. + +The investigations conducted during these three years under Miss Boyd's +directions yielded results of transcendent value. Assisted by three +young American women--the Misses B. E. Wheeler, Blanche E. Williams, and +Edith H. Hall--she superintended the work of more than a hundred native +employees whom she had on her payroll. By good fortune in the choice of +a site for excavation and by well-directed efforts she was soon able to +unearth one of the oldest of Cretan cities and to expose to view the +ruins of what was probably one of the ninety cities which Homer tells us +in his Odyssey graced the land of Crete--"a fair land and a rich, in the +midst of a wine-dark sea." + +So remarkable were the finds in this long-buried Minoan town and so well +preserved are its general features that it has justly been called the +Cretan Pompeii. It antedates by long centuries the oldest cities of +Greece and was a flourishing center of commerce ages before the heroes +of the Iliad battled on the plains of Troy. + +It is not too much to say that the extraordinary discoveries made by +this enterprising Yankee girl at Gournia, no less than those made by +British and Italian archæologists at Knossos and Phæstos, have +completely revolutionized our ideas respecting the state of culture of +the inhabitants of Crete during the second and third millenia before the +Christian era. They have thrown a flood of light on the origins of +Mediterranean culture, and have, at the same time, supplied material for +a study of European civilization that was before entirely wanting. + +An enduring monument to Miss Boyd's ability as an archæologist is her +notable volume containing an account of her excavations at Gournia, +Vasilike and other prehistoric sites on the Isthmus of Hierapetra. It +will bear comparison with any similar productions by the Schliemanns or +the Dieulafoys. A later work on _Crete, the Forerunner of Greece_, which +she wrote in collaboration with her husband, Mr. C. H. Hawes, is also a +production of recognized merit. As a study on the origin of Greek +civilization it opens up many new vistas in pre-history and illumines +many questions that were before involved in mystery. + +Besides Mrs. Hawes, three other American women have achieved marked +distinction by their archæological researches. These are Mrs. Sarah +Yorke Stevenson, Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mrs. Zelia Nuttall. + +Mrs. Stevenson has long been identified with the progress of +archæological research, especially with that in Egypt and the +Mediterranean. A prominent member of many learned societies, she is +likewise a writer and lecturer of note. She enjoys the distinction of +being the first woman whose name appears as a lecturer on the calendar +of the University of Harvard. In acknowledgment of her scholarly ability +and eminent services in the development of its Department of Archæology, +the University of Pennsylvania has conferred upon her the honorary +degree of Doctor of Science. + +That American women have not been behind their sisters in Europe in +their enthusiasm for archæological investigation is evinced by the +researches and writings of Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mrs. Zelia +Nuttall, both of whom enjoy an international reputation in the learned +world. + +Miss Fletcher's chosen field of labor has been in ethnology and +anthropology. Her studies of the folk lore and the manners and customs +of various tribes of North American Indians have a distinct and +permanent value, while those of her contributions which have been +published by the Smithsonian Institution and the Bureau of +Ethnology--contributions based on personal knowledge of a long residence +among the tribes she writes about--show that she has exceptional talent +for the branches of archæology to which she has devoted many years of +earnest and successful study. + +Mrs. Nuttall is the daughter of an American mother and an English +father. Thanks to the care that was bestowed on her education by her +parents and to her long residence in the different countries of Europe, +she is proficient in seven languages. This knowledge of tongues has been +of inestimable advantage to her in her researches in European libraries +and in those historical and archæological investigations which have +rendered her famous. She has devoted special attention to the early +history, languages, religions and calendar systems of the primitive +inhabitants of Mexico and Central America, in all of which she is a +recognized authority. + +When, some years ago, the mysterious ruins of Mexico began to attract +the special attention of archæologists, Mrs. Nuttall was selected by the +University of California as the field director of the commission which +it sent to pursue archæological researches in this Egypt of the New +World. A more competent or a more enthusiastic director could not have +been chosen. Her finds in the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon at +Teotihuacan and elsewhere in our sister republic were especially +important. In recognition of her achievements President Porfirio Diaz +nominated Mrs. Nuttall honorary professor in the Mexican National +Museum. She was also offered the position of curator of the +archæological Museum of Mexico; but this office she declined. She holds +membership in a large number of learned societies in America and Europe +and is a frequent contributor to numerous magazines on historical and +archæological subjects. She has had the good fortune to discover a +number of important manuscripts illustrating the early history of +Mexico. Chief among these are a Hispano-American manuscript which she +dug out of one of the libraries of Madrid and another which was found in +a private collection in England and reproduced in facsimile in this +country. In honor of its fair discoverer it is now known as the Codex +Nuttall, and is regarded by experts as one of the most precious records +of ancient Mexico. + +What is probably Mrs. Nuttall's most valuable contribution to +archæological science is her erudite work entitled _The Fundamental +Principles of Old and New World Civilizations_. It is a comparative +research based on a study of the ancient Mexican, religious, +sociological and calendar systems, and represents thirteen years of +assiduous labor. It is a worthy monument to the scientific ability of +this gifted Americanist, and one which brilliantly illumines some of the +most controverted points of comparative archæology. + +The Nestor of women archæologists is Donna Ersilia +Caetani-Bovatelli--the daughter of the famous Dante scholar, the late +Duke Don Michel Angelo Caetani-Sermonetta. Since the days of Boniface +VIII, whom Dante scornfully denounced as _lo principe de' Pharisei_, the +family of the Caetani has been one of the most illustrious of the Roman +nobility, and is to-day ranked with those of the Colonna and Orsini. + +Besides his thorough knowledge of Dante, whose _Divina Commedia_ he +regarded as the great artistic production of the human mind--a work +which he knew by heart--the Duke of Sermonetta was deeply versed in +philology and archæology. No one was more familiar with the history and +antiquities of Rome than he was, nor a greater friend and patron of +scholars of every nationality. The Palazzo Caetani was the resort of not +only the savants of Rome, but also and especially of those who gathered +from all quarters of the world to study the rich collections of +antiquities for which the Eternal City is so famous. Here the ablest +authorities in history and archæology discussed the latest discoveries +among the ruins of Greece and Asia Minor, and the most recent finds in +the Forum or amidst the crumbling ruins of the palaces of the Cæsars. + +Having such a father and brought up in such an environment it is not +surprising that Donna Ersilia acquired at an early age that taste for +archæology which was, as events proved, to constitute the chief +occupation of her long and busy life. Having enjoyed and studied +literature and the languages under the best masters in Rome, she was +thoroughly prepared for the work of deciphering Greek and Latin +inscriptions and for an intelligent study of the ancient monuments of +Italy and Hellas. + +Her learned countryman, A. de Gubernatis, assures us that she has such a +thorough knowledge of Latin and Greek that she writes both with ease and +elegance, and that she is endowed with an admirable memory for philology +and archæology. Besides being a mistress of several modern languages, +she is also familiar with Sanscrit. + +Since the death of her husband, in 1879, she has devoted all her time, +outside of that given to the care and education of her children, to the +pursuit of classical archæology, in which she has long been regarded as +an authority of the first order. Her salon, unlike those of the +frivolous leaders of high life, has for many years been the favorite +rendezvous in Rome of learned men and women from every clime. Here were +seen the noted historians Gregorovius, Theodore Mommsen, and Giovanni +Battista de Rossi, the illustrious founder of Christian archæology. Here +the representatives of the French, German and American schools of +archæology meet to exchange views on their favorite science and to find +inspiration in the knowledge and enthusiasm of their gifted hostess, who +always takes an active part in their recondite discussions, and never +fails to contribute her share to these meetings, which have contributed +so much toward the advancement of science and the history of antiquity. +Whether the discussion turn on the deciphering of an ancient text, the +inscription of a monument or a recently excavated sarcophagus, Donna +Ersilia's opinion is eagerly sought, and her judgment is generally +unerring. + +This cultured and erudite daughter of sunny Italy has been a prolific +writer on her favorite branch of research. Besides contributing to such +publications as the _Nuova Antologia_ and the bulletins of the +archæological commissions in Rome, she has found time to prepare for the +press a number of volumes of the highest value on divers questions of +Roman and Greek archæology. + +It is interesting, in this connection, to note the fact that, after Mme. +Curie had been refused admittance into the French Academy, one of the +members of this institution, who had voted against her on the ground +that she was a woman, had occasion to attend a meeting of the Academy of +the Lincei in Rome, an association which plays the same rôle in Italy as +does the French Academy in France, and found, to his astonishment, that +the dean of the department of archæology, as well as the presiding +officer of some of the most important meetings of the academy, was a +woman. She was no other than Donna Ersilia Caetani-Bovatelli, the +learned and gracious scion of an honored race. So taken aback was the +Gallic opponent of _feminisme_ that he could but exclaim: "_Diable!_ +they order things differently in Italy from what we do in _la belle +France_." + +Considering their attainments and achievements, the two women who occupy +the highest place as archæologists in the English-speaking world are +Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson. They are the twin +daughters of the Rev. John Smith, an English clergyman, and have long +enjoyed an enviable reputation among Scriptural scholars and +Orientalists. + +During their youth they had the advantage of instruction under the best +masters, and, among other things, acquired a wide knowledge of the +modern and classical languages. Subsequent study and frequent visits to +Greece and the Orient made them proficient in modern Greek, Arabic, +Hebrew and Syriac. Becoming interested in the search for ancient +manuscripts, they resolved to make the long and arduous journey to the +Greek convent of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai. + +In the latter part of January, 1892, these two brave and enterprising +women left Suez for their destination in the heart of the Arabian +desert. They were accompanied only by their dragoman and Bedouin +servants. Eleven camels carried the two travelers, their baggage, tents +and provisions for fifty days. They had laid in supplies not only for +the two or three weeks they were to spend on the way to and from Sinai, +but also for the month they expected to remain at the Convent of St. +Catherine. + +Arriving at the end of their journey, they were most cordially received +by the monks, who afforded them every facility for examining the +treasures of their unique and venerable library. They immediately set to +work, and before they left the room in which the manuscripts were +preserved they had made one of the most remarkable finds of the century. +For, in closely inspecting a dirty, forbidding old manuscript whose +leaves had probably not been turned for centuries, they discovered a +palimpsest, of which the upper writing contained the biographies of +women saints, while that beneath proved to be one of the earliest copies +of the Syriac Gospels, if not the very earliest in existence. + +No find since the celebrated discovery by Tischendorf of the Sinaitic +Codex, in the same convent nearly fifty years before, ever excited such +interest among Scriptural scholars or was hailed with greater +rejoicings. It was by all Biblical students regarded as an invaluable +contribution to Scriptural literature, and as a find which "has doubled +our sources of knowledge of the darkest corner of New Testament +criticism." To distinguish it from the _Codex Sinaiticus_, the precious +manuscript brought to light by Mrs. Lewis has been very appropriately +named after the fortunate discoverer, and will hereafter be known as the +Codex Ludovicus.[223] + +Another find of rare importance made by the gifted twin sisters was a +Palestinian Syriac lectionary similar to the hitherto unique copy in the +Library of the Vatican. A special interest attaches to this lectionary +from the fact that it is written in the language that was most probably +spoken by our Lord. + +Among other notable discoveries of Mrs. Lewis and her sister during the +four visits[224] which they made to Mt. Sinai and Palestine between the +years 1892 and 1897 were a number of manuscripts in Arabic and a portion +of the original Hebrew manuscript of Ecclesiastes which was written +about 200 B.C. Previously the oldest copies of this book of the Old +Testament were the Greek and Syriac versions. + +What is specially remarkable about the discoveries made by Mrs. Lewis +and Mrs. Gibson is that they were able to make so many valuable finds +after the convent library at Mt. Sinai had been so frequently examined +by previous scholars. The indefatigable Tischendorf made three visits to +this library and had but one phenomenal success. But neither "he nor any +of the other wandering scholars who have visited the convent attained," +as has been well said, "to a tithe of the acquaintance with its +treasures which these energetic ladies possess." + +But more remarkable than the mere discovery of so many invaluable +manuscripts, which was, of course, an extraordinary achievement, is the +fact that these manuscripts, whether in Syriac, Arabic or Hebrew, have +been translated, annotated and edited by these same scholarly women. +Already more than a score of volumes have come from their prolific pens, +all evincing the keenest critical acumen and the highest order of +Biblical and archæological scholarship. The reader who desires a popular +account of their famous discoveries should by all means read Mrs. +Gibson's entertaining volume, _How the Codex Was Found_, and Mrs. Lewis' +charming little work entitled, _In the Shadow of Sinai_. As to those +men--and the species is yet far from extinct--who still doubt the +capacity of women for the higher kinds of intellectual effort, let them +glance at the pages of the numerous volumes given to the press by these +richly dowered women under the captions of _Studia Sinaitica_ and _Horæ +Semiticæ_; and, if they are able to comprehend the evidence before them, +they will be forced to admit that the long-imagined difference between +the intellectual powers of men and women is one of fancy and not one of +reality.[225] + +And yet, strange to relate, while Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson were +electrifying the learned world by their achievements in the highest +form of scholarship, the slow-moving University of Cambridge was gravely +debating "whether it was a proper thing to confer degrees upon women," +and preparing to answer the question in the negative. The fact that +there were "representatives of the unenfranchised sex at their gates who +had gathered more laurels in the field of scholarship than most of those +who belong to the privileged sex" did not appeal to the university dons +or prevent them from putting themselves on record as favoring a +condition of things which, at this late age of the world, should be +expected only among the women-enslaving followers of Mohammed. + +The saying that "a prophet hath no honor in his own country" was +fulfilled to the letter in the case of the two women who had shed such +luster on the land of their birth. While foreign institutions were vying +with one another in showering honors on the two brilliant Englishwomen, +with whose praises the whole world was resounding, the University of +Cambridge was silent. The University of St. Andrews conferred on them +the degree of LL.D., while conservative old Heidelberg, casting aside +its age-old traditions, made haste to honor them with the degree of +Doctor of Divinity. In addition to this, Halle made Mrs. Lewis a Doctor +of Philosophy. One would have thought that sheer shame, if not patriotic +spirit, would have compelled the university in whose shadows the two +women had their home, and in which Mrs. Lewis' husband had held for +years an official appointment, to show itself equally appreciative of +superlative merit and equally ready to reward rare scholarship, +regardless of the sex of the beneficiaries. But no. The illustrious +archæologists and Biblical scholars were women, and this fact alone was +in the estimation of the Cambridge authorities enough to withhold from +them that recognition which was so spontaneously accorded them by the +great universities of the Continent. + +Nor was this the only instance of the kind. While the celebrated twin +sisters just referred to were so materially contributing to our +knowledge of Biblical lore, another Englishwoman, Jane E. Harrison, who +lived within hearing of the church bells of Cambridge, was lecturing to +delighted audiences in Newnham College on the history, mythology and +monuments of ancient Athens, and writing those learned works on the +religion and antiquities of Greece which have given her so conspicuous a +place among modern archæologists.[226] But, as in the case of her +distinguished neighbors, the discoverers of the _Codex Ludovicus_, the +degrees she was honored with came not from Cambridge, with which, +through her fellowship in Newnham, she was so closely connected. + +And while this gifted lady was deserving so well of science and +literature, the undergraduate students of Cambridge, following the cue +given by the twenty-four hundred graduates who had just rejected the +proposal to give honorary degrees to women who could pass the required +examinations, were giving an exhibition of rowdyism which far surpassed +that which, a few years before, had so disgraced the University of +Edinburgh, when the same question of degrees for women was under +consideration. + +According to the report of an eye witness of the turbulent scene at +Cambridge, "The undergraduate students appeared to be, as a body, +viciously opposed to the proposal to give degrees to women, and became +fairly riotous. They hooted those who supported the reform and fired +crackers even in the Senate House and made the night lurid with bonfires +and powder. They put up insulting effigies of girl students, and such +mottoes as 'Get you to Girton, Beatrice. Get you to Newnham. Here is no +place for maids!'" + +Verily, when such scenes are possible in one of the world's great +intellectual centers--a place where, above all others, women should +receive due recognition for their contributions toward the progress of +knowledge--one is constrained to declare that what we call civilization +is still far from the ideal. And, when one witnesses the total +indifference of institutions like Cambridge and the French Academy to +the splendid achievements of women like Mrs. Lewis, Mrs. Gibson and Mme. +Curie, one cannot but exclaim in words Apocalyptic: "How long, O Lord, +holy and true," is this iniquitous discrimination against one-half of +our race to endure? O Lord, how long? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[215] A. Michælis, _A Century of Archæological Discoveries_, p. 6, New +York, 1908. + +[216] _The Most Illustrious Ladies of the Renaissance_, p. 152, by +Christopher Hare, London, 1904. + +[217] Michælis, Op. cit., p. 20, Cf. also Fiorelli's _Pompeinarum +Antiquitatum Historia_, Vol. I, Pars. III, Naples, 1860. Arditi +characterized Queen Caroline's interest in the excavations as +"_entusiasmo veramente ammirabile_." + +[218] _Frauenarbeit in der Archæologie in Deutsche Rundschau_, March, +1890, page 396. + +[219] _Memoirs of the Life of Anna Jameson_, pp. 296-297, by her niece, +Geraldine Macpherson, London, 1878. + +[220] _Ilios, the City and Country of the Trojans_, pp. 657-658, by Dr. +Henry Schliemann, New York, 1881. + +As an illustration of Mrs. Schliemann's devotion to the work which has +rendered her, as well as her husband, immortal, a single passage from +the volume just quoted, p. 261, is pertinent. Referring to the +sufferings and privations which they endured during their third year's +work at Hissarlik, Dr. Schliemann writes as follows: + +"My poor wife and myself, therefore, suffered very much since the icy +north wind, which recalls Homer's frequent mention of the blasts of +Boreas, blew with such violence through the chinks of our house-walls, +which were made of planks, that we were not even able to light our lamps +in the evening, while the water which stood near the hearth froze into +solid masses. During the day we could, to some degree, bear the cold by +working in the excavations; but, in the evenings, we had nothing to keep +us warm except our enthusiasm for the great work of discovering Troy." + +So high was Dr. Schliemann's opinion of his wife's ability as an +archæologist that he entrusted to her--as well as to their daughter, +Andromache, and son, Agamemnon--the continuation of the work which death +prevented him from completing. + +[221] See Mme. Dieulafoy's graphic account of the expedition in a work +which has been translated into English under the title, _At Susa, the +Ancient Capital of the Kings of Persia, Narrative of Travel Through +Western Persia and Excavations Made at the Site of the Lost City of the +Lilies, 1884-1886_, Philadelphia, 1890. + +See also her other related work--crowned by the French +Academy--entitled, _La Perse, La Chaldée et la Susiane_, Paris, 1887. + +[222] Among the specimens secured were two of extraordinary beauty and +interest. One of them is a beautiful enameled frieze of a lion and the +other, likewise a work in enamel, represents a number of polychrome +figures of the Immortals--the name given to the guards of the Great +Kings of Persia. Both are truly magnificent specimens of ceramic art, +and compare favorably with anything of the kind which antiquity has +bequeathed to us. Commenting on the pictures of the Persian guards, Mme. +Dieulafoy writes: "Whatever their race may be, our Immortals appear fine +in line, fine in form, fine in color and constitute a ceramic work +infinitely superior to the bas-reliefs, so justly celebrated, of Lucca +della Robbia." Op. cit., p. 222. + +[223] One passage in this codex bears so strongly on a leading argument +of this work that I cannot resist the temptation to give it with Mrs. +Lewis' own comment: + +"The piece of my work," she writes, _In the Shadow of Sinai_, p. 98 et +seq., "which has given me the greatest satisfaction, consists in the +decipherment of two words in John IV, 27. They were well worth all our +visits to Sinai, for they illustrate an action of our Lord which seems +to be recorded nowhere else, and which has some degree of inherent +probability from what we know of His character. The passage is 'His +disciples came and wondered that with the women he was _standing and +talking_'.... + +"Why was our Lord standing? He had been sitting on the wall when the +disciples left Him; and, we know that He was tired. Moreover, sitting is +the proper attitude for an Easterner when engaged in teaching. And an +ordinary Oriental would never rise of his own natural free will out of +politeness to a woman. It may be that He rose in His enthusiasm for the +great truths He was uttering; but, I like to think that His great heart, +which embraced the lowest of humanity, lifted Him above the restrictions +of His race and age, and made Him show that courtesy to our sex, even in +the person of a degraded specimen, which is considered among all really +progressive peoples to be a mark of true and noble manhood. To shed even +a faint light upon that wondrous story of His tabernacling amongst us is +an inestimable privilege and worthy of all the trouble we can possibly +take." + +[224] Mrs. Gibson, unaccompanied by her sister, has since made two more +visits to Mt. Sinai in order to complete the work so auspiciously begun. + +[225] The following partial list of the works of these erudite twins on +subjects connected with Scripture and Oriental literature gives some +idea of their extraordinary attainments and of their prodigious activity +in researches that are usually considered entirely foreign to the tastes +and aptitudes of women. + +_Some Pages of the Four Gospels Retranscribed From the Sinaitic +Palimpsest_, with a translation of the whole text by Agnes Smith Lewis. + +_An Arabic Version of St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, +Galatians and part of Ephesians._ Edited from a ninth century MS. by +Margaret Dunlop Gibson. + +_Apocrypha Sinaitica._ Containing the Anaphora Pilati in Syriac and +Arabic: the Syriac transcribed by J. Rendel Harris, and the Arabic by +Margaret Dunlop Gibson; also two recensions of the _Recognitions of +Clement_, in Arabic, transcribed and translated by Margaret Dunlop +Gibson. + +_An Arabic Version of the Acts of the Apostles and the Seven Catholic +Epistles_, from an eighth or ninth century MS., with a treatise on the +Triune Nature of God and translation. Edited by Margaret Dunlop Gibson. + +Apocrypha Arabica, Edited by Margaret D. Gibson, containing 1, _Kitab al +Magall_ or the _Book of the Rolls_; 2, _The Story of the Aphikia Wife of +Jesus Ben Sira_ (Carshuni); 3, _Cyprian and Justa_, in Arabic and Greek. + +_Select Narratives of Holy Women_, from the Syro-Antiochene or Sinai +Palimpsest, as written above the Old Syriac Gospels in A. D. 778. +Translation by Agnes Smith Lewis. + +_Apocrypha Syriaca Sinaitica_, being the _Protevangelium Jacobi_ and +_Transitus Mariæ_, from a Palimpsest of the fifth or sixth century. +Edited by Agnes Smith Lewis. + +_Forty-One Facsimiles of Dated Christian Arabic Manuscripts_, with Text +and English Translation, arranged by Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret +Dunlop Gibson, with introductory observations in Arabic calligraphy by +the Rev. David S. Margoliouth. + +_The Didascalia Apostolorum in Syriac_, edited from a Mesopotamian MS, +with various readings and collations of other MS, by Margaret Dunlop +Gibson. + +_The Arabic Version of the Acta Apocrypha Apostolorum_, edited and +translated by Agnes Smith Lewis, with fifth century fragments of the +Acta Thomæ, in Syriac. + +_The Gospel of Isbodad in Syriac and English_, by Margaret D. Gibson. + +_Acta Mythologica Apostolorum in Arabic_, with translation by Agnes +Smith Lewis. + +For an elaborate and sympathetic account of the labors and discoveries +of Mrs. Lewis and her sister, the reader is referred to an article from +the pen of the learned Professor V. Ryssel, in the _Schweizerische +Theologische Zeitschrift_, XVI, Jahrgang, 1899. + +[226] For an evidence of this learned lady's competency to deal with the +most recondite stores of history and archæology, the reader is referred +to two of her later works, viz., _Primitive Athens as Described by +Thucydides_, Cambridge, 1906, and _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek +Religion_, Cambridge University Press, 1903. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WOMEN AS INVENTORS + + +"There have been very learned women as there have been women warriors, +but there have never been women inventors."[227] Thus wrote Voltaire +with that flippancy and cocksureness which was so characteristic of the +author of the _Dictionnaire Philosophique_--a man who was ever ready to +give, offhand, a categorical answer to any question that came before him +for discussion. His countryman, Proudhon, expressed the same opinion in +other words when he wrote, _Les femmes n'ont rien inventé, pas mème leur +quenouille_--women have invented nothing, not even their distaff. + +Had these two writers thoroughly sifted the evidence available, even in +their day, for a proper consideration of this interesting subject, they +would, both of them, have reached a very different conclusion from that +which is expressed in the sentences just quoted. Had they consulted the +records of antiquity, they would have learned that most of the earliest +and most important inventions were attributed to women; and, had they +studied the reports of explorers among the savage tribes of the modern +world, they would have found that these early legends and traditions +regarding the inventions of women were fully confirmed by what was being +done in their own time. Man's first needs were food, shelter and +clothing; and tradition in all parts of the world is unanimous in +ascribing to woman the invention, in essentially their present forms, of +all the arts most conducive to the preservation and well-being of our +race. + +In Egypt, as Diodorus Siculus informs us, the inventors of specially +useful things were, as a reward of their deserts, enrolled among the +gods, as were certain heroes among the ancient Greeks and Romans. +Foremost among these was Isis, who laid the foundation of agriculture by +the introduction of the culture of wheat and other cereals. Before her +time the Egyptians lived on roots and herbs. In lieu of these crude +articles of food, Isis gave them bread and other more wholesome +aliments. She invented the process of making linen and was the first to +apply a sail to the propulsion of a boat. To her also was attributed the +art of embalming, the discovery of many medicines and the beginnings of +Egyptian literature. + +Even more prominent was Pallas Athene, one of the greatest divinities of +the Greeks. Virgil, in his _Georgics_, invokes her as + + "Inventor, Pallas, of the fatt'ning oil, + Thou founder of the plow and the plowman's toil." + +But not only was she regarded as the _oleæ inventrix_-inventress of the +olive--as Virgil phrases it, but also as the inventor of all +handicrafts, whether of women or men. Like Isis, she was deemed the +originator of agriculture and many of the mechanic arts. But, above all, +she was the inventor of musical instruments and those plastic and +graphic arts which have for ages placed Greece in the forefront of +civilization and culture. + +From the beginning it was woman who first made use of wool and flax for +textile fabrics; and of this prehistoric woman one can affirm what +Solomon, in his _Book of Proverbs_, said of the virtuous woman of his +day: + + "She seeketh wool and flax and worketh diligently with her hands; + She layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff." + +She was also the first one to weave cotton and silk. It was Mama Oclo, +the wife of Manco Capac, as the Inca historian, Garcilasso de la Vega, +tells us, who taught the women of ancient Peru "to sew and weave cotton +and wool and to make clothes for themselves, their husbands and +children." + +And it was a woman, Se-ling-she, the wife of the emperor, Hwang-te, who +lived nearly three thousand years before Christ, to whom the most +ancient Chinese writers assign the discovery of silk. Her name is +perpetuated in the name China, the goddess of silkworms, and under this +appellation she still receives divine honors. + +The preparation and weaving of silk were introduced into Japan by four +Chinese girls, and the new industry soon became there, as in China, one +of the chief sources, as it is to-day, of the country's wealth. To +perpetuate the memory of these four pioneer silk weavers the grateful +Japanese erected a temple in their honor in the province of Setsu. + +According to tradition, the eggs of the silk moth and the seed of the +mulberry tree were conveyed to India, concealed in the lining of her +headdress, by a Chinese princess. She was thus instrumental in +establishing in the region watered by the Indus and the Ganges the same +industry which her countrywomen had introduced into the Land of the +Rising Sun. + +Cashmere shawls and attar of roses, the costliest of perfumes, are +attributed to an Indian empress, Nur Mahal, whom her husband, in view of +her achievements, as well as on account of his passionate love for her, +called "The Light of the World."[228] + +And what shall we say of those exquisite creations of woman's brain and +hand--needle-point and pillow lace? These two inventions, like the +manufacture of silk, have given employment to tens of thousands of women +throughout the world; and, in such countries as Italy, Belgium and +France, where lace-making has received special attention, they have for +centuries been most prolific sources of revenue. Silk fabrics in ancient +Rome were worth their weight in gold. The finest specimens of point lace +are, even to-day, as highly prized as precious stones, and, like the +great masterpieces of plastic art, are handed down as heirlooms from +generation to generation. In no other instance, except possibly in the +hairspring of a watch, is there such an extraordinary difference in +value between the raw material and the finished product as there is in +the case of the finest thread lace. + +A great sensation was caused in Italy a few decades ago when a humble +workwoman, Signora Bassani, succeeded in rediscovering the peculiar +stitch of the celebrated Venetian point, which had been lost for +centuries. She was at once granted a patent for her invention, which was +by her countrymen regarded as an event of national importance. + +After painting and sculpture, probably no art has contributed more to +the development of the esthetic sense among the nations of the world +than has the art whose chief tools are the needle and the bobbin in the +deft hands of a beauty-loving woman. If the name of the first lace-maker +had not been lost in the mists of antiquity, it is reasonable to suppose +that she, too, would long since have had a monument erected to her +memory, as well as the weavers of silk and makers of attar of roses and +cashmere shawls. She was surely as deserving of such an honor. + +More conclusive information respecting woman as an inventor is, strange +as it may appear, afforded by a systematic study of the various races of +mankind which are still in a state of savagery. Such a study discloses +the interesting fact that woman, contrary to the declaration of +Proudhon, has not only been the inventor of the distaff, but that she +has furthermore--pace Voltaire--been the inventor of all the peaceful +arts of life, and the inventor, too, of the earliest forms of nearly all +the mechanical devices now in use in the world of industry. + +Architecture, as well as many other things, was credited by the ancient +Greeks to Minerva. This was a poetical way of stating the fact--now +generally accepted by men of science--that women were the first +homemakers. But the first home was a very simple and a very humble +structure. When not a cave, it was a simple shelter made of bark or +skins, sufficient to afford protection to the mother and her child. +Subsequently it was a lodge made of earth, of stone or wattle work or +adobe. + +Women were, in the light of anthropology, as well as in that of +mythology and tradition, the first to discover the nutritive and +medicinal values of fruits, seeds, nuts, roots and vegetables. They were +consequently the first gardeners and agriculturists and the first to +build up a materia medica. While men were engaged in the chase or in +warfare, women were gradually perfecting those divers domestic arts +which, in the course of time, became their recognized specialties. They +soon found that it was better to cultivate certain food plants and +trees than to depend on them for nourishment in the wild state. This was +particularly true in the case of such useful and widely distributed +species as wheat, rice, maize, the yam, potato, banana and cassava. + +At first most of these food products were used in the raw state, but +woman's quick inventive genius was not long in making one of the most +important and far-reaching discoveries--a method for producing fire. In +a certain sense this was the greatest discovery ever made, and the +Greeks showed their appreciation of the value of it by asserting that +fire was stolen from heaven. Considering its multifarious uses in +heating and cooking, thereby immensely adding to the comfort and +well-being of primitive man, we are not surprised that in certain parts +of the world fire has always been considered something sacred, and that +the old Romans instituted Vestal Virgins, and the ancient Peruvians +Virgins of the Sun, to preserve this precious element and have it ever +ready when required for sacrifice or for any of their various liturgical +functions. If any one ever deserved a "monument more durable than +bronze," it was the woman who, "on the edge of time," first drew the +Promethean spark from a piece of pyrites by striking it with flint or +produced it by the friction of two pieces of wood. + +After building a home and establishing in it a fireplace for the +preparation of food, woman's next concern was to secure more raiment +than was afforded by the traditional fig leaf. This she found in the +bark of certain trees, in the fiber of hemp and cotton and in the wool +of sheep and goats. With these and her distaff she spun thread, and from +the thread thus obtained she was by means of her primitive +loom--likewise her invention--able to provide all kinds of textile +fabrics for clothing for herself and family. + +But there was much more to invent before the home of primitive man, or +rather primitive woman, could be considered as fairly equipped. +Furniture and culinary utensils were required, and these, too, were +provided by the deft and cunning fingers of woman. She was the first +potter and the first basketmaker; and anyone who has lived among the +savages of any land, especially among the aborigines in the interior of +South America, knows what an important part is played in domestic +economy by native basketry and ceramic ware. Both of these articles were +at first of the simplest character, but woman's innate esthetic sense +soon enabled her to produce those highly ornate specimens of pottery and +basketry that are so highly prized in the public and private collections +of this country and Europe. + +The first device for converting grain into flour was, like the many +other articles already named, the invention of woman. Whether the simple +mortar and pestle of the North American Indian, or the Mexican metate +and muller, or the Irish quern, it was, in every case, the product of +woman's brain and handiwork, as it was also the basal prototype of our +most improved types of flouring mills. And so was the soapstone pot--the +predecessor of the iron or brass kettle--a woman's invention, as well as +many similar contrivances for preparing food. + +But what is probably the most remarkable culinary invention of woman in +the state of savagery is her unique contrivance for converting the +poisonous root of the _manihot utilissima_--the staple food of tropical +America--into a wholesome and nutritious aliment. It is a bag, called +_matapi_, which serves both as a press and as a sieve. For the +inhabitants of the vast basins of the Amazon and the Orinoco, where the +chief articles of diet are derived from the manihot and the plantain, +this invention of woman is the most important ever made and ranks in +importance with the discovery by the same skilled food purveyor of the +dietetic value of manihot itself. + +The first knife was a woman's invention, as the arrow-head and the spear +point were the inventions of her hunter husband. It was in the beginning +a most primitive implement; but, whether in the form of a simple flake +of flint of obsidian, or in that of an Eskimo ulu--the woman's knife--it +was the archetype of all the forms of cutlery now in use. With this rude +knife the primitive housewife skinned and carved the game brought to her +by her male companion. With it she scraped the interior of the hide and +cut it up into articles of clothing. She was thus the first furrier and +tailor. With it she made the first sandals and moccasins, and, in doing +so, became the first shoemaker and the original St. Crispin. + +To woman, the originator of the first home, is due also the invention of +the oven and the chimney. She was also the first maker of salt--that +all-important condiment and sanitary agent--and the first to obtain +nitre from wood ashes. She was the first engineer, as is evinced in her +invention of the parbuckle and in the bamboo conduit, which was the +predecessor of the great canals of Babylonia[229] and the imposing +aqueducts of ancient Rome. + +Important, however, as are all the foregoing inventions, we must not +forget what was an equally important contribution by woman to the +welfare and progress of our race--the domestication of animals. No +discovery after that of artificially producing fire has contributed more +toward the development of our race than the taming of milk- and +fleece-bearing animals, like the cow, the sheep, the goat and the llama, +or of burden-bearing animals, like the horse, the ass, the camel and the +reindeer, or of hunting and watching animals like the faithful, +ubiquitous dog. For, in the first place, the domestication of these +supremely useful animals diminished man's labor as burden bearers. It +likewise supplemented the fecundity of women and facilitated the +multiplication of the race, because it supplied to the child a +nourishment that previously could be obtained only from the mother, who +had been obliged to suckle her young several years longer than was +necessary after the friendly goat and cow came to her aid. Still another +consequence of the domestication of animals was that it immensely +diminished the amount of woman's care and labor, afforded her the +necessary leisure to develop the arts of refinement, and stimulated +intellectual growth in a way that otherwise would have been impossible. + +It is often stated by certain writers who love to indulge in fanciful +speculations that women inventors got their ideas as home builders and +weavers and potters from nest-building birds, from web-weaving spiders, +and from clay workers like termites and mud wasps. Be this as it may, +the fact remains in all its inspiring truth that, in the matter of +industrialism, as opposed to the militancy of man, we can unhesitatingly +declare, with Virgil, _Dux femina facti_--woman was the leader in all +the arts of peace--arts which have been slowly perfected through the +ages until they present the extraordinary development which we now +witness. + +When we contemplate the splendid porcelain wares of Meissen and Sèvres, +or the countless varieties of cutlery produced in the factories of +Sheffield, or the beautiful textile fabrics from the looms of Lowell and +Manchester, or the delicate silks woven in the famous establishments of +Lombardy and Southern France, or the countless forms of footwear made in +Lynn and Chicago, or the exquisite furs brought from Siberia and the +Pribyloff Islands, and dyed in Leipsic and London, or the astonishing +output of food products from the factories of Pittsburgh and the immense +roller mills of Minneapolis, we little think that the colossal wheels +of these vast and varied industries were set in motion by the inventive +genius of woman in the dim and distant prehistoric past. + +And yet such is the case. Her handiwork from the earliest pottery may be +traced through its manifold stages from its first rude beginnings to the +most gorgeous creations of ceramic art. The primeval knife of flint or +obsidian has become the keen tool of tempered steel; the simple distaff +has issued in the intricate Jacquard loom; the metate and pestle +actuated by a woman's arm have, by a long process of evolution, +developed into our mammoth roller mills impelled by water power, steam +or electricity.[230] + +But these extraordinary changes from the rude implements of prehistoric +time to the complicated machinery of the present is but a change of +kind, not one of principle. It is a change due to specialization of work +which became possible only when men, liberated from the avocations of +hunting and warfare, were able to take up the occupations of women, and +develop them in the manner with which we are now familiar. + +Why men, rather than women, should have achieved this work of +specialization; whether it was due to social causes or to woman's +physical and mental organization, or to these various factors combined, +we need not inquire; but such is the fact. Whereas in primitive times +every woman having a home was a cook, a butcher, a baker, a potter, a +weaver, a cutler, a miller, a tanner, a furrier, an engineer, man, in +assuming the work which was originally exclusively feminine and +performed by one and the same person, has subdivided and specialized by +improved forms of machinery and otherwise, so that what is now done is +accomplished more rapidly and to better purpose, and with +correspondingly greater results in the development of industry and in +the progress of civilization. + +And the remarkable fact is that many of the most important of these +improvements due to specialization have been made within the memory of +those yet living, while still others have been originated in quite +recent years. Nevertheless, great as has been the work of specialization +and coördination in every department of human industry during the last +few decades, it is, to judge by the reports of the Patent Office, as yet +in little more than its initial stage. + +We are now prepared for the consideration of the part woman has taken in +this specializing movement and for a discussion of her share in modern +inventions and in the improvements of those manifold inventions which +were due to her genius and industry untold ages ago. Considering the +short time during which her inventive mind has been specially active, +and the many handicaps which have been imposed on her, the wonder is not +that she has achieved so little in comparison with man, but rather that +she has accomplished so much. + +The first woman to receive a patent in the United States was Mary Kies. +It was issued May 5, 1809, for a process of straw-weaving with silk or +thread. Six years later Mary Brush was granted a patent for a corset. It +seems to have been quite satisfactory, for no other patent for this +article of feminine attire was issued to a woman until 1841, when one +was granted to Elizabeth Adams. During the thirty-two years which +elapsed between the issuing of a patent to Mary Kies and Elizabeth +Adams, but twenty other patents were granted to women. The chief of +these were for weaving hats from grass, manufacturing moccasins, +whitening leghorn straw, for a sheet-iron shovel, a cook stove and a +machine for cutting straw and fodder. + +During the decade following 1841, fourteen patents were issued to as +many different women. Among the articles patented by them were an +ice-cream freezer, a weighing scale and a fan attachment for a rocking +chair. It was not recorded, however, that this last invention, valuable +as it was apparently, ever became particularly popular. But by far the +most remarkable of woman's inventions during this period was a submarine +telescope and lamp, for which a patent was awarded in 1845 to Sarah +Mather. + +From 1851 to 1861, twenty-eight patents were issued to women--just twice +the number awarded them during the preceding decade. Most of these +patents were for articles of domestic use or feminine apparel. Four of +them, however, comprised a scale for instrumental music, for mounting +fluid lenses, a fountain pen and an improvement in reaping and mowing +machines. + +The following decade is remarkable for the wonderful increase in the +number of inventions due to women, for there was a sudden jump from +twenty-eight to four hundred and forty-one patents awarded them between +the years 1861 and 1871. Women now began to have confidence in their +inventive faculties, and, no longer content with exercising their genius +on articles of clothing and culinary utensils, sewing, washing and +churning machines, they began to devote their attention to objects that +were entirely foreign to their ordinary home activities. This is clearly +evinced by the patents they obtained for such inventions as improvements +in locomotive wheels, devices for reducing straw and other fibrous +substances for the manufacture of paper pulp, improvements in corn +huskers, low-water indicators, steam and other whistles, corn plows, a +method of constructing screw propellers, improvements in materials for +packing journals and bearings, in fire alarms, thermometers, railroad +car heaters, improvements in lubricating railway journals, in conveyors +of smoke and cinders for locomotives, in pyrotechnic night signals, +burglar alarms, railway car safety apparatus, in apparatus for punching +corrugated metals, desulphurizing ores and other similar inventions in +the domain of mechanical engineering, inventions that, at first blush, +would seem to be quite alien to the genius and capacity of woman. + +From now on women's inventions in the United States increased at an +extraordinary rate, for from 1871 until July 1, 1888, when the first +government report was made on the patents issued to women inventors, she +had to her credit nearly two thousand inventions, many of which were of +prime importance.[231] + +During the seven years following 1888 she was awarded twenty-five +hundred and twenty-six patents--more than the total number that had been +granted her during the preceding seventy-nine years. Between 1895 and +1910, three thousand six hundred and fifteen more patents were placed to +her credit, making a grand total for her first century of inventive +achievement of eight thousand five hundred and ninety-six patents. No +Patent Office reports are available since 1910, but the number of +inventions for which women have received patents since Mary Kies was +awarded hers on May 5, 1809, for "straw-weaving with silk or thread," +cannot be far from ten thousand. This fact will, doubtless, be a +revelation to that large class of men who still seem to share the views +of Voltaire and Proudhon that women are incapable of inventing even the +simplest article of domestic use. + +The following story well illustrates the prevailing ignorance regarding +the part women have taken in the invention of certain articles that are +so common that most people think they were never patented. + +"I was out driving once with an old farmer in Vermont," writes Mrs. Ada +C. Bowles, "and he told me, 'You women may talk about your rights, but +why don't you invent something?' I answered, 'Your horse's feed bag and +the shade over his head were both of them invented by women.' The old +fellow was so taken aback that he was barely able to gasp, 'Do tell!'" + +Had he investigated further he would have found that the flynet on his +horse's back, the tugs and other harness trimmings, the shoes on his +horse's feet[232] and the buggy seat he then occupied were all the +inventions of women. He would, doubtless, also have discovered that the +currycomb he had used before starting out on his drive, as well as the +snap hook of the halter and the checkrein and the stall unhitching +device were likewise the inventions of members of that sex whose +capacity he was so disposed to depreciate; for women have been awarded +patents--in some instances several of them--for all the articles that +have been mentioned. He might furthermore have learned that the fellies +in his buggy wheels and his daughter's side saddle had been made under +women's patents; and that, to complete his surprise and confusion, the +leather used in his harness had been sewn by a machine patented by a +woman who was not only an inventor but who was also for many years the +manager and proprietor of a large harness factory in New York City. + +What particularly arrests one's attention in reading the Patent Office +reports is not only the large number of inventions by women, but also +the very wide range of the devices which they embrace. It is not +surprising to find them inventing and improving culinary utensils, house +furniture and furnishings, toilet articles, wearing apparel and +stationery, trunks and bags, toys and games, designs for printed and +textile fabrics, for boxes and baskets, screens, awnings, baby carriers, +musical instruments, appliances for washing and cleaning, attachments +for bicycles and type-writing machines, art, educational and medical +appliances; for these things are in keeping with their proper _métier_; +but it is surprising for those who are not familiar with the history of +modern inventions to learn of the share women have had in inventing and +improving agricultural implements, building appurtenances, motors of +various kinds, plumbing apparatus, theatrical stage mechanisms, and, +above all, countless railway appliances from a coupling or fender to an +apparatus for sanding railroad tracks, or a device for unloading +boxcars. + +Those who are still of the opinion of Voltaire and Proudhon--and their +name is legion--respecting woman's inventive powers, might be willing to +accord to her the capacity to design a new form of clothes pin, or hair +crimper, or rouge pad, or complexion mask, or powder puff, or baby +jumper; but they would limit her ability to contrivances of this +character. But what would these same people say if they were told that +over and above the things just mentioned for which many women have +actually received patents, the much depreciated female sex had been +granted patents for locomotive wheels, stuffing boxes, railway car +safety apparatus, life rafts, cut-offs for hydraulic and other engines, +street cars, mining machines, furnaces for smelting ores, +sound-deadening attachments for railway cars, feed pumps and transfer +apparatus for traction cars, machines for driving hoops on to barrels, +apparatus for destroying vegetation on and removing snow from railroads, +coke crushers, artificial stone compositions, elevated railways, new +forms of cattle cars, dams and reservoirs, welding seams of pipes and +hardening iron, alloys for bell metal and alloys to resemble silver, +methods of refining and hardening copper, processes for concentrating +ores, improvement in elevators and designs for raising sunken vessels? +And yet, incredible as it may appear to these scoffers at woman's +genius, patents for all these inventions, methods and processes--many +of them of exceeding value--and for hundreds of others of a similar +nature, have been issued to women during recent years. And the activity +of the fair inventors, far from abating, is becoming daily more +pronounced, and promises to reward their efforts with far greater +triumphs. Indeed, women are becoming so active in the numerous fields of +invention--even in such unlikely ones as metallurgy and civil, +mechanical and electrical engineering--that they bid fair to rival men +in what they have long regarded as their peculiar specialty. + +In 1892 a woman in New York was granted two patents, one for a process +of malting beer and the other for hooping malt liquors. These +inventions, however, are not so foreign to the avocation of woman as +they at first appear. For, if we may believe the teachings of ethnology +and prehistoric archæology in this matter, women were the first brewers. +The one, therefore, who two decades ago secured the two patents just +mentioned was but taking up anew an occupation in which her sex +furnished the first invention many thousand years ago. + +An instructive fact touching woman's inventive achievements is that her +fullest success is coincident with her enlarged opportunities for +education, and began with the breaking down of the prejudices which so +long existed against her having anything to do with the development of +the mechanical or industrial arts. When one recollects that the public +schools of Boston, established in 1642, were not open to girls until a +century and a half later, and then only for the most elementary branches +and for but one-half the year; and that girls did not have the benefit +of a high school education in the center of New England culture until +1852; and when one furthermore recalls the attitude of the general +public toward women and girls extending their activities beyond the +nursery and the kitchen, it is easy to understand that there was not +much encouragement for them to exercise their inventive talent, even if +they had felt an inclination to do so. + +The experience of Miss Margaret Knight, of Boston, who in 1871 was +awarded a valuable patent for making a paper-bag machine is a case in +point and well illustrates some of the difficulties that women inventors +had to contend with only a few decades ago. + +"As a child," she writes to a friend, "I never cared for the things that +girls usually do; dolls never had any charms for me. I couldn't see the +sense of coddling bits of porcelain with senseless faces; the only +things I wanted were a jackknife, a gimlet and pieces of wood. My +friends were horrified. I was called a tomboy, but that made very little +impression on me. I sighed sometimes because I was not like other girls, +but wisely concluded that I couldn't help it, and sought further +consolation from my tools. I was always making things for my brothers. +Did they want anything in the line of playthings, they always said, +'Mattie will make them for us.' I was famous for my kites, and my sleds +were the envy and admiration of all the boys in town. I'm not surprised +at what I've done; I'm only sorry I couldn't have had as good a chance +as a boy, and have been put to my trade regularly." + +Even after she had demonstrated her skill as an inventor, Miss Knight +had to encounter the skepticism of the workmen to whom she entrusted the +manufacture of her machines. They questioned her ability to superintend +her own work, and it was only her persistency and remarkable competency +that ultimately converted their incredulity into respect and admiration. + +Since women have come into the possession of greater freedom than they +formerly enjoyed, and have been afforded better opportunities of +developing their inventive faculties, many of them have taken to +invention as an occupation, and with marked success. They find it the +easiest and most congenial way of earning a livelihood, and not a few +of them have been able thereby to accumulate comfortable fortunes, +besides developing industries that have given employment to thousands of +both sexes. + +Thus the straw industry in the United States is due to Miss Betsy +Metcalf, who, more than a century ago, produced the first straw bonnet +ever manufactured in this country. Since then the industry which this +woman originated has assumed immense proportions. The number of straw +hats now made in Massachusetts alone, not to speak of those annually +manufactured elsewhere, runs into the millions. + +Scarcely less wonderful is the industry developed by Miss Knight, +already mentioned, through her marvelous invention for manufacturing +satchel-bottom paper bags. Many men had previously essayed to solve the +problem which she attacked with such signal success, but all to no +purpose. So valuable was her invention considered by experts that she +refused fifty thousand dollars for it shortly after taking out her +patent. + +Often what are apparently the most trivial inventions prove the most +lucrative. Thus, a Chicago woman receives a handsome income for her +invention of a paper pail. A woman in San Francisco invented a baby +carriage, and received fourteen thousand dollars for her patent. The +gimlet-pointed screw, which was the idea of a little girl, has realized +to its patentee an independent fortune. Still more remarkable is the +Burden horseshoe machine, the invention of a woman, which turns out a +complete horseshoe every three seconds and which is said to have +effected a saving to the public of tens of millions of dollars. + +The cotton gin, one of the most useful and important of American +inventions--a machine that effected a complete revolution in the cotton +industry throughout the world--is due to a woman, Catherine L. Greene, +the wife of General Nathaniel Greene, of Revolutionary fame. After she +had fully developed in her own mind a method for separating the cotton +from its seed, which was after her husband's death, she intrusted the +making of the machine to Eli Whitney, who was then boarding with her, +and who had a Yankee's skill in the use of tools. Whitney was several +times on the point of abandoning as impossible the task which had been +assigned to him, but Mrs. Greene's faith in ultimate success never +wavered, and, thanks to her persistence in the work and the putting into +execution of her ideas, her great undertaking was finally crowned with +success. She did not apply for a patent for her invention in her own +name, because so opposed was public opinion to woman's having part in +mechanical occupation that she would have exposed herself to general +ridicule and to a loss of position in society. The consequence was that +Whitney--her employee--got credit for an invention which, in reality, +belonged to her. She was, however, subsequently able to retain a +subordinate interest in it through her second husband, Mr. Miller. + +This is only one of many instances in which patents, taken out in the +name of some man, are really due to women. The earliest development of +the mower and reaper, as well as the clover cleaner, belongs to Mrs. A. +H. Manning, of Plainfield, New Jersey. The patent on the clover cleaner +was issued in the name of her husband; but, as he failed to apply for a +patent for the mower and reaper, his wife was, after his death, robbed +of the fruit of her brain by a neighbor, whose name appears on the list +of patentees of an invention which originated with Mrs. Manning. + +A few years ago men of science awoke to the startling fact that the +earth's supply of nitrates was being rapidly exhausted. It was then +realized that, unless some new store of this essential fertilizer could +be found, it would soon be impossible to provide the food requisite for +the world's teeming millions. What was to be done? Never was a more +important problem presented to science for solution, and never did +science more quickly and efficaciously respond. It was soon recognized +that the earth's atmosphere was the only available storehouse for the +much-needed nitrogen. Forthwith scientists and inventors the world over +proceeded to tap this source of supply and to convert its vast stores of +nitrogen into the nitrates which are so indispensable to vegetable life. + +To form some idea of the importance of the problem and the urgency of +its solution, it may be stated that the amount of fertilizer required +for the cotton crop alone in the Southern States in 1911 was no less +than three million tons. What, then, must have been the total amount +used through the world for cereals and other crops that need constant +fertilizing? The famous nitrate deposits of Chili could supply only a +small fraction of the stupendous amount required, and they, according to +recent calculations, cannot continue to meet the present demands on them +for more than a hundred years longer, at most. + +The process involved, when once conceived, was simple enough, for it +merely required the conversion of the nitrogen of the air into nitric +acid, which in turn was employed in the production of nitrate of lime. +But, simple as it was, mankind had to wait a long time for its +origination, and action was taken only when necessity compelled. At +present there are numerous nitrate factories in France, Germany, +Austria, Sweden, Norway and the United States, and the output is already +enormous and constantly increasing. Electricity, that mysterious force +which has so frequently come to man's assistance during the last few +decades, is the agent employed. + +But who was the originator of the idea of utilizing the atmosphere for +the production of nitrates? Who took out the first patent for a process +for making nitrates by using the nitrogen of the air? It was a +Frenchwoman--Mme. Lefebre, of Paris--long since forgotten. As early as +1859 she obtained a patent in England for her invention, but, as the +need of fertilizers was not so urgent then as it is now, it was allowed +to drop into oblivion, and the matter was not again taken up until a +half-century later, when others secured the credit for an idea which was +first conceived by a woman who happened to have the misfortune to live +fifty years in advance of her time. + +It were easy to extend the list of important inventions due to women and +of patents which were issued in the name of their husbands or other men; +to tell of inventions, too, of whose fruits, because they happened to be +helpless or inexperienced women, the real patentees were often robbed; +but the foregoing instances are quite sufficient to show what woman's +keen inventive genius is capable of achieving in spite of all the +restrictions put on her sex, and in spite of her lack of training in the +mechanic arts. + +Had women, since the organization of our Patent Office, enjoyed all the +educational opportunities possessed by men; had they received the same +encouragement as the lordly sex to develop their inventive faculties; +had the laws of the country accorded them the rewards to which their +labor and genius entitled them, they would now have far more inventions +to their credit than those indicated in our government reports; and they +would, furthermore, be able to point to far more brilliant achievements +than have heretofore, under the unfavorable conditions under which they +were obliged to work, been possible. But when we recall all the +obstacles they have had to overcome and remember also the fact that most +of the patents referred to in the preceding pages have been secured by +women living in the United States--little being said of the modern +inventions of women in foreign countries--we can see that their record +is indeed a splendid one, that their achievements are not only worthy of +all praise, but also a happy augury for the future. When they shall have +the same freedom of action as men in all departments of activity in +which they exhibit special aptitude, when they shall have the same +advantages of training and equipment and the prospect of the same +emoluments as the sterner sex for the products of their brainwork and +craftsmanship, then may we expect them to achieve the same distinction +in the mechanic arts as has rewarded their efforts in science and +literature; and then, too, may we hope to see them once more regain +something of that supremacy in invention which was theirs in the early +history of our race. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[227] "On a vu des femmes très savantes, comme en fût des guerrières, +mais il n'y en eut jamais d'inventrices." _Dictionnaire Philosophique, +sub voce Femmes._ Condorcet, in commenting on this statement, remarks +that "if men capable of invention were alone to have a place in the +world, there would be many a vacant one, even in the academies." + +[228] That marvelous structure known as the Taj Mahal--India's noblest +tribute to the grace and goodness of Indian womanhood--is sometimes said +to be a monument to the memory of Nur Mahal. This is not the case. This +matchless gem of architecture-- + + " ... The proud passion of an emperor's love + Wrought into living stone, which gleams and soars + With body of beauty shrining soul and thought." + +is a monument to Nur Mahal's niece and successor as empress, +Mumtaz-Mahal--The Crown of the Palace--who, like her aunt, was a woman +of rare beauty and talent and endeared herself to her people by her +splendid qualities of mind and heart. + +[229] The inventor of canals as well as of bridges over rivers and +causeways over morasses was, according to Greek historians, the famous +Assyrian queen, Semiramis, the builder of Babylon with its wonderful +hanging gardens. + +[230] Among the works which treat of the subject-matter of the foregoing +pages the reader may consult with profit, _Woman's Share in Primitive +Culture_, by O. T. Mason, London, 1895; _Man and Woman_, the +introductory chapter, by Havelock Ellis, London, 1898; and _Histoire +Nouvelle des Arts et des Sciences_, by A. Renaud, Paris, 1878. + +[231] Cf. _Women Inventors to whom patents have been granted by the +United States Government, Compiled under the Direction of the +Commissioner of Patents_, Washington, 1888. See also subsequent reports +of the Patent Office. + +[232] To one woman, Mary E. Poupard, of London, England, were granted in +a single year no less than three patents for horse-shoes--two of the +patents being for sectional and segmental horse-shoes. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +WOMEN AS INSPIRERS AND COLLABORATORS IN SCIENCE + + +One of the most interesting literary figures of the fifth century was +Caius Apollinaris Sidonius, who, after holding a number of important +civil offices, became the bishop of Clermont. The most valuable of his +extant works are his nine books of letters which are a mine of +information respecting the history of his age and the manners, customs +and ideals of his contemporaries. + +In one of these letters, addressed to Hesperius, a young friend of his +who exhibited special talent in polite literature, he expresses a +sentiment which applies as well to the votary of science as to the man +of letters. Referring to the assistance which women had given to their +husbands and friends in their studies, he conjures him to remember that +in days of old it was the wont of Martia, Terentia, Calpurnia, +Pudentilla and Rusticana to hold the lamp while their husbands, +Hortensius, Cicero, Pliny, Apuleius and Symmachus, were reading and +meditating.[233] + +This picture of women as light-bearers to the great orators and +philosophers just named is symbolic of them as the helpmates and +inspirers of men in every field of human activity and in every age of +the world's history. Always and everywhere, when permitted to occupy the +same social plane as men, women have been not only as lamps unto the +feet and as lights unto the paths of their male compeers in the ordinary +affairs of life, but have also been their guiding stars and ministering +angels in the highest spheres of intellectual effort. + +For nearly fifteen centuries St. Jerome has had the gratitude of the +church for his masterly translation, known as the Vulgate, of the Hebrew +Scriptures. But, had it not been for his two noble friends, Paula and +Eustochium, who were as eminent for their intellectual attainments as +they were for their descent from the most distinguished families of Rome +and Greece, there would have been no Vulgate. For they were not only his +inspirers in this colossal undertaking, but they were his active and +zealous collaborators as well. + +Dante and Petrarch are acclaimed as the morning stars of modern +literature, but both of them owed their immortality to the inspiration +of two pure-minded and noble-hearted women. + +In the concluding paragraph of his Vita Nuova--the most beautiful love +story ever written--Dante records his purpose to say of his inspirer, +the gentle, gracious Beatrice Portinari, "what was never said of any +woman." The outcome of this exalted purpose was the Divina Commedia, the +world's greatest literary masterpiece. + +Petrarch, the father of humanism, is the first to give Laura de Noves +credit for his attainments as a poet. In one of his poems he sings: + + "Blest be the year, the month, the hour, the day, + The season and the time, and point of space, + And blest the beauteous country and the place + Where first of two eyes I felt the sway." + +Elsewhere in one of his prose dialogues with St. Augustine he declares, +"Whatever you see in me, be it little or much, is due to her; nor would +I ever have attained to this measure of name and fame unless she had +cherished by those most noble influences that my feeble implanting of +virtues which nature had placed in this breast."[234] + +A no less remarkable inspirer, but in an entirely different sphere of +activity, was the devout and spotless Italian maiden, Chiara Schiffi, +better known as St. Clara. She was, as is well known, the ardent +coöperator of St. Francis Assisi in his great work of social and +religious reform which has contributed so much toward the welfare of +humanity. But it is not generally known what an important part she had +in this great undertaking, and how she sustained the Poverello during +long hours of trial and hardship. It was during these periods of care +and struggle that we see how courageous and intrepid was "this woman who +has always been represented as frail, emaciated, blanched like a flower +of the cloister." + +"She defended Francis not only against others but also against himself. +In those hours of dark discouragement which so often and so profoundly +disturb the noblest souls and sterilize the grandest efforts, she was +beside him to show the way. When he doubted his mission and thought of +fleeing to the heights of repose and solitary prayer, it was she who +showed him the ripening harvest with no reapers to gather it in, men +going astray with no shepherd to herd them, and drew him once again into +the train of the Galilean, into the number of those who give their +lives as a ransom for many."[235] + +It is under the shade of the olive trees of St. Damian, with his +sister-friend Clara caring for him, "that he composes his finest work, +that which Ernest Renan called the most perfect utterance of modern +religions sentiment, _The Canticle of the Sun_."[236] + +This canticle, however, beautiful as it is, lacks, as has well been +remarked, one strophe. "If it was not upon Francis' lips, it was surely +in his heart:" + + "Be praised, Lord, for Sister Clara; + Thou hast made her silent, active, and sagacious, + And, by her, thy light shines in our hearts."[237] + +It was through the inspiration and influence of Theodora that the famous +Church of St. Sophia, that matchless poem in marble and gold, that +imperishable monument to the glory of the true God, came into existence. +It was through her that Justinian conceived the idea of those _Pandects_ +and _Institutes_ which constitute the greatest glory of his reign, and +which are the basis of the _Code Napoleon_ and of all modern +jurisprudence. + +It was to Vittoria Colonna that Michaelangelo dedicated many of the most +exquisite productions of his peerless genius. "He saw," as has been +said, "with her eyes and acted by her inspiration." + +Almost every one of Chopin's compositions was inspired by women, and a +large proportion of them are dedicated to them. The same may be said of +Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Beethoven, Weber, Schumann and other +illustrious composers. All these sons of genius believed with +Castiglione that "all inspiration must come from woman;" that she had +been expressly created and sent into the world to inspire them with +intelligence and creative power. + +M. Clavière declares that "There is hardly a philosopher or a poet of +the sixteenth century whose pages are not illuminated or gladdened by +the smile of some high-born lady."[238] + +What the brilliant Frenchman says of the influence of woman on the poets +and philosophers of a single century could with equal truth be said of +the poets and philosophers of every century from Anacreon and Plato to +the present day. And, still more, it can be predicated of woman's +inspiration and influence in every department of intellectual effort, in +art and architecture, in music and literature, in science in all its +departments, whether deductive or inductive. + +It has been well said, "Were history to be rewritten, with due regard to +women's share in it, many small causes, heretofore disregarded, would be +found fully to explain great and unlooked-for results.... For it is not +in outward facts, nor great names, nor noisy deeds, nor genealogies of +crowned heads, nor in tragic loves, nor ambitious or striking heroism, +nor crime, that we find proofs of the constant and secret working +whereby woman most effectually asserts herself. Certainly she has played +her part in the outward and visible history of the world, but in that +history which is told and written, which is buried in archives and +revivified in books, woman's part is always small when set beside that +of her companion, man. She contributes but little, and at this she may +surely rejoice, to the tales of battles and treaties of successions and +alliances, of violence, fraud, suspicions and hatreds. But if the inward +history of human affairs could be described as fully as the outward +facts; if the story of the family could be told together with the story +of the nation; if human thoughts could with certainty be divined from +human deeds, then the chief figure in this history of sentiment and +morals would certainly be that of Woman the Inspirer."[239] + +This same statement would hold equally good if applied to the part taken +by women in the history of science. Their achievements have, in most +cases, been so overshadowed by those of men that their work has been +usually regarded as a negligible quantity. But when one considers the +mainsprings of actions, and examines the silent undercurrents which +escape the notice of the superficial observer, one finds, as in social +and political history, that the most important scientific investigations +are often conducted, and the most momentous discoveries are made, in +consequence of the promptings of some devoted woman friend, or in virtue +of the still, small voice of a cherished wife, or sister, who prefers to +remain in the background in order that all the glory of achievement may +redound to the man. + +There have been, it may safely be asserted, few really eminent men in +science, as there have been few really eminent men in art or letters, or +in the great reform and religious movements of the world, who have not +been assisted by some woman light-bearer, as were Hortensius by Martia, +Tully by Terentia and Pliny by Calpurnia. There have been few that have +not, during hours of doubt and discouragement, been sustained and +stimulated as was Francis by Clara, and Jerome by Paula and Eustochium. +And there have been still fewer who have not had, like Petrarch and +Dante, their Laura or their Beatrice of whom each could say: + + "This is the beacon guides to deeds of worth, + And urges me to see the glorious goal: + This bids me leave behind the vulgar throng." + +In the preceding chapters we have had notable examples of women whose +beneficent influence and coöperation have enabled distinguished men of +science to achieve results that would otherwise have been impossible. +Among these--to mention only a few--were Mme. Lavoisier and Mme. Curie +in chemistry, Mme. Lapaute and Miss Herschel in astronomy, Mrs. Agassiz +and Mme. Coudreau in natural science and exploration, Mme. Schliemann +and Mme. Dieulafoy in archæology. + +One of the most illustrious women inspirers of France was Catherine de +Parthenay, who, after attaining womanhood, became the brilliant Princess +de Rohan, and was recognized as one of the most learned and most +remarkable women of the sixteenth century. As a young girl she exhibited +rare intelligence and displayed special aptitude for the exact sciences. +For this reason her mother saw to it that her child had the benefit of +instruction under the ablest masters that could be secured. + +The most noted of these was François Viète, the learned French +mathematician, who is justly regarded as the father of modern algebra. +In his day, especially in the higher classes of society, the education +given to women was often more thorough than that afforded to men. For +this reason, too, women not infrequently became distinguished in +astronomy, which was then usually known under the name of astrology. + +Viète, in initiating his gifted pupil into the principles of this +science, became himself so enthusiastic a student of astronomy that he +determined to prepare an elaborate work on the subject--something on the +plan of the _Almagest_ of Ptolemy--a work which he designated +_Harmonicum Celeste_. + +In order that the instruction given his pupil might not be lacking in +precision, Viète wrote out, with the most scrupulous care, the lessons +designed for her benefit. The manuscripts containing these lessons were +long preserved among the family archives, but nearly all of them were +unfortunately consigned to the flames during the French Revolution in +1793. + +No one was more interested in Viète's mathematical researches--those +researches which have rendered him so famous in the history of +science--than was the Princess de Rohan. The former pupil was the first +to receive notice of her distinguished master's discoveries and the +first to congratulate him on his success. + +It was to this cherished pupil, who always remained his friend and +benefactress, that Viète dedicated his important work on mathematical +analysis entitled _In Artem Analyticam Isagoge_. The words of the +dedication are a tribute to the learning and the genius of the pupil as +well as an expression of the gratitude of the teacher. It reads as +follows: + +"It is to you especially, august daughter of Melusine, that I am +indebted for my proficiency in mathematics, to attain which I was +encouraged by your love for this science, as well as your great +knowledge of it, and by your mastery of all other sciences, which one +cannot too much admire in a person of your noble lineage."[240] + +More interesting, and at the same time more pathetic, were the relations +of an Italian nun, Sister Maria Celeste, and the man whom Byron so +happily designates as + + "The starry Galileo, with his woes." + +Sister Celeste, who was a Franciscan nun in the convent of St. Matthew, +in Arcetri, was the great astronomer's eldest and favorite daughter. +They were greatly attached to each other, and the gentle religieuse was +not only her father's confidante and consoler in the hours of trial and +affliction, but was also his inspirer and ever-vigilant guardian angel. +She watched over him, not as a daughter over a father, but as a mother +watches over an only son.[241] + +All this is beautifully exhibited in her one hundred and twenty-four +letters which were published in 1891 for the first time. A few of these +letters, it is true, were published as early as 1852 by Alberi, in his +edition of the complete works of Galileo, and others were given to the +press at subsequent dates; but the world had to wait more than two and a +half centuries for a complete collection of all the known letters of +this remarkable daughter of an illustrious sire. + +These documents are precious for the insight they give into the sterling +character of a noble woman, but they are beyond price as sources of +information respecting the tenderly affectionate relations which existed +between her and one of the foremost men of science, not only of his own +age, but of all time. They show how he made her his confidante in all +his undertakings, and how she was his amanuensis, his counselor, his +inspirer; how her love was an incentive to the work that won for him +undying fame; how she was his support and comfort when suffering from +the jealousy of rivals or the enmity of those who were opposed to his +teachings. + +These letters cover a period of nearly eleven years--the most momentous +years of her father's busy and troubled life. Now playful, quaint, +elfish, then serious, vivid, confidential, they show that the writer's +intelligence was as rare as her nature was loyal and affectionate. At +times she half-apologizes for the length of a letter, "but you must +remember," she adds in excuse, "that I must put into this paper +everything that I should chatter to you in a week." + +No daughter was ever prouder of her father or loved him with a more +abounding love. "I pride myself," she says, "that I love and revere my +dearest father more, by far, than others love their fathers, and I +clearly perceive that, in return, he far surpasses the greater part of +other fathers in the love which he has for me, his loved daughter." + +When he was ill she prepared dishes and confections that she knew would +tempt his appetite. But she was not satisfied with looking after the +welfare of his body, for she took occasion to send with the cakes and +preserved fruits a sermonette for the benefit of his soul. + +An extract from one of her letters gives an insight into the character +of this devoted daughter, who, Galileo says in a letter to his friend, +Elia Diodati, "was a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness and most +tenderly attached to me." + +"Of the preserved citron you ordered," she writes him on the nineteenth +of December, 1625, "I have only been able to do a small quantity. I +feared the citrons were too shriveled for preserving, and so they +proved. I send two baked pears for these days of vigil. But the greatest +treat of all I send you is a rose, which ought to please you extremely, +seeing what a rarity it is at this season. And with the rose you must +accept its thorns, which represent the bitter passion of Our Lord, while +the green leaves represent the hope we may entertain that, through the +same sacred passion, we, having passed through the darkness of this +short winter of our mortal life, may attain to the brightness and +felicity of an eternal spring in heaven, which may our gracious God +grant us through His mercy."[242] + +She always insists upon his keeping her fully informed about his studies +and discoveries. She is particular, also, about receiving without delay +copies of his latest publications. "I beg you," she writes in one of her +letters, "to be so kind as to send me that book of yours which has just +been published, _Il Saggiatore_, so that I may read it; for I have a +great desire to see it." + +On another occasion, after his difficulties with the Holy Office, when +she fancies her father is not keeping her fully informed about the +subject matter of his writings, she implores him to tell her on what +topic he is engaged, "if," she archly adds, "it be something I can +understand and you are not afraid that I will blab." + +And on still another occasion Sister Celeste reminds her father of a +promise of his to send her a small telescope. From this we should infer +that she desired to repeat the observations on the heavenly bodies that +had created such a sensation in the learned world, and which had given +occasion for such acrimonious controversy. + +In one of her earlier letters Sister Celeste calls her father's +attention to a promise of his to spend an afternoon with her and her +sister Arcangela, also a nun in the same convent. And, referring to one +of the regulations of the Franciscan cloister, she playfully observes: +"You will be able to sup in the parlor, since the excommunication is for +the table cloth"--O Sister Celeste!--"and not for the meats thereon." + +What would one not give for a stenographic report of the conversations +held that afternoon in the convent garden of Arcetri, as father and +daughters leisurely strolled through the peaceful enclosure, all quite +oblivious of the fleeting hours? How interesting would be a faithful +record of the confidences exchanged at the frugal meal in the evening in +the humble parlor of S. Matteo! We would willingly exchange many of the +famous _Dialoghi di Galileo Galilei_ for a verbatim report of what +passed between Sister Celeste and the father whom she so idolized.[243] + +Judging from her letters, she had many questions to ask him about his +studies, his experiments, his discoveries, his books, as well as about +more personal and domestic matters. + +Although there is no documentary proof of the fact, yet there is every +reason to believe that Galileo had taken personal charge of the +education of this, his favorite daughter. She shared his taste for +science and inherited not a little of his genius. Such being the case, +we may well believe that a faithful account of their conversations of +that day would be not only of surpassing interest, but would also throw +a flood of light on many questions now ill understood. They would +certainly tend to fill up the numerous lacunæ caused by the +disappearance of the letters of Galileo, which he wrote in answer to +those of his ever-cherished daughter.[244] + +They would also show more clearly than any facts now available what an +unbounded influence the gentle nun had over the greatest intellect of +his time, and would, more clearly than anything in her correspondence, +exhibit Sister Celeste as the efficient co-worker and the abiding +inspirer of the father of modern physics and astronomy. + +But, although we have no record of this soul-communion between father +and daughter on the occasion in question; although we are deprived of +the invaluable letters which he wrote in reply to hers, we are, +nevertheless, from the evidence at hand, justified in regarding this +unique pair as being ever one in heart, aspirations and ideals, and +comparable in their mutual influence on each other with any of those +famous men and women who, through achievement on the one side and +inspiration and collaboration on the other, have ever been recognized as +the greatest benefactors of their race. + +One of Galileo's countrymen, G. B. Clemente de Nelli, was right when he +declared that, had it not been for the assistance and consolation which +he received from Sister Celeste, Galileo would have succumbed to the +blows that were showered upon him during the most trying part of his +career. An indication of this is given in one of the letters written by +Sister Celeste in the last year of her life. + +While in a fit of despondency and imagining his friends had forgotten +him, Galileo, in a moment of bitterness, wrote in a letter to his +daughter: "My name is erased from the book of the living." "Nay," came +at once Sister Celeste's cheering reply, "say not that your name is +struck _de libro viventium_, for it is not so; neither in the greater +part of the world nor in your own country. Indeed, it seems to me that, +if for a brief moment your name and fame were clouded, they are now +restored to greater brightness, at which I am much astonished, for I +know that generally _Nemo propheta acceptus est in patria sua_. I am +afraid, however, if I begin quoting Latin, I shall fall into some +barbarism. But, of a truth, you are loved and esteemed here more than +ever."[245] + +How much Sister Celeste was to her father in every way was not known +until after her premature death in her thirty-fourth year. He was never +the same man afterward. Disconsolate and broken, he fancied he heard the +voice of the daughter he so fondly loved resounding through the house. +Brooding over his great loss, the heart-broken old man writes to a +friend in words of infinite pathos, "_Mi sento continuamente chiamare +della mia diletta figlioula_--I continually hear myself called by my +dearly beloved daughter." The eighth of January, 1642, he answered her +call and went to join her in a better world. + +Two other noted investigators, one of them a contemporary of Galileo, +owed much to the inspiration and encouragement which they received from +women. These were Descartes and Leibnitz. And the women that had the +most influence on them were representatives of royal families, who were +famous in their day for their love and knowledge and the extent of their +intellectual attainments. + +One of the most noted of these was Elizabeth of Bohemia, Princess +Palatine. She was the favorite pupil of Descartes, and it was to her +that he dedicated his great work, _Principia Philosophiæ_. She, he +declared, understood him better than any one else he had ever met, for +"in her alone were united those generally separated talents for +metaphysics and for mathematics which are so characteristically +operative in the Cartesian system."[246] + +To this earnest student who was always absorbed in the mysteries of +metaphysics and the problems of geometry, Descartes could refuse +nothing. When distance separated them he continued his instructions by +correspondence. One of the results of this correspondence was his +treatise on _Passions de l'Âme_, in which he develops certain ethical +views suggested by the _Vita Beata_ of Seneca. + +Another distinguished pupil of Descartes who exercised a marked +influence over him was the celebrated daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, +Queen Christine of Sweden. A mistress of many languages and an ardent +votary of science, she was a munificent patron of scientific men, a +great number of whom she had attracted to her court. The most +distinguished of these was Descartes, to whom she was deeply attached, +and with whom she had planned great things for science in Sweden, when +his career was cut short by a premature death. + +Not the least influence on the intellectual life of Leibnitz was Sophia +Charlotte, Queen of Prussia and mother of Frederick the Great. She was +the niece of Descartes' illustrious friend, Elizabeth of Bohemia, and, +as the pupil of Leibnitz, quite as gloriously associated as had been her +aunt with the father of Cartesianism. + +Leibnitz was as distinguished by genius as his royal pupil was by birth. +Besides being eminent as a philosopher and a statesman, he shared with +Newton the honor of discovering the calculus. Huxley pronounced him "a +man of science, in the modern sense, of the first rank," while the King +of Prussia declared of him, "He represents in himself a whole academy." +Through the coöperation of Sophia Charlotte he founded the Berlin +Academy of Sciences. For her he wrote one of the most notable of his +productions--his famed _Theodicy_. + +It would be difficult to estimate the influence of this learned queen on +Leibnitz, but it was undoubtedly greater than any other single influence +whatever. Her death was the greatest loss he ever suffered, and when she +was no more, the beautiful Berlin suburb, Charlottenburg--named after +her--where he had been so happy in reading and philosophizing with his +illustrious pupil, lost all attraction for him. + +A more striking illustration of woman's helpfulness is afforded in the +case of François Huber, the celebrated Swiss naturalist. Although blind +from his seventeenth year, he was able to carry on researches requiring +the keenest eyesight and the closest observation. This he was able to do +through the affectionate coöperation of his devoted wife, Marie Aimée. + +When her friends tried to dissuade her from marrying Huber, to whom she +had been engaged for some time, saying he had become blind, her reply +was worthy of her generous and noble nature: "He then needs me more than +ever." + +During the forty years of their married life her tenderness and devotion +to her husband were as unfailing as they were inspiring. He worked +through the eyes and hands of his wife as if they were his own. She was +his reader, his observer, his secretary, his enthusiastic collaborator +in all those investigations that have rendered him so famous. The blind +man devised the experiments to be made, and the quick-witted wife +executed them and recorded the observations which supplied the material +for his epoch-making work on bees, entitled _Nouvelles Observations sur +les Abeilles_. So accurate are his descriptions of the habits of the +winged creatures, to the study of which he devoted the best years of his +life, that one would think his great work was the production, not of a +man who had been blind for a quarter of a century, when he wrote it, but +of one who was gifted with exceptional keenness of vision and powers of +observation. + +"As long as she lived," exclaimed the great naturalist after his trusty +Aimée's death, "I was not sensible of the misfortune of being blind." +Nay, more. During her lifetime, when, though sightless, he was always so +happy in his work, he went so far as to aver that he would be miserable +were he to recover his eyesight. "I should not know," he declared, "to +what an extent a person in my condition could be beloved. Besides, to +me, my wife is always young, fresh and pretty, which is no light +matter." He could truly say of her, as Wordsworth said of his sister +Dorothy, + + "She gave me eyes, she gave me ears, + + ...*...*...*...* + + And love and thought and joy." + +We hear much of the achievements of Galvani and Faraday in the domain of +electricity and electromagnetism, but little is said of the women to +whom they were so greatly indebted for their success and fame. + +It was Galvani's wife who first directed his attention to the +convulsions of a frog's leg when placed near an electrical machine. This +induced him to make those celebrated investigations which led to the +foundation of a new science which has ever since been identified with +his name. + +It was Mrs. Marcet's works on science--especially her _Conversations on +Chemistry_--that inspired Faraday with a love of science and blazed for +him that road in chemical and physical experimentation which led to +such marvelous results. He was always proud to call her his first +teacher, and never hesitated to attribute to her that taste for +scientific research for which he became so preëminent. And it was his +devoted wife who was not only a helpmate but a soulmate as well for +nearly half a century, that had very much to do with the splendid +development of the germ which had been placed in his youthful mind by +Mrs. Marcet. + +The same may likewise be asserted of the wives of two distinguished +geologists--Charles Lyell and Xavier Hommaire de Hell. Mrs. Lyell was +intimately associated with her husband in all his scientific +undertakings, and her ready intellect contributed immensely toward +securing for him that enviable position which he attained of being the +premier geologist of his century. Mme. Hommaire de Hell deserves special +mention in the history of geology for the invaluable assistance which +she gave her husband in the scientific exploration of the basin of the +Caspian Sea. Not only did she share his labors and perils in this then +wild part of the world, and collaborate with him in the preparation of +the report for which the French government conferred on him the Cross of +the Legion of Honor, but she also wrote unaided the two descriptive +volumes of their great work, _Steppes de la Mer Caspienne_. Her part of +this great undertaking received the special commendation of M. +Villemain, who was the minister of public instruction, and had she not +belonged to the disenfranchized sex, she, too, would have been decorated +with the Cross of the Legion of Honor. + +All the world has heard of the daring explorations of Baker and +Livingstone in the Dark Continent, but how few are aware of the +important part taken in their great enterprises by their devoted and +heroic wives? Sir Samuel Baker immortalized himself by discovering Lake +Albert Nyanza, one of the main sources of the Nile, but in attaining +this goal, which other explorers had in vain essayed to reach, he was +not alone. The companion of his triumph, as of his trials and hardships, +was Lady Baker, a woman who, although delicately reared, was as brave in +presence of danger as she was resourceful in trials and difficulties. +More than once her husband owed his life to her intrepidity and presence +of mind, when confronted by the treacherous savages of equatorial +Africa; and, if he achieved success where others failed, it was in no +slight measure due to her tact, her energy and perseverance in what +seemed at times a forlorn hope. "She had learned Arabic with him in a +year of necessary but wearisome delay; her mind traveled with his mind +as her feet had followed his footsteps." And, when after preliminary +toils without number, after braving dangers from climate, disease and +ruthless savages, they finally stood on the shore of that unknown sea +which was then first beheld by English eyes, she could, in contemplating +their achievements of which Albert Nyanza was the crowning glory, +exclaim with exaltation and truth, "_Quorum pars magna fui._" + +When Livingstone lost, in the unexplored valley of the Zambesi, the +faithful wife who had been his inspiring companion in his wanderings in +darkest Africa, he lost completely that enthusiasm for deeds of high +emprise that before had been one of his leading characteristics. Writing +to his distinguished friend, Sir Roderick Murchison, he mournfully +declares: "I must confess this heavy stroke quite takes the heart out of +me. Everything that has happened only made me more determined to +overcome all difficulties; but after this sad stroke I feel crushed and +void of strength.... I shall do my duty still, but it is with a darkened +horizon that I again set about it." + +The noted English naturalist, Frank Buckland, in speaking of the aid +afforded by his gifted mother to her distinguished husband, Dr. +Buckland, writes as follows: "During the long period that Dr. Buckland +was engaged in writing the book which I now have the honor of editing, +my mother sat up night after night, for weeks and months consecutively, +writing to my father's dictation; and this often until the sun's rays, +shining through the shutters at early morn, warned the husband to cease +from thinking and the wife to rest her weary hand. + +"Not only with the pen did she render material assistance, but her +natural talent in the use of her pencil enabled her to give accurate +illustrations and finished drawings, many of which are perpetuated in +Dr. Buckland's works. She was also particularly clever and neat in +mending broken fossils. There are many specimens in the Oxford Museum, +now exhibiting their natural forms and beauty, which were restored by +her perseverance to shape from a mass of broken and almost comminuted +fragments. It was her occupation also to label the specimens, which she +did in a particularly neat way; and there is hardly a fossil or a bone +in the Oxford Museum which has not her handwriting upon it. + +"Notwithstanding her devotion to her husband's pursuits, she did not +neglect the education of her children, but occupied her mornings in +superintending their instruction in sound and useful knowledge. The +sterling value of her labors they now, in after life, fully appreciate, +and feel most thankful that they were blessed with so good a +mother."[247] + +What has been said of the influence and coöperation of the women already +named may, with equal truth, be affirmed of numberless others of recent +as well as of earlier date. It is particularly true of the wife of the +naturalist Heller and of the great astronomer, Kepler. It is true of the +wife of the illustrious mathematician, the Marquis de l'Hôpital. She not +only shared her husband's talent for mathematics, but was of special +assistance to him in preparing for the press his important _Analyse des +Infiniment Petits_. It is true of the wife of Asaph Hall, the +illustrious discoverer of the satellites of Mars. Often he was on the +point of abandoning the quest of these diminutive moons--which no one +had ever seen but which his calculations led him to believe really +existed--but he was encouraged by Mrs. Hall to continue his +observations, with the result that his labors and vigils were at last +rewarded by the startling discovery of Deimos and Phobos. + +And there is Mme. Pasteur, who, in her way, was quite as important a +factor in the scientific career of her immortal husband as were the +women just mentioned in the lives of their husbands, to whose triumphs +they so materially contributed. + +One of the great Frenchman's biographers has truly declared that "it is +impossible rightly to appreciate Pasteur's life without some +understanding of the immense assistance which he received in his home. +Whether in discussing forms of crystals, watching over experiments, +shielding her husband from all the daily fret of life, or busy at the +customary evening task of writing to his dictation, Madame Pasteur was +at once his most devoted assistant and incomparable companion. His +surroundings at home were entirely subordinated to his scientific life, +and his family shared with him both his trials and his triumphs. At the +time when Pasteur was engrossed with the study of anthrax, and, after +many difficulties and disappointments, had at length succeeded in +preparing a vaccine against it, he at once hurried from the laboratory +to communicate his great discovery first to his wife and daughter."[248] + +It was particularly during his long and arduous researches on the +disease of silkworms that Pasteur found his wife's aid of incalculable +value. For Mme. Pasteur and her daughter then constituted themselves +veritable silkworm rearers. They collected mulberry leaves, sorted +larvæ, and were unremitting in their labors during the continuance of +this memorable investigation. And not only in the silk-producing +districts of Southern France were they thus occupied, but also in a +special laboratory in École Normale, after their return to Paris. + +And, when in the midst of these researches, on the successful outcome of +which hinged one of the greatest sources of national wealth, the +indefatigable savant was stricken with paralysis and his life was for a +while despaired of, it was again his devoted helpmate that afforded him +solace in suffering and exercised a supervision over those experiments +which the great man was still conducting almost in the presence of +death. + +That Pasteur's life was prolonged for a quarter of a century after the +terrible attack of hemiplegia in 1868, that he was able to unravel the +deep mysteries of microbian life, that he was able to make discoveries +whose economical value to France was, in the estimation of Professor +Huxley, more than sufficient to liquidate the immense indemnity of five +billion francs exacted from his country by Germany at the termination of +the Franco-Prussian war, that he was able, especially during these +fruitful twenty-five years, to render his "scientific life like a +luminous trail in the great night of the infinitely little in those +ultimate abysses of being where life is born," was, in great measure, +due to the unceasing care, the untiring vigilance and the sympathetic +collaboration of one of the most devoted of wives and most noble and +whole-souled of women. + +What has been said of the influence and helpfulness of Mme. Pasteur can +be asserted with even greater truth of Elizabeth Agassiz and of Caroline +Herschel. For these two women, apart from the assistance they gave to a +loved husband and an idolized brother, in the labors that made them so +famous, both achieved distinction for their contributions to the +sciences which they individually cultivated with such splendid results. +And had they elected to devote all their time to scientific research, +instead of giving the greater part of it to those to whom they were so +devotedly attached, who can tell how much more brilliant would have been +their achievements and how much greater would have been the fame they +would have won for themselves. Both of them were dowered in an eminent +degree with taste and talent for science, and had they chosen to make it +the sole object of their life work, there can be no doubt that their +personal contributions to natural history and astronomy would have been +far greater than they were. As it was, they were so overshadowed by +those for whom they labored with such unselfishness and loyalty that the +real value of their work is too often forgotten when there is question +of the scientific triumphs of Louis Agassiz and Sir William Herschel. + +But they willed it so. They gladly effaced themselves that those whom +they loved with such a deep and abiding love might shine the more +brightly in the firmament of science. They preferred to spend and be +spent in strengthening the great workers and leaders with whose lives +their own were so thoroughly identified--"Inspiring them with courage, +keeping faith in their own ideas alive, in days of darkness + + 'When all the world seems adverse to desert.'" + +Both of these noble women had the same quality in common--absolute +devotion and unswerving faith in those to whose success and happiness +they had dedicated their lives. They sought nothing for themselves, they +thought nothing of themselves. They both had, to borrow the idea of +another, an intense power of sympathy, a generous love of giving +themselves to the service of others, which enabled them to transfuse the +force of their own personality into the objects to which they dedicated +their powers. + +In the preface of the joint work of Mr. and Mrs. Agassiz entitled _A +Journey in Brazil_, that delightful volume which throws such a flood of +light on the fauna and flora of the Amazon valley, occur the following +significant words regarding the share each had in producing the book: +"Our separate contributions have become so closely interwoven that we +should hardly know how to disconnect them." So was it with all their +undertakings. There was the same common interest, the same unity of +purpose, the same unselfish devotion to the cause of science during +those long years of toil which were so prolific in results of supreme +importance. Reading between the lines in _A Journey in Brazil_, and in +_Louis Agassiz, His Life and Correspondence_, written by Mrs. Agassiz, +we can easily fancy that the great naturalist owed as much, if not more, +to his wife's never-failing sympathy and inspiration as to her active +coöperation in his work, and we are ready to apply to her the words of +Longfellow when he sings: + + "And whenever the way seemed long, + Or his heart began to fail, + She would sing a more wonderful song + Or tell a more wonderful tale." + +As to Caroline Herschel as a helper and sustainer of her illustrious +brother, too much cannot be said. "In the days when he gave up a +lucrative career that he might devote himself to astronomy, it was owing +to her thrift and care that he was not harassed by the rankling +vexations of money matters. She had been his helper and assistant when +he was a leading musician; she became his helper and assistant when he +gave himself up to astronomy. By sheer force of will and devoted +affection she learned enough of mathematics and of methods of +calculation, which to those unlearned seem mysteries, to be able to +commit to writing his researches. She became his assistant in the +workshop; she helped him to grind and polish his mirrors; she stood +beside his telescope in the nights of midwinter, to write down his +observations when the very ink was frozen in the bottle. She kept him +alive by her care; thinking nothing of herself, she lived for him. She +loved him and believed in him, and helped him with all her heart and +with all her strength. She might have become a distinguished woman on +her own account, for with the seven-foot Newtonian sweeper given her by +her brother she discovered eight comets first and last. But the pleasure +of seeking and finding for herself was scarcely tested. She 'minded the +heavens' for her brother; she worked for him, not for herself, and the +unconscious self-denial with which she gave up 'her own pleasure in the +use of her sweeper' is not the least beautiful picture in her +life."[249] + +While recounting the achievements of women who directly or indirectly +contributed to our knowledge of the earth and what it contains we cannot +forget what the world owes to the gracious and glorious Isabella of +Castile. For it is to her probably as much as to Columbus that a new +continent was discovered at the close of the fifteenth century. For, +while the doctors of Salamanca--most of whom were what Galileo called +"paper philosophers," men who fancied that a correct knowledge of the +physical universe was to be obtained by a collation of ancient +texts--were denouncing the great navigator as an idle dreamer, and +quoting the ill-founded notions of Pliny and Aristotle to prove the +impossibility of his carrying out his project, Isabella was quietly +revolving in her own mind the reasons which Columbus had adduced in +favor of his great enterprise. Having satisfied herself that his views +were sufficiently probable to justify action, she was prepared to make +any sacrifices to have his plans executed. The result of her decision is +but another illustration of the value of woman's quick intuition, as +against the slow reasoning processes of philosophers and men of science. + +Again, while considering what women have accomplished for the +advancement of science by inspiration and collaboration, we must not +lose sight of what they have done by suggestion. For, as John Stuart +Mill well observes: "It no doubt often happens that a person who has not +widely and accurately studied the thoughts of others on a subject has by +natural sagacity a happy intuition which he can suggest but cannot +prove, which yet, when matured, may be an important addition to +knowledge: but, even then, no justice can be done to it until some other +person, who does possess the previous acquirements, takes it in hand, +tests it, gives it a scientific or practical form, and fits it into its +place among the existing truths of philosophy or science. Is it supposed +that such felicitous thoughts do not occur to women? They occur by +hundreds to every woman of intellect; but they are mostly lost for want +of a husband or friend who has the other knowledge which can enable him +to estimate them properly and bring them before the world; and, even +when they are brought before it, they usually appear as his ideas, not +their real author's. Who can tell how many of the original thoughts put +forth by male writers belong to a woman by suggestion, to themselves +only by verifying and working out? If I may judge by my own case, a very +large proportion indeed."[250] + +Nor should we forget those active and energetic women--and their number +is much greater than is ordinarily supposed--whose husbands, although +often endowed with genius of the highest order, were indolent by +temperament and disorderly and unmethodical by nature. Such men would, +in the majority of cases, have run to seed had not their genius been +given special force and impulse by their vigorous and methodical +helpmates. Sir William Hamilton, the most learned philosopher of the +Scottish school, is a striking instance in point; for it was due almost +entirely to the stimulation he received from his ever active wife that +he was always kept keyed up to his fullest working capacity as a +philosopher and became recognized the world over as one of the +commanding intellects of his age. + +"Lady Hamilton," writes Professor Veitch in his _Memoir of Sir William +Hamilton,_ "had a power of keeping her husband up to what he had to do. +She contended wisely against a sort of energetic indolence which +characterized him, and which, while he was always laboring, made him apt +to put aside the task actually before him, sometimes diverted by +subjects of inquiry suggested in the course of study on the matter in +hand, sometimes discouraged by the difficulty of reducing to order the +immense mass of materials he had accumulated in connection with it. +Then her resolution and cheerful disposition sustained and refreshed +him, and never more so than when, during the last twelve years of his +life, his bodily strength was broken and his spirit, though languid, yet +ceased not from mental toil. The truth is that Sir William's marriage, +his comparatively limited circumstances, and the character of his wife +supplied to a nature that would have been contented to spend its mighty +energies in work that brought no reward but in the doing of it, and that +might never have been made publicly known or available, the practical +force and impulse which enabled him to accomplish what he actually did +in literature and philosophy. It was this influence, without doubt, +which saved him from utter absorption in his world of rare, noble and +elevated but ever-increasingly unattainable ideas. But for it the serene +sea of abstract thought might have held him becalmed for life; and, in +the absence of all utterance of definite knowledge of his conclusions, +the world might have been left to an ignorant and mysterious wonder +about the unprofitable scholar."[251] + +What has been so far said, important as it is, does not tell the whole +story of woman's influence on men of science, and consequently on the +progress of science. We should not have an adequate conception of women +as inspirers and collaborators if we did not advert to certain faculties +which they usually possess in a more eminent degree than the most of +men. It is a well-known fact that in many of the affairs of life women +are more practical, have more tact, and possess keener and quicker +perceptions than men. They are, too, more ideal, more romantic and more +enthusiastic. + +Men of science in their investigations usually proceed by the slow and +laborious process of collecting facts and collating phenomena, either by +observation or experiment, or both, and, from the observed facts and +phenomena, they formulate a law which explains and correlates them. This +is known as induction, a method which proceeds from facts to ideas. + +Women, on the contrary, are rather disposed to proceed from ideas to +facts; to explain phenomena from ideas which already exist in the mind, +without having recourse to the slow process of induction. This is the +deductive method, and is the very reverse of that employed by the +average man of science. It would, however, be a mistake to maintain that +the inductive method is always employed, for such is not the case. More +than a half a century ago the historian, Buckle, in a notable lecture +delivered in the Royal Institution of Great Britain, directed attention +to the fact that some of the greatest scientific discoveries had been +made by the deductive method. + +One of these was Newton's epoch-making discovery of universal +gravitation. While sitting in a garden he saw an apple fall, and this +simple fact caused him to advance from idea to idea, and to be carried, +by what Tyndall loved to call "the scientific use of the imagination," +into the distant realms of space. And, heedless of the operations of +nature, neither observing nor experimenting, the great philosopher, by +pure _a priori_ reasoning, "completed the most sublime and majestic +speculation that it ever entered into the heart of man to conceive." "It +was," as Buckle well observes, "the triumph of an idea. It was the +audacity of genius." It was also the triumph of the deductive method in +the solution of a problem that one not a genius could have worked out +only by the long and toilsome process of induction. + +Similarly, the great law of metamorphosis in plants, "according to which +the stamens, pistils, corollas, bracts, petals and so forth, of every +plant, are simply modified leaves," was discovered not by an inductive +investigator, but by a poet. "Guided by his brilliant imagination, his +passion for beauty and his exquisite conception of form which supplied +him with ideas," Germany's greatest poet, Goethe, by reasoning +deductively, was able to generalize a law which lesser minds could never +have arrived at except through the application of the inductive method. + +So also was it in the science of crystallography. Its foundations were +laid, not by a mineralogist nor a mathematician, as one would suppose, +but by one of strong imagination and marked poetic temperament. Like +Goethe, Haüy was led by his ideas of beauty and symmetry to work +deductively on the problem before him. Descending from ideas to facts, +he finally succeeded, after a long series of subsequent labors, in +reading "the riddle which had baffled his able but unimaginative +predecessors." + +It is the possession of this deductive faculty, so characteristic of men +of genius--their ability to reach conclusions directly, as great +mathematicians perceive inferences which those less gifted reach only +after pages of elaborate calculations--which enable women, "not indeed +to make scientific discoveries, but to exercise the most momentous and +salutary influence over the method by which scientific discoveries are +made." For, as Buckle points out, men of science are too inclined to +employ the inductive method to the exclusion of the deductive.[252] They +have become slaves to the tyranny of facts, and, as such, are +incompetent to further the progress of science as they would by using +both methods instead of one. And their slavery would be still more +complete and ignominious were it not for the great though unconscious +service to science rendered by women who have kept alive the deductive +habit of thought. "Their turn of thought, their habits of mind, their +conversation, their influence, insensibly extending over the whole +surface of society and frequently penetrating its intimate structure, +have, more than all other things put together, tended to raise us up +into an ideal world, lift us from the dust in which we are too prone to +grovel, and develop in us those germs of imagination which even the most +sluggish and apathetic understandings in some degree possess." + +From the foregoing observations it is manifest that the best results to +science are secured when men and women work together--men supplying the +slow, logical reasoning power, women the vivid, far-reaching +imagination; men generalizing from facts, women from ideas; men working +chiefly by induction, women principally by deduction. For thus +collaborating, each with his or her predominant faculties, the two +combined possess in a measure the elements which go to make up a man or +woman of genius and which enable them to achieve far more for the +advancement of science than would otherwise be possible. + +No one has ever given more eloquent expression to this truth than John +Stuart Mill, who was as keen as an observer as he was profound as a +thinker. Writing on the subject under discussion, he does not hesitate +to say: "Hardly anything can be of greater value to a man of theory and +speculation who employs himself, not in collecting materials of +knowledge by observation, but in working them up by processes of thought +into comprehensive truths of science and laws of conduct, than to carry +on his speculations in the companionship and under the criticism of a +really superior woman. There is nothing comparable to it for keeping his +thoughts within the limits of real things and the actual facts of +nature. A woman seldom runs wild after an abstraction.... Women's +thoughts are thus as useful in giving reality to those of thinking men +as men's thoughts in giving width and largeness to those of women. In +depth, as distinguished from breadth, I greatly doubt if even now women, +compared with men, are at any disadvantage."[253] + +We have already learned, from his own avowal, how much Mill was beholden +to his wife for her active coöperation in the production of those works +of his which have exerted so profound an influence on many phases of +modern thought. A more striking illustration of the value of woman's +assistance, but in the domain of biology, is found in the biography of +the late Professor Huxley. By those who know this distinguished man of +science--so remarkable for his intellectual vigor--only from his +writings, the impression would be gleaned that he was one of the most +independent of thinkers, and that his utterances on all subjects were +absolutely personal and entirely unmodified by suggestion or criticism +from any quarter. + +How far this view is from being correct is found in the statement by his +son that his father "invariably submitted his writings to the criticism +of his wife before they were seen by any other eye. To her judgment was +due the toning down of many a passage which erred by excess of vigor, +and the clearing up of phrases which would be obscure to the public. In +fact, if any essay met with her approval, he felt sure it would not fail +of its effect when published."[254] She was not only his "help and stay +for forty years; in his struggles ready to counsel, in adversity to +comfort," but, over and above this, she was "the critic whose judgment +he valued above almost any, and whose praise he cared most to win"--the +other self who made his life work possible.[255] + +An intelligent, sympathetic pair of this kind--and this, as we have +seen, is but one of a multitude which illuminates and beautifies the +history of science--are competent to achieve wonders. They are like "the +two-celled heart beating with one full stroke"-- + + "Two plummets dropt for one to sound the abyss + Of science, and the secrets of the mind." + +The woman is then truly, as De Lamennais in Scriptural phrases has it, +"Man's companion, man's assistant, bone of his bone and flesh of his +flesh," and, in her sublime and endearing character so complete in every +relation of life, she fully answers to the beautiful characterization +which Adam, in _Paradise Lost_, gives of his beloved Eve: + + "So absolute she seems, + And in herself complete, so well to know + Her own, that what she wills to do or say + Seems wisest, virtuosest, discreetest, best. + + ...*...*...*...* + + Authority and reason on her wait, + + ...*...*...*...* + + * * * and, to consummate all, + Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat + Build in her loveliest, and create an awe + About her, as a guard angelic plac'd." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[233] Sis oppido meminens quod olim Martia Hortensio, Terentia Tullio, +Calpurnia Plinio, Pudentilla Apuleio, Rusticana Symmacho legentibus +meditantibusque candelas and candelabra tenuerunt. Lib. II, Epist. 10. + +[234] "Verum hoc--seu gratitudini seu ineptiæ ascribendum--non sileo, me +quantulucunque conspicis, per illam esse, nec unquam ad hoc, si quid est +nominis aut gloriæ fuisse venturum, nisi virtutum tenuissman sementem, +quasi pectore in hoc natura locaverat, nobilissimis his affectibus +coluisset." Francisci Petrarchæ, _Colloquiorum Liber quem Secretum Suum +Inscripsit_, pp. 105-106, Berne, 1603. + +In his canzone beginning with the words _Perchè la vita e breve_, +Petrarch declares to his inspirer-- + + "Thus if in me is nurst + Any good fruit, from you the seed came first; + To you, if such appear, the praise is due, + Barren myself till fertilized by you." + +[235] _The Life of St. Francis of Assisi_, by Paul Sabatier, p. 166, New +York, 1894. + +[236] Ibid., p. 167. + +[237] Ibid., p. 307. + +[238] _The Women of the Renaissance_, p. 394, New York, 1901. + +[239] _Women of Florence_, by Isodoro del Lungo, p. xxvii, London, 1907. + +[240] This passage from the dedication is so important that I reproduce +the Latin original: "Omnino vitam, aut, si quid mihi carius est, vobis +autem debeo, tibi autem, o diva Melusinis, omne presertim Mathematicis +studium, ad quod me excitavit tum tuus in earn amor, tum summa artis +illius, quam tenes, peritia, immo vero nunquam satis admiranda in tuo +tamque regii et nobilis generis sexu Encyclopædia." _François Viète, +Inventeur de l'Algèbre Moderne_, p. 20, par Frederic Ritter, Paris, +1895. + +[241] "E nell' amore della figlia il grande astronomo trovò non soltanto +un conforto a suoi affanni, ma anche una guida benefica alla quale +sembrò egli abandonarsi con cieca tenerezza figliale." _La Storia del +Feminismo_, p. 509, by G. L. Arrighi, Florence, 1911. + +[242] _Galileo Galilei e Suor Celeste_, by Antonio Favaro, p. 256 et +seq., Florence, 1891. + +[243] An English writer, discussing this subject, pertinently observes: +"For, after all, is it not the personal incidents and commonplaces of +life that gather interest as the centuries roll on, while its more +pretentious events often drop into mere literary lumber? How much more +interesting Dr. Johnson's incidental admission, 'I have a strong +inclination, Sir, to do nothing to-day,' is to us now than many of his +more formal utterances. And, in reality, is it the personal element +alone that is in the long run perennial? The wise may prate as they will +about the importance of maintaining the continuity of history and of +handing on the torch of science. The world cares for none of these +things; they interest only some few political economists and laborious +men. What does the crowd and poor little Tom Jones and his nestful, for +instance, care about the fact that Cheops was--at any rate by courteous +tradition--a mighty man of valor of such an era and land? But little Tom +Jones and the rest of us would become mightily interested in this misty +monster of many traditions, could we learn in some magical way all he +thought, hated and loved in his inmost heart of hearts." _The National +Review_, p. 461, June, 1889. + +[244] The Duke of Peiresc, in a letter to Gassendi, regarding Galileo, +refers to certain letters--très belles epistres--of the great +philosopher, "à une sienne fille religieuse sur le sujet mesme des +matières traictèes en son dernier livre." This shows that Sister Celeste +was kept fully informed by her father respecting the nature and contents +of his various works while he was preparing them for the press. It +implies, likewise, that she was not only interested in them in a general +way, but that she was able to read them intelligently and appreciate +them as well. + +How fondly Galileo treasured the letters written him by this daughter of +predilection is made known to us by Sister Celeste herself, when she +tells him in one of her letters "Resto confusa sentendo ch'ella conservi +le mie lettere, e dubito che il grande affeto que mi porta gliele +dimonstri piu compita di quello che sono." Op. cit., p. 317. + +[245] Op. cit., p. 404. + +[246] In the dedication of his _Principles of Philosophy_ he addresses +his young friend and pupil in the following words: "Je puis dire avec +verité que je ne jamais rencontré que le seul esprit de votre altesse +auquel l'un et l'autre"--metaphysics and mathematics--"fût également +facile; ce qui fait quo j'ai une très juste raison de l'estimer +incomparable." + +[247] _Geology and Mineralogy Considered with Reference to Natural +Theology_, by William Buckland, p. xxxvi, London, 1858. + +[248] _Pasteur_, by Mr. and Mrs. Percy Frankland, p. 26 et seq., London, +1898. A French writer referring to this happy discovery expresses +himself as follows: "Quand Pasteur trouva le vaccin de charbon, il +remonta triomphant de son laboratoire et les larmes lui vinrent aux yeux +en embrassant sa femme et sa fille auxquelles annoncait sa victoire." +_Revue Encyclopédique_, p. 20, Jan. 15, 1895. + +[249] _Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel_, London, 1879, +pp. vi and vii, by Mrs. John Herschel. Cf. Chap. IV of this Vol. + +[250] _The Subjection of Women_, pp. 98, 99, London, 1909. + +The idea herein expressed is beautifully accentuated in the touching +dedication to the author's work On Liberty, which reads as follows: + +"To the beloved and deplored memory of her who was the inspirer, and in +part the author, of all that is best in my writings--the friend and wife +whose exalted sense of truth and right was my strongest incitement, and +whose approbation was my chief reward--I dedicate this volume. Like all +that I have written for many years, it belongs as much to her as to me; +but the work as it stands has had, in a very insufficient degree, the +inestimable advantage of her revision, some of the most important +portions having been reserved for a more careful re-examination, which +they are now never destined to receive. Were I but capable of +interpreting to the world one-half the great thoughts and noble feelings +which are buried in her grave, I should be the medium of a greater +benefit to it than is ever likely to arise from anything I can write, +unprompted and unassisted by her all but unrivalled wisdom." + +The chivalrous sentiments expressed in this generous tribute by one of +the deepest thinkers of his time, to the memory of his noble and gifted +life-companion, extravagant as they may seem, are but echoes of similar +sentiments often voiced before by the world's greatest leaders of +thought and science. + +[251] _Memoir of Sir William Hamilton_, by John Veitch, p. 136 et seq., +Edinburgh, 1869. + +It is frequently said that women, unlike men, are indifferent to fame. +This may be true so far as they are personally concerned; but it is +certainly not true of them in regard to their husbands, or the men for +whom they have a genuine affection. This is abundantly proved by the +lives of Mme. Huber, Mme. Pasteur, Caroline Herschel and Lady Hamilton, +not to name others who have been mentioned in the foregoing pages. After +Sir William Hamilton, at the age of fifty-six, had been stricken by +hemiplegia on the right side, as the result of over-work, his faithful +wife became for twelve years eyes, hands and even mind for him. She read +and consulted books for him, and helped him to prepare his lectures and +the works which have given him such celebrity. "Everything that was sent +to the press and all the courses of lectures were written by her, either +to dictation or from copy." And when we remember that the lectures and +books were of the most abstruse character and that Lady Hamilton was +associated with her husband in his recondite work throughout his long +and brilliant career, we must confess that her conduct was not only +heroic to a degree, but also that the fame of the one she loved was to +her a matter of the deepest concern. + +[252] "Induction is, indeed, a mighty weapon laid up in the armory of +the human mind, and by its aid great deeds have been accomplished and +noble conquests have been won. But in that armory there is another +weapon, I will not say of stronger make, but certainly of keener edge; +and, if that weapon had been oftener used during the present and +preceding century, our knowledge would be far more advanced than it +actually is. If the imagination had been more cultivated, if there had +been a closer union between the spirit of poetry and the spirit of +science, natural philosophy would have made greater progress, because +natural philosophers would have taken a higher and more successful aim, +and would have enlisted on their side a wider range of human +sympathies." Buckle: _The Influence of Women on the Progress of +Knowledge_. + +[253] _The Subjection of Women_, ut sup., p. 87. + +[254] _Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley_, by his son Leonard +Huxley, Vol. I, p. 324, New York, 1900. + +[255] Ibid., p. 39, Vol. II, p. 458. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FUTURE OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE: + +SUMMARY AND EPILOGUE + + +Saint-Evremond, the first great master of the genteel style in French +literature, who was equally noted as a brilliant courtier, a graceful +wit, a professed Epicurean, and who exerted so marked an influence on +the writings of Voltaire and the essayists of Queen Anne's time, gives +us in one of his desultory productions an entertaining disquisition on +_La femme qui ne se trouve point et ne se trouvera jamais_--the woman +who is not and never will be found. The caption of this singular essay +admirably expresses the idea that the majority of mankind has, even +until the present day, held respecting woman in science. For them she +was non-existent. Nature, in their view, had disqualified her for +serious and, above all, for abstract science. Never, therefore, in the +opinion of these solemn wiseacres, had been found or could be found a +woman who had achieved distinction in science. + +The foregoing chapters show how ill-founded is such a view regarding +woman in times past. For that half of humanity which has produced such +scientific luminaries as Aspasia, Laura Bassi, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, +Sophie Germain, Mary Somerville, Caroline Herschel, Sónya Kovalévsky, +Agnes S. Lewis, Margaret Dunlop Gibson, Eleanor Ormerod and Mme. +Curie--to mention no others--is far from exhibiting any evidence of +intellectual disqualification and still farther from warranting any one +from declaring that the successful pursuit of science is entirely +beyond the mental powers of womankind. + +The preceding pages, likewise, afford an answer to those who insist on +woman's incapacity for scientific pursuits, and point to the small +number of those that have attained eminence in any of the branches of +science; who continue to assert that the women named are but exceptions +to the rule of the hopeless inferiority of their sex, and that no +conclusions can be deduced from the paucity of women who have risen +above the intellectual level of their less fortunate or less highly +dowered sisters. They further show that, until the last few decades, +woman's environment was rarely if ever favorable to her pursuit of +science. From the days of Aspasia until the latter half of the +nineteenth century she was discriminated against by law, custom and +public opinion. Save only in Italy, she was excluded from the +universities and from learned societies in which she might have had an +opportunity of developing her intellect. In other countries her social +ostracism in all that pertained to mental development was so complete +and universal that she rarely had an opportunity of making a trial of +her powers or exhibiting her innate capacity. The consequence was that +her mind remained in a condition of comparative atrophy--a condition +that gave rise to that long prevalent belief in woman's intellectual +inferiority to man and her natural incapacity for everything that is not +light or frivolous. + +Practically all that women have achieved in science, until very recent +years, has been accomplished in defiance of that conventional code which +compelled them to confine their activities to the ordinary duties of the +household. The lives and achievements of the eminent mathematicians, +Sophie Germain and Mary Somerville, are good illustrations of the truth +of this assertion. It was only their persistence in the study of their +favorite branch of science, in spite of the opposition of their family +and friends, and in spite of what was considered taboo for their sex by +the usages and ordinances of society, that they were able to attain that +eminence in the most abstruse of the sciences which won for them the +plaudits of the world. Both were virtually self-made women. Deprived of +the advantages of a college or university education, and denied the +stimulus afforded by membership in learned scientific associations, they +nevertheless succeeded by their own unaided efforts in winning a place +of highest honor in the Walhalla of men of science. + +M. Alphonse de Candolle, in his great work, _Histoire des Sciences et +des Savants depuis Deux Siècles_, devotes only two pages to the +consideration of woman in science. She is, to him, a negligible +quantity. And, although a professed man of science, he repeats, without +any scientific warrant whatever, all the gratuitous statements of his +predecessors regarding the superficial character of the female mind, "a +mind," he will have it, which "takes pleasure in ideas that are readily +seized by a kind of intuition;" a mind "to which the slow methods of +observation and calculation by which truth is surely arrived at are not +pleasing. Truths themselves," the Swiss savant continues, "independent +of their nature and possible consequences--especially general truths +which have no relation to a particular person--are of small moment to +most women. Add to this a feeble independence of opinion, a reasoning +faculty less intense than in man, and, finally, the horror of doubt, +that is, a state of mind in which all research in the sciences of +observation must begin and often end. These reasons are," according to +de Candolle, "more than sufficient to explain the position of women in +scientific pursuits."[256] + +They certainly are more than sufficient to explain their position if we +choose to accept the author's method of determining one's attainments in +the realm of science. His chief test of one's eminence in science is +the number of learned societies to which one belongs. For De Candolle, +membership in one or more such bodies is _prima facie_ evidence of +special distinction in some branch of science. But "We," he declares, +"do not see the name of any woman on the lists of learned men connected +with the principal academies. This is not due entirely to the fact that +the customs and regulations have made no provision for their admission, +for it is easy to assure one's self that no person of the feminine sex +has ever produced an original scientific work which has made its mark in +any science and commanded the attention of specialists in science. I do +not think it has ever been considered desirable to elect a woman a +member of any of the great scientific academies with restricted +membership."[257] + +When De Candolle insisted on membership in learned societies as a +necessary indication of scientific eminence, he must have known, what +everybody knew, that such exclusive societies as the French Academy of +Sciences and the Royal Society of Great Britain have always been dead +set against the admission of women members. It is difficult to imagine +that the learned author of the _History of Science and Scientists_ was +entirely ignorant of the exclusion from the French Academy of Maria +Gaetana Agnesi solely because she was a woman. And he must have been +aware that, had it not been for her sex, Sophie Germain would have been +accorded a fauteuil in the same society for her remarkable +investigations in one of the difficult departments of mathematical +physics. He must likewise have been cognizant of the attitude of such +organizations as the Royal Society toward women, no matter how +meritorious their achievements in science. + +According to De Candolle's criterion, such women as Mme. Curie, Sónya +Kovalévsky, Eleanor Ormerod, Agnes S. Lewis, Margaret Dunlop Gibson have +accomplished nothing worthy of note because, forsooth, their names are +not found on the rolls of membership of the Royal Society or the French +Academy of Sciences--associations whose constitutions have been +purposely so framed as to exclude women from membership. It would, +indeed, be difficult to instance a more unfair or a more unscientific +test of woman's eminence in science, and that, too, proposed by one who +is supposed to be actuated in his judgments by rigorously scientific +methods. Had any of the women named belonged to the male sex, there +never would have been any question of their fitness to become members of +the societies in question. This is particularly true of Mme. Curie, who, +in the estimation of the world, has done more to enhance the prestige of +French science than any man of the present generation--a statement that +is sufficiently justified by the fact that she is the only one so far +who has twice, in competition with the greatest of the world's men of +science, succeeded in carrying away the great Nobel prize.[258] + +Not only have men, from time immemorial, been wont to point to woman's +incapacity for science as evidenced by the small number of those who +have achieved distinction in any of its branches, but they have also +taken a special pleasure in directing attention to the fact that no +woman has ever given to the world any of the great creations of genius, +or been the prime-mover in any of the far-reaching discoveries which +have so greatly contributed to the weal, the advancement and the +happiness of our race. + +No one, probably, has expressed himself on this subject in a more +positive or characteristic fashion than the noted litterateur and +philosopher, Count Joseph de Maistre. Writing from St. Petersburg to his +daughter, Constance, he says: "Voltaire, according to what you +affirm--for as to me, I know nothing, as I have not read all his works, +and have not read a line of them during the last thirty years--says that +women are capable of doing all that men do, etc. This is merely a +compliment paid to some pretty woman, or, rather, it is one of the +hundred thousand and thousand silly things which he said during his +lifetime. The very contrary is the truth. Women have produced no _chef +d'oeuvre_ of any kind whatsoever. They have been the authors neither +of the _Iliad_, nor the _Æneid_, nor the _Jerusalem Delivered_, nor +_Phèdre_, nor _Athalie_ nor _Rodogune_, nor _The Misanthrope_, nor +_Tartufe_, nor _The Joueur_, nor _The Pantheon_, nor _The Church of St. +Peter's_, nor the _Venus de' Medici_, nor the _Apollo Belvidere_, nor +the _Principia_, nor the _Discourse on Universal History_, nor +_Telemachus_. They have invented neither algebra nor the telescope, nor +achromatic glasses nor the fire engine, nor hose-machines, etc."[259] + +All this is true, but what does it prove? It does not prove, as is so +frequently assumed, woman's lesser brain power or inferior +intelligence. It does not prove--as the learned Frenchman and those who +are similarly minded would have us believe--her incapacity for the +highest flights of genius in every sphere of intellectual effort. Such +assumptions are entirely negatived by woman's past achievements in all +departments of art, literature and science. + +Far from making the inference that De Maistre wished his daughter to +draw from his letter, we should, from what we know of woman's ability as +disclosed in the foregoing chapters, hesitate to set a limit to her +powers, or to declare apodictically that she could not have been the +author of works of as great merit as most of those--if not all of +them--mentioned as among men's supreme achievements. The simple fact +that Mme. Curie and Sónya Kovalévsky were able, in sciences usually +considered beyond female intelligence, to wrest from their male +competitors the most coveted prizes within the gift of the Nobel Prize +Commission and the French Academy of Sciences, demonstrates completely +that woman's assumed incapacity for even the most recondite scientific +pursuits is a mere figment of the masculine imagination. + +What women have done "that at least, if nothing else," as John Stuart +Mill aptly observes, "it is proved they can do. When we consider how +sedulously they are all trained away from, instead of being trained +toward, any of the occupations or objects reserved for men, it is +evident that I am taking very humble ground for them, when I rest their +case on what they have actually achieved. For, in this case, negative +evidence is worth little, while any positive evidence is conclusive. It +cannot be inferred to be impossible that a woman should be a Homer, or +an Aristotle, or a Michaelangelo, or a Beethoven, because no woman has +yet actually produced works comparable to theirs in any of those lines +of excellence. This negative fact at most leaves the question uncertain +and open to psychological discussion. But it is quite certain that a +woman can be a Queen Elizabeth or a Deborah or a Joan of Arc, since this +is not inference but a fact."[260] + +In like manner it is quite certain that, in spite of all kinds of +disabilities and prejudices and adverse legislation, there have been a +large number of women who, in every department of intellectual activity, +have achieved marked distinction and won imperishable renown for their +proscribed sex. It is a fact, which admits of no question, that, +notwithstanding their being debarred from all the educational advantages +so generously lavished upon the dominant sex, women have since the days +of Sappho and Hypatia shown themselves the equals and often the +superiors of men in the highest and noblest spheres of mental +achievement. + +Such being the case, what, we may ask, would have been the result had +women, from that splendid Heroic Period of which Homer sings until the +present, enjoyed all the opportunities of mental development of which +men have systematically claimed the exclusive privilege?[261] What would +now be their condition if, from the days of the Muses--who were but +learned women apotheosized--women had never been deprived of their +intellectual birthright and had been permitted to continue in the path +so auspiciously blazed by Corinna--the victor over Pindar--and Arete, +the splendor of Greece and the possessor of the mind of Socrates and the +tongue of Homer? What would not now be their intellectual +efflorescence, if Plato's dream of twenty-three centuries ago of giving +women equal rights with men in all things of the mind could have been +realized; if those ardent female disciples of his, who so lovingly +followed him through the streets of Athens--"the home of the +intellectual and the beautiful"--and hung on his lips during his +matchless discourses in the groves of the Academy and on the banks of +the Ilyssus, could have continued that race of intellect and genius +which was the admiration and the inspiration of all Hellas during the +most brilliant period of its marvelous history? + +Speculating only on what the gifted daughters of Greece might have +achieved, we may easily believe that they would have kept pace with +their most highly gifted countrymen, and that, following in the +footsteps of Sappho and the other Muses of the "Terrestrial Nine," they +would have been worthy rivals of Homer, Pindar and Æschylus, and would +have occupied a prominent place in that brilliant galaxy of genius +composed of such luminaries as Anaxagoras, Sophocles, Euclid, +Archimedes, Theophrastus, Polygnotus, Diophantus, Pausanias and +Thucydides. + +To those who base their opinions on what so long has been the absurdly +anomalous condition of women and who, in formulating their theories of +human progress, completely ignore the fundamental laws of heredity, such +conjectures will seem extravagant, if not chimerical. But, when one +bears in mind the universal fact that offspring, whatever the sex, +inherits its characteristics and its powers from both parents alike; +that the soul, unlike the body, has no sex, and that, so far as +legitimate indications from the teachings of biology and psychology can +serve as a guide, there is no valid reason for asserting the mental +superiority of man over woman, one will be obliged to confess that these +surmises are far from being either fanciful or preposterous. + +It is then the veriest sophism to predicate woman's incapacity for +science and for intellectual achievements of the highest order on what +she has not accomplished in the past, or on the comparatively limited +number of her contributions to the advancement of knowledge; for up till +the present she has, for the most part, been but a dwarf of the +gynæceum, + + "Cramp'd under worse than South-sea isle taboo." + +Had men been compelled to labor under similar conditions, it is doubtful +if they would have accomplished any more than women have now to their +credit. + +Considering woman's past achievements in science, as well as in other +departments of knowledge; considering her present opportunities for +developing her long-hampered faculties, and considering, especially, the +many new social and economic adjustments which have been made within the +last half century, in consequence of the greatly changed conditions of +modern life, it requires no prophetic vision to forecast what share the +gentler sex will have in the future advancement of science. That it will +be far greater than it has been hitherto there can be no reasonable +doubt. That the number of savantes of the type of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, +Sónya Kovalévsky and Mme. Curie will be greatly enlarged there is every +reason to believe. That among these coming votaries of science there +will be more than one woman who, even in the most abstruse sciences, +will stand + + "Upon an even pedestal with man," + +seems to be assured by the achievements of many who are now so +materially adding to the sum of human knowledge. + +Is it probable that the future will bring forth women whose achievements +in science will rank with those of Euler, Faraday, Liebig, Leverrier, +Champollion and Geoffry Saint-Hillaire? It would be a rash man who would +answer in the negative. We cannot, as De Maistre seems to do, reason +from what they have not done--when everything was against them--to what +they may do when conditions shall, in every way, be as favorable to them +as they always have been to the dominant sex. + +Still rasher would be the man who would attempt to prove the negative of +this question. Mere _a priori_ arguments, based on preconceived bias or +on the vague and groundless impression that woman is essentially and +hopelessly the intellectual inferior of man, have no more value than +gratuitous opinions. The unprejudiced seeker after truth will insist on +a demonstration based on incontrovertible facts. He will appeal to +history to learn what the sex has already accomplished, and to science +to inquire if there be anything in the female brain to differentiate it +from that of the male, or to preclude woman from attaining the highest +rank in the activities of the intellect. + +The result of such an investigation will, I think, cause even the most +biased person to suspend judgment, if it does not induce him to align +himself with those who, finding no differences in the mental endowments +of the sexes, have reached the conclusion that the day will come, and, +mayhap, in the near future, when the achievements of women will be on a +par with those of man. The facts stated in the preceding chapters seem, +not unreasonably, to point to such a conclusion, if, indeed, they do not +warrant it as a necessary inference. + +A few considerations germane to this discussion will illustrate the +danger of forming hasty judgments regarding questions like the one under +discussion. + +During the last hundred years no country in the world has done more for +the education of the masses than the United States. Everything that +money could purchase and ingenuity suggest has been adopted to develop +the minds and stimulate the latent talents and genius of our youth. From +the primary schools to the highest and best equipped universities, a +special premium has been put on success in study, and the highest +rewards have awaited those who should make any notable contribution +towards the advancement of knowledge. But, notwithstanding all the +educational advantages our people have enjoyed and all the encouragement +they have received to achieve something of supreme excellence, our great +country with its teeming millions attracted from the most gifted nations +of the Old World has not yet produced a single man who has attained the +highest rank in either literature or art or science. Far from having a +preëminent master of song like Homer or Dante, we have not even a poet +approaching Goethe or Tasso or Camoens. We have no Cervantes, no Milton, +no Racine, no Molière. America has produced no Raphael or Michaelangelo; +no Mozart or Wagner or Tschaikovsky. Nor has it given us a Descartes, a +Leibnitz, a Newton or a Darwin. Would any one, from this complete +absence in America of representatives of the highest order in +literature, art and science, ever dream of concluding that we shall +never have such favorite sons of genius and such giants of intellect? +Does our comparative intellectual sterility in the past, and in a +country which seemed specially adapted to foster genius and attainments +of the highest order, justify any one in inferring that the days of +great geniuses, like the days of demigods, are gone never to return? + +And yet the number of men in our broad commonwealth who, during the past +hundred years, have enjoyed such signal opportunities for attaining +distinction in every domain of intellectual effort is incomparably +greater than that of all the women so favored since the earliest days of +human history. If, from the first flowering of Greek culture to the +present day, as many millions of women had enjoyed all the transcendent +advantages of education as have been in the United States so lavishly +accorded to the same number of millions of men, who will say that very +many of them would not have attained a much higher rank in science, as +well as in art and literature, than has yet been reached by any man that +America has yet produced? Who even, on the evidence now available, would +be warranted in denying that at least some of these millions of women +might have attained the very highest rank in every department of +intellectual achievement? + +Gray, in his _Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard_, muses on the +potential statesmen and the "mute, inglorious Miltons" of those +countless multitudes who, for lack of opportunity to develop their +inborn gifts, were condemned to pass their lives in obscurity and die, +"to Fortune and to Fame unknown." But how much more truthfully could his +words have been applied to that much larger number of women of rare +mental powers to whose eyes knowledge + + "Her ample page + Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll," + +and whose God-given genius was ruthlessly suppressed from the cradle to +the grave? + +We are still in ignorance as to many of the conditions which are +essential to the development of genius and which contribute to its +loftiest flights. We have yet to learn how far the efflorescence of the +human mind is aided and modified by heredity, environment, atmosphere, +as well as by education, encouragement and other stimuli equally potent. + +But we do know that Germany, in spite of its famed universities and its +feverish intellectual activity in many departments of knowledge, had to +wait many long dreary centuries before it could point to a Goethe, a +Schiller, a Humboldt, a Bach, or a Beethoven. We know that France--so +long the reputed center of culture--has so far produced no great epic +poet, no Cervantes, no Murillo. But shall we affirm that she will never +give to the world imperishable works like _Paradise Lost_, _Don Quixote_ +or the _Immaculate Conception_? We know that Athens, which during the +most brilliant period of its history counted only fifty-four hundred +free-born citizens--less than the population of a small modern town--was +able to produce within a very brief epoch more men of supreme +distinction than all the rest of Europe from the Age of Pericles until +the dawn of the Renaissance. Hers is still the art of the world, the +literature of the world, the philosophy of the world, the culture of the +world. For twenty-five centuries her canons of taste and beauty have +guided poets, orators, artists; and her matchless productions have been +the inspiration, as they have been the despair, of the greatest geniuses +of our modern world. + +Had the women of Greece not been put under constraint just as they were +beginning to exhibit the splendid results of their intellectual +activities; had they been encouraged to develop to the utmost their +richly-dowered minds, as were the men, a far larger number of them, no +doubt, would have been as successful in carrying off coveted prizes in +the intellectual arena as was Corinna in her contests with Pindar. And +they would, likewise, as we may easily conceive, have greatly added to +the number of masterpieces of Greek intellect in science as well as in +art and letters. + +But the opportunity for women to test their powers, which was so +wantonly snatched from their sisters in the Hellenic world, seems again +to be offered to their sex. This opportunity, as has been stated, is due +chiefly to their persistence in claiming the same right as men to +intellectual development as well as to the countless proofs they have +given that their demands are founded on reason and justice. What shall +be the outcome of the new opportunity for woman to prove her capacity as +compared with man's in things of the intellect remains to be seen, but, +from indications she has during recent years given of her powers in +every branch of scientific inquiry, there can be little doubt that it +will be of such character as to place woman on a higher intellectual +plane than she has yet occupied. In physical strength and in the rougher +conflicts with the world she will doubtless always remain "the lesser +man," but, once she feels in full possession of liberty + + "To burgeon out of all + Within her," + +she will duly justify her advocates who throughout the centuries have +been + + "Maintaining that with equal husbandry + The woman were an equal to the man." + +Not the least of the contributing factors to woman's intellectual +growth, and especially to her future achievements in science, are the +recent adjustments for women in social and economical conditions brought +about chiefly by far-reaching changes in the industrial world. Even so +late as the last half of the nineteenth century the energies of women, +when they were not engaged in the kitchen or the nursery, were spent on +the domestic loom, spinning wheel and the knitting needle. All the +various processes from carding the wool to making it into clothing for +all the members of the family were in the hands of the housewife. +Ready-made clothing was far from being as common and inexpensive as it +is now. Canned foods and cereals, which do away with so much of the +drudgery of the kitchen, were unknown. Electricity, which has proved to +be such a remarkable aid in every modern home, was little more than a +mysterious force that was utilized in the electric telegraph. Most of +the domestic labor-saving machines were still in their infancy and +possessed by but few people. Large fortunes were confined to only a +favored few in our great metropolises. The mass of the people was +preoccupied with the struggle for existence. + +But science, the spirit of invention and the advent of the age of +machinery have completely changed the conditions of life which obtained +but a generation ago. They have not only opened up for women countless +occupations that were undreamed of in their mother's time, but have also +given to tens of thousands of them the necessary means and leisure to +indulge their tastes for study and research and enabled an ever +increasing number of them to realize their aspirations for achieving +distinction in the divers departments of scientific research. + +As an instance of this marked change in the intellectual activity of +women, we need only consider what an important part they now take in our +present prodigious literary output, as compared with their share in +similar work but a few decades ago. As authors, as writers and readers +in the editorial rooms of our leading periodicals, as contributors to +learned journals and reviews dealing with every branch of science, even +the most abstruse, they now occupy a conspicuous place and are doing +work that is quite as creditable as that of men. + +And it is no longer necessary, in deference to public sentiment, for +them to write under a pseudonym, for it is no longer considered +unfeminine, as it was in the time of the Brontë sisters, for women to +acknowledge themselves the authors of books or of articles in magazines. +If they elect to devote their lives to literary or scientific work, they +will not be deterred from so doing by what Mrs. Grundy may say, or by +the fear that some feeble imitator of Molière may dub them as +_Précieuses Ridicules_. The value of their productions, like those of +men, is gauged solely by merit and not by any narrow-minded +considerations of the author's sex. + +So also will it be in all other occupations where women choose to gain +their livelihood by devoting themselves to scientific pursuits rather +than to manual labor or to secretarial work in the counting-room. There +are positions open for them in colleges, universities and the +government service where, as professors or experts in every branch of +science, their talents have full liberty of action and where they have +the same opportunity of achieving distinction in their chosen life-work +as have their male colleagues. + +In Germany there are to-day a million more women than men. It is the +same in England. In France the number of women who are widows or +unmarried or divorcées or mothers with full-grown children aggregates no +less than four and a half millions. A similar condition obtains in other +parts of Europe. A large percentage of this number is without home ties +and, as the old fields of labor are no longer open to women, they are +forced to find new ones. They naturally demand the privilege of +exercising their talents in occupations which are most congenial to +them. Many have no inclination for any of the avocations in the +industrial or commercial world, but have a very decided inclination as +well as talent for scientific pursuits. Hence the ever-increasing number +of women who seek employment in chemical and biological laboratories, in +museums and astronomical observatories, as well as aspire to +professorships of science in schools and colleges. From this large +number of votaries of science some are sure to achieve distinction in +their calling and to contribute materially to the advancement of +knowledge. In the course of time the number of those, like Mme. Curie, +Mme. Coudreau, Mary Kingsley, Sónya Kovalévsky, Eleanor Ormerod, +Caroline Herschel, Zelia Nuttall, Harriet Boyd Hawes, Donna Eersilia +Bovatillo, Sophie Pereyaslawewa--to name only a few--who will become +prominent as chemists, explorers, naturalists, mathematicians, +entomologists, astronomers, archæologists, biologists will be vastly +increased, for women will find a greater stimulus for such work and more +numerous demands for their service in the constantly expanding sphere of +scientific research. + +Many women will, doubtless, become specialists in some specific branch +of science, particularly if they have a genuine love for it, or be fired +by an ambition to achieve fame as discoverers. But it is not probable +that they will ever specialize to the same extent as men do. For men +scientific work has to a large extent become a _métier_, and success, as +in industry, depends on a division of labor. Hence it is that their +field of investigation is daily becoming more and more circumscribed. +This is observable in all the sciences, but especially in such +all-embracing sciences as chemistry, biology, and archæology. A man now +does well if he master a single branch of any of these sciences, and is +hailed as exceptionally fortunate if he succeed in making some notable +discovery in his limited field of research. So great, indeed, has been +the activity of scientific men in every department of science during the +last half century, and so thoroughly have they explored the most hidden +recesses of nature, that it, at times, seems as if there were but little +left to discover. A prominent scientist recently well expressed the +difficulty of making any striking additions to our knowledge of nature +by asserting that all great discoveries would hereafter be made in the +sixth place of decimals. This statement is well illustrated by the +delicate experiments that were required to isolate such rare elements as +radium, polonium, helium and neon, which occur only in infinitesimal +quantities. + +While men of science will be forced to continue as specialists as long +as the love of fame, to consider no other motives of research, continues +to be a potent influence in their investigations, it is probable that +women will have less love for the long and tedious processes involved in +the more difficult kinds of specialization. They will, it seems likely, +be more inclined to acquire a general knowledge of the whole circle of +the sciences--a knowledge that will enable them to take a comprehensive +survey of nature. And it will be fortunate for themselves, as well as +for the men who must perforce remain specialists, if they elect to do +so. For nothing gives falser views of nature as a whole, nothing more +unfits the mind for a proper apprehension of higher and more important +truths, nothing more incapacitates one for the enjoyment of the +masterpieces of literature or the sweeter amenities of life, than the +narrow occupation of a specialist who sees nothing in the universe but +electrons, microbes and protozoa. + +But just at the critical moment, when men of science would rather +discover a process than a law, when they are so preoccupied with the +infinitely little that they lose sight of the cosmos as a whole; when +their attention is so riveted on particular phenomena that they will no +longer have aptitude for rising from effects to causes; when they cease +to have any interest in general ideas and stray away from the guidance +of the true philosophic spirit; when, like Plato's cave men, they have +so long groped in darkness that their powers of vision are impaired, +then it is that woman, "The herald of a brighter race," comes to the +rescue and holds up to their astonished gaze the picture of an ideal +world whose existence they had almost forgotten. For women, as a rule, +love science for its own sake, and, unlike the specialists in question, +they are, in its pursuit, rarely actuated by any selfish or mercenary +interests, or by the hope of financial reward. Precise and never-ending +observations with the microscope and spectroscope, which at best give +them but a superficial knowledge of certain details of science, while it +leaves them in ignorance of the greater and better part of it, do not +appeal to them. They prefer general ideas to particular facts, and love +to roam over the whole realm of science rather than confine themselves +to one of its isolated corners. + +"Women," writes M. Étienne Lamy, the distinguished French Academician, +"group themselves at the center of human knowledge, whereas men disperse +themselves towards its outer boundaries. While men are always pushing +analysis to its utmost limits, women are seeking a synthesis. While men +are becoming more technical, women are becoming more intellectual. They +are better placed to observe the correlations of the different sciences, +and to subordinate them to the common and unique source of truth from +which they all descend. We seem, indeed, to be approaching a time when +women will become the conservers of general ideas."[262] + +In the preceding chapter reference was made to the fact that women are +naturally inclined to adopt the deductive method in their search for +truth when men would employ only the inductive method. This disposition +of theirs to arrive at conclusions by a kind of intuition, coupled with +their more pronounced idealism, is sure to react favorably on men, and +prevent them from becoming so involved in mere facts and phenomena as to +cause them to forget that it is as important to reason well as to +observe well--that the fundamental principles of a true philosophy are +quite as necessary for the eminent man of science as they are to the +trustworthy historian or commanding statesman. + +From what has been said, it is clear that man's ideal of the woman of +the future will be quite different from what it was but a little more +than a century ago, when Dr. Johnson could say that "any acquaintance +with books," among women, "was distinguished only to be censured." It +will be quite different from the ideal woman, as portrayed by poets and +novelists, for centuries past. For among the thousands of women painted +by our leading writers of fiction, poets and dramatists there are few, +if any, outside of those sketched by Tennyson in _The Princess_, who are +distinguished for their learning or for their love of intellectual +pursuits. Even Portia, Shakespeare's most learned woman, was, according +to her own confession, but + + "An unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpracticed." + +And the heroines of the novelist, far from being women who had a thirst +for knowledge, or were eager + + "To sound the abyss + Of science and the secrets of the mind," + +were those only whose chief attractions were physical graces and charms, +affectionate natures, brilliant wit together with "sweet laughs for +bird-notes and blue eyes for a heaven." + +Now, however, that women after ages of struggle are beginning to +experience a sense of intellectual freedom before unknown, and to exult +in the fact that + + "Knowledge is now no more a fountain sealed"; + +now that they are, for the first time, beginning, in every civilized +nation, to realize their age-long aspirations for unimpeded opportunity +in all the activities of the intellect; now that they are no longer + + "Dismiss'd in shame to live + No wiser than their mothers, household stuff, + Live chattels, *** + *** laughing-stocks of Time," + +we may expect soon to see a marked change in the character of the ideal +woman as depicted in literature and as desired by the intelligent +portion of mankind. + +What woman's liberation from intellectual bondage and her freedom to +devote herself to scientific pursuits mean for the future of humanity it +is difficult at present adequately to forecast. That it will contribute +immensely to the betterment of social conditions and to the elevation of +the masses of humanity, there can be no doubt. Setting free the +imprisoned energies of one half of our race, means more than doubling +mankind's capacity for advancement. For the failure to utilize woman's +vast energies, pining for an outlet, acted as a drag on man's own +potentialities, and thus retarded to an untold extent the world's +advancement. In times past, as has aptly been said, "an enormous part of +the brain power of mankind has been spent or wasted in smiting the +Philistines hip and thigh, and an enormous part of the brain power of +womankind has been spent in cajoling Sampson." + +It will mean that the women of the future will be more suitable +companions for the rapidly increasing number of highly educated men of +science; that having their intellects developed _pari passu_ with those +of men, they will be able to sympathize with the noblest aims of their +husbands and assist them in their most important undertakings, as did +the wives of Huber, Lavoisier, Pasteur, Huxley, Louis Agassiz and others +scarcely less renowned in the annals of science. It will mean that they +will not only share in the joys and the sorrows of their +life-companions, but that they will also have a part in their thoughts, +their studies, their labors, their achievements. For one should bear in +mind that the first essential to a perfect union of hearts is a perfect +harmony of minds. Where neither husband nor wife is educated, the +virtues may suffice for companionship, but where the man is educated and +the woman ignorant, there are sooner or later estrangements and the wife +becomes little better than an old Japanese conception of her, "a cook +without pay," or a pasha's toy for an idle hour. Chrysalde in Molière's +_L'École des Femmes_, declares: + + "Qu'il est assez ennuyeux, que je crois, + D'avoir toute sa vie une bête avec soi." + +A briefer and truer statement of the evils of unequal intellectual +mating was never penned.[263] Men of intelligence are no longer, like +Rousseau, satisfied with an ignorant domestic for a wife, and still less +are they disposed with Schopenhauer to regard woman as an incurable +Philistine, and as a mere intermediary between a child and a man. They +have learned by sad experience that it is contrary both to justice and +public policy to impose artificial restrictions on the acquisition of +knowledge by women, or to close to the vigorous and capable +representatives of their sex careers which are open to the weakest and +most incompetent men. History has taught them that the fall of Greece +and Rome was owing to the failure of these nations to make due provision +for the mental development of women. + +And women know that it was because of the inability of the wives of the +Athenians to enter into the thoughts of their highly educated husbands +and to sympathize with their aims and appreciate their achievements that +caused the men to leave them in their solitude and seek in the +companionship of the hetæræ the intellectual atmosphere which was +wanting in their own homes. They know, too, that the lack of knowledge +in the wife and the absence of virtue in the hetæræ, which brought such +disasters on the most learned and most cultured of nations are still +evils to be guarded against, and that one of the means over and above +moral rule and revealed truth of safe-guarding their own interests and +preserving the sanctity of the home is to make themselves by knowledge +and culture the intellectual equals of their consorts. + +They realize also that if they are to attain the highest measure of +success as wives and mothers, a broad and thorough education--a +knowledge of science, as well as familiarity with art and literature and +the teachings of religion--is essential to them for their children's +sake. It is said that + + "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world," + +but how much truer is it that "The domestic hearth is the first of +schools, and the best of lecture-rooms; for here the heart will +coöperate with the mind, the affections with the reasoning power." It is +only when the mothers of this, the woman's century, shall dispute with +men the primacy of erudition--when they shall prove their mastery of +those newer sciences by which our age sets such great store--when they +shall possess + + "Seraphic intellect and force + To seize and throw the doubts of man"; + +that their grown-up sons will have the same confidence in their +intelligence as they now have in their hearts. Then only will mothers be +properly equipped for developing the character of their children; for +inspiring them with a love of the true, the beautiful and the good; for +stimulating their talents and aiding them to attain to all the +sublimities of knowledge; for assisting them in doubt and despondency +and firing them with an ambition to strive for supreme excellence in all +that makes for the nobility of manhood and the glory of womanhood; for +making them, as Beatrice made Dante after he was renewed and purified +in the waters of Eunoe, "fit to mount up to the stars." + + "_Puro e disposto a salire alle stelle._" + +The romantic idea of treating woman as a clinging vine, and thus +eliminating half the energies of humanity, is rapidly disappearing and +giving place to the idea that the strong are for the strong--the +intellectually strong; that the evolution of the race will be complete +only when men and women shall be associated in perfect unity of purpose, +and shall, in fullest sympathy, collaborate for the attainment of the +highest and the best. Then, indeed, will man's helpmate become to him +and to his children + + "More rich than pearls of Ind or gold of Ophir, + And in her sex more wonderful and rare." + +Then will men and women for the first time fully supplement each other +in their aspirations and endeavors and realize somewhat of that oneness +of heart and mind which was so beautifully adumbrated in Plato's +androgyn. Then will the world witness the return of another Golden +Age--the Golden Age of Science--the Golden Age of cultured, noble, +perfect womanhood. Then to all who really think and love will be +manifest the clearness and power of vision of England's great poet +laureate when in matchless numbers he sings: + + "The woman's cause is man's; they rise or sink + Together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or free. + + ...*...*...*...* + + For woman is not undevelopt man + But diverse: could we make her as the man, + Sweet Love were slain; his dearest bond is this, + Not like to like, but like in difference. + Yet in the long years liker must they grow; + The man be more of woman, she of man; + He gain in sweetness and in moral height, + Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world; + She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care, + Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind; + Till at the last she set herself to man, + Like perfect music unto noble words; + And as these twain, upon the skirts of Time, + Sit side by side, full-summ'd in all their powers, + Dispensing harvest, sowing the To-be, + Self-rev'rent each, and reverencing each, + Distinct in individualities, + But like each other ev'n as those who love, + Then comes the statelier Eden back to men; + Then reign the world's great bridals chaste and calm; + Then springs the crowning race of human-kind. + May these things be!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[256] _Histoire des Sciences et des Savants_, p. 271, Genève-Bale, 1885. + +[257] Ibid., p. 270. + +[258] A writer in the English magazine, _Nature_, under date of January +12, 1911, when the European press was discussing Mme. Curie's claims to +membership in the French Academy of Sciences, makes the following sane +observations on the admission of women to the various academies of the +French Institute: + + "There may be room for difference of opinion as to the + wisdom or expediency of permitting women to embark on the + troubled sea of politics, or of allowing them a determinate + voice in the settlement of questions which may affect the + existence or the destiny of a nation; but surely there ought + to be no question that in the peaceful walks of art, + literature and science, there should be the freest possible + scope extended to them, and that, as human beings, every + avenue to distinction and success should unreservedly be + open to them. + + "All academies tend to be conservative and to move slowly; + they are the homes of privilege and of vested interest. Some + of them incline to be reactionary. They were created by men + for men and for the most part at a time when women played + little or no part in those occupations which such societies + were intended to foster and develop. But the times have + changed. Women have gradually won for themselves their + rightful position as human beings. We have now to recognize + that academies as seats of learning were made for humanity + and that, as members of the human race, women have the right + to look upon their heritage and property no less than men. + This consummation may not at once be reached, but, as it is + based upon reason and justice, it is certain to be attained + eventually." + +A fortnight later the same magazine contained a second article, in which +the matter is treated in an equally manly fashion. + +"As scientific work," the writer pertinently observes, "must ultimately +be judged by its merits, and not by the nationality or sex of its +author, we believe that the opposition to the election of women into +scientific societies will soon be seen to be unjust and detrimental to +the progress of natural knowledge. By no pedantic reasoning can the +rejection of a candidate for membership of a scientific society be +justified, if the work done places the candidate in the leading position +among other competitors. Science knows no nationality and should +recognize no distinction of sex, color or creed among those who are +contributing to its advancement. Believing that this is the conclusion +to which consideration of the question must inevitably lead, we have +confidence that the doors of all scientific societies will eventually be +open to women on equal terms with men." + +[259] _Lettres et Opuscules Inédits du Comte Joseph de Maistre_, Tom. I, +p. 194, Paris, 1851. + +It was this same brusque and original writer who asserted that "science +was a most dangerous thing for women; that no woman should study science +under penalty of becoming ridiculous and unhappy; that a coquette can +more readily get married than a savante." And he it was who declared +that women who attempted to emulate men in the pursuit of science are +monkeys and _donne barbute_--bearded women--and who designated Mme. de +Staël as "_la science en jupons, une impertinente femelette_"--science +in petticoats, a silly, impertinent female. + +He, however, met an opponent worthy of his steel in the person of the +eloquent bishop of Orleans, Mgr. Dupanloup. In a lengthy and brilliant +critique of De Maistre's views he shows them to be untenable, if not +ridiculous. "I by no means," he writes, "agree with M. de Maistre that +'_la science en jupons_,' as he calls it, or talents of any kind +whatsoever, militates in the slightest against a woman being a good wife +or a good mother. Quite the contrary." And considering woman as the +companion and aid of man--_socia et adjutorium_--he expresses a view +which is quite the opposite of that championed by his distinguished +adversary for, in words precise and pregnant, he asserts that the +education of women cannot be too consistent, too serious, and too +solid--"_L'éducation des femmes ne saurait être trop suivie, trop +sérieuse et trop forte._" _La Femme Studieuse_, p. 160, Paris, 1895. + +[260] _The Subjection of Women_, p. 81, London, 1909. + +[261] The late Mr. Gladstone asserts that "It would be hard to discover +any period of history or country of the world, not being Christian, in +which they"--women--"stood so high as with the Greeks of the Heroic +Age"--when the position of the Greek woman was so remarkable and "so +elevated, both absolutely and in comparison with what it became in the +Historic Ages of Greece and Rome amidst their elaborate civilization." +_Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age_, Vol. II, p. 479 et seq., Oxford, +1858. Cf. also the same author's _Juventus Mundi_, p. 405 et seq., +London, 1869. + +[262] _La Femme de Demain_, pp. 45, 46, Paris, 1912. + +[263] Dr. Johnson expressed the same sentiment when he declared that a +man of sense should meet a suitable companion in a wife. "It was a +miserable thing," he asserted in characteristic fashion, "when the +conversation could only be such as whether the mutton should be boiled +or roasted, and a probable dispute about that." + +Sidney Smith, in a forceful and trenchant essay _On the Education of +Women_, written for the _Edinburgh Review_ a century ago, gives it as +his deliberate opinion that "The instruction of women improves the stock +of natural talents, and employs more minds for the instruction and +amusement of the world; it increases the pleasures of society by +multiplying the topics upon which the two sexes take a common interest; +and makes marriage an intercourse of understanding as well as of +affection by giving dignity and importance to the female character. The +education of women favors public morals; it provides for every season of +life as well as for the brightest and the best; and leaves a woman when +she is stricken by the hand of time, not as she now is, destitute of +everything and neglected by all, but with the full power and the +splendid attractions of knowledge,--diffusing the elegant pleasures of +polite literature, and receiving the just homage of learned and +accomplished men." + +As to the oft repeated commonplace of noodledom that higher education +puts an end to domestic economy and deteriorates the noblest qualities +of womanhood, the same clear-headed writer asks: "Can anything ... be +more perfectly absurd than to suppose that the care and perpetual +solicitude which a mother feels for her children, depends upon her +ignorance of Greek or mathematics; and that she would desert an infant +for a quadratic equation--that Cimmerian ignorance can aid parental +affection, or the circle of the arts and sciences produce its +destruction--that the moment you suffer women to eat of the tree of +knowledge the rest of the family will very soon be reduced to the same +kind of aërial and unsatisfactory diet?" + +Still more insistent on the necessity of the broadest and deepest +education for woman--education in science as well as in art and +literature--is the Most Rev. Archbishop, J. L. Spalding, who by his +writing and lectures has done so much for the cause of the higher +education of both men and women. In an eloquent and pregnant discourse, +pronounced in the Church of the Gesù in Rome, in March, 1900, he told +his vast audience--composed of the élite of the Eternal City--that: + +"If we are to have a race of enlightened, noble, and brave men, we must +give to woman the best education it is possible for her to receive. She +has the same right as man to become all that she may be, to know +whatever may be known, to do whatever is fair and just and good. In +souls there is no sex. If we leave half the race in ignorance, how shall +we hope to lift the other half into the light of truth and love? Let +woman's mental power increase, let her influence grow, and more and more +she will stand by the side of man as a helper in all his struggles to +make the will of God prevail. From the time the Virgin Mother held the +Infant Saviour in her arms, to this hour, woman has been the great lover +of Christ and the unweary helper of His little ones; and the more we +strengthen and illumine her, the more we add to her sublime faith and +devotion the power of knowledge and culture, the more efficaciously +shall she work to purify life, to make justice, temperance, chastity, +and love prevail. She is more unselfish, more capable of enthusiasm for +spiritual ends, she has more sympathy with what is beautiful, noble, and +godlike than man; and the more her knowledge increases, the more shall +she become a heavenly force to help spread God's kingdom on earth." + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +PARTIAL LIST OF THE WORKS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT + + +AGASSIZ, MRS. L. Louis Agassiz, His Life and Correspondence. Boston, +1893. + +AGNESI, MARIA GAETANA. Instituzioni Analitiche. Milan, 1748. + +----. Propositiones Philosophicæ. Milan, 1738. + +ANZOLETTI, LUISA. 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De Tradendis Disciplinis. Colon, Agr., 1536. + +WALLACE, R. Eleanor Ormerod, Economic Entomologist, Autobiography and +Correspondence. London, 1904. + +WHARTON, H. T. Sappho. London, 1898. + +WOLF, J. C. Mulierum Græcarum Quæ Oratione Prosa Usæ Sunt Fragmenta et +Elogia Græce et Latine. London, 1739. + +----. Poetriarum Octo, Erinnæ, Myrus, Myrtidis, Corinnæ, Telesillæ, +Praxillæ, Nossidis, Anytæ, Fragmenta et Elogia. Hamburg, 1734. + +----. Sapphus, Poetriæ Lesbiæ, Fragmenta et Elogia. Hamburg, 1733. + +WOODWARD, W. H. Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators. +Cambridge, England, 1905. + +WRIGHT, T. Womankind in Western Europe. London, 1869. + +ZUCCANTE, GIUSSEPPE. Fra il Pensiero Antico e il Moderno. Milan, 1905. + +Women Inventors to whom Patents have been granted by the United States +Government, Compiled under the Direction of the Commissioner of Patents. +Washington, D. C., 1888. + +Histoire Lettéraire de la France, Commencée par des Religieux +Bénédictins de S. Maur et Continuée par des Membres de l'Institut. +Paris, 1793-1906. + + + + +INDEX + + +Abelard, 141, 142. + +Abella, physician, 286. + +_Abrégé de Navigation_, Lalande's, 182. + +Academy of ancient Athens, admission of women to, 10. + +Academy of the Lincei, Donna Caetani-Bovatelli, dean of, 326. + +Academy of Science, French. _See_ French Academy of Science. + +_Acta Mythologica Apostolorum in Arabic_, translated by Agnes Lewis, 331 + _footnote_. + +Adams, (Mrs.) Abigail, quoted, 100. + +Adams, Charles Francis, quoted, 100. + +Adams, Elizabeth, 344. + +Addison, 98. + +Adelheid, 52. + +Ægidius, quoted, 282 _footnote_. + +Æschines, 13. + +Africa, Mary Kingsley's explorations in, 257, 258. + +Agamede, physician, 267, 268. + +Aganice, daughter of Sesostris, 167. + +Agassiz, (Mrs.) Elizabeth Cary, 255, 377. + +Agassiz, Jean Louis, 255, 378. + +Aglaonice, the first woman astronomer, 167. + +Agnesi, Maria Gaetana, 78, 79, 105, 228, 230; + knowledge of languages of, 143, 144; + achievements of, in mathematics, 144-150; + charitable works of, 148-151; + exclusion of, from French Academy, 393. + +Agnodice, physician, 268, 269, 290. + +Agricola, Rudolph, 62. + +Agriculture, English Board of, 250. + +Agriculturists, women as, 335, 338. + +Agrippina, 24, 25; prose writings of, 28. + +Albategni, 169. + +Albert the Great, 233. + +Alcæus, in praise of Sappho, 6. + +Alcala, University of, 68. + +Alciphoron, 11. + +Alexandria, Hypatia's work in, 138, 199, 200. + +Algæ, Dr. Snow's work on, 254. + +Algarotti, Francisco, 152. + +Algebra, taught by Hypatia, 139. + +Alpine flora, Amalie Dietrich's collection of, 243. + +Amazonia, explorations of Madame Coudreau in, 259-261. + +Ambrosius, Franciscus, 142. + +American Chemical Society, 228. + +American Philosophical Society, 228. + +Amoretti, Maria Pellegrina, 77. + +Ampère, in praise of Émilie du Châtelet, 151. + +_Analyse des Infiniment Petits_, by Marquis l'Hôpital, 376. + +Anatomical models, perfected by Anna Manzolini, 236; + perfected by Mlle. Biheron, 238. + +Anatomy, the study of, by women, 236-238. + +Anaxagoras, 12. + +_Ancren Riwle_, 40. + +Andrea, Novella d', 53, 79. + +Andromeda, 6. + +Anguisciola sisters of Cremona, 61. + +Annals of Tacitus, 28. + +Antelmy, Agnesi's _Analytical Institutions_ translated into + French by, 146. + +Antiochis, physician, 270. + +Antipater, epigram of, 6 _footnote_. + +Anytæ, 17. + +Apelles, 11. + +_Apocrypha Arabica_, edited by Margaret Gibson, 330 _footnote_. + +_Apocrypha Sinaitica_, 330 _footnote_. + +_Apocrypha Syriaca Sinaitica_, edited by Agnes Lewis, + 331 _footnote_. + +Apollonius, _Conic Sections_ of, Hypatia's commentary on, 168. + +Apollonius of Perga, 139, 140. + +Aquinas, Thomas, quoted, 297 _footnote_. + +_Arabic Version of the Acta Apocrypha Apostolorum_ edited by Agnes Lewis, + 331 _footnote_. + +_Arabic Version of the Acts of the Apostles and the Seven Catholic + Epistles_, edited by Margaret Gibson, 330 _footnote_. + +_Arabic Version of St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, + Galatians and part of Ephesians_, by Margaret Gibson, 330 + _footnote_. + +Arago, 202. + +Archæology, museums of, 309, 310; + women in, 309-333; + American women in, 321-324. + +Archagatos, 271. + +Archimedes, 197. + +Archlanassa, 10. + +Ardinghelli, Maria Angela, 77, 142. + +Arditi, Michele, 311. + +Areometer, invention of, by Hypatia, 200. + +Arete of Cyrene, teacher of philosophy, 197-199. + +Arezzo, Leonardo d', course of study for women planned by, 84 _footnote_. + +Ariosto, quoted, 6 _footnote_, 57; + in praise of Vittoria Colonna, 61, 63, 66. + +Aristippus, 10, 197. + +Aristotelian theory of difference between intellectual capacity of men and + women, 110. + +Aristotle, in praise of Sappho, 5, 10, 197. + +_Arithmetica_ of Diophantus, Hypatia's commentary on, 139, 168. + +Arrighi, G. L., 364 _footnote_. + +Art, achievements of women in, in Italy during the Renaissance, 60, 61. + +Ascham, Roger, 69 _footnote_. + +Asclepiades, 271. + +Ashley, Mary, 196. + +Aske, Robert, quoted, 41. + +Aspasia, of Miletus, 12-14, 16, 17, 26. + +Aspasia, physician, 199, 270. + +Assisi, St. Francis, 358. + +Astrolabe, invention of, by Hypatia, 140, 200. + +_Astronomical Canon_, Hypatia's, 140, 168. + +Astronomical Society of France, Dorothea Klumpke first woman member of, + 194. + +_Astronomie des Dames_, Lalande's, 178, 181. + +Astronomy, achievements of Hypatia in, 139, 200-201; + women in, 167-196. + +_At Susa_ by Mme. Dieulafoy, 320 _footnote_. + +Athenæus, 137. + +Athens, position of women in, 3-5, 16, 18, 19, 199, 414, 415; + culture of, 404. + +Attica, 198. + +_Aucassin et Nicolette_, 275. + +Augustus, Emperor, 19, 24. + +Aurelia, mother of Julius Cæsar, 22. + +Austen, Jane, 98. + +Auzoux, Dr., 236. + +Ayrton, Mrs. W. E., achievements of, in electricity, 212, 230. + + +Baker, Lady, wife of Sir Samuel Baker, 374. + +Balzac, 88. + +Barbapiccola, Eleonora, of Salerno, 76. + +Bascom, Florence, 254. + +Bassani, Signora, lace-maker, 337. + +Bassi, Laura, 78, 79, 147, 148, 203-209, 210, 211, 212, 298; + birth of, at Bologna, 203; + Doctorate of Physics bestowed upon, 204; + letters of Voltaire to, 207. + +Bazzani, Doctor, 204. + +Beatrice, 357, 361. + +Beausoleil, Baroness de, 238-240. + +Becquerel, M. H., 223, 227, 228. + +Beethoven, 359. + +Bellini, 66. + +Bembo, Cardinal, 61, 63; + in praise of Elizabetta Gonzaga, 67. + +Benedict XIV, 78, 147, 148, 203, 204, 228. + +Berlin Academy of Sciences, 371. + +Bern, University of, 304. + +Bernouilli, Jean, 152. + +Bernstein, Dr. Julius, on intellectual capacity of women, 133. + +Berthollet, 216. + +Besant, Sir Walter, quoted, 102-105. + +Bianchetti, Giovanna, 298. + +Bianchetti, Maddalena, 298. + +Biheron, Mlle., 238. + +Biology, 245, 254; + as a basis for woman's equality with man, 399. + +Biot, 154, 216; + in praise of Sophie Germain, 156. + +Bishop, Isabella Bird, 256. + +Blackwell, Miss Elizabeth, physician, 300-304, 305, 307. + +Bobinski, Countess, 196. + +Boccaccio, 197. + +Bocchi, Dorotea, 298. + +Boileau's satire on Mme. de la Sablière, 172. + +_Boke of the Cyte of Ladyes_, quoted from, 106, 107, 108. + +Boleyn, Anne, 69. + +Bollandists, on work of St. Hildegard, 47. + +Bologna, Academy of Sciences of, 207. + +Bologna, University of, 203-210, 236, 296-299; + in Middle Ages, 53; + women lecturers and professors in, 57, 78, 79; + Dorotea Bucca of, 62; + degrees conferred upon Maddalena Canedi-Noe and Maria Vittoria Dosi + by, 77; chair of higher mathematics in, given to Maria Gaetana Agnesi, + 78, 148. + +Bonaparte, Caroline, archæological excavations of, 311, 312, 317. + +Bonaparte, Joseph, 311. + +Borghini, Maria Selvaggia of Pisa, 76. + +Borromeo, Clelia Grillo, of Genoa, 77, 142. + +Bos, J. Ritzema, 253 _footnote_. + +Bossuet, Abbé, 88, 146. + +Boston, public schools of, 99. + +Botany, 256; + Frau Kablick's studies in, 242, 243; + Amalie Dietrich's studies in, 243-244; + cryptoganic, 254. + +Bouchet, Jean, quoted, 74 _footnote_. + +Bovin, Mme. Marie, physician, 293-295. + +Bowles, Ada C., quoted, 346, 347. + +Boyd, Ella F., 254. + +Boyd, Harriet, 317; + archæological investigations of, 321, 322. + +Boyd, Mary E., of Smith, 195. + +Brahe, Sophia, 170. + +Brahe, Tycho, 170. + +Brain, convolutions of, as an index to intelligence, 122, 123; + frontal lobe of, in man and in woman, 122; + gray matter of, and its relation to intelligence, 123. + +Brain weight, relation of, to mental power, 118-122, 124-126. + +Brenzoni, Laura, 58, 59. + +Brescia, University of, 62. + +British Museum, 256, 258. + +Britton, Elizabeth G., 254. + +Broca, 116, 126. + +Brontë sisters, 98, 114, 115, 264. + +Brosses, M. Charles de, quoted, 144. + +Brougham, Lord, 159. + +Brown, Alice, 196. + +Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 114. + +Bruce, Miss C., 196. + +Brush, Mary, 344. + +Brussels, 229. + +Brutus, 23. + +Bryn Mawr, College of, 166. + +Bucca, Dorotea, 62, 79. + +Büchner, 246. + +Buckland, Mrs. William, 374, 375. + +Buckle, 384, 385, 386. + +Burckhardt, 210. + +Burney, Fanny, 98. + +Burnmeister, 248. + +Bush, Katherine J., 254. + +Butter, Josephine E., 291 _footnote_. + + +Cædmon, influence of St. Hilda on, 37, 38. + +Cæsar, Aurelia, mother of, 22. + +Caetani-Bovatelli, Donna Ersilia, archæologist, 324-327. + +Caetani-Sermonetta, Duke of, 324, 325. + +Caius Musonius Rufus, on education of women, 30, 31. + +Calendrini, Bettina, 298. + +Calendrini, Novella, 298. + +California, University of, 323. + +Calphurnia, letters of, 29. + +Calpurnia, 356, 361. + +Cambridge, University of, funds from suppressed convents devoted to, + 41, 42; exclusion of women from, 80, 100, 230, 330-333. + +Camoens, 57. + +Candolle, Alphonse de, 392, 393. + +Canedi-Noe, Maddalena, 77. + +Cannon, Annie J., 195. + +Canova, in praise of Suor Plantilla Nelli, 60 _footnote_. + +_Canticle of the Sun, The_, by St. Francis Assisi, quoted, 359. + +_Cape Observations_, Herschel's, 186, 189. + +Carlyle, quoted, 79 _footnote_. + +Cassius, wife of, 23. + +Castiglione, 66, 67; + in praise of women, 359. + +_Catalogue of Eight Hundred and Sixty Stars Observed by Flamsteed but Not + Included in the British Catalogue_, by Caroline Herschel, 186. + +Catani, Giuseppina, professor of pathology at Bologna, 296. + +Caterzani, 299. + +Catherine of Aragon, 68, 69. + +Cato, quoted, 27. + +Catullus, 5. + +Celeste, Sister Maria, daughter of Galileo, 363-369. + +Celleor, Mrs., quoted, 268. + +Celsus, 174. + +Ceretta, Laura, 62. + +Cervantes, 57. + +Chantry, bust of Mary Somerville by, 159. + +Charity, Sisters of, 308. + +Charlemagne, 39. + +Chateaubriand, 256. + +Chatelain, 289 _footnote_. + +Châtelet, Émilie du, 87; 151-153; + achievements of, in astronomy, 175-177; + as mathematical physicist, 201, 202. + +Chaucer, quoted, 40 _footnote_. + +Chemistry, women in, 214-232; + sanitary, 218. + +Chesterfield, Lord, quoted, 97. + +Chiavello, Livia, of Fabriano, 59. + +Chinchon, Countess of, 299 _footnote_. + +Chinchona bark, introduction of, into Europe, 299 _footnote_. + +Chopin, 359. + +_Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language_ by Miss Stotes, 316. + +Christine of Sweden, 82, 94, 370. + +Church of the Household, 31-34. + +Cibo, Catarina, of Genoa, 59, 60. + +Cicero, 8; + tribute of, to Lælia, 23; + Tulia's letters to, 29. + +Cirey, 201. + +_Cité des Dames_, 106, 107, 108, 109, 134. + +Clairaut, 152; + work of, with Mme. Lepaute, 179, 180. + +Clapp, Cornelia M., 254. + +Clarke, Cora H., 254. + +Clavière, in praise of women, 360. + +Claypole, Agnes M., 254. + +Claypole, Edith J., 254. + +Cleopatra, physician, 270. + +Clerke, Agnes M. and Ellen M., 196. + +_Codex Ludovicus_, discovery of, 328, 333. + +_Codex Nuttall_, 324. + +_Codex Sinaiticus_, 328. + +Coeducational institutions, comparative standing of men and + women in, 128,129. + +Colonna, Vittoria, 61, 62, 65, 359. + +Colton, Rev. John, Agnesi's _Analytical Institutions_ translated into + French by, 146, 147. + +Columbus, 56, 380. + +Comstock, Anna Botsford, 254. + +Comte, 245. + +Condé, 88. + +Condorcet, 334 _footnote_. + +_Conic Sections_, of Apollonius, Hypatia's commentary on, 139, 140, 168. + +_Connection of the Physical Sciences_ by Mary Somerville, 160, 211. + +_Considérations Générales sur l'État des Sciences et des Lettres aux + Différentes Époques de Leur Culture_ by Sophie Germain, 156. + +Convent of Arles, 36; + of Poitiers, 36; + of St. Hilda, 36; + of Bishopsheim, 39; + of St. Rupert at Bingen, 46; + of Helfta, 49. + +Convent schools, 36, 41. + +Convents, as centers of learning in Middle Ages, 35-53; + suppression of, in England, 41, 42; + advantages of, 51; + influence of, 51-53. + +_Conventus Matronarum_, 27. + +_Conversations on Chemistry_, by Mrs. Marcet, 372. + +Copernicus, 56, 189. + +Corinna, 6, 17. + +Corneille, 88. + +Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, 22, 25, 26. + +Cornelia, wife of Pompey, 22. + +Cotton gin, invention of, 351, 352. + +Coudreau, Henri, 258. + +Coudreau, Mme. Octavie, 256, 258-264; + books by, 263 _footnote_. + +_Courtier_, Castiglione's, 66, 67. + +Cramoisy, Marie, 82. + +Cranial capacity, relation of, to mental energy, 115-117. + +_Crete, the Forerunner of Greece_, by Mrs. Hawes, 322. + +Crevaux, 262. + +Crisculo, Maria Angela, 61. + +Cumming, Constance Gordon, 256. + +Cummings, Clara E., 254 + +Cunitz, Maria, 170, 171. + +Cunningham, Susan, of Swarthmore, 195. + +Curie, Mme. Marie Klodowska, 326, 333, 362, 394, 397, 221-232; + birth and early life of, 221-222; + marriage of, to Pierre Curie, 222; + scientific investigations and discoveries of, 223-226; + honors of, 227-232. + +Curie, Pierre, 222, 224. + +Cushman, Florence, 195. + +Cuvier, weight of brain of, 119, 215, 216. + +Cyrene, school of philosophy at, 197. + + +Dacier, Mme., 82, 83 _footnote_. + +Damien, Father, 274. + +Danophila, 7. + +Dante, 117, 324, 325, 357. + +Darboux, M., in praise of Dorothea Klumpke, 193, 194. + +Daremberg, Dr. Charles, 234, 270, 287 and 288 _footnote_. + +Darmstadt, Medical College of, 292. + +Darwin, on man, 3, 113; + quoted, 124. + +Darwin's _Origin of Species_, the French translation of, by Clemence +Royer, 245. + +Davy gold medal of the Royal Society awarded to the Curies, 227. + +Davidson, Ada B., 254. + +Da Vinci, Leonardo, 66. + +Dawes, 191. + +_Decameron_, The, 197. + +_De Compositione Medicamentorum_, by Trotula, 285. + +Deffand, Mme. du, 11, 89, 92; + Marquise du Châtelet ridiculed by, 177 and _footnote_, 178 + _footnote_. + +_Deipnosophistoe_, of Athenæus, 137. + +Delambre, 216. + +De Lamennais, on woman's intellectual inferiority, 136. + +_De Morbis Mulierum et Eorum Cura_, by Trotula, 284 _footnote_. + +Demosthenes, quoted, 3 _footnote_; 10. + +Denifle, 79, 289 _footnote_. + +Denver School of Mines, woman principal of, 254. + +_De Orbium Celestium Revolutionibus_, 189. + +_De Problemate quodam Hydrometrico_ by Laura Bassi, 209 _footnote_. + +_De Problemate quodam Mechanico_ by Laura Bassi, 208 _footnote_. + +De Prony, in praise of Sophie Germaine, 154. + +Descartes, 88, 94, 202; + doctrines of, 175, 176; + female pupils of, 369, 370. + +Destouches, 86, 87. + +Diaz, Porfirio, 324. + +_Didascalia Apostolorum in Syriac, The_, edited by Margaret + Gibson, 331 _footnote_. + +Diderot, attitude of, toward women, 93. + +Dietrich, Amalie, botanist, 243-244. + +Dieulafoy, Mme., archæologist, 317, 362; + archæological expeditions of, 318-321. + +Dieulafoy, Marcel, 318. + +Diocletian, 272. + +Diogenes, 10. + +Diophantus, _Arithmetica_ of, Hypatia's commentary on, 139, 168. + +Diotima of Mantinea, Socrates' tribute to, 11. + +_Divina Commedia_ by Dante, 357. + +Dock, Lavinia L., 280 _footnote_. + +Doni Gasquet on dissolution of convents, 41. + +Donne, Maria dalle, 79; + as professor of obstetrics, 209; + as surgeon, 299-300. + +Dorat, Jean, quoted, 71 _footnote_. + +Dosi, Maria Vittoria, 77, 298. + +Dramas of Hroswitha, 43, 44. + +Draper, Mrs. Henry, endowment of the Henry Draper Memorial at Harvard + by, 196. + +Dryden, 98. + +Dumée, Jeanne, 171. + +Dunraven's _Notes on Irish Architecture_, edited by Miss Stotes, 316. + +Dupanloup, Mgr., quoted, 396 _footnote_. + +Dupré, Marie, 82. + +Dupuytren, 294. + + +_Early Christian Art in Ireland_, by Miss Stotes, 316. + +Eastman, Alice, 254. + +_Ecclesia Domestica_, 31-34. + +Eckenstein, Lina, quoted, 50 _footnote_; + on influence of convents, 52, 53. + +École de Médecine of Paris, admittance of women to, 290. + +École de Physique et de Chimie in Paris, 223. + +_École des Femmes_, 412. + +Edinburgh, University of, 228, 305; + opposition of, to women, 80; + Miss Ormerod receives degree of Doctor of Laws at, 252. + +Education, during the Renaissance, 71-75; + in England, in the Middle Ages, 36-42; + in France, in the post-Renaissance period, 83-85. + +Education of women in ancient Greece, 1-18; + in ancient Rome, 18-34; + in Greece and Rome compared, 26, 27; + in the Middle Ages, 34-54; + during the Renaissance, 54-75; + in Germany, in post-Renaissance period, 93, 94; + in England, in post-Renaissance period, 96-98; + in the United States, in the post-Renaissance period 99, 100; + changes in, in last three-quarters of a century, 102-105; + in Italy, 210. + +Edwards, Amelia B., 256. + +Eigenman, Rose S., 254. + +Electricity, work of Mrs. Ayrton in, 212. + +Eliot, George, 98, 264. + +Elizabeth of Bohemia, 94, 369, 370, 371. + +Elizabeth, Queen, 69, 70; + failure of, to provide for education of women, 42. + +Elizabeth of Sweden, 82. + +Elizabeth, wife of Hevilius, 175. + +Ellis, Havelock, 117, 343 _footnote_. + +_Élogie Historique_, Voltaire's, 152, 153. + +Emerson, quoted, 105. + +Encyclopedists, attitude of, toward women, 93. + +Engineering, on trans-Siberian railroad in charge of a woman, 102. + +England, education in, in the Middle Ages, 36-42; + prestige of abbesses in, 52; + position of woman in, during the Renaissance, 57, 69; + position of women in, during post-Renaissance period, 95-99; + women physicians in, 304-307; + feminine population of, 407. + +Entomology, 256; + achievements of Missouri woman in, 254. + +Entomology, economic, Eleanor Ormerod's work in, 247-252; + her publications on, 249-250. + +_Entretiens sur l'Opinion de Copernic Touchant la Mobilité de la Terre_, + by Jeanne Dumée, 171. + +_Ephemeris_ of the Academy of Sciences, Mme. Lepaute's work on, 181. + +Epicurus, 8, 10. + +Épinay, Mme. d', 92. + +Erasmus, 57, 68, 69, 73. + +Erinna, 7, 17. + +_Erucarum Ortus, Alimenta et Paradoxa Metamorphosis_, + by Frau Merian, 242. + +Erxleben, Dorothea Christin, physician, 293 _footnote_. + +Espinasse, Mlle. de l', 11. + +Este, Beatriche d', Duchess of Milan, 65, 66. + +Este, Isabella d', Marchioness of Mantua, archæologist, 65, 66, 310, 311. + +Estienne, Robert, 71. + +Ethnology, 323. + +Euler, Leonard, 202. + +Euripides, 12; + quoted, 3 _footnote_; 12, 13 _footnote_; 268. + +Eustochium, 31-34, 357, 361. + +Everett, Alice, 196. + +Evolution, Clemence Royer's theory of, 246. + +Explorations carried on by women, 257-263. + + +Fabiola, physician, 272-274. + +Fabricius, 248. + +Fairfax, Mary. _See_ Somerville. + +Fairfax, Sir William, 157, 211. + +Fantuzzi, Giovanni, 205, 208, 237 _footnote_. + +Faraday, 372, 373. + +Fawcett, Mrs. Henry, 128. + +Faye, Mme., 196. + +Fedele, Cassandra, 59. + +Feijoo, Benito Jeronimo, 110. + +Felicie, Jacobe, physician, 289-290. + +Feltre, Vittorino da, 58 and 59 _footnote_. + +_Femmes Savantes_ of Molière, 30, 85-87, 172. + +Ferrara, court of, 65, 66. + +Ferrara, University of, 62, 79. + +Ferreyra, Bernada, 68. + +Fiorelli, 312 _footnote_. + +Flammarion, Mme., 196. + +Fléchier, 88. + +Fleming, Mrs. W., achievements of, in astronomy, 195. + +Fletcher, Alice C., archæologist, 322, 323. + +Fontana, Lavinia, 61. + +Foot, Katherine, 254. + +_Form and Rotation of the Earth, The_, by Mary Somerville, 212. + +Fortunatus, 36. + +_Forty-one Facsimiles of Dated Christian Arabic Manuscripts_ by Agnes + Lewis and Margaret Gibson, 331 _footnote_. + +France, women in, during the Renaissance, 70, 71; + women in, during the post-Renaissance period, 81-93; + mineral resources of, Mme. de Beausoleil's interest in, 239; + feminine population of, 407. + +France, University of, 304. + +Frankland, Percy, 376 _footnote_. + +Frederick the Great, mother of, 370. + +Frei, Frau Teresa, physician, 292. + +French Academy of Sciences, 133, 146, 155, 201, 228, 232 _footnote_, + 238, 326; + exclusion of women from, 78, 229, 230, 333, 393, 394. + +French Institute, 246; + Sophie Germain honored by, 155; + discrimination of, against women, 230-231 _footnote_. + +Frontal lobe of brain in man and in woman, 122. + +Fuller, Thomas, quoted, 75 _footnote_. + +_Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations, The_, by Mrs. + Nuttall, 324. + + +Gadolinium, discovery of, 219. + +Gage, Susanna Phelps, 254. + +Galfrido, quoted, 298 _footnote_. + +Galileo, 364-369, 380. + +Galindo, Beatrix, 68. + +Galvani, Luigi, 210, 236, 372. + +Galvanic electricity, 210. + +Gambara, Veronica, 61. + +Gambetta, weight of brain of, 120. + +_Garden of Delights._ _See_ _Hortus Deliciarum_. + +Garrett, Elizabeth, physician, 290 _footnote_, 304. + +Gassendi, 94. + +_Gaufrey_, Antoine Hamilton's, 169. + +Gebert, 141. + +Gegner prize from the French Academy of Sciences awarded to Mme. + Curie, 228. + +_General Index of Reference to Every Observation of Every Star in the + Above-mentioned British Catalogue_, by Caroline Herschel, 186. + +Geneva, University of, 228, 304. + +Geneva, New York, College at, 301. + +Genlis, Mme. de, 238. + +Geoffrin, Mme., 89. + +Geographical Society of Berlin, 256. + +Geology, 254. + +Geometry, taught by Hypatia, 139. + +Geraldini brothers, 68. + +Gerberg, Abbess, 43. + +Germain, Sophia, 87, 154-157, 391, 392; + _grand prix_ of French Academy of Science won by, 155; + exclusion of, from French Academy, 393. + +Germanicus, wife of, 24, 25. + +Germany, education in, during Middle Ages, 43-52; + privileges of abbesses in, 52; + position of woman in, during the Renaissance, 57, 70, 74; + women in, in post-Renaissance period, 93-95; + universities of, open to women, 101; + attitude of, toward women to-day, 130-134; + feminine population of, 407. + +Gernez, M. D., 226, _footnote_. + +Gertrude the Great, 46, 49. + +Gibbon, quoted, 19. + +Gibson, Margaret Dunlop, archæologist, 327-332, 333. + +Giessen, University of, 293. + +Giliani, Alessandra, 237, _footnote_. + +Girton College, 100. + +Gladstone, quoted, 398, _footnote_. + +Glycera, 10. + +Goethe, 385. + +Golden, Katherine E., 254. + +Goldsmith, 98. + +Goncourt, 109. + +Gonzaga, Cecelia, 58 and 59, _footnote_. + +Gonzaga, Elizabetta, 66, 67, 310. + +Gorgo, 6; + quoted, 17. + +_Gospel of Isbodad in Syriac and English_, by Margaret + Gibson, 331, _footnote_. + +Göttingen, University of, 293. + +Gozzadina, Bitisia, 298. + +Gozzadini, Bettina, 53. + +Gracchi, Cornelia, mother of the, 22. + +Granville, Lord, quoted, 97 and 98 _footnote_. + +Grassi, Ippolita, 298. + +Gravitation, discovery of, 384, 385. + +Gray matter in the brain, relation of, to intelligence, 123. + +Gray's _Elegy_, quoted, 403. + +Greece, ancient, woman and education in, 1-18, 398; + position of woman in, compared with Rome, 18, 19, 25-27; + medical women in, 267-271. + +Greene, Catherine L., cotton gin invented by, 351. + +Grey, Lady Jane, 69. + +Grignan, Mme. de, 82. + +Grimaldi, Cardinal, 203. + +Guarna, Rebeca de, physician, 286. + +Gubernatis, A. de, in praise of Donna Bovatelli, 325. + +Gustavus of Sweden, 238. + + +Hæckel, 246. + +Hæser, 278. + +Hall, Mrs. Asaph, 376. + +Hall, Edith H., archæologist, 321. + +Halle, 332. + +Halley, 140. + +Hamilton, Antoine, 169. + +Hamilton, Lady, 382, 383. + +Hamilton, Sir William, 382, 383. + +Hare, Christopher, 311 _footnote_. + +_Harmony of Women_, by Perictione, 8. + +Harrison, Jane E., archæologist, 332, 333. + +Harvard Observatory, women on staff of, 195. + +Harvard University, 99, 100; + Henry Draper Memorial at, 196, 322. + +Haüy, 385. + +Hawes, C. H., 322. + +Hawes, Mrs. C. H. _See_ Boyd, Harriet. + +Heidelberg, University of, 62, 332. + +Heine, quoted, 30 _footnote_, 113. + +Hell, Mme. Hommaire de, 373. + +Heller, 375. + +Helmholtz, Hermann von, weight of brain of, 125 _footnote_. + +Heloise, 141, 142. + +Henry VII, 107. + +Henry VIII, suppression of convents by, 41; + law of, in favor of women physicians, 291. + +Henschel, G., 287 and 288 _footnote_. + +_Heptameron_, 70. + +Heredity, as a basis for woman's equality with man, 399. + +Herpyllis, 10. + +Herrad, 45, 48, 49. + +Herschel, Caroline, 159, 182-190, 362, 377, 379, 383 _footnote_; + discoveries of, 183, 185; + astronomical writings of, 186; + honors of, 187-189. + +Herschel, Mrs. John, quoted, 187, 380 _footnote_. + +Herschel, Sir John, 159, 182, 186. + +Herschel, Sir William, 182-185, 185 and 186 _footnote_, 378. + +Hertzen, 272 _footnote_. + +Hetæræ, the, 9-12, 18, 414; + mistresses of French salons compared with, 92. + +Hevilius, 175. + +Hierophilos, 269. + +Hill, Georgiana, _Women in English Life_, 41. + +Hinckley, Mary H., 254. + +Hipparchia, 8. + +_Histoire d'Henriette d'Angleterre_, 91. + +_Histoire des Insects de l'Europe_, by Frau Merian, 242. + +_Histoire des Sciences et des Savants depuis Deux Siècles_, Candolle's, +392. + +_History of the Art of Antiquity_, by Winckelmann, 311. + +Hôpital, Marquis de l', 375. + +Horace, 5, 21 _footnote_, 113. + +_Horæ Semiticæ_, 330. + +Hortensia, 27. + +_Hortus Deliciarum_, by Herrad, 48, 49. + +Hospital, first, founded by Fabiola, 272. + +Hôtel de Rambouillet, 88-89. + +Houllerigue, M. L., 226 _footnote_. + +_How the Codex Was Found_, by Mrs. Gibson, 330. + +Howard, John, 281 _footnote_. + +Hroswitha, 43-45. + +Huber, Mme., 371, 383 _footnote_. + +Huber, François, 371. + +Hudson, W. H., on the dramas of Hroswitha, 44. + +Huggins, Lady, 196. + +Humboldt, Alexander von, 160, 188, 211, 216, 256. + +Huschke, 122. + +Huxley, 251, 371, 377, 387, 388; + on physical disability of women, 127, 128. + +Huxley, Leonard, 388 _footnote_. + +Hyde, Dr. Ida H., 254. + +Hyghens, Constantine, 94. + +Hypatia, 235; + achievements of, in mathematics, 137-141; + inventions of, 140; + letters of Synesius to, 141; + achievements of, in astronomy, 168; + attainments of, in natural philosophy and astronomy, 199-201. + + +Icthyology, 254. + +_Iliad_, translated by Mme. Dacier, 82; + quotation from, 267. + +Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, 228. + +_In Artem Analyticam Isagoge_, by François Viète, 363. + +_In the Shadow of Sinai_, by Mrs. Lewis, 327 _footnote_, 330. + +Incarnata, Maria, physician, 297. + +India, position of woman in, 5. + +Insects, destructive, Eleanor Ormerod's study of, 247; + her famous leaflets on, 249, 250. + +Insects, microscopic, Anna Comstock's work on, 254. + +Institut de Saint Cyr, 83, 85. + +_Institutions de Physique_, by Marquise du Châtelet, 152, 202. + +_Instituzioni Analitiche_, by Maria Gaetana Agnesi, 78, 144-150, 228. + +Inventions of Hypatia, 140. + +Inventors, women as, 334-355. + +Isabella of Castile, 290, 380. + +Isabella of Spain, 59, 68. + +Isis, inventions of, 335. + +Isocrates, 10. + +Isotta of Rimini, 59. + +Italy, women of the Renaissance in, 55, 57-68; + women in, during the post-Renaissance periods, 76-81; + women mathematicians in, 142-151; + education of women in, 210, 295, 296. + + +Jacobi, Dr. Mary Putnam, 128. + +Jameson, Mrs., work of, in Christian iconography, 313-316. + +Jansen, Mme., 196. + +Jaquier, Père, 152. + +Jeffrey, Lord, 91. + +Jenner, 299 _footnote_. + +_Jerusalem Delivered_, 276. + +Jesus College, Cambridge, nunnery of St. Radegund transformed into, 41. + +Jex-Blake, Sophia, physician, 269 _footnote_, 305-307. + +Johnson, Dr., 98, 113; + quoted, 410, 412 and 413 _footnote_. + +Jonson, Ben, 67. + +Joseph II of Austria, 237. + +_Journey in Brazil_, by Mr. and Mrs. Agassiz, 379. + +Joya, Isabella de, 68. + +Juana, daughter of Isabella the Catholic, 68. + +Julius II, 309. + +Juvenal, quoted, 20 _footnote_, 30. + + +Kablick, Josephine, 242-243. + +Kant, Immanuel, on woman's incapacity for mathematics, 136. + +Kaschewarow, Mme., physician, 304. + +Kelvin, Lord, 227. + +Kepler, 375. + +Kies, Mary, 346; + first United States patent awarded to, 344. + +Kingsley, Charles, 257. + +Kingsley, George, 257. + +Kingsley, Mary H., African explorer, 256-258, 264. + +Kirch, Gottfried, 173. + +Kirch, Maria, 173, 174. + +Kirchhoff, Arthur, investigation of, regarding intellectual + capacity of women, 129-132. + +Kirwan's Essay on _Phlogiston_, 214. + +Klumpke, Anna, 194. + +Klumpke, Augusta, 194 _footnote_, 290 _footnote_. + +Klumpke, Dorothea, 193, 194. + +Klumpke, Julia, 194. + +Knight, Miss, 351. + +Koenig, 152. + +Kovalévsky, Sónya, 133, 161-165, 397; + weight of brain of, 123 and _footnote_; + studies of, in Germany, 162; + appointment of, to chair of higher mathematics, in University + of Stockholm, 162, 163; + _Prix Bordin_ won by, 163. + +Krauss, Dr., 313 quoted, 317 quoted. + +Kronecker, in praise of Sónya Kovalévsky, 164. + + +Labé, Louise, 71. + +La Bruyière, 108. + +La Caze prize awarded to the Curies, 228. + +La Chappelle, Mme. Marie Louise, physician, 293, 294. + +La Condamine, 262. + +La Cruz, Juana de, 69. + +Lælia, Cicero's tribute to, 23. + +La Fayette, La Comtesse de, 88, 91. + +La Fontaine, 88, 172, 173. + +Lagrange, 154, 216. + +La Harpe, quoted, 90. + +Lais, 10, 11. + +Lalande, 178, 179; + in praise of Mme. Lepaute, 180, 181; + in praise of Mme. Lefrançais, 182. + +Lamartine, 256. + +Lamennais, de, quoted, 388. + +Lamy, M. Étienne, quoted, 409, 410. + +Landi, Rosanna Somaglia, of Milan, 76. + +Langdon, Fannie E., 254. + +Lanzi, in praise of Suor Plantilla Nelli, 60. + +_La Perse, La Chaldée et la Susiane_, by Mme. Dieulafoy, + 320 _footnote_. + +Laplace, 216, 245. + +Laplace's _Méchanique Céleste_, Mary Somerville's + translation of, 159, 211. + +_Lapse and Conversion of Theophilus_, by Hroswitha, 45. + +La Rochefoucauld, 88. + +Lasthenia, 11. + +La Vigne, Anne de, 82. + +Lavoisier, Mme. Antoine Laurent, 214-216, 225, 362. + +_Laws of Plato_, 15, 16. + +Leavitt, Henrietta S., 195. + +Lebrixa, Francisca de, 68. + +Lecky, on dissolution of convents, 41. + +Lefebre, Mme., 353. + +Le Fevre, Tanquil, 82. + +Lefrançais, Mme., 182. + +Legendre, 154. + +_Legends of the Madonna_, by Mrs. Jameson, 316. + +Legion of Honor, decoration of, refused by Pierre Curie, 227; + chevalier of, conferred on Mme. Dieulafoy, 321. + +Legrange, 155. + +Leibnitz, 173, 202, 369, 370. + +Leland, Eva F., 195. + +Lemmon, Sarah A. Plummer, 254. + +Leo X, 59. + +Leontium, 8, 10. + +Leoparda, physician, 271. + +Lepaute, Mme. Hortense, 87, 362; + achievements of, in astronomy, 178-182. + +Lepinska, Melanie, 307 _footnote_. + +Lespinasse, Mlle., 89, 90, 91. + +Lewis, Mrs. Agnes Smith, archæologist, 327-333. + +_Liber Compositæ Medicinæ_, by St. Hildegard, 278. + +_Liber Simplicis Medicinæ_, by St. Hildegard, 278. + +_Liber Subtilitatum Diversarum Naturarum Creaturarum_, 233. + +Liebig, 217, 247. + +Linnæus, 300 _footnote_. + +Lipmann, Professor, 222. + +Literature, women in, in ancient Greece, 1-18; + in ancient Rome, 27-30; + achievements of Paula and Eustochium in, 31-34; + achievements of women in, in Italy during the Renaissance, 58-62; + women of to-day in, 406. + +Livia, 24. + +Livingstone, David, 373, 374. + +_Livre des Fais et Bonnes Meurs du sage Roy Charles V_, by Christine de + Pisan, 107. + +_Livre des Faits d'Armes et de Chevalerie_, by Christine de Pisan, 107. + +Lombard, Peter, on equality of woman, 47 _footnote_. + +Lombroso, 109. + +London Chemical Society, 228. + +London, University of, attitude of, toward women, + 54 _footnote_, 207, 288, 305. + +Longfellow, 316; quoted, 379. + +Losa, Isabella, 68. + +Louis XII, 59. + +_Louis Agassiz, His Life and Correspondence_, 379. + +Louise of Saxe-Gotha, Duchesse, 178, 179. + +Lungo, Isidoro del, 361 _footnote_. + +Luther, attitude of, toward women, 75. + +Luynes, Mlle. de, 82. + +Lyceum of ancient Athens, admission of women to, 10. + +Lyell, Mrs. Charles, 373. + + +Mace, Hanna, 195. + +_Machina Coelestis_, of Hevilius, 175. + +Macpherson, Geraldine, 316 _footnote_. + +Maintenon, Mme. de, 83, 84, 85. + +Maistre, Count Joseph de, quoted, 395, 396. + +Malacorona, Rudolfo, 285, 286. + +Malatesta, Battista, 62. + +Malvezzi, Virginia, 298. + +Mangord, daughters of, 54. + +Manning, Mrs. A. H., 352. + +Mantua, Marchioness of, 310, 311. + +Manzolini, Anna Morandi, 236-238, 298. + +Marburg, University of, 294. + +Marcella, 31. + +Marcet, Mrs., 372, 373. + +Marchina, Marta, 78. + +Margaret of Navarre, 70. + +Margarita, physician, 297. + +Maria Theresa, Empress, 147. + +Marine invertebrates, Mary Rathbun's work on, 254. + +Marine life, Sophia Pereyaslawzewa's study of, 244, 245. + +Markham, Clements R., 300 _footnote_. + +Marlow, 67. + +Marmontel, 90. + +Marot, Clement, 66. + +Marriage, intellectual development of women and, 412, 415, 416. + +Martia, 356, 361. + +Martial, quoted, 20 _footnote_, 28, 30. + +"Mary Kingsley Society of West Africa, The," 258. + +Mary Stuart, 69. + +Masi, Ernesto, 208 _footnote_. + +Mason, O. T., 343 _footnote_. + +Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 217, 220. + +Massalsky, Princess Helena Kolzoff (Doria d'Istria), traveler, 255. + +Mastellagri, Maria, 298. + +Matapi, the, woman's invention of, 340. + +Materia medica, 278. + +Mathematics, women in, 136-166. + +Mather, Sarah, 345. + +Matilda, Abbess of Quedlinburg, 46, 52. + +Matildas of Helfta, 49. + +Matteo, Thomasia de, physician, 297. + +Maupertuis, 152. + +Maury, Antonia C., 195. + +Mazois, Fr., 312. + +Mazzuchelli, quoted, 142 _footnote_. + +Meaux, C., 288 _footnote_. + +_Méchanique Céleste_, Laplace's, Mary Somerville's translation of, 159. + +_Mechanism of the Heavens_, Mary Somerville's, 159. + +Medaglia, Diamante, 142. + +Medical women in Greece, 267-271; + in Rome, 271-274; + in England and Germany, 290-295. + +_Medical Women--A Thesis and a History_, by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, 307 +_footnote_. + +Medici, Michele, 237 _footnote_. + +Medicine, attitude of Italian and Anglo-Saxon universities toward women + students of, 80; + women in, 266-308. + +Medico-Chirurgical Academy of St. Petersburg, 304. + +Melanchthon, daughter of, 70. + +_Mémoire sur le Feu_, by Marquise du Châtelet, 202. + +_Memoirs on Chemistry_, by Lavoisier, 215. + +_Memorial de l'Art des Accouchements_, by Mme. Bovin, 294. + +Menagius, 137. + +Menander, 10. + +Mendelssohn, Fanny, 264. + +Mendelssohn, Felix, 264, 359. + +Mendoza, Doña Maria Pacheco de, 68. + +Mercuriade, physician, 286. + +Merian, Dorothea and Helena, 241. + +Merian, Maria Sibylla, naturalist, 240-242. + +Merriam, Florence, 254. + +Messia Castula, duumvira, 27. + +Metallurgy, 238, 240. + +Metaneira, 10. + +Metcalf, Betsy, 351. + +Meteorologico Ozonometric station at Rome organized by + Caterina Scarpellini, 192. + +Metradora, physician, 270. + +Mexican National Museum, 324. + +Meyer, Ernest H. F., 234 _footnote_. + +Michaelangelo, 359; + Vittoria Colonna and, 62, 65. + +Michælis, 312 _footnote_. + +_Michelet_, quoted, 70. + +Middle Ages, the education of women during, 34-54. + +Mill, John Stuart, 109; + on intellectual capacity of women, 134; + quoted, 381, 387, 397, 398. + +Miller, Olive Thorne, 254. + +Milton, quoted, 99. + +Mineralogy, 238, 256; + Herr Kablick's study of, 243. + +Minerva, 338. + +Mines, Denver School of, 254. + +Mining, Mme. de Beausoleil's treatment of, 240. + +Mitchell, Maria, achievements of, in astronomy, 191, 192. + +Molière, 30, 90; plays of, 85-87; + _Femmes Savantes_, and _Précieuses Ridicules_ of, 172; + _L'École des Femmes of_, 412. + +Molluoca, 254. + +Molza, Tarquinia, 60. + +Monasteries, as centers of learning in Middle Ages, 35. + +Mondino, 237 _footnote_. + +_Monographie de Turbellaries de la Mer Noire_, by Sophia + Pereyaslawzewa, 245. + +Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, quoted, 96, 97; 299 _footnote_. + +Montaigne, attitude of, toward women, 75. + +Montalembert, quoted, 37, 38. + +Montespan, Mme. de, 84. + +Montesquieu, attitude of, toward women, 93. + +Montmorency, Charlotte de, 88. + +Montpensier, Duchess of, 84, 87. + +Morandi-Menzolini, Anna, 79. + +Morati, Fulvia Olympia, 62, 70. + +More, Sir Thomas, daughters of, 69. + +Morella, Juana, 68, 69. + +Morphology, cellular, 254. + +Motherhood, intellectual development and, 415, 416. + +Mozart, 359. + +Müller, John, of Königsburg, 170. + +Murat, Joachim, 311. + +Murfeldt, Mary E., 254. + +Murphy, Anna. _See_ Jameson, Mrs. + +Myrtides, 17. + +Myrus, 17. + + +Nairne, Lady, 264. + +Naples, school of medicine at, 297. + +Napoleon, 155, 209, 299, 311, 313; + weight of brain of, 120. + +Natural sciences, women in, 233-264. + +Naturalists, Congress of, in 1893, 245. + +_Nautical Almanac_, Miss Mitchell, compiler for, 191, 192. + +Navarre, Pierre de, quoted, 45 _footnote_. + +Navier, 156. + +Navigation, Janet Taylor's works on, 161. + +Necker, Mme., 281 _footnote_. + +Nelli, Suor Plantilla, 60. + +Newnham College, 100; + Jane E. Harrison's lectures at, 332. + +Newton, 202, 207, 209, 371, 384. + +_Newtonism for Women_, Algarotti's, 152. + +Newton's _Principia_, 206; + Mme. du Châtelet's translation of, 152, 175, 176, 201. + +New York Infirmary, 303. + +Nicarete, 11. + +Nightingale, Florence, 267, 274, 281 _footnote_. + +Ninon de Lenclos, 11, 90, 92. + +Nobel prize, in chemistry awarded to Mme. Curie by King of Sweden, 228; + in physics awarded to the Curies and M. H. Becquerel, 228; + won by Madame Curie, 394. + +Noe-Candedi, Maddelena, 298. + +Nogorola, Ginevra, 58 _footnote_. + +Nogorola, Isotta, 58 _footnote_. + +Nossidis, 17. + +_Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles_, by François Huber, 372. + +Noves, Laura de, 357, 362. + +Nuns, Anglo-Saxon, 36-42; + German, 43-50; + accomplishments of, 51; + influence of, 51-53; + medical work of, 274-281. + +Nur Mahal, 336. + +Nuttall, Zelia, archæologist, 322-324. + +Nutting, M. Adelaide, 280 _footnote_. + + +Oclo, Mama, inventions of, 336. + +Octavia, 24. + +Odyssey, 267; + translated by Mme. Dacier, 82; + quotation from, 267. + +_On Curves and Surfaces of Higher Order_, by Mary Somerville, 160. + +_On Molecular and Microscopic Science_, by Mary Somerville, 160, 212. + +_On the Theory of Differences_, by Mary Somerville, 160. + +_Opuscula_ of Anna Maria von Schurman, 95. + +Ordronaux, J., 283 and 284 _footnote_. + +Origenia, physician, 270. + +_Origin de l'Homme et de Sociétés_, by Clemence Royer, 246. + +_Orlando Furioso_, 276. + +Ormerod, Eleanor, economic entomologist, 246-252, 264; + entomological publications of, 249-250; + important positions of, 251, 252. + +Ornithology, 254. + +Orr, M. A., 196. + +Ostia, Fabiola's hospital at, 272. + +Otto III, 52. + +Ovid, 5; in praise of Livia, 24. + +Oxford, H. Rashdall, 288 _footnote_. + +Oxford, University of, funds from suppressed convents devoted to, 41, 42; + attitude of, toward women, 65, 80, 100, 230. + +Oxygen, discoveries of, 216; + discovery of, by Lavoisier, 216. + +Ozanam, quoted, 55. + + +Padua, 296. + +Padua, University of, Elena Cornaro Piscopia honored by, 77. + +Palatine, Princess, 82. + +Paleontology, Frau Kablick's study of, 242-243. + +Palgrave, comparison of Milton and Cædmon by, 38. + +Pallas Athene, inventions of, 335. + +Palmer, Mrs. Margaretta, of Yale, 195. + +_Paradise Lost_, quoted from 389. + +Paris, medical work of women in, 288-290, 292; + Faculty of Medicine in, opposition by, to Jacobe Felicie, 289. + +Parthenay, Catherine de, 362. + +Pascal, 82, 113, 140. + +Pascal, Gilberte and Jaqueline, 82. + +_Passions de l'Âme_ of Descartes, 370. + +Pasteur, Louis, 113, 114, 226, 247, 248. + +Pasteur, Mme., 376, 377, 383 _footnote_. + +Patch, Edith M., 254. + +Patents granted to women inventors, 344-355. + +Patterson, Florence Wambaugh, work in, 254. + +Patterson, Florence Wambaugh, 254. + +Paula, 31-34, 357, 361. + +Pavia, 296; + University of, degree conferred on Maria Pellegrina Amoretti by, 78. + +Peckham, Elizabeth W., 254. + +Pennington, Lady, quoted, 98 _footnote_. + +Pennsylvania, University of, 322. + +Pereyaslawzewa, Sophia, biologist, 244-245. + +Perez, Antonio, 68. + +Perez, Gregoria, 68. + +Perez, Luisa, 68. + +Pericles, quoted, 4; + influence of Aspasia on, 12-14. + +Perictione, 8. + +Perugino, 66. + +Petraccini-Terretti, Maria, 79. + +Petrarch, 357, 358 _footnote_. + +Pfeiffer, Ida, traveler, 255, 256. + +Phelps, Almira Lincoln, 254. + +Phidias, 12. + +Philosophy, achievements of women in, in ancient Greece, 8; + Clemence Royer's books on, 245. + +Phryne, 11. + +_Physica_, 233, 234. + +_Physica_, by St. Hildegard, 278. + +_Physical Geography_, by Mary Somerville, 160, 211. + +Physical power, relation of, to mental energy, arguments based + on, 111-115, 127. + +Physicians, women, in Italy, 295-300; + American attitude toward, 300-304; + _See also_ Medical women. + +Physics, women in, 197-213; + Clemence Royer's books on, 245. + +Physiology, vegetable, Florence Patterson's work in, 254. + +Pierry, Mme. du, 178, 179. + +Pindar, defeated by Corinna, 6. + +Pio Albergo Trivulzio, Maria Gaetana Agnesi in charge of, 149. + +_Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women_, by Elizabeth + Blackwell, 302 _footnote_. + +Pisa, Leonardo da, 141. + +Pisan, Christine de, 53, 106-108; + on intellectual capacity of women, 134, 135. + +Piscopia, Elena Cornaro, of Venice, 77, 142, 143. + +Planisphere, invention of, by Hypatia, 140, 200. + +Platearius, John, 284. + +Plato, 10, 11, 137; + in praise of Sappho, 5; + quoted, 11; + influence of Aspasia on, 13, 16; + on education of women, 15, 16; + on the seclusion of Athenian women, 26, 27; + ideal of, of equal rights for women, 399. + +Pliny, 270; + quoted, 28, 29. + +Plotinus, 200. + +Plutarch, 22, 167; + quoted, 4 _footnote_, 95; + in praise of Cornelia, 26. + +Poetry, achievements of women in, in ancient Greece, 5-7; + in ancient Rome, 28; + in the Renaissance, 61, 62. + +Pogson, Miss, in the Observatory of Madras, India, 196. + +Poisson, 154. + +Polignac, Cardinal, 204. + +Politian, 63, 73. + +Political economy, Clemence Royer's work in, 245. + +Polonium, discovery of, by Mme. Curie, 223. + +Polydamna, physician, 267, 268. + +Pompeii, excavations of Queen Caroline at, 311, 312. + +Pope, 98, 113. + +Porcia, 23. + +Portico, the admission of women to, 10. + +Portinari, Beatrice, 357. + +Poupard, Mary E., 347 _footnote_. + +_Pratique des Accouchements_, by Mme. La Chapelle, 294. + +Praxilla, 6, 17. + +Praxiteles, 11. + +_Précieuses Ridicules_, of Molière, 30, 85-87, 172. + +Priestly, 216. + +_Primitive Athens as Described by Thucydides_, by Jane E. Harrison, + 332 _footnote_. + +_Princesse de Clèves_, 91. + +_Principia_, Newton's, Émilie du Châtelet's translation of, + 152, 175, 176, 201. + +_Principia Philosophiæ_ of Descartes, 369, 370. + +Priscianus, Theodorus, 271. + +_Prix Bordin_, won by Sónya Kovalévsky, 163. + +_Problema Practicum_ of Anna Van Schurman, 95 _footnote_. + +Procopius, 277 _footnote_. + +Proctor, Mary, 196. + +Proctor, R. A., 196. + +_Prodromus Astronomiæ_, of Hevilius, 175. + +_Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_ by Jane E. Harrison, + 332 _footnote_. + +Prony, 216. + +Proudhon, 111, 245, 334, 338, 346. + +Psalter, Latin, St. Jerome's version of, corrected by Paula + and Eustochium, 32, 33. + +Psychology, as a basis of woman's equality with man, 399. + +Public affairs, woman's influence in, in ancient Rome, 23-25. + +Pudentilla, 356. + +_Punch_, quoted, 302 _footnote_. + +Pusey, E. B., 113. + +Putnam, Mary C., physician, 290 _footnote_; 304. + +Pythagoras, 137, 197, 199. + + +Queensland Amalie Dietrich's botanical work in, 244. + +Quintilian, Hortensia praised by, 27. + +Quintus Maximus, 273. + + +Rabelais, 57; + attitude of, toward women, 75. + +Radcliffe College, 255. + +Radium, discovery of, by the Curies, 224. + +Rambouillet, Marquise de, 88, 89. + +Randolph, Harriet, 254. + +Raphael's _School of Athens_, 141. + +Rashdall, quoted, 55, 56. + +Rasponi, Donna Felice, 60. + +Rathbun, Mary J., 254. + +_Recognitions of Clement_ translated by Margaret Gibson, + 330 _footnote_. + +Red Cross, nurses of, 308. + +_Reduction and Arrangement in the Form of Catalogue, in Zones, of All the + Star-clusters and Nebulæ Observed by Sir W. Herschel in His Sweeps_, by + Caroline Herschel, 186. + +_Réflexions sur le Bonheur_, by Émilie du Châtelet, 153. + +_Regimen Santatis Salernitanum_, 282. + +Regiomontanus, 170. + +Reinhardt, Anna Barbara, 154. + +Renaissance, 309, 310; + women poets of, 7; + dates of, 54-56; + women and education during, 54-75; + in Italy, 55; + literary exponents of, 57; + women of, in Italy, 57-68; + women and education following, 76-105. + +Renan, in praise of Mme. Royer, 246. + +Renaud, A., 343 _footnote_. + +Renée, Duchess of Ferrara, 65, 66. + +Reni, Guido, 61. + +Renzi, S. de, 287 and 288, _footnote_. + +_Republic_ of Plato, 15, 16. + +_Rerum Medicarum_, by Theodorus Priscianus, 271. + +_Restitution de Pluton_, by Baroness de Beausoleil, 238. + +Retzius, Prof., 124. + +Reuss, Dr. F. A., quoted on St. Hildegard, 279. + +Ribera, Catherine, 68. + +Richards, Mrs. Ellen H., sanitary chemist, 217-220. + +Richelieu, Cardinal, 88, 94, 239. + +Ringle, Chevalier, 238. + +Ritter, Frederic, 363 _footnote_. + +Ritter, Karl, 256. + +Roberval, 172. + +Roccati, Cristina, 142. + +Rochechouart, Elizabeth de, 82. + +Rochechouart, Gabrielle de, 82. + +Rohan, Anne de, 82. + +Rohan, Marie-Eleanore de, 82. + +Rohan, Princesse de, 362. + +Romana, Francesca de, physician, 286. + +Rome, ancient woman and education in, 18-34; + medical women in, 271-274; + medical faculty of, 297. + +Ronsard, quoted, 70 _footnote_. + +Röntgen, 223. + +Rosales, Isabella, 145. + +Rossi, Giovanni Battista de, 326. + +Rossi, Properzia de, 60, 298. + +Rousseau, 413; + quoted, 30 _footnote_; + attitude of, toward women, 92, 93. + +Royal Agricultural Society of England, 251. + +"Royal Asiatic Society," 258. + +Royal Astronomical Society, Mary Somerville elected to, 159; + gold medal bestowed upon Caroline Herschel by, 186, 187; + Caroline Herschel's books published by, 186; + Caroline Herschel elected to, 188. + +Royal College of Science for Ireland, comparative standing of men and women + in, 128, 129. + +Royal Historical and Archæological Association of Ireland, 316. + +Royal Institution of Great Britain, 228. + +Royal Irish Academy, election of Caroline Herschel to, 189. + +Royal Society of Great Britain, attitude of, toward women, 230, 393, 394. + +Royal Swedish Academy, 228. + +Royer, Clemence Augustine, scientist, 245-246. + +_Rudolphine Tables_, Maria Cunitz's abridgment of, 171. + +Rümker, Mme., 191. + +Rusticana, 356. + +Ruteboeuf, in praise of Trotula, 285. + +Ryssel, Professor V., 331 _footnote_. + + +Sabatier, Paul, 359 _footnote_. + +Sabbadini, quoted, 59 _footnote_. + +Sablière, Mme. de la, 171-173. + +_Sacred and Legendary Art_ by Mrs. Jameson, 313, 315, 316. + +St. Andrews, University of, 332. + +St. Augustine, 212. + +St. Boniface, 39. + +St. Clara, 358, 359, 361. + +St. Cyr, Institut de, 83, 84, 85. + +Saint-Evremond, 88, 390. + +St. Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 36-39. + +St. Hildegard, Abbess of the Convent of St. Rupert, 45-48, 233-235; + knowledge of astronomy of, 169, 170; + as physician, 277-281. + +St. Jerome, 31-33; + quoted, 273. + +St. Jerome's _Vulgate_, 357. + +St. John of Beverly, 37. + +St. John's College, Cambridge, endowment of, by funds from suppressed + convents, 41, 42. + +St. Lioba, Abbess of Bishopsheim, 39, 40. + +St. Nicerata, physician, 272. + +St. Radegund, Abbess of Poitiers, 36. + +St. Theodosia, physician, 272. + +Salerno, 53, 54 _footnotes_, 296. + +Salerno, University of, 281-288; + women as students and professors of medicine in, 80, 281-288. + +Salons, French, 88-92. + +Samarium, discovery of, 219. + +Sand, George, 246, 264. + +Sanitation, study of, by Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, 217-220. + +Sapienza, chair in, offered to Marta Marchina, 78. + +Sappho, 5-8, 17. + +Sarti, 298. + +_Satire contre les Femmes_, Boileau's, 172. + +Saussure, de, 215. + +Savari, Mme. Pauline, 231 _footnote_. + +Saxony, privileges of abbesses in, 52. + +Scala, Alessandra, 59. + +Scarpellini, Caterina, 192. + +Scarpellini, Feliciano, 192. + +Scheele, 216. + +Schiffi, Chiara. _See_ St. Clara. + +Schiller, 113. + +Schliemann, Dr. Henry, 317, 318, 319. + +Schliemann, Mme. Sophia, archæologist, 317, 318, 319, 362. + +Scholasticism, 233. + +_School of Athens_, Raphael's, 141. + +Schopenhauer, 111, 414. + +Schubert, 359. + +Schumann, 359. + +Scipio Africanus, Cornelia, daughter of, 22. + +Scott, Miss Charlotte Angas, 166. + +Scudéry, Madeleine de, 88, 91. + +Scutari, 274. + +Sebastopol, biological station at, 244. + +_Select Narratives of Holy Women_ translated by Agnes Lewis, + 331 _footnote_. + +_Selenographia_ of Hevilius, 175. + +Se-ling-she, invention of silk by, 336. + +Semiramis, 341 _footnote_. + +Serment, Louise, 82. + +Servilia, 23. + +Sevigné, Mme. de, 88. + +Seymour, Anne, Margaret and Jane, 69. + +Shakespeare, 57, 67. + +Sheldon, J. M. Arms, 254. + +Shelley, 67. + +Sidonius, Caius Apollinaris, 356. + +Siebold, Carlotta von, physician, 292. + +Siebold, Regina Joseph von, physician, 292. + +Sigea, Luisa, 69. + +Silkworms, Frau Merian's work on, 242. + +Simms, Dr. Joseph, 120. + +_Sir Isumbras_, 275. + +Sixtus IV, Pope, 297, 309. + +Skull, relation of size of, to mental energy, arguments based on, 115-117. + +Slosson, Annie T., 254. + +Small-pox, prevention of, 299 _footnote_. + +Smith, Emily A., 254. + +Smith, Sydney, quoted, 92, 413 _footnote_. + +Smithsonian Institute, 323. + +Snow, Dr. Julia W., 254. + +Social and economic conditions, intellectual growth of women and, 405, 406. + +Socrates, 199, 200; + tribute of, to Diotima of Mantinea, 11; + influence of Aspasia on, 12, 13, 16; + woman's equality with man asserted by, 15, 16. + +Solomon, quoted, 336. + +Solon, in praise of Sappho, 5. + +_Some Pages of the Four Gospels Retranscribed from the Sinaitic + Palimpsest_, by Agnes Lewis, 330 _footnote_. + +Somerville, Mary, 157-161, 211, 391, 392; + early life of, 157, 158; + translation of Laplace's _Méchanique Céleste_ by, 159; + honors of, 159, 160; + books by, 160, 211, 212; + home life of, 161; + election of, to Royal Astronomical Society, 188, 189; + achievements of, in astronomy, 190, 211, 212; + death of, 212. + +Somerville, Rev. Dr., 158. + +Sophia Charlotte, Queen of Prussia, 370, 371. + +Sophocles, 12. + +Sorbonne, lectures of Mme. Curie at, 227. + +South America, Mme. Coudreau's explorations in, 258-263. + +Spain, women of the Renaissance in, 68, 69. + +Spalding, Most Rev. Archbishop J. L., quoted, 413 and 414 _footnote_. + +Spanheim, 94. + +Specialization in scientific research, 408, 409. + +_Spectator_, 306. + +Spencer, Herbert, 2, 113. + +Spenser, 67. + +Spiegelberg, Moritz von, 62. + +Spilimbergo, Irene di, 61 _footnote_. + +Staël, Mme. de, 89, 91, 246; + Marquise du Châtelet ridiculed by, 177. + +Stampa, Gaspara, 61. + +Steele, 98. + +Stephens, Mabel C., 195. + +_Steppes de la Mer Caspienne_, by Mme. Hommaire de Hell, 373. + +Stevenson, Sarah Yorke, archæologist, 322, 323. + +Stilpo, 11. + +Stockholm, University of, appointment of Sónya Kovalévsky to chair of + higher mathematics in, 162, 183; + Sónya Kovalévsky's lectures at, 164 _footnote_. + +Stotes, Margaret, archæologist, 316, 317. + +Strindberg, 163, 165. + +Strozi, Lorenza, 59. + +_Studia Sinaitica_, 330. + +Suetonius, quoted, 19. + +Suidas, 200. + +Sulpicia, 28. + +_Supellex Manzoliniana_, 237. + +Surgery, women in, 266-308. + +Surinam, insects of, Frau Merian's book on, 240-241. + +_Survey of the Heavens_, by Sir William Herschel, 187. + +Suslowa, Nadejda, physician, 304. + +Sviani, Elisabetta, 298. + +Swallow, Ellen. _See_ Richards, Mrs. Ellen H. + +Swammerdam, 248. + +Swetchine, Mme., 89. + +Swift, 98, quoted, 98 _footnote_. + +_Symbols and Emblems of Early Mediæval Christian Art_ + by Louise Twining, 316. + +Symonds, J. A., 113. + +Synesius, bishop of Ptolemais, 141, 168, 199, 200. + + +Tacitus, 24, 25, 28. + +Taine, comparison of Milton and Cædmon by, 38. + +Taj Mahal, 337 _footnote_. + +Tambroni, Clotilda, professor of Greek, 78, 79, 209, 298. + +Tasso, Torquato, 66. + +Taylor, Janet, 161. + +Telesilla, 6, 17. + +Tencin, Mme., 92. + +Tennyson, quoted, 416, 417. + +Terentia, 356, 361. + +Tertulla, 23. + +Thais, 11. + +Theano, 8, 17, 199, 269. + +Themista, 8. + +_Theodicy_, by Leibnitz, 371. + +Theodora, 359. + +Theon, 137, 168, 199. + +Thucydides, quoted, 4 _footnote_. + +Thurm, Christopher, 174. + +Tiberius, wife of, 24. + +_Tides of the Ocean and Atmosphere, The_, by Mary Somerville, 212. + +Tischendorf, 328, 329. + +Titian, 61, _footnote_, 66. + +_Traité de Chimie_, by Lavoisier, 215. + +_Traité d'Horlogerie_, 179. + +_Traité de Radio-Activité_, by Mme. Curie, 228. + +Travelers, women, 255-264. + +_Travels in West Africa_, by Mary H. Kingsley, 257. + +Treat, Mary, 254. + +Trinity college, Dublin, 100. + +_Tristan und Isolde_, by Godfrey of Strasburg, 276. + +Trombetas, explored by Madame Coudreau, 258. + +Trotula of Salerno, physician, 284-286, 296, 297, 299. + +Tulia, letters of, 29. + +Turgenieff, weight of brain of, 119. + +Twining, Louise, archæologist, 316. + +Tyndall, 385. + +_Types and Figures of the Bible Illustrated by Art_, + by Louise Twining, 316. + + +United States, women in, in post-Renaissance period, 99, 100; + women mathematicians in, 166; + women astronomers in, 195; + famous women naturalists in, 253-255; + women physicians in, 300-304; + education in, 401, 402. + +United States National Museum, 254. + +Universities, of England, Scotland and Ireland, attitude of, + toward women, 100, 101; + of Germany open to women, 101; + European, women as professors in, 102; + coeducational, comparative standing of men and women in, 128, 129. + +Universities, Italian, attitude of, toward women, 57, 58; + women in, during the Renaissance, 62-65; + women professors in, 78-80; + attitude of, toward women, compared with that of Anglo-Saxons, 80. + +Urania, muse of astronomy, 167. + +_Urania Propitia_, by Maria Cunitz, 171. + +Urbino, court of, 66, 67. + +Urbino, Duchess of, 310, 311. + +Urbino, University of, 62. + + +Vaccination, 299 _footnote_. + +_Valiæ_, physician, 272. + +Van Schurman, Anna Maria, 94, 95. + +Vasari, in praise of Suor Plantilla Nelli, 60. + +Vasca de Gama, 56. + +Vasourie, 236. + +Vassar, Matthew, 100. + +Vassar College, 100, 192, 216, 253. + +Vatican, 309. + +Vega, Lopez, 68. + +Veitch, Professor John, quoted, 382, 383 _footnote_. + +Venerable Bede, quoted, 37, 38. + +Verronese, Guarino, 58 and 59 _footnote_. + +Vico, Father de, 191. + +Victoria, physician, 271. + +Victoria, Queen, 316. + +Viète, François, 362. + +Vigri, Caterina, 60 _footnote_. + +Virchow, Rudolph, 117, 278. + +Virgil, quoted, 112, 335. + +_Vis viva_, views of Marquise du Châtelet on, 202. + +_Vita Nuova_, by Dante, 357. + +Vitalis, Ordericus, 285. + +Vivès, Juan, 68, 69, 73, 75. + +Voet, 94. + +Voght, 246. + +Voiture, 88. + +Voltaire, 89, 117; + attitude of, toward women, 93; + Émilie du Châtelet and, 151, 153, 178 and 179 _footnote_; + quoted 175, 206, 334, 346; + election of, to the Bologna Academy, 207; + letters of, to Laura Bassi, 207. + +_Voyage à la Mapuerá_, by Mme. Coudreau, 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage au Cuminá_, by Mme. Coudreau, 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage au Itaboca et à l'Etacayuna_, by the Coudreaux, 263 +_footnote_. + +_Voyage au Maycurú_, by Madame Coudreau, 262 and 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage au Rio Curuá_, by Madame Coudreau, 262 and 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage au Tapaos_, by the Coudreaux, 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage au Tocantins-Araguaya_, by the Coudreaux, 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage au Trombetas_, by Madame Coudreau, 258, 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage au Xingu_, by the Coudreaux, 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage entre Tocantins et Xingu, et Voyage au Yamunda_, by the +Coudreaux, 263 _footnote_. + +Vulgate, 357; + assistance of Paula and Eustochium in preparation of, 32. + + +Wagner, Rudolph, 120. + +Wallace, Robert, 252 _footnote_. + +Walpole, Horace, 89; + quoted, 97 _footnote_. + +_Waltharius_, by Ekkehard, 276. + +Warsaw, 221. + +Watson, Sir William, quoted, 184. + +Weber, 359. + +Wells, Louisa D., 195. + +_West African Studies_, by Mary H. Kingsley, 257. + +Westwood, 248. + +Wheeler, Miss B. E., archæologist, 321. + +Whewell, Dr., 160. + +Whiting, Sarah F., of Wellesley, 195. + +Whitney, Eli, 352. + +Whitney, Mary W., of Vassar, 195. + +Wilhelm II, attitude of, toward women, 94. + +William of Auxerre, in praise of St. Hildegard, 47, 48. + +Williams, Blanche E., archæologist, 321. + +Winckelmann, 311. + +Winlock, Anna, 195. + +_Wisdom_, by Perictione, 8. + +_Woman Under Monasticism_, Eckenstein's, 52. + +_Women in English Life_, by Georgiana Hill, 41. + +Wordsworth, quoted, 372. + +Wordsworth, Dorothy, 372. + +Worms, Fannie Langdon's study of, 254. + +Würzburg, University of, 279. + + +Xenophon, quoted, 4; 25. + + +Young, Annie S., of Mt. Holyoke, 195. + +Young, Arthur, 214. + + +Zoölogy, Herr Kablick's study of, 243. + +Zoyosa, Casa, 59 _footnote_. + +Zurich, University of, 244, 304. + + * * * * * + +FOLLOWING THE CONQUISTADORES + + +Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena + +By H. J. MOZANS, A. M., Ph. D. Illustrated. 8vo, cloth, gilt top, uncut +edges. Price $3.00 net. By mail $3.20. + + "His pages breathe the poetry of travel, the romance of Sir + John Mandeville, tempered by the moderation of scientific + research. This is a very model of a travel book, and the + author is to be congratulated on a result that will insure a + wide public for the promised sequel."--_The World_, London, + England. + + "The book is beyond question the most valuable of all the + books on South America which has appeared. It is as + interesting as a novel, full of entertaining anecdote and of + real value to the student. It contains some maps and + excellent illustrations from photographs."--_The Call_, San + Francisco, Cal. + + "This is a remarkably interesting book, leading us through a + region little known to the majority of English travelers, + and possessing, in consequence, that charm of novelty in + which works of the same description are occasionally + deficient."--_The Standard_, London, England. + + "The reader will find this trip with the author, "Up the + Orinoco and Down the Magdalena," as agreeable and + instructive as a personally conducted visit to the heart of + the Andes."--_Evening Transcript_, Boston, Mass. + + "This volume, remarkable alike for its instructive qualities + and the excellent composition, will open a vista of delight + to the reader who relishes travel."--_The News_, Charleston, + S. C. + + "Dr. Mozans sees the country with the trained and + experienced eye of a world traveler and with the well + stocked mind of the lover of literature. The past is linked + with the present, the unknown with the known, and poetically + appreciated in a way that is most delightful."--_The + Tribune_, Chicago, Ill. + + "The author, a traveler of many years of experience, who has + explored strange corners of the globe in every zone, + combines with accurate observation and a facile power of + description a knowledge of history that enables him to + illuminate his work with something of the romance that + attaches to the tales of the conquistadores in whose trail + he followed on this journey. The resulting book is one that + gives the reader a complete new set of impressions and ideas + concerning Venezuela and Columbia and the great rivers that + water these still unsettled lands."--The _Times Star_, + Cincinnati, Ohio. + + "Not since the appearance of Humboldt's "_Personal Narrative + of Travels in the Equinoctial Regions of America_" has the + fertile and romantic region of _Tierra Firma_--the scene of + the exploits of some of this most illustrious of the + _Conquistadores_--been so fully and so vividly described as + by Doctor Mozans in his instructive and fascinating volume + "_Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena_.""--_Bulletin of + the Pan-American Union._ + + +Along the Andes and Down the Amazon + +By H. J. MOZANS, A. M., Ph. D. With an Introduction by THEODORE +ROOSEVELT. Illustrated. 8vo, cloth, gilt top, uncut edges. Price $3.50 +net. By mail $3.70 + + "It was a great project and a grand journey, but we do not + recall any writer who could describe it so delightfully as + Dr. Mozans. He has not only an irresistible literary charm, + but he is so saturated with knowledge of what he writes + about that all he writes has an irresistible + interest."--_The Herald_, Glasgow, Scotland. + + "Readers of Dr. Mozans' book have been impressed by the + remarkable, almost amazing, erudition shown in it. It has + also a modernity that is unusual in scholarly persons. Dr. + Mozans seems to have been everywhere and studied everything. + His especial interest in life has been thoroughly to + acquaint himself with the history, antiquities and people, + past and present, of northern South America."--_The Literary + Digest_, New York City. + + "Dr. Mozans writes English after our own style, and has a + point of view half philosophical and half poetic. He is + highly sensitive to the mystery of the dead civilizations of + the Andean plateaux, as well as to the abounding life of the + modern States, and the book generally is the pleasantest + account of South America we have encountered for a + considerable time."--_The Standard_, London, England. + + "To read his book is not only to travel with him to strange + places but also to be steeped in good literature."--_The + Record-Herald_, Chicago, Ill. + + "Great learning is often allied with great simplicity. It is + so in the case of Dr. Mozans. He is bubbling over with + information about the achievements of the Spanish + conquistadores and the subsequent history of the lands over + which they established their sway."--_The Field_, London, + England. + + "Whether Dr. Mozans' volume is resorted to for solid + information or mere entertainment it will well repay the + reading."--The _New York Times_. + + "A book which every traveler to South America, especially + every traveler to the west coast of the continent, will wish + to have in his handbag."--_Bulletin of the Pan-American + Union._ + + "This is a delightful book from every + standpoint."--Ex-President Roosevelt, in the Introduction to + Dr. Mozans' book. + + "Like the well-known works of Waterton and Humboldt on South + America, the two books by Dr. Mozans are sure to have a + permanent value and to be recognized as soon as known, as + authorities on the countless subjects discussed in their + illuminating pages with such fairness and + scholarship."--_The Freeman's Journal_, New York City. + + +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN IN SCIENCE*** + + +******* This file should be named 34912-8.txt or 34912-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/4/9/1/34912 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: Woman in Science</p> +<p> With an Introductory Chapter on Woman's Long Struggle for Things of the Mind</p> +<p>Author: John Augustine Zahm</p> +<p>Release Date: January 11, 2011 [eBook #34912]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN IN SCIENCE***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by Bryan Ness, Josephine Paolucci,<br /> + and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> + from page images generously made available by<br /> + Internet Archive/American Libraries<br /> + (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/americana">http://www.archive.org/details/americana</a>)</h4> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/womaninsciencewi00mozaiala"> + http://www.archive.org/details/womaninsciencewi00mozaiala</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>WOMAN IN SCIENCE</h1> + +<h4> +WITH AN INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER<br /> +ON WOMAN'S LONG STRUGGLE<br /> +FOR THINGS OF THE MIND<br /> +</h4> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>H. J. MOZANS, A.M., <span class="smcap">Ph.D.</span></h2> + +<p class="center"> +AUTHOR OF "UP THE ORINOCO AND DOWN THE MAGDALENA,"<br /> +"ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON," ETC.<br /> +<br /> +<br /><br /> +Que e piu bella in donna que savere?<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Dante, Convito.</span><br /> +<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> +NEW YORK AND LONDON<br /> +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY<br /> +1913<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1913, by</span><br /> +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY<br /> +<br /> +Printed in the United States of America<br /> +<br /> +<br /><br /><br /> +TO<br /> +MRS. CHARLES M. SCHWAB<br /> +AS A SLIGHT TRIBUTE<br /> +TO HER CHARMING PERSONALITY<br /> +GOODNESS OF HEART AND NOBILITY OF SOUL<br /> +THIS VOLUME<br /> +IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED<br /> +WITH THE BEST WISHES OF<br /> +THE AUTHOR.<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span></p> +<h2>PREFACE</h2> + + +<p>The following pages are the outcome of studies begun many years ago in +Greece and Italy. While wandering through the famed and picturesque land +of the Hellenes, rejoicing in the countless beauties of the islands of +the Ionian and Ægean seas or scaling the heights of Helicon and +Parnassus, all so redolent of the storied past, I saw on every side +tangible evidence of that marvelous race of men and women whose +matchless achievements have been the delight and inspiration of the +world for nearly three thousand years. But it was especially while +contemplating, from the portico of the Parthenon, the magnificent vista +which there meets the charmed vision, that I first fully experienced the +spell of the favored land of Hellas, so long the home of beauty and of +intellect. The scene before me was indeed enchanting beyond expression; +for, every ruin, every marble column, every rock had its history, and +evoked the most precious memories of men of godlike thoughts and of</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A thousand glorious actions that may claim<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Triumphal laurels and immortal fame."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was a tranquil and balmy night in midsummer. The sun, leaving a +gorgeous afterglow, had about an hour before disappeared behind the +azure-veiled mountains of Ithaca, where, in the long ago, lived and +loved the hero and the heroine of the incomparable Odyssey. The full +moon, just rising above the plain of Marathon, intensified the witchery +of that memorable spot consecrated by the valor of patriots battling +victoriously against the invading hordes of Asia. Hard by was the +Areopagus, where St. Paul preached to the "superstitious" Athenians on +"The Unknown God." Almost adjoining it was the Agora, where Socrates was +wont to hold converse with noble and simple on the sublimest questions +which can engage the human mind. Not distant was the site of the +celebrated "Painted Porch,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span> where Zeno developed his famous system of +ethics. In another quarter were the shady walks of the Lyceum, where +Aristotle, "the master of those who know," lectured before an admiring +concourse of students from all parts of Hellas. Farther afield, on the +banks of the Cephissus, was the grove of Academus, where the divine +Plato expounded that admirable idealism which, with Aristotelianism, has +controlled the progress of speculative thought for more than twenty +centuries, and enunciated those admirable doctrines which have become +the common heritage of humanity.</p> + +<p>But where, in this venerable city—"the eye of Greece, mother of arts +and eloquence"—was the abode of Aspasia, the wife of Pericles and the +inspirer of the noblest minds of the Golden Age of Grecian civilization? +Where was that salon, renowned these four and twenty centuries as the +most brilliant court of culture the world has ever known, wherein this +gifted and accomplished daughter of Miletus gathered about her the most +learned men and women of her time? Whatever the location, there it was +that the wit and talent of Attica found a congenial trysting-place, and +human genius burst into fairest blossom. There it was that poets, +sculptors, painters, orators, philosophers, statesmen were all equally +at home. There Socrates discoursed on philosophy; there Euripides and +Sophocles read their plays; there Anaxagoras dilated upon the nature and +constitution of the universe; there Phidias, the greatest sculptor of +all time, and Ictinus and Callicrates unfolded their plans for that +supreme creation of architecture, the temple of Athena Parthenos on the +Acropolis. Like Michaelangelo, long centuries afterwards, who "saw with +the eyes and acted by the inspiration" of Vittoria Colonna, these +masters of Greek architecture and sculpture saw with the eyes and acted +by the sublime promptings of Aspasia, who was the greatest patron and +inspirer of men of genius the world has ever known.</p> + +<p>I felt then, as I feel now, that this superb monument to the virgin +goddess of wisdom and art and science was in great measure a monument to +the one who by her quick intelligence, her profound knowledge, her +inspiration, her patronage, her influence, had so much to do with its +erection—the wise, the cultured, the richly dowered Aspasia.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p> + +<p>This thought it was that started the train of reflections on the +intellectual achievements of women which eventually gave rise to the +idea of writing a book on woman's work in things of the mind.</p> + +<p>The following day, as I was entering the University of Athens, I noticed +above the stately portal a large and beautiful painting which, on +inspection, proved, to my great delight, to be nothing less than a +pictorial representation of my musings the night before on the portico +of the Parthenon. For there was Aspasia, just as I had fancied her in +her salon, seated beside Pericles, and surrounded by the greatest and +the wisest men of Greece. "This," I exclaimed, "shall be the +frontispiece of my book; it will tell more than many pages of text." Nor +did I rest till I had procured a copy of this excellent work of art.</p> + +<p>Shortly after my journey through Greece I visited the chief cities and +towns of Italy. I traversed the whole of Magna Græcia and, to enjoy the +local color of things Grecian and breathe, as far as might be, the +atmosphere which once enveloped the world's greatest thinkers, I stood +on the spot in Syracuse where Plato discoursed on the true, the +beautiful and the good, before enthusiastic audiences of men and women, +and wandered through the land inhabited by the ancient Bruttii, where +Pythagoras has his famous school of science and philosophy—a school +which was continued after the founder's death by his celebrated wife, +Theano. For in Crotona, as well as in Athens, and in Alexandria in the +time of Hypatia, women were teachers as well as scholars, and attained +to marked distinction in every branch of intellectual activity.</p> + +<p>As I visited, one after the other, what were once the great centers of +learning and culture in Magna Græcia, the idea of writing the book +aforementioned appealed to me more strongly from day to day, but it did +not assume definite form until after I had tarried for some weeks or +months in each of the great university towns of Italy. And as I wended +my way through the almost deserted streets of Salerno, which was for +centuries one of the noblest seats of learning in Christendom, and +recalled the achievements of its gifted daughters—those wonderful +<i>mulieres Salernitanæ</i>, whose praises were once sounded throughout +Europe, but whose names have been almost forgotten—I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> began to realize, +as never before, that women of intellectual eminence have received too +little credit for their contributions to the progress of knowledge, and +should have a sympathetic historian of what they have achieved in the +domain of learning.</p> + +<p>But it was not until after I had visited the great university towns of +Bologna, Padua and Pavia, had become more familiar with their +fascinating histories and traditions, and surveyed there the scenes of +the great scholastic triumphs of women as students and professors, that +I fully realized the importance, if not the necessity, of such a work as +I had in contemplation. For then, as when standing in silent meditation +on the pronaos of the Parthenon, the past seemed to become present, and +the graceful figures of those illustrious daughters of <i>Italia la +Bella</i>, who have conferred such honor on both their country and on +womankind throughout the world, seemed to flit before me as they +returned to and from their lecture halls and laboratories, where their +discourses, in flowing Latin periods, had commanded the admiration and +the applause of students from every European country, from the Rock of +Cashel to the Athenian Acropolis.</p> + +<p>Only then did the magnitude and the difficulty of my self-imposed task +begin to dawn upon me. I saw that it would be impossible, if I were to +do justice to the subject, to compass in a single volume anything like +an adequate account of the contributions of women to the advancement of +general knowledge. I accordingly resolved to restrict my theme and +confine myself to an attempt to show what an important rôle women have +played in the development of those branches of knowledge in which they +are usually thought to have had but little part.</p> + +<p>The subject of my book thus, by a process of elimination, narrowed its +scope to woman's achievements in science. Many works in various +languages had been written on what women had accomplished in art, +literature, and state-craft, and there was, therefore, no special call +for a new volume on any of these topics. But, with the exception of a +few brief monographs in German, French and Italian, and an occasional +magazine article here and there, practically nothing had been written +about woman in science. The time, then, seemed opportune for entering +upon a field that had thus far been almost completely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span> neglected; and, +although I soon discovered that the labor involved would be far greater +than I had anticipated, I never lost sight of the work which had its +virtual inception in the peerless sanctuary of Pallas Athena in the +"City of the Violet Crown."</p> + +<p>Duties and occupations innumerable have retarded the progress of the +work. But not the least cause of delay has been the difficulty of +locating the material essential to the production of a volume that would +do even partial justice to the numerous topics requiring treatment. My +experience, <i>parva componere magnis</i>, was not unlike that of Dr. +Johnson, who tells us in the preface to his <i>Dictionary of the English +Language</i>, "I saw that one inquiry only gave occasion to another, that +book referred to book, that to search was not always to find, and that +thus to pursue perfection was, like the first inhabitants of Arcadia, to +chase the sun, which, when they reached the hill where he seemed to +rest, was still beheld at the same distance from them."</p> + +<p>Although I have endeavored to give a place in this work to all women who +have achieved special distinction in science, it is not unlikely that I +may have inadvertently overlooked some, particularly among those of +recent years, who were deserving of mention. Should this be the case, I +shall be grateful for information which will enable me to correct such +oversights and render the volume, should there be a demand for more than +one edition, more complete and serviceable. And, although I have striven +to be as accurate as possible in all my statements, I can scarcely hope, +in traversing so broad a field, to have been wholly successful. For all +shortcomings, whether through omission or commission,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"Quas aut incuria fudit,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aut humana parum cavit natura,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I crave the reader's indulgence, and trust that the present volume will +have at least the merit of stimulating some ambitious young Whewell to +explore more thoroughly the interesting field that I have but partially +reconnoitred, and give us ere long an adequate and comprehensive history +of the achievements of woman, not only in the inductive but in all the +sciences.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span></p> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + +<p> +CHAPTER <span class="tocnum">PAGE</span><br /> +<br /> +I. <span class="smcap">Woman's Long Struggle for Things of the Mind</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></span><br /> +<br /> +II. <span class="smcap">Woman's Capacity for Scientific Pursuits</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_106'>106</a></span><br /> +<br /> +III. <span class="smcap">Women in Mathematics</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_136'>136</a></span><br /> +<br /> +IV. <span class="smcap">Women in Astronomy</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_167'>167</a></span><br /> +<br /> +V. <span class="smcap">Women in Physics</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_197'>197</a></span><br /> +<br /> +VI. <span class="smcap">Women in Chemistry</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_214'>214</a></span><br /> +<br /> +VII. <span class="smcap">Women in the Natural Sciences</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_233'>233</a></span><br /> +<br /> +VIII. <span class="smcap">Women in Medicine and Surgery</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_266'>266</a></span><br /> +<br /> +IX. <span class="smcap">Women in Archæology</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_309'>309</a></span><br /> +<br /> +X. <span class="smcap">Women as Inventors</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_334'>334</a></span><br /> +<br /> +XI. <span class="smcap">Women as Inspirers and Collaborators in Science</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_356'>356</a></span><br /> +<br /> +XII. <span class="smcap">The Future of Women in Science: Summary and Epilogue</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_390'>390</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Bibliography</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_419'>419</a></span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Index</span> <span class="tocnum"><a href='#Page_427'>427</a></span><br /> +</p> +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span></p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Le donne son venute in excellenza<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Di ciascun'arte, ove hanno posta cura;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E qualunque all'istorie abbia avvertenza,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ne sente ancor la fama non oscura.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">What art so deep, what science so high,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But worthy women have thereto attained?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who list in stories old to look may try,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And find my speech herein not false nor fain'd.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i15"><span class="smcap">Ariosto, Orlando Furioso,</span><br /></span> +<span class="i15"><span class="smcap">Canto XX, Strophe 2.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><i>Ad omnem igitur doctrinam ... muliebres animos natura comparavit.</i><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i15"><span class="smcap">Maria Gaetana Agnesi.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<h2>WOMAN IN SCIENCE</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>WOMAN'S LONG STRUGGLE FOR THINGS OF THE MIND</h3> + + +<h4>WOMAN AND EDUCATION IN ANCIENT GREECE</h4> + +<p>I purpose to review the progress and achievements of woman in science +from her earliest efforts in ancient Greece down to the present time. I +shall relate how, in every department of natural knowledge, when not +inhibited by her environment, she has been the colleague and the +emulatress, if not the peer, of the most illustrious men who have +contributed to the increase and diffusion of human learning. But a +proper understanding of this subject seems to require some preliminary +survey of the many and diverse obstacles which, in every age of the +world's history, have opposed woman's advancement in general knowledge. +Without such preliminary survey it is impossible to realize the +intensity of her age-long struggle for freedom and justice in things of +the mind or fully to appreciate the comparative liberty and advantages +she now enjoys in almost every department of intellectual activity. +Neither could one understand why woman's achievements in science, +compared with those of men, have been so few and of so small import, +especially in times past, or why it is that, as a student of nature or +as an investigator in the various realms of pure and applied science, we +hear so little of her before the second half of the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>To exhibit the nature of the difficulties woman has had to contend with +in every age and in every land, in order<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> to secure what we now consider +her inalienable rights to things of the mind, it is not necessary to +review the history of female education, or to enter into the details of +her gradual progress forward and upward in the New and Old Worlds. But +it is necessary that we should know what was the attitude of mankind +toward woman's education during the leading epochs of the world's +history and what were, until almost our own day, the opinions of +men—scholars and rulers included—respecting the nature and the duties +of woman and what was considered, almost by all, her proper sphere of +action. Understanding the numerous and cruel handicaps which she had so +long to endure, the opposition to her aspirations which she had to +encounter, even during the most enlightened periods of the world's +history, and that, too, from those who should have been the first to +extend to her a helping hand, we can the better appreciate the extent of +her recent intellectual enfranchisement and of the value of the work she +has accomplished since she has been free to exercise those God-given +faculties which were so long held in restraint.</p> + +<p>The first great bar to the mental development of woman was the assumed +superiority of the male sex, the opinion, so generally accepted, that, +in the scheme of creation, woman was but "an accident, an imperfection, +an error of nature"; that she was either a slave conducing to man's +comfort, or, at best, a companion ministering to his amusement and +pleasure.</p> + +<p>From the earliest times she was regarded as man's inferior and relegated +to a subordinate position in society. She was, so it was averred, but a +diminutive man—a kind of mean between the lord of creation and the rest +of the animal kingdom. By some she was considered a kind of half man; by +others, as was cynically asserted, she was looked upon as a <i>mas +occasionatus</i>—a man marred in the making. She was, both mentally and +physically, what Spencer would call a man whose evolution had been +arrested,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> while man, as in the modern language of Darwin, was a woman, +whose evolution had been completed.</p> + +<p>When such views prevailed, it was inevitable that, so long as physical +force was the <i>force majeure</i>, a woman should be relegated to the +position of a slave or to that of "a mere glorified toy." Every man then +said, in effect, if not in words, of the woman who happened to be in his +power what Petruchio said of Katherine:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I will be master of what is mine own,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My household stuff, my field, my barn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My horse, my ox, my ass, my everything."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Even after civilization had superseded savagery and barbarism, it was +still inevitable, so long as such views found acceptance, that woman +should continue to be held in vassalage and ignorance and to suffer all +the disabilities and privations of "the lesser man." She was studiously +excluded from civic and social functions and compelled to pass her life +in the restricted quarters of the harem or gyneceum. This was the case +among the Athenians, as well as among other peoples; for, during the +most brilliant period of their history, women, when not slaves or +hetæræ, were considered simply child-bearers or housekeepers.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> A +girl's education, when she received any at all, was limited to reading, +writing and music, and for a knowledge of these subjects she was +dependent on her mother. From her earliest years the Athenian maiden was +made to realize that the great fountains of knowledge, which were +always<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> available for her brothers, were closed to her. Her duty was to +become proficient in the use of the needle and the distaff, and, later +on, to learn how to embroider, to ply the loom and make garments for +herself and for the other members of her family.</p> + +<p>Until she was seven years old, she was brought up with her brothers +under the eye of her mother. During this period of childhood she had a +certain amount of freedom, but, after her seventh year, she was kept in +the gyneconitis—women's quarters—"under the strictest restraint, in +order," as Xenophon informs us in his <i>Œconomicus</i>, "that she might +see as little, hear as little and ask as few questions as possible." On +rare occasions she was permitted to be a spectator at a religious +procession, or to take part in certain of the choral dances that +constituted so important a part in the religious ceremonies of ancient +Greece. Whether in public or in private, silence was always considered +an imperative duty for a woman.</p> + +<p>But more than this. Not only was she expected to observe silence +herself, but she was also expected so to conduct herself that no one +would have occasion to speak about her. Pericles, in a celebrated +discourse, gave expression to the prevailing opinion regarding this +phase of female excellence when, on a notable occasion, he addressed to +a certain number of women the following words: "Great will be your glory +in not falling short of your natural character; and greatest will be +hers who is least talked of among men whether for good or for evil."<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></p> + +<p>From the foregoing observations it will be seen that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> general +attitude of the Athenians toward woman was anything but favorable to her +intellectual development, or to her exerting any influence beyond the +limits of her own household. And what is said of the Greeks can be +affirmed, with still greater emphasis, of the other nations of +antiquity. Indeed, it can be safely asserted that, had they all entered +into a solemn compact systematically to discredit woman's mental +capacity and to repress all her noblest aspirations, they could not have +succeeded more effectually than by the methods they severally adopted. +In ancient Greece the condition of woman was little better than it is in +India to-day under the law of Manu, where the husband, no matter how +unworthy he may be, must be regarded by the wife as a god.</p> + +<p>And yet, notwithstanding the dominant force of public opinion and the +strange traditional prejudices that possessed for the majority of people +all the semblance and commanding power of truth, woman was here and +there able to break through the barriers that impeded her progress in +her quest of knowledge and to defy the social conventions that precluded +her from being seen or heard in the intellectual arena.</p> + +<p>One of the first and most notable of Greek women to assert her +independence and to emerge from the intellectual eclipse which had so +long kept her sex in obscurity, was the Lesbian Sappho, who, as a lyric +poet, stands, even to-day, without a superior. So great was her renown +among the ancients that she was called "The Poetess," as Homer was +called "The Poet." Solon, on hearing one of her songs sung at a banquet, +begged the singer to teach it to him at once that he might learn it and +die. Aristotle did not hesitate to endorse a judgment that ranked her +with Homer and Archilochus, while Plato, in his Phædrus, exalts her +still higher by proclaiming her "the tenth Muse." Horace and Ovid and +Catullus strove to reproduce her passionate strains and rhythmic beauty; +but their efforts were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> little better than paraphrase and feeble +imitation. Her features were stamped on coins, "though she was but a +woman," and, after her death, altars were raised and temples erected in +honor of this "flower of the Graces," of</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"That mighty songstress, whose unrivaled powers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Weave for the Muse a crown of deathless flowers."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Second only to the "violet-crowned, pure, sweetly-smiling Sappho," as +her rival, Alcæus, calls her, were Gorgo, Andromeda and Corinna. The +last of these was the teacher of Pindar, the celebrated lyric poet, whom +she defeated five times in poetic contests in Thebes.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> She was one of +the nine lyrical muses, corresponding to "the celestial nine," who dwelt +on the sacred slopes of Helicon.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> Telesilla and Praxilla were two +others. The last named was by her countrymen ranked with Anacreon.</p> + +<p>Scarcely inferior to Corinna were those ardent pupils of Sappho, who had +flocked from the sunny isles of the Ægean<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> and the laurel-crowned hills +of Greece around "the fair-haired Lesbian" in her island home, which +was, at the same time, a school of poetry and music. The most gifted of +these were Danophila, the Pamphylian, and Erinna, whose hexameters were +said by the ancients to reveal a genius equal to that of Homer. She died +at the early age of nineteen and has always excited a pathetic interest +because, like so many others of her sex since her time—women and +maidens of the loftiest spiritual aspirations,—she was condemned to the +spindle and the distaff when she wished to devote her life to the +service of the Muses. The following is her own epitaph:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"These are Erinna's songs, how sweet, though slight!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For she was but a girl of nineteen years.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet stronger far than what most men can write;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Had death delayed, whose fame had equaled hers?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Never before nor since did such a wave of feminine genius pass over the +fragrant valleys and vine-clad plains of Greece. Never in any other +place or time shone so brilliant a galaxy of women of talent and +imagination; never was there a more perfect flowering of female +intelligence of the highest order. According to tradition, there +appeared in the favored land of Hellas, when the entire population of +the country was not equal to that of a fair-sized modern city, within +the brief space of a century, no fewer than seventy-six women poets. +When we remember that the Renaissance produced only about sixty female +poets, though in a more extended territory and with a much larger +population, and that none of them could approach the incomparable +Sappho, or even many of her pupils, in the perfection of their work, we +can realize the splendor of the achievements of the female intellect in +the Hellenic world during the golden age of feminine poetic art.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> +<p>One would think that this phenomenal outburst of mental vigor, and +especially the marvelous achievements of Sappho, Corinna and those of +their pupils and followers, would have compelled the world for all +subsequent time to recognize the innate power of the female mind, and +perceive the wisdom—not to say justice—of according to women the same +advantages for the development of their inborn gifts as were afforded to +men. They had proved that, under favorable conditions, there was +essentially no difference between the male and the female intellect, and +that genius knows no sex. And this they demonstrated not only in poetry, +but also in philosophy and in other branches of human knowledge as well.</p> + +<p>Among those who had especially distinguished themselves were Hipparchia, +the wife of the philosopher Crates; Themista, the wife of Leon and a +correspondent of Epicurus, who was pronounced "a sort of female Solon"; +Perictione, a disciple of Pythagoras, who distinguished herself by her +writings on <i>Wisdom</i> and <i>The Harmony of Woman</i>, and Leontium, a +disciple and companion of Epicurus, who wrote a work against +Theophrastus, which was pronounced by Cicero a model of style.</p> + +<p>And was not the school of Pythagoras at Crotona continued after his +death by his daughter and his wife, Theano? And did not this fact alone +manifest woman's capacity for abstract thought, as effectively as the +Lesbian school had demonstrated her talent for consummate verse?<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<p>But it was all to no purpose. The comparative freedom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> and advantages +which Sappho, Corinna and their friends had enjoyed was soon—for some +reason scarcely comprehensible by us—taken from all the women of Greece +except the peculiar class known in history as <i>hetæræ</i>—companions. +These we should now rank among the <i>demimonde</i>, but the Greek point of +view was different from ours. The hetæræ were the friends and companions +of the men who spent most of their time in public resorts, and they +accompanied them to the gymnasium, to banquets, the games, to the +theater and other similar assemblies from which the wives and daughters +of the Athenians, during the golden age of Greece, were rigorously +excluded. For so great was the seclusion in which the wives of the +Greeks then lived that they never attended public spectacles and never +left the house, unless accompanied by a female slave. They were not +permitted to see men except in the presence of their husbands, nor could +they have a seat even at their own tables, if their husbands happened to +have male guests.</p> + +<p>It was by reason of this strict seclusion and the enforced ignorance to +which they were subjected that we hear very little of the virtuous women +of this period of Greek history. We have records of a few instances of +filial and conjugal affection, but, outside of this, the names of the +wives and daughters of even the most distinguished citizens have long +since passed into oblivion. Only the hetæræ attracted public notice, and +only among them, during the period to which reference is now made, do we +find any women who achieved distinction by their intellectual +attainments, or by the influence which they exerted over those with whom +they were associated.</p> + +<p>But strange as it may appear, these extra-matrimonial connections, far +from incurring the censure which they would now provoke, received the +cordial recognition of both legislators and moralists, and even those +who were considered the most virtuous among men openly entered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> into +these relations without exposing themselves to the slightest stigma or +reproach. Many of the hetæræ, contrary to what is sometimes thought, +were "of highly moral character, temperate, thoughtful and earnest, and +were either unattached or attached to one man, and to all intents and +purposes married. Even if they had two or three attachments but behaved +in other respects with temperance and sobriety, such was the Greek +feeling in regard to their peculiar position that they did not bring +down upon themselves any censure from even the sternest of the Greek +moralists."<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p> + +<p>The most famous men of Greece, married as well as unmarried, had their +"companions," many of whom were as distinguished for their +accomplishments as for their wit and beauty. Thus Epicurus had Leontium, +Menander Glycera, Isocrates Metaneira, Aristotle Herpyllis, and Plato +Archlanassa, while Aristippus, the philosopher, Diogenes, the cynic, and +Demosthenes, the great orator, each had a companion bearing the name of +Lais.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> More than this. So strongly had many of the hetæræ impressed +themselves on the esthetic sense of the beauty-loving Greeks that not a +few of them had statues erected in their honor, especially in Athens and +Corinth, and thus shared in the honor that hitherto had been reserved +exclusively for the goddess of beauty and love, fair Aphrodite.</p> + +<p>The hetæræ from Ionia and Ætolia were particularly conspicuous for their +intelligence and culture. And all of them, whencesoever they came, +enjoyed unrestricted liberty and, unlike the wives of the citizens of +Athens, had free access to the Portico and the Academy and the Lyceum,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> +and were permitted to attend the lectures of the philosophers on the +same footing as the men. Thus, to mention only a few, Thais was a pupil +of Alciphron, Nicarete of Stilpo, and Lasthenia of Plato.</p> + +<p>And so keen were their intellects and so marked was their progress in +the most abstract studies, that many of them were recognized as the most +distinguished pupils of their masters. This accounts, in part, for the +popularity of their salons, at which were gathered the most eminent +statesmen, poets, artists, philosophers and orators of the day. The +nearest approach in modern times to such trysting-places, where beauty, +wit and talent found a congenial atmosphere, were the celebrated salons +of Ninon de Lenclos, Mlle. de l'Espinasse and Mme. du Deffand. At these +reunions were discussed, not only the news of the day, but also, and +especially, art, science, literature and politics, and always to the +advantage of both guests and hostesses.</p> + +<p>Possessing such freedom and enjoying such splendid opportunities for +culture and intellectual advancement, it is not surprising that the +hetæræ played so remarkable a rôle in the social and civic life of +Greece, and that they were able to wield such influence over their +associates, and that they often attained even the highest royal honors. +Nor is it surprising to read in Plato's <i>Symposium</i> the splendid tribute +which Socrates renders to Diotima of Mantinea, when, in discussing the +true nature of divine and eternal beauty, he speaks of her as his +teacher.</p> + +<p>Many of the hetæræ were not only the models but also the inspirers of +the most famous painters and sculptors of antiquity. Thus, Lais was the +companion and inspirer of Apelles, the most noted painter of Greece, +while Phryne, said to have been the most beautiful woman who ever lived, +was the inspirer of the peerless Praxitiles, who, in reproducing her +form, succeeded in bequeathing to the world what was undoubtedly the +most lovely representation of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> "the human form divine" that ever came +from a sculptor's chisel.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<p>On account of the relations of the hetæræ, especially those of the +fourth and fifth centuries B.C., with the greatest men of their time, +the writers of antiquity thought them of sufficient importance to +preserve their history. One author has left us an account of no fewer +than one hundred and thirty-five of them. But, of all those whose names +have come down to us, by far the most noted, accomplished and +influential was the famous Aspasia of Miletus. In many respects she was +the most remarkable woman Greece ever produced. Of rare talent and +culture, of extraordinary tact and finesse, of a fascinating personality +combined with the grace and sensibility of her sex, together with a +masculine power of intellect, "this gracious Ionian," as has well been +said, "stands with Sappho on the pinnacle of Hellenic culture, each in +her own field the highest feminine representative of an esthetic race."</p> + +<p>At an early age she won the passionate love of the great statesman +Pericles, after which she entered upon that marvelous career which +secured for her a place in the front rank of the most eminent women of +all time. "Her house became the resort of all the great men of Athens. +Socrates was often there. Phidias and Anaxagoras were intimate +acquaintances, and probably Sophocles and Euripides were in constant +attendance. Indeed, never had any woman such a salon in the whole +history of man. The greatest sculptor that ever lived, the grandest man +of all antiquity, philosophers and poets, sculptors and painters, +statesmen and historians, met each other and discussed congenial +subjects in her rooms. And probably hence has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> arisen the tradition that +she was the teacher of Socrates in philosophy and politics, and Pericles +in rhetoric. Her influence was such as to stimulate men to their best, +and they attributed to her all that was best in themselves. Aspasia +seems especially to have thought earnestly on the duties and destiny of +women. The cultivated men who thronged her assemblies had no hesitation +in breaking through the conventionalities of Athenian society, and +brought their wives to the parties of Aspasia; and she discussed with +them the duties of wives. She thought they should be something more than +mere mothers and housewives. She urged them to cultivate their minds, +and be in all respects fit companions for their husbands."<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p> + +<p>She is said to have written some of the best speeches of Pericles—among +them his noted funeral oration over those who had died in battle before +the walls of Potidæa. As to Socrates, he himself explicitly refers to +her, in the <i>Memorabilia</i>, as his teacher. She is a notable character in +the Socratic dialogues and appears several times in those of Æschines, +while there is every reason to believe that she strongly influenced the +views of Plato, as expressed by him in the <i>Republic</i> respecting the +equality of woman with man.</p> + +<p>She was continually consulted regarding affairs of state,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> and her +influence in social and political matters was profound and far-reaching. +This is evidenced by the abuse heaped upon her by the comic dramatists +of the time. Referring to the ascendancy which she had over Pericles, +she was called Dejanira, the wife of Hercules; Hera, the queen of the +gods and wife of the Olympian Jove. It was asserted by her enemies that +the Samian war had been brought about at her instigation and that the +Peloponnesian war had been undertaken to avenge an insult which had been +offered her. These and similar statements which, when not absurd, were +greatly exaggerated, show the boundless influence she wielded over +Pericles, and what an important part she took in the government of +Greece in the zenith of its glory.</p> + +<p>But, however great her influence, we are warranted in asserting that it +was never exercised in an illegitimate manner. She was ever, as history +informs us, the good, the wise, the learned, the eloquent Aspasia. It +was her goodness, her wisdom, her rare and varied accomplishments, her +clear insight and noble purposes that gave her the wonderful power she +possessed and which enabled her, probably more than any one person, to +make the age of Pericles not only the most brilliant age of Greek +history, but also the most brilliant age of all time.<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> +<p>But, notwithstanding the beneficent influence which Aspasia ever exerted +on those about her, notwithstanding the heroic efforts she had made to +liberate her own sex from the restrictions that had so long harassed and +degraded it, the wives and daughters of the citizens of Athens were +still kept in almost absolute seclusion and denied the opportunities of +mental culture which were so generously accorded the free-born hetæræ +from Asia Minor and the islands of the Ægean. Socrates, as we learn from +Xenophon, asserted woman's equality with man, while Plato taught that +mentally there was no essential difference between man and woman. He +concluded, accordingly, that women of talent should have the same +educational advantages as men. In <i>The Republic</i> as well as in the +<i>Laws</i>, when he refers to education—which he would make compulsory for +"all and sundry, as far as possible"—his views are far in advance of +those which have been entertained until the last half century. He would +have girls as well as boys thoroughly instructed in music and +gymnastic—"music for the mind and gymnastic for the body."<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p> + +<p>In the <i>Laws</i> he contends that "women ought to share, as far as +possible, in education and in other ways with men. For consider:—if +women do not share in their whole life with men, then they must have +some other order of life."</p> + +<p>Again he asserts "Nothing can be more absurd than the practice which +prevails in our own country of men and women not following the same +pursuits with all their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> strength and with one mind, for thus the state, +instead of being a whole, is reduced to a half."<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a></p> + +<p>In <i>The Republic</i> he expresses the same idea when he affirms that "the +gifts of nature are alike diffused in both"—men and women—"all the +pursuits of men are the pursuits of women."<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p> + +<p>These opinions of Socrates and Plato are so at variance with those of +their contemporaries, and so contrary to the custom that then obtained +of excluding all but free-born hetæræ from the advantages of education +and culture, that we cannot but think that they were due to the profound +influence which had been exercised directly or indirectly by Aspasia on +both of these great philosophers. Be this as it may, neither the efforts +of Aspasia nor the teachings of Socrates and Plato were able to remove +the bars to intellectual development from which the women of Greece had +so long suffered. A change in customs and laws concerning the rigid, +oriental seclusion of women did not come until much later, and then it +was under a new régime—that of the Cæsars—while complete equality of +men and women in school and college was not recognized until long +centuries afterward.</p> + +<p>It is interesting to speculate regarding what Greece would have become +had she developed her women as she developed her men. Never in the +history of the world were there in any one city so many eminent +men—poets, orators, statesmen, painters, sculptors, architects, +philosophers—as in Athens, and yet not a single native-born Athenian +woman ever attained the least distinction in any department of art or +science or literature. We cannot conceive for a moment that Greece's +fertility in great men and barrenness in great women was due to the fact +that the mothers of such illustrious men were ordinary housewives<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> and +entirely devoid of the talent and genius which gave immortality to their +distinguished sons. The careers of Aspasia and the achievements of +Sappho, Corinna, Myrtides, Erinna, Praxilla, Telesilla, Myrus, Anytæ and +Nossidis, Theano and her daughter, to mention no others, absolutely +preclude such an assumption.</p> + +<p>The women in Greece, there can be no doubt about it, were as richly +endowed by nature as were the men, and only lacked the opportunities +that men enjoyed to achieve, in every sphere of intellectual activity, a +corresponding measure of success. They were extraordinary types, these +women of ancient Greece; for among them we find the dignified Roman +matron, the chatelaine of the Middle Ages, the brilliant woman of the +Renaissance and the cultured mistress of the French <i>salon</i>. But all +their talent, power and genius counted for naught.</p> + +<p>Had the civilization of Greece been a woman's civilization, as well as a +man's civilization, had there been a federation of all the Greek states, +as Aspasia seems to have striven for, instead of a number of small and +independent city-states; had the women of Hellas been allowed the same +liberty of action in intellectual work as was granted to the Italian +women during and after the revival of letters, and had they been +encouraged to develop all their latent powers that were so +systematically suppressed, and to work in unison with the men for the +welfare and advancement of a united nation, it is difficult to imagine +what a dazzling intellectual zenith a supremely gifted people, "full +summ'd in all their powers," would have attained. Their capacity for +work and for achieving great things would have been doubled and their +power as a political organization would have been practically +irresistible.</p> + +<p>"We are the only women that bring forth men," said Gorgo, the wife of +Leonidas. The Spartan mothers, who had more of liberty than their +Athenian sisters, did, indeed, bring forth warriors of undying renown; +but it was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> mothers of Athens who, notwithstanding all their +grievous disabilities, gave to the world all the greatest masters in +art, literature, and philosophy—the men who through the ages have been +the leaders and the teachers of humanity, and who seem destined to hold +their exalted position until the end of time.</p> + +<p>The failure of the men of Greece to avail themselves of the immense +potential power, which they always kept latent in their women, was the +occasion of a terrible nemesis in the end. For this failure, coupled +with the frightful license introduced by a class of educated women, like +the hetæræ, without legal status or domestic ties, and the wave of +corruption that subsequently followed the advent of the countless +dissolute women who flocked to the Hellenic cities from every part of +the East, paved the way for the nation's downfall and for its ultimate +conquest by the resistless Roman legions that swept the once glorious +but ill-fated country of Pericles and Aspasia.</p> + + +<h4>WOMAN AND EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ROME</h4> + +<p>The condition of women in Rome, especially from 150 B.C. to 150 A.D., +was quite different from what it was in Athens, even during her palmiest +days. Owing to the lack of authentic documents we know but little of the +history of the Roman people during the first five hundred years of their +existence, but we do know that during this period many and important +changes were effected regarding the social and civil status of women.</p> + +<p>In the first place the Roman matron had much more freedom than was +accorded the Greek wife during the age of Pericles. Far from being kept +in oriental seclusion, like her Athenian sister, she was at liberty to +receive and dine with the friends of her husband, and to appear in +public whenever she desired. She went to the theater and the Forum; she +took part in all reputable entertainment, whether public or private. +Besides this, she had more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> and greater legal rights than Greek women +had ever known, and was treated rather as the peer and companion of man +than as his toy or his slave.</p> + +<p>Besides this, foreign women were never so conspicuous in Rome as in +Athens. Even after Greece had become a Roman province, and after <i>Græcia +capta Romam cepit</i>—when Greek ideas and Greek customs were introduced +into the capital of the Roman world—it was still the Roman matron that +was supreme. And, although many Greek women, some of them of rare beauty +and culture, found their way to Rome, especially under the empire, they +were always kept in the background and never succeeded in achieving +anything approaching the ascendancy which distinguished them during the +time of Aspasia. Their influence in literature and politics was almost +<i>nil</i>.</p> + +<p>In the case of the women of Rome, on the contrary, it may well be +questioned whether woman has ever wielded a greater influence than she +did during the three centuries that followed the reign of Augustus. But +she did not attain to this position of preëminence without a long and +bitter struggle. Every advance toward the goal of social and +intellectual equality was strenuously contested by the men, who wished +to limit the activities of their wives to the spindle, the distaff and +the loom and the other occupations of the household. For, as in Greece, +the generally accepted view was that woman, in the language of Gibbon, +"was created to please and obey. She was never supposed to have reached +the age of reason or experience." And her noblest epitaph, it was +averred, was couched in the following words:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"She was gentle, pious, loved her husband, was skillful at +the loom and a good housekeeper."<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p></div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p> +<p>As to her mental work, far from being considered on its own merits or as +a factor in the world's growth, it was flouted as</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Mere woman's work<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Expressing the comparative respect<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Which means the absolute scorn."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As early as 450 B.C., when the laws of the Twelve Tables were +promulgated, the girls of Rome received instruction in reading, writing +and arithmetic. "Up before dawn, with a lamp to light the way, and an +attendant to carry her satchel, the little Roman maiden of seven years, +or over, would trudge off to the portico where the schoolmaster wielded +his rod.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a> For some years this life continued, with but few holidays, +and those far between, until she attained some proficiency in the +rudiments. Then, most probably, her education in the scholastic sense +came to an end. Her brothers and boy schoolmates, if their parents +wished it, could proceed from the primary school to the secondary, where +geography, history and ethics were taught; where the art of elocution +was assiduously practiced and the works of the great Greek and Roman +poets<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> were carefully read and expounded; but it was enough for the girl +to have learned how to read, write and cipher; she had then to learn her +domestic duties."<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p> + +<p>With the extension of the empire and the consequent enormous increase in +wealth and the rapid progress in social and intellectual freedom, there +was a notable change in the character of the education given to women, +at least to those of the wealthier and patrician families. This was, in +great measure, due to the wave of Hellenism which, shortly after the +conquest of Greece, broke upon the Roman capital with such irresistible +force. To the large and rapidly increasing number of women of keen +intellect and lofty aspirations, whose minds had hitherto been confined +to the comparatively barren field of Roman letters, the splendid +creations of Greek genius came as a revelation. To become thoroughly +versed in Greek poetry and proficient in the teachings of Greek +philosophy was the ambition of scores of Roman women, who soon became +noted for the extent and variety of their attainments, as well as for +their rare culture and charming personality.</p> + +<p>Among the pioneers of the intellectual movement in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> Rome, and one of the +most beautiful types of the learned women of her time, was the +celebrated daughter of the elder Scipio Africanus—Cornelia, mother of +the Gracchi. She is famous on account of her devotion to her two sons, +Tiberius and Caius. She was their teacher; and it was her educated and +refined mind that, more than anything else, contributed to the formation +of those splendid characters for which they were so highly esteemed by +their countrymen. Plutarch informs us that these noble sons of a noble +mother "were brought up by her so carefully that they became beyond +dispute the most accomplished of Roman youth; and, thus, they owed +perhaps more to their excellent upbringing than to their natural +parts."<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> One is not surprised to learn that this noble lady was +almost idolized by the Romans, and that they erected a statue to her +with the inscription, "Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi."</p> + +<p>Scarcely less distinguished and accomplished was another Cornelia, the +wife of Pompey, the Great. "Besides her youthful beauty," writes +Plutarch, in his <i>Life of Pompey</i>, "she possessed other charms, for she +was well versed in literature, in playing on the lyre, and in geometry, +and she had been used to listen to philosophical discourses with profit. +Besides this, she had a disposition free from all affectation and +display of pedantry—blemishes which such acquirements usually breed in +women."<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a></p> + +<p>Then there was the cultured and devoted Aurelia, the mother of Julius +Cæsar. It is safe to say that this eminent man was as much indebted to +his mother for his success and greatness as were Tiberius and Caius +Gracchus to the benign influence and careful teachings of the gentle and +virtuous Cornelia. Highly educated and of commanding personalities, both +these women, like many others<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> of their time, contributed much to the +making of Roman history by the success they achieved in molding the +characters of some of the greatest men of their own or of any age.</p> + +<p>It is a splendid tribute that Cicero, in his <i>Orator</i>, pays to Lælia +when he tells of the purity of her language and the charm of her +conversation. "When I listen," he declares, "to my mother-in-law, +Lælia—for women preserve the traditional purity of accent the best +because, being limited in their intercourse with the multitude, they +retain their early impressions—I could imagine that I hear Plautus or +Nævius speaking, the pronunciation is so plain and simple, so perfectly +free from all affectation and display; from which I infer that such was +the accent of her father and his ancestors—not harsh like the +pronunciation to which I have just referred, not broad nor rustic nor +rugged, but terse, smooth and flowing."<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a></p> + +<p>These are a few of the cultured and learned women who shed glory on +their country by the refining influence which they exerted in the quiet +and unostentatious precincts of the family circle. But there were others +who chose a wider field for their activities, and who, by reason of +their unerring judgment, well-poised and highly cultivated minds, had so +won the confidence of the nation's greatest leaders that they were +frequently consulted on important affairs of state. Thus, Cicero tells +us of an interview which he had at Antium with Brutus and Cassius. +Besides the men, there were present on this occasion three women, who +took an active part in the discussion. These were Servilia, the mother +of Brutus, Porcia, the wife of Brutus and the daughter of Cato, and +Tertulla, the wife of Cassius and sister of Brutus. The views of the +women were not without effect, and so confident was Servilia of her +power that she engaged to have a certain clause in one of the decrees of +the Senate expunged. This<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> is but one of many similar instances which +might be adduced from the lives of the women of Rome who took an active +part in politics. As we learn from Tacitus, their counsels and +assistance were considered of peculiar value by the Commonwealth. For, +when some of the sterner old moralists wished to exclude women from all +participation in public affairs, the Senate, after a heated debate, +decided by a large majority that the coöperation of women in questions +of administration, far from being a menace, as some contended, was so +beneficial to the state that it should be continued.</p> + +<p>Among other noteworthy makers of Roman history, besides those just +mentioned, is Livia, the wife of Augustus and the mother of Tiberius. So +great was her influence and so persistent was her activity in government +affairs, that it is sometimes asserted that she was the prime mover of +most of the public acts of both these rulers. This woman, whom Ovid +describes as having the features of Venus and the manner of Juno, and +who, he declares, "held her head above all vices," was credited with +having the benevolence of Ceres, the purity of Diana and the wisdom and +craft of Minerva—"a woman," as was said by one of her contemporaries, +"in all things more comparable to the gods than to men, who knew how to +use her power so as to turn away peril and advance the most deserving."</p> + +<p>Then there was the gracious, the virtuous, the self-sacrificing Octavia, +sister of the Emperor Augustus, who was so successful in composing grave +differences between her brother and her husband, and who so exerted her +influence for peace during the troublous times in which she lived that +she lives in history as a peacemaker. In marked contrast to this gentle +and sympathetic woman was the energetic and heroic Agrippina, the wife +of Germanicus. In many respects she was the most commanding personality +of her age, and exhibited in an eminent degree those sterling qualities +which we are wont to associate with the strong,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> dignified, courageous +women of ancient Rome, who gave to the world so many and so great men in +every sphere of human endeavor. "She was," as Tacitus informs us, "a +greater power in the army than legates and commanders, and she, a woman, +had quelled a mutiny which the emperor's authority could not check."<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a> +She was, indeed, as has well been said, "a woman to whom one might +address an epic but never a sonnet."</p> + +<p>I have referred to these distinguished women because they are +embodiments of the best types of the noble, patrician families who made +the great Roman empire the admiration of all time, and because they +exhibit the wonderful advance that had been made in the general status +of women since the days of Pericles and Aspasia. I have referred to +them, also, to show what women are capable of achieving in the difficult +and complicated affairs of public life, when they are accorded the +necessary freedom of action and when they are properly equipped for work +by education and by association with men of learning and experience. +Comparing the secluded and illiterate Greek wife with the free and +highly accomplished Roman matron, we find almost as much difference +between the two as there is between a child and a fully developed +woman—all the difference there was between the unsophisticated young +wife, not quite fifteen, of whom Xenophon gives us such a charming +picture,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> and the highly educated and competent mother of the +Gracchi.</p> + +<p>Of the Greek maiden we are told that, before her marriage she "had been +most carefully brought up to see and hear as little as possible and to +ask the fewest questions"; that her whole experience before her marriage +"consisted in knowing how to take the wool and make a dress, and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> +seeing how her mother's handmaidens had their daily spinning tasks +assigned to them." Cornelia, on the contrary, was not only, as we have +seen, highly accomplished, but also one who, after her husband's death, +was quite prepared, as Plutarch assures us, to undertake the management +of the extensive property which he left his family, and who, we may well +believe, would also have been qualified, had the occasion demanded it, +to perform with distinction the same duties that fell to the lot of the +gifted wives of Germanicus and Augustus.</p> + +<p>Nothing in the history of Greek and Roman womanhood more strikingly +illustrates than the two instances given the vast difference in the +status of the wives of Greece and Rome, or exhibits more clearly the +advantages accruing to early training and thorough mental development. +If there was any difference in talent or intellect between the Greek and +the Roman woman it was, so far as we can determine, in favor of the +Greek. The sole reason, then, for such a marked difference in their +capacity for work and for achieving distinction in intellectual and +administrative fields of action arose from the lack of education in the +Athenian wife and the fullest measure of educational freedom enjoyed by +the Roman. That Aspasia, in spite of all the odds against her, was able +to rise to such a pinnacle of glory does not prove that she was the +superior of her countrywomen—the mothers of the greatest poets, artists +and philosophers of all time—but it exhibits rather her good fortune in +being able to effect a partnership with the greatest statesman of +Greece, and one who was at the same time fully able to appreciate all +her rare mental attainments and give her marvelous genius free scope for +development by coöperating with him in making the period during which he +held the reign of power the most brilliant one in the annals of human +progress.</p> + +<p>Plato, referring to the oriental seclusion to which Athenian wives were +condemned, speaks of them as "a race<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> used to living out of the +sunshine," and that, too, among a people that habitually lived out of +doors. We have already seen how much greater freedom Roman women enjoyed +and how much more important was the rôle they played in public as well +as private life; but we have not told all. They not only went to, but +presided over, public games and religious ceremonies. They were admitted +to aristocratic clubs and had, under the empire, a regular assembly or +senate of their own, known as the <i>Conventus Matronarum</i>. Hortensia, the +daughter of the great orator Hortensius, pleaded the cause of her sex +before the tribunal of the triumvirs, and so eloquent and effective was +her speech that she not only won her case, but also won the praise of +the critic, Quintilian, for her splendid oratorical effort.</p> + +<p>Yet more. A certain woman in the Roman possessions in Africa had so +impressed her fellow citizens by her intellectual capacity and +administrative ability that she was chosen as one of the two chief +magistrates of the place. She is known in history as Messia Castula, +<i>duumvira</i>. It is true that the men of the older school, who would limit +woman's activities to the distaff and the loom, strongly objected to the +increasing freedom and power of women, and endeavored to counteract +their influence; but all to no purpose. And it was the crabbed old Cato, +the Censor, who growled in undisguised disgust:—"We Romans rule over +all men and our wives rule over us."</p> + +<p>But great as were the freedom and educational advantages of the Roman +women, the startling fact remains that, with the exception of a few +fragmentary verses of slight merit and of questionable authenticity, we +have absolutely no tangible evidence of the Roman woman's literary +ability while under pagan influence. We have seen, in considering her +intellectual attainments—especially after the introduction of Greek art +and letters into the City of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> Seven Hills—that every woman who +pretended to culture was obliged to be familiar with the Greek as well +as with the Latin authors, that her education was deemed incomplete +without a knowledge of Greek poetry, oratory, history and philosophy, +but the fact is indisputable that Roman women were not producers like +their Greek sisters, and that in no instance did their productions reach +anything like the supreme excellence of the creations of a Corinna or a +Sappho. There was, it is true, Sulpicia, of whom Martial writes: "Let +every girl, whose wish it is to please a single man, read Sulpicia; let +every man, whose wish it is to please a single maid, read Sulpicia;" +but, if the few amatory verses that are credited to her represent the +highest flights of the Roman women in the domain of poetry, then, +indeed, were they far behind not only Sappho and Corinna, but also far +behind scores of their pupils. Martial does indeed speak of a young +maiden in whom were combined the eloquence of Plato with the austere +philosophy of the Porch, and who wrote verses worthy of a chaste Sappho; +but this was evidently a great exaggeration, for we have no other +evidence of her existence.</p> + +<p>The creative work of Roman women was, so far as we are able to judge, +quite as limited in prose as it was in poetry. Agrippina, the mother of +Nero, was one of the few prose writers whose name has come down to us. +From her memoirs it was that Tacitus received much of the material +incorporated in his <i>Annals</i>.</p> + +<p>That some of the women had literary ability of a high order is indicated +by a letter of Pliny to one of his correspondents, in which occurs the +following passage:</p> + +<p>"Pomponius Saturninus recently read me some letters which he averred had +been written by his wife. I believed that Plautus or Terence was being +read in prose. Whether they were really his wife's, as he maintains, or +his own, which he denies, he deserves equal honor, either because he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> +composes them or because he has made his wife, whom he married when a +mere girl, so learned and so polished."<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a></p> + +<p>Scarcely less distinguished for her taste in literature, and for her +talent as a letter writer, was Pliny's wife, Calphurnia, who, at his +request, wrote to him in his absence every day and sometimes even twice +a day. According to Cicero, his daughter Tulia was "the best and most +learned of women"; but her literary work, it is probable, did not extend +much beyond her letters to her illustrious father. Nevertheless, what +would we not give to possess these letters—to have as complete a +collection of them as we have of those of the great orator and +philosopher. They would be of inestimable value and would be absolutely +beyond compare, except, possibly, with the letters of Mme. du Deffand or +of Elizabeth Barrett Browning of a much later age.</p> + +<p>Considering the number of educated women that lived in the latter days +of the Republic and during the earlier part of the Empire, and their +well known culture and love of letters, it is reasonable to suppose that +they may have written much in both prose and verse of which we have no +record. Literary productions must have more than ordinary value to +survive two thousand years, and especially two thousand years of such +revolutions and upheavals as have convulsed the world since the time of +the <i>Pax Romana</i>, when all the world was at peace under Augustus.</p> + +<p>How much of the literary work of the women of to-day will receive +recognition twenty centuries hence? Some of it may, it is true, find a +place in the fireproof libraries of the time; but who, outside of a few +antiquarians, will take the trouble to read it or estimate its value? A +few anthologies containing our gems of prose and poetry will probably be +all that our fortieth century readers will deem worthy of notice. In +view of the chaotic condition of Europe for so many centuries, the +wonder is not that we<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> have so little of the literary remains of Greece +and Rome, but rather that we have anything at all.</p> + +<p>As one might expect, the literary women of Rome, as well as those who +ventured to take part in public affairs, had their critics. The +satirists of the time were as unsparing of their ridicule as they were +long afterward when Molière wrote his <i>Femmes Savantes</i> and his +<i>Précieuses Ridicules</i>. And as for men of the old conservative type, a +learned woman was as much an object of horror as is a militant +suffragette in conservative England to-day. "No learned wife for me," +exclaims Martial, "but rather a well-fed slave."<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a></p> + +<p>And Juvenal had no more love for educated women than have some of our +contemporaries for a blue-stocking housekeeper. He gives his opinion of +them in the following characteristic fashion:</p> + +<p>"That woman is a worse nuisance than usual who, as soon as she reclines +on her couch, praises Virgil; makes excuses for doomed Dido; pits bards +against one another and compares them, and weighs Homer and Mars in the +balance. Teachers of literature give way, professors are vanquished, the +whole mob is hushed, and so great is the torrent of words that no lawyer +or auctioneer may speak, nor any other woman."<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a></p> + +<p>But if learned women had their enemies and detractors they also had +friends and defenders. Among these was the Stoic philosopher, C. +Musonius Rufus, who lived in the time of Nero. Like Plato, he contended +that women should have the same training as men and that the faculties +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> both should be equally developed. The gist of his teaching is +contained in the statement that:</p> + +<p>"If the same virtues must pertain to men and women, it follows, +necessarily, that the same training and education must be suitable for +both."<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a></p> + +<p>Our brief sketch of women's work in ancient Rome would be incomplete +without some reference to the famous <i>Ecclesia Domestica</i>—Church of the +Household—on the Aventine, and the distinguished women who were its +chief ornaments. During the time of Pope Damasus, and not long before +the sacking of Rome by Alaric, the <i>Ecclesia Domestica</i> was a kind of +conventual home to which had retired, or in which were frequently +gathered, some of the most noble and learned women of the city. Among +the most notable of these were Marcella and her friends, Paula and +Eustochium.</p> + +<p>For beauty of character and nobility of purpose and rare mental +endowments they recall the best traditions of a Cornelia or a +Calphurnia, while so great was their purity of life and so unbounded was +their charity to the poor and suffering that they were honored by being +numbered among the saints of the early church. But what specially +distinguished them among all the great women of the Roman world was +their great and varied learning. In this respect they probably were far +in advance of all their predecessors. For, in addition to a thorough +knowledge of Latin and Greek literature, history and philosophy, they +had, under the great theologian and orientalist, St. Jerome, become +proficient in Hebrew and deeply versed in Scripture.</p> + +<p>Special mention should be made of Paula and her daughter Eustochium; for +it is probable that, had it not been for their influence on Jerome, and +their active coöperation in his great life work, we should not have the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> +Latin version of the Scriptures that is to-day known as the Vulgate. +This is evinced from the letters of the saint himself and from what we +know of the lives of these two remarkable women, who, as St. Jerome +informs us in the epitaph which he had engraved on Paula's tomb in the +Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, were descended from the Scipios, +the Gracchi and the Pauli on the mother's side, and on the father's side +from the half-mythical kings of Sparta and Mycenæ.<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a></p> + +<p>They aided him not only by their sympathy and by purchasing for him, +often at a great price, the manuscripts he needed for his colossal +undertaking, but also assisted him by their thorough knowledge of Latin, +Greek and Hebrew in translating the Sacred Books from the original +Hebrew into Latin. So great was Jerome's confidence in their scholarship +and so high was his appreciation of their ability and judgment that he +did not hesitate to submit his translations to them for their criticism +and approval. After he had completed his version of the first Book of +Kings, he turned it over to them, saying: "Read my Book of Kings—read +also the Latin and Greek translations and compare them with my version." +And they did read and compare and criticise. And more than this, they +frequently suggested modifications and corrections which the great man +accepted with touching humility and incorporated in a revised copy.</p> + +<p>More wonderful still, the Latin Psalter, as it has come down to us, is +not, as is generally supposed, the translation from the Hebrew of +Jerome, but rather a corrected<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> version made from the Septuagint by his +illustrious collaborators—Paula and Eustochium.</p> + +<p>It is safe to say that no two women were ever engaged in a more +important or more difficult literary undertaking—one requiring keener +critical sense or more profound learning—than were Paula and +Eustochium, or one in which their efforts were crowned with more +brilliant success than were those of these two supreme exemplars of the +grace, the knowledge, the culture, the refinement of Roman +womanhood—the crowning glories of womanhood throughout the ages.</p> + +<p>St. Jerome showed his grateful recognition of the invaluable assistance +received from his devoted and talented co-workers by dedicating to them +a great number of his most important books. This scandalized the +pharisaical men of the time, who looked askance at all learned women and +resented particularly the preëminence given to Paula and her +accomplished daughter. But their reproaches provoked a reply from the +saint that was worthy of the most chivalrous champion of woman, and +revealed, at the same time, all the nobility of soul of the roused "Lion +of Bethlehem." It is not only a defence of his course, but also a +splendid tribute to his two illustrious friends, and a tribute also to +the great and good women of all time.</p> + +<p>"There are people, O Paula and Eustochium," exclaims the Christian +Cicero, vibrant with emotion and in a burst of eloquence that recalls +one of the burning philippics of Marcus Tullius, "who take offence at +seeing your names at the beginning of my works. These people do not know +that Olda prophesied when the men were mute; that while Barach was +atremble, Deborah saved Israel; that Judith and Esther delivered from +supreme peril the children of God. I pass over in silence Anna and +Elizabeth and the other holy women of the Gospel, but humble stars when +compared with the great luminary, Mary. Shall I speak now of the +illustrious women among the heathen? Does<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> not Plato have Aspasia speak +in his dialogues? Does not Sappho hold the lyre at the same time as +Alcæus and Pindar? Did not Themista philosophize with the sages of +Greece? And the mother of the Gracchi, your Cornelia, and the daughter +of Cato, wife of Brutus, before whom pale the austere virtue of the +father and the courage of the husband—are they not the pride of the +whole of Rome? I shall add but one word more. Was not it women to whom +our Lord first appeared after His resurrection? Yes, men could then +blush for not having sought what the women had found."<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a></p> + +<p>Time has spared a joint letter of Paula and Eustochium to their friend +Marcella—a letter which exhibits so well the rare culture and literary +ability of the writers that we cannot but lament that we have not more +of the correspondence which was carried on between the learned inmates +of the Church of the Household on the Aventine and Paula's convent home +near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Such a collection would be +beyond price, as it would complete the picture of the age so well +sketched by St. Jerome; and, as a contribution to the literary world, it +would have a value not inferior to that of those exquisite classics of a +later age—the letters of Madame Sevigné to her daughter.<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a></p> + + +<h4>WOMAN AND EDUCATION DURING THE MIDDLE AGES</h4> + +<p>The period of nearly a thousand years intervening between the downfall +of Rome in A.D. 476 and the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in +1453 is usually known<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> in history as the Middle Ages. By some it is +considered as synonymous with the Dark Ages, because of the decline of +learning and civilization during this long interval of time. The former +designation seems preferable, for, as we shall see, the latter is more +or less misleading. During the "wandering of the nations" in the fourth +and fifth centuries, and the long and fierce struggles between the +barbarian hordes from the north with the decadent peoples of the once +great Roman empire, there was, no doubt, a partial eclipse of the sun of +civilization; but the consequent darkness was not so dense nor so +general and long-continued as is sometimes imagined. The progress of +intellectual culture was, indeed, greatly retarded, but there was no +time when the light of learning was entirely extinguished. For even +during the most troublous times there were centers of culture in one +part of Europe or another. At one time the center was in Italy, at +another in Gaul, and, at still another, it was in Britain or Ireland or +Germany.</p> + +<p>But whether it was in the south, or the west or the north of Europe that +letters flourished, it was always the convent or the monastery that was +the home of learning and culture. Within these holy precincts the +literary treasures of antiquity were preserved and multiplied. Here +monks and nuns labored and studied, always keeping lighted the sacred +torch of knowledge—<i>Et quasi cursores vitaï lampada tradunt</i>—and +passing it on to the generations that succeeded them. That any of the +great literary masterpieces of Greece and Rome have come to us, in spite +of the destructive agencies of time and the wreck of empires, is due +wholly to the unremitting toil through long ages of the zealous and +intelligent inmates of the cloister.</p> + +<p>Of the monastic institutions for men there is no occasion to speak, +except in so far as they contributed to the intellectual advancement of +woman. In some cases the women of the cloister owed much to +ecclesiastics for their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> literary training; but there are not wanting +instances in which the nuns took the lead in education and had the +direction of schools which gave to the church priests and bishops of +recognized scholarship.</p> + +<p>Practically the only schools for girls during the Middle Ages were the +convents. Here were educated rich and poor, gentle and simple. And in +these homes of piety and learning the inmates enjoyed a peace and a +security that it was impossible to find elsewhere. They were free from +the dangers and annoyances that so often menaced them in their own homes +and were able to pursue their studies under the most favorable auspices.</p> + +<p>Among the first convent schools to achieve distinction were those of +Arles and Poitiers in Gaul, in the latter part of the sixth century. The +Abbess of Poitiers is known to us as St. Radegund. She not only had a +knowledge of letters rare for her age, but wrote poems of such merit +that they were until recently accepted as the productions of her master, +the poet Fortunatus,<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a> who subsequently became bishop of Poitiers.</p> + +<p>Far more notable, however, than the convents of Arles and Poitiers was +the celebrated convent of St. Hilda at Whitby. Hilda, the foundress and +first abbess of Whitby, was a princess of the blood-royal and a +grand-niece of Edwin, the first Christian king of Northumbria. Her +convent and adjoining monastery for monks soon became the most noted +center of learning and culture in Britain. And so great was her +reputation for knowledge and wisdom that not only priests and bishops, +but also princes and kings sought her counsel in important matters of +church and state.</p> + +<p>As to the monks subject to her authority, she inspired them with so +great a love of knowledge, and urged them to so thorough a study of the +Scriptures, that her monastery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> became, as Venerable Bede informs us, a +school not only for missionaries but for bishops as well. He speaks in +particular of six ecclesiastical dignitaries who were sent forth from +this noble institution—all of whom were bishops. Five of them he +describes as men of singular merit and sanctity—"<i>singularis meriti et +sanctitatis viros</i>," while the sixth, he declared, was a man of rare +ability and learning—"<i>doctissimus et excellentis ingenii</i>." Of this +number was St. John of Beverly, who, we are told, "attained a degree of +popularity rare even in England, where the saints of old were so +universally and so readily popular."<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> Hilda governed her double +monastery with singular wisdom and success; and, so great was the love +and veneration she inspired among all classes that she merited the +epithet of "Mother of her Country."</p> + +<p>Celebrated, however, as Hilda was for her great educational work at +Whitby, she is probably better known to the world as the one who first +recognized and fostered the rare gifts of the poet Cædmon. "It is on the +lips of this cowherd," as Montalembert beautifully expresses it, "that +the Anglo-Saxon speech first bursts into poetry. Indeed, nothing in the +whole history of European literature is more original or more religious +than this first utterance of the English muse."<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a></p> + +<p>As soon as Hilda discovered the extraordinary poetic faculty of Cædmon, +she did not hesitate to regard it "as a special gift of God, worthy of +all respect and of the most tender care." And, in order that she might +the more readily develop the splendid talents of this literary prodigy, +the keen discerning abbess received Cædmon into the monastery of monks, +and had him translate the entire Bible into Anglo-Saxon. "As soon as the +Sacred Text was read for him he forthwith," as Bede declares, "ruminated +it as a clean animal ruminates its food, and transformed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> it into songs +so beautiful that all who heard were delighted."</p> + +<p>As his poetical faculty became more developed, his profoundly original +genius became more marked, and his inspiration more earnest and +impassioned. It was this Northumbrian cowherd, transformed into a monk +of Whitby, who sang before the abbess Hilda the revolt of Satan and +Paradise Lost, a thousand years earlier than Milton, in verses which may +still be admired even beside the immortal poem of the British Homer. So +remarkable, indeed, in some instances is the similarity in the +productions of the two poets that F. Palgrave, one of the most competent +of English critics, does not hesitate to declare that certain of +Cædmon's verses resembled so closely certain passages of the Paradise +Lost that some of Milton's lines seem almost like a translation from the +work of his distinguished predecessor. And M. Taine, in his <i>History of +English Literature</i>, referring to the "string of short, accumulated, +passionate images, like a succession of lightning flashes," of the old +Anglo-Saxon poet, asserts that "Milton's Satan exists in Cædmon's as the +picture exists in the sketch."<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a></p> + +<p>Well could Cædmon's first biographer, the Venerable Bede, say of him, +"Many Englishmen after him have tried to compose religious poems, but no +one has ever equaled the man who had only God for a master." And not +without warrant does the eloquent Montalembert, in the masterly work +just quoted, pen the following statement: "Apart from the interest which +attaches to Cædmon from a historical and literary point of view, his +life discloses to us essential peculiarities in the outward organization +and intellectual life of those great communities which in the seventh +century studded the coast of Northumbria, and which, with all their +numerous dependents, found often a more complete development under the +crozier of such a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> woman as Hilda than under the superiors of the other +sex."<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a></p> + +<p>Space precludes my telling of other convents which were centers of +literary activity, and of nuns who distinguished themselves by their +learning and by the benign influence which they exerted far beyond the +walls of the cloister. I cannot, however, refrain from referring to that +group of learned English nuns who are chiefly known by their Latin +correspondence with St. Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, and by the +assistance which they gave him in his arduous labors. Conspicuous among +these was St. Lioba, who, at the request of Boniface, left her home in +England to found a convent at Bischopsheim in Germany, which, under the +direction of its learned and zealous abbess, soon became the most +important educational center in that part of Europe. Teachers were +formed here for other schools in Germany and Lioba's biographer tells us +that there were few <i>monasteria feminarum</i>—monasteries of women—within +the sphere of Boniface's missionary activities for which Lioba's pupils +were not sought as instructresses.</p> + +<p>Like her illustrious countrywoman, St. Hilda, the abbess of Bischopsheim +was the friend and counselor of spiritual and temporal rulers. +Charlemagne, that eminent patron of scholars, had a great admiration for +her and gave her many substantial proofs of his esteem and veneration. +"Princes," writes her biographer, "loved her, noblemen received her, and +bishops gladly entertained her and conversed with her on the Scriptures +and on the institutions of religion, for she was familiar with many +writings and careful in giving advice. She was so bent on reading that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> +she never laid aside her book except to pray or to strengthen her slight +frame with food or sleep."<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> She was thoroughly conversant with the +books of the Old and the New Testaments and was, at the same time, +familiar with the writings of the Fathers. It is not surprising, then, +that she was regarded as an oracle, and that all classes flocked to her +as they did to the abbess of Whitby for guidance and assistance.</p> + +<p>From what has been said of the accomplishments and achievements of the +Anglo-Saxon nuns just mentioned, it is evident that they were, of a +truth, women of exceptional worth and of sterling character. And it is +equally clear that their pupils must have shared in the education and +culture of their distinguished teachers.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a> Many of them, in addition +to having a wide acquaintance with literature, sacred and profane, were +also mistresses of several languages. A woman's education, at this time, +was not complete unless she could write Latin and speak it fluently. The +author of that most interesting early English work, <i>Ancren Riwle</i>—Rule +of Anchoresses—presupposes in his auditors, for whose benefit his +instructions were given, a knowledge of Latin and French, as well as of +English. In certain convents Latin was almost the sole medium of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> +communication,—to such an extent, indeed, that a special rule was made +prohibiting "the use of the Latin tongue except under special +circumstances."</p> + +<p>"As long as the conventual system lasted the only schools for girls in +England were the convent schools where, says Robert Aske, 'the daughters +of gentlemen were brought up in virtue.' From an educational point of +view, the suppression of the convents was decidedly a blunder." Thus +writes Georgiana Hill in her instructive work on <i>Women in English +Life</i>, and there are, we fancy, but few readers of her instructive pages +who will not be inclined to agree with her conclusions.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> Lecky speaks +of the dissolution of convents at the time of the Reformation as "far +from a benefit to women or the world."<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> And Dom Gasquet declares +"that destruction by Henry VIII of the conventual schools where the +female population, the rich as well as the poor, found their only +teachers, was the absolute extinction of any systematic education of +women for a long period."<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a></p> + +<p>But this is not all. The strangest and saddest result, consequent on the +suppression of the convents, was that men were made to profit by the +loss which women had sustained. The revenues of the houses that were +suppressed had been intended for the sole use and behoof of women, and +had been administered by them in this sense for centuries. When they +were appropriated by Henry VIII, it never occurred to him or his +ministers to make any provision for the education of women in lieu of +that which had so ruthlessly been wrested from them. Thus the nunnery of +St. Radegund, together with its revenues and possessions, was +transformed into Jesus College, Cambridge, while from the suppressed +convents of Bromhall in Berkshire and Lillechurch in Kent funds were +secured for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> the foundation and endowment of St. John's College, also at +Cambridge. Similarly, the properties of other nunneries, large and +small, were appropriated for the foundation of collegiate institutions +at Oxford, all of which were for the benefit of men.</p> + +<p>And so it was that, in a few short years, the great work of centuries +was undone and women were left little better educational facilities than +when the Anglo-Saxon nuns began their noble work in a land that was +enveloped in "one dark night of unillumined barbarism."</p> + +<p>One would have thought that Elizabeth, who was so highly educated, and +who did so much for the supremacy of her country on land and sea, would +have bethought herself of the necessity of doing something for the +education of her female subjects. But no. She did nothing for them, and +the founders of the endowed grammar schools, during her reign, gave +never a thought to the educational necessities of the girls. They made +provision only for the boys. In this respect, however, the "Virgin +Queen" was but following in the footsteps of the male sovereigns and +legislators who had preceded her, and who, although affecting an +interest in having women "sensible and virtuous, seem by their conduct +toward the sex to have entered into a general conspiracy to order it +otherwise."</p> + +<p>The truth is, when anything was achieved for the intellectual +advancement of women it was due either to private instruction or to the +result of a protracted struggle on the part of women themselves for what +they deemed their indefeasible rights. Had they relied on the +spontaneous action of men and on legislation in favor of female +education to which men had given the initiative, they would to-day be in +the same condition of ignorance and seclusion and servitude as was the +Athenian woman twenty-five centuries ago, and would occupy a status but +little above that of the inmates of oriental harems and zenanas.</p> + +<p>The Anglo-Saxon nuns were, as we have seen, specially<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> distinguished for +their learning and for the splendid work they performed for the +education of their sex during the long period of the Middle Ages. But +however great their preëminence in these respects, they were not without +rivals. There were, besides the schools, already named, conducted by St. +Lioba and her companions, also flourishing schools in Germany under the +direction of native nuns, whose success as educators was as marked as +that of Lioba or Hilda, and who, in addition to their labors in the +class-room, achieved distinction by their productive work. The +Anglo-Saxon convents developed few writers, whereas those of Germany +produced several who not only shed luster on their sex but who also +showed what woman is capable of accomplishing when accorded some measure +of encouragement and full liberty of action.</p> + +<p>One of the most noted writers of her age was the famous nun of +Gandersheim, Hroswitha, who was born in the early part of the tenth +century. She was the pupil of the abbess Gerberg, who was of royal +lineage, and one of the most zealous promoters of learning and culture +in Saxony during the forty-two years of her rule in the convent to which +she and her favorite pupil gave undying renown.</p> + +<p>Hroswitha's literary work consists of legends and contemporary history +in metrical form and of her dramas written in the style of Terence. As a +writer of history and legends she ranks with the best authors of her +time, while as a writer of dramas she stands absolutely alone. Hers, +indeed, were the first dramatic compositions given to the world during +the long interval that elapsed between the last comedies of classic +antiquity and the first of the miracle plays which had such a vogue +between the twelfth and the sixteenth century.</p> + +<p>Her dramas, which, of all her works, have attracted the most attention, +are seven in number. They deal with the moral and mental conflicts which +characterized the period of transition from heathendom to Christianity. +Some of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> them exhibit poetic talent of a high order as well as the +inspiration and courage of genius. They reveal also a wide acquaintance +with the classic authors of Rome and Greece, besides a knowledge of many +of the Christian writers. They are, likewise, distinguished by +originality of treatment, complete mastery of the material used, as well +as by genuine beauty of rhyme and rhythm. In form, all the plays +preserve the simple directness of their model, Terence, while, in +conception, they embody the noblest ideals of Christian teaching. In +marked contrast to her model, who invariably exhibits the frailties and +lapses of woman, Hroswitha's plays turn on the resistance of her sex to +temptation, and on their steadfast adherence to duty and to vows +voluntarily assumed. A recent English writer, W. H. Hudson, in an +appreciative estimate of the work of this learned Benedictine nun +expresses himself as follows:</p> + +<p>"It is on the literary side alone that Hroswitha belongs to the classic +school. The spirit and essence of her work belong entirely to the Middle +Ages; for beneath the rigid garb of a dead language"—she wrote in +Latin—"beats the warm heart of a new era. Everything in her plays that +is not formal but essential, everything that is original and individual, +belongs wholly to the Christianized Germany of the tenth century. +Everywhere we can trace the influence of the atmosphere in which she +lived; every thought and every motive is colored by the spiritual +conditions of her time. The keynote of all her works is the conflict of +Christianity with paganism; and it is worthy of remark that in +Hroswitha's hands Christianity is throughout represented by the purity +and gentleness of woman, while paganism is embodied in what she +describes as the vigor of men—<i>virile robur</i>."<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> +<p>Among her legends the one entitled <i>The Lapse and Conversion of +Theophilus</i> has a special interest as being the precursor of the +well-known legend of Faust.</p> + +<p>In Hroswitha's time, as in our own, there were people who were strongly +opposed to the higher education of women. There were others who would +deny them even the elements of an education—who declared that they +should be taught anything rather than reading and writing, which were a +cause of temptation and sin—that their knowledge should be confined +solely to the duties of an ordinary housewife, that their books should +consist solely of thimble, thread and needles—"<i>Et leurs livres, un dé, +du fil et des aguilles.</i>" Some, it is true, were willing to make an +exception in favor of nuns; but, as to all others, the less they knew +the better it was for their spiritual, if not for their temporal, +welfare also.<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> To those who were thus minded, Hroswitha pithily +replied that it was not knowledge itself but the bad use of it that was +dangerous—"<i>Nec scientia scibilis Deum offendit, sed injustitia +scientis.</i>"</p> + +<p>Among other women who were Hroswitha's equals in knowledge, if not in +literary attainments, were several other nuns who illumined the closing +centuries of the Middle Ages. Chief among these were St. Hildegard, "the +sybil of the Rhine"; Herrad, the noted author of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> <i>Hortus +Deliciarum—Garden of Delights</i>—and Matilda and Gertrude, those +remarkable mystical writers, whose descriptions of heaven and hell so +closely resemble those in the <i>Divina Commedia</i> that many writers are of +the opinion that the great Florentine poet must have been familiar with +the accounts which they gave of their visions.</p> + +<p>St. Hildegard was for a third of a century the abbess of the convent of +St. Rupert at Bingen. So great was her reputation for sanctity and for +the extent and variety of her attainments that she was called "the +marvel of Germany." She is without doubt one of the most beautiful and +imposing as well as one of the greatest figures of the Middle +Ages—great beside such eminent contemporaries as Abelard, Martin of +Tours and Bernard of Clairvaux. People from all parts of the Christian +world sought her counsel; and her convent at Bingen became a Mecca for +all classes and conditions of men and women. But nothing shows better +the immense influence which she wielded than her letters of which nearly +three hundred have been preserved.</p> + +<p>Among her correspondents were people of the humble walks of life as well +as the highest representatives of Church and State. There were simple +monks and noble abbots; dukes, kings and queens; archbishops and +cardinals and no fewer than four Popes. Letters came to her from the +orient and the occident, from the patriarch of Jerusalem, from Queen +Bertha of Greece, from Frederick Barbarossa, Philip the Count of +Flanders, St. Bernard, the professors of the University of Paris; from +Henry II of England, and from his grand-daughter Eleonora, "The Damsel +of Brittany." It is safe to say that no woman during the Middle Ages +exercised a wider or more beneficent influence than did this humble +Benedictine abbess of Bingen on the Rhine and had unsought so large a +number of distinguished correspondents. And, if we accept the criterion +that influence is measured by the number and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> nature of one's relations, +it would be difficult to find in any age relations that were more select +or more cosmopolitan.</p> + +<p>But her astonishing collection of letters is the slightest product of +her intellectual activity. She is without doubt the most voluminous +woman writer of the Middle Ages. Her works on theology, Scripture and +science make no less than six or eight large octavo volumes. The +Bollandists, than whom there is no more competent authority, express +their amazement at the amount and quality of Hildegard's work. Witness +the following language of one of their number: "Although we may not be +surprised that our saint was interrogated regarding secret things by so +many men eminent both by reason of their dignity and their learning, I +am nevertheless forced to recognize with stupefaction that a woman +without instruction, and who had not acquired knowledge by study, was +consulted concerning the most difficult questions of theology and the +most subtle of Holy Scriptures, and that she gave, without hesitation, +the answers that were demanded by theology and Scripture."<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a></p> + +<p>Is it, then, surprising that the famous William of Auxerre, after a +critical examination of her works, should compare her with Peter +Lombard, the celebrated "Master of the Sentences,"<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> and one of the +most learned of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> Schoolmen, and write that Hildegard is +<i>Sententiarum Magistra</i>—Mistress of the Sentences—and that "in her +works the words are not human but divine"? Has any woman writer ever +received higher praise, and from one so competent to express an opinion +as the scholarly divine of Auxerre?</p> + + +<p>Herrad, the gifted abbess of Hohenburg in Alsace, was a contemporary of +Hildegard, and, like her, was noted for her culture and wide range of +knowledge. She is chiefly known for her <i>Hortus Deliciarum</i>, a +remarkable work, encyclopædic in character, which she wrote for the nuns +of her convent and which was designed to embody in words and in pictures +the knowledge of her age.</p> + +<p>Nothing that time has bequeathed to us gives us a clearer conception of +the manifold activities of a mediæval nunnery, of the industry, talents +and enthusiastic love of learning of its inmates, than Herrad's +wonderful <i>Garden of Delights</i>. Nor is there any other work that gives +us a better knowledge of the manners, customs and ideals of the twelfth +century, or one that, in its particular sphere, is of more value to the +student of art, philology and archæology. It exhibits Herrad's intense +interest in the intellectual advancement of her nuns and pupils as well +as her superior talent and acquirements. Unfortunately the manuscript +copy of this work was destroyed at the time of the bombardment of +Strasburg by the Germans in 1870, and our knowledge of it is limited to +portions of it which had previously been transcribed or to accounts left +of it by those who had examined it before its destruction. Of such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> +exceptional value was this unique work that the editor of the great +collection of pictures, which illustrates this remarkable book, does not +hesitate to declare that "Few illuminated manuscripts had acquired a +fame so well deserved as the <i>Hortus Deliciarum</i> of Herrad."<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a></p> + +<p>No sketch, however brief, of the literary nuns of mediæval Germany would +be complete without some reference to the learned religious of the +convent of Helfta, near Eisleben in Saxony. Of the abbess Gertrude we +read that her enthusiasm for knowledge was so great that she not only +inspired others with the same enthusiasm, but that she was an incessant +collector of books, which she had her nuns transcribe. Among her most +distinguished subjects were two religious by the name of Matilda, one of +whom was her sister, and a third, who, to distinguish her from the +abbess, is known as "Gertrude the Great."</p> + +<p>The writings of these nuns were inspired by that great mystic movement +which then prevailed in various parts of Europe and are among the most +impassioned productions of the age. For this reason they still have a +special claim on the attention of students of art and literature, as +well as those of theology and mysticism. Impressed by the similarity of +their ideas and descriptions as compared with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> those found in Dante's +great masterpiece, there are not wanting scholars who contend that the +prototype of the Matelda in the earthly paradise of the <i>Purgatorio</i> was +none other than one of the Matildas of the famous convent of Helfta.<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a></p> + +<p>The writings of Hroswitha, Hildegard, Herrad, Gertrude and the Matildas, +to speak of no others, are the best evidence of the studious character +of the nuns of mediæval times, and of their devotion to the cause of +education. They command, likewise, our admiration for the system of +training which made such development possible, and show that, in certain +departments, the schools as then conducted were on as high a plane as +any we have to-day.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> They show us, too, that nuns and convent-bred +women of the age in question were of quite different mental calibre from +that of the "gentle lady of chivalry living in her bower, playing upon +her lute and waiting patiently for the return of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> her triumphant +knight," and quite different, too, from that of the castle +lady-loves—whose sole attractions were often no more than youth and +beauty—who inspired the impassioned lyrics of troubadour and +minnesinger.</p> + +<p>A recent writer sums up in a few words the status and the +accomplishments of the lady of the abbey in the following paragraph:</p> + +<p>"No institution of Europe has ever won for the lady the freedom and +development that she enjoyed in the convent in early days. The modern +college for women only feebly reproduces it, since the college for women +has arisen at a time when colleges in general are under a cloud. The +lady-abbess, on the other hand, was part of the two great social forces +of her time, feudalism and the Church. Great spiritual rewards and great +worldly prizes were alike within her grasp. She was treated as an equal +by the men of her class, as is witnessed by letters we still have from +popes and emperors to abbesses. She had the stimulus of competition with +men in executive capacity, in scholarship, and in artistic production, +since her work was freely set before the general public; but she was +relieved by the circumstances of her environment from the ceaseless +competition in common life of woman with woman for the favor of the +individual man. In the cloister of the great days, as on a small scale +in the college for women to-day, women were judged by each other as men +are everywhere judged by each other, for sterling qualities of head and +heart and character."<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p> + +<p>Nor is this all. Never was woman more highly honored, never was her +power and influence greater than during the period of conventual life +extending from Hilda of Whitby to Gertrude and the Matildas of Helfta, +and especially during that golden period of monasticism and chivalry +when cloister and court were the radiant centers of learning and +culture. Abbesses took part in ecclesiastical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> synods and councils and +assisted in the deliberations of national assemblies. In England, they +ranked with lords temporal and spiritual, and had the right to attend +the king's council or to send proxies to represent them, while in +Germany, where they held property directly from the king or emperor, +they enjoyed the rights and privileges of barons and, as such, took part +in the proceedings of the imperial diet either in person or through +their accredited representatives. In Saxony, the abbesses had the right +to strike coins bearing their own portraits, notably the abbesses of +Gandersheim and Quedlinburg. In England they were invested with +extraordinary powers, and in certain cases owed obedience to none save +the Pope. In Kent abbesses, as representatives of religion, came +immediately after bishops.</p> + +<p>Possessing such power and prestige, it is not surprising to learn that +abbesses wielded great influence in temporal as well as spiritual +matters; that it pervaded politics and extended to the courts of kings +and emperors. Thus, Matilda, the abbess of Quedlinburg, together with +Adelheid, the mother of Otto III who was but three years old at the time +of his father's death, practically ruled the empire. At a later period +during the prolonged absence in Italy of Otto III, the control of +affairs was entrusted to the abbess alone; and so successful was her +administration, and so vigorous were the measures which she adopted +against the invading Wends, that she commanded the admiration of all. In +view of these facts, the learned authoress of <i>Woman Under Monasticism</i> +is fully warranted in declaring as she does "The career open to the +inmates of convents in England and on the Continent was greater than any +other ever thrown open to women in the course of modern European +history."<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p> + +<p>"The educational influence of convents during centuries," continues the +same writer, "cannot be rated too<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> highly. Not only did their inmates +attain considerable knowledge but education in a nunnery, as we see from +Chaucer and others, secured an improved standing for those who were not +professed."<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> It prepared the way for, if it did not train, those +highly educated women who appeared during the time of the transition +between the Middle Ages and what is now designated as the Modern Period.</p> + +<p>Among these were Christine de Pisan, who was a prolific writer on many +subjects in both prose and verse, and who, it is said, was the first +woman to earn a livelihood by her pen.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> There were also some of those +remarkable women who lectured on law in the University of Bologna, among +whom were Bettina Gozzadini,<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> who, some writers will have it, +occupied the chairs of law in her <i>alma mater</i> as early as 1236, and the +celebrated Novella d'Andrea, of the following century, who frequently +acted as a substitute for her father, a professor of canon law in the +university, and who, by reason of her varied and profound knowledge, +held a prominent place among the most learned men of her time. Both of +these noted women were worthy prototypes of that long list of learned +Italian women who, during the Renaissance, won such honor for themselves +and such undying glory for their country. Not less remarkable were +several women of the school of Salerno, who, during its palmiest days, +distinguished themselves as teachers, writers and medical +practitioners,<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> and the still more remarkable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> daughters of one +Mangord, a professor of Paris, whose daughters taught Sacred +Scripture.<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> There were few in number, it is true, but they were the +worthy prototypes of those learned and brilliant women who achieved such +distinction and glory for their sex during that most interesting period +of history known as the Renaissance.</p> + + +<h4>WOMAN AND EDUCATION DURING THE RENAISSANCE</h4> + +<p>By the Renaissance we understand not only a phase in the development of +the nations of Europe but also that period of transition between the +mediæval and the modern world during which the latent spiritual energies +of the Middle Ages developed into the intellectual forces and moral +habits of thought which now pervade the civilized world. Various dates +are assigned for its starting point. Among them is the fall of +Constantinople in 1453, when there was a great influx of scholars from +the famed metropolis on the Bosphorus to the Italian peninsula, who +brought with them those forgotten treasures of science and literature<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> +which were so instrumental in producing that interesting phenomenon +known in history as the Revival of Learning. But whatever date be +assigned for the beginning of the Renaissance, whether it be the year +when Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turk or the fateful +millennial year which was to witness the termination of all things, +there certainly was never at any period a distinct breach of historical +continuity between the old order and the new.</p> + +<p>This is particularly true of Italy where the Renaissance had its origin. +For here, during the entire mediæval period, there never was a time when +the study of antiquity was completely neglected; when the traditions of +the old Roman culture had died out, or when the art and the literature +of the classical ages of the past had ceased to exert an influence on +artists and scholars. Ozanam was, then, right when he declared that the +night of the Dark Age, which in Italy intervened between "the +intellectual daylight of antiquity and the dawn of the Renaissance," +was, in reality, like "one of those luminous nights in which the fading +brightness of evening is prolonged into the first beaming of the +morning."<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a></p> + +<p>So much, indeed, was this the case that those who have made the most +profound study of the Middle Ages recognize a first Renaissance in the +twelfth century, which was not less real than the Renaissance <i>par +excellence</i> of the fifteenth century, a renaissance which counts such +masters of Latinity as Abelard, John of Salisbury and Hildebert of +Tours, and such schools as that of Chartres, where classical Latin was +taught with as much thoroughness as in the great universities of Europe +during the brilliant age of the humanists. It was then, as Rashdall +truly observes, that "a revival of architecture heralded, as it usually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> +does, a wider revival of Art. The schools of Christendom became thronged +as they were never thronged before. A passion for enquiry took the place +of the old routine. The Crusades brought different parts of Europe into +contact with one another and into contact with the new world of the +East—with a new religion and a new philosophy, with the Arabic +Aristotle, with the Arabic commentators on Aristotle, and eventually +even with Aristotle in the original Greek."<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a></p> + +<p>Roughly speaking, the Renaissance attained its culmination during the +second half of the fifteenth century. It was during this period that +gunpowder and printing with movable types were invented—the first +completely revolutionizing the methods of warfare and the second +marvelously facilitating the diffusion of knowledge. And it was during +the same period also that Vasco da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope, +that Columbus crossed the Sea of Darkness and that Copernicus laid the +foundation of modern astronomy.</p> + +<p>But this wonderful half-century constituted only a small portion of the +period embraced by the Renaissance. From the fall of Constantinople +until it attained the highest phase of development in England, the +Renaissance covers a period of nearly two centuries. The progress of the +intellectual and moral movement which it represented, from the land of +its birth, to the northern and western parts of Europe, was +comparatively slow. Thus, while Italy was exhibiting the full effulgence +of the re-birth, England was still in the feudal condition of the Middle +Ages. A striking illustration of this truth is seen in the fact that "a +brother of the Black Prince banqueted with Petrarch in the palace of +Galeazzo Visconti—that is to say, the founder of Italian humanism, the +representative of Italian despotic state-craft, and the companion of +Froissart's heroes met<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> together at a marriage feast." "In Italy," as +Symonds has shown, "the keynote was struck by the <i>Novella</i>, as in +England by the drama."<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> The supreme exponents of the Renaissance as +manifested in literature were, without doubt, Ariosto in Italy, Rabelais +in France, Cervantes in Spain, Camoens in Portugal, Erasmus in the +Netherlands and Shakespeare in England.</p> + +<p>Considering the splendid achievements of men during the Renaissance in +every department of intellectual activity, one would imagine that women +also would have attained to a somewhat proportionate distinction, at +least in literature and the arts. But, outside of Italy, this was far +from being the case. In France, Spain, Portugal and England there were, +it is true, a certain number of women who won distinction by their +talents and learning, but these were the exceptions which but served to +throw into greater relief the prevailing ignorance of the great mass of +their sex, which had few, if any, of the advantages of instruction, even +in the most elementary branches of knowledge.</p> + +<p>The Italian women, as we have already seen, had commanded marked +recognition for their talents and learning even before the close of the +Middle Ages. The most famous of these were among those who, having +obtained the doctorate, became lecturers and professors in the great +university of Bologna. The existence and accomplishments of some of +these may, perhaps, be more or less legendary, but there can be no doubt +that many of them, some before the time of the Renaissance, had gained a +European reputation for the breadth and variety of their attainments. +But it was during the Renaissance that the remarkable flowering of the +intellect of the Italian woman was seen at its best. While the women in +the other parts of Europe, especially in England and Germany, were +suffering the ill effects consequent on the suppression of the convents, +which, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> centuries, had been almost the only schools available for +girls, the women of Italy were taking an active part in the great +educational movement inaugurated by the revival of learning, and winning +the highest honors for their sex in every department of science, art and +literature. Not since the days of Sappho and Aspasia had woman attained +such prominence, and never were they, irrespective of class-condition, +accorded greater liberty, privileges or honor. The universities, which +had been opened to them at the close of the Middle Ages, gladly +conferred upon them the doctorate, and eagerly welcomed them to the +chairs of some of their most important faculties. The Renaissance was, +indeed, the heydey of the intellectual woman throughout the whole of the +Italian peninsula—a time when woman enjoyed the same scholastic freedom +as men, and when Mme. de Staël's dictum, <i>Le génie n'a pas de sexe</i>, +expressed a doctrine admitted in practice and not an academic theory.</p> + +<p>It would require a large volume, or rather many volumes, to do justice +to the learned women of Italy who conferred such honor upon their sex +during the period we are considering. Suffice it to mention a few of +those who achieved special distinction and whose memories are still +green in the land which had been made so illustrious by their talent and +genius.</p> + +<p>That which the modern reader finds the most surprising in the Italian +women of the Renaissance is their enthusiasm for the <i>literæ +humaniores</i>—the Latin and Greek classics—and the proficiency which so +many of them, even at an early age, attained in the literature and +philosophy of antiquity. It was no uncommon thing for a girl in her +teens to write and speak Latin, while many of them were almost equally +familiar with Greek.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a> Thus Laura Brenzoni,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> of Verona, had such a +mastery of these two languages that she wrote and spoke them with ease, +while Alessandra Scala was so familiar with them that she employed them +in writing poetry. Lorenza Strozzi, who was educated in a convent and +eventually became a nun, was distinguished for her great versatility, +for her profound knowledge of science and art, as well as for her +proficiency in Latin and Greek. Her Latin poems were so highly valued +that they were translated into foreign languages. Livia Chiavello, of +Fabriano, was celebrated as one of the most brilliant representatives of +the Petrarchan school. Her style was so pure and noble that, had +Petrarch not lived, she alone would have upheld the honor of the vulgar +tongue. So successful was Isotta of Rimini in the cultivation of the +Muses that she was hailed as another Sappho. Cassandra Fedele, of +Venice, deserved, according to Polizian, the noted Florentine humanist, +to be ranked with that famous universal genius, Pico de la Mirandola. So +extensive were her attainments that in addition to being a thorough +mistress of Latin and Greek, she was likewise distinguished in music, +eloquence, philosophy and even theology. Leo X, Louis XII of France, and +Isabella of Spain were eager to have her as an ornament for their +courts, but the Venetian senate was so proud of its treasure that it was +unwilling to have her depart. Catarina Cibo, of Genoa, was another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> +prodigy of learning; for, besides a knowledge of Latin and Greek, +philosophy and theology, she was well acquainted with Hebrew. Donna +Felice Rasponi, of Ravenna, devoted herself to the study of Plato and +Aristotle, of Scripture and the Fathers. But, for the extent and variety +of her attainments, Tarquinia Molza seems to have eclipsed all her +contemporaries. She had as teachers the ablest scholars of an age of +distinguished scholars. Not only did she excel in poetry and the fine +arts, but she also had a rare knowledge of astronomy and mathematics, +Latin, Greek and Hebrew. And so great was the esteem in which she was +held that the senate of Rome conferred on her the singular honor of +Roman citizenship, transmissible in perpetuity to her descendants. The +Sovereign Pontiff and the flower of the Roman prelacy begged her to take +up her residence in the Eternal City, but she could not be prevailed +upon to leave the land of her birth.</p> + +<p>In the arts of sculpture and painting the women of Italy, during the +Renaissance, were no less illustrious than they were in science, +literature and philosophy. Indeed, many of the treasures in the Italian +churches and art galleries that still delight all lovers of the +beautiful are from the chisel and the brush of women who achieved +distinction between three and four centuries ago.<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a></p> + +<p>Probably the most famous sculptress was Properzia de Rossi, whose +ability was so remarkable that she excited the envy of the men who were +her competitors.<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a> Among painters there was Suor Plantilla Nelli, who +was a nun and prioress in the convent of Santa Catarina in Florence. +Both Lanzi and Vasari bestow high praise on her work and declare some of +her productions to be of rare excellence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> There were also Maria Angela +Crisculo, of whose splendid work many examples are still preserved in +the churches of Naples, and Lavinia Fontana of Bologna, who exhibited +such extraordinary ability as an artist that some of her pictures passed +for the work of her great contemporary, Guido Reni.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a> Still more +remarkable were the achievements of four sisters of the noted family +Anguisciola of Cremona. So admirable was the work of the eldest sister, +Sofonisba, that Philip II invited her to his court in Spain, where she +excited the amazement of every one by the splendid canvases which she +executed for her illustrious patron and for the members of the royal +family.</p> + +<p>Of the fifty female poets who flourished in Italy during the Renaissance +the most eminent were Gaspara Stampa, Veronica Gambara, and Vittoria +Colonna. Of such merit and exquisite finish were the productions of +their Muse that they are still read with never failing pleasure. So +highly did Cardinal Bembo,—the famous "dictator of letters"—value the +scholarship and critical acumen of Veronica Gambara that he never +published anything without previously submitting it to her judgment. But +far more eminent as a poet was the noble and accomplished Marchesa of +Pescara, Vittoria Colonna, who, on account of her talents and virtues, +was named <i>La Divina</i>. The friend and adviser of scholars and the +confidante of princes, she represented, as has truly been said, "the +best phases of the Renaissance, its learning, its intelligence, its +enthusiasm, its subtle Platonism, combined with a profound religious +faith and the trace of the mysticism of a simpler age." The chorus of +universal praise which was sung by her contemporaries is well echoed by +Ariosto when he writes of her: "She has not only made herself immortal +by her beautiful style, of which I have heard not better, but she can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> +raise from the tomb those of whom she speaks or writes and make them +live forever." But it was as the friend and inspirer of Michaelangelo +that she is best known to us to-day. "Without wings," he writes to her, +"I fly with your wings; by your genius I am raised to the skies; in your +soul my thought is born."</p> + +<p>Among those who specially distinguished themselves for their profound +scholarship, as exhibited in the halls of universities, were Dorotea +Bucca, who occupied a chair of medicine in the University of Bologna, +where, by reason of her rare eloquence and learning, she had students +from all parts of Europe; Laura Ceretta, of Brescia, who, during seven +years, gave public lectures on philosophy; Battista Malatesta, of +Urbino, who taught philosophy with such marked success that the most +distinguished professors of the day were forced to recognize themselves +as her inferiors; and Fulvia Olympia Morati, who "at the age of fourteen +wrote Latin letters and dialogues in Greek and Latin in the style of +Plato and Cicero," and who, when she was scarcely sixteen, "was invited +to give lectures in the University of Ferrara on the philosophical +problems of the <i>Paradoxes of Cicero</i>." So great, indeed, was her +knowledge of the ancient languages that she was offered the +professorship of Greek in the University of Heidelberg; but death cut +short her brilliant career before she could enter upon her duties in +this famed institution of learning. It was female professors of this +type—masters of Greek and Latin letters, who in the words of a recent +writer, "sent forth from Italy such students as Moritz von Spiegelberg +and Rudolph Agricola, to reform the instruction of Deventer and Zwoll +and prepare the way for Erasmus and Reuchlin."</p> + +<p>In the preceding list of learned women—and but a few only have been +named of the many who in every city of importance conferred undying +glory on their sex—it is clear that the Renaissance in Italy was, +indeed, the golden<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> age of women. Never in history had they greater +freedom of action in things of the mind; never were they, except +probably in the case of the English and German abbesses of the Middle +Ages, treated with more marked deference and consideration or fairness; +never were their efforts more highly appreciated or more generously +rewarded, and never was their success more highly and enthusiastically +applauded. Temporal and spiritual rulers, princes and cardinals, Popes +and emperors vied with one another in paying just tribute to woman's +genius as well as to woman's virtue. The nun in the cloister as well as +the lady in the palace shared in the general enthusiasm for learning, +and they enjoyed throughout the peninsula the same opportunities as men +and received the same recognition for their work. Everywhere the +intellectual arena was open to them on the same terms as to men. +Incapacity and not sex was the only bar to entrance.</p> + +<p>But the men of those days, especially scholars of the type of Bembo, +Politian and Ariosto, were liberal and broad-minded men, who never for a +moment imagined that a woman was out of her sphere or unsexed because +she wore a doctor's cap or occupied a university chair. And far from +stigmatizing her as a singular or strong-minded woman, they recognized +her as one who had but enhanced the graces and virtues of her sex by the +added attractions of a cultivated mind and a developed intellect. Not +only did she escape the shafts of satire and ridicule, which are so +frequently aimed at the educated woman of to-day, but she was called +into the councils of temporal and spiritual rulers as well.</p> + +<p>Woe betide the ill-advised misogynist who should venture to declaim +against the inferiority of the female sex, or to protest against the +honors which an appreciative and a chivalrous age bestowed upon it with +so lavish a hand. The women of Italy, unlike those of other nations, +knew how to defend themselves, and were not afraid to take, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> +occasion demanded, the pen in self-defense. This is evidenced by +numerous works which were written in response to certain narrow-minded +pamphleteers—<i>miseri pedanti</i>, pitiful pedants,—who would have the +activities of women limited to the nursery or the kitchen.<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a></p> + +<p>A striking characteristic of these learned women was the entire absence +of all priggism or pedantry. Whether lecturing on law or philosophy, or +discoursing in Latin before Popes and cardinals, or taking part in +discussions on art and literature with the eminent humanists of the day, +they ever retained that beautiful simplicity which gives such a charm to +true greatness of mind and is the best index of true scholarship and +noble, symmetrical womanhood.</p> + +<p>Nor did the rare intellectual attainments of these daughters of Italy +destroy that harmony of creation which, some will have it, is sure to be +jeopardized by giving women the same educational advantages as men. So +far was this from being the case that there were never more loyal and +helpful wives nor more devoted and stimulating mothers than there were +among those women who wrote verses in the language of Sappho, or +delivered public addresses in the tongue of Cicero. Still less did their +serious and long-protracted studies entail any of the dangers we hear so +much of nowadays. The large and healthy families of many of them prove +that intellectual work, even of the highest order, is not incompatible +with motherhood; and still less that it, <i>per se</i>, conduces, as is so +often asserted, to race-suicide.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> These facts are commended to the +consideration of our modern opponents of the higher education of women +and to those militant conservatives and old-time reactionaries who are +still averse to opening the doors of some of our older universities to +women—even such universities as Oxford, several of whose colleges were +founded on the revenues derived from suppressed educational institutions +which had been built and used for generations for the sole behoof of +women.</p> + +<p>But distinguished as were the women of Italy for their culture and +scholarship, they were yet more distinguished as patrons of learning, as +leaders and inspirers of the eminent men who were the chief +representatives of the Renaissance. Reference has already been made to +the influence of Vittoria Colonna on Michaelangelo—"who saw with her +eyes, acted by her inspiration, was lifted by her beyond the stars"—but +this is only one of many similar instances that might be adduced. +Indeed, to the student of the Italian Renaissance, the most interesting +feature of it was, not its women doctors and professors, but those noble +and accomplished ladies who made the courts of Ferrara, Mantua, Milan +and Urbino the most noted intellectual centers of Europe.</p> + +<p>The most beautiful ornaments of the first three courts were Renée, +duchess of Ferrara; Isabella d'Este, marchioness of Mantua, and Beatrice +d'Este, duchess of Milan. They were all women of exceptional learning +and culture, and each was the center of a galaxy of talent such as is +rarely witnessed in any one place.</p> + +<p>Among the men attracted to their courts were the most illustrious +scholars, artists, poets and musicians of the Renaissance. Here they +found congenial homes and breathed an atmosphere made fragrant by the +appreciation shown by their charming hostesses for their power and +genius. Here they found inspiration and a stimulus that spurred them on +to their greatest achievements. In Ferrara,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> where it was said that +"there were as many poets as there were frogs in the country round +about," were gathered the most gifted poets of the Renaissance who had +been attracted there to recite their latest masterpieces. Among them +were Clement Marot, the first poet of modern France, and Ariosto, the +immortal author of <i>Orlando Furioso</i>. There were the great painters, +Titian and Bellini, and the illustrious poet, Torquato Tasso, whose love +subsequently immortalized Renée's youngest daughter Leonora.</p> + +<p>A similar artistic and intellectual supremacy was held by Isabelle +d'Este. For portrait painters she had Titian and Leonardo da Vinci, +while, as decorators of her home, she had Bellini and Perugino, whose +compositions she herself arranged, even in the minutest details. So it +was likewise in the gay and brilliant court of Beatrice d'Este, in +Milan,—a place where artists and scholars of all nationalities were +always sure of a cordial welcome.</p> + +<p>But the ideal center of intellectual culture was the court of Urbino, +the central figure of which was the learned and accomplished Elizabetta +Gonzaga. This picturesque city of the eastern slope of the Apennines was +then to Italy what Athens had been to Greece in the days of Pericles; +and Elizabetta was to its court what Aspasia was in her own matchless +salon—the magnet which attracted all the artists and men of letters of +the age.</p> + +<p>Castiglione, whose great work, <i>The Courtier</i>, was partly written as a +memorial of the peerless woman who inspired it, gives us a vivid picture +of "the fair ladies, with their quick intelligence and ready sympathy," +discussing questions of art, literature, philosophy and Platonism, with +the most eminent scholars and artists of Europe. But Castiglione +confesses that he is unable to give us more than the mere outline of the +picture. "To paint the polished society of Urbino," as has been well +said, "we should need colors no palette contains—transparencies of the +Grecian sky, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> indigo of certain seas, the liquid azure of certain +eyes. For more than a century the court of Urbino was regarded as the +supreme exemplar. In the seventeenth century, the Hotel de Rambouillet +was still striving to make itself a copy of it; unluckily such things as +these are not easily copied."<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a></p> + +<p>We are not surprised, then, at being told that "men moulded by Italian +ladies"—such ladies as graced the court of Urbino—"could be +distinguished among a thousand." Still less are we surprised to note the +immense difference between the refined and brilliant discussions of <i>The +Courtier</i> as compared with the coarse tales of the <i>Decameron</i> and +<i>Heptameron</i>. And we can understand the marvelous influence which +Castiglione's matchless work—inspired by the beloved Duchess +Elizabetta—had upon the masters of English literature—on Shakespeare, +Ben Jonson, Spenser, Marlow, Shelley.</p> + +<p>Cardinal Bembo, who was one of the most assiduous frequenters of this +famous court, in writing of Elizabetta, does not hesitate to declare: "I +have seen many excellent and noble women, and have heard of some who +were as illustrious for certain qualities, but in her alone among women, +all virtues were united and brought together. I have never seen nor +heard of any one who was her equal, and know very few who have even come +near her."</p> + +<p>It was Castiglione's experience at the court of Urbino, where he was a +daily witness of the irresistible influence of Elizabetta, that made him +give expression to the sentiment, "Man has for his portion physical +strength and external activities; all doing must be his, all inspiration +must come from woman." It was also this keen student of the mysterious +workings of woman's genius and of her secret, all-pervading influence, +at times and in places least suspected, who penned the notable +statement—worthy of the Renaissance—"Without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> women nothing is +possible, either in military courage, or art, or poetry, or music, or +philosophy, or even religion. God is truly seen only through them."</p> + +<p>Only a few words are necessary to tell of the learned women of the +Renaissance outside of Italy. On account of its intimate connection with +the Italian peninsula, Spain was the second country in Europe to +experience the effects of the new intellectual movement. Among the +educated Italians whom Isabella, the Catholic, had attracted to her +court were the brothers Geraldini, whom she appointed as teachers of her +children. Of her daughter, Juana, Juan Vivès, the eminent Spanish +scholar, says she was able to make impromptu speeches in Latin, while +Catherine, who became the wife of Henry VIII, excited the admiration of +Erasmus by the extent and accuracy of her knowledge. It was from +Salamanca that Isabella summoned her own teacher of Latin, the learned +Beatrix Galindo,<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> who was a professor of rhetoric in the university +long before Elizabeth of England had studied the language of Virgil +under Ascham.</p> + +<p>Then there was Francisca de Lebrixa who often filled the chair of her +father, who was professor of history and rhetoric in the University of +Alcala, and Isabella Losa, of Cordova, who, among her other +acquirements, counted a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. To his learned +daughters, Gregoria and Luisa, Antonio Perez, minister of Philip II, +wrote saying: "Do not imagine, when you are writing to me, that you are +addressing Cicero or some Greek author; lower your style to my level." +There were also Isabella de Joya, who commented on Scotus Erigena; +Catherine Ribera, the bard of love and faith; Doña Maria Pacheco de +Mendoza; Bernarda Ferreyra, to whom, on account of her rare scholarship, +Lopez de Vega dedicated his beautiful elegy <i>Phillis</i>; Juana Morella, +who, besides<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> having a profound knowledge of music, philosophy, divinity +and jurisprudence, was the mistress of fourteen languages; Juana de la +Cruz, the famous Mexican nun whose poetry of superior merit, as well as +her exceptional attainments in many branches of knowledge, won for her +the epithet of the "Tenth Muse"; Luisa Sigea, who besides being a poet +was a mistress of the classical and several oriental languages, +including Hebrew and Syro-Chaldaic, and other learned women whom "no one +was astonished to see taking by main force the first rank in the spheres +of literature, philosophy and theology."</p> + +<p>So profoundly had the Renaissance affected the women of a limited circle +in England, that Erasmus could declare without exaggeration: "It is +charming to see the female sex demand classical instruction. The queen +is remarkably learned and her daughter writes good Latin. The home of +More is truly the abode of the Muses."</p> + +<p>The queen of whom Erasmus speaks is Catherine of Aragon, who was +educated in Spain, who was a pupil of Vivès, and who, besides having a +thorough knowledge of Latin and Greek, was well acquainted with several +modern languages. The daughters of Sir Thomas More were among the most +learned women of their time and were, indeed, worthy of dwelling in "the +home of the Muses."</p> + +<p>Lady Jane Grey read Plato in the original at the age of thirteen.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> +Anne, Margaret and Jane Seymour were likewise celebrated for their +knowledge of the classics, as were Anne Boleyn and Mary Stuart, who both +received their education in France, and especially Queen Elizabeth, who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> +was not only one of the most learned women of her time but was probably +also the most learned queen England has ever produced. There were, +however, no university professors or poets of eminence among the English +women, as there were in Italy and Spain, and their creative work was +practically nothing.</p> + +<p>Since the time of Hroswitha, Gertrude, the Matildas and Hildegard, the +learned woman has never been the ideal woman in Germany. When Olympia +Morati was on her way from Ferrara to Heidelberg to take the chair of +Greek, she found the daughters of professors and humanists devoting +themselves to sewing and embroidery instead of art and literature. Anna, +the eldest daughter of Melanchthon, was almost alone among the German +women of the Renaissance who had a knowledge of Latin.</p> + +<p>In France the most learned woman of her time was undoubtedly Margaret of +Angoulême, queen of Navarre. So great was her knowledge and so +enthusiastic was she in promoting the study of the Latin and Greek +classics that Michelet, with something of exaggeration, perhaps, calls +her "the amiable mother of the Renaissance in France."<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> She was noted +for her devotion to the study of Scripture and theology as well as Greek +and Hebrew. She always had around her, or was in correspondence with, +the most distinguished scholars, poets, artists, philosophers and +theologians of the age, and undoubtedly did much, as a patroness of men +of letters, toward furthering the literary movement in France. She is, +however, chiefly known to modern readers by her <i>Heptameron</i>—a work +which reveals too clearly the tastes of her associates and the manners +and customs of the time.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> +<p>With the exception of Margaret of Navarre, there were but few literary +women of more than ephemeral reputation during the French Renaissance. +Among these Louise Labé deserves mention, as she was the most +distinguished poetess in France during the sixteenth century.<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> She, +like Margaret, was the center of a coterie of men of letters; but the +reunions over which she presided, as well as those of the author of the +<i>Heptameron</i>, were entirely lacking in the dignity and refinement of +those of the polished court of Urbino in the days of the peerless +Elizabetta Gonzaga.</p> + +<p>From what has been said respecting the rare learning of the women of the +Renaissance, one might infer that women in general enjoyed special +educational facilities during this period of intellectual activity. +Paradoxical as it may seem, the very contrary was the case. For, as +history tells us, the education of the Renaissance was essentially +aristocratic. It was only for the women of the nobility and for the +wives and daughters of scholars, while the great majority of the sex +remained in a state of complete illiteracy.</p> + +<p>The environment of the daughters of scholars was peculiarly favorable to +their intellectual development, and learning was in a certain measure +their natural heritage. They did not receive their education in schools, +for there were then few or no schools for girls, but from their fathers +or from the men of letters who frequented their homes. A typical home of +this kind was that of the noted savant, Robert Estienne of Paris, +printer to Francis I. Here the language of conversation was Latin, not +only for the members of the family but also for the servants as +well.<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> Under<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> such conditions we are not surprised to be informed +that the girls, as well as the boys, learned to speak Latin as well as +their mother tongue. And listening, as they did, to the daily +discussions on art and literature by the most learned men of a most +learned age, it was inevitable that they should acquire those vast +stores of knowledge on all subjects that so excite the astonishment of +our less studious women of to-day.</p> + +<p>With the daughters of the nobility it was the same. In their youth they +had, under the paternal roof, the benefit of the instruction of the most +eminent masters of the time. And as they grew up their constant +intercourse with learned men and the part they took in all literary and +social assemblies, which were so prominent a feature of the period, +enabled them to complete their education under the most favorable +auspices, and to have, before they were out of their teens, a fund of +information on all subjects that could not be obtained so well, even in +the best of our modern institutions of learning.</p> + +<p>It was to these daughters of the élite—<i>ingenuæ puellæ</i>—that Erasmus +and Vivès addressed their treatises on education. They were the +privileged class at whose disposition were placed all the treasures of +Greek and Latin letters. It was, then, an easy matter for them to write +poetry and dissertations in the languages of Horace and Plato. And it +was often a necessity for them to speak Latin, for it was then the +universal language of the learned—the language that was understood +everywhere—in England as in Italy, in Germany as in France, in Flanders +as well as in Spain and Portugal.</p> + +<p>It was then that The Republic of Letters was a reality as never before; +that the man of letters was, of a truth, "a citizen of the world"; that +his country was wherever the cult of letters had priests or devotees. He +was what the ballad singer was during the Middle Ages, but with more +dignity and seriousness. He was the agent and representative<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> of +intellectual life, the living symbol of the unity and solidarity of the +human mind. And as in time he linked the past to the present so likewise +in space he bound all peoples together and belonged equally to all. Such +was Erasmus of Holland, who was equally at home in France and +Switzerland, in Italy and England—everywhere received with the honor +accorded to princes of the blood royal. Such was Vivès, of Spain, the +teacher of Catherine of Aragon, of Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII—at +one time professor in Louvain, at another in Oxford—always and +everywhere an ardent exponent of humanism for women as well as for men. +Such was Politian and such were scores of his contemporaries, who +carried the torch of knowledge from castle to castle and from court to +court, where maidens equally with youths enjoyed all the advantages +derivable from the lessons of such distinguished teachers and such +eminent leaders of culture.</p> + +<p>For it was a peculiarity of the scholar of the Renaissance that he was a +great traveler—seeking knowledge wherever it was to be found—and +carrying it with him whithersoever he went. He journeyed from university +to university, everywhere exchanging views with his intellectual +compeers, and everywhere diffusing the knowledge he had so laboriously +acquired. The consequence was a wonderful uniformity of education among +the higher classes—among women as well as among men—something that was +never known before. Through the generally diffused knowledge of Latin, +the common literary medium of communication, all the nations of Europe, +even those at war with one another, were brought together in an +intellectual brotherhood and in a way which gave scholarship a power and +a prestige that accrued to the benefit of women and men alike.</p> + +<p>But the educational advantages enjoyed by the women of the Renaissance +were not for the bourgeoisie—not for the daughters of peasants, +tradesmen and artisans. They were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> solely, as has been stated, for the +benefit of the children of princes or of scholars—of those only who +could claim either nobility of birth or nobility of genius.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a> Even the +most zealous of the humanists would have been surprised if they had been +asked to diffuse a portion of their light among the women of the masses. +For education, as they viewed it, was something solely for the +elect—for ladies of the court and not for women of a lower condition. +So far as the rest of womankind was concerned, their occupation was +limited, according to a Breton saying, to looking after altar, hearth, +and children—"<i>La femme se doit garder l'autel, le feu, les enfants</i>."</p> + +<p>It was about this time, too, that men began, especially in France and +Germany, to revive the anti-feminist crusade which had so retarded the +literary movement among the women of ancient Greece and Rome. They +refused to hear women and intellect spoken of together. The Germans +recognized no intelligence in them apart from domestic duties, and +seemed to belong to that strange race, that has not yet died out, which +believes woman to be "afflicted with the radical incapacity to acquire +an individual idea." "What the Italians called intelligence a German +would call tittle-tattle, trickery, the spirit of opposition. They +rejected such gratifications and had no intention of allowing Delilah to +shear them."<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p><p>In the estimation of Luther, the intellectual aspirations of women were +not only an absurdity, but were also a positive peril. "Take them," he +says, "from their housewifery and they are good for nothing." He treated +the humanist Vivès, preceptor of Mary Tudor, as "a dangerous spirit," +because the learned Spaniard was an ardent advocate of the higher +education of women. As to abstract and severe studies they were for +girls, according to one of Luther's contemporaries, but "vain and futile +quackeries." For an accomplished woman to quote the Fathers or the +ancient classical writers was to provoke ridicule, because to do so was +considered an indication of pedantry or affectation. Montaigne gave +expression to the age-old prejudice against woman by refusing to regard +her as anything but a pretty animal, while Rabelais, the coryphæus of +the French Renaissance, declared that "Nature in creating woman lost the +good sense which she had displayed in the creation of all other things."</p> + +<p>Such being the views of the great leaders of thought and formers of +public opinion respecting the mental inferiority of woman—views which, +outside of Italy, had, with few exceptions, the cordial approval of the +supercilious, cockahoop male—is it necessary to add that the +Renaissance did nothing for popular education? The masses of women, +especially after the suppression of the convent schools in England and +Germany, were, in many parts of Europe, and notably in the two countries +mentioned, in a worse condition than they were during the Dark Ages.<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p> + +<h4>WOMAN AND EDUCATION BETWEEN THE RENAISSANCE AND THE TWENTIETH CENTURY</h4> + +<p>The period following the Renaissance was not a brilliant one for woman, +especially outside of Italy. For in this favored land, even after the +decadence in literature that followed the glorious cinquecento, +intellectual life opposed so effective a barrier to the forces of +extinction which were at work in other parts of Europe, notably Germany +and England, that there were still in every part of the peninsula from +the fertile plains of Lombardy to the sunny Ionian sea, learned and +cultured women who were eager to emulate the achievements of their +illustrious sisters of Italy's golden age of art, and letters. We do +not, it is true, find among them a Properzia de Rossi, a Veronica +Gambara, or a Vittoria Colonna; but we find many earnest and +enthusiastic students in every department of knowledge.</p> + +<p>That which most impresses the student of education during this period of +Italian history is not the splendor of art and letters in court and +castle, which so dazzled Europe during the time of Renée of Ferrara and +Elizabetta Gonzaga of Urbino. We find, it is true, a goodly number of +women who won distinction as poets and artists; but it is rather those +who were devoted to more serious studies that arrest our +attention—women who attained eminence in physical and natural science, +in mathematics, in the classical and oriental languages, in philosophy, +law and theology. Space precludes the mention of more than a few of +these, but these few may be accepted as typical of many others almost +equally distinguished.</p> + +<p>Chief among those of whom their countrymen are specially proud are +Rosanna Somaglia Landi, of Milan, linguist and translator of Anacreon; +Maria Selvaggia Borghini, of Pisa, translator of the works of +Tertullian; Eleonora Barbapiccola, of Salerno, who translated into +Italian the <i>Principa Philosophiæ</i> of Descartes; Maria Angela +Arginghelli,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> of Naples, who was famed for her profound knowledge of +physics and the higher mathematics and who gave an Italian version of +Stephen Hales' <i>Vegetable Statics</i>. Then there was Clelia Grillo +Borromeo, of Genoa, who was so distinguished in science, mathematics, +mechanics and languages that a medal was struck in her honor bearing the +inscription, <i>Gloria Genuensium</i>—glory of the Genoese; and the still +more famous Elena Cornaro Piscopia, of Venice, who was truly a prodigy +of learning as well as a paragon of virtue. In addition to a knowledge +of many modern, classical and oriental tongues, she exhibited remarkable +proficiency in astronomy, mathematics, music, philosophy and theology. +After a course of study in the University of Padua and after the usual +examination and discourse in classic Latin on some of the questions of +Aristotelian philosophy, she had the doctorate of philosophy conferred +on her in the cathedral of Padua, in the presence of thousands of +learned men and applauding students from all parts of Europe. But not +content with conferring on this extraordinary woman the ring, wreath of +laurel and the ermine mozetta—the usual insignia of the doctorate—the +University, as a special mark of distinction, had a medal coined in +honor of the illustrious graduate bearing her effigy, with the words, as +the decree of the University expressed it, <i>ad perpetuam rei memoriam</i>. +That there was nothing superficial about this young woman's knowledge of +languages, it suffices to state that she was able to speak Latin and +Greek as fluently as her own Italian, and that so profound was her +knowledge of divinity that there were many distinguished ecclesiastics +in both Italy and France who favored conferring on her the doctorate in +theology.</p> + +<p>Among other young women who obtained the doctorate in various +universities were Maddalena Canedi-Noe and Maria Vittoria Dosi who, +after the usual course of study in the university of Bologna, obtained +the degree of doctor of civil law, and Maria Pellegrina Amoretti, who +received<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> the degree of doctor in both canon and civil law in the +University of Pavia and with it the doctor's cap—<i>berreto dottorale</i>. +But more remarkable for learning than any of these university graduates +was Maria Gaetana Agnesi, one of the most extraordinary women scholars +of all time. On account of her wonderful knowledge of languages she was +called "The Oracle of Seven Tongues." This, however, is not her chief +title to fame. It is rather her marvelous achievements in the domain of +the higher mathematics. After the appearance of her most noted work, +<i>Instituzioni Analytiche</i>, she would at once have been elected a member +of the French Academy of Sciences had not the laws of this learned body +precluded the admission of women.<a name="FNanchor_71_71" id="FNanchor_71_71"></a><a href="#Footnote_71_71" class="fnanchor">[71]</a> That great Mæcenas of learning, +Benedict XIV, showed his appreciation of Maria Gaetana's exceptional +attainments by appointing her—<i>motu proprio</i>—to the chair of higher +mathematics in the University of Bologna. A similar honor had, in the +preceding century, been conferred on Marta Marchina, of Naples, when, on +account of her rare knowledge of letters, philosophy and theology, she +was offered a chair in the Sapienza, in Rome, an honor which her modesty +and love of retirement caused her to decline.</p> + +<p>We have seen that women professors achieved distinction in the Italian +universities even as early as the closing centuries of the Middle Ages. +The same was true during the Renaissance, and it has been equally true +during the period that has elapsed since the cinquecento.</p> + +<p>Among the most eminent of those who taught in the universities were +Laura Bassi, who had the chair of physics in the University of Bologna, +and Clotilde Tambroni, professor of the Greek language and literature in +the same institution of learning. So thorough was her knowledge of the +language of Plato that it was the opinion of her contemporaries that +there were then only three persons in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> Europe who equaled her in her +mastery of this classic tongue. It was this distinguished Hellenist who +graciously delivered the address when one of her countrywomen, Maria +dalle Donne, received her doctorate in medicine and surgery. After her +graduation Dr. dalle Donne was given charge of a school for midwives in +which she rendered the greatest service to her sex. Even the chair of +anatomy in the University of Bologna was held by a woman, Anna +Morandi-Menzolini, and her work was of the highest order. The same +position was held by another woman, Maria Petraccini-Terretti, in the +University of Ferrara.</p> + +<p>What a contrast between the attitude of the universities of Italy and +those of other parts of the world toward women as students and +professors! For a thousand years the doors of the Italian universities +have been open to women, as well as to men; and for a thousand years +women, as well as men, have received their degrees from these noble and +liberal institutions, and occupied the most important positions in their +gift, and that, too, with the approval and encouragement of both +spiritual and temporal rulers. For these wise and broad-minded men did +not regard it unwomanly for Laura Bassi to teach physics, for Clotilde +Tambroni to teach Greek, for Dorotea Bucca to teach medicine, for Maria +Gaetana to teach differential and integral calculus, for Anna Morandi to +teach anatomy, for Novella d'Andrea to teach canon law, or even, if we +may believe Denifle, one of the best of authorities, for the daughters +of a Paris professor to teach theology.<a name="FNanchor_72_72" id="FNanchor_72_72"></a><a href="#Footnote_72_72" class="fnanchor">[72]</a> Yes, what a contrast, +indeed, between the Universities of Bologna and Padua, with their long +and honored list of women graduates and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> professors, and the +Universities of Cambridge and Oxford from which women have always been +and are still excluded, both as students and professors.</p> + +<p>Contrast, also, the honors shown to women as students and professors of +medicine in Salerno, in the thirteenth century, with the riots excited +among the chivalrous male students of the University of Edinburgh, when, +less than a half century ago, seven young women applied for the +privilege of attending the courses of lectures on medicine and surgery +in that institution. And contrast the sympathy and encouragement of +Italy with the almost brutal opposition which women in our own country +encountered when, but a few decades ago, they applied for admittance to +the medical schools of New York and Philadelphia. The difference between +the Italian and the Anglo-Saxon attitude toward women in the +all-important matters in question requires no comment.<a name="FNanchor_73_73" id="FNanchor_73_73"></a><a href="#Footnote_73_73" class="fnanchor">[73]</a></p> + +<p>One reason for the great difference between the women of Italy and those +of other parts of Europe in the matter of higher education during the +period we have been considering was the old Roman spirit of independence +of the former and their always insisting on what they regarded as their +natural and indefeasible rights. Following the example of the matrons of +ancient Rome, they insisted on being treated as the equals of men, and, +as a consequence, they demanded in the intellectual order all the +advantages that were accorded to men. They would never admit their +mental inferiority to man, and woe betide the luckless wight who even +insinuated such inferiority. The shafts of satire and ridicule were at +once directed against him by a score of women who were able to use the +pen as well as, if not better than, himself. Sometimes, however, such an +one was taken seriously, and then the result was a book by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> some clever +woman to prove that there was no difference in the intellectual power of +the two sexes—that, if there was a difference, it was in favor of the +gentler sex. There is quite a large number of such works in Italian; and +it must be said that the women always met the arguments of their +adversaries in a manner that does them the greatest credit.</p> + +<p>It was probably because of their insistence on the equality of the +sexes, as well as because of their achievements in every department of +mental activity, that the educated women of Italy enjoyed so many +privileges denied their sisters in other parts of Europe. Thus, in +addition to being treated as the equals of men in the universities, they +met them on an equal footing in the art, literary and scientific +societies and academies, in the proceedings of which they always +exhibited an active and enthusiastic interest. In these reunions the +women gained strength of mind and independence of character from the +men, while the men imbibed refinement and gentleness from the women. +Compare this condition with the systematic exclusion of women from +similar societies in other countries—even in this twentieth century of +ours—and one of the not least potent reasons for the intellectual +supremacy of the women of Italy will be apparent.</p> + +<p>Next after Italy, France was the country in which, during the +post-Renaissance period, women enjoyed the greatest advantages of mental +development. But we look in vain, even during the age of Louis XIV, for +that flowering of the female intellect that, at the same period, +rendered the daughters of Italy so famous. It is true that there was a +certain number of learned women in France during the seventeenth +century, and notably during the golden age of Louis XIV, for during this +period the traditions of the Renaissance were perpetuated and there was +still a lingering love of letters, at least among certain classes of the +aristocracy.</p> + +<p>Prominent among those who attracted attention for their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> learning were +Gilberte and Jaqueline Pascal, of the celebrated convent of Port Royal; +Marie-Eleanore de Rohan and Gabrielle de Rochechouart, both, like the +Pascal sisters, inmates of the cloister; Marie Cramoisy, wife of the +first director of the royal printing office, and Mlle. de Luynes, a +friend of Pascal. All these counted among their attainments a writing +knowledge of Latin, but were far from being able, like the Italian women +above mentioned, to speak it with the same fluency as they did their +mother tongue.</p> + +<p>In addition to the learned French women just named, there was Elisabeth +de Rochechouart, a niece of Mme. de Montespan, who was able to read +Plato in Greek, and Anne de Rohan, Princess of Guéméné, who surprised +her countrymen by studying Hebrew. Then there were Mme. de Grignan, +Marie Dupré, Louise Serment, Anne de La Vigne, who, like the Princess +Palatine, Elisabeth, and Christine of Sweden, were ardent disciples of +Descartes, and took the lead among the <i>femmes philosophes</i> of their +time.</p> + +<p>But for profound and varied scholarship Mme. Dacier, the daughter of the +erudite Tanquil Le Fevre, was the most famous of all the women of her +time in France. Possessed of rare power of eloquence and beauty of +style, together with an extraordinary capacity for criticism, there was +not a man in Europe who did not respect her judgment in matters of +literature and culture. But that for which she was specially celebrated +was her exceptional knowledge of Latin and Greek. She not only +translated the Iliad and the Odyssey but also several other of the +ancient classics. None of her contemporaries had a more thorough mastery +of the tongues of Homer and Virgil, nor did any of her countrymen +contribute more than she toward the advancement of the knowledge of the +literature of ancient Greece and Rome. So highly prized was her version +of the Iliad that it was translated by Ozell into English. Her version +of Plato's Phædo was also translated into English and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> published by a +New York bookseller more than a century after her death. The scholarly +Menagius, in his <i>Historia Mulierum Philosopharum</i>, did not hesitate to +pronounce her the most learned woman of all time—<i>Feminarum quot sunt, +quot fuere doctissima</i>.<a name="FNanchor_74_74" id="FNanchor_74_74"></a><a href="#Footnote_74_74" class="fnanchor">[74]</a></p> + +<p>To Mme. de Maintenon, the morganatic wife of the Great Monarch, is due +the Institut de Saint-Cyr, the first state school for girls founded in +France. It was, however, solely for the daughters of the nobility. And, +although it was from the first under the direction of the foundress, a +woman who was before all else a teacher as well as one of the most +enlightened women of the most literary and philosophic age France ever +knew—the age when the French language was perfected, the age of the +Academy, of Boileau, Molière, Racine, Bossuet, Descartes—the studies +prescribed in this institution, which was under the special patronage of +the king, were of the most elementary character. They comprised reading, +writing, arithmetic, grammar, music, drawing, dancing, and the elements +of history, mythology and geography. As to history, Mme. de Maintenon +was satisfied if the pupils of Saint-Cyr knew enough not to confound the +kings of France with those of other nations, and were able to avoid +mistaking a Roman emperor for the Emperor of China or Japan; or the King +of Spain or England for the King of Persia or Siam. And yet, restricted +as it was, her programme of studies was more complete than that of any +other girls' school in the kingdom. One of her reasons for not insisting +on a more thorough course was that "women never know but by halves, and +the little that they do know usually makes them proud, haughty and +talkative and disgusted with solid things."<a name="FNanchor_75_75" id="FNanchor_75_75"></a><a href="#Footnote_75_75" class="fnanchor">[75]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span></p><p>In Saint-Cyr, the best girls' school in the kingdom, there was not a +word about the first principles of philosophy, nor about the physical +and natural sciences recommended by Fénelon. The elements just referred +to, combined with a goodly amount of esprit—<i>bien de l'esprit</i>—were +considered quite sufficient to prepare the future wives of the nobility +for all the duties they would be called upon to perform.</p> + +<p>Mme. de Maintenon had probably been unconsciously influenced by what she +had seen at the court of her liege lord, where the greater part of the +women were extremely ignorant. Even Mme. de Montespan, the king's +favorite, and for years the leading figure at the court, was no +exception. So ignorant was she that she was not even able to spell the +simplest and most common words.<a name="FNanchor_76_76" id="FNanchor_76_76"></a><a href="#Footnote_76_76" class="fnanchor">[76]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> +<p>And so it was with the most illustrious ladies of France. Many of them +were so devoid of instruction that they were unable either to read or to +write. Even the teachers in Saint-Cyr were so deficient in the simplest +rudiments of an education that Mme. de Maintenon found it necessary to +correct their letters, in order to teach them the most essential rules +of epistolary correspondence. In reality, the women of the age of Louis +XIV did not trouble themselves about an education as we understand it. +Endowed with esprit, with a natural and acquired taste for things +intellectual, they were satisfied with such knowledge as they could +glean from reading or conversation, and with comparatively few +exceptions, showed no disposition to devote long years to study in +school, much less in a university, as did their sisters to the south of +the Alps.</p> + +<p>The foundress of Saint-Cyr had likewise been influenced by her +environment as well as by the court—an environment which was becoming +daily more and more unfavorable to the education, especially anything +approaching the higher education, of women. A young woman's education +was considered complete when she was able to read, write, dance and play +some musical instrument. Anything more was deemed superfluous and +deserving of censure and ridicule rather than praise.</p> + +<p>It was at this time that Molière's two celebrated plays, <i>Les Femmes +Savantes</i> and <i>Les Précieuses Ridicules</i>, were given to the world. These +well-known productions, replete with the author's brightest flashes of +wit, and abounding in his most effective shafts of satire, produced at +once an immense sensation. As soon as published, they were in the hands +of everybody. Those who were opposed to the education of women—and the +number was daily increasing—had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> recourse to them as to arsenals which +supplied them with just the arms they had so long needed to decide in +their favor the long warfare which they had been conducting against the +gentler sex. The views of the bourgeois Chrysale as expressed to his +sister, Belise, were so in harmony with their own that they loved on +every occasion to repeat with him:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i26">"No,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">It isn't decent, and for many reasons,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That womankind should study and know too much.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To teach her children what is right and wrong,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Manage her household, oversee her servants,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And keep expenses within bounds, should be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her only study and philosophy.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Our fathers, on this point, showed great good sense;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They said a woman always knows enough<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If but her understanding reaches<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To telling, one from t'other, coat and breeches.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their wives, who couldn't read, led honest lives,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Their households were their only learned theme,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And all their books were thimble, thread and needles.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With which they made their daughters' wedding outfits.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now our women scorn to live like that;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They want to write and all be authoresses.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They think no knowledge is too deep for them."<a name="FNanchor_77_77" id="FNanchor_77_77"></a><a href="#Footnote_77_77" class="fnanchor">[77]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Molière's intention in writing these justly famous comedies was not, as +is so often asserted, to ridicule women of learning, but only those +superficial pedants who affected knowledge or loved to make a display of +the little knowledge they happened to possess. The result, however, was +quite different from what had been intended, for the poet's pleasantries +were taken so seriously, that even women of real learning, in order to +avoid ridicule, were condemned to absolute silence. The comic dramatist, +Destouches, expressed the prevailing opinion when he wrote:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i26">"Une femme savante<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Doit cacher son savoir, ou c'est une imprudente."<a name="FNanchor_78_78" id="FNanchor_78_78"></a><a href="#Footnote_78_78" class="fnanchor">[78]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Few French women thereafter had the courage to defend their sex, as did +their sisters in Italy, and the result was that, with a few exceptions, +like Mme. du Châtelet, Sophie Germain, and Mme. Lepaute, there were no +more learned women in France for fully two centuries.</p> + +<p>Never did satire and ridicule accomplish more, except probably in the +case of <i>Don Quixote</i>—that masterly creation of Cervantes which dealt +the death-blow to knight-errantry—than did <i>Les Femmes Savantes</i> and +<i>Les Précieuses Ridicules</i>. The learned woman became as much an object +of derision in France as was the knight-errant in Spain.</p> + +<p>It was not, however, in the nature of the French woman, with all her +vivacity and energy, to be suppressed entirely or to be relegated for +long to the background in things of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> the mind. But, not then daring to +face the ridicule which was inevitable, if she devoted herself to +science or philosophy, she sought a substitute for her intellectual +activity in the salon.</p> + +<p>The first salon was established by an Italian woman, the Marquise de +Rambouillet, in 1617, and was modeled after the famous reunions held at +the court of Urbino under Elizabetta Gonzaga, a century before. Although +it never exhibited the splendor of its Italian prototype, the Hôtel de +Rambouillet was for more than fifty years the most important literary +center of the kind in France. Here, owing to the tact, esprit, and +magnetic personality of Mme. de Rambouillet, were gathered the most +distinguished men and women of the time. Among them were poets, +philosophers, statesmen, ecclesiastics and ladies of rank, whose names +still dazzle us by their brilliancy. Bossuet, Molière, La Fontaine, +Corneille and the great Condé were there; so were Fléchier, Balzac, +Voiture, Saint-Evremont, Descartes and La Rochefoucauld; and so, too, +were Mme. de Sevigné, the Duchess of Montpensier, Madeleine de Scudéry, +La Comtesse de La Fayette, Charlotte de Montmorency, and Cardinal +Richelieu who got from this noted salon the idea which led to his +greatest foundation—the French Academy.</p> + +<p>It was Mme. de Rambouillet who, through her reunions in her exquisite +<i>Chambre Bleue</i>, for the first time brought together elements that were +previously considered as belonging to different castes. It was she, +also, who created modern society with its purely intellectual hierarchy, +by having the representatives of the nobility meet men of science and +letters on an equal footing. It seems to us now the most natural thing +in the world for a great savant, a great poet, or a great philosopher, +to be received in the same salon with the Duchess of Montpensier—<i>La +Grande Mademoiselle</i>—but it was far from being so when the brilliant +young Italian matron—for she was a daughter of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> noble Roman family +of the Savelli—began her epoch-making work in the Hôtel de Rambouillet, +where, after overcoming countless difficulties and prejudices, she +eventually succeeded in bringing together, and in enlisting in a common +cause, the nobility of birth and the nobility of intellect, and +introducing into the exclusive set of Paris the same kind of social +coteries that had so long been popular in Urbino and Ferrara.</p> + +<p>The Hôtel de Rambouillet was the exemplar of that long series of salons +which, for two centuries, were the favorite trysting-places of the +talent, the wit, the beauty of Europe, and which exerted such a potent +influence on society and on the progress of science and literature. The +mistress of the salon was supreme, and she maintained her supremacy by +her tact, sympathy, intelligence and mental alertness, rather than by +learning and superior mental power.</p> + +<p>Indeed, it is a singular fact that very few of the <i>salonières</i> were +learned women. The most gifted and the most learned of them were Mlle. +Lespinasse, Mme. de Staël, and Mme. Swetchine. Mme. Geoffrin, who was of +bourgeois origin, was so devoid of education that Voltaire said she was +unable to write two lines correctly. And yet, despite her educational +limitations, she became, by her own unaided efforts, the queen of +intellectual Europe.</p> + +<p>And, if we may judge by their portraits, most of the great leaders of +salons were homely, if not positively ugly, and many of them were +advanced in years. Thus, Mme. du Deffand—the female Voltaire—was +sixty-eight years old and blind when her friendship with Horace Walpole, +one of the wittiest Englishmen who ever lived, began—a friendship that +endured until her death at the age of eighty-three. The face of Mlle. de +Lespinasse was disfigured by small-pox and her eyesight was impaired; +and yet, without rank, wealth or beauty, she was the pivot around which +circled the talent and fashion of Paris, and whose personal magnetism +was so great that the state, the church,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> the court, as well as foreign +countries, had their most distinguished representatives in her salon.</p> + +<p>Here she received and entertained her friends every evening from five +until nine o'clock. "It was," writes La Harpe, "almost a title to +consideration to be received into this society." So great was the +influence exerted by Mlle. de Lespinasse that she bent savants to her +will by the sheer force of genius. Her salon became known as "the +ante-chamber of the French Academy"; for it was asserted that half the +academicians of her time owed their fauteuils to her active canvass in +their behalf. And so successful was she in opening the lips and minds of +her habitués, whether an historian like Hume, a philosopher like +Condillac, a statesman like Turgot, a mathematician like d'Alembert, a +litterateur like Marmontel or an encyclopedist like Condorcet, that it +was said of her that she made "marble feel and matter think."</p> + +<p>She was a veritable enchantress of the great and the learned of her +time. She did not, however, wield her magic wand through her learning, +or the accident of birth, or the physical attractions of person, but +solely by reason of her wonderful vivacity, charm of mind, and exquisite +tact, which consisted, as those who knew her well tell us, "in the art +of saying to each that which suits him," and in "making the best of the +minds of others, of interesting them, and of bringing them into play +without any appearance of constraint or effort." This rare faculty it +was which secured for her a supremacy in the world of thought and action +that has been accorded to but few women in the world's history. Vibrant +with emotion and passion, she reminds one of the gifted but hapless +Heloise. Marmontel, who had such a high opinion of her judgment that he +submitted his works for her criticism, as Molière had submitted his to +Ninon de Lenclos, describes her as "the keenest intelligence, the most +ardent soul, the most inflammable imagination that has existed since +Sappho."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<p>But aside from what she achieved indirectly through the habitués of her +salon, what has this supremely clever woman left to the world? Only a +few love letters to a heartless coxcomb.</p> + +<p>And what have the other noted salonières from the time of the Marquise +de Rambouillet to that of Mme. Swetchine—full two centuries—bequeathed +to us that is worth preserving? With the exception of the works of Mme. +de Staël, whom Lord Jeffrey declared to be "the greatest female writer +in any age or country," we have little more than certain <i>Mémoires</i> and +<i>Correspondances</i> whose chief claims to fame rest on the vivid pictures +which they present of the manners and customs of the time and of the +celebrities who were regarded as the chief ornaments of the salons which +they severally frequented. Most of these works were posthumous; for few +women, after Molière's merciless scoring of learned women, had the +courage to appear in print. Even Mme. de Scudéry, one of the most gifted +and prolific writers of the period, gave her first novel to the world +under her brother's name. And so tabooed was female authorship that Mme. +de La Fayette, one of the most brilliant of the <i>précieuses</i>, disclaimed +all knowledge of her <i>Princesse de Clèves</i>, while her masterpiece, +<i>Histoire d'Henriette d'Angleterre</i>, was not published until after her +death.</p> + +<p>The truth is that the period of the salon was for the most part a period +of contrasts and contradictions. At first the better educated +<i>salonières</i> were chiefly interested in belles-lettres. Then they +devoted themselves more to science and philosophy, and finally, during +the years immediately preceding the Revolution, they found their +greatest pleasure in politics. As for the men, while professing to adore +women, they had little esteem for them, and still less respect. Often, +it is true, the women who frequented the salons were deserving neither +of respect nor of esteem.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> + +<p>Sydney Smith spoke of those under the old régime as "women of brilliant +talents who violated all the common duties of life and gave very +pleasant little suppers." It was certainly true of many of them—even of +some of the most distinguished—such, for instance, as Mme. d'Epinay, +Mme. du Deffand, Ninon de Lenclos and Mme. Tencin, the mother of +D'Alembert. There was little in their manner of life to distinguish them +from the <i>hetæræ</i> of ancient Athens, and it was probably owing to this +fact, as well as their wit and brilliancy, that many of them attained +such preëminence as social leaders. The statesmen, philosophers, men of +science and letters of France, like those of Greece more than two +thousand years before, wanted distraction and amusement. That the +mistresses of the salons should be women of learning was of little +moment. The all important thing for their habitués was that they should +be good entertainers—that they should be witty, tactful and +sympathetic—and, if ignorant, that they should be brilliantly ignorant, +and, at the same time, enchantingly frank and naïve.</p> + +<p>Strange as it may appear there was as much hostility to learned women at +the close of the eighteenth century as there was in the time of Louis +XIV. And the remarkable fact is that the strongest opponents of women's +education were found among the most prominent writers and scholars of +the day—men who, like their predecessors of old, based their opposition +on the assumed mental inferiority of woman. Thus, to Rousseau, woman was +at best but "an imperfect man," and, in many respects, little more than +"a grown-up child." Search after abstract and speculative truths, +principles and axioms in science, "everything that tends to generalize +ideas is outside of her competence." That means that women are to be +excluded from the study of mathematics and the physical sciences, +because they are incapable of generalization, abstraction, and the +mental concentration that these subjects demand. Even<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> the masterpieces +of literature, according to him, are beyond their comprehension. In a +word, feminine studies, Rousseau will have it, should relate exclusively +to practical and domestic matters and he endorses the words of Molière +that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"It is not seemly, and for many reasons,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That a woman should study and know so many things."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Diderot, Montesquieu, Voltaire and the Encyclopedists share the views of +Rousseau. Diderot declares that serious studies do not comport with +woman's sex, while Montesquieu would limit female education to mere +accomplishments.</p> + +<p>But this is not all. Antagonistic as these men were to the education of +the daughters of the nobility and the well-to-do, they were entirely +opposed to the education of the children of the poor. "The good of +society," it was averred, "demands that the instruction of the people +extend not beyond their occupations." "The poor," declares Rousseau, +"have no need of instruction," and Voltaire and the Encyclopedists say, +"Amen."<a name="FNanchor_79_79" id="FNanchor_79_79"></a><a href="#Footnote_79_79" class="fnanchor">[79]</a></p> + +<p>Very little need be said about the education of women in Germany during +the period we have been considering. When there was any at all, it was +of the most rudimentary character, while as to books, they were limited +to the kind recommended by Byron for the women of modern Greece—"books<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +of piety and cookery." The attitude of the Germans generally toward +female education, for centuries past, was clearly defined by the Kaiser +Wilhelm II, when, a few years ago, he publicly stated: "I agree with my +wife. She says women have no business to interfere with anything +outside of the four K's, that is, <i>Kinder</i>, <i>Kirche</i>, <i>Küche</i>, +<i>Kleider</i>—children, church, kitchen, clothes."</p> + +<p>There was, however, during the period we are now considering, one +remarkable example of a learned woman of Teutonic origin. This was the +famous Anna Maria van Schurman, who was one of the most gifted women +that ever lived. She was, probably, as near to being a universal genius +as any one of her sex of whom we have knowledge. Artist, musician, poet, +philosopher, theologian, linguist, she was the admiration of the +scholars of the world and the pride of the Low Countries—the land of +her birth. She lived when Holland was in the van of human progress and +amidst of the splendors of the Dutch Renaissance. She was the friend and +correspondent of the most distinguished scholars and most noted +celebrities of her time. Among these were Voet, Spanheim, Descartes, +Gassendi, Constantine Huyghens, Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, Queen +Christina of Sweden, and Cardinal Richelieu. To go to the Netherlands, +it was then said, without seeing Anna van Schurman, was like going to +Paris without seeing the king. She was hailed as "The Tenth Muse," "The +Sappho of Holland," "The Oracle of Art," "The Star of Utrecht."</p> + +<p>That, however, which gave the greatest renown to the "Learned Maid," as +Anna was called, was her extraordinary knowledge of languages. For, +besides being proficient in the chief modern tongues of Europe, she was +well acquainted with Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syro-Chaldaic and Ethiopic. +The oriental languages she studied as an aid to the better understanding +of Holy Scripture.</p> + +<p>She was the author of several works, among which was an Ethiopic grammar +which was acclaimed by the professors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> of the Dutch universities as a +marvelous achievement. Her best known volume is designated <i>Opuscula</i>. +It was brought out by the Elzevirs in Leyden and went through several +editions. It is composed of letters and short treatises in French, +Latin, Greek and Hebrew—in verse as well as prose.</p> + +<p>Of more value, if less striking, than the productions named were the +"Learned Maid's" writings in favor of the intellectual enfranchisement +of her own sex. In a letter to Dr. Rivet, Professor of Theology in +Leyden, she declares:</p> + +<p>"My deep regard for learning, my conviction that equal justice is the +right of all, impel me to protest against the theory which would allow +only a minority of my sex to attain to what is in the opinion of all men +most worth having. For, since wisdom is admitted to be the crown of +human achievement, and is within every man's right to aim at in +proportion to his opportunities, I cannot see why a young girl, in whom +we admit a desire of self-improvement, should not be encouraged to +acquire the best that life affords."</p> + +<p>To those who objected that the distaff and the needle were sufficient to +occupy women's minds, Anna Maria made answer that the words of +Plutarch—"It becomes a perfect man to know what is to be known and to +do what is to be done"—applied with equal truth to a perfect woman.<a name="FNanchor_80_80" id="FNanchor_80_80"></a><a href="#Footnote_80_80" class="fnanchor">[80]</a></p> + +<p>In England, until the latter part of the nineteenth century,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> the +educational status of women was but little better than in Germany. +During the Stuart period schools for girls were so scarce that most of +those who received any education at all obtained it at home under +private tutors. Even then it rarely embraced more than reading, writing, +needlework, singing, dancing and playing on the lute or virginal.<a name="FNanchor_81_81" id="FNanchor_81_81"></a><a href="#Footnote_81_81" class="fnanchor">[81]</a></p> + +<p>As to the higher studies for women, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu writes as +follows: "My sex is usually forbid studies of this nature and folly +reckoned so much our proper sphere that we are sooner pardoned any +excesses of that than the least pretensions to reading or good sense. We +are permitted no books but such as tend to the weakening or effeminating +of the mind. Our natural defects are in every way indulged, and it is +looked upon as in a degree criminal to improve our reason or fancy we +have any.... There is hardly a creature in the world more despicable or +more liable to universal ridicule than that of a learned woman: these +words imply, according to the received sense, a tattling, impertinent, +vain and conceited creature."<a name="FNanchor_82_82" id="FNanchor_82_82"></a><a href="#Footnote_82_82" class="fnanchor">[82]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p><p>Higher studies for their daughters were regarded by the generality of +men, the same writer tells us, "as great a profanation as the clergy +would do if the laity would presume to exercise the functions of the +priesthood."</p> + +<p>Referring to the handicaps suffered by the women of England in the +pursuit of knowledge, the same writer declares: "We are educated in the +grossest ignorance, and no art is omitted to stifle our natural reason; +if some few get above their nurses' instructions, our knowledge must be +concealed and be as useless to the world as gold in the mine."</p> + +<p>Lord Chesterfield, in <i>His Letters to His Son</i>, expresses the opinion of +his contemporaries when he writes on the same subject as follows: "Women +are only children of a larger growth; they have an entertaining tattle, +sometimes wit; but, for solid reasoning, good sense, I never in my life +knew one who had it, or who reasoned or acted consequentially for +twenty-four hours together.... A man of sense only trifles with them, +plays with them, humors and flatters them as he does a sprightly forward +child; but he neither consults them about nor trusts them with serious +matters, though he often makes them believe he does both, which is the +thing in the world which they are proud of; for they love mightily to be +dabbling in business, which, by the way, they always spoil, and, being +distrustful that men in general look upon them in a trifling light, they +almost adore that man who talks to them seriously and seems to consult +and trust them."<a name="FNanchor_83_83" id="FNanchor_83_83"></a><a href="#Footnote_83_83" class="fnanchor">[83]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p> +<p>And this was written by that "mirror of politeness and chivalry" whose +name has for two centuries been synonymous with that of a perfect +gentleman! And Lady Montagu was compelled to pen her caustic and +pathetic plaints during the age of Pope, Steele, Addison, Swift,<a name="FNanchor_84_84" id="FNanchor_84_84"></a><a href="#Footnote_84_84" class="fnanchor">[84]</a> +Johnson, Dryden and Goldsmith—the most brilliant pleiad of literary men +that England had known since the days of Shakespeare.</p> + +<p>So unnatural for women were literary and scientific pursuits regarded by +all classes that the few who attained any eminence in them were classed +as abnormal creatures who deserved no more consideration than did the +<i>Précieuses</i> across the Channel. And so great was the power of public +sentiment against women writers that Fanny Burney was afraid to +acknowledge the authorship of <i>Evelina</i>. Even in Jane Austen's days, the +feeling that a woman, in writing a book, was overstepping the +limitations of her sex was so pronounced that she never actually avowed +the authorship of those charming works which have been the delight of +three generations of readers. It was this same sentiment that caused the +Brontë sisters and George Eliot, as well as many other notable women, to +write under pseudonyms. They feared to disclose their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> sex lest their +works, if known as the productions of women, should be <i>ipso facto</i> +branded as of inferior merit.</p> + +<p>During the period in question women fared no better in the United States +than in England. They were subject to the same educational debarment and +were the victims of the same snobbery and intolerance. The Pilgrim +Fathers and their descendants for many generations made no secret of +their belief in the mental inferiority of woman, and applied to her the +gospel of liberty contained in the following words of Eve to Adam as +given in <i>Paradise Lost</i>:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"My author and dispenser, what thou bidst<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Unargued I obey; so God ordains;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">God is thy law, thou mine: to know no more<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>To the Puritan of New England, as to the Puritan Milton, the relative +attainments of woman and man were tersely expressed in Tennyson's +couplet:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"She knows but matters of the house,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And he, he knows a thousand things."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>To us one of the most astounding facts in the educational history of New +England is the long time during which girls were without free school +opportunities. Thus, although schools had been established within twenty +years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, it was not until a +century and a half later that their doors were opened to girls. The +public schools of Boston were established in 1642, but were not opened +for girls until 1789; and then only for instruction in spelling, reading +and composition, and that but one half of the year. There was no high +school in Boston, the vaunted Athens of America, until 1852.</p> + +<p>Harvard College was founded in 1636 for the education of "ye English and +Indian youth of this country in knowledge and godlyness," but in this +institution no provision<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> was made for women and its doors are still +closed to them.</p> + +<p>"The prevailing notion of the purpose of education," declares Charles +Francis Adams, in speaking of Harvard College, "was attended with one +remarkable consequence—the cultivation of the female mind was regarded +with utter indifference; as Mrs. Abigail Adams says in one of her +letters, 'it was fashionable to ridicule learning.'"<a name="FNanchor_85_85" id="FNanchor_85_85"></a><a href="#Footnote_85_85" class="fnanchor">[85]</a></p> + +<p>It was not until 1865 that Matthew Vassar, "recognizing in women the +same intellectual constitution as in man," founded the first woman's +college in the United States. This was soon followed by similar +institutions in various parts of this country and Europe. In less than +ten years thereafter Girton and Newnham colleges were founded at +Cambridge, England, in order that women might be enabled to enter upon a +regular university career.</p> + +<p>In all the universities of England, Scotland and Ireland, except Oxford, +Cambridge<a name="FNanchor_86_86" id="FNanchor_86_86"></a><a href="#Footnote_86_86" class="fnanchor">[86]</a> and Trinity College, Dublin,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> women are now admitted to +all departments, pass the same examinations as the men and receive the +same academic degrees. Germany, whose institutions for the higher +education of men have so long been justly famous, was exceedingly slow +to open its universities to women, and then only after the most stubborn +opposition of those who still maintained that the studies of women +should be limited to the three R's and their occupations confined to the +four K's. But even in this conservative country the cause of woman has +at length triumphed, and she now enjoys educational advantages that a +few decades ago were deemed forever impossible.</p> + + +<p>And so it is in every civilized country. Woman's long struggle for +complete intellectual freedom is almost ended, and certain victory is +already in sight. In spite of the sarcasm and ridicule of satirists and +comic poets, in spite of the antipathy of philosophers and the +antagonism of legislators who persisted in treating women as inferior +beings, they are finally in view of the goal toward which they have +through so many long ages been bending their best efforts. Moreover, so +effective and so concentrated has been their work during recent years +that they have accomplished more toward securing complete intellectual +enfranchisement than during the previous thirty centuries.</p> + +<p>From the former home of the Vikings to the romantic land of the Cid, +from the capital of Holy Russia to the fair metropolis of the Golden +Gate, women are now welcomed to the very institutions from which but a +few years ago they were so systematically excluded. They attend the same +courses as men, pass the same examinations and receive the same degrees +and honors. Their sex is no longer a bar to positions and employment +that only a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> generation ago were considered proper only for the proud +and imperious male. They have proved beyond cavil that genius knows not +sex, and that, given a fair opportunity, they are competent to achieve +success in every department of human effort.</p> + +<p>Thus, to speak only of Europe, there are to-day women professors in the +universities of Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Greece and Russia, +as there have been in Italy since the closing years of the Dark Ages. +They lecture on science, literature, law and medicine, and in a manner +to extort the admiration of their erstwhile antagonists. In Germany and +Hungary there are women chemists and architects, while it is a matter of +record that the best construction work done on the trans-Siberian +railroad was that in charge of a woman engineer.</p> + +<p>As an illustration of the marvelous change which has been brought about +during the last three-quarters of a century in the educational status of +woman, I can do no better than transcribe a few passages from a work by +Sir Walter Besant describing the transformation of woman during the +reign of Queen Victoria; for it applies to all civilized countries as +well as to England.</p> + +<p>"The young lady of 1837 has been to a fashionable school; she has +learned accomplishments, deportment and dress. She is full of sentiment; +there was an amazing amount of sentiment in the air about that time; she +loves to talk and read about gallant knights, crusaders and troubadors; +she gently touches the guitar; her sentiment, or her little affectation, +has touched her with a graceful melancholy, a becoming stoop, a sweet +pensiveness. She loves the aristocracy, even although her home is in +that part of London called Bloomsbury, whither the belted earl cometh +not, even though her papa goes into the City; she reads a deal of +poetry, especially those poems which deal with the affections, of which +there are many at this time. On Sunday she goes to church religiously +and pensively,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> followed by a footman carrying her prayerbook and a long +stick; she can play on the guitar and the piano a few easy pieces which +she has learned. She knows a few words of French, which she produces at +frequent intervals; as to history, geography, science, the condition of +the people, her mind is an entire blank; she knows nothing of these +things. Her conversation is commonplace, as her ideas are limited; she +can not reason on any subject whatever because of her ignorance; or, as +she herself would say, because she is a woman. In her presence, and +indeed in the presence of ladies generally, men talk trivialities. There +was indeed a general belief that women were creatures incapable of +argument, or of reason, or of connected thought. It was no use arguing +about the matter. The Lord had made them so. Women, said the +philosophers, can not understand logic; they see things, if they do see +them at all, by instinctive perception. This theory accounted for +everything, for those cases when women undoubtedly did 'see things.' +Also it fully justified people in withholding from women any kind of +education worthy the name. A quite needless expense, you understand."</p> + +<p>Her amusements, we are told, were "those of an amateur—a few pieces on +the guitar and the piano and some slight power of sketching or flower +painting in water-colors." The literature she read "endeavored to mold +woman on the theory of recognized intellectual inferiority to man. She +was considered beneath him in intellect as in physical strength; she was +exhorted to defer to man; to acknowledge his superiority; not to show +herself anxious to combat his opinions....</p> + +<p>"This system of artificial restraints certainly produced faithful wives, +gentle mothers, loving sisters, able housewives. God forbid that we +should say otherwise, but it is certain that the intellectual +attainments of women were then what we should call contemptible, and the +range of subjects of which they knew nothing was absurdly narrow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> and +limited. I detect the woman of 1840 in the character of Mrs. Clive +Newcome, and, indeed, in Mrs. George Osborne, and in other familiar +characters of Thackeray."</p> + +<p>Then Sir Walter, turning to the young Englishwoman of 1897, thus +describes her:</p> + +<p>"She is educated. Whatsoever things are taught to the young man are +taught to the young woman; the keys of knowledge are given to her; she +gathers of the famous tree; if she wants to explore the wickedness of +the world she can do so, for it is all in the books. The secrets of +nature are not closed to her; she can learn the structure of the body if +she wishes. The secrets of science are all open to her if she cares to +study them.</p> + +<p>"At school, at college, she studies just as the young man studies, but +harder and with greater concentration. She has proved her ability in the +Honors Tripos of every branch; she has beaten the senior wrangler in +mathematics; she has taken a 'first-class' in classics, in history, in +science, in languages. She has proved, not that she is a man's equal in +intellect, though she claims so much, because she has not yet advanced +any branch of learning, of science, one single step, but she has proved +her capacity to take her place beside the young men who are the flower +of their generation—the young men who stand in the first class of +honors when they take their degree....</p> + +<p>"Personal independence—that is the keynote of the situation. Mothers no +longer attempt the old control over their daughters; they would find it +impossible. The girls go off by themselves on their bicycles; they go +about as they please; they neither compromise themselves nor get talked +about; for the first time in man's history it is regarded as a right and +proper thing to trust a girl as a boy insists upon being trusted. Out of +this personal freedom will come, I dare say, a change in the old +feelings of young man to maiden. He will not see in her a frail, tender +plant which must be protected from cold winds;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> she can protect herself +perfectly well. He will not see in her any longer a creature of sweet +emotions and pure aspirations, coupled with a complete ignorance of the +world, because she already knows all that she wants to know....</p> + +<p>"Perhaps the greatest change is that woman now does thoroughly what +before she only did as an amateur."<a name="FNanchor_87_87" id="FNanchor_87_87"></a><a href="#Footnote_87_87" class="fnanchor">[87]</a></p> + +<p>Yes, the world is beginning at last to realize the truth of the +proposition which the learned Maria Gaetana Agnesi so eloquently +defended nearly two centuries ago—to wit, that nature has endowed the +female mind with a capacity for all knowledge, and that, in depriving +women of an opportunity of acquiring knowledge, men work against the +best interests of the public weal.<a name="FNanchor_88_88" id="FNanchor_88_88"></a><a href="#Footnote_88_88" class="fnanchor">[88]</a></p> + +<p>We are at the long last near that millennium which Emerson had in mind +when, in 1822, he predicted "a time when higher institutions for the +education of young women would be as needful as colleges for young +men"—that millennium for which women have hoped and striven ever since +Sappho sang and Aspasia inspired the brightest, the noblest minds of +Greece.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Demosthenes <i>In Neæram</i>, 122. +Τας μεν γαρ ἑταιρας +ἡδονης ἑνεκ' εχομεν, τας δε παλλακας της καθ' ἡμεραν θεραπεις του +σωματος, τας δε γυναικας του παιδοποιεισθαι γνησιως και των ενδον +ζυλακα πιστην εχειν. +</p><p> +As indicative of the comparative value of men and women, as members of +society, in the estimation of the Greeks, Euripides makes Iphigenia give +utterance to the following sentiment: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"More than a thousand women is one man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Worthy to see the light of life."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> +Της τε γαρ, ὑπαρχουσης ζυσεως μη χειροσι +γενεσθαι ὑμιν μεγαη η δοξα'και ἡς αν επ' ελαχιστον αρετης περι η +ψογου εν αρσεσι κλεος η. Thucidides, <i>History of the Peloponnesian +War, II</i>, 45. +</p><p> +"Phidias," Plutarch tells us in his <i>Conjugal Precepts</i>, "made the +statue of Venus at Elis with one foot on the shell of a tortoise, to +signify two great duties of a virtuous woman, which are to keep at home +and be silent. For she is only to speak to her husband or by her +husband."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Ariosto, referring to the undying fame of Sappho and +Corinna, expresses himself in words as beautiful as they are true, as +witness the following couplet: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Saffo e Corinna, perche furon dotte,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Splendono illustri, e mai non veggon notte.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span> +<span class="i9">—<span class="smcap">Orlando Furioso</span>, Canto XX, strophe I.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The nine "Terrestrial Muses" were Sappho, Erinna, Myrus, +Myrtis, Corinna, Telesilla, Praxilla, Nossis and Anyta. +</p><p> +The Greek poet Antipater embodies the names of the "Terrestrial Nine" in +an epigram which is well rendered in the appended Latin translation: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Has divinis linguis Helicon nutrivit mulieres<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Hymnis, et Macedon Pierias scopulus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Prexillam, Myro, Anytæ os, fœminam Homerum,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Lesbidum Sappho ornamentum capillatarum.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Erinnam, Telesillam nobilem, teque Corinna,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Strenuum Palladis scutum quæ cecinit.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nossidem muliebri lingua, et dulsisonam Myrtin,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Omnes immortalium operatrices librorum.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Novem quidem Musas magnum cœlum, novem vero illas<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Terra genuit hominibus, immortalem lætitiam.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> Cf. <i>Poetriarum octo, Erinnæ, Myrus, Mytidis, Corinnæ, +Telesillæ, Praxillæ, Nossidis, Anytæ fragmenta et elogia</i>, by J. C. Wolf +Hamburg, 1734. See also the charming memoir "Sappho" by H. T. Wharton, +London, 1898, and <i>Griechische Dicterinnen</i>, by J. C. Poestion, Vienna, +1876.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> See <i>Mulierum Græcarum quæ oratione prosa usæ sunt +fragmenta et elogia Græce et Latine</i>, by J. C. Wolf, London, 1739, +<i>Historia Mulierum Philosopharum</i>, scriptore Ægidio Menagio, Lugduni, +1690, <i>Griechische Philosophinnen</i>, by J. C. Poestion, Norden, 1885, and +<i>Le Donne alle Scuole dei Filosofi Greci</i> in <i>Saggi e Note Critiche</i>, by +A. Chiappelli, Bologna, 1895.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> <i>Woman: Her Position and Influence in Ancient Greece and +Rome and Among the Early Christians</i>, pp. 58 and 59, by James Donaldson, +London, 1907.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> There were several hetæræ named Lais. One of them, +apparently a native of Corinth, was celebrated throughout Greece as the +most beautiful woman of her age.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> For information respecting the hetæræ the reader is +referred to the <i>Letters</i> of Alciphron, to Lucian's <i>Dialogues</i> on +courtesans, and more particularly to the <i>Deipnosophists</i> of Athenæus, +Chap. XIII. See also <i>The Lives and Opinions of the Ancient +Philosophers</i>, by Diogenes Laertius, Bohn Edition, London.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> Donaldson, op. cit., pp. 61 and 62. +</p><p> +Adolph Schmidt, one of the late biographers of Aspasia, accepts these +statements as true and credits to Aspasia the making of both Pericles +and Socrates. His views are also shared by other modern writers who have +made a special study of the subject. +</p><p> +According to some writers an indirect allusion to Aspasia's intellectual +superiority is found in the <i>Medea</i> of Euripedes in the following verses +of the women's chorus: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"In subtle questions I full many a time<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Have heretofore engaged, and this great point<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Debated, whether woman should extend<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her search into abstruse and hidden truths.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But we too have a Muse, who with our sex<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Associates to expound the mystic lore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of wisdom, though she dwell not with us all."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> It is proper to add that certain modern writers will not +admit that Aspasia was ever an hetæra in the sense of being a courtesan. +After Pericles had divorced his first wife, he lived with Aspasia as his +second wife, to whom he was devoted and faithful until death. According +to Greek law, which forbade Athenian citizens to marry foreign women, he +could not be her legal husband; but, there can be no doubt that he +always treated her with all the respect and affection due to a wife. His +dying words: "Athens entrusted her greatness and Aspasia her happiness +to me," clearly evince her nobility of character and the place she must +ever have occupied in the great statesman's heart. +</p><p> +The most important notices in ancient writings, respecting Aspasia, are +found in Plutarch's <i>Pericles</i>, Xenophon's <i>Memorabilia</i> of Socrates and +Plato's <i>Menexenus</i>. Among the most valuable of modern works on the same +subject is <i>Aspasie de Milet</i>, by L. Becq de Fouquières, Paris, 1872. +Cf. also <i>Aspasie et le Siècle de Pericles</i>, Paris, 1862; <i>Histoire des +Deux Aspasies</i>, by Le Comte de Bièvre, Paris, 1736, and A. Schmidt's +<i>Sur l'Age de Pericles</i>, 1877-79.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Under the term music, Plato, like his contemporaries, +included reading, writing, literature, mathematics, astronomy and +harmony. It was opposed to gymnastic as mental to bodily training. Both +music and gymnastic, however, were intended for the benefit of the +soul.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> <i>The Dialogues of Plato, Laws</i>, VII, 805, Jowett's +translation, New York, 1892.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Op. cit., <i>The Republic</i>, V, 451 et seq. and 466.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> It was the boast of the Emperor Augustus that all his +clothes were woven by his wife, sister or daughter. Suetonius, in his +<i>Lives of the Twelve Cæsars</i>, informs us that this great master of the +world <i>filiam et neptes ita instituit ut etiam lanificio +assuefaceret</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> This type of the old Roman schoolmaster is alluded to in +the following well known verses of Martial: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Quid tibi nobiscum est, ludi scelerate magister,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Invisum pueris virginibusque caput?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nondum cristati rupere silentia Galli<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Murmure jam saevo verberibusque tonas."<br /></span> +<span class="i0">><br /></span> +<span class="i19">—Lib. IX, 79.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +which have been rendered as follows: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Despiteful pedant, why dost me pursue,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou head detested by the younger crew?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the cock proclaims the day is near<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thy direful threats and lashes stun my ear.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +Martial elsewhere refers to "Ferulaeque tristes, sceptra +pedagogorum"—melancholy rods, sceptres of pedagogues—and it appears +from one of Juvenal's satires that "to withdraw the hand from the rod" +was a phrase meaning "to leave school."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> <i>Woman Through the Ages</i>, Vol. I, pp. 110, 111, by Emil +Reich, London, 1908. +</p><p> +Schoolhouses among the Romans, as well as among the Greeks, were quite +different from our modern, well-equipped buildings. Usually, at least, +in earlier times, instruction was given in the open air, in some quiet +street corner or in <i>tabernæ</i>—sheds or lean-tos—as in certain +Mohametan countries to-day. Horace refers to this in <i>Epistola</i> XX, Lib. +I, when he writes: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Ut pueros elementa docentem<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Occupet extremis in vicis balba senectus."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +In such schools the pupils sat on the floor or the bare ground, or, if +the lessons were given on the street, they sat on the stones. There were +no desks, or, if there were any benches, they had no backs. The pupils +were, therefore, perforce obliged to write on their knees. +</p><p> +Cf. <i>Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Education</i>, pp. 278 and 346, by +S. S. Laurie, London, 1900.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> Cf. his <i>Tiberius Gracchus</i>. Cicero says of them, "Non tam +in gremio educatos quam sermone matris."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Ibidem, <i>Life of Pompey</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> <i>De Oratore</i>, Lib. III, Cap. XII.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> "Potiorem iam apud exercitus Agrippinam quam legatos, quam +duces; compressam a muliere seditionem, cui nomen principis obsistere +non quiverit." <i>Annales</i>, Lib. I, Cap. 69.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> <i>Œconomicus</i>, VII, 5, 6.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> <i>Epistolæ</i>, Lib. I, 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> Sit mihi verna satur, sit non doctissima conjux. +<i>Epigrammata</i>, Lib. II, 90. +</p><p> +Martial's taste in this respect was the same as that of Heine, who said +of the woman he loved: "She has never read a line of my writings and +does not even know what a poet is," and the same as that of Rousseau, +who declared that his last flame, Therèse Lavasseur, could not tell the +time of day.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Satire VI, 434-440.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> <i>Joannis Stobæi Florilegium</i>, Vol. IV, p. 212, Teubner's +edition, 1857.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> The following is the epitaph as written by St. Jerome, +"the Christian Cicero": +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Scipio quam genuit, Pauli fudere parentes,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Gracchorum soboles, Agamemnonis inclyta proles,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hoc jacet in tumulo, Paulam dixere priores,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Euxtochii genetrix, Romani prima senatus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Pauperiem Christi et Bethlehemitica rura secuta est.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> In his preface to the <i>Commentary on Sophonius</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> For an exhaustive account of the lives and achievements of +St. Jerome and his noble friends, Paula and Eustochium, the reader is +referred to <i>L'Histoire de Sainte Paule</i>, by F. Lagrange, Paris, 1870, +and <i>Saint Jerome, La Société Chrétienne à Rome et l'Émigration Romaine +en Terre Sainte</i>, by A. Thierry, Paris, 1867. Cf. also <i>Woman's Work in +Bible Study and Translation</i>, by A. H. Johns in <i>The Catholic World</i>, +New York, June, 1912.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a> See <i>Histoire de Sainte Radegonde, Reine de France</i>, in +Chap. XX, par Em. Briand, Paris, 1897.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> <i>Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum</i>, Lib. IV, Cap. +23.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> <i>The Monks of the West</i>, Book XI, Chap. II.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Vol. I, pp. 46 and 49, New York, 1871.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Op. cit., Book XI, Chap. II. +</p><p> +It will interest the reader to know that Cædmon has a place among the +saints in the <i>Acta Sanctorum</i> of the Bollandists. See the special +article on him in Vol. II, p. 552, under the caption of "<i>De S. Cedmono, +cantore theodidacto</i>."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> <i>Woman Under Monasticism.</i> Chapter IV, § 2, by Lina +Eckenstein, Cambridge, 1896. In this chapter is an interesting account +of the Anglo-Saxon nuns who were among the correspondents of Boniface.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> The reader will recall Chaucer's account in the +<i>Canterbury Tales</i> of the wife of the well-to-do miller of Trumpyngton: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A wyf he hadde y-comen of noble kyn;<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span> +<span class="i0">She was y-fostred in a nonnerye.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span> +<span class="i0">There dorste no wight clepen hir but 'Dame;'<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span> +<span class="i0">What for hire kynnrede and hir nortelrie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That she had lerned in the nonnerie."<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span> +<span class="i19">—<i>Reeve's Tale.</i><br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> Pp. 78, 79, London, 1897.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> <i>History of European Morals</i>, Vol. II, p. 369, New York, +1905.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> <i>Henry VIII and the English Monasteries</i>, London, 1895.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> <i>The English Historical Review</i>, July, 1888. +</p><p> +Another recent writer affirms without hesitation that "Hroswitha has +earned a place apart in the Pantheon of women poets and writers. She +alone in those troublous times of the tenth century recalls to our minds +the existence of dramatic art; her name, indeed, deserves to be rescued +from oblivion and to become a household word." <i>Fortnightly Review</i>, p. +450, March, 1896.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> <i>Histoire de l'Éducation de Femmes en France</i>, Tom. I, p. +72 et seq. par Paul Rousselot, Paris, 1883. +</p><p> +A certain jurisconsult of the thirteenth century, one Pierre de Navarre, +expressed the sentiment of many of his contemporaries when he wrote the +following paragraph: +</p><p> +"Toutes fames doivent savoir filer et coudre; car la pauvre en aura +mestier et la riche conoistra mieux l'œuvre des autres. A fame ne +doit-on apprendre lettre ni escrire, si ce n'est especiaument pour estre +nonain, car par lire et escrire, de fame sont maint mal avenu."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> <i>Opera Omnia S. Hildegardis</i>, Tom. 197, Col. 48 of Migne's +<i>Patrologiæ Cursus Completus</i>. Cf. also <i>Nova S. Hildegardis Opera</i>, +edidit Cardinalis Pitra, Paris, 1882, and <i>Das Leben und Wirken der +Heiligen Hildegardis</i>, von J. P. Schmelzeis, Freiburg im Breisgau, +1878.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> It was Peter Lombard, whose <i>Sentences</i> "became the very +canon of orthodoxy for all succeeding ages," who, in marked contrast +with those of ancient and modern times that regarded woman as the +inferior or slave of man, asserted her equality with him in a sentence +that should be written in letters of gold. "Woman," he declares, +<i>Sententiarum</i>, Lib. II, Disp. 18, "was not taken from the head of man, +for she was not intended to be his ruler, nor from his foot, for she was +not intended to be his slave, but from his side, for she was intended to +be his companion and comfort." +</p><p> +In this view the great Schoolman but follows the teachings of St. +Augustine. For in his commentary, <i>De Genesi ad Litteram</i>, Lib. 9, Cap. +13, the learned bishop of Hippo writes: "Quia igitur viro nec domina nec +ancilla parabatur, sed socia, nec de capite, nec de pedibus, sed de +latere fuerat producenda, ut juxta se producendam cognosceret, quam de +suo latere sumptam didecisset." Again the same illustrious doctor +declares that woman was formed from man's side in order that it might be +manifest that she was created to be united with him in love—in +consortium creabatur dilectionis.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> Cf. <i>Hortus Deliciarum</i>, by Herrad de Lansberg, folio with +one hundred and ten plates, Strasburg, 1901, and <i>Herrade de Landsberg</i>, +by Charles Schmidt, Strasburg. +</p><p> +The erudite academician, Charles Jourdain, says of Herrad's great work +"L'encyclopédie qu'on lui doit, <i>l'Hortus Deliciarum</i>, embrasse toutes +les parties des connaissances humaines, depuis la science divine jusqu'à +l'agriculture et la métrologie, et on s'étonne à bon droit qu'un tel +ouvrage, qui supposait une érudition si variée et si méthodique, soit +sorti d'une plume féminine. Quelle impression produirait aujourd'hui +l'annonce d'une encyclopédie qui aurait pour auteur une simple, +religieuse? Parlerons-nous des femmes du monde? Il n'existe d'elles, au +XX<sup>e</sup> siècle, non plus que dans les siècles précédents aucun ouvrage +comparable à <i>l'Hortus Deliciarum</i>." <i>Excursions Historiques et +Philosophiques</i>, p. 480, Paris, 1888.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> See <i>Revelationes Mechtildianæ ac Gertrudianæ</i>, edit, +Oudin, for the Benedictines at Solesmes, 1875.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> In her scholarly work on <i>Woman Under Monasticism</i>, p. +479, Lina Eckenstein writes as follows regarding the studies pursued in +the convents of the Middle Ages: +</p><p> +"The contributions of nuns to literature, as well as incidental remarks, +show that the curriculum of study in the nunnery was as liberal as that +accepted by the monks, and embraced all available writing whether by +Christian or profane authors. While Scripture and the writing of the +Fathers of the Church at all times formed the groundwork of monastic +studies, Cicero at this period was read by the side of Boethus, Virgil +by the side of Martianus Capella, Terence by the side of Isidore of +Seville. From remarks made by Hroswitha we see that the coarseness of +the Latin dramatists made no reason for their being forbidden to nuns, +though she would have seen it otherwise; and, Herrad was so far +impressed by the wisdom of the heathen philosophers of antiquity that +she pronounced this wisdom to be the 'product of the Holy Spirit also.' +Throughout the literary world, as represented by convents, the use of +Latin was general, and made possible the even spread of culture in +districts that were widely remote from each other and practically +without intercourse."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> <i>The Lady</i>, p. 71, by Emily James Putnam, New York, 1910.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Eckenstein, op. cit., p. 478.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> Ut. Sup., 479-480.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> See <i>Womankind in Western Europe</i>, p. 288 et seq., by +Thomas Wright, London, 1869.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> "Pertinere videtur ad hæc tempora Betisia Gozzadini non +minus generis claritate quam eloquentia ac legum professione +illustris.... Betisiam Ghirardaccius et nostri ab eo deinceps scriptores +eximiis laudibus certatim extulerunt." <i>De Claris Archigymnasii +Bononiensis Professoribus a Sæculo XI usque ad Sæculum XIV</i>, Tom. I, p. +171, Bologna, 1888-1896.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> L'École de Salerne, p. 18, par C. Meaux, Paris, 1880. +Among the most noted of these women was Trotula, who, about the middle +of the eleventh century, wrote on the diseases of women as well as on +other medical subjects. Compare the attitude of the school of Salerno +towards women with that of the University of London, eight hundred years +later. When, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, women applied +to this university for degrees in medicine, they were informed, as H. +Rashdall writes in <i>The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages</i>, Vol. +II, Part II, p. 712, Oxford, 1895, that "the University of London, +although it had been empowered by Royal Charter to do all things that +could be done by any University, was legally advised that it could not +grant degrees to women without a fresh Charter, because no University +had ever granted such degrees." Cf. also Hæser's <i>Lehrbuch der +Geschichte der Medicin</i>, Band I, p. 645, et seq., Jena, 1875. Verily, +the so-called dark ages have risen up to condemn our vaunted age of +enlightenment!</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> <i>Die Entstehung der Universitäten des Mittelalters bis +1400</i>, Band I, p. 233, Berlin, 1885, von P. Heinrick Denifle, assistant +archivist of the Vatican Library, and <i>Histoire Litéraire de la France, +Commencé par des Religieux Bénédictins de S. Maur et Continué par des +Membres de l'Institut</i>, Tom. IX, 281, Paris, 1733-1906.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> "Une de ces nuits lumineuses ou les dernières clartés du +soir se prolongent jusqu'aux premières blancheurs du matin." <i>Documents +Inédits</i>, p. 78, Paris, 1850.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> <i>The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages</i>, Vol. I, +p. 31, Oxford, 1895.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> <i>A Short History of the Renaissance in Italy</i>, p. 277, +London, 1893.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> Cecelia Gonzaga, a pupil of the celebrated humanist, +Vittorino da Feltre, read the Gospels in Greek when she was only seven +years old. Isotta and Ginevra Nogorola, pupils of the humanist, Guarino +Verronese, likewise distinguished themselves at an early age by their +rare knowledge of Latin and Greek. In later years all three enjoyed +great celebrity for their learning, and were, like Battista di +Montefeltro, women of genuine humanist sympathies. Cecelia Gonzaga's +scholarship was in no wise inferior to that of her learned brothers, who +were among the most noted students of the famous Casa Zoyosa in Mantua, +where Vittorino da Feltre achieved such distinction as an educator in +the early part of the Italian Renaissance. The learned Italian writer, +Sabbadini, beautifully expressed the relation of women to Humanism, when +he declares, in his <i>Vida di Guarino, "L'Humanismo si sposa alla +gentilezza feminile</i>,"—humanism weds feminine gentility.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Among them are the pictures of Caterina Vigri, which are +preserved in the Pinacoteca of Bologna and in the Academia of Venice.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> No less an authority than the illustrious sculptor, +Canova, declared that her early death was one of the greatest losses +ever suffered by Italian art.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> It was also said of the Venetian artist, Irene di +Spilimbergo, that her pictures were of such excellence that they were +frequently mistaken for those of her illustrious master, Titian.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> Among these works may be mentioned <i>Il Merito delle +Donne</i>, by Modesta Pozzo di Zorgi, Venice, 1600; <i>La Nobilità e +l'Excellenza delle Donne</i>, by Lucrezia Marinelli, Venice, 1601; <i>De +Ingenii Muliebris ad Doctrinam et Meliores Litteras Aptitudine</i>, by Anna +van Schurman, Leyden, 1641; <i>Les Dames Illustres</i>, by Jaquette Guillame, +Paris, 1665, and <i>L'Egalité des Hommes et des Femmes</i>, by Marie le Jars +de Gournay, Paris, 1622. The last named work was by the celebrated +<i>fille d'alliance</i>—adopted daughter—of Montaigne. It is to her that we +owe the <i>textus receptus</i> of the <i>Essais</i> of the illustrious +litterateur.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> <i>The Women of the Renaissance</i>, p. 290, by R. de Maulde la +Clavière, New York, 1901.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Called <i>La Latina</i>, because of her thorough knowledge of +the Latin language.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> The famous Hellenist, Roger Ascham, tells of his +astonishment on finding Lady Jane Grey, when she was only fourteen years +of age, reading Plato's Phædo in Greek, when all the other members of +the family were amusing themselves in the park. On his inquiry why she +did not join the others in their pastime, she smilingly replied: "I wit +all their sport in the park is but a shadow to that pleasure I find in +Plato. Alas, good folk, they never knew what true pleasure meant."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> To the poet Ronsard, she was a woman beyond compare, as is +evinced by the following lines of a pastoral ode addressed to her: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"La Royne Marguerite,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">La plus belle fleur d'élite<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Qu'onques la terre enfanta."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> Cf. Œuvres de Lovize Labé, nouvelle edition emprimée en +caractères dits de civilité, Paris, 1871.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> The French poet, Jean Dorat, who was then professor of +Latin in the Collège de France, expresses this fact in the following +strophe: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Nempe uxor, ancillæ, clientes, liberi,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Non segnis examen domus,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Quo Plautus ore, quo Terentius, solent<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Quotidiane loqui."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> A prominent writer of the time, Jean Bouchet, expressed +the prevailing opinion regarding the education of the women of the +masses in the following quaint sentence: "Je suis bien d'opinion que les +femmes de bas estat, et qui sont contrainctes vaquer aux choses +familières et domestiques, ne doivent vaquer aux lettres, parce que +c'est chose repugnante à rusticité; mais, les roynes, princesses et +aultres dames qui ne se doib vent pour révérence de leur estat, +appliquer à mesnage." Cf. Rousellot's <i>Histoire de l'Éducation des +Femmes en France</i>, Tom. I, p. 109, Paris, 1883. +</p><p> +His ideal of a woman of the peasant type was apparently Joan of Arc, +who, according to her own declaration, did not know a from b—"<i>elle +déclarait ne savoir ni a ni b</i>."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Clavière, op. cit., p. 415.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> The noted English divine, Thomas Fuller, chaplain to +Charles II, recognized the irreparable loss to women occasioned by the +destruction of the nunneries by the Reformers. "There were," he tells us +in his quaint language, "good she schools wherein the girls and maids of +the neyghborhood were taught to read and work.... Yea, give me leave to +say, if such feminine foundations had still continued, ... haply the +weaker sex, besides the avoiding modern inconveniences, might be +heyghtened to a higher perfection than hitherto hath been attained." +<i>Church History</i>, Vol. III, p. 336, 1845.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_71_71" id="Footnote_71_71"></a><a href="#FNanchor_71_71"><span class="label">[71]</span></a> M. Thureau Dangin, the perpetual secretary of the French +Academy, wrote, "La tradition ne veut pas d'académiciennes."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_72_72" id="Footnote_72_72"></a><a href="#FNanchor_72_72"><span class="label">[72]</span></a> Carlyle, in a lecture on Dante, and the <i>Divina Commedia</i>, +declares that "Italy has produced a greater number of great men than any +other nation, men distinguished in art, thinking, conduct, and +everywhere in the departments of intellect." He could with equal truth +have said that Italy has produced more great women than any other +nation.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_73_73" id="Footnote_73_73"></a><a href="#FNanchor_73_73"><span class="label">[73]</span></a> <i>Medical Women</i>, p. 63, et seq., by Sophia Jex-Blake, +Edinburgh, 1886, and <i>Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to +Women</i>, Chap. III, by Elizabeth Blackwell, London, 1895.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_74_74" id="Footnote_74_74"></a><a href="#FNanchor_74_74"><span class="label">[74]</span></a> Mme. Dacier was a remarkable exception chiefly because she +was the daughter and pupil of one Hellenist before becoming the wife of +another.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_75_75" id="Footnote_75_75"></a><a href="#FNanchor_75_75"><span class="label">[75]</span></a> <i>Lettres et Entretiens sur l'Éducation de Filles</i>, Tom. I, +pp. 225-231. +</p><p> +Compare this superficial course of study at Saint-Cyr with the elaborate +course mapped out by Lionardo d'Arezzo in a letter addressed to the +illustrious lady, Baptista Malatesta. In the broad programme of +education for women recommended by this eminent man of letters, "poet, +orator, historian, and the rest, all must be studied, each must +contribute a share. Our learning thus becomes full, ready, varied, +elegant, available for action or for discourse on all subjects." +</p><p> +Lionardo's curriculum of studies for women was quite as comprehensive as +that required for men, "with perhaps a little less stress upon rhetoric +and more upon religion. There was no assumption that a lower standard of +attainment is inevitably a consequence of smaller capacity." +</p><p> +Nor was this thorough study of letters by the women of Italy +"unfavorably regarded by social opinion"; neither did it introduce "a +new standard of womanly activity. Women, indeed, at this epoch, seem to +have preserved their moral and intellectual balance under the stress of +the new enthusiasm better than men. The learned ladies were, in actual +life, good wives and mothers, domestic and virtuous women of strong +judgment and not seldom of marked capacity in affairs." Cf. <i>Vittorino +da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators</i>, pp. 122, 132, 197, by W. H. +Woodward, Cambridge, 1905.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_76_76" id="Footnote_76_76"></a><a href="#FNanchor_76_76"><span class="label">[76]</span></a> Thus, in a letter of hers to Mme. de Lauzun occurs a +sentence like the following: "Il lia sy lontant que je n'ay antandu +parler de vous." The duchess of Monpensier, daughter of Gaston +d'Orleans, in a letter to her father exhibits a similar ignorance of her +own language, when she writes: "J'ai cru que Votre Altesse seret bien +ése de savoir sete istoire." Quoted by Rousselot in his <i>Histoire de +l'Éducation des Femmes en France</i>, Tom. I, p. 287.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_77_77" id="Footnote_77_77"></a><a href="#FNanchor_77_77"><span class="label">[77]</span></a> <i>Les Femmes Savantes</i>, Act II, Scene 7.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_78_78" id="Footnote_78_78"></a><a href="#FNanchor_78_78"><span class="label">[78]</span></a> Destouches, in his <i>L'Homme singulier</i>, makes one of his +female characters, who loves study, speak in the following pathetic +fashion: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"A learned woman ought—so I surmise—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Conceal her knowledge, or she'll be unwise.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If pedantry a mental blemish be<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At all times outlawed by society,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">If 'gainst a pedant all the world inveighs,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shall pass unchecked in woman pedant's ways?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">I hold it sure, condemned my sex is quite<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To trifling nothings as its sole birthright;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ridiculous 'tis thought outside its 'sphere';<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The learned woman dare not such appear;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nay, she must even cloak her brilliancy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">So envy leave in peace stupidity;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Must keep the level of the common kind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To subjects commonplace devote her mind,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And treating these she must be like the rest.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Lo, in such garb refinement must be dressed:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That knowledge shall not make her seem unwise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She must herself in foolishness disguise."<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span> +<span class="i19">—Act III, Scene 7.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_79_79" id="Footnote_79_79"></a><a href="#FNanchor_79_79"><span class="label">[79]</span></a> No one, however, went so far in his opposition to the +education of women as the notorious Silvain <i>Maréchal</i>, the author of +<i>Projet d'une Loi portant Defense d'Apprendre à Lire aux Femmes</i>, who +would have a law passed forbidding women to learn to read. He maintained +that a knowledge of science and letters interfered with their being good +housekeepers. "Reason," he avers, "does not approve of women studying +chemistry. Women who are unable to read make the best soup. I would +rather," he declares in the words of Balzac, "have a wife with a beard +than a wife who is educated." See pp. 40, 50 and 51, of the edition of +this strange work, published at Brussels, 1847.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_80_80" id="Footnote_80_80"></a><a href="#FNanchor_80_80"><span class="label">[80]</span></a> In her <i>Problema Practicum</i>, addressed to Dr. Rivet, Anna +van Schurman states and develops in true syllogistic form a series of +propositions in defense of her thesis in favor of the higher education +of women. Two of these propositions are here given as illustrative of +her points of view: +</p><p> +I. Cui natura inest scientiarum artiumque desiderium, ei conveniunt +scientiæ et artes. Atque feminæ natura inest scientiarum artiumque +desiderium. Ergo. +</p><p> +II Quidquid intellectum hominis perficit et exornat, id femmæ Christianæ +convenit. Atqui scientiæ et artes intellectum hominis perficiunt et +exornant. Ergo. See <i>Nobiliss. Virginis Annæ Schurman Opuscula</i>, pp. 35 +and 41, Leyden, 1656, and her <i>De Ingenii Muliebris ad Doctrinam et +Meliores Literas Aptitudine</i>, Leyden, 1641. Cf. also <i>Anna van +Schurman</i>, Chap. IV, by Una Birch, London, 1909.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_81_81" id="Footnote_81_81"></a><a href="#FNanchor_81_81"><span class="label">[81]</span></a> A writer of the seventeenth century gives the following as +the popular programme of female study: "To learn alle pointes of good +housewifery, spinning of linen, the ordering of dairies, to see to the +salting of meate, brewing, bakery, and to understand the common prices +of all houshold provisions. To keepe account of all things, to know the +condition of the poultry—for it misbecomes no woman to be a hen-wife. +To know how to order your clothes and with frugality to mend them and to +buy but what is necessary with ready money. To love to keep at home." +How like the German four K's and the words on the sarcophagus of a Roman +matron—<i>lanifica</i>, <i>frugi</i>, <i>domiseda</i>—a diligent plyer of the +distaff, thrifty and a stay-at-home.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_82_82" id="Footnote_82_82"></a><a href="#FNanchor_82_82"><span class="label">[82]</span></a> <i>The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu</i>, Vol. +II, p. 5, Bohn Edition, 1887.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_83_83" id="Footnote_83_83"></a><a href="#FNanchor_83_83"><span class="label">[83]</span></a> Letter XLIX, London, Sept. 5, O. S., 1748. +</p><p> +Walpole, writing in 1773, makes the following curious declaration: "I +made a discovery—Lady Nuneham is a poetess, and writes with great ease +and sense some poetry, but is as afraid of the character, as if it was a +sin to make verses." And Lord Granville tells us of an eminent statesman +and man of letters who, in the early part of the last century, was so +troubled on discovering in his daughter a talent for poetry that he +"appealed to her affection for him, and made a request to her never to +write verses again. He was not afraid of her becoming a good poetess, +but he was afraid of the disadvantages which were likely to be suffered +by her, if she were supposed to be a lady of literary attainments."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_84_84" id="Footnote_84_84"></a><a href="#FNanchor_84_84"><span class="label">[84]</span></a> It was Swift who had such a low opinion of woman's +intellect that in writing to one of his fair correspondents he told her +that she could "never arrive in point of learning to the perfection of a +schoolboy." Lady Pennington, strange to say, seems to have shared his +views, for in a manual of advice to young ladies, she declares: "A +sensible woman will soon be convinced that all the learning the utmost +application can make her master of will be in many points inferior to +that of the schoolboy." "At the time the Tatler first appeared in the +female world any acquaintance with books was distinguished only to be +censured," and it was then considered "more important for a woman to +dance a minuet well than to know a foreign language."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_85_85" id="Footnote_85_85"></a><a href="#FNanchor_85_85"><span class="label">[85]</span></a> The wife of President John Adams, descended from the most +illustrious colonial families, writing in 1817, regarding the +educational opportunities of the girls of her time and rank, expressed +herself as follows: +</p><p> +"Female education in the best families went no farther than writing and +arithmetic, and, in some few and rare instances, music and dancing." +According to her grandson, Charles Francis Adams, "The only chance for +much intellectual improvement in the female sex was to be found in the +families of the educated class, and in occasional intercourse with the +learned of the day. Whatever of useful instruction was secured in the +practical conduct of life came from maternal lips; and, what of farther +mental development depended more upon the eagerness with which the +casual teachings of daily conversation were treasured up than upon any +labor expended purposely to promote it." <i>Familiar Letters of John Adams +and His Wife, Abigail Adams, During the Revolution, With a Memoir of +Mrs. Adams</i>, by Charles Francis Adams, pp. X and XI, New York, 1876.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_86_86" id="Footnote_86_86"></a><a href="#FNanchor_86_86"><span class="label">[86]</span></a> When the students of Girton and Newnham in 1897, after +passing the Cambridge examinations—many of them with the highest +honors—applied for degrees, "the undergraduate world was stirred to a +fine frenzy of wrath against all womankind," and an astonished world saw +re-enacted scenes scarcely less disgraceful than those which +characterized the riotous demonstrations which, seventeen years before, +had greeted seven young women at the portals of the University of +Edinburgh.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_87_87" id="Footnote_87_87"></a><a href="#FNanchor_87_87"><span class="label">[87]</span></a> <i>The Queen's Reign</i>, Chap. V, London, 1897.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_88_88" id="Footnote_88_88"></a><a href="#FNanchor_88_88"><span class="label">[88]</span></a> Proposition third, of her <i>Propositiones Philosophicæ</i>, +Milan, 1738, reads as follows: +</p><p> +"Optime etiam de universa Philosophia infirmiorem sexum meruisse nullus +infirmabitur; nam præter septuaginta fere eruditissimas, Mulieres, quas +recenset Menagius, complures alias quovis tempore floruisse novimus, quæ +in philosophicis disciplinis maximam ingenii laudem sunt assecutæ. Ad +omnem igitur doctrinam, eruditionemque etiam muliebres animos Natura +comparavit: quare paulo injuriosius cum feminis agunt qui eis bonarum +artium cultu omnino interdicunt, eo vel maxime, quod hæc illarum studia +privatis, publicisque rebus non modo haud noxia futura sint verum etiam +perutilia." +</p><p> +This admirable work, with its one hundred and ninety-one propositions, +is commended to those who may have any doubt regarding the learning or +capacity of the Italian women who have been referred to in the preceding +pages.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>WOMAN'S CAPACITY FOR SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS</h3> + + +<p>In a curious old black-letter volume entitled <i>The Boke of the Cyte of +Ladyes</i>, published in England in 1521 by Henry Pepwell, occurs the +following passage: "I mervayle gretely of the opynyon of some men that +say they wolde in no wyse that theyr daughters or wyves or kynnes-women +sholde lerne scyences, and that it sholde apayre theyr condycyons. This +thing is not to say ne to sustayne. That the woman apayreth by conynge +it is not well to beleve. As the proverb saythe, 'that nature gyveth may +not be taken away.'"</p> + +<p>The book from which this remarkable quotation is taken is a translation +of Christine de Pisan's <i>La Cité des Dames</i>, which was written early in +the fifteenth century. It is a capital defence against the slanderers of +the gentler sex and an armory of arguments for all time against those +men who declare that "women are fit for nothing but to bear children and +spin." It shows conclusively that conynge—knowledge—far from tending +to injure women's character—apayre theyr condycyons—as was asserted by +Christine's antagonists, contributes, on the contrary, to elevate and +ennoble them and to render them better mothers and more useful members +of society.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding that it was written five hundred years ago, and +notwithstanding its "antiquated allegorical dress and its quaint +pre-Renaissance notions of history," it is in many of its aspects a +surprisingly modern production. The line of argument adopted by the +writer is virtually the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> same as that which is adopted to-day in the +discussion of the same questions which are so ably treated in this +long-forgotten book<a name="FNanchor_89_89" id="FNanchor_89_89"></a><a href="#Footnote_89_89" class="fnanchor">[89]</a> and show that Christine de Pisan was in every +way a worthy champion of her sex.</p> + +<p>No woman of her time was more competent to discuss the capacity of her +sex for science as well as for other intellectual pursuits than was this +learned daughter of Italy. She was not only a woman of profound and +varied knowledge, but was also, as stated in the preceding chapter, the +first woman to earn her living by her pen. Besides writing <i>The City of +Ladies</i> and more verses—mostly ballads and virelays—than are contained +in the <i>Divina Commedia</i>, she was also the author of many other works on +the most diverse subjects. She is best known to historians as the author +of <i>Livre des Fais et Bonnes Meurs du sage Roy Charles V</i>, which is a +graphic account of the court and policy of this monarch, and of the +<i>Livre des Faits d'Armes et de Chevalerie</i>. The latter work is not, as +might be imagined from its title, a collection of tales of chivalry, +but, incredible as it may seem, a profound and systematic treatise on +military tactics and international law. It deals with "many topics of +the highest policy, from the manners of a good general and the minutiæ +of siege operations to the wager of battle, safe-conducts and letters of +marque," and was deemed so important by Henry VII that at his expressed +desire it was translated into English and published by Caxton under the +title of <i>The Boke of Fayettes of Armes and Chyvalrye</i>. Even so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> late as +the time of Henry VIII it was regarded as an authoritative manual on the +topics treated.</p> + +<p>So great, indeed, was the extent and variety of Christine's attainments, +so thoroughly had she studied the Latin and Greek authors, sacred and +profane, and so profound was her knowledge of all the subjects which she +dealt with in her numerous books that "one cannot but feel a certain +astonishment when one finds in a woman in the fourteenth century an +erudition such as is hardly possessed by the most laborious of men."</p> + +<p>When we read the eloquent plea which this learned woman of five +centuries ago makes in behalf of her sex, when we note the examples she +quotes of women "illumined of great sciences," and consider the +arguments by which she demonstrated the capacity of women for all +scientific pursuits, we can easily fancy that we are reading the brief +of some modern exponent of the woman's rights movement and are almost +disposed to believe that La Bruyière was right when he declared, <i>Les +anciens ont tout dit</i>. For so cogent is Christine's reasoning and so +thoroughly does she traverse her subject from every point of view that +she has left later writers little to add to the controversy except +matters of detail which were not available in her time.</p> + +<p>In spite, however, of Christine's <i>Cyte of Ladyes</i>, "in which," +according to our mediæval paragon, "women, hitherto scattered and +defenceless, were forever to find refuge against all their slanderers," +in spite of the fact that the foundations of this city were laid by +Reason, that its walls and cloisters were built on Righteousness, and +its battlements and high towers on Justice, in spite of the fact that +the material entering into its construction was "stronger and more +durable than any marble," and that it was, as our author declares, "a +city right fair, without fear and of perpetual during to the world—a +city that should never be brought to nought," Christine's work was soon +lost sight of, and the right of women to the same intellectual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +advantages as men was as strongly denied as it had been before she had +so valiantly championed their cause, and denied, too, on the assumed +ground of their innate incapacity.</p> + +<p>It mattered not that during the succeeding centuries other women took up +the cause for which the author of <i>La Cité des Dames</i> had so nobly +battled; it mattered not that countless women in every civilized country +of the globe distinguished themselves by their achievements in every +department of science and gave evidence of talent and genius of the +highest order; it mattered not that chivalrous representatives of the +sterner sex, like John Stuart Mill, came forward to plead the case of +that half of humanity which had so long been held in cruel subjection. +The attitude of the world toward the intellectually disfranchised sex +remained unchanged almost until our own time.</p> + +<p>But, although women now enjoy advantages in the pursuit of science which +were undreamed of only a generation ago, the age-old prejudices +respecting woman's mental powers and her capacity for the more abstract +branches of science still prevail. It is useless to cite instances of +women who have attained eminence in astronomy, mathematics, archæology, +or in any other science whatever. Such instances, we are assured, are +only exceptions and prove nothing. Men like Lombroso are willing to +admit the existence of an occasional woman of talent, but they deny the +existence of genius in one who is truly a womanly woman.<a name="FNanchor_90_90" id="FNanchor_90_90"></a><a href="#Footnote_90_90" class="fnanchor">[90]</a> For, with +Goncourt, they flippantly assert, <i>Il n'y a pas de femmes de génie: +lorsqu'elles sont des génies, elles sont des hommes</i>—there are no women +of genius; when they have genius they are men.</p> + +<p>The reasons that now influence men for affirming the intellectual +disparity of the sexes are, it must be observed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> quite different from +what they were in the time of Christine de Pisan—quite different from +what they were half a century ago. Our forebears, in their endless +disputations regarding woman's mental inferiority, based their arguments +on <i>a priori</i> deductions, or on metaphysical considerations which proved +nothing and which were often irrelevant, if not absurd.</p> + +<p>Thus the Aristotelians, accepting as true the doctrine of the four +elements as well as the superimposed doctrine of the four elemental +qualities, sought to explain the properties of all compound bodies by +these primal qualities. In this way they explained the various virtues +of drugs and medicines. And by the same process of reasoning they +explained the assumed difference between male and female brains. They +assumed, to begin with, that there was a difference between the +intellectual capacities of men and women. They then assumed that this +difference in capacity was due to the difference in character and +texture of the female as compared with those of the male brain. They +next further assumed that the doctrines of the four elements and of the +four elemental qualities were established beyond question, and then +assumed again that the reason of woman's inferior capacity was due to +the fact that her brain was moister and softer, and, therefore, more +impressionable than that of man. No wonder that the old Spanish +Benedictine, Benito Jeronimo Feijoo, in his chivalrous <i>Defensa de la +Mujer</i>, lost all patience with such fantastic theorizers and wrote: "Did +I write ... to display my wit, I could easily, by deducting a chain of +consequences from received principles, shew that man's understanding, +weighed in the balance with female capacity, would be found so light as +to kick the beam."<a name="FNanchor_91_91" id="FNanchor_91_91"></a><a href="#Footnote_91_91" class="fnanchor">[91]</a></p> + +<p>Abandoning the Aristotelian method of envisaging the question under +discussion, our modern philosophers have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> recourse to the recent +sciences of biology and psycho-physiology to prove what they, too, +assume to be true—viz., woman's incurable mental weakness. Like their +predecessors, they are dominated by passion, prejudice, the errors of +countless centuries, and, like them, they approach the subject on which +they are to pronounce judgment, with minds warped by long ages of +imperious instincts, ignorant preconceptions and social bias. They will +quote the opinions of Proudhon and Schopenhauer—as if they had the +value of mathematical demonstrations—on the mental inferiority of +women, and will declare with unblushing assurance that no woman has ever +produced a single work of any kind of enduring worth. With the German +pessimist, they will blatantly declare, taken as a whole, "women are and +remain thoroughgoing Philistines and quite incurable."<a name="FNanchor_92_92" id="FNanchor_92_92"></a><a href="#Footnote_92_92" class="fnanchor">[92]</a> With the +French socialist they will assert, as if it were an axiomatic truth, +that "thought in every living being is proportional to force"—that +"physical force is not less necessary for thought than for muscular +labor."</p> + +<p>They have apparently no more doubt respecting the truth of these +assumptions than had their predecessors, the Aristotelians, respecting +their assumptions of the four elements and their first qualities. Their +process of reasoning is somewhat as follows: "Woman is smaller and +weaker than man. This is a matter of simple observation, confirmed by +the teachings of physiology. Therefore, woman is physically and +intellectually inferior to man. Therefore she is incapable of any of +those great conceptions and achievements in science or philosophy which +have so distinguished the male sex in every age of the world's history. +That she is thus weaker and inferior physically and intellectually and +forever incapacitated from successfully competing with man in the +intellectual arena is a fatality for which, we are gravely told, there +is no remedy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> and to which women, consequently, must resign themselves +as to one of the inexorable laws of nature."</p> + +<p>It would be difficult to cite a more preposterous example of +ratiocination. If it were true that there is a necessary relation +between vigor of body and vigor of mind; that mental power is +proportional to physical power; that thought is but a special form of +energy and capable of transformation, like heat, light and electricity; +that it, like the various physical forces, has its chemical and +mechanical equivalents; that psychic work corresponds to a certain +amount of chemical or thermic action; that intellectual capacity in man +is proportional to muscular strength; it would follow that the great +leaders of thought and action through the ages have been Goliaths in +stature and Herculeses in strength. But so far is this conclusion from +being warranted that it is almost the reverse of the truth. For many, if +not the majority, of the great geniuses of the world in every age have +been either men of small frame or men of delicate and precarious health.</p> + +<p>Among the men of genius who were noted for their diminutive stature were +Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Archimedes, Epicurus, Horace, +Albertus Magnus, Montaigne, Lipsius, Spinoza, Erasmus, Lalande, Charles +Lamb, Keats, Balzac and Thiers. Many others were remarkable for their +spare form. Among these in the prime of life were Aristotle, +Demosthenes, Cicero, St. Paul, Kepler, Pascal, Boileau, Fénelon, +D'Alembert, Napoleon, Lincoln and Leo XIII. Others, like Æsop, +Brunelleschi, Leopardi, Magliabecchi, Parini, Scarron, Talleyrand, Pope, +Goldsmith, Byron, Sir Walter Scott, to mention only a few of the most +eminent, were either hunchbacked, lame, rachitic or clubfooted.</p> + +<p>Others, still, were the victims of chronic ill health, or of nervous +disorders of the most serious character. Virgil was of a delicate and +frail constitution. He essayed the bar, but shrank from it and turned to +the "contemplation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> of diviner things." Nor was Horace, though less +completely a recluse and more of a <i>bon vivant</i>, a strong man. Both of +them, as scholars will remember, sought the couch, while Mæcenas went +off to the tennis court. Pope's life, says Johnson, was a long disease. +Johnson himself, though large and muscular, had queer health and a +tormenting constitution. Schiller wrote most of his best work while +struggling against a painful malady, and Heine's "mattress grave" is +proverbial. France furnishes an excellent example in Pascal.<a name="FNanchor_93_93" id="FNanchor_93_93"></a><a href="#Footnote_93_93" class="fnanchor">[93]</a></p> + +<p>Some of the most noted leaders of thought in our own era were likewise +chronic invalids. Among these were the scholarly theologian, E. B. +Pusey, and J. A. Symonds, the historian of the Renaissance. There was +also Herbert Spencer, who was frequently forced by nervous breakdowns to +take long periods of absolute rest. More remarkable still was the case +of the famous naturalist, Charles Darwin. "It is," writes his son, "a +principal feature of his life that for nearly forty years he never knew +one day of the health of ordinary men, and that thus his life was one +long struggle against the weariness and the strain of sickness."<a name="FNanchor_94_94" id="FNanchor_94_94"></a><a href="#Footnote_94_94" class="fnanchor">[94]</a> +But, notwithstanding his continued ill health and the spinal anemia from +which he suffered, he was able to conduct those epoch-making researches +which put him in the forefront of men of science, and to write those +famous books which have completely revolutionized our views of nature +and nature's laws.</p> + +<p>But a still more remarkable illustration of the fact that there is no +necessary relation between muscular and mental power, between physical +well-being and intellectual energy, is afforded by the illustrious +discoverer of the world of the infinitely little, Louis Pasteur. +Stricken by hemiplegia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> shortly after he had begun those brilliant +investigations which have rendered him immortal, he remained affected by +partial paralysis until the end of his life. His friends had reason to +fear that this attack, even if he should survive it, would weaken or +extinguish his spirit of initiative, if it did not make further work +entirely impossible. But this was far from the case. For a quarter of a +century he continued with unabated activity those marvelous labors which +are forever associated with his name. And it was after, not before, his +misfortune that he made his most famous discoveries in the domain of +microbian life, and placed in the hands of physicians and surgeons those +infallible means of combatting disease which have made him one of the +greatest benefactors of suffering humanity. The complete separation of +the intellectual from the motor faculties was never more clearly +exhibited than in this case, nor was it ever more completely +demonstrated by an experiment, whose validity no one could question, +that power of mind does not necessarily depend on strength or health of +body. It proved, also, in the most telling manner that it is not +muscular but psychic force which avails most, whether to the individual +or to society. And it showed, at the same time, the utter absurdity of +those theories which would fatally connect intellectual with physical +debility in woman, and would forever adjudge the physically weaker sex +to be of hopeless inferiority in all things of the mind.</p> + +<p>What has been said of men achieving renown, notwithstanding ill health, +may likewise be affirmed of women. The case of Elizabeth Barrett +Browning is scarcely less remarkable than that of Darwin. In spite of +being a chronic invalid the greater part of her life, she attained a +position in letters reached by but few of her contemporaries. The same +almost may be said of the three Brontë sisters. The deadly seeds of +consumption were sown in their systems in early youth, but, although +fully aware that life had "passed them by with averted head," they +were,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> through their indomitable wills, able to send forth from their +bleak home in the wild Yorkshire moors works of genius that still +instruct and delight the world.</p> + +<p>From the foregoing it is clear that valetudinarianism, if it prove +anything, proves not that it renders intellectual effort impossible, but +that it serves as a discipline for the soul. It forces the mind to +husband its strength, and thus enables it to accomplish by economy and +concentration of effort that which the same mind in a healthy body, with +the distractions of society and the allurements of life, would be unable +to accomplish. It exemplifies in the most striking manner the truth of +what Socrates says in Plato's <i>Republic</i> about the beneficent action of +the "bridle of Theages," preventing an infirm friend of his from +embracing politics and keeping him true to his first love—philosophy.</p> + +<p>Failing to show any necessary connection between superior physique and +intellectual capacity, between health of body and mental activity, +between the amount of food consumed and the degree of intelligence, the +class of thinkers whose theories are now under consideration found +themselves forced to abandon the argument based on robust health and +physical strength and seek elsewhere for support of their views. This, +they soon announced, was found in the greater cranial capacity and +greater brain weight of the male as compared with that of the female. +Following up this fancied clew, anthropologists the world over began +measuring skulls and weighing brains in order to determine the supposed +ratio of sex-difference.</p> + +<p>The results of these investigations were far from corroborating the +preconceived notions of those who had fancied a necessary correlation +between mental capacity and size of cranium, between the weight of +encephalon and degree of intelligence. For it was soon discovered that +cranial capacity depended on many causes—many of them unknown—and that +people having the largest skulls were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> often far from being the ones +dowered with the greatest intellectual power. It was found, for +instance, that climate was a determining factor—that the inhabitants of +northern regions have larger heads than those who live farther south. +Thus the Lapps, in proportion to their stature, have the largest heads +in Europe. After these come in order the Scandinavians, the Germans, the +French, the Italians, the Arabs.</p> + +<p>It was found also that the least cranial capacity of the ancient +Egyptians coincides with the most brilliant period of their +civilization—that of the eighteenth dynasty. Measurements of skulls +unearthed at Pompeii showed that the heads of the Romans who lived two +thousand years ago were larger than the heads of the Romans of to-day. +Similarly, the skulls of the lake-dwellers of Switzerland were larger +than those of the Swiss people of the present time, while the average +circumference of the skulls measured in the catacombs of Paris is more +than an inch greater than that of the Parisians who have died during the +last half century. The circumference of the skulls of a large number of +mound-builders, excavated some years ago near Carrollton, Illinois, +exceeded that of the average head of white men in New York of our day by +nearly three inches. This shows that the culture of the white race +during long centuries has not developed its cranial capacity to equal +that of the uncultured Indians who flourished in the Mississippi valley +untold generations ago.</p> + +<p>The skulls of Quaternary men were likewise very voluminous, although +they belonged to a race whose mental manifestations were infantile in +the extreme. Even the celebrated Engis skull, one of the most ancient in +existence, has been described by the late Professor Huxley as well +formed and considerably larger than the average of the European skulls +of to-day, not only in the width and height of the forehead, but also in +the cubic capacity of the whole. Furthermore, the eminent craniologist, +Broca,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> has proved that the illiterate peasants of Auvergne have a much +greater cranial capacity than that of the learned and cultured denizens +of Paris. And, as if to show conclusively that there is no necessary +connection between intellectual capacity and size of cranium, authentic +measurements disclose the fact that some of the most gifted men the +world has known had small heads. Among these were Dante and Voltaire. +The skull of the latter is one of the smallest which has thus far been +observed.</p> + +<p>What has been said regarding the relation of cranial volume to +intellectual capacity, as revealed by the measurements of the skulls of +ancient and modern, savage and civilized peoples may likewise be +predicated of the differences in the sizes of the crania of men and +women. No argument as to the greater or less intelligence of either sex +can be based on mere craniometric determinations. "At the best, cranial +capacity is but a rough indication of brain size; and to measure brain +size by the external size of the skull furnishes still rougher and more +fallacious approximations, since the male skull is more massive than the +female."</p> + +<p>Even the slight morphological differences between male and female +skulls—some anthropologists deny that there are any at all—afford no +more ground for conclusions in favor of the superiority of one or the +other sex than the relative differences in size. Such trifling +differences as do exist exhibit, as Virchow has pointed out, an +approximation of men to the savage, simian and senile type, and an +approach of women to the infantile type. Havelock Ellis, commenting on +this difference, pertinently remarks, "It is open to a man in a +Pharisaic mood to thank God that his cranial type is far removed from +the infantile. It is equally open to woman in such a mood to be thankful +that her cranial type does not approach the senile."<a name="FNanchor_95_95" id="FNanchor_95_95"></a><a href="#Footnote_95_95" class="fnanchor">[95]</a></p> + +<p>But much stress as has been laid on physical power,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> health and cranial +capacity, as determining factors of intellectual capacity and sexual +differences, far greater stress has been laid on conclusions deducible +from the relative brain weights of different classes of people as well +as of different sexes. It was assumed that by a critical study of the +brain, by careful weighings of many brains of both sexes and of many +races, it would be easy to secure conclusive evidence that the size and +weight of the brain increase with the amount of intelligence of the +individual. It was also assumed that function not only makes the organ, +but also develops it. Brain became synonymous with mind. A large brain +implied vigor of thought; a small brain was evidence of mental +inferiority.</p> + +<p>Physiology had demonstrated unquestionably that the muscles of the body +are enlarged by exercise. It was assumed by those who are wont to +measure mind in terms of matter that the brain, being the organ of +thought, was also developed by exercise. It was also assumed that the +development of the brain was in a direct ratio to its activity. The +greater its activity the greater its mass, and the greater the mass the +greater the degree of intelligence. In other words, it was assumed that +there was an exact and invariable proportion between weight of brain and +amount of brain power.</p> + +<p>None of the theories which have already been adverted to have been so +full of assumptions and prejudices or vitiated by so many fallacies and +over-hasty generalizations as this. No subject has possessed a greater +fascination for anthropologists, and no subject has been prolific in +more diverse and conflicting conclusions. Many men of science who, in +other matters, were noted for their care in weighing evidence, before +formulating theories, completely lost the scientific spirit when they +began to weigh brains and to draw conclusions respecting the relations +of brain weight and mental power, and to establish ratios between the +character<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> of the convolutions of the organ of thought and the degree of +intelligence of its possessor.</p> + +<p>Contrary to what is generally believed, a large brain is not always an +indication of superior capacity or intelligence. There have been, it is +true, a number of men of genius who were the possessors of large brains, +but there have also been others whose brains were of but medium weight.</p> + +<p>The largest known brains of intellectual workers were those of Cuvier, +the noted zoölogist, and Turgenieff, the distinguished novelist. The +brain of the Frenchman weighed 1830 grams, while that of the Russian +totaled 2012 grams. Among other large brains—even larger than +Cuvier's—were those of a bricklayer, which weighed 1900 grams, and of +an ordinary laborer, which reached 1924 grams. The largest brains on +record were that of an ignorant laborer named Rustan, which weighed 2222 +grams; that of a weak-minded London newsboy, which weighed 2268 grams, +and that of a twenty-one-year-old epileptic idiot, which had the unheard +of weight of 2850 grams.<a name="FNanchor_96_96" id="FNanchor_96_96"></a><a href="#Footnote_96_96" class="fnanchor">[96]</a></p> + +<p>The seven largest recorded female brains were three weighing 1580 grams +each, one of which belonged to a medical student of marked ability, +while the other two belonged to quite undistinguished women. There were +two others weighing 1587 each, one of which belonged to an insane woman. +Still heavier than these by far were the brains of an insane woman who +died of consumption, and of a dwarfed Indian squaw. The brain of the +first weighed 1742 grams; while that of the second was no less than 2084 +grams.</p> + +<p>From the foregoing examples it is evident that a large brain is far from +being a certain index of mental capacity or of superior intelligence. It +is frequently the very reverse.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> If, for instance, it fail to receive +the necessary supply of blood, it will be inert or disordered and will +prove to be a dangerous possession rather than a precious endowment. +Epileptics usually have brains that are large relatively to the size of +the body. And, while it is probably true that the great thinkers and men +of action of the world have, in most instances, had comparatively large +brains, it is also true that the brain weights of but few of them +exceeded 1500 grams, while those of many fall below 1200 grams.</p> + +<p>Thus the brain of Gambetta, "the foremost Frenchman of his time," +weighed only 1159 grams, while the weight of the brain of Napoleon I was +1502 grams—barely equal to that of a negro described by the +anthropologist Broca, and but little superior to that of a Hottentot +mentioned by Dr. Jeffries Wyman.<a name="FNanchor_97_97" id="FNanchor_97_97"></a><a href="#Footnote_97_97" class="fnanchor">[97]</a></p> + +<p>The late Dr. Joseph Simms found the average brain weight of sixty +persons who were either imbeciles, idiots, criminals or men of ordinary +mind to be 1792 grams, while that of sixty famous men was 1454 grams, a +difference in favor of men not noted for intellectual greatness of 338 +grams. These figures are far from showing that large brains are a +necessary concomitant of mental capacity.</p> + +<p>In view of these and many similar facts, we are not surprised that the +eminent German anatomist and anthropologist, Rudolph Wagner, should +declare that "very intelligent men do not differ strikingly in brain +weight from less gifted men," and that the noted French physician, +Esquirol, should assert that "no size or form of head or brain is +incident to idiocy or superior talent."</p> + +<p>So far as civilized races are concerned, there can be no doubt that the +absolute weight of the male is greater than that of the female brain. +According to the investigations of seven of the most notable +anthropologists, who have given special attention to the subject under +consideration,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> and who, collectively, have carefully weighed many +thousands of brains, the average brain weight of men in Europe is 1381 +grams, while that of women is 1237 grams. This shows a difference +between the average weight of the brain in man and woman of 144 grams.</p> + +<p>But, if it must be conceded that the absolute weight of man's brain is +greater than woman's, is it likewise true that the relative weight is +greater? This is a question which demands an answer, as it is impossible +to come to any just conclusion respecting the intellectual capacity of +woman expressed in terms of brain weight, unless we can affirm with +certainty that men's brains are relatively, as well as absolutely, +larger than those of women.</p> + +<p>Speaking of the relative weight of brain in man implies a term of +comparison. Several methods of estimating the sexual proportions of +brain mass have been suggested, but only two of them have met with any +favor. These are determining the ratio of brain weight to body weight or +body height.</p> + +<p>According to the investigations of anthropologists of acknowledged +authority, the average brain weight of woman is to that of man in +England and France as 90 is to 100. The average stature of men and women +in the same countries is as 93 to 100. This gives man an excess of brain +weight over that of woman of something more than an ounce. But this +slight difference in weight has been considered sufficient to constitute +it "a fundamental sexual distinction." When, however, it is considered +that men are not only taller but also larger than women, this apparent +advantage of an ounce in favor of the male entirely disappears, and the +result is that the relative amount of brain mass in the two sexes is +practically equal.</p> + +<p>Because of the manifest inaccuracy of the stature criterion, many +eminent anthropologists have prepared to estimate sexual differences in +brain weight by adopting the method based on the ratio of brain mass to +body weight.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> According to this method, women are found to possess +brains which are equal to or even somewhat larger than those of men. If +the comparative excess of non-vital tissue in the form of fat in woman +be eliminated and estimates be based only on the active organic mass of +her body, as compared with the same mass in man, the excess of brain +weight in woman over that in man will be still more marked.</p> + +<p>A careful study, then, of the brain as a whole, far from proving woman's +inferiority to man, rather proves her superiority. The same may be said +regarding sexual distinctions based on certain parts of the brain.</p> + +<p>Some years ago it was positively asserted that the development of the +frontal lobe exhibited a pronounced difference in the two sexes. It was +said to be much greater in man than in woman and was regarded as a +distinguishing characteristic of the male sex. This was in keeping with +the generally accepted assumption that this portion of the brain is the +seat of the higher intellectual processes. Further investigation, +however, showed that there was practically no sexual difference in the +frontal lobe of the brain, or, if there was a difference, it was +probably in favor of woman.</p> + +<p>It has also become recognized that there is no valid reason for +considering the anterior portion of the brain as the seat of the higher +mental functions. It is possible, but in the present state of science it +can neither be affirmed nor denied. So far as our present knowledge +goes, it seems more likely that the whole of the brain, especially the +sensori-motor regions of its middle part, have a part in mental +operations. At all events, it can certainly be affirmed that Huschke's +distinction of man and woman into <i>homo frontalis et homo parietalis</i> is +utterly devoid of foundation in fact.</p> + +<p>Many anthropologists have fancied that a certain index of the degree of +intelligence is to be found in the convolutions of the brain. The +tortuous foldings of the female<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> brain, it is asserted, are less ample, +less pronounced and less beautiful. "Behold," they exclaim, "a most +positive evidence of inferiority." These men overlook the fact that +certain animals, notably the elephant and divers species of cetaceans, +have cerebral convolutions that are more complex than those of man. If, +then, brain convolutions were, as claimed, a certain index of the degree +of intelligence, the whale or the elephant, and not man—<i>pace</i> +Shakespeare—would be "the paragon of animals."</p> + +<p>But men of science are by no means at one on this alleged sexual +difference in brain convolutions. On the contrary, there are many +eminent physiologists and anatomists who contend that the superficies of +brain convolutions in women is relatively greater than in men. For those +who believe—and they are probably the majority at present—that the +seat of mental activity is in the gray matter of the brain, this greater +brain surface, due to its convolutions, would be a decided compensation +for woman's relatively smaller brain volume.<a name="FNanchor_98_98" id="FNanchor_98_98"></a><a href="#Footnote_98_98" class="fnanchor">[98]</a></p> + +<p>In whatever way, then, we consider the brains of men and women, whether +we compare the ratio of brain weight to height of body or to weight of +body, or compare the relative amounts of gray matter in the two sexes, +the advantage, in spite of her smaller body, is distinctly in favor of +woman.</p> + +<p>From the preceding considerations it seems clear that there is no ground +from the point of view of brain anatomy for considering one sex as +superior to the other. They evince, too, that quality as well as +quantity of brain tissue must be considered in all our discussions on +the relations<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> between the volume of brain and the intelligence of its +possessor. Whales and elephants have much larger brains than men, but +they nevertheless stand far below him in intelligence.</p> + +<p>It must be remembered, also, that the brain is not only an organ of +mental function. It is likewise the center of the entire nervous system, +and its volume, therefore, must correspond with the size and number of +nerve trunks under its control. In man, as in animals, the brain +elements are to a great extent but sensori-motor delegates whose +function is the regulation and government of every part of the body. The +superior size of the whale's brain, as compared with that of man, can +readily be understood when we reflect on the much greater amount of +territory which these sensori-motor delegates represent. When this fact +is borne in mind it will be found that the whale's brain, relatively to +that of man, is extremely small. For while the ratio of man's brain +weight to that of his body is as 1 to 36, the ratio of the whale's brain +weight to its immense body is but 1 to 3,000.</p> + +<p>As an evidence that quality often counts for more than quantity, brain +anatomists would do well to reflect on the marvelous intelligence +displayed by ants and termites, those mites of animated nature which so +excited the admiration of the naturalist Pliny and caused Darwin to +declare, "The brain of an ant is one of the most marvelous atoms of +matter in the world, perhaps more so than the brain of man."<a name="FNanchor_99_99" id="FNanchor_99_99"></a><a href="#Footnote_99_99" class="fnanchor">[99]</a></p> + +<p>Moreover, when discussing the relative brain weights of the two sexes, +we must not lose sight of the fact that we have, with the solitary +exception of the eminent Russian mathematician, Sónya Kovalévsky,<a name="FNanchor_100_100" id="FNanchor_100_100"></a><a href="#Footnote_100_100" class="fnanchor">[100]</a> +no record of the brain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> weights of any eminently intellectual woman. The +brains of scores of men of genius and exceptional mentality have been +weighed, but we are utterly ignorant of the weight of brain of such +women as Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Madame de Staël, Maria Theresa, Sophie +Germain, George Sand, Harriet Martineau, George Eliot, Eleanor Ormerod, +Mary Somerville, and others of the same caliber. The only data so far +available, regarding the average brain weight of women, are such as have +been obtained from the inmates of hospitals, prisons and pauper +institutions. And yet we are asked to accept the average based on such +data as a fair term of comparison with the average male brain weight as +increased by the superior weight of brain of such men as Cuvier and +Turgenieff. And this is called science!<a name="FNanchor_101_101" id="FNanchor_101_101"></a><a href="#Footnote_101_101" class="fnanchor">[101]</a></p> + +<p>The attempt, then, to prove by weighing and measuring and studying +brains that man is the intellectual superior of woman has been an +ignominious failure. The old belief that woman is by nature and cerebral +organization less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> intelligent than man is not borne out by the +investigations of those best qualified to pronounce an opinion on the +subject. To assert, as so many do, that woman was created man's +intellectual inferior is begging the question. Science can adduce no +proof of such a gratuitous statement. Broca, the most eminent of French +anthropologists, regarded as an absurdity the attempt to establish a +necessary relation between the development of intelligence and the +volume and weight of the encephalon. With the ripe knowledge of his +mature years he was inclined to believe that the apparent difference in +intelligence in the two sexes was owing, not to a difference of brain +organization, but rather to a difference of education, physical as well +as mental, and that, with equal opportunities for intellectual and +physical development, the present sexual differences that we have been +considering—differences which are due not to nature but to the long +ages of restraint and subjection under which women have lived—would +gradually be lessened, and that men and women would eventually approach +that equality which characterizes them in the state of nature.<a name="FNanchor_102_102" id="FNanchor_102_102"></a><a href="#Footnote_102_102" class="fnanchor">[102]</a></p> + +<p>Realizing the impossibility of arriving, by the study of brain sizes and +structure, at any satisfactory conclusion respecting the relative +intellectual capacities of men and women, seekers after truth cast about +for other methods that were free from the errors and fallacies of those +which had proved so unreliable. The attempt to base the alleged mental +inferiority of woman upon the facial angle of Camper, the metafacial +angle of Serres, the craniofacial angle of Huxley, the sphenoidal angle +of Welcker, or the nasobasal angle of Virchow had issued in utter +failure, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> had proved for the thousandth time that it is easier to +formulate theories than to establish their validity. It was evident, +notwithstanding the assertions of certain materialistic theorists, that +the brain did not secrete thought as the liver secretes bile; it was +evident, too, that intelligence could not be estimated in terms of any +kind of mechanical units. Psycho-physiologists had no sort of +dynamometer for measuring brain power as they would measure muscular +energy. By means of the plethysmograph they might determine the amount +of blood sent to the brain in a given time, but they had no psychometer +of any description which would enable them to estimate the quantity, +much less the quality, of psychic force such a blood supply was +competent to produce.</p> + +<p>Many, of course, still remained adherents of the old view that woman +must ever remain the mental inferior of man because she is by nature +physically weaker. These persons, however, seemed to lose sight of the +fact that women who lead a rational life—who are not the slaves of +fashion or the victims of luxury—have little to complain of on the +score of physical weakness. This is evidenced by the life and habits of +the women of the people, as well as by the tasks performed by women +among savage tribes, who in health and strength are little, if at all, +inferior to their male companions.</p> + +<p>The late Professor Huxley, in referring to this subject, exhibited his +usual acumen and sanity in such matters when he indited the following +paragraph:</p> + +<p>"We have heard a great deal lately about the physical disabilities of +women. Some of these alleged impediments, no doubt, are really inherent +in their organization, but nine-tenths of them are artificial—the +products of their mode of life. I believe that nothing would tend so +effectually to get rid of these creations of idleness, weariness and +that 'over-stimulation of the emotions' which in plainer spoken days +used to be called wantonness, than a fair share<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> of healthy work, +directed toward a definite object, combined with an equally fair share +of healthy play, during the years of adolescence; and those who are best +acquainted with the acquirements of an average medical practitioner will +find it hardest to believe that the attempt to reach that standard is +like to prove exhausting to an ordinarily intelligent and well-educated +woman."<a name="FNanchor_103_103" id="FNanchor_103_103"></a><a href="#Footnote_103_103" class="fnanchor">[103]</a></p> + +<p>Substantially the same views are held by Mrs. Henry Fawcett and Dr. Mary +Putnam Jacobi, whose rare experience and knowledge give their opinions +on the subject under consideration special weight and value.</p> + +<p>After men of science had tried the various theories above enumerated and +found them wanting, they finally bethought themselves of investigating +the relative intellectual standing of male and female students in +coeducational institutions, and inquiring into their comparative +capacity for different branches of knowledge, as made known by their +professors and by the results of oral and written examinations. +Considering the simplicity of this method and the fact that it is the +more rational way to reach reliable conclusions, the wonder is that it +was not thought of sooner. It excludes the bias of prepossessions and +preconceived theories and lends itself to the discussion of results +based on incontestable facts.</p> + +<p>The first coeducational institution in which the intellectual capacity +of women, in competition with men, was fairly tested was, strange to +say, in the Royal College of Science for Ireland. This was somewhat more +than half a century ago. When the time of examinations came, both the +men and women students were handed the same examination papers. At the +public distribution of prizes, at the close of the session, "the +ladies," in the words of a Dublin paper, "vindicated the genius of their +sex by carrying off<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> the highest prizes." In zoölogy, botany, physics, +chemistry and mathematics they proved themselves the peers, and +frequently the superiors, of their male competitors.</p> + +<p>"The success of the female students disturbed, of course, very much the +preconceived notions of some people, who had always taken for granted +that the female intellect was inferior to the male; and, not being able +to combat the stubborn facts that appeared from time to time in the +newspapers, when the results of the examinations were published, they +tried to account for them."<a name="FNanchor_104_104" id="FNanchor_104_104"></a><a href="#Footnote_104_104" class="fnanchor">[104]</a></p> + +<p>These cavillers, however, soon discovered that there was no way of +accounting for the disconcerting fact which confronted them, except by +confessing that their theory regarding the mental inferiority of women +was not substantiated by fact. This unexpected demand for the +unconditional surrender of their long-cherished theory of male +superiority was a crushing and humiliating blow to their pride of +intellect, but there was no remedy for it, nor was it accompanied by any +balm of consolation that they, at the time, felt disposed to regard as +adequate compensation for their lost prestige—a prestige which their +overweening sex had claimed from time immemorial.</p> + +<p>Similar experiments under even more trying conditions were subsequently +made in the United States and in other parts of the world, and +everywhere with the same results. In the universities of Switzerland, +France, England, Germany and Russia women, when given a fair +opportunity, were able to demonstrate to the satisfaction of all +unprejudiced judges that the long-vaunted superiority of the male +intellect was a myth; that intelligence, like genius, has no sex.</p> + +<p>One of the most interesting and comprehensive investigations ever +undertaken regarding this long-debated question was made some years ago +by Arthur Kirchhoff, an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> enterprising German journalist.<a name="FNanchor_105_105" id="FNanchor_105_105"></a><a href="#Footnote_105_105" class="fnanchor">[105]</a> It +consisted in collecting and collaborating the opinions of more than a +hundred of the most distinguished professors of the Fatherland, besides +the opinions of a number of eminent writers and teachers in girls' high +schools. These constitute a volume of nearly four hundred pages, and +embody the views on the capacity of woman for science of professors of +theology, jurisprudence, anatomy, physiology, surgery, psychology, +history, gynecology, psychiatry, philology, philosophy, art, +mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry, zoölogy, botany, geology, +paleontology and technology. The investigation, indeed, covered every +branch of knowledge and evoked the deliberate views of those who were +looked upon as the leading representatives of German thought and +culture.</p> + +<p>This book possesses a special value from the fact that, of all peoples +in Europe, the Germans have been the most refractory to the claims of +women to be received at the universities on the same footing as men. The +German professors, naturally, share the conservatism of their +countrymen, and, like them, are wedded to routine when there is question +of introducing innovations into their social, political or educational +systems. One would anticipate, then, that, when called upon to give +their honest opinions respecting the intellectual capacity of women, as +compared with that of men, their answer would be decidedly in favor of +the sterner sex. "For," they will ask, "have not all the achievements in +science which have given the Fatherland such prestige in the eyes of the +world been due entirely to men? Have the women of Germany ever +undertaken the solution of any great scientific problem, or have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> they +ever made any notable contribution to scientific advancement? They have +not."</p> + +<p>Yet, notwithstanding all these facts, notwithstanding all traditions and +prejudices and social bias, the unexpected has happened, even in +conservative, old-fashioned Germany. The German professor may be +tenacious of preconceived views; he may be a stickler for ancient +customs and usages; nevertheless, when he is called upon to give a +question a categorical answer which can be arrived at by observation or +experiment, he may generally, in spite of his likes or dislikes, be +counted on to give a decision in accord with the principles of +legitimate induction. He may have his prejudices—and who has not?—but, +when one appeals to him in the name of science and justice, he will +rarely be found wanting. Regardless of all personal consideration, he +will feel that loyalty to science, of which he is the avowed devotee, +requires him to consider a question proposed to him as he would a +scientific problem—something to be decided solely by such evidence as +may be available.</p> + +<p>To the exceeding gratification of the believers in the intellectual +equality of the sexes, this proved to be the case in Herr Kirchhoff's +investigation. The answers of the German professors, contrary to what +most people would have anticipated, were, by a surprising majority, in +favor of women. But their answers were in keeping with the changed +educational conditions in Germany, as well as in other parts of the +civilized world. Had Herr Kirchhoff undertaken his investigation a few +decades earlier, the result would undoubtedly have been different, for +women were then excluded from the universities and the professors had +not had an opportunity of accurately testing their intellectual +capacities. But having, during the latter part of the nineteenth +century, had them as students in their lecture halls and laboratories, +where they were able to study their mental powers and determine the +value of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> work by strict scientific methods, they were in a better +position to express an opinion on the question at issue than would, a +few years previously, have been possible.</p> + +<p>Accordingly, even the declared enemies of the woman's movement among the +German professorate were forced to admit the intellectual equality of +the two sexes. For they, too, as well as men of science in other parts +of Europe, had been measuring skulls and weighing brains; they, too, had +been studying woman's mental caliber in the light of the new psychology; +they, too, had been watching her work in the various departments of the +university; and, notwithstanding all their observations and experiments, +they were unable to detect any difference between men and women in brain +organization or in intellectual capacity. And, as might have been +foreseen, results harmonized perfectly with those arrived at by +investigators in other parts of the world—namely, that in things of the +mind there is perfect sexual equality.</p> + +<p>Among the hundred and more professors whose opinions are given in Herr +Kirchhoff's book there were, of course, a few who were not prepared to +subscribe to the findings of the great majority of their colleagues. But +the reasons they assign for dissent were, at least in some instances, +little better founded than that of a certain professor of chemistry in +the University of Geneva, who, a few years ago, gravely declared that +women have no aptitude for science because, forsooth, in chemical +manipulations they break more test-tubes than men. Verily, "a Daniel +come to judgment."</p> + +<p>What probably more deeply impressed the German professors than anything +else was the marked talent and taste of many of the women students for +the abstract sciences, especially for the higher mathematics. For it had +always been asserted that these branches of knowledge were beyond +woman's capacity and that she had an instinctive antipathy for abstruse +reasoning and for abstractions of all kinds.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> When, however, they +discovered women whose delight was to discuss the theory of elliptic +functions or curves defined by differential equations; when they found a +mathematical genius like Sónya Kovalévsky speculating on the fourth +dimension, and carrying away from the mathematicians of the world the +most coveted prize of the French Academy of Sciences, they were forced +to confess that another of their illusions was dissipated, and to +acknowledge that they had no longer anything on which to base their long +and fondly cherished opinion of the mental inequality of the sexes.</p> + +<p>As an evidence of the extraordinary change that had been effected among +the conservative Germans in the course of a few years respecting their +attitude toward the admission of the "Academic Woman" to the +universities, and, consequently, toward her intellectual capacity, it +will suffice to reproduce a sentence from the elaborately expressed +opinion of Dr. Julius Bernstein, professor of physiology in the +University of Halle. "After reflection on the subject," he declares, "I +am convinced that neither God nor religion, neither custom nor law, and +still less science, warrants one in maintaining any essential difference +in this respect between the male and the female sex."<a name="FNanchor_106_106" id="FNanchor_106_106"></a><a href="#Footnote_106_106" class="fnanchor">[106]</a></p> + +<p>The controversy of centuries regarding woman's intellectual capacity was +now virtually settled beyond all peradventure. Woman had conquered, and +her final victory had been won in the heart of the enemy's country, yea, +even in what was thought to be the impregnable fortress of her +relentless foes. It was achieved where the proud Teuton male had +imagined that he was unapproachable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> and beyond compare—in the +laboratories and lecture rooms of his great universities—more +irresistible, in his estimation, than the Kaiser's trained legions in +battle array.</p> + +<p>It finally dawned upon the leaders of thought in the Fatherland, as it +had but shortly before dawned upon philosophers and men of science in +other lands, that the reputed sexual difference in intelligence was not +due to difference in brain size or brain structure, or innate power of +intellect, but rather to some other factors which had been neglected, or +overlooked, as being unessential or of minor importance. These factors, +on further investigation, proved to be education and opportunity.</p> + +<p>As far back as 1869 that keen observer and philosopher, John Stuart +Mill, had expressed himself on the subject in the following words: "Like +the French compared with the English, the Irish with the Swiss, the +Greeks or Italians compared with the German races, so women compared +with men may be found, on the average, to do the same things with some +variety in the particular kind of excellence. But that they would do +them fully as well, on the whole, if their education and cultivation +were adapted to correcting instead of aggravating the infirmities +incident to their temperament, I see not the smallest reason to +doubt."<a name="FNanchor_107_107" id="FNanchor_107_107"></a><a href="#Footnote_107_107" class="fnanchor">[107]</a></p> + +<p>It would be difficult to find a better illustration of the sluggishness +of the male as compared with the female mind than the tardiness of men +of science in arriving at a sane conclusion respecting the subject of +this chapter. For five hundred years ago Christine de Pisan arrived at +the same conclusion which the learned professors of Germany reached only +in the last decade of the nineteenth century. Discussing in <i>La Cité des +Dames</i> the question at issue she writes as follows: "I say to thee +again, and doubt never the contrary, that if it were the custom to put +the little maidens to the school, and they were made to learn the +sciences as they do to the men-children, that they should<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> learn as +perfectly, and they should be as well entered into the subtleties of all +the arts and sciences as men be. And peradventure, there should be more +of them, for I have teached heretofore that by how much women have the +body more soft than the men have, and less able to do divers things, by +so much they have the understanding more sharp there as they apply it."</p> + +<p>Christine de Pisan's statement is virtually a challenge demanding the +same educational opportunities for women as were accorded to men. But it +was a challenge that men did not see fit to accept until full five +centuries had elapsed, and until it was no longer possible to deny +giving satisfaction to the long-aggrieved half of humanity. It was also +an appeal to experiment and an appeal, likewise, to the teachings of +history in lands where women have enjoyed the same educational +advantages as men.</p> + +<p>Having reviewed the many disabilities which so long retarded woman's +intellectual advancement, and considered some of the objections which +were urged against her capacity for scientific pursuits, we are now +prepared to consider the appeal of Christine de Pisan and deal with it +on its merits. This we shall do by a brief survey of woman's +achievements in the various branches of science in which she has been +accorded the same intellectual opportunities that were so long the +exclusive privilege of her male compeer.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_89_89" id="Footnote_89_89"></a><a href="#FNanchor_89_89"><span class="label">[89]</span></a> An edition of this work, based on an old manuscript in La +Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris, in French, is announced to appear in +France at an early date. An interesting account of this precious volume +has recently been published by Mlle. Mathilde Laigle, Ph. D., under the +title of <i>Le Livre de Trois Vertus de Christine de Pisan et son Milieu +Historique et Littéraire</i>. It is to be hoped that some enterprising +English publisher will soon favor us with a reprint of the quaint old, +but none the less valuable, volume, <i>The Boke of the Cyte of Ladyes</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_90_90" id="Footnote_90_90"></a><a href="#FNanchor_90_90"><span class="label">[90]</span></a> Quando la genialita compare nella donna è sempre associata +a grandi anomalie: e la più grande è la somiglianza coi maschi—la +virilità. <i>L'Uomo di Genio</i>, sesta edizione, p. 261, Torino, 1894.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_91_91" id="Footnote_91_91"></a><a href="#FNanchor_91_91"><span class="label">[91]</span></a> <i>An Essay on the Learning, Genius and Abilities of the +Fair Sex, Proving Them Not Inferior to Man</i>, p. 142, London, 1774.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_92_92" id="Footnote_92_92"></a><a href="#FNanchor_92_92"><span class="label">[92]</span></a> Schopenhauer, <i>Studies in Pessimism</i>, p. 115, London, +1891.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_93_93" id="Footnote_93_93"></a><a href="#FNanchor_93_93"><span class="label">[93]</span></a> <i>The Literary Advantages of Weak Health</i>, in the +<i>Spectator</i> for October, 1894.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_94_94" id="Footnote_94_94"></a><a href="#FNanchor_94_94"><span class="label">[94]</span></a> <i>The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin</i>, edited by his +son, Francis Darwin, Vol. I, p. 136, New York, 1888.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_95_95" id="Footnote_95_95"></a><a href="#FNanchor_95_95"><span class="label">[95]</span></a> <i>Man and Woman</i>, p. 94, London, 1898.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_96_96" id="Footnote_96_96"></a><a href="#FNanchor_96_96"><span class="label">[96]</span></a> Cf. <i>Das Hirngewicht des Menschen</i>, pp. 21 and 137, by +Theodor L. W. von Bischoff, Bonn, 1880, and Dr. G. van Walsem in +<i>Neurologisches Centralblatt</i>, pp. 578-580, Leipsic, July 1, 1899.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_97_97" id="Footnote_97_97"></a><a href="#FNanchor_97_97"><span class="label">[97]</span></a> <i>L'Anthropologie</i>, pp. 336-337, by Paul Topinard, Paris, +1876.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_98_98" id="Footnote_98_98"></a><a href="#FNanchor_98_98"><span class="label">[98]</span></a> The importance of gray matter in mental processes has +evidently been greatly overestimated, for it has been found to be +thicker in the brains of negroes, murderers and ignorant persons than it +was in the encephalon of Daniel Webster. It is also much thicker in the +brains of dolphins, porpoises and other cetaceans than it is in the most +intellectual of men.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_99_99" id="Footnote_99_99"></a><a href="#FNanchor_99_99"><span class="label">[99]</span></a> <i>The Descent of Man</i>, Vol. I, p. 145, London, 1871.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_100_100" id="Footnote_100_100"></a><a href="#FNanchor_100_100"><span class="label">[100]</span></a> The brain of Sónya Kovalévsky was not weighed until it +had been four years in alcohol. Prof. Gustaf Retzius then wrote an +elaborate account of it and estimated that its weight, at the time of +Sónya's death, was 1385 grams. The brain-weight of her illustrious +contemporary, Hermann von Helmholtz, was 1440 grams. But when the +body-weights of these two eminent mathematicians are borne in +mind—Sónya was short and slender—it will be seen that the relative +amount of brain tissue was greater in the woman than in the man. Cf. +<i>Das Gehirn des Mathematikers Sónja Kovaléwski in Biologische +Untersuchungen</i>, von Prof. Dr. Gustaf Retzius, pp. 1-17, Stockholm, +1900.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_101_101" id="Footnote_101_101"></a><a href="#FNanchor_101_101"><span class="label">[101]</span></a> The reader who desires more detailed information +respecting the brain-weights of men and women of various races and the +relation of brain-weight to intelligence may consult with profit the +following works and articles: <i>Mémoires d'Anthropologie de Paul Broca</i>, +5 Vols., Paris, 1871-1888; <i>Alte und Neue Gehirn Probleme nebst einer +1078 Falle umfassenden Gehirngewichstatistik aus den Kgl. +pathologisch-anatomischen Institut zu München</i>, von W. W. Wendt, +München, 1909; Gehirngewicht und Intelligenz, by Dr. F. K. Walter, +Rostok, 1911; <i>Gehirngewicht und Intelligenz</i>, by Dr. J. Dräseke, +Hamburg, in <i>Archiv für Rassen und Gesellschafts Biologe</i>, pp. 499-522, +1906; <i>Brain Weights and Intellectual Capacity</i>, by Joseph Simms, M. D., +in the <i>Popular Science Monthly</i>, December, 1898, and <i>The Growth of the +Brain</i>, by H. H. Donaldson, London, 1895.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_102_102" id="Footnote_102_102"></a><a href="#FNanchor_102_102"><span class="label">[102]</span></a> "Quand on songe à la différence qui sépare de notre temps +l'éducation intellectuelle de l'homme de celle de la femme, on se +demande si ce n'est pas cette influence qui rétrécit le cervaux et le +crane féminins, et si, les deux sexes étant livres a leur spontanéité, +leur cervaux ne tendraient pas à se ressembler, aussi qu'il arrive chez +les sauvages." <i>Bulletin de la Société d'Anthropologie</i>, p. 503, Paris, +July 3, 1879.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_103_103" id="Footnote_103_103"></a><a href="#FNanchor_103_103"><span class="label">[103]</span></a> <i>Times</i>, London, July 8, 1874. Cf. Chap. XVII, on +"Adolescent Girls and Their Education," in <i>Adolescence</i>, Vol. II, by G. +Stanley Hall, New York, 1904.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_104_104" id="Footnote_104_104"></a><a href="#FNanchor_104_104"><span class="label">[104]</span></a> <i>The Study of Science by Women in the Contemporary +Review</i> for March, 1869.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_105_105" id="Footnote_105_105"></a><a href="#FNanchor_105_105"><span class="label">[105]</span></a> <i>Die Akademische Frau. Gutachten hervorragender +Universitäten-professoren, Frauenlehrer und Schriftsteller über die +Befähigung der Frau zum wissenschaftlichen Studium and Berufe +herausgegeben von Arthur Kirchhoff</i>, Berlin, 1897.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_106_106" id="Footnote_106_106"></a><a href="#FNanchor_106_106"><span class="label">[106]</span></a> "Ich komme beim Nachdenken hieruber zu der Ueberzeigung, +dass kein Gott und keine Religion, kein Herkommen und kein Gesetz, aber +ebensowenig die Wissenschaft uns das Recht erteilen, in dieser Beziehung +zwischen dem mannerlichen und weiblichen Geschlect einen principiellen +Unterschied zu statuiren." <i>Die Akademische Frau</i>, p. 41.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_107_107" id="Footnote_107_107"></a><a href="#FNanchor_107_107"><span class="label">[107]</span></a> <i>The Subjection of Women</i>, p. 91, London, 1909.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS</h3> + + +<p>"All abstract speculations, all knowledge which is dry, however useful +it may be, must be abandoned to the laborious and solid mind of man.... +For this reason women will never learn geometry."</p> + +<p>In these words Immanuel Kant, more than a century ago, gave expression +to an opinion that had obtained since the earliest times respecting the +incapacity of the female mind for abstract science, and notably for +mathematics. Women, it was averred, could readily assimilate what is +concrete, but, like children, they have a natural repugnance for +everything which is abstract. They are competent to discuss details and +to deal with particulars, but become hopelessly lost when they attempt +to generalize or deal with universals.</p> + +<p>De Lamennais shares Kant's opinion concerning woman's intellectual +inferiority and does not hesitate to express himself on the subject in +the most unequivocal manner. "I have never," he writes, "met a woman who +was competent to follow a course of reasoning the half of a quarter of +an hour—<i>un demi quart d'heure</i>. She has qualities which are wanting in +us, qualities of a particular, inexpressible charm; but, in the matter +of reason, logic, the power to connect ideas, to enchain principles of +knowledge and perceive their relationships, woman, even the most highly +gifted, rarely attains to the height of a man of mediocre capacity."</p> + +<p>But it is not only in the past that such views found acceptance. They +prevail even to-day to almost the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> extent as during the ages of +long ago. How far they have any foundation in fact can best be +determined by a brief survey of what woman has achieved in the domain of +mathematics.</p> + +<p>Athenæus, a Greek writer who flourished about A.D. 200, tells us in his +<i>Deipnosophistæ</i> of several Greek women who excelled in mathematics, as +well as philosophy, but details are wanting as to their attainments in +this branch of knowledge. If, however, we may judge from the number of +women—particularly among the hetæræ—who became eminent in the various +schools of philosophy, especially during the pre-Christian era, we must +conclude that many of them were well versed in geometry and astronomy as +well as in the general science of numbers. Menagius declares that he +found no fewer than sixty-five women philosophers mentioned in the +writings of the ancients<a name="FNanchor_108_108" id="FNanchor_108_108"></a><a href="#Footnote_108_108" class="fnanchor">[108]</a>; and, judging from what we know of the +character of the studies pursued in certain of the philosophical +schools, especially those of Plato<a name="FNanchor_109_109" id="FNanchor_109_109"></a><a href="#Footnote_109_109" class="fnanchor">[109]</a> and Pythagoras, and the +enthusiasm which women manifested in every department of knowledge, +there can be no doubt that they achieved the same measure of success in +mathematics as in philosophy and literature.<a name="FNanchor_110_110" id="FNanchor_110_110"></a><a href="#Footnote_110_110" class="fnanchor">[110]</a></p> + +<p>The first woman mathematician, regarding whose attainments we have any +positive knowledge, is the celebrated Hypatia, a Neo-platonic +philosopher, whose unhappy fate at the hands of an Alexandrian mob in +the early part of the fifth century has given rise to many legends and +romances which have contributed not a little toward obscuring the real +facts of her extraordinary career. She was the daughter of Theon, who +was distinguished as a mathematician<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> and astronomer and as a professor +in the school of Alexandria, which was then probably the greatest seat +of learning in the world. Born about the year 375 A. D., she at an early +age evinced the possession of those talents that were subsequently to +render her so illustrious. So great indeed was her genius and so rapid +was her progress in this branch of knowledge under the tuition of her +father that she soon completely eclipsed her master in his chosen +specialty.</p> + +<p>There is reason to believe—although the fact is not definitely +established—that she studied for a while in Athens in the school of +philosophy conducted by Plutarch the Younger and his daughter +Asclepigenia. After her return from Athens, Hypatia was invited by the +magistrates of Alexandria to teach mathematics and philosophy. Here in +brief time her lecture room was filled by eager and enthusiastic +students from all parts of the civilized world. She was also gifted with +a high order of eloquence and with a voice so marvelous that it was +declared to be "divine."</p> + +<p>Regarding her much vaunted beauty, nothing certain is known, as +antiquity has bequeathed to us no medal or statue by which we could form +an estimate of her physical grace. But, be this as it may, it is certain +that she commanded the admiration and respect of all for her great +learning, and that she bore the mantle of science and philosophy with so +great modesty and self-confidence that she won all hearts. A letter +addressed to "The Muse," or to "The Philosopher"—Τη Φιλοσοφω—was sure to be delivered to her at once. Small wonder, +then, to find a Greek poet inditing to her an epigram containing the +following sentiment:</p> + +<p>"When I see thee and hear thy word I thee adore; it is the ethereal +constellation of the Virgin, which I contemplate, for to the heavens thy +whole life is devoted, O august<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> Hypatia, ideal of eloquence and +wisdom's immaculate star."<a name="FNanchor_111_111" id="FNanchor_111_111"></a><a href="#Footnote_111_111" class="fnanchor">[111]</a></p> + +<p>But it was as a mathematician that Hypatia most excelled. She taught not +only geometry and astronomy, but also the new science of algebra, which +had but a short time before been introduced by Diophantus. And, singular +to relate, no further progress was made in the mathematical sciences, as +taught by Hypatia, until the time of Newton, Leibnitz and +Descartes,—more than twelve centuries later.</p> + +<p>Hypatia was the author of three works on mathematics, all of which have +been lost, or destroyed by the ravages of time. One of these was a +commentary on the <i>Arithmetica</i> of Diophantus. The original treatise—or +rather the part which has come down to us—was found about the middle of +the fifteenth century in the Vatican Library, whither it had probably +been brought after Constantinople had fallen into the possession of the +Turks. This valuable work, as annotated by the great French +mathematicians Bachet and Fermat, gives us a good idea of the extent of +Hypatia's attainments as a mathematician.</p> + +<p>Another of Hypatia's works was a treatise on the <i>Conic Sections</i> by +Apollonius of Perga—surnamed "The Great Geometer." Next to Archimedes, +he was the most distinguished of the Greek geometricians; and the last +four books of his conics constitute the chief portions of the higher +geometry of the ancients. Moreover, they offer some elegant geometrical +solutions of problems which, with all the resources of our modern +analytical method, are not without difficulty. The greater part of this +precious work has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> been preserved and has engaged the attention of +several of the most illustrious of modern mathematicians—among them +Borelli, Viviani, Fermat, Barrow and others. The famous English +astronomer, Halley, regarded this production of Apollonius of such +importance that he learned Arabic for the express purpose of translating +it from the version that had been made into this language.</p> + +<p>A woman who could achieve distinction by her commentaries on such works +as the <i>Arithmetica</i> of Diophantus, of the <i>Conic Sections</i> of +Apollonius, and occupy an honored place among such mathematicians as +Fermat, Borelli, and Halley, must have had a genius for mathematics, and +we can well believe that the glowing tributes paid by her contemporaries +to her extraordinary powers of intellect were fully deserved. If, with +Pascal, we see in mathematics "the highest exercise of the +intelligence," and agree with him in placing geometers in the first rank +of intellectual princes—<i>princes de l'esprit</i>—we must admit that +Hypatia was indeed exceptionally dowered by Him whom Plato calls "The +Great Geometer."</p> + +<p>There is still a third work of this ill-fated woman that deserves +notice—namely, her <i>Astronomical Canon</i>, which dealt with the movements +of the heavenly bodies. It is the general opinion that this was but a +commentary on the tables of Ptolemy, in which event it is still possible +that it may be found incorporated in the work of her father, Theon, on +the same subject.</p> + +<p>In addition to her works on astronomy and mathematics, Hypatia is +credited with several inventions of importance, some of which are still +in daily use. Among these are an apparatus for distilling water, another +for measuring the level of water, and a third an instrument for +determining the specific gravity of liquids—what we should now call an +areometer. Besides these apparatus, she was likewise the inventor of an +astrolabe and a planisphere.</p> + +<p>One of her most distinguished pupils was the eminent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> Neo-platonist +philosopher, Synesius, who became the Bishop of Ptolemais in the +Pentapolis of Libya. His letters constitute our chief source of +information respecting this remarkable woman. Seven of them are +addressed to her, and in four others he makes mention of her. In one of +them he writes: "We have seen and we have heard her who presides at the +sacred mysteries of philosophy." In another he apostrophizes her as "My +benefactress, my teacher,—<i>magistra</i>—my sister, my mother."</p> + +<p>In science Hypatia was among the women of antiquity what Sappho was in +poetry and what Aspasia was in philosophy and eloquence—the chiefest +glory of her sex. In profundity of knowledge and variety of attainments +she had few peers among her contemporaries, and she is entitled to a +conspicuous place among such luminaries of science as Ptolemy, Euclid, +Apollonius, Diophantus and Hipparchus.<a name="FNanchor_112_112" id="FNanchor_112_112"></a><a href="#Footnote_112_112" class="fnanchor">[112]</a></p> + +<p>It is a matter of regret to the admirers of this favored daughter of the +Muses that she is absent from Raphael's <i>School of Athens</i>; but, had her +achievements been as well known and appreciated in his day as they are +now, we can readily believe that the incomparable artist would have +found a place for her in this masterpiece with the matchless form and +features of his beloved Fornarina.</p> + +<p>After the death of Hypatia the science of mathematics remained +stationary for many long centuries. Outside of certain Moors in Spain, +the only mathematicians of note in Europe, until the Renaissance, were +Gerbert, afterward Pope Silvester II, and Leonardo da Pisa. The first +woman to attract special attention for her knowledge of mathematics was +Heloise, the noted pupil of Abelard. According<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> to Franciscus Ambrosius, +who edited the works of Abelard and Heloise in 1616, the famous prioress +of The Paraclete was a prodigy of learning, for besides having a +knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, which was something extremely rare +in her time, she was also well versed in philosophy, theology and +mathematics, and inferior in these branches only to Abelard himself, who +was probably the most eminent scholar of his age.<a name="FNanchor_113_113" id="FNanchor_113_113"></a><a href="#Footnote_113_113" class="fnanchor">[113]</a></p> + +<p>Many Italian women, as we have seen in a preceding chapter, were noted +for their proficiency in the various branches of mathematics. Some of +the most distinguished of them flourished during the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries. Among these were Elena Cornaro Piscopia, +celebrated as a linguist as well as a mathematician; Maria Angela +Ardinghelli, translator of the <i>Vegetable Statics</i> of Stephen Hales; +Cristina Roccati, who taught physics for twenty-seven years in the +Scientific Institute of Rovigo, and Clelia Borromeo, fondly called by +her countrymen <i>gloria Genuensium</i>—the glory of the Genoese. In +addition to a special talent for languages, she possessed so great a +capacity for mathematics and mechanics that no problem in these sciences +seemed to be beyond her comprehension.<a name="FNanchor_114_114" id="FNanchor_114_114"></a><a href="#Footnote_114_114" class="fnanchor">[114]</a> Then there was also Diamante +Medaglia, a mathematician of note, who wrote a special dissertation on +the importance of mathematics in the curriculum of studies for women, +<i>Alle matematiche, alle matematiche prestino l'opera loro le donne, onde +non cadano in crassi paralogismi</i>—"To mathematics,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> to mathematics," +she cries, "let women devote attention for mental discipline."<a name="FNanchor_115_115" id="FNanchor_115_115"></a><a href="#Footnote_115_115" class="fnanchor">[115]</a></p> + +<p>The most illustrious, by far, of the women mathematicians of Italy was +Maria Gaetana Agnesi, who was born in Milan in 1718 and died there at +the age of eighty-one. At an early age she exhibited rare intelligence +and soon distinguished herself by her extraordinary talent for +languages. At the age of five she spoke French with ease and +correctness, while only six years later she was able to translate Greek +into Latin at sight and to speak the former as fluently as her own +Italian. At the early age of nine she startled the learned men and women +of her native city by discoursing for an hour in Latin on the rights of +women to the study of science. This discourse—<i>Oratio</i>—was not, as +usually stated, her own composition, but a translation from the Italian +of a discourse written by her teacher of Latin. That a child of nine +years should speak in the language of Cicero for a full hour before a +learned assembly and without once losing the thread of her discourse +was, indeed, a wonderful performance, and we are not surprised to learn +that she was regarded by her countrymen as an infant prodigy.<a name="FNanchor_116_116" id="FNanchor_116_116"></a><a href="#Footnote_116_116" class="fnanchor">[116]</a></p> + +<p>In addition to Italian, French, Latin and Greek, she was acquainted with +German, Spanish and Hebrew. For this reason she was, like Elena Cornaro +Piscopia, the famous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> "Venetian Minerva," called Oracolo +Settilingue—Oracle of Seven Languages.<a name="FNanchor_117_117" id="FNanchor_117_117"></a><a href="#Footnote_117_117" class="fnanchor">[117]</a></p> + +<p>But it was in the higher mathematics that Maria Gaetana was to win her +chief title to fame in the world of learning. So successful had she been +in her prosecution of this branch of science that she was, at the early +age of twenty, able to enter upon her monumental work—<i>Le Instituzioni +Analitiche</i>—a treatise in two large quarto volumes on the differential +and integral calculus. To this difficult task she devoted ten years of +arduous and uninterrupted labor. And if we may credit her biographer, +she consecrated the nights as well as the days to her herculean +undertaking. For frequently, after working in vain on a difficult +problem during the day, she was known to bound from her bed during the +night while sound asleep and, like a somnambulist, make her way through +a long suite of rooms to her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> study, where she wrote out the solution of +the problem and then returned to her bed. The following morning, on +returning to her desk, she found, to her great surprise, that while +asleep she had fully solved the problem which had been the subject of +her meditations during the day and of her dreams during the night. Could +the psychiatrist who so loves to deal with obscure mental phenomena find +a more interesting case to engage his attention or one more worthy of +the most careful investigation?</p> + +<p>Finally Maria Gaetana's <i>opus majus</i> was completed and given to the +public. It would be impossible to describe the sensation it produced in +the learned world. Everybody talked about it; everybody admired the +profound learning of the author, and acclaimed her: "Il portento del +sesso, unico al Mondo"—the portent of her sex, unique in the world. By +a single effort of her genius she had completely demolished that fabric +of false reasoning which had so long been appealed to as proof positive +of woman's intellectual inferiority, especially in the domain of +abstract science. Maria Gaetana's victory was complete, and her victory +was likewise a victory for her sex. She had demonstrated once for all, +and beyond a quirk or quibble, that women could attain to the highest +eminence in mathematics as well as in literature, that supreme +excellence in any department of knowledge was not a question of sex but +a question of education and opportunity, and that in things of the mind +there was essentially no difference between the male and the female +intellect.</p> + +<p>The world saw in Agnesi a worthy accession to that noble band of gifted +women who count among their number a Sappho, a Corinna, an Aspasia, a +Hypatia, a Paula, a Hroswitha, a Dacier, an Isabella Rosales who, in the +sixteenth century, successfully defended the most difficult theological +theses in the presence of Paul III and the entire college of cardinals. +And so delighted were the women—especially those in Italy—with the +signal triumph of their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> eminent sister that they defied the traducers +of their sex—<i>muliebris sapientiæ infensissimis hostibus</i>—to continue +any longer their unreasonable campaign against the rights of women which +were based on the intellectual equality of the two sexes.</p> + +<p>So highly did the French Academy of Science value Agnesi's achievement +that she would at once have been made a member of this learned body had +it not been against the constitutions to admit a woman to membership. M. +Motigny, one of the committee appointed by the Academy to report on the +work, in his letter to the author, among other things, writes: "Permit +me, Mademoiselle, to unite my personal homage to the plaudits of the +entire Academy. I have the pleasure of making known to my country an +extremely useful work which has long been desired, and which has +hitherto"—both in France and in England—"existed only in outline. I do +not know any work of this kind which is clearer, more methodic or more +comprehensive than your <i>Analytical Institutions</i>. There is none in any +language which can guide more surely, lead more quickly, and conduct +further those who wish to advance in the mathematical sciences. I admire +particularly the art with which you bring under uniform methods the +divers conclusions scattered among the works of geometers and reached by +methods entirely different."</p> + +<p>As an indication of the exceptional merit of Agnesi's work, even long +after its publication in 1748, it suffices to state that the second +volume of the<i> Instituzioni Analitiche</i> was translated into French in +1775 by Antelmy and annotated by the Abbé Bossuet, a member of the +French Academy and a collaborator of D'Alembert on the mathematical part +of the famous <i>Encyclopédie</i>.</p> + +<p>A still greater proof of the estimation in which Agnesi's work was held +by men of science is the fact that it was translated in its entirety +into English by the Rev. John Colton, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics +in the University<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> of Cambridge, and published in 1801, fifty-two years +after it had appeared in Italian. His impression of the methods followed +by the Milanese <i>savante</i> was so favorable that, in the words of a +contemporary writer, it "gave rise to his very spirited resolution of +learning a new language at an advanced period of life, that he might +make himself perfect master of them."<a name="FNanchor_118_118" id="FNanchor_118_118"></a><a href="#Footnote_118_118" class="fnanchor">[118]</a></p> + +<p>Gratifying, however, as were the tributes of admiration and appreciation +which came to Agnesi from all quarters, from learned societies, from +eminent mathematicians, from sovereigns—the Empress Maria Theresa sent +her a splendid diamond ring and a precious crystal casket bejeweled with +diamonds—that which touched her most deeply was, undoubtedly, the +recognition which she received from the great Mæcenas of his age, Pope +Benedict XIV. As Cardinal Lambertini and Archbishop of Bologna, he had +taken a conspicuous part in the honors showered on Laura Bassi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> when she +received her doctorate, and was specially delighted when she was made +professor of physics in his favored university. Being himself familiar +with the higher mathematics, he recognized at once the exceptional merit +of Maria Gaetana's work and showed his appreciation of it not only by +letters and presents, but also by having her, <i>motu proprio</i>, appointed +by the Bolognese senate as professor of higher mathematics in the +University of Bologna.</p> + +<p>In advising her of this appointment, he writes her that he had in view +the honor of the University in which he had always taken a special +interest, and that the appointment carried with it no obligation of +thanks on her part but rather on his—<i>che porta seco ch'ella non deve +ringraziar Noi, ma che Noi dobbiamo ringraziar lei</i>. The interest that +this wise and broad-minded pontiff exhibited in the advancement of +learned women and the rewards he was ever ready to accord to their +achievements in science and literature—especially in the cases of Laura +Bassi and Maria Gaetana Agnesi—is in keeping with the policy pursued by +his predecessors, and accounts in great measure for that large number of +learned women in Italy who, since the opening of the first universities, +have been the glory of their sex and country.</p> + +<p>But ardent as was the desire of the Supreme Pontiff to have Agnesi +occupy the chair of mathematics, and numerous as were the appeals of her +friends and the members of the university faculty to have her accept the +appointment that carried with it such signal honor, she could never be +induced to leave her beloved Milan. For, after completing her +masterpiece, she resolved to retire from the world and devote the rest +of her life to the care of the poor, the sick and the helpless in her +native city. She did not, however, as is so frequently asserted, enter +the convent and become a nun.<a name="FNanchor_119_119" id="FNanchor_119_119"></a><a href="#Footnote_119_119" class="fnanchor">[119]</a> During many years after her +retirement from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> world, she lived in her own home, a part of which +she had converted into a hospital. During the last fifteen years of her +life she had charge of the Pio Albergo Trivulzio—a large institution +founded by Prince Trivulzio for the aged poor who were without home or +assistance.</p> + +<p>She had devoted ten years of the flower of her life to the writing of +her <i>Instituzioni Analitiche</i>—prepared primarily for the benefit of one +of her brothers who had a taste for mathematics—and, after it was +finished, she entered upon that long career of heroic charity which was +terminated only at her death at the advanced age of eighty-one.</p> + +<p>One loves to speculate regarding Maria Gaetana's possible achievements +if she had continued during the rest of her life that science in which, +during a few short years, she had won such distinction. She had made her +own the discoveries of Newton, Leibnitz, Roberval, Fermat, Descartes, +Riccati, Euler, the brothers Bernouilli, and had mastered the entire +science of mathematics then known. Her pinions were trimmed for essaying +loftier flights than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> any hitherto attempted, and her intellect was +prepared, as one of her scientific friends expressed it, "for fixing the +limits of the infinite." But while the world of science was still +sounding her praises and predicting for her still greater triumphs in +the field of analysis, it learned with surprise and sorrow that she had +bid adieu to those studies in which she had achieved such extraordinary +success, and had consecrated her life to the service of the poor and the +afflicted. She disappeared completely from those literary and scientific +reunions where she had so long been the most conspicuous figure, and was +thenceforth known only as the ministering angel of the suffering and the +abandoned. For half a century hers was a life of the most heroic charity +and self-abnegation. Very readily, therefore, we can understand why a +recent representative of the scientific world should desire to see her +name placed on the calendar of saints.<a name="FNanchor_120_120" id="FNanchor_120_120"></a><a href="#Footnote_120_120" class="fnanchor">[120]</a></p> + +<p>Had Agnesi devoted her entire life to science instead of abandoning it +just when she was prepared to do her best work, she might to-day be +ranked among such supreme mathematicians as Lagrange, Monge, Laplace and +the Bernouillis, all of whom were her contemporaries. Even as it was, +she has been placed beside Cardan, Leibnitz and Euler for her remarkable +powers of analysis of infinitesimals, while the best proof of the +literary value of her <i>Instituzioni Analitiche</i> is the fact that it has +been selected by the famous society Della Crusca as a <i>testo di +lingua</i>—a work considered as a classic of its kind and used in the +preparation of the great authoritative dictionary of the Italian +language.</p> + +<p>But by consecrating herself to charity she probably accomplished far +more for humanity and for the well-being of her sex than if she had +elected to continue her work in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> the higher mathematics. There had been +many learned women in Italy before her time and many since; many who +were distinguished as Hellenists, as Latinists, as polyglots, as +mathematicians—women like the Roccati, the Borghini, the Brassi, the +Ardinghelli, the Barbapiccola, the Caminer Turra, the Tambroni; but +Maria Gaetana Agnesi surpasses them all, not only in knowledge, but as a +potent influence for the diffusion of culture and the spirit of +brotherhood, for the expansion of benevolence and charity, and, above +all, for the elevation of woman. She was also, as her latest and best +biographer beautifully expresses it, "an inspired <i>condottiera</i> who, in +the field of civility, anticipated the conquests of these latter days." +She was, indeed, as her epitaph informs us, <i>pietate</i>, <i>doctrina</i>, +<i>beneficentia insignis</i>, and as such she will live in the memory of our +race as long as men shall admire genius and love virtue.</p> + +<p>In the year following the publication of Agnesi's <i>Instituzioni +Analitiche</i> was recorded the premature and tragic death of the +distinguished French mathematician, the Marquise Émilie du Châtelet. She +has been described as a "thinker and scientist, précieuse and pedant, +but not the less a coquette—in short, a woman of contradictions."<a name="FNanchor_121_121" id="FNanchor_121_121"></a><a href="#Footnote_121_121" class="fnanchor">[121]</a> +To most readers she is better known by reason of her liaison with +Voltaire, of whom she is regarded as a mere satellite, than for her work +in science. But she was far more than a satellite that shone by the +light received from the sage of Ferney. For there can be no doubt that +she was a highly gifted woman who, besides having a thorough knowledge +of several languages, including Latin, possessed a special talent for +mathematics. It was said of her that "she read Virgil, Pope and algebra +as others read novels," and that she was able "to multiply nine figures +by nine others in her head." No less an authority than the illustrious +Ampère declared her to be "a genius in geometry."</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p> +<p>Among her teachers in mathematics were Clairaut, Koenig, Maupertuis, +Père Jaquier and Jean Bernouilli, the immediate predecessors of such +distinguished mathematicians as Monge, Lagrange, d'Alembert and Laplace. +At her Chateau of Cirey, where she and Voltaire spent many years +together, she was visited by learned men from various parts of Europe. +Among these was the Italian scholar, Francisco Algarotti, who was the +author of a work entitled <i>Newtonism for Women</i>. And as Mme. du Châtelet +was an ardent admirer of Newton, the author of the <i>Principia</i> soon +became a strong bond of union between her and the brilliant Italian. She +called the savants who frequented her château at Cirey the <i>Émiliens</i> +and purposed writing memoirs to be entitled <i>Emiliana</i>—a design, +however, which she was never able to execute.</p> + +<p>The first work of importance from the pen of the Marquise was entitled +<i>Institutions de Physique</i>. In it she gave an exposition of the +philosophy of Leibnitz and dissertations on space, time and force. In +the discussion of the last topic she seems to have anticipated some of +the later conclusions of science respecting the nature of energy.</p> + +<p>Her most noted achievement, however, was her translation of Newton's +<i>Principia</i>, the first translation into French of this epoch-making +work. To translate this masterpiece from its original Latin, it was +necessary that the Marquise, in order to make it intelligible to others, +should have a thorough understanding of it herself. To the translation +she added a commentary, which shows that Mme. du Châtelet had a +mathematical mind of undoubted power. She labored assiduously on this +great undertaking for many years and completed it only shortly before +her death; but it was not published until ten years after her demise.</p> + +<p>In his <i>Élogie Historique</i> on the Marquise's translation of the +<i>Principia</i>, Voltaire, in his usual flamboyant style, declares "Two +wonders have been performed: one that Newton was able to write this +work, the other that a woman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> could translate and explain it." In an +effort to express in a single sentence all his admiration for his +talented friend he does not hesitate to state: "Never was woman so +learned as she, and never did anyone less deserve that people should say +of her, 'She is a learned woman.'" Again he refers to her with +characteristic Frenchiness as "a woman who has translated and explained +Newton, in one word a very great man—<i>en un mot un très grand +homme</i>."<a name="FNanchor_122_122" id="FNanchor_122_122"></a><a href="#Footnote_122_122" class="fnanchor">[122]</a></p> + +<p>But, although the extent of her attainments and her ability as a +mathematician were unquestionable, she fell far short of her great +contemporary, Gaetana Agnesi, both in the depth and breadth of her +scholarship and in her power of infinitesimal analysis. As to her moral +character, she was infinitely inferior to the saintly savante of +Milan. She was by inclination and profession an Epicurean and an +avowed sensualist. In her little treatise, <i>Réflexions sur le +Bonheur</i>—Reflections on Happiness—she unblushingly asserts "that we +have nothing to do in this world except procure for ourselves agreeable +sensations." Considering her profligate life, bordering at times on +utter <i>abandon</i>, we are not surprised that one of her countrymen has +characterized her as "<i>Femme sans foi, sans mœurs, sans pudeur</i>,"—a +woman without faith, without morals, without shame.<a name="FNanchor_123_123" id="FNanchor_123_123"></a><a href="#Footnote_123_123" class="fnanchor">[123]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p><p>Anna Barbara Reinhardt of Winterthur in Switzerland was another woman of +exceptional mathematical talent. She is remarkable for having extended +and improved the solution of a difficult problem that specially engaged +the attention of Maupertuis. According to so competent an authority as +Jean Bernouilli, she was the superior, as a mathematician, of the +Marquise de Châtelet.</p> + +<p>Of a more original and profound mathematical mind was Sophie Germain, a +countrywoman of the Marquise du Châtelet. Hers was the glory of being +one of the founders of mathematical physics. A pupil of Lagrange and a +co-worker with Biot, Legendre, Poisson and Lagrange, she has justly been +called by De Prony "the Hypatia of the nineteenth century."</p> + +<p>Her success, however, was not achieved without overcoming many and great +difficulties. In the first place, she had to overcome the opposition of +her family, who were decidedly averse to her studying mathematics. "Of +what use," they asked, "was geometry to a girl?" But in trying to +extinguish her ardor for mathematics they but augmented it. Alone and +unaided she read every work on mathematics she could find. The study of +this science had such a fascination for her that it became a passion. It +occupied her mind day and night. Finally her parents, becoming alarmed +about her health and resolved to force her to take the necessary repose, +left her bedroom without fire or light, and even removed from it her +clothing after she had gone to bed. She feigned to be resigned; but when +all were asleep, she arose and, wrapping herself in quilts and blankets, +she devoted herself to her favorite studies, even when the cold was so +intense that the ink was frozen in her ink-horn. Not infrequently she +was found in the morning chilled through, having been so engrossed in +her studies that she was not aware of her condition. Before such a +determined will, so extraordinary for one of her age, the family of the +young Sophie had the wisdom to permit her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> to dispose of her time and +genius according to her own pleasure. And they did well. Like the great +geometer of Syracuse, Archimedes, who had ever been her inspiration in +the study of mathematics, she would have died rather than abandon a +problem which, for the time being, engaged her attention.</p> + +<p>She first attracted the attention of savants by her mathematical theory +of Chladni's figures. By the order of Napoleon, the Academy of Science +had offered a prize for the one who would "Give the mathematical theory +of the vibration of elastic surfaces and compare it with the results of +experiment." Lagrange declared the problem insoluble without a new +system of analysis, which was yet to be invented. The consequence was +that no one attempted its solution except one who, until then, was +almost unknown in the mathematical world; and this one was Sophie +Germain.</p> + +<p>Great was the surprise of the savants of Europe when they learned that +the winner of the <i>grand prix</i> of the Academy was a woman. She became at +once the recipient of congratulations from the most noted mathematicians +of the world. This eventually brought her into scientific relations with +such eminent men as Delambre, Fourier, Cauchy, Ampère, Navier, +Gauss<a name="FNanchor_124_124" id="FNanchor_124_124"></a><a href="#Footnote_124_124" class="fnanchor">[124]</a> and others already mentioned.</p> + +<p>It was in 1816, after eight years of work on the problem, that her last +memoir on vibrating surfaces was crowned in a public séance of the +<i>Institut de France</i>. After this event Mlle. Germain was treated as an +equal by the great mathematicians of France. She shared their labors and +was invited to attend the sessions of the <i>Institut</i>, which was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> +highest honor that this famous body had ever conferred on a woman.</p> + +<p>The noted mathematician, M. Navier, was so impressed with the +extraordinary powers of analysis evinced by one of Mlle. Germain's +memoirs on vibrating surfaces that he did not hesitate to declare that +"it is a work which few men are able to read and which only one woman +was able to write."</p> + +<p>Biot, in the <i>Journal de Savants</i>, March, 1817, writes that Mlle. +Germain is probably the one of her sex who has most deeply penetrated +the science of mathematics, not excepting Mme. du Châtelet, <i>for here +there was no Clairaut</i>.<a name="FNanchor_125_125" id="FNanchor_125_125"></a><a href="#Footnote_125_125" class="fnanchor">[125]</a></p> + +<p>Like Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mlle. Germain was endowed with a profoundly +philosophical mind as well as with a remarkable talent for mathematics. +This is attested by her interesting work entitled <i>Considérations +Générales sur l'État des Sciences et des Lettres aux Différentes Époques +de Leur Culture</i>. All things considered, she was probably the most +profoundly intellectual woman that France has yet produced. And yet, +strange as it may seem, when the state official came to make out the +death certificate of this eminent associate and co-worker of the most +illustrious members of the French Academy of Sciences he designated her +as a <i>rentière</i>—<i>annuitant</i>—not as a <i>mathématicienne</i>. Nor is this +all. When the Eiffel tower was erected, in which the engineers were +obliged to give special attention to the elasticity of the materials +used, there were inscribed on this lofty structure the names of +seventy-two savants. But one will not find in this list the name of that +daughter of genius, whose researches contributed so much toward +establishing the theory of the elasticity of metals,—Sophie Germain. +Was she excluded from this list for the same reason that Agnesi was +ineligible to membership in the French<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> Academy—because she was a +woman? It would seem so. If such, indeed, was the case, more is the +shame for those who were responsible for such ingratitude toward one who +had deserved so well of science, and who by her achievements had won an +enviable place in the hall of fame.<a name="FNanchor_126_126" id="FNanchor_126_126"></a><a href="#Footnote_126_126" class="fnanchor">[126]</a></p> + +<p>Four years after the birth of Sophie Germain was born in Jedburgh, +Scotland, one whom an English writer has declared was "the most +remarkable scientific woman our country has produced." She was the +daughter of a naval officer, Sir William Fairfax; but is best known as +Mary Somerville. Her life has been well described as an "unobtrusive +record of what can be done by the steady culture of good natural powers +and the pursuit of a high standard of excellence in order to win for a +woman a distinguished place in the sphere naturally reserved for men, +without parting with any of those characteristics of mind, or character, +or demeanor which have ever been taken to form the grace and the glory +of womanhood."<a name="FNanchor_127_127" id="FNanchor_127_127"></a><a href="#Footnote_127_127" class="fnanchor">[127]</a></p> + +<p>The surroundings of her youth were not conducive to scientific pursuits. +On the contrary, they were entirely unfavorable to her manifest +inclinations in that direction. Having scarcely any of the advantages of +a school education, she was obliged to depend almost entirely on her own +unaided efforts for the knowledge she actually acquired. She, like +Sophie Germain, was essentially a self-made woman; and her success was +achieved only after long labor and suffering and in spite of the +persistent opposition of family and friends.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p><p>When she was about fifteen years old, the future Mrs. Somerville +received her first introduction to mathematics; and then, strange to +say, it was through a fashion magazine. At the end of a page of this +magazine, "I read," writes Mrs. Somerville, "what appeared to me to be +simply an arithmetical question; but in turning the page I was surprised +to see strange-looking lines mixed with letters, chiefly X's and Y's, +and asked 'What is that?'" She was told it was a kind of arithmetic, +called algebra.</p> + +<p>Her interest was at once aroused; and she resolved forthwith to seek +information regarding the curious lines and letters which had so excited +her curiosity. "Unfortunately," she tells us, "none of our acquaintances +or relatives knew anything of science or natural history; nor, had they +done so, should I have had courage to ask of them a question, for I +should have been laughed at."</p> + +<p>Finally she was able to secure a copy of a work on algebra and a Euclid. +Although without a teacher she immediately applied herself to master the +contents of these two works, but she had to do so by stealth in bed +after she had retired for the night. When her father learned of what was +going on, he said to the girl's mother, "Peg, we must put a stop to +this, or we shall have Mary in a straightjacket one of these days." The +mother, who had no more sympathy with her daughter's scientific pursuits +than had the father, and, fully convinced, like the great majority of +her sex, that woman's duties should be confined to the affairs of the +household, strove to divert her daughter's mind from her "unladylike" +pursuits. But her efforts were ineffectual. The young woman, in spite of +all obstacles and opposition, contrived to continue her cherished +studies; and, through her uncle, the Rev. Dr. Somerville, afterward her +father-in-law, she was able to become proficient in both Latin and +Greek. When she was thirty-three years of age she became the happy +possessor of a small library of mathematical works. "I had now," she +writes, "the means, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> pursued my studies with increased assiduity; +concealment was no longer necessary, nor was it attempted. I was +considered eccentric and foolish, and my conduct was highly disapproved +of by many, especially by some members of my own family."<a name="FNanchor_128_128" id="FNanchor_128_128"></a><a href="#Footnote_128_128" class="fnanchor">[128]</a></p> + +<p>In March, 1827, Mrs. Somerville received a letter from Lord Brougham, +who had heard of her remarkable acquirements, begging her to prepare for +English readers a popular exposition of Laplace's great work—<i>Mécanique +Céleste</i>. She was overwhelmed with astonishment at this request, for her +modesty made her diffident of her powers; and she felt that her +self-acquired knowledge of science was so far inferior to that of +university men that it would be sheer presumption for her to undertake +the task proposed to her. She was, however, finally persuaded to make +the attempt, with the proviso that her manuscript should be consigned to +the flames unless it fulfilled the expectations of those who urged its +production.</p> + +<p>In less than a year her work, to which she gave the name of <i>The +Mechanism of the Heavens</i>, was ready for the press. But it was far more +than a translation and epitome, as originally intended by its projector, +Lord Brougham; for, in addition to the views of Laplace, it contained +the independent opinions of the translator respecting the propositions +of the illustrious French savant. No sooner was the work published than +Mrs. Somerville found herself famous. She had, as Sir John Herschel +expressed it, "written for posterity," and her book placed her at once +among the leading scientific writers and thinkers of the day. She was +elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society at the same +time as Caroline Herschel, they being the first two women thus honored. +Her bust, by Chantry, was placed in the great hall of the Royal Society, +and she was made a member of many other scientific societies in Europe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> +and America. In recognition of her services to science she was granted +by the government a pension of £200 a year—a sum which was shortly +afterward increased to £300. In addition to all this, Mrs. Somerville +had the satisfaction of learning that her work was so highly esteemed by +Dr. Whewell, the great master of Trinity, that it was, chiefly on his +recommendation, introduced as a textbook in the University of Cambridge +and prescribed as "an essential work to those students who aspire to the +highest places in the examinations." What Mme. du Châtelet had done for +Newton, Mrs. Somerville did for Laplace.</p> + +<p>Among other books from the pen of this highly gifted woman is her +<i>Connection of the Physical Sciences</i> and a work entitled <i>Physical +Geography</i>, which, together with the <i>Mechanism of the Heavens</i>, was the +object of the "profound admiration" of Humboldt. Then there is a number +of very abstruse monographs on mathematical subjects, one of which is a +treatise of two hundred and forty-six pages <i>On Curves and Surfaces of +Higher Orders</i>, which, she tells us, she "wrote <i>con amore</i> to fill up +her morning hours while spending the winter in Southern Italy."</p> + +<p>Her last work was a treatise <i>On Molecular and Microscopic Science</i> +embodying the most recondite investigations on the subject. This book, +begun after she had passed her eightieth birthday, occupied her for many +years and was not ready for publication until she was close upon her +ninetieth year. Her last occupations, continued until the day of her +death at the advanced age of ninety-two, were the reading of a book on +<i>Quaternions</i> and the review and completion of a volume <i>On the Theory +of Differences</i>.</p> + +<p>Like her illustrious friend, the great Humboldt, Mary Somerville was +possessed of extraordinary physical vigor, and, like him, she retained +her mental powers unimpaired until the last. And like her great rival in +mathematics, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, she was always "beautifully womanly." +Her scientific and literary occupations did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> cause her to neglect +the duties of her household or to disregard "the graceful and artistic +accomplishments of an elegant woman of the world." Her daughter Martha +writes of her: "It would be almost incredible were I to describe how +much my mother contrived to do in the course of the day. When my sister +and I were small children, although busily engaged in writing for the +press, she used to teach us for three hours in the morning, besides +managing her house carefully, reading the newspapers—for she was always +a keen and, I must add, a liberal politician—and the most important new +books on all subjects, grave and gay. In addition to this, she freely +visited and received her friends.... Gay and cheerful company was a +pleasant relaxation after a hard day's work."<a name="FNanchor_129_129" id="FNanchor_129_129"></a><a href="#Footnote_129_129" class="fnanchor">[129]</a></p> + +<p>The life of Mary Somerville, like that of Gaetana Agnesi, proves that +the pursuit of science is not, as so often asserted, incompatible with +domestic and social duties. It also disposes of the fallacy, so +generally entertained, that intellectual labor is detrimental to the +health of women and antagonistic to longevity. The truth is that it is +yet to be demonstrated that intellectual work, even of the severest +kind, is, <i>per se</i>, more deleterious to women than to those of the +stronger sex.</p> + +<p>Scarcely less remarkable as a mathematician was Mrs. Somerville's +distinguished contemporary, Janet Taylor, who was known as the "Mrs. +Somerville of the Marine World." She was the author of numerous works on +navigation and nautical astronomy which in their day were highly prized +by seafaring men. In recognition of her valuable services to the marine +world she was placed on the civil list of the British government.</p> + +<p>As an eminent mathematician as well as a "representative of the highest +intellectual accomplishments to which women have attained," Sónya +Kovalévsky will ever occupy an honored place among the votaries of +science. In many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> respects this richly endowed daughter of Holy Russia +was <i>par excellence</i> the woman of genius of the latter half of the +nineteenth century.</p> + +<p>She was born in Moscow in 1850, but although her career was brief it was +one of meteoric splendor. At an early age she exhibited an unusual +talent for mathematics and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Not +being able to obtain in her own country the educational advantages she +desired, she resolved at the age of eighteen to go to Germany with a +view of pursuing her studies there under more favorable auspices.</p> + +<p>She first matriculated in the University of Heidelberg, where she spent +two years in studying mathematics under the most eminent professors of +that famous old institution. Thence she went to Berlin. She could not +enter the University there, as its doors were closed to female students; +but she was fortunate enough to prevail on the illustrious Professor +Weierstrass, regarded by many as the father of mathematical analysis, to +give her private lessons. He soon discovered to his astonishment that +this child-woman had "the gift of intuitive genius to a degree he had +seldom found among even his older and more developed students." Under +this eminent mathematician Sónya spent about three years, at the end of +which period she was able to present to the University of Göttingen +three theses which she had written under the direction of her professor. +The merit of her work and the testimonials which she was able to present +from Weierstrass, Kirchhoff and others were of such supreme excellence +that she was exempted from an oral examination and was enabled, by a +very special privilege, to receive her doctorate without appearing in +person.</p> + +<p>Not long after receiving her doctor's degree—one of the first to be +granted to a woman by a German university—she was offered the chair of +higher mathematics in the University of Stockholm. She was the first +woman in Europe,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> outside of Italy, to be thus honored. But her +appointment had to be made in the face of great opposition. No other +university, it was urged by the conservatives, had yet offered a +professor's chair to a woman. Strindberg, one of the leaders of modern +Swedish literature, wrote an article in which he proved, "as decidedly +as that two and two make four, what a monstrosity is a woman who is a +professor of mathematics, and how unnecessary, injurious and out of +place she is."<a name="FNanchor_130_130" id="FNanchor_130_130"></a><a href="#Footnote_130_130" class="fnanchor">[130]</a></p> + +<p>The fame that came to Sónya through her achievements in the German and +Swedish universities was immensely enhanced when, on Christmas eve, +1888, "at a solemn session of the French Academy of Sciences, she +received in person the <i>Prix Bordin</i>—the greatest scientific honor +which any woman had ever gained; one of the greatest honors, indeed, to +which any one can aspire."</p> + +<p>She became at once the heroine of the hour and was thenceforth "a +European celebrity with a place in history." She was fêted by men of +science whithersoever she went and hailed by the women of the world as +the glory of her sex and as the most brilliant type of intellectual +womanhood.</p> + +<p>Mme. Kovalévsky's printed mathematical works embrace only a few memoirs +including those which she presented for her doctorate and for the <i>Prix +Bordin</i>. But brief as they are, all of these memoirs are regarded by +mathematicians as being of special value. This is particularly true of +the memoirs, which secured for her the <i>Prix Bordin</i>; for it contains +the solution of a problem that long had baffled the genius of the +greatest mathematicians.</p> + +<p>The prize had been opened to the competition of the mathematicians of +the world, and the astonishment of the committee of the French Academy +was beyond expression<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> when it was found that the successful contestant +was a woman.<a name="FNanchor_131_131" id="FNanchor_131_131"></a><a href="#Footnote_131_131" class="fnanchor">[131]</a></p> + +<p>Everyone admired her varied and profound knowledge, but, above all, her +amazing powers of analysis. A German mathematician, Kronecker, did not +hesitate to declare that "the history of mathematics will speak of her +as one of the rarest investigators."<a name="FNanchor_132_132" id="FNanchor_132_132"></a><a href="#Footnote_132_132" class="fnanchor">[132]</a></p> + +<p>Shortly before her premature death, she had planned a great work on +mathematics. All who are interested in the intellectual capacities and +achievements of woman must regret that she was unable to complete what +would undoubtedly have been the noblest monument of woman's scientific +genius. She was then in the prime of life and perfectly equipped for the +work she had in mind. Considering the extraordinary receptive and +productive power of this richly dowered woman, there can be little +doubt, had she lived a few years longer, that she would have produced a +work that would have caused her to be ranked among the greatest +mathematicians of the nineteenth century.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p><p>It is pleasant to record that this woman of masculine mind, masculine +energy and masculine genius, far from being mannish or unwomanly, was, +on the contrary, a woman of a truly feminine heart; and that, although a +giantess in intellectual attainments, she was in grace and charm and +delicacy of sentiment one of the noblest types of beautiful womanhood. +She could with the greatest ease turn from a lecture on <i>Abel's +Functions</i> or a research on Saturn's rings to the writing of verse in +French or of a novel in Russian or to collaborating with her friend, the +Duchess of Cajanello, on a drama in Swedish, or to making a lace collar +for her little daughter, Fouzi, to whom she was most tenderly +attached.<a name="FNanchor_133_133" id="FNanchor_133_133"></a><a href="#Footnote_133_133" class="fnanchor">[133]</a></p> + +<p>Little more than a quarter of a century has elapsed since Strindberg, +expressing the sentiment of the great majority of the men of his time, +declared that a woman professor of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> mathematics is a monstrosity. But +during this short period what a change has been effected in the attitude +of the world toward women who devote themselves to the study and the +teaching of science! Women mathematicians are found to-day in all +civilized countries, and no sane person now considers it any more +"unwomanly" or more "monstrous" for them to study or teach mathematics +than for them to teach music or needlework. Yet more. They are now +frequent contributors to mathematical magazines and to the official +bulletins of learned societies, and not infrequently they are on the +editorial staffs of publications devoted exclusively to mathematics. +They are also found as computers in some of the largest astronomical +observatories, where the speed and accuracy of their work have evoked +the most favorable comment.</p> + +<p>Of women in America, who have distinguished themselves by their work in +the higher mathematics, it suffices to mention the name of Miss +Charlotte Angas Scott, recently deceased, who was for years professor of +mathematics in the College of Bryn Mawr. Her writings on various +problems of the higher mathematics show that she faithfully followed in +the footsteps of her illustrious predecessors,—Hypatia, Agnesi, du +Châtelet, Germain, Somerville and Kovalévsky.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_108_108" id="Footnote_108_108"></a><a href="#FNanchor_108_108"><span class="label">[108]</span></a> "Ipse mulieres Philosophas in libris Veterum sexaginta +quinque reperi," <i>Historia Mulierum Philosopharum</i>, p. 3, Amstelodami, +1692.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_109_109" id="Footnote_109_109"></a><a href="#FNanchor_109_109"><span class="label">[109]</span></a> Plato had inscribed above the entrance of his school, +Ουδεις αγεωμετρητος εισιτη. Let no one enter here who is not a +geometer.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_110_110" id="Footnote_110_110"></a><a href="#FNanchor_110_110"><span class="label">[110]</span></a> Menagius in referring to this matter, op. cit., p. 37, +writes as follows: "Meritrices Græcas plerasque humanioribus literis et +mathematicis disciplinis operam dedisse notat Athenæus."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_111_111" id="Footnote_111_111"></a><a href="#FNanchor_111_111"><span class="label">[111]</span></a> The sentiment of the Greek epigram is well expressed in +the following Latin verses: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Quando intueor te, adoro, et sermones,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Virginis domum sideream intuens.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">E coelis enim tua sunt opera,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Hypatia casta, sermonum venustas,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Impollutum astrum sapientis doctrinæ."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_112_112" id="Footnote_112_112"></a><a href="#FNanchor_112_112"><span class="label">[112]</span></a> Among modern works on Hypatia may be mentioned <i>Hypatia, +die Philosophin von Alexandria</i>, by St. Wolt, Vienna, 1879; <i>Hypatia von +Alexandria</i>, by W. A. Meyer, Heidelberg, 1886; <i>Ipazia Alessandrina</i>, by +D. Guido Bigoni, Venize, 1887, and <i>De Hypatia</i>, by B. Ligier, Dijon, +1879.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_113_113" id="Footnote_113_113"></a><a href="#FNanchor_113_113"><span class="label">[113]</span></a> Ambrosius in his preface to the works of Abelard and +Heloise refers to the latter as "Clarum sui sexus sidus et ornamentum," +and declares "necnon mathesin, philosophiam et theologiam a viro suo +edocta, illo solo minor fuit."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_114_114" id="Footnote_114_114"></a><a href="#FNanchor_114_114"><span class="label">[114]</span></a> Mazzuchelli says of her in his <i>Museo</i>, "Sembra non +avervi nella Natura cosa la piu intralciata ed oscura nelle storie, ne +finalemente la piu astrusa nelle matematiche e nelle mecchaniche, che a +lei conta non sia e palese, e che sfugga la capacita del suo spirito." +<i>Dizionario Biografico</i>, Vol. I, p. 122, by Ambrogio Levati, Milano, +1821.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_115_115" id="Footnote_115_115"></a><a href="#FNanchor_115_115"><span class="label">[115]</span></a> <i>Delle Donne Illustri Italiane del XIII al XIX Secolo</i>, +p. 268, Roma.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_116_116" id="Footnote_116_116"></a><a href="#FNanchor_116_116"><span class="label">[116]</span></a> The full title of this celebrated discourse is <i>Oratio +qua ostenditur Artium liberalium studia a Fæmineo sexu neutiquam +abhorere, habita a Maria de Agnesis Rhetoricæ Operam Dante, Anno ætatis +suæ nono nondum exacto, die 18, Augusti, 1727</i>. It is found at the end +of a work entitled <i>Discorsi Academici di varj autori Viventi intorno +agli Stuj delle Donne in Padova</i>, 1729. This subject, it may be +remarked, frequently engaged the attention of Maria Gaetana as she +advanced in years, for we find it among the questions discussed in her +<i>Propositiones Philosophicæ</i>, pp. 2 and 3, Mediolani, 1738.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_117_117" id="Footnote_117_117"></a><a href="#FNanchor_117_117"><span class="label">[117]</span></a> M. Charles de Brosses, in his <i>Lettres Familières écrites +de l'Italie en 1739 et 1740</i>, speaks of Agnesi in terms that recall the +marvelous stories which are related of Admirable Crichton and Pico della +Mirandola. "She appeared to me," he tells us, "something more +stupendous—<i>una cosa piu stupenda</i>—than the Duomo of Milan." Having +been invited to a <i>conversazione</i> for the purpose of meeting this +wonderful woman, the learned Frenchman found her to be a "young lady of +about eighteen or twenty." She was surrounded by "about thirty people +... many of them from different parts of Europe." The discussion turned +on various questions of mathematics and natural philosophy. +</p><p> +"She spoke," writes de Brosses, "wonderfully well on these subjects, +though she could not have been prepared beforehand any more than we +were. She is much attached to the philosophy of Newton; and, it is +marvelous to see a person of her age so conversant with such abstruse +subjects. Yet, however much I was surprised at the extent and depth of +her knowledge, I was still more amazed to hear her speak Latin ... with +such purity, ease and accuracy, that I do not recollect any book in +modern Latin written in so classical a style as that in which she +pronounced these discourses.... The conversation afterwards became +general, everyone speaking in the language of his own country, and she +answering in the same language; for, her knowledge of languages is +prodigious."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_118_118" id="Footnote_118_118"></a><a href="#FNanchor_118_118"><span class="label">[118]</span></a> At the conclusion of an elaborate review of Colton's +translation of Agnesi's <i>Instituzioni Analitiche</i> in the <i>Edinburgh +Review</i> for January, 1804, the writer expresses himself as follows: "We +cannot take leave of a work that does so much honor to female genius, +without earnestly recommending the perusal of it to those who believe +that great talents are bestowed by nature exclusively on man, and who +allege that women, even in their highest attainments, are to be compared +only to <i>grown children</i>, and have, in no instance, given proofs of +original and inventive powers, of a capacity for patient research, or +for profound investigation. Let those who hold these opinions endeavor +to follow the author of the <i>Analytical Institutions</i> through the long +series of demonstrations, which she has contrived with so much skill and +explained with such elegance and perspicuity. If they are able to do so, +and to compare her work with others of the same kind, they will probably +retract their former opinions, and acknowledge that, in one instance at +least, intellectual powers of the highest order have been lodged in the +brain of a woman. +</p><p> +"At si gelidus obstiterit circum præcordia sanguis; and if they are +unable to attend this illustrious female in her scientific excursions, +of course, they will not see the reasons for admiring her genius that +others do; but they may at least learn to think modestly of their own."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_119_119" id="Footnote_119_119"></a><a href="#FNanchor_119_119"><span class="label">[119]</span></a> It is surprising how many legends have obtained +respecting the life of Agnesi after the publication of her <i>Instituzioni +Analitiche</i>. Thus, the writer of the article in the <i>Edinburgh Review</i>, +above quoted, declares that "she retired to a convent of <i>blue +nuns</i>,"—a statement that has frequently been repeated in many of our +most noted encyclopedias. +</p><p> +In a <i>Prospetto Biografico delle Donne Italiane</i>, written by G. C. +Facchini and published in Venice in 1824, it is stated that Maria +Gaetana was selected by the Pope to occupy "the chair of mathematics +which had been left vacant by the death of her father," while Cavazza in +his work <i>"Le Scuole dell," Antico Studio Bolognese</i>, pp. 289-290, +published in Milan in 1896, assures us that Gaetana Agnesi taught +analytical geometry in the University of Bologna for full forty-eight +years. The facts are that neither the father nor the daughter ever +taught even a single hour either in this or in any other university. Cf. +<i>Maria Gaetana Agnesi</i>, p. 273 et seq., by Luisa Anzoletti, Milano, +1900. This is far the best life of Milan's illustrious daughter that has +yet appeared. The reader may also consult with profit the <i>Elogio +Storico</i> di Maria Gaetana Agnesi, by Antonio Frisi, Milano, 1799, and +<i>Gli Scrittori d'Italia</i>, of G. Mazzuchelli, Tom. I, Par. I, p. 198 et +seq., Brescia, 1795.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_120_120" id="Footnote_120_120"></a><a href="#FNanchor_120_120"><span class="label">[120]</span></a> M. Rebière, in <i>his Les Femmes dans la Science</i>, p. 13, +Paris, 1897, writes, "Ne pourrait-on aller plus loin et canonizer notre +Agnesi? J'estime, moi profane, que ce serait une sainte qui en vaudrait +bien d'autres."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_121_121" id="Footnote_121_121"></a><a href="#FNanchor_121_121"><span class="label">[121]</span></a> <i>An Eighteenth Century Marquise, a Study of Émilie du +Châtelet</i>, p. 5, by F. Hamel, New York, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_122_122" id="Footnote_122_122"></a><a href="#FNanchor_122_122"><span class="label">[122]</span></a> Preface to Mme. du Châtelet's translation of the +<i>Principia</i> of Newton, Paris, 1740.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_123_123" id="Footnote_123_123"></a><a href="#FNanchor_123_123"><span class="label">[123]</span></a> Voltaire's last tribute, "The Divine Émilie," or, as +Frederick II was wont to call her, "Venus-Newton," concluded with the +following verses: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"L'Univers a perdu la sublime Émilie;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Elle aimait les plaisirs, les arts, la veritè;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Les dieux, en lui donnant leur âme et génie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">N'avaient gardé pour eux que l'immortalité."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +The universe has lost the sublime Émilie; she loved pleasure, the arts, +truth; the gods, in giving her their soul and genius, retained for +themselves only immortality. +</p><p> +For further information of this extraordinary woman, see <i>Lettres de la +Mme. du Châtelet, Reunies pour la première fois</i>, par Eugène Asse, +Paris, 1882.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_124_124" id="Footnote_124_124"></a><a href="#FNanchor_124_124"><span class="label">[124]</span></a> At the beginning of her correspondence with Gauss, +Legendre and Lagrange Mlle. Germain concealed her sex under a pseudonym, +"in order," as she declared, "to escape the ridicule attached to a woman +devoted to science"—<i>craignant le ridicule attaché au titre de femme +savante</i>. She, too, suffered from the widespread effects of Molière's +<i>Les Femmes Savantes</i>, as had many a gifted woman before her time and as +have many others of a much later date.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_125_125" id="Footnote_125_125"></a><a href="#FNanchor_125_125"><span class="label">[125]</span></a> This celebrated mathematician, as is well-known, was a +collaborator with Mme. du Châtelet in her translation of Newton's +<i>Principia</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_126_126" id="Footnote_126_126"></a><a href="#FNanchor_126_126"><span class="label">[126]</span></a> For further information respecting this remarkable woman +the reader is referred to <i>Œuvres Philosophiques de Sophie Germain +Suivies de Pensées et de Lettres Inédites et Précédées d'une Étude sur +sa Vie et ses Œuvres</i>, par. H. Stupy, Paris, 1896. One may also +consult Todhunter's <i>History of the Theory of Elasticity and of the +Strength of Materials</i>, Vol. I, pp. 147-160, Cambridge, 1886, in which +is given a careful résumé of Mlle. Germain's mathematical memoirs on +elastic surfaces.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_127_127" id="Footnote_127_127"></a><a href="#FNanchor_127_127"><span class="label">[127]</span></a> <i>Saturday Review</i>, January 10, 1874.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_128_128" id="Footnote_128_128"></a><a href="#FNanchor_128_128"><span class="label">[128]</span></a> <i>Personal Recollections, From Early Life to Old Age, of +Mary Somerville</i>, p. 80, Boston, 1874.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_129_129" id="Footnote_129_129"></a><a href="#FNanchor_129_129"><span class="label">[129]</span></a> <i>Personal Recollections</i>, ut sup., p. 5.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_130_130" id="Footnote_130_130"></a><a href="#FNanchor_130_130"><span class="label">[130]</span></a> <i>Sónya Kovalévsky, Her Recollections of Childhood, With a +Biography</i>, by Anna Carlotta Leffler, p. 219, New York, 1895.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_131_131" id="Footnote_131_131"></a><a href="#FNanchor_131_131"><span class="label">[131]</span></a> "The prize was doubled to five thousand francs, on +account of the 'quite extraordinary service rendered to mathematical +physics by this work,' which the Academy of Sciences pronounced 'a +remarkable work.' The competing dissertations were signed with mottoes, +not with names, and the jury of the Academy made the award in utter +ignorance that the winner was a woman. Her dissertation was printed, by +order of the Academy, in the <i>Mémoires des Savants Etrangers</i>. In the +following year Mme. Kovalévsky received a prize of fifteen hundred +kroner from the Stockholm Academy for two works connected with the +foregoing."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_132_132" id="Footnote_132_132"></a><a href="#FNanchor_132_132"><span class="label">[132]</span></a> Men of science will realize the capacity of this gifted +Russian woman as a mathematician when they learn that she gave in the +University of Stockholm courses of lectures on such subjects as the +following: +</p><p> +Theory of derived partial equations; theory of potential functions; +applications of the theory of elliptic functions; theory of Abelian +functions, according to Weierstrass; curves defined by differential +equations, according to Poincaré; application of analysis to the theory +of whole numbers. How many men are there who give more advanced +mathematical courses than these?</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_133_133" id="Footnote_133_133"></a><a href="#FNanchor_133_133"><span class="label">[133]</span></a> To a friend, who expressed surprise at her fluttering to +and fro between mathematics and literature, she made a reply which +deserves a place here, as it gives a better idea than anything else of +the wonderful versatility of this gifted daughter of Russia. "I +understand," she writes, "your surprise at my being able to busy myself +simultaneously with literature and mathematics. Many who have never had +an opportunity of knowing any more about mathematics confound it with +arithmetic, and consider it an arid science. In reality, however, it is +a science which requires a great amount of imagination, and one of the +leading mathematicians of our century states the case quite correctly +when he says that it is impossible to be a mathematician without being a +poet in soul. Only, of course, in order to comprehend the accuracy of +this definition, one must renounce the ancient prejudice that a poet +must invent something which does not exist, that imagination and +invention are identical. It seems to me that the poet has only to +perceive that which others do not perceive, to look deeper than others +look. And the mathematician must do the same thing. As for myself, all +my life I have been unable to decide for which I had the greater +inclination, mathematics or literature. As soon as my brain grows +wearied of purely abstract speculations it immediately begins to incline +to observations on life, to narrative, and <i>vice versa</i>, everything in +life begins to appear insignificant and uninteresting, and only the +eternal, immutable laws of science attract me. It is very possible that +I should have accomplished more in either of these lines, if I had +devoted myself exclusively to it; nevertheless, I cannot give up either +of them completely." +</p><p> +From Ellen Key's <i>Biography of the Duchess of Cajanello</i>, quoted in Anna +Leffler's biography of Sónya Kovalévsky, ut sup, pp. 317-318.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>WOMEN IN ASTRONOMY</h3> + + +<p>Urania, the muse of astronomy, was a woman; and, although most of her +devotees have been men, the number of the gentler sex who have achieved +success in the cultivation of the science of the stars has been much +larger than is usually supposed.</p> + +<p>There is reason to believe that woman's interest in astronomy dates back +to early Egyptian and Babylonian times when the star-gazers in the +fertile valley of the Nile and on the broad plains of Chaldea were so +active, and when they made so many important discoveries respecting the +laws and movements of the heavenly bodies. According to Plutarch, +Aganice, the daughter of Sesostris, King of Egypt, tried to predict +future events by the aid of celestial globes and by the study of the +constellations. Her observations, however, were in the interests of +astrology rather than of astronomy, as we now understand the science.</p> + +<p>The first woman whose name has come down to us, who deserved to be +regarded as an astronomer, was most probably Aglaonice, the daughter of +Hegetoris of Thessaly. By means of the lunar cycle known as the Saros, a +period discovered by the Chaldean astronomers and embracing a little +more than eighteen years, during which the eclipses of the moon and sun +recur in nearly the same order as during the preceding period, this +Greek woman was able to predict eclipses. The people among whom she +lived regarded her as a sorceress; but she flouted them all, and +declared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> that she was able to make the sun and moon disappear at will.</p> + +<p>The first woman, however, to attain eminence as an astronomer was +undoubtedly Hypatia, that universal genius of the ancient world, who +seemed equally at home in literature, philosophy and mathematics, and +who may justly be regarded as one of the most highly gifted women that +has ever lived. In Alexandria, where she was born and lived, this +accomplished daughter of Theon taught not only philosophy, but also +algebra, geometry and astronomy. One of her pupils, Synesius, who became +Bishop of Ptolemais, informs us that she was the inventor of two +important astronomical instruments: an astrolabe and a planisphere. In +addition to two mathematical works, a <i>Treatise on the Conics of +Apollonius</i> and a <i>Commentary on the Arithmetic of Diophantus</i>, which +was in reality a treatise on algebra, she was the author of an +<i>Astronomical Canon</i>, which contained tables regarding the movements of +the heavenly bodies. It is generally supposed that this was an original +work; but there are some who think it was but a commentary on the tables +of Ptolemy. In this latter case Hypatia's work may still exist in +connection with that of her father, Theon, on the same subject.<a name="FNanchor_134_134" id="FNanchor_134_134"></a><a href="#Footnote_134_134" class="fnanchor">[134]</a></p> + +<p>If the works of Hypatia had not been destroyed by the ravages of time, +they would undoubtedly prove that she fully merited all the encomiums +bestowed on her by antiquity for her genius; and they would also prove, +we may well believe, that she deserved to be ranked not only with the +eminent mathematicians upon whose works she commented, but also with +such masters of astronomic science as Ptolemy, Eratosthenes and +Aristarchus.</p> + +<p>After the tragic death of Hypatia many centuries elapsed before any +other woman attracted attention for her work in astronomy. Indeed, so +neglected was the study of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> heavens between the time of Hypatia and +the Arab prince and astronomer, Albategni, who flourished during the +latter part of the ninth century and the early part of the tenth, that +only eight observations, it is asserted, were recorded during this long +period. The works and observations of Albategni, it may be remarked, +have a particular interest from the fact that they form a connecting +link between those of the Alexandrine astronomers and those of modern +Europe.</p> + +<p>Antoine Hamilton, in his <i>Gaufrey</i>—a parody on <i>The Thousand and One +Nights</i>—tells of a Saracen princess, <i>Fleur d'Épine</i>, who, before she +was fifteen years of age, was able not only to speak Latin and Romance, +but who was also "better acquainted than any woman in the world with the +movements of the stars and the moon."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Et du cours des étoiles et de la lune luisant<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Savoit moult plus que fame de chest siècle vivant."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>If any woman between the time of Hypatia and Galileo deserved such high +praise for her astronomical knowledge it was certainly Saint Hildegard, +the famous Benedictine abbess of Bingen on the Rhine. She has well been +called "the marvel of the twelfth century," not only on account of her +sanctity, but also on account of her extraordinary attainments in every +branch of knowledge then cultivated.</p> + +<p>When treating of the sun, Hildegard tells us that it is in the center of +the firmament and holds in place the stars that gravitate around it, as +the earth attracts the creatures which inhabit it. This view of a +twelfth century nun is indeed remarkable. For, in her time, the earth +was by everyone considered as the center of the firmament, while +universal gravitation—the sublime discovery of Newton—had not as yet +entered into the scientific theories of that epoch.</p> + +<p>Hildegard likewise anticipates subsequent discoveries regarding the +alternation of the seasons. "If," she writes,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> "it is cold in the winter +time on the part of the earth which we inhabit, the other part must be +warm, in order that the temperature of the earth may always be in +equilibrium." That she should have arrived at this conclusion before +navigators had visited the southern hemisphere is truly +astonishing.<a name="FNanchor_135_135" id="FNanchor_135_135"></a><a href="#Footnote_135_135" class="fnanchor">[135]</a></p> + +<p>"The stars," she continues, "have neither the same brightness nor the +same size. They are kept in their course by a superior body." Here again +is her idea of universal gravitation.</p> + +<p>These stars, she further declares, are not immovable, but they traverse +the firmament in its entirety. And to make clearer her conception of the +motion of the stars, she compares this motion to that of the blood in +the veins. To hear one of this early period speaking of blood coursing +through the veins and thus traversing the whole body of man seems to +presage, in a remarkable manner, the beautiful discoveries of Cesalpino +and Harvey regarding the circulation of the blood.</p> + +<p>The most celebrated astronomer of the early Renaissance was John Müller, +of Königsburg, better known as Regiomontanus. In his observatory in +Nuremberg he was ably assisted by his wife who exhibited a special +interest in astronomy. At the end of the sixteenth century, Sophia +Brahe, the youngest sister of Tycho Brahe, following in the footsteps of +her illustrious brother, attained great celebrity as an astronomer.</p> + +<p>More distinguished for her astronomical work than either of these two +women was Maria Cunitz, a Silesian, who, from her tenderest years, +displayed extraordinary zeal for study and who eventually became +mistress of seven languages,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> among which were Latin, Greek and Hebrew. +She also cultivated poetry, music and painting; but her favorite studies +were mathematics and astronomy. At the solicitation of her husband, she +undertook the preparation of an abridgment of the <i>Rudolphine Tables</i>. +Her work, under the name of <i>Urania Propitia</i>, was published after her +death by her husband, and gained for the talented authoress the name of +"The second Hypatia."<a name="FNanchor_136_136" id="FNanchor_136_136"></a><a href="#Footnote_136_136" class="fnanchor">[136]</a></p> + +<p>Shortly after the completion of <i>Urania Propitia</i>, a French woman, +Jeanne Dumée, distinguished herself by writing a work on the theory of +Copernicus entitled <i>Entretiens sur l'Opinion de Copernic Touchant la +Mobilité de la Terre</i>. So far as known, this work was never published, +but the original manuscript is still preserved in the National Library +of Paris. The authoress deems it necessary it apologize for writing on a +subject that is usually considered foreign to her sex and to explain why +she was ambitious to discuss questions to which the women of her time +never gave any thought. It was that she might "prove to them that they +are not incapable of study, if they wish to make the effort, because +between the brain of a woman and that of a man there is no +difference."<a name="FNanchor_137_137" id="FNanchor_137_137"></a><a href="#Footnote_137_137" class="fnanchor">[137]</a></p> + +<p>How often before had not women endeavored to prove the equality of brain +power of the two sexes, and how often since have they bent their efforts +in this direction! And yet the majority of men still remain skeptical +about such equality.</p> + +<p>Among the contemporaries of Jeanne Dumée were two other women who gained +more than ordinary distinction by their attainments in astronomy. These +were Mme. de la Sablière, in France, and Maria Margaret Kirch, of +Germany.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mme. de la Sablière evinced from an early age a special aptitude for +science, especially for physics and astronomy. She studied mathematics +under the eminent mathematician, Roberval, and at the age of thirty was +famous. Her home became the resort of learned and eminent men, including +some of the most noted characters of the age. Among these was Sobieski, +King of Poland. But it is as the friend and protectress of La Fontaine +and as the object of Boileau's satire that she is best known.</p> + +<p>For a woman to devote herself to the study of science so soon after the +appearance of Molière's <i>Les Femmes Savantes</i> argued more than ordinary +courage. But for her to become distinguished for her scientific +acquirements was almost tantamount to defying public opinion. The great +majority of men had come to regard learned women in the same light as +those who were so mercilessly derided in the <i>Précieuses Ridicules</i>; and +they had, accordingly, no hesitation in treating them as unbearable +pedants. No one could have made less parade of her learning than Mme. de +la Sablière, or striven more successfully to conceal her admirable +gifts. But this was not sufficient. She was known to have devoted +special study to science, particularly to astronomy, and this was +sufficient to make her the target of the satirists of her time.</p> + +<p>By an act that wounded the self-love of Boileau this Venus Urania, as +she has been called, soon found herself the victim of the satirist's +well-directed shafts. The poet does not name her, but refers to her as</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i30">"Cette savante<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Qu'estime Roberval et que Sauveur fréquente——"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>this learned woman whom Roberval esteems and whom Sauveur frequents. And +with the view of pricking the object of his spleen in her most sensitive +part, he tells, in his <i>Satire contre les Femmes</i>, how she, with +astrolabe in hand, spends her nights in making observations of the +planet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> Jupiter and how this occupation has had the effect of weakening +her sight and ruining her complexion.<a name="FNanchor_138_138" id="FNanchor_138_138"></a><a href="#Footnote_138_138" class="fnanchor">[138]</a></p> + +<p>Mme. de la Sablière does not, however, seem to have been greatly +perturbed by the ungracious effusions of the satirist, for she continued +her cultivation of astronomy as before the poet's ill-natured outburst. +She probably found ample compensation in the writings of La Fontaine, +who addressed her as his muse and proclaimed her as one in whom were +combined manly beauty and feminine grace—<i>beauté d'homme avec grace de +femme</i>.</p> + +<p>Maria Kirch, born at Panitch, near Leipsic, in 1670, was the wife of a +Berlin astronomer, Gottfried Kirch. After her marriage she, like her +three sisters-in-law, became her husband's pupil in astronomy. In 1702, +as his assistant in observations and calculations, she was fortunate +enough to discover a comet. She was the friend of Leibnitz, and was by +him presented to the court of Prussia. It is a matter of regret to those +of her own sex that this comet was not, as it should have been, named +after its discoverer.</p> + +<p>The death of Herr Kirch, which took place in 1710, caused no +interruption in Frau Kirch's astronomical occupations. Among the +evidences of her activity is a work which she wrote in 1713 on the +conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the year following. In our day the +conjunction of planets is for the laity a mere matter of curiosity, +while for professional astronomers it is quite devoid of particular +interest. But it was not so in the time of Maria Kirch, for then +astronomy was so intimately associated with astrology that mankind +attributed to such special positions of the planets a certain occult and +capricious influence on the destiny of the earth and its inhabitants. As +theoretical astronomy progressed, such erroneous notions were +abandoned,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> because it was then recognized that the conjunction of the +superior planets was not something fortuitous, but something that was +reproduced at fixed periods by the known movements of these bodies. +Writers on the subject made it a point to warn the public that they had +nothing in common with astrologers. Among these was Christopher Thurm, +who published a work on the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 1681. +Similarly, the book of Maria Kirch contains only astronomical +calculations and nothing more—a fact that redounds to the honor of the +author and to the age in which she lived.</p> + +<p>The daughters of Maria Kirch, even long after their mother's death, +continued to occupy themselves with astronomy. They calculated for the +Berlin Academy of Sciences its <i>Almanac</i> and <i>Ephemeris</i>, which were +among the sources of revenue of this learned body.</p> + +<p>During the same period a number of French and Italian astronomers had +female collaborators in their own families. Celsus, the celebrated +professor of Upsala, and a pupil of the son of Gottfried Kirch, had been +accorded a most cordial reception, while passing through Paris on his +way to Bologna, by De L'Isle who had a sister who was devoted to +astronomy. On his arrival in Italy he found that his new master, the +director of the observatory at Bologna, had two sisters, Teresa and +Maddalena, both of great learning, who, like their brother, were engaged +in the study of the heavens and collaborated with him in the preparation +of the <i>Ephemeris</i> of Bologna. This caused Celsus, in a letter to Kirch, +to declare "I begin to believe that it is the destiny of all the +astronomers whom I have had the honor of becoming acquainted with during +my journey to have learned sisters. I have also a sister, although not a +very learned one. To preserve the harmony, we must make an astronomer of +her."<a name="FNanchor_139_139" id="FNanchor_139_139"></a><a href="#Footnote_139_139" class="fnanchor">[139]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> +<p>The Polish astronomer, Hevilius, who had an observatory at Dantzig, is +noted for having made the most accurate observations that had been known +before the adaptation of the telescope to astronomical instruments. He +is also noted for his <i>Prodromus Astronomiæ</i>, a catalogue of 1,888 +stars; for his <i>Selenographia</i>, containing accurate descriptions and +drawings of the moon in her different phases and librations, and for his +<i>Machina Cœlestis</i>, which contained the results of forty years of +observations and labor. Much of his success and eminence, however, was +due to his intelligent and devoted wife, Elizabeth, who, during +twenty-seven years, was a zealous collaborator and should share the +credit usually given to her husband. It was she who, after his death, +edited and published their joint work, the <i>Prodromus Astronomiæ</i>.</p> + +<p>Among the women most distinguished in the eighteenth century for +astronomical pursuits was the Marquise du Châtelet, who was likewise +famous for her knowledge of mathematics. It was she who accomplished the +difficult task of translating Newton's <i>Principia</i> into French. "This +translation," writes Voltaire, "which the most learned men of France +should have made and which the others should study, was undertaken by a +woman and completed to the astonishment and glory of her country."<a name="FNanchor_140_140" id="FNanchor_140_140"></a><a href="#Footnote_140_140" class="fnanchor">[140]</a></p> + +<p>France was at this time devoted to the doctrines of Descartes and to his +theory of elementary vortices; and Voltaire, who had been deeply +impressed by the admirable simplicity of Newton's theory of universal +attraction as a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> means of explaining the seemingly complex motions of +the heavenly bodies, resolved to make his countrymen acquainted with the +teachings of the great English geometer and, at the same time, dethrone +Descartes in the French Academy. It was, indeed, a huge undertaking; +but, thanks to the ability which Mme. du Châtelet displayed in +translating and elucidating Newton's immortal masterpiece, he lived to +see his dream realized.</p> + +<p>How proud Mme. du Châtelet's countrywomen must have been of her! How +they must have rejoiced in her success and acclaimed her as the +intellectual glory of her sex! How they must have pointed to her work as +a triumphant refutation of the age-old belief in woman's incapacity for +mathematics and all abstract science! How they must have been elated to +find one of their number successfully executing a task which would have +taxed the powers of the most eminent mathematicians of France! How they +must have associated her truly notable performance with similar +achievements of Hypatia and Maria Gaetana Agnesi and discerned in it +concrete evidence of the falsity of all those imputations of mental +inferiority which had been fostered by "man's huge egotism and woman's +carefully coddled superstition." How they must have been encouraged by +her achievement and spurred on to emulate her by similar contributions +to the advancement of science!</p> + +<p>That is what we think now; but the light and frivolous women who +constituted the leaders of society in Mme. du Châtelet's day, and who +were devoured by envy and jealousy of one who was so much their superior +in intellect were not so minded. Far from sympathizing with her work, +they proved to be her most virulent critics and most pronounced enemies. +Neither Molière nor Boileau could have heaped more ridicule on the +pedantic women of their time than was meted out to the translator of the +<i>Principia</i> by certain noble dames of provincial châteaux or by +distinguished habituées of prominent Parisian salons.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p> + +<p>Thus the petulant <i>ennuyée</i>, Mme. de Staël, in a letter to her friend, +Mme. du Deffand, writing of Mme. du Châtelet, who was then her guest at +Sceaux, tells us that "she is now passing in review her principles. This +is a task she performs every year, else they might, perhaps, make their +escape and run to such a distance that she would never be able to +recover any of them. I verily believe that they are in durance vile +while in her possession, as they were certainly not born with her. She +does well to keep a strict watch over them."<a name="FNanchor_141_141" id="FNanchor_141_141"></a><a href="#Footnote_141_141" class="fnanchor">[141]</a></p> + +<p>And, in her turn, Mme. du Deffand, who was wont to pose as the intimate +friend of Mme. du Châtelet, did not hesitate to write and circulate a +pen portrait of this friend—and that after the unhappy woman was in her +grave—which for bitter reviling and brutal villification has probably +never been equalled. A witty Frenchman observed of this portrait that it +reminded him of an observation once made by a medical acquaintance of +his concerning one of his patients: "'My friend fell ill; I attended +him. He died; I dissected him.'"<a name="FNanchor_142_142" id="FNanchor_142_142"></a><a href="#Footnote_142_142" class="fnanchor">[142]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p><p>Among other women astronomers of the eighteenth century who deserve +mention are Mme. du Pierry, the Duchesse Louise of Saxe-Gotha, and Mme. +Hortense Lepaute.</p> + +<p>According to Lalande, Mme. du Pierry was the first woman professor of +astronomy in Paris. He dedicated to her his <i>Astronomie des Dames</i>, and +incorporated in his own works many of her memoirs on astronomical +subjects. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> devoted much time to calculating eclipses with a view to +accurately determining the motion of the moon, and was, besides, the +author of numerous astronomical tables which exhibit patient research +and unquestioned skill.</p> + +<p>The Duchesse Louise had a great reputation as a rapid and accurate +computer, and was celebrated for the number and variety of her +computations. Her modesty, however, prevented her from publishing +anything or even having her work quoted.</p> + +<p>Considering, however, the amount and character of her work, the most +eminent woman astronomer that France has yet produced was, without +doubt, Mme. Hortense Lepaute, the wife of the royal clockmaker of +France. She first distinguished herself by her investigations on the +oscillations of pendulums of different lengths, an account of which is +to be found in her husband's valuable work, <i>Traité d'Horlogerie</i>, +published in 1755.</p> + +<p>In 1759 Lalande, who was then the Director of the Paris Observatory, +engaged Mme. Lepaute and the celebrated mathematician, Clairaut, to +determine the amount of the attraction of Jupiter and Saturn on Halley's +comet, whose return was expected in that year. So difficult was this +problem, and so numerous were the complications involved,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> that Lalande +frankly confesses that he would not have dared to undertake its solution +without Mme. Lepaute's assistance. For it necessitated calculating for +every degree, and for one hundred and fifty years the distances and +forces of each of the planets with reference to the comet. "It would be +difficult," declares Lalande, "to realize the courage which this +enterprise required, if one did not know that for more than six months +we calculated from morning until night, sometimes even at meals, and +that at the end of this enforced labor I was stricken by a malady which +affected me during the rest of my life." Clairaut was so impressed by +Mme. Lepaute's energy and skill during this time that he declared "her +ardor was surprising," and he did not hesitate to call her <i>La savante +calculatrice</i>—the learned computer.<a name="FNanchor_143_143" id="FNanchor_143_143"></a><a href="#Footnote_143_143" class="fnanchor">[143]</a></p> + +<p>The eclipse of 1762 also engaged Mme. Lepaute's attention, as did also +the annular eclipse of 1764. The latter was a curious phenomenon for +France, as it had never before been observed. Mme. Lepaute calculated it +for the whole of Europe and published a chart showing its path for every +quarter of an hour. She also published another chart for Paris, in which +were exhibited the different phases of the eclipse.</p> + +<p>On the occasion of the different eclipses which she had calculated, Mme. +Lepaute recognized the advantage of having a table of parallactic +angles. She accordingly prepared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> a very extended table of this kind +which was published by the French government. Besides this table, she +was the author of numerous memoirs on astronomical subjects. Among them +was one embracing calculations based on all the observations which had +been made on the transit of Venus in 1761.</p> + +<p>"In 1759," again writes Lalande, "I was given charge of the +<i>Connaissance des Temps</i>, a work which the Academy of Sciences published +every year for the use of astronomers and navigators, the calculations +for which gave occupation to several persons. I had the good fortune to +find in Mme. Lepaute a co-worker without whom I should not have been +able to undertake the labor required. She continued in this occupation +until 1774, when another Academician assumed this laborious task. But +she thereupon began work on the <i>Ephemeris</i>, of which the seventh volume +in quarto, which appeared in 1774, goes to 1784, and of which the +eighth, published in 1783, extends to the year 1792. In this latter +volume she made, unaided, all the computations for the sun, the moon and +all the planets.</p> + +<p>"This long series of calculations finally enfeebled her eyesight, which +had been excellent, and she was in the last years of her life obliged to +discontinue them."<a name="FNanchor_144_144" id="FNanchor_144_144"></a><a href="#Footnote_144_144" class="fnanchor">[144]</a></p> + +<p>In view of her extraordinary and long-continued work in her chosen +specialty, M. Lalande was quite warranted in stating that "Mme. Lepaute +is the only woman in France who has acquired veritable knowledge in +astronomy; and she is now replaced only by Mme. du Pierry, who has +published divers astronomical calculations, and who has deserved to have +dedicated to her <i>L'Astronomie des Dames</i>, which appeared in 1786."</p> + +<p>It is gratifying to know that the beautiful Japan Rose—originally +called <i>Pautia</i>, but changed to <i>Hortensia</i> by Jussieu—was named after +this distinguished woman. It is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> also gratifying to be assured that her +engrossing work in astronomy in no wise caused her to neglect her home +duties or to lose that sweetness of character and delicacy of refinement +for which she was noted before she entered upon the absorbing and taxing +career of astronomical computer.</p> + +<p>The wife of Lalande's nephew, Mme. Lefrançais de Lalande, proved herself +in many respects a worthy successor of Mme. Lepaute. "My niece," writes +her uncle, Jérôme Lalande, "aids her husband in his observations and +draws conclusions from them by calculation. She has reduced the +observations of ten thousand stars, and prepared a work of three hundred +pages of horary tables—an immense work for her age and sex. They are +incorporated in my <i>Abrégé de Navigation</i>.</p> + +<p>"She is one of the rare women who have written scientific books. She has +published tables for finding the time at sea by the altitude of the sun +and stars. These tables were printed in 1791 by the order of the +National Assembly.... In 1799 she published a catalogue of ten thousand +stars, reduced and calculated."</p> + +<p>This distinguished observer and computer had a daughter in whom her +grand-uncle was particularly interested. "This daughter of astronomy," +he tells us, "was born the twentieth of January, 1790, the day on which +we at Paris saw for the first time the comet which Miss Caroline +Herschel had just discovered. The child was accordingly named Caroline; +her godfather was Delambre."</p> + +<p>The discoverer of the comet referred to was, in many ways, a most +remarkable woman. She was the sister of Sir William Herschel, the +illustrious pioneer of modern physical astronomy and the virtual founder +of sidereal science, as we know it to-day. She was also the aunt of Sir +John Herschel, who was the only rival of his uncle, Sir William, as an +explorer of the heavens.</p> + +<p>But she was far more than a mere relative of these immortal leaders in +astronomic science. She herself was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> an astronomer of distinction, and +is known, in the annals of astronomy, as the discoverer of no fewer than +eight comets. Great, however, as was her skill as an observer and +computer, it was as her brother's assistant that she is entitled to the +most distinction. Her affection for him was as unbounded as her devotion +to his life work was abiding and productive of great results. For fifty +years, after joining him in England—they both had been born and bred in +Hanover—she was ever at his side, to assist him in his labors and to +cheer him by her words of counsel and encouragement. She helped him to +grind and polish the mirrors that were used in his epoch-making +reflectors. This was a most arduous task; for, at that time, there was +no machinery sufficiently exact for grinding specula, and, as a +consequence, the work had all to be done by hand. So interested was the +great astronomer in his work, when polishing his larger specula, that he +forgot all about the passage of time, and on these occasions his sister +was constantly obliged, as she herself informs us, "to feed him by +putting the victuals by bits into his mouth by way of keeping him +alive." When finishing his seven-foot reflector he was on one occasion +found so intent on his work that "he had not taken his hands from it for +sixteen hours together."</p> + +<p>In our day, when all kinds of astronomical apparatus are made by +machinery, it is difficult for us to realize what stupendous labor was +required to produce those giant telescopes with which the Herschels made +their great discoveries and by which they, at the same time, +revolutionized the science of the stars. For they had not only to design +and make the specula, but also the mountings of the mirrors as well. +And, in order to obtain the money required for material and workmen, +they were obliged to make telescopes for sale. This meant an immense +loss of precious time that would otherwise have been devoted to the +study of the heavens.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> + +<p>After long years of struggle, during which the devoted brother and +sister overcame countless difficulties of every kind, their condition +was somewhat ameliorated by financial aid from the government and by +William's appointment to the position of astronomer royal with a salary +of £200 a year. When Sir William Watson heard that this limited sum had +been granted by George III to the discoverer of Georgium Sidus—the +planet now known as Uranus—he exclaimed, "Never bought monarch honor so +cheap."</p> + +<p>Shortly afterwards Caroline was appointed as assistant to her brother at +a salary of £50 a year. This we should now consider but a nominal sum, +but she managed to live on it. When she received the first quarterly +payment of twelve pounds she wrote in her memoirs, "It was the first +money I ever in all my lifetime thought myself to be at liberty to spend +to my liking." Her appointment as assistant to her brother is notable +from the fact that she was the first woman in England, if not in the +world, to hold such a position in the government service.</p> + +<p>Miss Herschel held this official appointment until Sir William's death +in 1822. When not acting as her brother's assistant or secretary, she +devoted her time to what she quaintly called "minding the heavens." It +was during this period that she made her most important discoveries. As +assistant, however, to so indefatigable an observer as Sir William +Herschel, she had but little time for sweeping the heavens, for, when at +home, Sir William "was invariably accustomed to carry on his +observations until day-break, circumstances permitting, without regard +to seasons; it was the business of his assistant to note the clocks and +to write down the observations from his dictations as they were made. +Subsequently she assisted in the laborious numerical calculations and +reductions, so that it was only during his absence from home or when any +other interruption of his regular course of observation occurred that +she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> was able to devote herself to the Newtonian sweeper, which she used +to such good purpose. Besides the eight comets by her discovered, she +detected several remarkable nebulæ and clusters of stars, previously +unnoticed, especially the superb nebulæ known as No. 1, Class V, in Sir +William Herschel's catalogue. Long practice taught her to make light of +her work. 'An observer at your twenty-foot when sweeping,' she wrote +many years after, 'wants nothing but a being who <i>can</i> and <i>will</i> +execute his commands with the quickness of lightning; for you will have +seen that in many sweeps six or twice six objects have been secured and +described in one minute of time.'"<a name="FNanchor_145_145" id="FNanchor_145_145"></a><a href="#Footnote_145_145" class="fnanchor">[145]</a></p> + +<p>It was her quick, intelligent action, combined with a patience, +enthusiasm and powers of endurance that were most extraordinary, that +made Caroline Herschel so valuable as an assistant to her brother, and +enabled him to achieve the unique position which is his among the +world's greatest astronomers. Had she been able to devote all her time +to "minding the heavens," it is certain that she would have made many +more discoveries than are now credited to her; but her service to +astronomy would have been less than it was as the auxiliary of her +illustrious brother. No two ever did better "teamwork"; no two were ever +more devoted to each other or exhibited greater enthusiasm in the task +to which they so heroically devoted their lives.<a name="FNanchor_146_146" id="FNanchor_146_146"></a><a href="#Footnote_146_146" class="fnanchor">[146]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p><p>In addition to her arduous and engrossing duties as secretary and +assistant to her brother, Caroline found time to prepare a number of +works for the press. Among these were a <i>Catalogue of Eight Hundred and +Sixty Stars Observed by Flamsteed but not Included in the British +Catalogue</i> and <i>A General Index of Reference to Every Observation of +Every Star in the Above-mentioned British Catalogue</i>. She had the honor +of having these two works published by the Royal Society. Another, and a +more valuable work, was <i>The Reduction and Arrangement in the Form of +Catalogue, in Zones, of All the Star-Clusters and Nebulæ Observed by Sir +W. Herschel in His Sweeps</i>. It was for this catalogue that a gold medal +was voted to her by the Royal Astronomical Society in 1828—a production +that was characterized as "a work of immense labor" and "an +extraordinary monument to the unextinguished ardor of a lady of +seventy-five in the cause of abstract science." To her nephew, Sir John +Herschel, it proved invaluable, as it supplied the needful data "when he +undertook the review of the nebulæ of the northern hemisphere." It was +also a fitting prelude to Sir John's <i>Cape Observations</i>, a copy of +which great work she received from her nephew nearly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> twenty years +subsequently, after he had completed his famous observations of the +southern heavens in his observatory at the Cape of Good Hope.</p> + +<p>"By a most striking and happy coincidence," writes Mrs. John Herschel, +"she, whose unflagging toil had so greatly contributed to its successful +prosecution in the hands of her beloved brother, lived to witness its +triumphant termination through the no less persistent industry and +strenuous labor of his son; and her last days were crowned by the +possession of the work which brought to its glorious conclusion Sir +William Herschel's vast undertaking—<i>The Survey of the Heavens</i>."</p> + +<p>That Miss Herschel's labors in the cause of astronomy were appreciated +by her contemporaries is evidenced by the honors of which she was the +recipient. The first of these honors came in the form of a gold medal, +unanimously awarded by the Royal Astronomical Society for her reduction +of twenty-five hundred nebulæ "discovered by her illustrious brother, +which may be considered as the completion of a series of exertions +probably unparalleled either in magnitude or importance in the annals of +astronomical labor."</p> + +<p>It was on this occasion, when referring to the immensity of the task +which Sir William Herschel had undertaken, that the vice-president of +the society paid a deserving tribute to the great astronomer's devoted +sister, in which is found the following statement:</p> + +<p>"Miss Herschel it was who by right acted as his amanuensis; she it was +whose pen conveyed to paper his observations as they issued from his +lips; she it was who noted the right ascensions and polar distances of +the objects observed; she it was who, having passed the night near the +instrument, took the rough manuscripts to her cottage at the dawn of day +and produced a fair copy of the night's work on the following morning; +she it was who planned the labor of each succeeding night; she it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +who reduced every observation, made every calculation; she it was who +arranged everything in systematic order; and she it was who helped him +to obtain his imperishable name."<a name="FNanchor_147_147" id="FNanchor_147_147"></a><a href="#Footnote_147_147" class="fnanchor">[147]</a></p> + +<p>Besides this gold medal from the Royal Astronomical Society, Miss +Herschel also received two others, one from the King of Denmark and the +other from the King of Prussia. The latter was accompanied by a most +eulogistic letter from Alexander von Humboldt, who informed her that the +medal was awarded her "in recognition of the valuable services rendered +by her as the fellow worker of her immortal brother, Sir William +Herschel, by discoveries, observations and laborious calculations."</p> + +<p>In 1835, when she was eighty-five years of age, Miss Herschel had the +signal honor of being elected, along with Mrs. Somerville, an honorary +member of the Royal Astronomical Society. As they were the first two +women in England to receive such recognition for their contributions to +science, it seems desirable to reproduce here an extract from the report +of the council of the society regarding the bestowal of an honor which +marked so distinct a change in England of the attitude that should be +taken toward women who excelled in intellectual achievements. The +extract reads as follows:</p> + +<p>"Your council has no small pleasure in recommending that the names of +two ladies distinguished in different walks of astronomy be placed on +the list of honorary members. On the propriety of such a step, in an +astronomical point of view, there can be but one voice; and your council +is of the opinion that the time is gone by when either feeling or +prejudice, by whichever name it may be proper to call it, should be +allowed to interfere with the payment of a well-earned tribute of +respect. Your council has hitherto felt that, whatever might be its own +sentiment on the subject, or however able and willing it might be to +defend such a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> measure, it had no right to place the name of a lady in a +position the propriety of which might be contested, though upon what it +might consider narrow grounds and false principles. But your council has +no fear that such a difference could now take place between any men +whose opinion could avail to guide the society at large; and, abandoning +compliment on the one hand and false delicacy on the other, submits +that, while the tests of astronomical merit should in no case be applied +to the works of a woman less severely than to those of a man, the sex of +the former should no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any +acknowledgment which might be held due to the latter. And your council, +therefore, recommends this meeting to add to the list of honorary +members the names of Miss Caroline Herschel and Mrs. Somerville, of +whose astronomical knowledge, and of the utility of the ends to which it +has been applied, it is not necessary to recount the proofs."<a name="FNanchor_148_148" id="FNanchor_148_148"></a><a href="#Footnote_148_148" class="fnanchor">[148]</a></p> + +<p>Three years after this splendid recognition of Miss Herschel's +astronomical labors she was elected an honorary member of the Royal +Irish Academy.</p> + +<p>But exceptional as were the honors conferred on her by sovereigns and +learned societies, none of them afforded her the extreme satisfaction +that she experienced on the receipt of a copy, shortly before her death, +of her nephew's epochal <i>Cape Observations</i>; for, as has well been said, +"nothing in the power of man to bestow could have given such pleasure on +her death-bed as this last crowning completion of her brother's work." +We are told that a copy, just from the press, of his immortal work, <i>De +Orbium Celestium Revolutionibus</i>, in which he had established the +heliocentric theory of the planetary system, was placed in the hands of +Copernicus on the day of his death, just a few hours before he expired. +He seemed conscious of what it was; but, after touching it and +contemplating it for a moment, he lapsed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> into a state of insensibility +which soon terminated in death. With Miss Herschel the case was +different. Although in her ninety-seventh year, she still retained +possession of all her faculties and was fully able to appreciate the +volume which told of the crowning of her brother's life work—a volume +which must have given her additional satisfaction when she recalled her +fifty years of loyal service at her brother's side as his associate and +ministering angel in the greatest work ever undertaken by a single man +in the history of astronomy.</p> + +<p>Caroline Herschel died at the advanced age of ninety-seven years and ten +months, retaining to the last her interest in astronomy which had +occupied her mind for more than three-quarters of a century.</p> + +<p>Her epitaph, composed by herself, is engraved on a heavy stone slab +which covers her grave and contains the following words: "The eyes of +her who is glorified were here below turned to the starry heavens. Her +own discoveries of comets and her participation in the immortal labors +of her brother, William Herschel, bear witness of this to future ages."</p> + +<p>Space precludes any extended reference to Miss Herschel's distinguished +associate in the Royal Astronomical Society, Mrs. Somerville, whose +masterly translation and exposition of Laplace's <i>Mécanique Céleste</i> +secured for her so enviable a place among the mathematicians of her +time, and placed all English students of mathematical astronomy under +such deep obligations. It is true that she ever manifested a lively +interest in celestial phenomena; but it is rather as a mathematician +than as an astronomer that she will be remembered by the devotees of +science.</p> + +<p>The first American woman to win distinction in astronomy was Miss Maria +Mitchell. Born in the island of Nantucket in 1818, she, at an early age, +displayed remarkable talent for astronomy and mathematics. Her first +instructor was her father, who, besides being a school teacher, had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> +from his youth been an enthusiastic student of astronomy, and that, too, +at a time when very little attention was given to its study in this +country, and when the observatory of Harvard College consisted of only a +little projection to an old mansion in Cambridge, in which there was a +small telescope.</p> + +<p>At the age of thirteen little Maria counted seconds by the chronometer +for her father while he observed the annular eclipse of the sun in 1831; +and from that time on she was his assiduous co-worker in the study of +the heavens. After teaching school for some years, she became the +librarian of the Nantucket Atheneum, a position which she held for +nearly twenty years. Here she continued the study of her favorite +science, and read all the books on astronomy which she could obtain. It +was during this period that she read Bowditch's translation of Laplace's +<i>Mécanique Céleste</i> and Gauss's <i>Theoria Motus Corporum Cælestium</i> in +the original.</p> + +<p>On the evening of October 1, 1847, she was the discoverer of a comet +that attracted great attention because it secured for her a medal +offered by the King of Denmark in 1831 for the first one who should +discover a telescopic comet. The same comet was observed by Father de +Vico in Rome two days subsequently, by Dawes in England on October +seventh, and by Madame Rümker, wife of the director of the observatory +of Hamburg, on the eleventh of the same month. As there was no Atlantic +cable in those days, it was not known who was the fortunate winner of +the prize until nearly a year afterward, when word was received from +Denmark announcing that the priority of Miss Mitchell's discovery had +been recognized and that she would be the recipient of the prize, which, +for a while, it was thought would go to De Vico or Madame Rümker.<a name="FNanchor_149_149" id="FNanchor_149_149"></a><a href="#Footnote_149_149" class="fnanchor">[149]</a></p> + +<p>In 1849 Miss Mitchell was appointed a compiler for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> <i>Nautical +Almanac</i>, a position she held for nineteen years. During the same period +she was employed by the United States Coast Survey.</p> + +<p>When Vassar College was opened in 1865 for the higher education of +women, Miss Mitchell was called to fill the chair of astronomy and to be +the first director of the observatory. In this position she soon +succeeded in giving astronomy a prominence that it never had had before +in any other college for women, and in but few for men.</p> + +<p>Miss Mitchell was a member of several learned societies and the author +of a number of papers containing the results of her observations on +Jupiter and Saturn and their satellites. But she is notable chiefly for +being the first woman astronomer in the United States and for training +up a number of young women who have followed in her footsteps as +enthusiastic astronomers. She held her position at Vassar until 1889, +when she died, a few months before her seventy-first birthday.</p> + +<p>Since the pioneer days of Miss Caroline Herschel, the number of women +throughout the world who have achieved distinction in astronomy has +rapidly augmented. One of the most noted of these was Caterina +Scarpellini, niece of Feliciano Scarpellini, professor of astronomy in +Rome, restorer of the Academy of the Lyncei, and founder of the +Capitoline Observatory. Born in 1808, she manifested at an early age a +decided taste for astronomy, which was carefully developed by her uncle. +She it was who organized the Meteorologico Ozonometric station in Rome +and edited its monthly bulletin. She exhibited a special interest in +shooting stars and prepared the first catalogue of these meteors +observed in Italy. In 1854 she discovered a comet. She has also left +valuable studies on the probable influence of the moon on +earthquakes—studies which brought her distinction from several of the +learned societies of Europe. In 1872 the Italian government decreed her +a gold medal for her statistical labors in science. Since<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> her death her +countrymen have recognized the value of her contributions to science by +erecting a statue to her memory.</p> + +<p>Another woman who has won enduring fame in the annals of astronomy is +Miss Dorothea Klumpke, of San Francisco. While yet quite young, she and +her sisters were taken to Europe to be educated. There she soon became +proficient in a number of languages, and then devoted herself to the +study of mathematics and astronomy. After securing her baccalaureate and +licentiate in Paris, she applied for admission as a student to the Paris +observatory. "The directors of the observatory consulted the statutes. +No woman had hitherto proposed herself as a colleague, but there was no +rule opposing it. They themselves approved, and gave her a telescope to +make her own observations. After a time she completed the work begun by +Mme. Kovalévsky on the rings of Saturn, which she made the subject of +her thesis, and, when she had become Doctor of Science, she was given a +decoration by the Institute and made an <i>Officier de l'Académie</i>."</p> + +<p>After Miss Klumpke had brilliantly defended her thesis in the Sorbonne, +M. Darboux, the president of the jury, complimented the young American +doctor on her splendid work and concluded a notable address in her honor +in the following laudatory words:</p> + +<p>"The great names of Galileo, of Huyghens, of Cassini, of Laplace, +without speaking of those of my illustrious colleagues and friends, are +attached to the history of every serious step forward made in this +attractive and difficult theory of Saturn's rings. Your work constitutes +another valuable contribution to the same subject and places you in an +honorable rank beside those women who have consecrated themselves to the +study of mathematics. In the last century Maria Agnesi gave us a +treatise on the differential and integral calculus. Since then Sophie +Germain, as remarkable for her literary and philosophical talent as for +her faculty for mathematics, won the esteem of the great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> geometricians +who honored our country at the commencement of this century. It is but a +few years since the Academy awarded one of its most beautiful prizes +which will place the name of Mme. Kovalévsky beside those of Euler and +Lagrange in the history of discoveries relative to the theory of the +movement of a solid body about a fixed point.... And you, mademoiselle, +your thesis is the first which a woman has presented and successfully +defended before our faculty for the degree of doctor in mathematics. You +worthily open the way, and the faculty unanimously makes haste to +declare you worthy of obtaining the degree of doctor."</p> + +<p>Besides her thesis just referred to, Miss Klumpke is the author of +numerous communications to scientific journals and learned societies +regarding her researches on the spectra of stars and meteorites and +other allied subjects. For many years she was at the head of the bureau +in the Paris Observatory for measuring the photographic plates that are +to be used in the large catalogue of stars and map of the heavens which +are to constitute the crowning achievements of the International +Astronomical Congress. She was the first woman to be elected a member of +the Astronomical Society of France, and the character of her work as an +observer as well as a computer has given her an enviable position among +the astronomers of the world.<a name="FNanchor_150_150" id="FNanchor_150_150"></a><a href="#Footnote_150_150" class="fnanchor">[150]</a></p> + +<p>In America another woman has won renown among astronomers by +successfully executing the same kind of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> work as was entrusted to Miss +Dorothea Klumpke in Paris. For many years Mrs. W. Fleming, with her +large corps of women assistants, had charge of the immense collection of +astronomical photographs in the Observatory of Harvard University. To +her and her staff were assigned the reductions and measurements of the +photographic and photometric work done in Cambridge and Arequipa, Peru. +She was singularly successful in her studies of photographic plates and +made many discoveries which astronomers regard of the greatest +importance. By such studies she and her assistants detected many new +nebulæ, double and variable stars, besides spectra of different types +and of rare interest. In addition to this they examined and classified +tens of thousands of photographs of stellar spectra, a labor which +involved countless details of reduction and measurements of exceeding +delicacy and skill.</p> + +<p>A complete list of the women who, during the past half century, have +devoted themselves to the study of astronomy and who have contributed to +its advancement by their observations and writings would be a very long +one. Among those, however, whose labors have attracted special notice, +mention must be made of the Misses Antonia C. Maury, Florence Cushman, +Louisa D. Wells, Mabel C. Stephens, Eva F. Leland, Anna Winlock, Annie +J. Cannon and Henrietta S. Leavitt, all of whom are on the staff of the +Harvard Observatory.</p> + +<p>Then, too, there are many women who occupy important positions as +professors or assistant professors in our colleges and universities. +Chief among these in the United States are Sarah F. Whiting, of +Wellesley; Mary W. Whitney, of Vassar; Mary E. Boyd, of Smith; Susan +Cunningham, of Swarthmore, and Annie S. Young, of Mt. Holyoke. Nor must +we forget such able computers as Mrs. Margaretta Palmer, of Yale, and +Miss Hanna Mace, the clever assistant of the late Simon Newcomb in the +Naval Observatory in Washington.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the Old World among the women who, during the last few decades, have +materially contributed to the progress of astronomy, either as observers +and computers or as writers, are Miss Alice Everett, who has done +splendid work in the observatories of Greenwich and Potsdam, Misses M. +A. Orr, Mary Ashley, Alice Brown, Mary Proctor—daughter of the late +astronomer, R. A. Proctor—Agnes M. and Ellen M. Clerke, and Lady +Huggins, of England; Mmes. Jansen, Faye, and Flammarion, in France; the +Countess Bobinski, in Russia; and Miss Pogson, in the Observatory of +Madras, India.</p> + +<p>In conclusion, it is but just to observe that women's work in astronomy +has by no means been confined to their contributions as observers, +writers and computers. Reference must also be made to the financial aid +which they have given to various observatories and learned societies for +the furtherance of astronomical research both in the New and the Old +World. It must suffice here to recall the endowment at Harvard +University of the Henry Draper Memorial, by Mrs. Henry Draper, in order +that the work of photographing stellar spectra, which occupied her +husband's later years, might be continued under the most favorable +auspices, and the munificent sum of fifty thousand dollars given by Miss +C. Bruce, of New York, for the construction of a large telescope +especially designed for photographing faint stars and nebulæ. The +photographs taken with this instrument will be used in the preparation +of the great chart of the heavens which is to be the joint production of +the chief observatories of the world.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_134_134" id="Footnote_134_134"></a><a href="#FNanchor_134_134"><span class="label">[134]</span></a> Cf. the preceding chapter, p. 140. See also <i>Histoire de +l'Astronomie Ancienne</i>, Tom. I, p. 317, par. M. Delambre, Paris, 1817.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_135_135" id="Footnote_135_135"></a><a href="#FNanchor_135_135"><span class="label">[135]</span></a> "Calor etiam solis in hieme maior est sub terra quam +super terram, quod si tunc frigus tantum esset sub terra quam super +terram, vel si in æstate calor tantus esset sub terra quantus est super +terram, de immoderatione ista terra tota scinderetur." <i>Hildegardis +Causæ et Curæ</i>, p. 7, Lipsiæ, 1903.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_136_136" id="Footnote_136_136"></a><a href="#FNanchor_136_136"><span class="label">[136]</span></a> <i>Commentaire de Theon d'Alexandrie</i>, p. X, translated by +the Abbé Halma, Paris, 1882.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_137_137" id="Footnote_137_137"></a><a href="#FNanchor_137_137"><span class="label">[137]</span></a> "Enfin de leur faire connoistre qu'elles ne sont pas +incapable de l'estude, si elles s'en vouloient donner la peine +puisqu'entre le cerveau d'une femme et celui d'un homme il n'y a aucune +difference." Cf. <i>Journal de Savans</i>, Tom. III, p. 304, à Amsterdam, +1687.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_138_138" id="Footnote_138_138"></a><a href="#FNanchor_138_138"><span class="label">[138]</span></a> +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">D'ou vient qu'elle a l'œil troublé et le teint si terni?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">C'est que sur le calcul, dit-on, de Cassini,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Un astrolabe à la main, elle a, dans la gouttière,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A suivre Jupiter passé la nuit entière.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_139_139" id="Footnote_139_139"></a><a href="#FNanchor_139_139"><span class="label">[139]</span></a> "Celebre inter observatores hujus ævi nomen adeptus est +Godfredus Kirchius, astronomus nuper regius in Societate Scienciarum +Berlinensi; mense Julio A, 1710 mortuus. Ejus vidua, Maria Magdalena +Winckelmannia, non minore in observando et calculo astronomico +dexteritate pollet, ac in utroque labore maritum, cum viveret, fideliter +juvit ... quod laudi ducitur fœminæ ea animo comprehendisse, quæ sine +ingenii vi studiique assiduitate non comprehenduntur," <i>Acta +Eruditorum</i>, pp. 78, 79, Lipsiæ, 1712.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_140_140" id="Footnote_140_140"></a><a href="#FNanchor_140_140"><span class="label">[140]</span></a> <i>Préface Historique</i> to <i>Principes Mathématiques de la +Philosophie Naturelle</i> par feue Madame la Marquise du Chastellet, Tom. +I, p. V, Paris, 1759.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_141_141" id="Footnote_141_141"></a><a href="#FNanchor_141_141"><span class="label">[141]</span></a> <i>The Unpublished Correspondence of Madame du Deffand</i>, +Vol. I, pp. 202-203, London, 1810.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_142_142" id="Footnote_142_142"></a><a href="#FNanchor_142_142"><span class="label">[142]</span></a> Mme. du Deffand's venomous letter, somewhat abridged, +reads as follows: "Imagine a tall, hard and withered woman, +narrow-chested, with large limbs, enormous feet, a very small head, a +thin face, a pointed nose, two small sea-green eyes, her color dark, her +complexion florid, her mouth flat, her teeth set far apart and very much +decayed; there is the figure of the beautiful Émilie, a figure with +which she is so well pleased that she spares nothing for the sake of +setting it off. Her manner of dressing her hair, her adornments, her +top-knots, her jewelry, all are in profusion; but, as she wishes to be +lovely in spite of nature, and as she wishes to appear magnificent in +spite of fortune, she is obliged, in order to obtain superfluities, to +go without necessaries such as under-garments and other trifles. +</p><p> +"She was born with sufficient intellect, and the desire to appear as +though she had a great deal made her prefer to study the most abstract +sciences rather than more general and pleasant branches of knowledge. +She thought she would gain a greater reputation by this peculiarity and +a more decided superiority over other women. +</p><p> +"She did not limit herself to this ambition. She wished to be a princess +as well, and she became so, not by the grace of God nor by that of the +King, but by her own act. This absurdity went on like the others. One +became accustomed to regard her as a princess of the theatre, and one +almost forgot that she was a woman of rank. +</p><p> +"Madame worked so hard to appear what she was not that no one knew what +she really was. Even her faults were perhaps not natural. They may have +had something to do with her pretensions, her want of respect with +regard to the state of princess, her dullness in that of <i>savante</i>, and +her stupidity in that of a <i>jolie femme</i>. +</p><p> +"However much of a celebrity Mme. du Châtelet may be, she would not be +satisfied if she were not celebrated, and that is what she desired in +becoming the friend of M. de Voltaire. To him she owes the <i>éclat</i> of +her life, and it is to him that she will owe immortality." See <i>Lettres +de la Marquise du Deffand à Horace Walpole</i>, Tom. I, pp. 200-201, Paris, +1824. +</p><p> +As a contrast to this atrocious caricature, it is but due to the memory +of Mme. du Châtelet to give her portrait by Voltaire, to whom she was +ever the beautiful, the charming Urania, the +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i16">"Vaste et puissante génie,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Minerve de la France, immortelle Émilie."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +It is contained in the following verses: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"L'esprit sublime et la delicatesse,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">L'oubli charmante de sa propre beauté<br /></span> +<span class="i0">L'amitié tendre et l'amour emporté<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sont les attraits de ma belle maîtresse."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +If the whole truth were known, it would, doubtless, be found somewhere +between the above extreme and contradictory views, and the cause of the +caustic statements of Mesdames de Staël and du Deffand would probably be +found to be quite accurately expressed in the first part of Voltaire's +<i>Epistle on Calumny</i>, which was written about the beginning of his +particular relationship with "the divine Émilie." The first lines of +this epistle, as translated by Smollett, are: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Since beautiful, 'twill be your fate,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Emelia, to incur much hate;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Almost one-half of human race<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will even curse you to your face;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Possesst of genius, noblest fire,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With fear you will each breast inspire;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">As you too easily confide,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You'll often be betrayed, belied;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">You ne'er of virtue made parade,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To hypocrites no court you've paid,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Therefore, of Calumny beware,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Foe to the virtuous and the fair."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_143_143" id="Footnote_143_143"></a><a href="#FNanchor_143_143"><span class="label">[143]</span></a> In his work on <i>Comets</i>, Clairaut at first gave Mme. +Lepaute full credit for her work which had been of such inestimable +service to himself; but, in order to gratify a woman who, having +pretensions without knowledge, was very jealous of the superior +attainments of Mme. Lepaute, he had the weakness subsequently to +suppress his generous tribute to merit. Commenting on this strange +conduct of his assistant, Lalande expresses himself as follows: "We know +that it is not rare to see ordinary women depreciate those who have +knowledge, tax them with pedantry and contest their merit in order to +avenge themselves upon them for their superiority. The latter are so few +in number that the others have almost succeeded in making them conceal +their acquirements."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_144_144" id="Footnote_144_144"></a><a href="#FNanchor_144_144"><span class="label">[144]</span></a> <i>Bibliographie Astronomique</i>, pp. 676-687, par Jérôme de +la Lande, Paris, 1803.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_145_145" id="Footnote_145_145"></a><a href="#FNanchor_145_145"><span class="label">[145]</span></a> <i>Memoirs and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel</i>, p. +144, by Mrs. John Herschel, London, 1879.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_146_146" id="Footnote_146_146"></a><a href="#FNanchor_146_146"><span class="label">[146]</span></a> So sensitive was Miss Herschel in her old age regarding +the reputation of her brother, William, who had always been her idol and +the one in whom she had concentrated all her affection, that she came to +look askance at every person and thing that seemed calculated to dull +the glory of his achievements. Thus her niece, in writing to Sir John +Herschel, after her death, declares: "She looked upon progress in +science as so much detraction from her brother's fame; and, even your +investigations would have become a source of estrangement had she been +with you." In a letter to Sir John Herschel, written four years before +her death, she exhibits, in an amusing fashion, her jealous spirit anent +the great telescope of Lord Rosse. "They talk of nothing here at the +clubs," she writes, "but of the great mirror and the great man who made +it. I have but one answer for all—<i>Der Kerl ist ein Narr</i>—the fellow +is a fool." +</p><p> +Even "Every word said in her own praise seemed to be so much taken away +from the honour due to her brother. She had lived so many years in +companionship with a truly great man, and in the presence of the +unfathomable depths of the starry heavens, that praise of herself seemed +childish exaggeration." And notwithstanding the honor and recognition +which she received from learned men and learned societies for her truly +remarkable astronomical labors, her dominant idea was always the +same—"I am nothing. I have done nothing. All I am, all I know, I owe to +my brother. I am only a tool which he shaped to his use—a well-trained +puppy-dog would have done as much." Op. cit., pp. IX, 335 and 346.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_147_147" id="Footnote_147_147"></a><a href="#FNanchor_147_147"><span class="label">[147]</span></a> Op. cit., p. 224.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_148_148" id="Footnote_148_148"></a><a href="#FNanchor_148_148"><span class="label">[148]</span></a> <i>Memoirs and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel</i>, ut. +sup., pp. 226-227.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_149_149" id="Footnote_149_149"></a><a href="#FNanchor_149_149"><span class="label">[149]</span></a> <i>Maria Mitchell, Life, Letters and Journals</i>, compiled by +Phebe Mitchell Kendall, p. 267 et seq., Boston, 1896.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_150_150" id="Footnote_150_150"></a><a href="#FNanchor_150_150"><span class="label">[150]</span></a> Miss Klumpke, the reader may be interested in knowing, +belongs to a singularly gifted family. Her sister, Augusta, is a +distinguished physician and an authority on nervous diseases. Hers is +the glory to be the first woman permitted, after an exceptionally severe +examination, to serve as <i>interne</i> in the Paris hospitals. Julia, her +youngest sister, who achieved distinction as a violinist with Ysaye, was +one of the first to pass the examination required of women entering the +Paris <i>Lycées</i>, while Anna, the eldest, has won fame as an artist, and +as the friend, heiress and executrix of France's famous daughter, Rosa +Bonheur.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>WOMEN IN PHYSICS</h3> + + +<p>Physics, being one of the inductive sciences, received little attention +until modern times. True, the Greeks were familiar with some of the +fundamental facts of the mechanics of solids and fluids, and had some +notions respecting the various physical forces; but their knowledge of +what until recently was known as natural philosophy was extremely +limited. Aristotle, Pythagoras and Archimedes were among the most +successful investigators of their time respecting the laws and +properties of matter, and contributed materially to the advancement of +knowledge regarding the phenomena of the material universe; but the sum +total of their information of what we now know as physics could be +embodied in a few pages.</p> + +<p>In view of the foregoing facts, we should not expect to find women +engaged in the study, much less in the teaching, of physical science +during ancient times. And yet, if we are to credit Boccaccio, who bases +his statements on those of early Greek writers, there was at least one +woman that won distinction by her knowledge of natural philosophy as +early as the days of Socrates. In his work, <i>De Laudibus Mulierum</i>, +which treats of the achievements of some of the illustrious +representatives of the gentler sex, the genial author of the <i>Decameron</i> +gives special praise to one Arete of Cyrene for the breadth and variety +of her attainments. She was the daughter of Aristippus, the founder of +the Cyrenaic school of philosophy, and is represented as being a +veritable prodigy of learning. For among her many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> claims to distinction +she is said to have publicly taught natural and moral philosophy in the +schools and academies of Attica for thirty-five years, to have written +forty books, and to have counted among her pupils one hundred and ten +philosophers. She was so highly esteemed by her countrymen that they +inscribed on her tomb an epitaph which declared that she was the +splendor of Greece and possessed the beauty of Helen, the virtue of +Thirma, the pen of Aristippus, the soul of Socrates, and the tongue of +Homer.<a name="FNanchor_151_151" id="FNanchor_151_151"></a><a href="#Footnote_151_151" class="fnanchor">[151]</a></p> + +<p>This is high praise, indeed, but, when we recollect that Arete lived +during the golden age of Greek learning and culture, that she had +exceptional opportunities of acquiring knowledge in every department of +intellectual effort; when we recall the large number of women who, in +their time, distinguished themselves by their learning and +accomplishment, and reflect on the advantages they enjoyed as pupils of +the ablest teachers of the Lyceum, the Portico, and the Academy; when we +remember further that they lived in an atmosphere of intelligence such +as has since been unknown; when we call to mind the signal success that +rewarded the pursuit of knowledge by the scores of women mentioned by +Athenæus and other Greek writers; when we peruse the fragmentary notices +of their achievements as recorded in the pages of more recent +investigators regarding the educational facilities of a certain class +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> women living in Athens and the eminence which they attained in +science, philosophy and literature, we can realize that the character +and amount of Arete's work as an author and as a teacher have not been +overestimated.</p> + +<p>Living in an age of prodigious mental activity, when women, as well as +men, were actuated by an abiding love of knowledge for its own sake, +there is nothing surprising in finding a woman like Arete commanding the +admiration of her countrymen by her learning and eloquence. For was not +the learned and eloquent Aspasia her contemporary? And did not Theano, +the wife of Pythagoras, take charge of her husband's school after his +death; and does not antiquity credit her with being not only a +successful teacher of philosophy, but also a writer of books of +recognized value? Such being the case, what is there incredible in the +statements made by ancient writers regarding the literary activity of +Arete, and about her eminence as a teacher of science and philosophy? +She was but one of many of the Greek women of her age that won renown by +their gifts of intellect and by their contributions to the educational +work of their time and country.</p> + +<p>Better known than Arete, but probably not superior to her as a teacher +or writer, was the illustrious Hypatia of Alexandria. She, too, like her +distinguished predecessor in Athens, was an instructor in natural +philosophy, as well as other branches of science. Of her we know more +than we do of the daughter of Aristippus, but even our knowledge of the +acquisitions and achievements of Hypatia is, unfortunately, extremely +meager. We do, however, know from the historian, Socrates, and from +Synesius, bishop of Ptolemais, who was her pupil, that she was one of +the most richly dowered women of all time. Born and educated in +Alexandria when its schools and scholars were the most celebrated in the +world, she was even at an early age regarded as a marvel of learning. +For, not satisfied with excelling her father, Theon, in mathematics, of +which he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> was a distinguished professor, she, as Suidas informs us, +devoted herself to the study of philosophy with such success that she +was soon regarded as the ablest living exponent of the doctrines of +Plato and Aristotle. "Her knowledge," writes the historian, Socrates, +"was so great that she far surpassed all the philosophers of her time. +And succeeding Plotinus, in the Platonic school which he had founded in +the city of Alexandria, she taught all the branches of philosophy with +such signal success that students flocked to her in crowds from all +parts."<a name="FNanchor_152_152" id="FNanchor_152_152"></a><a href="#Footnote_152_152" class="fnanchor">[152]</a> Her home, as well as her lecture room, was the resort of +the most noted scholars of the day, and was, with the exception of the +Library and the Museum, the most frequented intellectual center of the +great city of learning and culture. Small wonder, then, that her +contemporaries lauded her as an oracle and as the most brilliant +luminary in Alexandria's splendid galaxy of thinkers and +scholars—<i>sapientis artis sidus integerrimum</i>.</p> + +<p>Among the many inventions attributed to Hypatia, besides the planisphere +and astrolabe which she designed for the use of astronomers, are several +employed in the study of natural philosophy. Probably the most useful of +these is an areometer mentioned by her pupil Synesius. He calls it a +hydroscope and describes it as having the form and size of a flute, and +graduated in such wise that it can be used for determining the density +of liquids. That Hypatia was thoroughly familiar with the science of +natural philosophy, as then known, there can be no doubt. That she also +contributed materially to its advancement, as well as to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> that of +astronomy, in which she always exhibited a special interest, there is +every reason to believe.<a name="FNanchor_153_153" id="FNanchor_153_153"></a><a href="#Footnote_153_153" class="fnanchor">[153]</a></p> + +<p>After the death of Hypatia, the study of natural philosophy was almost +entirely neglected for more than a thousand years. The first woman in +modern times to attract attention by her discussion of physical problems +was the famous Marquise du Châtelet, although she was better known as a +mathematician and as the translator into the French of Newton's +<i>Principia</i>. In her château at Cirey she had a well-equipped physical +cabinet in which she took special delight. But in her time, as in that +of Hypatia, natural philosophy was far from being the broad experimental +science which it has become through the marvelous discoveries made in +heat, light, electricity and magnetism during the last hundred years, as +well as through those countless brilliant investigations which have led +up to our present doctrine of the correlation and conservation of the +various physical forces. There was then no occasion for those delicate +instruments of precision which are now found in every physical +laboratory by means of which the man of science is able to investigate +phenomena and determine laws that were quite unknown until a few years +ago.</p> + +<p>In the time of Mme. du Châtelet, as during the century following, +natural philosophy consisted rather in the mechanical and mathematical +than in the physical study of nature. This is illustrated by the title +of the great work on the translation of which she spent the best years +of her life—Newton's immortal <i>Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia +Mathematica</i>.</p> + +<p>The Marquise's first scientific work was an investigation regarding the +nature of fire. The French Academy of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> Sciences had offered a prize for +the best memoir on the subject. Among the contestants for the coveted +honor were the chatelaine of Cirey and the celebrated Swiss +mathematician, Leonard Euler. The Marquise was unsuccessful in the +contest, but her paper was of such value that the eminent physicist and +astronomer, Arago, was able to characterize it as an "elegant piece of +work, embracing all the facts relating to the subject then known to +science and containing among the experiments suggested one which proved +so fecund in the hands of Herschel." In this remarkable <i>Mémoire sur le +Feu</i>, which is printed in the <i>Collections</i> of the Academy, the Marquise +anticipates the results of subsequent researches of others by +maintaining that both heat and light have the same cause, or, as we +should now say, are both modes of motion.</p> + +<p>The second book written by this remarkable woman is entitled +<i>Institutions de Physique</i>, and was dedicated to her son, for whose +benefit it was primarily written. It deals specially with the philosophy +of Leibnitz and discusses such questions as force, time and space. Her +views respecting the nature of the force called <i>vis viva</i>, which was +much discussed in her time, are of particular interest, as they are not +only opposed to those which were held by Descartes and Newton, but also +because they are in essential accord with those now accepted in the +world of science.</p> + +<p>All things considered, the Marquise du Châtelet deservedly takes high +rank in the history of mathematical physics. In this department of +science she has had few, if any, superiors among her own sex. And, when +we recollect that she labored while the foundations of dynamics were +still being laid, we shall more readily appreciate the difficulties she +had to contend with and the distinct service which her researches and +writings rendered to the cause of natural philosophy among her +contemporaries.</p> + +<p>The first woman to occupy a chair of physics in a university was the +famous daughter of Italy, Laura Maria<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> Catarina Bassi. She was born in +Bologna in 1711—but five years after the birth of Madame du +Châtelet—and from her most tender years she exhibited an exceptional +facility for the acquisition of knowledge.</p> + +<p>After she had, through the assistance of excellent masters, become +proficient in French and Latin, she took up the study of logic, +metaphysics and natural philosophy. In all these branches of learning +her progress was so rapid that it far exceeded the fondest expectations +of her parents and teachers. Thanks to a wonderful memory and a highly +developed reasoning faculty, she was able, while still a young maiden, +to prove herself the possessor of knowledge that is ordinarily obtained +only in the maturity of age and after long years of systematic study.</p> + +<p>When she had attained the twenty-first year of her age she was induced +by her family and friends—much against her own inclination, however—to +take part in a public disputation on philosophy. Her entering the lists +against some of the most distinguished scholars of the time was made the +occasion for an unusual demonstration in her honor. The hall of the +university in which such intellectual jousts were generally held was too +small for the multitude that was eager to witness the young girl's +formal appearance among the scholars and the notables of the old +university city. It was, accordingly, arranged that the disputation +should be held in the great hall of the public Palace of the Senators.</p> + +<p>Among the vast assemblage present at the disputation were Cardinal +Grimaldi, the papal legate; Cardinal Archbishop Lambertini, afterwards +Pope Benedict XIV; the gonfalonier, senators, literati from far and +near, leading members of the nobility and representatives of all the +religious orders.</p> + +<p>When the argumentation began the young girl found herself pitted against +five of the most distinguished scholars of Bologna. But she was fully +equal to the occasion and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> passed the ordeal to which she was subjected +in a manner that excited the admiration and won the plaudits of all +present. Cardinal Lambertini was so impressed with the brilliant defence +which she had made against the five trained dialecticians and the +evidence she gave of varied and profound learning that he paid her a +special visit the next day in her own home to renew his congratulations +on her signal triumph and to encourage her to continue the prosecution +of her studies.</p> + +<p>In less than a month after this interesting event Laura Bassi, in +response to the expressed desire of the whole of Bologna, presented +herself as a candidate for the doctorate in philosophy. This was the +occasion for a still more brilliant and imposing ceremony. It was held +in the spacious Hall of Hercules in the Communal Palace, which was +magnificently decorated for the splendid function. In addition to the +distinguished personages who had been spectators of the fair student's +triumph a few weeks before, there was present in the vast audience the +noted French ecclesiastic, Cardinal Polignac, who was on his way from +Rome to France.</p> + +<p>The heroine of the hour, dressed in a black gown, was ushered into the +great hall, preceded by two college beadles and accompanied by two of +the most prominent ladies of the Bolognese nobility. She was given a +seat between the chancellor and the prior of the university, who, in +turn, were flanked by the professors and officials of the institution.</p> + +<p>After the usual preliminaries of the function were over the prior of the +university, Doctor Bazzani, rose and pronounced an eloquent discourse in +Latin to which Laura made a suitable response in the same language. She +was then crowned with a laurel wreath exquisitely wrought in silver, and +had thrown round her the <i>vajo</i>, or university gown, both symbols of the +doctorate. After this the young doctor proceeded to where the three +cardinals were seated,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> and in delicately chosen words, also in Latin, +expressed to them her thanks for the honor of their presence. All then +withdrew to the apartments of the gonfalonier, where refreshments were +served in sumptuous style, after which the young <i>Laureata</i>, accompanied +by a numerous cortege and applauded by the entire city, was escorted to +her home.</p> + +<p>So profound was the impression made on the university senate by the deep +erudition of Laura Bassi that it was eager to secure her services in its +teaching body. But, before she could be offered a chair in the +institution, long-established custom required that she should pass a +public examination on the subject matter which she was to teach. Five +examiners were chosen by lot, and all of them proved to be men whose +names, says Fantuzzi, "will always be held by our university in glorious +remembrance." They had all to promise under oath that the candidate for +the chair should have no knowledge before the examination of the +questions which were to be asked, and that the test of the aspirant's +qualifications to fill the position sought should be absolutely free +from any suspicion of favoritism or partiality.</p> + +<p>Notwithstanding the difficulties she had to confront, Laura acquitted +herself with even greater credit than on former occasions of a similar +character. There was no question in the mind of any one present at the +examination of the candidate's ability to fill the chair of physics, and +it was, accordingly, offered to her by acclamation.</p> + +<p>The first public lecture of the gifted young <i>dottoressa</i> was made the +occasion of a demonstration such as the old walls of the university had +rarely witnessed. Her lecture room was thronged by the élite of the +city, as well as by a large class of enthusiastic students. All were +charmed by her eloquence and amazed at the complete mastery she evinced +of the subject she had selected for discussion. From that day forth her +reputation as a scholar and a teacher was established, and her lectures +were attended by appreciative<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> students from all parts of Europe. She +was especially popular with the students from Greece, Germany and +Poland, and her popularity, far from waning, waxed greater with the +passing years.</p> + +<p>At the time of Laura's entering upon her professional career the senate +of Bologna had a medal coined in her honor, on the obverse of which was +her name and effigy, while on the reverse there was an image of Minerva, +with the inscription, <i>Soli cui fas vidisse Minervam</i>.</p> + +<p>Far from interrupting her studies, which had hitherto been the joy of +her life, Laura's university work gave new zest to the literary and +scientific pursuits which had always such a fascination for her. Among +the subjects that specially engaged her attention were studies so +diverse as Greek and the higher mathematics. She was particularly +interested in the great physico-mathematical work of Newton, and did not +rest until she had thoroughly mastered the contents of his epoch-making +<i>Principia</i>.</p> + +<p>A few years after she had become a member of the university faculty +Laura was a European celebrity, and no one eminent by learning or birth +passed through Bologna without availing himself of the opportunity of +making the acquaintance of so extraordinary a woman. Men of science and +letters vied with princes and emperors in doing honor to one who was +looked upon by many as being, like Arete of old, endowed with a soul and +a genius far above that of ordinary mortals, and as being the possessor +of a talent that indicated something superhuman.</p> + +<p>Laura Bassi was in constant correspondence with the most celebrated +scholars of Europe, and more especially with those who had attained +eminence in her special line of work. Among the letters received from +her illustrious correspondents were two from Voltaire. They were written +shortly after the author had been refused admittance into the French +academy. He then bethought himself of securing membership in the Academy +of Sciences of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> Bologna. This, he reasoned, would be a splendid tribute +to the versatility of his genius and would, at the same time, be a +biting satire on the demigods of French literature who had dared to +exclude him from their society.</p> + +<p>That he might not meet the same refusal on the part of the Academy of +Bologna as he had experienced in Paris, Voltaire determined not to rely +entirely on the good will of the male members of the Bolognese academy. +He accordingly resolved to enlist the services of Laura Bassi, who was +one of the leading members of this distinguished body, and trust to her +influence in his behalf on the hearts of her colleagues.</p> + +<p>The first letter, written in Italian, is so characteristic of the writer +that it will bear reproduction.</p> + +<p>"Most Illustrious Lady," he writes from Paris, the 23d of November, +1744, "I have been wishing to journey to Bologna in order to be able one +day to tell my countrymen I have seen Signora Bassi; but, being deprived +of this honor, let it at least be permitted me to place at your feet +this philosophic homage and to salute the honor of her age and of women. +There is not a Bassi in London, and I should be more happy to be a +member of the Academy of Bologna than of that of the English, although +it has produced a Newton. If your protection should obtain for me this +title, of which I am so ambitious, the gratitude of my heart will be +equal to my admiration for yourself. I beg you to excuse the style of a +foreigner who presumes to write you in Italian, but who is as great an +admirer of yours as if he were born in Bologna."</p> + +<p>The second letter of Voltaire is in response to one received from Laura +Bassi announcing that he had been elected to membership in the Bologna +Academy. The first sentence of it suffices to indicate its tenor. +"Nothing," he writes, "was ever more grateful to me than to receive from +your hand the first advice that I had the honor, by means of your favor, +of being united by this new link to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> one who had already bound me to her +car by all the chains of esteem and admiration."<a name="FNanchor_154_154" id="FNanchor_154_154"></a><a href="#Footnote_154_154" class="fnanchor">[154]</a></p> + +<p>Like so many of her gifted sisters of sunny Italy, Laura was in every +way "a perfect woman nobly planned." Of a deeply religious nature, she +was as pious as she was intelligent, and was throughout her life the +devoted friend of the poor and the afflicted. The mother of twelve +children, she never permitted her scientific and literary work to +conflict with her domestic duties or to detract in the least from the +singular affection which so closely united her to her husband and +children. She was as much at home with the needle and the spindle as she +was with her books and the apparatus of her laboratory. And she was +equally admirable whether superintending her household, looking after +her children, entertaining the great and the learned of the world, or in +holding the rapt attention of her students in the lecture room. She was, +indeed, a living proof that higher education is not incompatible with +woman's natural avocations; and that cerebral development does not lead +to race suicide and all the other dire results attributed to it by a +certain class of our modern sociologists and anti-feminists.</p> + +<p>Considering her manifold duties as a professor in the university and the +mother of a large family, it was scarcely to be expected that Laura +Bassi would have much time for writing for the press. She was, however, +able to devote some of her leisure moments to the cultivation of the +Muses, of whom, Fantuzzi informs us, she was a favorite. Her verses, as +well as her contributions to the science of physics, are scattered +through various publications, but they suffice to show that the accounts +of her transmitted to us by her contemporaries were not +exaggerated.<a name="FNanchor_155_155" id="FNanchor_155_155"></a><a href="#Footnote_155_155" class="fnanchor">[155]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p><p>A learned French traveler who visited Laura in Bologna describes her as +having a face that was sweet, serious and modest. Her eyes were dark and +sparkling, and she was blessed with a powerful memory, a solid judgment, +and a ready imagination. "She conversed fluently with me in Latin for an +hour with grace and precision. She is very proficient in metaphysics; +but she prefers modern physics, particularly that of Newton."</p> + +<p>How many of our college women of to-day could readily carry on a +conversation in Latin, if this were the sole medium of communication, or +discuss the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle in the tongue of Cicero, +or give public lectures on the physico-mathematical discoveries of +Descartes and Newton in what was the universal language of the learned +world, even less than a century ago?</p> + +<p>It must not, however, be inferred from the foregoing statements +regarding the great intellectual capacity of Laura Bassi or the +enthusiastic demonstrations that were so frequently made in her honor +that she was unique in this respect among her countrywomen. Special +attention has been called to her as a type of the large number of her +sex who, by their learning and culture, graced the courts and honored +the universities of her country for full ten centuries. Scarcely had +death removed Laura Bassi from a career in which for twenty-eight years +she had won the plaudits of the whole of Europe, when the University of +Bologna welcomed to its learned halls two other women who, in their +respective lines of research, were fully as eminent as their departed +countrywoman. These were Maria dalle Donne, for whom Napoleon +established a chair of obstetrics, and Clotilda Tambroni, the famous +professor of Greek, of whom a noted Hellenist declared, "Only three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> +persons in Europe are able to write Greek as well as she does, and not +more than fifteen are able to understand her."</p> + +<p>Burckhardt, in his thoughtful work on the culture of the Italian +Renaissance, has a paragraph which expresses, in a few words, what was +always the attitude of the Italian father toward the education of his +daughter.</p> + +<p>"The education of the woman of the upper class was absolutely the same +as that of the man. The Italian of the Renaissance did not for a moment +hesitate to give his son and daughter the same literary and +philosophical training. He considered the knowledge of the works of +antiquity life's greatest good, and he could not, therefore, deny to +woman participation in such knowledge. Hence the perfection attained by +the daughters of noble families in writing and speaking Latin."<a name="FNanchor_156_156" id="FNanchor_156_156"></a><a href="#Footnote_156_156" class="fnanchor">[156]</a></p> + +<p>This attitude of the members of the nobility toward the education of +their daughters was essentially the same as that of the universities of +Italy toward women who had a thirst for knowledge. For from the dawn of +learning in Salerno to the present there never was a time when women +were not as cordially welcomed to the universities as students and +professors as were the men; and never a time when the merit of +intellectual work was not determined without regard to sex.</p> + +<p>In Bologna, where were passed the sixty-seven years of her mortal life, +the name of Laura Bassi, like that of her illustrious colleague, Luigi +Galvani, is one to conjure with, and a name that is still pronounced +with respect and reverence. Her last resting place is in the Church of +Corpus Domini, the same sacred shrine in which were deposited all that +was mortal of the renowned discoverer of galvanic electricity.<a name="FNanchor_157_157" id="FNanchor_157_157"></a><a href="#Footnote_157_157" class="fnanchor">[157]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p><p>Two years after Signora Bassi was gathered to her fathers there was born +near Edinburgh to a Scotch admiral, Sir William George Fairfax, an +infant daughter who was destined to shed as much luster on her sex in +the British Isles as the incomparable Laura Bassi had diffused on +womankind in Italy during her brilliant career in "Bologna, the +learned." She is known in the annals of science as Mary Somerville, and +was in every way a worthy successor of her famous sister in Italy, both +as a woman and as a votary of science.</p> + +<p>Although her chief title to fame is her notable work in mathematical +astronomy, especially her translation of Laplace's <i>Méchanique Céleste</i>, +she is likewise to be accorded a prominent place among scientific +investigators for her contributions to physics and cognate branches of +knowledge. Chief among these are her works on the <i>Connection of the +Physical Sciences</i> and <i>Physical Geography</i>. As to the last production, +no less an authority than Alexander von Humboldt pronounced it an exact +and admirable treatise, and wrote of it as "that excellent work which +has charmed and instructed me since its first appearance."</p> + +<p>In a letter from the illustrious German savant to the gifted authoress +of the two last-named volumes occurs the following paragraph: "To the +great superiority you possess and which has so nobly illustrated your +name on the high regions of mathematical analysis, you add, Madam, a +variety of information in all parts of physics and descriptive natural +history. After the <i>Mechanism of the Heavens</i>, the philosophical +<i>Connection of the Physical Sciences</i> has been the object of my profound +admiration.... The author of the vast <i>Cosmos</i> should more than any one +else salute the <i>Physical Geography</i> of Mary Somerville.... I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> know of +no work on physical geography in any language that can compare with +yours."</p> + +<p>Among the other works by Mrs. Somerville, treating of physical subjects +or of subjects intimately related to physics are <i>The Form and Rotation +of the Earth</i>, <i>The Tides of the Ocean and Atmosphere</i>, and an abstruse +investigation <i>On Molecular and Microscopic Science</i>. The last volume +was published in 1869, when its author was near her ninetieth year, and +bore as its motto St. Augustine's sublime words: <i>Deus magnus in magnis, +maximus in minimis</i>—God is great in great things, greatest in the +least.</p> + +<p>After Mrs. Somerville's death, in 1872, at the advanced age of +ninety-two, the number of women who devoted themselves to the study and +teaching of physics was greatly augmented. The brilliant success of +Laura Bassi and Mary Somerville had not been without results, and their +notable achievements as authors and teachers had the effect of +stimulating women everywhere to emulate their example, and encouraging +them to devote more attention to a branch of science which, until then, +had been regarded by the general public as beyond the sphere and +capacity of what was assumed to be the intellectually weaker sex.</p> + +<p>One of the most eminent scientific women of the present day in England +is Mrs. Ayrton, the wife of the late Professor W. E. Ayrton, the +well-known electrician. Her chosen field of research, like that of her +husband, has been electricity, in which she has achieved marked +distinction. Her investigations on the electric arc and on the sand +ripples of the seashore won for her the first medal ever awarded to a +woman by the Royal Society. When, however, in 1902, she was formally +nominated for fellowship in this same society, she failed of election +because the council of the society discovered that "it had no legal +power to elect a married woman to this distinction."</p> + +<p>How different it was in the case of Laura Bassi, who was an active +member of all the leading scientific and literary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> societies of Italy, +where from time immemorial women have been as cordially welcomed to +membership in its learned societies as to the chairs of its great +universities.</p> + +<p>The list of the women who in Europe and America are now engaged in +physical research and in teaching physics in schools and colleges is a +long one, and the work accomplished by them is, in many cases, of a high +order of merit. It is only, indeed, during the present generation that +such work has been made generally accessible to them; and, considering +the success which has already attended their efforts in this branch of +science, we have every reason to believe that the future will bring +forth many others of their sex who will take rank with such intellectual +luminaries as Hypatia, Mme. du Châtelet, Laura Bassi and Mary +Somerville.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_151_151" id="Footnote_151_151"></a><a href="#FNanchor_151_151"><span class="label">[151]</span></a> "Publice philosophiam naturalem et moralem in scholis +Academiisque Atticis docuit hæc fœmina annis XXXV, libros composuit +XL, discipulos habuit philosophos CX, obiit anno ætatis LXXVII, cui tale +Athenienses statuere epitaphium: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Nobilis hic Arete dormit, lux Helladis, ore<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Tyndaris at tibi par, Icarioti, fide.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Patris Aristippi calamumque animamque dederunt,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Socratis huic linguam Mæonidaeque Dii."<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span> +<span class="i11">—Boccaccio, <i>De Laudibus Mulierum</i>, Lib. II.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +Cf. Wolf's <i>Mulierum Græcarum quæ Oratione Prosa Usæ Sunt Fragmenta et +Elogia</i>, pp. 283 et seq., London, 1739.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_152_152" id="Footnote_152_152"></a><a href="#FNanchor_152_152"><span class="label">[152]</span></a> "Mulier quædam fuit Alexandriæ, nomine Hypatia, Theonis +filia. Hæc ad tantam eruditionem pervenerat ut omnes sui temporis +philosophos longo intervallo superaret, et in Platonicam scholam a +Plotino deductam succederet, cunctasque philosophiæ disciplinas +auditoribus exponeret. Quocirca omnes philosophiæ studiosi ad illam +undique confluebant." <i>Socrates, Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ</i>, Lib. VII, Cap. +15.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_153_153" id="Footnote_153_153"></a><a href="#FNanchor_153_153"><span class="label">[153]</span></a> For extracts from the ancient authors regarding Hypatia, +as well as for the extant letters to her from her friend and pupil, +Synesius, the reader is referred to Wolf's erudite <i>Mulierum Græcarum +quæ Oratione Prosa Usæ sunt Fragmenta et Elogia</i>, pp. 72-91, ut sup.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_154_154" id="Footnote_154_154"></a><a href="#FNanchor_154_154"><span class="label">[154]</span></a> Ernesto Masi, <i>Studi e Ritratti</i>, p. 166 et seq., +Bologna, 1881.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_155_155" id="Footnote_155_155"></a><a href="#FNanchor_155_155"><span class="label">[155]</span></a> Two of her Latin dissertations on certain physical +problems were published in the <i>Commentaries of the Bologna Institute</i>. +One of them is entitled <i>De Problemate quodam Mechanico</i>; the other <i>De +Problemate quodam Hydrometrico</i>. Many of her lectures on physics still +exist in manuscript, and it is to be hoped that at least the titles of +them may be given in a biography of the learned author which has been +long desired and long promised.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_156_156" id="Footnote_156_156"></a><a href="#FNanchor_156_156"><span class="label">[156]</span></a> <i>Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien</i>, Vol. I, p. 363, +1869.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_157_157" id="Footnote_157_157"></a><a href="#FNanchor_157_157"><span class="label">[157]</span></a> As no satisfactory biography of Laura Bassi has yet been +written, most of our knowledge respecting her is limited to that found +in Fantuzzi's <i>Notizie degli Scrittori Bolognesi</i>, Tom. I, pp. 384-391, +and Mazzuchelli's <i>Gli Scrittori d'Italia</i>, Vol. II, Part I, pp. +527-529, Brescia, 1758.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY</h3> + + +<p>The first woman deserving special mention in the history of chemistry is +the wife of the immortal Lavoisier, the most famous of the founders of +modern chemical science. While yet in her teens, this remarkable woman +gave evidence of exceptional intelligence and will power. She was +thoroughly devoted to her husband, and had the greatest admiration for +his genius. Her highest ambition was to prove herself worthy of him and +to render herself competent to assist him in those investigations that +have given him such imperishable renown. With this end in view, she +learned Latin and English, and she thus became an accomplished +translator from these languages of any chemical works which might aid +her spouse in his epoch-making researches. It was she who translated for +him the chemical memoirs of Cavendish, Henry, Kirwan, Priestly and other +noted English scientific investigators.</p> + +<p>Arthur Young, well known in his day as a traveler and author, who in +1787 made the acquaintance of Madame Lavoisier, describes her as a woman +full of animation, good sense and knowledge. In referring to a breakfast +she had given him, he declares that "unquestionably the best part of the +repast was her conversation on Kirwan's <i>Essay on Phlogiston</i>, which she +was then translating, and on other subjects which a woman of sense, +working in the laboratory of her husband, knows so well how to make +interesting."</p> + +<p>She was an ardent co-worker with her husband in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> laboratory and +materially aided him in his labors. Under his direction she wrote the +results of the experiments that were made, as is evidenced by the +records of his work. As a pupil of the illustrious painter, David, she +was naturally skillful in drawing. Besides this, she was a good +engraver, and it is to her that are due the illustrations in Lavoisier's +great <i>Traité de Chimie</i>, which contributed so much toward +revolutionizing the science of chemistry. It was, indeed, the first work +that deserved to be regarded as a textbook of modern chemistry. Among +her drawings are two of special interest. They represent her as seated +at a table in the laboratory, taking notes, while her husband and his +assistant, Seguin, are making an experiment on the phenomena of +respiration.<a name="FNanchor_158_158" id="FNanchor_158_158"></a><a href="#Footnote_158_158" class="fnanchor">[158]</a></p> + +<p>All Mme. Lavoisier's writings testify to her great admiration of the +genius of her husband. Intimately associated with him in his work, she +combatted for the triumph of his ideas and sought to make converts to +them. One of her most notable converts was the Swiss chemist, de +Saussure. "You have, Madame," he writes her, "triumphed over my doubts, +at least in the matter of phlogiston, which is the principal object of +the interesting work of which you have done me the honor of sending me a +copy."</p> + +<p>After Lavoisier's tragic death on the guillotine, it was his devoted +wife who edited his <i>Memoirs on Chemistry</i>, of which Lavoisier had +himself projected the publication. The two volumes constituting this +work were not for sale, but were gratuitously distributed by the +bereaved widow among the most eminent scientific men of the epoch. +Cuvier, in acknowledging the receipt of these precious memoirs, +declares: "All the friends of science are under obligations to you for +your sorrowful determination to publish this collection of papers and to +publish them as they were written—a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> melancholy monument of your loss +and theirs—a loss which humanity will feel for centuries."</p> + +<p>To realize the importance of the work in which Mme. Lavoisier +participated, it suffices to recall the fact that her husband, as one of +the creators of modern chemistry, was the first to demonstrate the +existence of the law of the conservation of matter, which declares that +in all chemical changes nothing is lost and nothing is created. The +co-discoverer with Scheele and Priestly of oxygen, he was the first one +to exhibit the rôle of this important element in the phenomena of +combustion and respiration and the first, also, to lay the foundations +of a chemical nomenclature. We are not, then, surprised to learn that +Mme. Lavoisier's salon, even long after her lamented husband's death, +was frequented by the most eminent savants of the time. For here were +gathered such scientific luminaries as Cuvier, Laplace, Arago, Lagrange, +Prony, Berthollet, Delambre, Biot, Humboldt, and others scarcely less +brilliant.</p> + +<p>After the conclusion of Mme. Lavoisier's work in the laboratory of her +husband, little was accomplished by women in chemistry for more than +half a century. The reason was simple. Chemistry was not a part of the +curriculum of studies for girls either in Europe or America. Even +"during the sixties," writes a teacher of one of the prominent female +seminaries of the United States, "the study of chemistry was mostly +confined to the textbook, supplemented once a year by a course of +lectures from an itinerant expert, who with his tanks of various gases +produced highly spectacular effects."</p> + +<p>When one recollects that the first institution in America—Vassar—for +the higher education of women was not opened until 1865, one will +understand that there were previously to this date few opportunities for +women to study either chemistry or any of the other sciences.</p> + +<p>The first scientific institution to open its doors to women<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> was the +Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This was on May 11, 1876, when +the governing board of the institute decided that "hereafter special +students in chemistry shall be admitted without regard to sex." In less +than a year after this event every department of this institution was +open to women, and any one who could pass the requisite examination was +admitted as a student.</p> + +<p>Five years, however, before women were formally admitted to the courses +of chemistry an energetic young graduate from Vassar, eager to devote +her life to the pursuit of science, had, as an exceptional favor, been +allowed to enter the Institute as a special student in chemistry. As she +was the first woman in the United States to enter a strictly +professional scientific school, her entrance marks the beginning of a +new epoch in the history of female education. The name of this ardent +votary of science was Miss Ellen Swallow, better known to the world as +Mrs. Ellen H. Richards.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Richards had not devoted herself long to the study of her favorite +science before she resolved to apply the knowledge thus gained to the +problems of daily life. She saw, among other things, the necessity of a +complete reform in domestic economy, and resolutely set to work to have +her views adopted and put in practice. She was, in consequence, one of +the first leaders of the crusade in behalf of pure food, and her +lectures and books on this all-important subject contributed greatly +toward the diffusion of exact knowledge respecting the dangers lurking +in unwholesome food.</p> + +<p>She was likewise one of the first to apply the science of chemistry to +an exhaustive study of the science of nutrition—to the study of food +and the proper preparation of food materials. In this she was eminently +successful, and was able to achieve for home economics what the +illustrious Liebig had many years before accomplished for agricultural +chemistry—put it on a firm and lasting basis. To<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> her the kitchen was +the center and source of political economy.</p> + +<p>The facts of science, indeed, were to Mrs. Richards more than mere +uncorrelated facts. They are potential agencies of service, and their +chief value consists in their enabling us to control our environment in +such wise as to secure the maximum of physical well being. Hence her +constant insistence on personal cleanliness, on the cleanliness of food, +of the house we live in, and, above all, of the kitchen. Hence, also, +her preaching, in season and out of season, on the necessity of pure +air, pure water and abundance of vitalizing sunshine.</p> + +<p>We cannot, then, wonder that sanitary chemistry eventually became the +life work of Mrs. Richards, and that, when the course of sanitary +engineering was inaugurated in the Institute of Technology—the first +course of its kind in the world—she became an important agent in its +development and contributed immensely to its popularity and prestige.</p> + +<p>She held the position of instructor of sanitary chemistry in the +institute for twenty-seven years. During this time she trained a large +number of young men in her chosen specialty, and these, after +graduating, engaged in similar work in various parts of the New and the +Old World.</p> + +<p>The branch of sanitary chemistry to which Mrs. Richards devoted most +attention was air, water and sewage analysis. In this she was a +recognized expert, and her advice and services were sought in all parts +of the country. During the last three years of her life she acted, +according to her own testimony, as general sanitary adviser to no fewer +than two score corporations and schools. In addition to this she was +also during this brief period consulted on the subject of foods by +nearly two hundred educational and other institutions.</p> + +<p>What, however, constituted the greatest contribution of Mrs. Richards to +the public health was the part she took in the great sanitary survey of +the waters of the State of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> Massachusetts. During this long and +laborious investigation she analyzed more than forty thousand samples of +water. These analyses exhibited the condition of the water from all +parts of the state during all seasons of the year and were of the +greatest value in solving a number of important problems in state +sanitation.</p> + +<p>But notwithstanding the drafts made on her time and energy by her +classwork in the laboratory and her occupation as sanitary engineer for +scores of public and private institutions, she still found leisure to +engage in many important movements which had in view the public health +and the betterment of sanitary conditions in city and country. It is +safe to say that no one ever put her knowledge of chemical science to +more practical use or made it more perfectly subserve the public weal +than did Mrs. Richards. To spread among the masses a knowledge of the +principles of sanitation, to make them realize how indispensable to +health are pure food, pure water, pure air and life-giving sunshine was +her great mission in life, and in this she displayed an energy and a +tireless zeal which were an inspiration to all with whom she came into +contact.</p> + +<p>This indefatigable woman, it is proper to record here, might have +distinguished herself as a discoverer in chemical science had she +elected to devote her life to original research rather than to utilizing +the knowledge already available for the welfare of her fellows. Thus, +after a careful analysis of the rare mineral samarskite, she found an +insoluble residue which led her to believe might contain unknown +elements. This view she repeatedly expressed to her co-workers in the +laboratory. But she was unwilling to take from what she regarded more +important work the time necessary for making investigations which might +have given her undying fame as a discoverer. For not long afterward this +insoluble residue, in the hands of two French chemists, yielded the +exceedingly rare elements, samarium and gadolinium.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p> + +<p>Another chemist of a less altruistic nature than Mrs. Richards would not +have resisted the temptation to achieve distinction in the domain of +original research. But where there was so much suffering to be relieved +and so much ignorance to be removed regarding the most fundamental +principles of sanitation, this philanthropic woman preferred to put to +practical use what she called "the considerable body of useful knowledge +now lying on our shelves."</p> + +<p>Her duty, as she conceived it, is well indicated in the following +paragraph, taken from a thoughtful discussion by her of the subject of +home economics a short time before her death in 1911. "The sanitary +research worker in laboratory and field," she declares, "has gone nearly +to the limit of his value. He will soon be smothered in his own work, if +no one takes it. Meanwhile children die by the thousands; contagious +diseases take toll of hundreds; back alleys remain foul and the streets +are unswept; school-houses are unwashed and danger lurks in the drinking +cups and about the towels. Dust is stirred up each morning with the +feather duster to greet the warm, moist noses and throats of the +children. To the watchful expert it seems like the old cities dancing +and making merry on the eve of a volcanic outbreak."<a name="FNanchor_159_159" id="FNanchor_159_159"></a><a href="#Footnote_159_159" class="fnanchor">[159]</a></p> + +<p>From the day in 1873 when Mrs. Richards received from the Institute of +Technology the degree of Bachelor of Science—a degree which made her +not only the first woman graduate of this institution, but also the +first graduate in the United States of a strictly scientific seat of +learning—the number of women who have devoted themselves to chemical +pursuits is legion. They are now found in every civilized country in +both hemispheres and their number is daily increasing. They are +everywhere doing excellent work as teachers in classrooms and +laboratories and holding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> their own with men as chemical experts in +manufacturing establishments and government institutions. Many of them +have done original work of a high order, and distinguished themselves by +their valuable contributions to contemporary chemical literature. Space, +however, precludes more than a general reference to their achievements, +for the names only of those who have done meritorious work in chemistry +would make a very long list.</p> + +<p>Passing over, then, all the lesser feminine lights in chemistry who, in +various fields of activity, have rendered such distinct service during +the past generation, we come to one who for nearly two decades has stood +in the forefront of the great chemists of the world. This is that +renowned daughter of Poland, Mme. Marie Klodowska Curie, whose name will +always be identified with some of the most remarkable discoveries which +have ever been made in the long-continued study of the material +universe.</p> + +<p>Marie Klodowska was born in Warsaw, in 1868. Her father was a professor +of chemistry in the university of the former Polish capital; and it is +undoubtedly from him that his brilliantly dowered daughter has inherited +her love of chemistry and her extraordinary genius for scientific +research. Owing to the paltry salary he received, Professor Klodowska +was obliged to make little Marie his laboratory assistant while she was +quite a young girl. Instead, then, of playing with tops and dolls, her +time was occupied in cleaning evaporating dishes and test tubes and in +assisting her father to prepare for his lectures and experiments. And it +was thus that, at an early age, she acquired a taste for that science in +which she was subsequently to achieve such world-wide fame.</p> + +<p>While still a young woman, her love of science drew her to Paris, where +she arrived with only fifty francs in her purse. But, possessed of +dauntless courage and unfaltering perseverance, she was prepared to make +any sacrifice in the pursuit of knowledge.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p> + +<p>Her first home in the gay French metropolis was a poorly furnished +garret in an obscure part of the city, and her diet was for so long a +time restricted to black bread and skimmed milk that she afterward +avowed that she had to cultivate a taste for wine and meat. And so +intensely cold was her cheerless room in winter that the little bottle +of milk which was daily left at her door was speedily congealed. At this +time the poor girl was living on less than ten cents a day, but still +cherishing all the while the fond hope that she might eventually secure +a position as a student assistant in some good chemical laboratory.</p> + +<p>After a long struggle with poverty and after countless disappointments +in quest of a position where she could gratify her ambition as a student +of chemistry, she finally found occupation as a poorly paid assistant in +the laboratory conducted by Professor Lipmann. She was not, however, at +work a week before this distinguished investigator recognized in the +young woman one whose knowledge of chemistry and faculty for original +research were far above the average. She was accordingly transferred +without delay from the menial employment in which she had been engaged +and given every possible facility for prosecuting work as an original +investigator.</p> + +<p>It was shortly after this event that Marie Klodowska met the noted +savant, Pierre Curie. He was not long in discovering in her a kindred +spirit—one who, besides having exceptional talent in experimental +chemistry, was actuated by an ardent love of science. It was then that +he determined to make her his wife. A single sentence in a letter he +wrote at this time to the object of his admiration and affection +reveals, better than anything else, the devotion of this matchless pair +in the cause of science. "What a great thing it would be," he exclaims, +"to unite our lives and work together for the sake of science and +humanity." These simple words were the keynote to the ideal life led by +this incomparable couple during the eleven years they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> worked together +in perfect unity of thought and aspiration before the sudden and +premature extinction of the husband's life gave such a shock to the +entire scientific world.</p> + +<p>After her marriage the gifted young Polish woman had reached the goal of +her ambition. She was able to devote herself exclusively to what was +henceforth to constitute her life work in one of the best laboratories +of Paris, that of the École de Physique et de Chimie, and that, too, in +collaboration with her husband, from whom she was never separated during +the entire period of their married life for even a single day.</p> + +<p>It was about this time that Mme. Curie had her interest aroused by the +brilliant discoveries of Röntgen and Becquerel regarding radiant matter. +After a long series of carefully conducted experiments on the compounds +of uranium and thorium, she, with the intuition of genius, opened up to +the world of science an entirely new field of research. But she soon +realized that the labor involved in the investigations which she had +planned was entirely beyond the capacity of any one person. It was then +that she succeeded in enlisting her husband's interest in the +undertaking which was to lead to such marvelous results.</p> + +<p>Confining their work to a careful analytical study of the residue of the +famous Bohemian pitchblend—an extremely complex mineral, largely +composed of oxide of uranium—they soon found themselves confronted by +most extraordinary radio-active phenomena. Continuing their researches, +their labor was rewarded by the discovery of a new element which Mme. +Curie, in her enthusiasm, named in honor of the land of her birth, +polonium.</p> + +<p>As their investigations progressed, they became correspondingly +difficult. They were dealing with substances which exist in pitchblend +residue only in infinitesimal quantities—not more than three troy grams +to the ton. The difficulties they had to contend with were enough to +discourage<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> the stoutest heart. Few believed in their theories, while +the majority of those who had some intimation of the character of their +work were persuaded that they were pursuing a phantom. But the +indefatigable pair toiled on day and night and continued their +experiments through long years of poverty and deferred hopes.</p> + +<p>Considering the herculean task in which they were engaged for so many +years, we scarcely know which to admire most, their clearness of vision, +which made them divine success; their profound knowledge, which guided +them in the choice of reagents; or the indomitable perseverance which +characterized them in their laborious task and in the countless +sacrifices which they were obliged to make before their efforts were +crowned with success.</p> + +<p>During this long search into the inner heart of nature, Pierre Curie was +often so discouraged and depressed that, had he not been sustained by +his more sanguine wife, he would time and again have given up his +investigations in despair. But Marie Curie never faltered. She never +lost faith in their theories or confidence in the outcome of their great +undertaking. Before her deft hands and fertile brain difficulties +vanished as if under the magic wand of Prospero.</p> + +<p>At length, after countless experiments of the most delicate character, +after bringing to bear on the solution of the problem before them the +most refined methods of chemical analysis, they were rewarded by one of +the most extraordinary discoveries recorded in the annals of science. +With the announcement of the discovery of radium, the Curies sprang into +world-wide fame, and the name of the wonderful woman who had been the +prime mover in the supreme achievement was on every lip. Pierre Curie +himself declared that more than half of the epochal discovery belonged +to his wife. It was she who began the work. It was she who, after her +marriage, enlisted in it the coöperation of her husband. It was she +whose invincible patience and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> persistence—typical of the noblest +representatives of her race—supported him during periods of doubt and +despondency and fanned his flagging spirits to new endeavor. It can +indeed be truthfully asserted that had it not been for her penetrating +intelligence, her tenacity of purpose and her keenness of vision, which +were never at fault, the great victory which crowned their efforts would +never have been achieved.<a name="FNanchor_160_160" id="FNanchor_160_160"></a><a href="#Footnote_160_160" class="fnanchor">[160]</a></p> + +<p>Compare their work with that which was accomplished by their illustrious +predecessors, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, and his wife, a century +earlier. The latter, by their discovery of and experiments with oxygen, +were able to explain the until then mysterious phenomena of combustion +and respiration and to coördinate numberless facts which had before +stood isolated and enigmatic. But the reverse was the case in the +discovery of that extraordinary and uncanny element, radium. It +completely subverted many long-established theories and necessitated an +entirely new view of the nature of energy and of the constitution of +matter. A substance that seemed capable of emitting light and heat +indefinitely, with little or no appreciable change or transformation, +appeared to sap the very foundations of the fundamental principle of the +conservation of energy.</p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p> +<p>Subsequent investigations seemed only to render "confusion worse +confounded." They appeared to justify the dreams of the alchemists of +old, not only regarding the transmutation of metals but also respecting +the elixir of life. For was not this apparently absurd idea vindicated +by the observed curative properties—bordering almost on the +miraculous—this marvelous element was reputed to possess! Its virtues, +it was averred, transcended the fabled properties of the famous red +tincture and the philosopher's stone combined, and many were prepared to +find in it a panacea for the most distressing of human ailments, from +lupus and rodent ulcer to cancer and other frightful forms of morbid +degeneration.<a name="FNanchor_161_161" id="FNanchor_161_161"></a><a href="#Footnote_161_161" class="fnanchor">[161]</a></p> + +<p>And the end is not yet. Continued investigations, made in all parts of +the world since the discovery of radium by the Curies, have but +emphasized its mysterious properties, and compelled a revision of many +of our most cherished theories in chemistry, physics and astronomy. No +one single discovery, not even Pasteur's far-reaching discovery of +microbic life, it may safely be asserted, has ever been more subversive +of long-accepted views in certain domains of science, or given rise to +more perplexing problems regarding matters which were previously thought +to be thoroughly understood.</p> + +<p>Never in the entire history of science have the results of a woman's +scientific researches been so stupendous or so revolutionary. And never +has any one achievement in science reflected more glory on womankind +than that which is so largely due to the genius and the perseverance of +Mme. Curie.</p> + +<p>After their startling discovery, honors and tributes to their genius +came in rapid succession to the gifted couple. On the recommendation of +the venerable British savant,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> Lord Kelvin, they were awarded the Davy +gold medal by the Royal Society. Shortly after this they shared with M. +H. Becquerel in the Nobel prize for physics bestowed on them by Sweden. +Then came laggard France with its decoration of the Legion of Honor. But +it was offered only to the man. There was nothing for the woman. Pierre +Curie showed his spirit and chivalry by declining to accept the +proffered honor unless his wife could share it with him. His answer was +simple, but its meaning could not be mistaken. "This decoration," he +said, "has no bearing on my work."<a name="FNanchor_162_162" id="FNanchor_162_162"></a><a href="#Footnote_162_162" class="fnanchor">[162]</a></p> + +<p>Shortly after her husband's death Mme. Curie was appointed as his +successor as special lecturer in the Sorbonne. This was the first time +that this conservative old university ever invited a woman to a full +professorship. But she soon showed that she was thoroughly competent to +fill the position with honor and éclat. She has the élite of society and +the world's most noted men of science among her auditors. The crowned +heads of the Old World eagerly seek an opportunity to witness her +experiments and hear her discourse on what is by all odds the most +marvelous element in nature.</p> + +<p>Mme. Curie has not allowed her lectures in the Sorbonne to interfere +with the continuation of the researches which have won for her such +world-wide renown. Since the sudden taking off of her husband by a +passing truck on a Paris bridge, she has succeeded in isolating both +radium and polonium—only the chlorides and bromides of these elements +were previously known—besides doing other work scarcely less +remarkable. And besides all this, she has also<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> found time to write a +connected account of her investigations under the title of <i>Traité de +Radio-Activité</i>—a work that reflects as much honor on her sex as did +<i>Le Instituzioni Analitiche</i> of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, which won for her, +through that celebrated patron of learning, Benedict XIV, the chair of +higher mathematics in the University of Bologna.</p> + +<p>The list of learned societies to which Mme. Curie belongs is an extended +one. To mention only a few, she is an honorary or foreign member of the +London Chemical Society, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the +Royal Swedish Academy, the American Chemical Society, the American +Philosophical Society, and the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. +Petersburg. From the universities of Geneva and Edinburgh she has +received the honorary degree of doctor.</p> + +<p>In 1898 she received the Gegner prize from the French Academy of +Sciences for her elaborate researches on the magnetic properties of iron +and steel, as also for her investigations relating to radio-activity. +The same prize was again awarded to her in 1900, and still again in +1903. With her husband she received in 1901 the La Caze prize of ten +thousand francs; and in 1903 she received a part of the Osiris prize of +sixty thousand francs. Since her husband's death in 1906 Mme. Curie has +been awarded the coveted Nobel prize in chemistry, which was placed in +her hand by the King of Sweden on December 11, 1911—a prize which +increased the exchequer of the fair recipient by nearly two hundred +thousand francs. Having before been the beneficiary of the Nobel prize +for physics, in conjunction with her husband and M. H. Becquerel, Mme. +Curie is thus the first person to be twice singled out for the world 's +highest financial recognition of scientific research.</p> + +<p>It would take too long to enumerate all the medals and prizes and honors +which have come to this remarkable woman from foreign countries. But she +has doubtless been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> the recipient of more trophies of undying fame +during the last decade and a half than any other one person during the +same brief period of intellectual activity. And all these tokens of +recognition of genius were showered upon her not because she was a +woman, but in spite of this fact. Had she been a man, she would have +been honored with the other distinctions which tradition and prejudice +still persist in denying to one of the proscribed sex, no matter how +great her merit or how signal her achievements.</p> + +<p>At a recent scientific congress, held in Brussels, it was decided to +prepare a standard of measurement of radium emanations. It was the +unanimous opinion of the congress that Mme. Curie was better equipped +than any other person for establishing such a standard; and she was +accordingly requested to undertake the delicate and difficult task—a +commission which she executed to the satisfaction of all concerned.</p> + +<p>This unit of measurement, it is gratifying to learn, will be known as +the curie—a word which will enter the same category as the volt, the +ohm, the ampère, the farad, and a few others which will perpetuate the +names of the world's greatest geniuses in the domain of experimental +science.</p> + +<p>When, not long since, there was a vacancy among the immortals of the +French Academy, there was a generally expressed desire that it should be +filled by one who was universally recognized as among the foremost of +living scientists. The name of Mme. Curie trembled on every lip; and the +hope was entertained that the Academy would honor itself by admitting +the world-famed savante among its members. Considering her achievements, +she had no competitor, and was, in the estimation of all outside of the +Academy, the one person in France who was most deserving of the coveted +honor.</p> + +<p>But no. She was a woman; and for that reason alone she was excluded from +an institution the sole object of whose establishment was the reward of +merit and the advancement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> of learning. The age-old prejudice against +women who devote themselves to the study of science, or who contribute +to the progress of knowledge, was still as dominant as it was in the +days of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, a century and a half before. Mme. Curie, +like her famous sister in Italy, might win the plaudits of the world for +her achievements; but she could have no recognition from the one +institution, above all others, that was specially founded to foster the +development of science and literature, and to crown the efforts of those +who had proven themselves worthy of the Academy's highest honor. The +attitude of the French institution toward Mme. Curie was exactly like +that of the Royal Society of Great Britain when Mrs. Ayrton's name was +up for membership. The answer to both applicants was in effect, if not +in words, "No woman need apply."</p> + +<p>When one reads of the sad experiences of Mme. Curie and Mrs. Ayrton with +the learned societies of Paris and London, one instinctively asks, "When +will the day come when women, in every part of the civilized world, +shall enjoy all the rights and privileges in every field of intellectual +effort which have so long been theirs in the favored land of Dante and +Beatrice—the motherland of learned societies and universities?" For not +until the advent of the day when such exclusive organizations as +the Royal Society and the French Academy of Sciences, such +ultra-conservative universities as Oxford and Cambridge shall admit +women on the same footing as men, will these institutions be more than +half serving the best interests of humanity.<a name="FNanchor_163_163" id="FNanchor_163_163"></a><a href="#Footnote_163_163" class="fnanchor">[163]</a></p> + +<p>Women, it is true, are now eligible to many literary and scientific +associations from which they were formerly debarred,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> and are, in most +countries, admitted to colleges and universities whose portals were +closed to them until only a few years ago; but until they shall be +welcomed to all universities and all societies whose objects are the +advancement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> of knowledge, until they shall participate in the +advantages and prestige accruing from connection with these +organizations, they will have reason to feel that they are not yet in +the full possession of the intellectual advantages for which they have +so long yearned—that they have been but partially liberated from that +educational disqualification in which they have been held during so many +long centuries of deferred hopes and fruitless struggles.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_158_158" id="Footnote_158_158"></a><a href="#FNanchor_158_158"><span class="label">[158]</span></a> <i>Lavoisier 1743-1794, d'après sa Correspondence, Ses +Manuscrits, Ses Papiers de Famille et d'Autres Documents Inédits</i>, p. 42 +et seq., par E. Grimaux, Paris, 1896.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_159_159" id="Footnote_159_159"></a><a href="#FNanchor_159_159"><span class="label">[159]</span></a> <i>The Life of Ellen H. Richards</i>, p. 273 et seq., by +Caroline L. Hunt, Boston, 1912.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_160_160" id="Footnote_160_160"></a><a href="#FNanchor_160_160"><span class="label">[160]</span></a> Mme. Curie, in an article which she wrote shortly after +her discovery of radium, shows that she possesses a genius for inductive +science of the highest type. "It was at the close of the year 1897," she +writes, "that I began to study the compounds of uranium, the properties +of which had greatly attracted my interest. Here was a substance +emitting spontaneously and continually radiations similar to Röntgen +rays, whereas ordinarily, Röntgen rays can be produced only in a vacuum +tube with the expenditure of electrical energy. By what process can +uranium furnish the same rays without expenditure of energy and without +undergoing apparent modification? Is uranium the only body whose +compounds emit similar rays? Such were the questions I asked myself; and +it was while seeking to answer them that I entered into the researches +which have led to the discovery of radium." <i>Radium and Radio-Activity +in The Century Magazine</i>, for January, 1904.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_161_161" id="Footnote_161_161"></a><a href="#FNanchor_161_161"><span class="label">[161]</span></a> <i>Notice sur Pierre Curie</i>, p. 20 et seq., by M. D. +Gernez, Paris, 1907, and <i>Le Radium, Son Origine et ses +Transformations</i>, by M. L. Houllerigue, in <i>La Revue de Paris</i>, May 1, +1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_162_162" id="Footnote_162_162"></a><a href="#FNanchor_162_162"><span class="label">[162]</span></a> The day following Pierre Curie's refusal of the +decoration offered by the Government, the elder of his two daughters, +little Irene, climbed upon her father's knee and put a red geranium in +the lapel of his coat. "Now, papa," she gravely remarked, "you are +decorated with the Legion of Honor." "In this case," the fond father +replied, "I make no objection."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_163_163" id="Footnote_163_163"></a><a href="#FNanchor_163_163"><span class="label">[163]</span></a> A few days before Mme. Curie's name was to come before +the Academy of Sciences as a candidate for membership, the French +Institute in its quarterly plenary meeting of the five academies, of +which the Institute is composed, decided by a vote of ninety to +fifty-two against the eligibility of women to membership, and put itself +on record in favor of the "immutable tradition against the election of +women, which it seemed eminently wise to respect." +</p><p> +Commenting on this decision of The Immortals, a writer in the well-known +English magazine, <i>Nature</i>, under date of January 12, 1911, penned the +following pertinent paragraph: +</p><p> +"It remains to be seen what the Academy of Sciences will do in the face +of such an expression of opinion. Mme. Curie is deservedly popular in +French scientific circles. It is everywhere recognized that her work is +of transcendent merit, and that it has contributed enormously to the +prestige of France as a home of experimental inquiry. Indeed, it is not +too much to say that the discovery and isolation of the radio-active +elements are among the most striking and fruitful results of a field of +investigation preëminently French. If any prophet is to have honour in +his own country—even if the country be only the land of his +adoption—surely, that honour ought to belong to Mme. Curie. At this +moment, Mme. Curie is without doubt, in the eyes of the world, the +dominant figure in French chemistry. There is no question that any man +who had contributed to the sum of human knowledge what she has made +known, would years ago have gained that recognition at the hands of his +colleagues, which Mme. Curie's friends are now desirous of securing for +her. It is incomprehensible, therefore, on any ethical principles of +right and justice that, because she happens to be a woman, she should be +denied the laurels which her preëminent scientific achievement has +earned for her." +</p><p> +Compare this frank and honest statement with that of a contributor, +about the same date, to <i>La Revue du Monde</i>, of Paris. Guided by his +myopic vision and diseased imagination, this writer discerns in the +admittance of women into the grand old institution of Richelieu and +Napoleon the imminent triumph of what Prudhon called pornocracy and the +eventual opening of the portals of the Palais Mazarin to representatives +of the type of Lais and Phryne, on the Hellenic pretext that "Beauty is +the supreme merit." +</p><p> +It is gratifying, however, to the friends of woman's cause to learn that +Mme. Curie's candidacy was defeated by only two votes. Her competitor, +M. Branly, received thirty votes against the Polish woman's +twenty-eight. She thus fared far better than did Mme. Pauline Savari, +who aspired to the fauteuil made vacant by the death of Renan, regarding +whose candidature the Academy curtly declared, "Considering that its +traditions do not permit it to examine this question, the Academy passes +to the order of the day." Thus, it will be seen that, in spite of the +long-continued opposition to women members, the French Academy is more +than likely to offer its next vacant chair to the pride and glory of +Poland,—the immortal discoverer of radium and polonium.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>WOMEN IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES</h3> + + +<p>It is reasonable to suppose that women, who are such lovers of nature, +have always had a greater or less interest in the natural sciences, +especially in botany and zoölogy; but the fact remains that the first +one of their sex to write at any length on the various kingdoms of +nature was that extraordinary nun of the Middle Ages, St. Hildegard, the +learned abbess of the Benedictine convent of St. Rupert, at Bingen on +the Rhine. Of an exceptionally versatile and inquiring mind, her range +of study and acquirement was truly encyclopædic. In this respect she was +the worthy forerunner of Albert the Great, the famous <i>Doctor +Universalis</i> of Scholasticism.</p> + +<p>Although St. Hildegard has much to say about nature in several of her +works, the one of chiefest interest to us as an exposition of the +natural history of her time is her treatise entitled <i>Liber Subtilitatum +Diversarum Naturarum Creaturarum</i>. It is usually known by its more +abbreviated name, <i>Physica</i>, and, considering the circumstances under +which it was written, is, in many ways, a most remarkable production. It +consists of nine books treating of minerals, plants, fishes, birds, +insects and quadrupeds. The book on plants is composed of no fewer than +two hundred and thirty chapters, while that on birds contains +seventy-two chapters.</p> + +<p>In reading Hildegard's descriptions of animated nature we are often +reminded of Pliny's great work on natural history; but, so far as known, +there is no positive evidence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> that the learned religieuse had any +acquaintance whatever with the writings of the old Roman naturalist. Had +she had, the general tenor of her work would have been quite different +from what it actually is.</p> + +<p>The mystery, then, is, what were the sources of <i>Physica</i>? Some have +fancied that Hildegard in preparing this made use of the writings not +only of Pliny and Virgil, but also of those of Macer, Constantinus +Africanus, Walafrid Strabo, Isodore of Seville, and other writers who +were in great vogue during the Middle Ages. The general consensus of +opinion, however, of those who have carefully studied this interesting +problem is that the gentle nun was not acquainted with any of the +authors named, except, possibly, Isodore of Seville, whose works were +all held in high esteem, especially during the period of Hildegard's +greatest literary activity.</p> + +<p>Hildegard's <i>Physica</i> has a special value for philologists, as well as +for students of natural history, for it contains the German names of +plants still used by the people of the Fatherland seven hundred years +after they were penned by the painstaking abbess of St. Rupert's.<a name="FNanchor_164_164" id="FNanchor_164_164"></a><a href="#Footnote_164_164" class="fnanchor">[164]</a></p> + +<p>Referring to the Saint's work entitled <i>De Natura Hominis, Elementorum, +Diversarumque Creaturarum</i>—a treatise on the nature of man, the +elements and divers created things—no less an authority than Dr. +Charles Daremberg<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> declares that it will always hold an important place +in the history of medical art and of inanimate and animate +nature—<i>insignis semper locus debetitur in artis medicæ rerumque +naturalium historia</i>.<a name="FNanchor_165_165" id="FNanchor_165_165"></a><a href="#Footnote_165_165" class="fnanchor">[165]</a></p> + +<p>He even goes further and affirms that Hildegard was familiar with +numerous facts of science regarding which other mediæval writers were +entirely ignorant. More than this. She was acquainted with many of +nature's secrets which were unknown to men of science until recent +times, and which, on being disclosed by modern researches, have been +proclaimed to the world as new discoveries.<a name="FNanchor_166_166" id="FNanchor_166_166"></a><a href="#Footnote_166_166" class="fnanchor">[166]</a></p> + +<p>One reason why St. Hildegard's writings on botany, zoölogy and +mineralogy are not better known is that few students care to make the +effort to master her voluminous works. They require long and assiduous +study and a knowledge of her peculiarities of style and expression which +is acquired only after patient and persistent labor. But the labor is +not in vain, as is evidenced by the numerous monographs which have +appeared in recent years, especially in Germany, on the scientific works +of this marvelous nun of the twelfth century. All things considered, the +Abbess of Bingen may be said to hold the same position in the natural +sciences of her time as was held in the physical and mathematical +sciences seven hundred years earlier by the illustrious Hypatia of +Alexandria.</p> + +<p>After the death of St. Hildegard, full six centuries elapsed before any +one of her sex again achieved distinction in the domain of natural +science. And then, strange<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> to relate, the first woman who won fame by +her knowledge of science and by her contributions to it, did so in the +field where a woman would, one would think, be least disposed to +exercise her talent and least likely to find congenial work. It was in +the then comparatively new science of human anatomy—a science which had +been inaugurated in the famous medical schools of Salerno and which was +subsequently so highly developed in the great University of Bologna.</p> + +<p>The name of this remarkable woman was Anna Morandi Manzolini. She was +born in 1716 in Bologna, where, after a brilliant career in her favorite +branch of science, she died at the age of fifty-eight. She held the +chair of anatomy in the University of Bologna for many years, and is +noted for a number of important discoveries made as the result of her +dissections of cadavers.</p> + +<p>But she won a still greater title to fame by the marvelous skill which +she exhibited in making anatomical models out of indurated wax. They +were so carefully fashioned that some of them could scarcely be +distinguished from the parts of the body from which they were modeled. +As aids in the study of anatomy they were most highly valued and eagerly +sought for on all sides. The collection which she made for her own use +was, after her death, acquired by the Medical Institute of Bologna and +prized as one of its most precious possessions.</p> + +<p>Three years after her demise, Luigi Galvani, professor of anatomy in the +same university in which Anna had achieved such fame, made use of these +wax models for a course of lectures on the organs and structure of the +human body.</p> + +<p>These famous models, first perfected by Anna Manzolini, were the +archetypes of the exquisite wax models of Vassourie as well as of the +unrivaled <i>papier-mâché</i> creations of Dr. Auzoux and of all similar +productions now so extensively used in our schools and colleges.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p> + +<p>Even during the lifetime of the gifted modeler there were demands for +specimens of her work from all parts of Italy. From many cities in +Europe, even from London and St. Petersburg, she received the most +flattering offers for her services. So eager was Milan to have her +accept a position which had been offered her that the city authorities +sent her a blank contract and begged her to name her own conditions. But +she could never be induced to leave the home of her childhood and the +city which had witnessed and applauded her triumphs of maturer years.</p> + +<p>Men of learning and eminence, on passing through Bologna, invariably +made it a point to call on the learned <i>professora</i> in order to make her +acquaintance and to see her wonderful anatomical collection, which was +celebrated throughout Europe as <i>Supellex Manzoliniana</i>. Among these +visitors was Joseph II of Austria. So greatly was His Majesty impressed +by Anna's rare intellectual attainments and by her marvelous skill in +reproducing the various parts of the "human form divine" that he could +not take leave of her without showing his appreciation of them by +loading her with gifts worthy of a sovereign.<a name="FNanchor_167_167" id="FNanchor_167_167"></a><a href="#Footnote_167_167" class="fnanchor">[167]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p> +<p>A contemporary of Anna Manzolini, who also distinguished herself in the +preparation of anatomical models, was the French woman, Mlle. Biheron. +Her facsimiles of parts of the human body were, according to Mme. de +Genlis, so true to nature that they could not be distinguished from the +originals. This led the facetious Chevalier Ringle, after examining a +specimen of her handiwork, to declare, "Verily, it is so perfect that it +lacks only the odor of the natural object."</p> + +<p>While yet prince royal, Gustavus of Sweden visited the French Academy of +Sciences in Paris. Here he was entertained by a number of experiments in +anatomy. The demonstrator was Mlle. Biheron, who is said to have had a +veritable passion for both anatomy and surgery. So impressed was +Gustavus with the extraordinary skill and knowledge of this gifted +daughter of France that he offered her the position of demonstrator of +anatomy in the royal University of Sweden.</p> + +<p>Other branches of science, apparently quite as alien as anatomy to +women's taste and talent, are mineralogy and metallurgy. Yet as early as +the first half of the seventeenth century, the Baroness de Beausoleil +had achieved a great reputation by her investigations into the mineral +treasures of France. Indeed, she may, strange as it may appear, be +regarded as the first mining engineer of her native land. She details +the qualifications of a mining engineer and tells us he must, among +other things, be well versed in chemistry, mineralogy, geometry, +mechanics and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> hydraulics. As for herself, she assures us that she +devoted thirty years of unremitting study to these divers branches.</p> + +<p>To Mme. de Beausoleil is also attributed the glory of awakening her +countrymen's interest in the mineral resources of France, and of showing +them how their proper exploitation would inure not only to the credit of +the nation abroad but also to its prosperity at home.</p> + +<p>She was the author of two works which prove that she was a woman of rare +attainments combined with exceptional breadth of view and political +acumen. She was deeply concerned in the development of the mineral +resources of her country and foresaw how greatly they could be made to +contribute to the augmentation of the nation's finances.</p> + +<p>Her work entitled <i>La Restitution de Pluton</i> is a report on the mines +and ore deposits of France, and is a document as precious as it is +curious. It was addressed to Cardinal Richelieu, and shows how the +French monarch could, if the subterranean treasures of the country were +properly developed, become the greatest ruler in Christendom and his +subjects the happiest of all peoples.</p> + +<p>Another report by this energetic and enthusiastic woman is in the same +strain. In it she proves how the King of France, by utilizing the +underground riches of his country, could make himself and his people +independent of all other nations.<a name="FNanchor_168_168" id="FNanchor_168_168"></a><a href="#Footnote_168_168" class="fnanchor">[168]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span></p> +<p>In these two productions Mme. de Beausoleil treats of the science of +mining, the different kinds of mines, the assaying of ores and the +divers methods of smelting them, as well as of the general principles of +metallurgy, as then understood. But, unlike the majority of her +contemporaries, this enlightened woman had no patience with those who +believed that the earth's hidden treasures could not be discovered +without recourse to magic or to the aid of demons. She was unsparing in +her ridicule of those who had faith in the existence of gnomes and +kobolds, or thought that ore deposits could be located only by +divining-rods or similar foolish contrivances which were relics of an +ignorant and superstitious age.</p> + +<p>The same century that witnessed the exploring activity of the Baroness +de Beausoleil saw the beginnings of the notable achievements of a +daughter of Germany, well known in the annals of science as Maria +Sibylla Merian. Born in Frankfort in 1647, she died in Amsterdam in +1717, after a somewhat checkered career, most of which was devoted to +the pursuit of natural history. So fond was she of flowers and insects +that it is said they told her all their secrets.</p> + +<p>After having familiarized herself with the fauna and flora of her native +land, she proceeded to investigate the collections of the principal +European cabinets of natural history. This only fired her ambition to +see more of the world and study Nature where she is seen in her greatest +splendor and luxuriance.</p> + +<p>She accordingly resolved to undertake a journey to the equatorial +regions of South America. Such a voyage can now be made with comparative +ease, but in her days it was fraught with discomforts and dangers of all +kinds, and one that no woman thought to venture on unless obliged to do +so by stern necessity.</p> + +<p>But she was set on investigating animals and plants in their own +habitats in the glorious and exuberant flora of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> the tropics and, +accompanied by her two daughters, Helena and Dorothea, she embarked for +Surinam. Here, assisted by her daughters, who, like their mother, were +both skillful artists, the intrepid naturalist spent two years in +studying the wonders of plant and animal life that everywhere greeted +her delighted vision. All the time not occupied in research work was +devoted to sketching and painting those superb insects that are so +abundant in tropical fields and forests.<a name="FNanchor_169_169" id="FNanchor_169_169"></a><a href="#Footnote_169_169" class="fnanchor">[169]</a></p> + +<p>Returning to Holland with her precious scientific treasures, she began +the preparation of a work that will long endure as a monument to her +knowledge and industry. It was a magnificent volume in folio on the +insects of Surinam. It appeared simultaneously in Dutch and Latin, and +was subsequently translated into French.</p> + +<p>In illustrating this sumptuous work, Frau Merian was greatly assisted by +her younger daughter, Dorothea. The etchings and hand-colored +reproductions of the gorgeous butterflies and flowers of Surinam +commanded universal admiration, and marked a new epoch in book-making. +Even to-day this noble volume is eagerly sought by both book-lovers and +men of science, for it is not only a work of rare conception and beauty +but also one of exceptional accuracy in illustration and statement of +fact.<a name="FNanchor_170_170" id="FNanchor_170_170"></a><a href="#Footnote_170_170" class="fnanchor">[170]</a></p> + +<p>Besides etchings of multiform insects, lizards and batrachians +indigenous to Dutch Guiana, there were in this unique volume carefully +executed illustrations of plants and trees peculiar to tropical America, +such as vanilla, cacao, and the species of manihot which constitutes the +staff of life of so large a portion of the population in the basins of +the Amazon and the Orinoco.</p> + +<p>A new and enlarged edition of this work was published<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> after Frau +Merian's death by her daughter Dorothea. The same gifted daughter showed +her interest in her parent's work and her devotion to her memory by +bringing out a beautifully illustrated edition of her mother's earliest +work which treated of the wonderful life-history of silkworms.<a name="FNanchor_171_171" id="FNanchor_171_171"></a><a href="#Footnote_171_171" class="fnanchor">[171]</a></p> + +<p>The century following that which had celebrated the scientific triumphs +of Maria Merian found in Josephine Kablick, born in 1787 in Hohenelbe, +Bohemia, a woman who was destined to prove a worthy successor, as a +nature-student, of the noted daughter of Frankfort-on-the-Main.</p> + +<p>From her tenderest years she exhibited a passionate love for every form +of plant life. In addition to this, she had, while yet young, the good +fortune of studying under the best botanists of her time.</p> + +<p>Soon she became an enthusiastic collector and was in a short time the +happy possessor of a herbarium which contained many new species of +plants which she had discovered during her frequent botanical +excursions. From making collections for her private herbarium, she was +gradually led to make collections for the schools and colleges of her +native country, as well as for the museums and learned societies of +various parts of Europe. Many public institutions owed to her cordial +coöperation some of the choicest treasures in their herbaria, and not a +few botanical writers of her day found in her an intelligent and +sympathetic collaborator.</p> + +<p>But Frau Kablick's interest in nature was not confined to plants. She +was an assiduous student of paleontology as well as of botany, and the +many fossil animals and plants named in her honor testify to her success +in the pursuit of her favorite branches of science.</p> + +<p>There was nothing of the conventional blue-stocking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> about this ardent +votary of nature. Strong and healthy, neither wind nor rain interfered +with her fieldwork in botany or paleontology. It was her greatest +pleasure to roam through dark forests and scale high mountains in search +of new species of plants and fossils. And the success which rewarded her +efforts was such that the old and trained naturalists among her male +friends had reason to envy her good fortune as an explorer.</p> + +<p>But Frau Kablick never permitted her frequent excursions, or her +devotion to science, to cause her to neglect the duties of her +household. Fortunately, her husband was also an ardent student of +nature, and while his wife was devoting her attention to botany and +paleontology, he was making investigations in zoölogy and mineralogy. +They spent fifty happy years together in the pursuit of science and +their joint efforts contributed not a little toward the advancement of +the branches of science to which they had devoted their lives with such +well-directed effort and enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>As the fruitful life of Josephine Kablick who had shed such luster on +her sex in Bohemia was drawing to a close, a young woman in Germany, +Amalie Dietrich by name, was preparing herself to fill the void which +would be occasioned by her predecessor's death. Her first love, as a +young girl, was plant life, and this was subsequently accentuated by her +husband, who was not only a botanist himself but also one who belonged +to a distinguished family of botanists.</p> + +<p>A keen observer and an indefatigable collector, Frau Dietrich soon +became known throughout Europe as a botanist of marked ability and +daring. She was wont, unaccompanied, to climb the highest peaks of the +Salzburg Alps, and spend entire weeks there seeking new species of +Alpine flora. During the day she explored the deep ravines and clambered +along the brambly ledges of beetling precipices, and during the night +she sought shelter and repose in the humble hut of some hospitable +herdsman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> + +<p>Valuable, however, as was Amalie Dietrich's work in the Austrian Alps, +it was but a preparation for that which some years later she was to +enter upon in far-off Australia. Here she devoted twelve of the best +years of her life to the cultivation of botany in the virgin soil of +Queensland. Here, too, she surprised everyone by her venturesome spirit +no less than by her irrepressible zeal in making collections. Heedless +of danger, she plunged quite alone into the wilderness and spent days +and weeks at a time with the wild aborigines.</p> + +<p>But she secured what she went in quest of,—a large and valuable +collection of plants, containing many new and interesting species. +Besides these, she was able to bring back with her to Europe a large +mass of zoölogical specimens as well as countless domestic utensils and +implements of warfare and husbandry employed by the savages among whom +she so frequently journeyed and with whose manners and customs she +eventually became so familiar.</p> + +<p>Modest and trustworthy, Frau Dietrich had a host of friends in the +scientific world, and the number of plants which bear her name are not +only a tribute to her worth, but a striking evidence of the extent of +her activity in the pursuit of the science which became the absorbing +passion of her life.<a name="FNanchor_172_172" id="FNanchor_172_172"></a><a href="#Footnote_172_172" class="fnanchor">[172]</a></p> + +<p>Of Russian women who have become specially noted for their contributions +to natural science, a very prominent place must be assigned to Sophia +Pereyaslawzewa. After receiving the doctorate of science in the +University of Zurich, she became director of the biological station at +Sebastopol, a position she held with great éclat during twelve years. +Here she made numerous important researches on manifold forms of marine +life and prepared many works for the press in German and French, as well +as in her native<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> Russian. Her <i>Monographie de Turbellaries de la Mer +Noire</i>, a large and beautifully illustrated volume published at Odessa +in 1892, placed her at once among biologists of the first rank. Indeed, +so meritorious was this production of the talented daughter of Holy +Russia that the Congress of Naturalists in 1893 did not hesitate to +recognize its exceptional value by conferring on the fair authoress a +special prize.</p> + +<p>This gifted biologist has since rendered distinct service in the cause +of science by her explorations of the Gulf of Naples and the coasts of +France. Her activity is prodigious, and the long list of books and +monographs which she has published on the lower forms of marine life in +the Black and Mediterranean seas shows that she has a capacity for work +that is truly extraordinary.</p> + +<p>Here is, probably, the place to make mention of a woman of encyclopædic +mind, Clemence Augustine Royer, who was born in 1830 in Nantes, France. +She wrote on such a variety of subjects that it is difficult to classify +her. She was in no sense of the word a specialist, and she seems by +temperament to have been averse to confining herself to any one branch +of knowledge.</p> + +<p>Her first work to attract particular attention was one on a topic +connected with political economy. A prize had been offered for the +discussion of this subject, and the little French woman acquitted +herself so well that she had the honor of sharing the prize with the +noted Proudhon. She has also written many works on philosophy and +physics. Among these are two which attracted considerable notice at the +time of their publication. In one of them she attacks the positivism of +Comte; in the other she assails Laplace's hypothesis regarding the +origin of the material universe.</p> + +<p>But the work which made her famous, particularly in France, was her +translation into French in 1862 of Darwin's <i>Origin of Species</i>. It is +safe to say that this version created as much of a sensation in France +as the original<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> had caused in Great Britain and America. Her preface to +the work of the English naturalist, in which she indicates the results +which flow from an acceptance of the transformist theory, created a +veritable storm in both religious and scientific circles.</p> + +<p>So gratified was Madame Royer by the impression made by this preface and +so pleased was she with the controversy which she had started, that she +expanded her summary of the theory of evolution as therein given and +published it in 1870 under the title of <i>Origine de l'Homme et de +Sociétés</i>. This production was so revolutionary in character and so +subversive of teachings long held sacred that it provoked an indignant +protest from all quarters, and the author was at once ranked with such +radical exponents of the new science as Voght, Büchner and Hæckel.</p> + +<p>After the appearance of this production, she wrote numerous other works, +several of them on subjects relating to natural science, especially in +its connection with anthropology and prehistoric archæology. And so +great was her breadth of view and so exceptional was her grasp of all +subjects discussed by her that Renan declared of her, <i>Elle est presque +un homme de génie</i>—She is almost a man of genius.</p> + +<p>Mme. Royer was frequently spoken of as a candidate for the French +Institute, but she was so well aware of the prejudices against the +admission of women to membership in this learned body that she never +allowed herself to consider the proposal seriously. She was certainly a +brainy woman, and in her own department of intellectual effort she +exhibited as much talent as did George Sand and Mme. de Staël in +literature and history.</p> + +<p>An entirely different type of woman from the radical and disputatious +Mme. Royer was the charming and cultured lady, Miss Eleanor Ormerod, her +contemporary, who, in her chosen department of science, won both fame +and the lasting gratitude of her fellowmen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p> + +<p>Miss Ormerod, unlike Mme. Royer, was preëminently a specialist, and the +branch of science in which she achieved distinction was entomology, or +rather that branch of it known as economic entomology. From her +childhood she manifested an unusual interest in all forms of insects, +but particularly in those which are serviceable to mankind or are +destructive to farms and gardens, orchards and forests.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for the gratification of her peculiar bent of mind, nearly +half of Miss Ormerod's life was spent in a locality which was specially +favorable to the study of insects which are obnoxious to the gardener, +the farmer and the forester. This was at the confluence of the Wye and +the Severn, where her father owned a large landed estate, part of which +was under cultivation and part wood and park land.</p> + +<p>Here the young girl made her first collection of insects, and here she +began her studies on the cause and nature of the parasitic attacks upon +crops. Here she first realized the frightful ravages that were +occasioned by the manifold insect pests that infest not only trees, +shrubs, cereals and vegetables, but also flocks and herds as well. And +here, too, she resolved to devote her life to devising preventive and +remedial treatment for the evils which were robbing the husbandman of so +great a part of the fruits of his toil.</p> + +<p>After taking this generous resolution, the life of our young heroine +was, like that of Liebig and Pasteur, devoted to the welfare of her +fellowmen. And like these noble benefactors of their race, her thought +was always how she might prevent the losses and increase the products of +the tillers of the soil. Entomology with her was not mere +nomenclature—a knowledge of strange and fantastic names, which, with +the ignorant, constitutes a distinction—but one of the most practical +and useful of the sciences.</p> + +<p>Miss Ormerod might, had she so elected, have won fame as a systematic +entomologist and as a distinguished contributor to the already long list +of genera and species of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> insects. She might have devoted herself to +theoretical work, or bent her energies towards the general advancement +of the science, like Fabricius, Swammerdam, Westwood and Burnmeister; +but she preferred to forego all the glory that might accrue from +pursuing such a course, and to direct her efforts in such wise as to be +of most service to humanity.</p> + +<p>Like the great Pasteur, after his long and laborious experimental +researches on silkworm diseases, Miss Ormerod could, at the end of her +illustrious career, declare with truth: "The results which I have +obtained are, perhaps, less brilliant than those which I might have +anticipated from researches pursued in the field of pure science, but I +have the satisfaction of having served my country in endeavoring, to the +best of my ability, to discover the remedy for great misery. It is to +the honor of a scientific man that he values discoveries which at their +birth can only obtain the esteem of his equals, far above those which at +once conquer the favor of the crowd by the immediate utility of their +application; but, in the presence of misfortune, it is equally an honor +to sacrifice everything in the endeavor to relieve it."<a name="FNanchor_173_173" id="FNanchor_173_173"></a><a href="#Footnote_173_173" class="fnanchor">[173]</a></p> + +<p>Miss Ormerod's labors were not, it is true, instrumental in rescuing +from destruction a nation's chief industries, as were Pasteur's in the +case of his famous researches on the phyloxera of the grape vine or the +pebrine of the silkworm. Nor had they to do with such frightful +industrial disturbances as have frequently been occasioned by rinderpest +or by the potato blight in Ireland in 1845.</p> + +<p>This is true in so far as any one pest is concerned. But when one +reflects on the scope of Miss Ormerod's investigations and considers how +far-reaching were her researches and how many and diverse industries +were embraced by the remedial and prophylactic measures which she +proposed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> one cannot but realize the immense importance of her +life-work.</p> + +<p>The fact that her activities were confined chiefly to old and well-known +pests—insects from which the farmer and the gardener and the forester +had suffered for centuries, and which they had come to regard as +necessary and inevitable evils—does not detract from the merit and the +value of her labors. That she should have taken up a work which affected +so many people and have been so successful in abating, or in entirely +removing evils which had so long afflicted agriculturists and +stock-growers, shows that she was a woman of rare courage and +determination as well as one of invincible persistence and of +intellectual resources of a very high order.</p> + +<p>During more than a quarter of a century Miss Ormerod devoted practically +the whole of her time to the study of economic entomology and to +spreading a knowledge of it among her countrymen. From 1877 to 1898 she +published annual reports on injurious insects and sent them broadcast +throughout Great Britain and her colonies. In addition to this she wrote +a number of manuals and textbooks on insects injurious to food crops, +forest trees, orchards and bush fruits.</p> + +<p>Nor was this all. She also prepared for gratuitous distribution a large +number of four-page leaflets on the most common farm pests. Of the +leaflet, for instance, on the warble-fly, its life-history, methods of +prevention and remedy, no less than a hundred and seventy thousand +copies were printed. And so great was the demand for her leaflet on the +gooseberry red spider that a single mail brought her an order for three +thousand copies.</p> + +<p>Miss Ormerod, it is proper to state here, received no remuneration +whatever for her great services to the public. On the contrary, she gave +not only all her time gratuitously, but bore a great part of the expense +of printing and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> distributing her publications. The amount of good she +thus did unaided and alone cannot be estimated.</p> + +<p>In her leaflet on the warble-fly, also known as bot-fly, she estimates +the annual damage to the stock-growers of the United Kingdom from this +pest at from £3,000,000 to £4,000,000. The losses due to fruit, grain +and vegetable insects of various kinds, before she began her insect +crusade, were much greater. In Great Britain and her colonies they +amounted to very many millions of pounds sterling every year.<a name="FNanchor_174_174" id="FNanchor_174_174"></a><a href="#Footnote_174_174" class="fnanchor">[174]</a></p> + +<p>And most of these losses, as she demonstrated, were preventable by +simple precautions which she eventually succeeded in inducing the people +to adopt. How much she was instrumental in saving annually to the +farmers and gardeners of England by her writings and lectures can only +be imagined, but the sum must have been immense.</p> + +<p>When we recollect that Miss Ormerod accomplished all her work before it +occurred to the English Board of Agriculture to appoint a government +entomologist, we shall realize what a pioneer she was in the career in +which she achieved such distinction and through which she conferred such +inestimable benefits upon her fellows.</p> + +<p>Miss Ormerod's entomological publications, especially her annual +reports, brought her into relations with people of all classes +throughout the whole world. Her correspondence, in consequence, was +enormous, and not infrequently amounted to from fifty to a hundred +letters a day. The great entomologists of Europe and America held her in +the highest esteem, and had implicit faith in her judgment in all +matters pertaining to her specialty.</p> + +<p>One day she would receive a letter from an English gardener begging for +a remedy against the strawberry beetle.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> The next day she would have a +similar letter regarding mite-galls on black currants, or pea-weevil +larvæ or clover-eel worms. Again there would be a communication from +Norway requesting advice about the Hessian fly, or from Argentina asking +information concerning a certain kind of destructive grass beetle, or +from India appealing for help against a pernicious species of forest +fly, or from South Africa seeking a relief from the boot-beetle. And +still again, she was consulted by her foreign correspondents about +termites, which were causing havoc among the young cocoa trees of +Ceylon, or about certain peculiar species of Australian larvæ, or about +the devastating action of the pine beetle in the Scotch forests, or +about the wheat midge and antler moth in Finland.</p> + +<p>One day she had a communication from the Austrian Embassy regarding a +beetle that was eating the oats about Constantinople, and not long +afterwards she received a letter from the Chinese Minister in London +begging for information as to how to prevent the ravages of certain +noxious bugs in the lee-chee orchards of China.</p> + +<p>In view of all these facts it is not surprising that Miss Ormerod became +an active and valued colleague of some of England's most noted +scientific men. Professor Huxley said of her in connection with certain +work performed by her as a member of one of the committees to which he +belonged that "she knew more about the business" than all the rest put +together.</p> + +<p>Miss Ormerod's services and attainments, it is gratifying to note, were +not without recognition in high quarters. Besides being in constant +correspondence with the most eminent entomologists of the world, +consulting entomologist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England and +examiner in agricultural entomology in the University of Edinburgh, she +was a member of many learned societies in both the Old and the New +World. She was also the recipient of many medals, two of which came from +Russia.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span></p> + +<p>The honor, however, which gave her the most pleasure was the degree of +Doctor of Laws, which was conferred on her by the University of +Edinburgh. It was the first time this old and conservative institution +thus honored a woman, but in honoring Miss Ormerod it honored itself as +well.<a name="FNanchor_175_175" id="FNanchor_175_175"></a><a href="#Footnote_175_175" class="fnanchor">[175]</a></p> + +<p>But when one considers the magnitude of Miss Ormerod's services to her +country and to the world, when one reflects on the tens of millions of +pounds sterling which she saved to the British Empire by her researches +and writings, these honors seem trivial and unworthy of the great nation +which she so signally benefited. If any of her countrymen had labored so +long and so successfully and made so many sacrifices for the welfare of +the nation as she had, he would have been knighted or ennobled. But +age-long prejudices and traditions will not yet permit England to bestow +the same honors on women as on men, no matter how brilliant their +attainments or how distinguished their services to the crown and to +humanity. Recognition of this kind may possibly come as one of the +desirable innovations of the twentieth century. No lover of fair play +can deny "'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished."<a name="FNanchor_176_176" id="FNanchor_176_176"></a><a href="#Footnote_176_176" class="fnanchor">[176]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p><p>The names of the women in the United States who have become prominent by +their researches and writings in the various branches of the natural +sciences would make a long list. And when one recalls the fact that it +was only in the latter part of the nineteenth century that American +women were afforded an opportunity to study science, it is a matter of +surprise that the list is so extended. For practically no provision was +made for the serious pursuit by them of the natural sciences until the +opening of Vassar College in 1865, and it was not until the closing +years of the century that the portals of many men's colleges were +unlocked and thrown open to the hitherto proscribed sex. Considering all +the obstacles they had to overcome, the ignorance, the prejudice, the +opposition of all kinds they had to combat in the United States, women +have already accomplished wonders and bid fair to achieve much more in +the near future.</p> + +<p>Now almost every educational institution in the land, private or state, +has one or more women professors or associate professors. They teach all +the branches of the natural sciences that are taught by their male +colleagues,—botany, geology, mineralogy, zoölogy, anatomy, bacteriology +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> all the numerous subdivisions of these sciences,—and they teach +them with success and éclat.</p> + +<p>They also occupy responsible scientific positions in various state and +federal institutions. Thus one woman has been the principal of the +Denver School of Mines, while another has been the state entomologist +for Missouri. Women are also found doing important work in the National +Museum, in the Smithsonian Institution, and in the Agricultural +Department in Washington, as well as in the various museums, botanical +gardens and public laboratories of the country from the Atlantic to the +Pacific.</p> + +<p>Among those who have deserved well of science in the United States by +their investigations and writings are Olive Thorne Miller and Florence +Merriam in ornithology; Susanna Phelps Gage, Dr. Ida H. Hyde, Mary H. +Hinckley, Cornelia M. Clapp, Edith J. and Agnes M. Claypole in biology; +Rose S. Eigenman in icthyology; Edith M. Patch, Elizabeth W. Peckham, +Emily A. Smith, Cora H. Clarke, J. M. Arms Sheldon, Mary Treat, Mary E. +Murfeldt, Annie T. Slosson in entomology; Elizabeth G. Britton and Clara +E. Cummings in cryptogamic botany; Sarah A. Plummer Lemmon, Katherine E. +Golden, Alice Eastman and Almira Lincoln Phelps in general botany; Ada +D. Davidson, Ella F. Boyd and Florence Bascom in geology. Besides these, +special mention should also be made of Dr. Julia W. Snow for her work on +the microscopical forms of fresh-water algæ; Anna Botsford Comstock for +her contributions to our knowledge of microscopic insects; Katherine J. +Bush for her monographs on shallow and deep-water molusca; Harriet +Randolph and Fannie E. Langdon for their studies on worms, and Katherine +Foot for her papers on cellular morphology. Particularly notable, too, +is the work that has been done on marine invertebrates by Mary J. +Rathbun in the United States National Museum and by Florence Wambaugh +Patterson in vegetable physiology and pathology in the Department of +Agriculture in Washington.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> + +<p>But much as the women just named deserve recognition for their +achievements in the various branches of science to which they have +severally devoted themselves, the one who will always be specially +remembered, not only for her valuable contributions to divers branches +of natural science, but also for her labors in behalf of higher female +education—particularly as president of Radcliffe College—is Mrs. +Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, the wife of the celebrated Swiss-American +naturalist, who gave such an impetus to the study of natural science in +the United States, and whose influence on the general advancement of +science in all its departments has proved so enduring and so +far-reaching. As an inspirer of and collaborator with her gifted +husband, Mrs. Agassiz deserves a large page in the annals of science, +while as an enthusiastic student of nature and as one who communicated +her enthusiasm to her students, and at the same time held up before them +the highest ideals of womanhood, she is sure of a portion of that +immortality which has been decreed to her illustrious life-partner, Jean +Louis Agassiz.</p> + +<p>This chapter would not be complete without some reference to that large +class of women travelers who, directly or indirectly, have contributed +so much to the advancement of the natural sciences. The gifted Roumanian +writer and traveler, Princess Helena Kolzoff Massalsky,—better known +under her pseudonym, Doria d'Istria,—somewhere expresses the opinion +that a woman traveler admirably supplements the scientific work of the +male explorer by bringing to it aptitudes that the latter does not +possess. For she notes many things in nature, as well as in the national +life and popular customs of the countries which she traverses, which +escape the more hebetudinous perceptions of men, and thus a vast field, +that would otherwise remain unknown, is opened to observation and +critical study.</p> + +<p>One of the most noted travelers of her sex in the nineteenth century was +the famous Ida Pfeiffer, of Austria.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> During the years intervening +between 1842 and 1858, the date of her death, she traveled nearly two +hundred thousand miles and, in so doing, visited nearly every quarter of +the globe. When one recalls the difficulties and discomforts of +transportation in the early part of the last century, as compared with +our present facilities and conveniences, and bears in mind the fact that +her traveling expenses for an entire year were less than those of a +Lamartine or a Chateaubriand for a single week, we must admit that her +achievements were, indeed, extraordinary.</p> + +<p>Besides being the author of numerous books which had for many years a +great vogue—books which, by reason of the keen observations and the +absolutely truthful narratives of their author, are still of special +value to the student of geography and ethnology—she made collections +illustrative of botany, mineralogy and entomology which were +subsequently secured for the British Museum and other similar +institutions in Europe.</p> + +<p>No one more highly appreciated Frau Pfeiffer's efforts in behalf of +science than did the illustrious Alexander von Humboldt, whose +friendship was one of the greatest joys of this remarkable woman's life. +Through his recommendation and that of the noted geographer, Karl +Ritter, she was made an honorary member of the Geographical Society of +Berlin. Besides this, the King of Prussia conferred on her the gold +medal for arts and sciences.</p> + +<p>Three other women, all representatives of Great Britain, likewise +deserve notice for their extensive travels and the interesting and +instructive accounts which they published of them. These are Constance +Gordon Cumming, Isabella Bird Bishop and Amelia B. Edwards.</p> + +<p>More notable in many respects than these three distinguished women were +Miss Mary H. Kingsley and Madame Octavie Coudreau. For their +contributions to science and for their daring adventures in savage +lands,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> they have won for themselves an unique position among women +explorers.</p> + +<p>Miss Kingsley—the niece of the well-known writer and naturalist, +Charles Kingsley—exhibited much of her uncle's literary ability and +love of nature. So complete was her intellectual grasp of the most +difficult problems, and so rare was her overflowing sympathy for all of +God's creatures, that she was well described as possessing "the brain of +a man and the heart of a woman."</p> + +<p>In order to get at first-hand information that was necessary to complete +a work which her father, George Kingsley, had, owing to his premature +death, left unfinished, she determined to visit that part of West Africa +"where all authorities agreed that the Africans were at their wildest +and worst." Accompanied only by the natives, she travelled among +cannibals, pushed her way through mangrove swamps and pestilential +morasses. She spent months in a canoe exploring the territory watered by +the Calabar and Ogowé rivers, often in imminent peril of death from wild +animals or wilder men.</p> + +<p>When not studying the manners and customs of the native tribes, she was +hunting fishes and reptiles in streams and quagmires and collecting +insects in the weird, grim twilight of the equatorial forest with its +inextricable tangle of creepers, its great hanging tapestries of vines +and flowers, its myriads of bush-ropes, suspended from the summits of +tall buttressed trees, "some as straight as plumb lines, others coiled +round and intertwined among each other until one could fancy one was +looking on some mighty battle between armies of gigantic serpents that +had been arrested at its height by some mighty spell."</p> + +<p>The results of Miss Kingsley's wanderings in this dark and uncanny +wilderness and among the savage tribes visited by her were her two +instructive volumes entitled <i>Travels in West Africa</i> and <i>West African +Studies</i>. In addition to these two works from her pen there are +deposited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> in the British Museum an interesting collection of insects, +fishes and reptiles—many of them new species and some of them named in +her honor—which testifies to her activity as a collector and her +enthusiasm as a naturalist.</p> + +<p>Her brilliant and useful career was cut short in Cape Colony, whither +she had gone as an army nurse during the Boer war. In view of her +achievements one is not surprised to learn that her countrymen regarded +her premature taking-off as a national misfortune. The noblest monument +to her memory is "The Mary Kingsley Society of West Africa," whose +object is to carry on, as far as may be, the beneficent work she began +on the West African coast and to accomplish for English rule in this +part of the world what the "Royal Asiatic Society" has achieved for +British administration in India.</p> + +<p>Madame Coudreau is designated in <i>Qui Etes-Vous</i>—the French Who's +Who—as an <i>exploratrice</i>. This well characterizes her; for, if not the +first woman explorer by profession, she is certainly the most energetic +and successful.</p> + +<p>Her first work was in French Guiana, under instructions from the +colonial minister of France. This was in 1894. The following year she +began the scientific exploration of the province of Pará in northern +Brazil, in collaboration with her husband, Henri Coudreau, who had +previously distinguished himself by his achievements as a writer and as +an explorer in French Guiana. The fruit of their joint work from 1895 to +1899 was six quarto volumes profusely illustrated by photographs which +they had taken and by carefully executed charts of the various rivers +which they had explored.</p> + +<p>While engaged in the exploration of the Trombetas, a tributary of the +Amazon, Henri Coudreau was taken seriously ill, and, after a few days' +struggle against the disease with which he was stricken, he expired in +the depths of the forest primeval, where he was buried by his desolate +and disconsolate widow. After such a calamity any other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> woman would +have left the tropics at once and returned to her home and friends. Not +so Mme. Coudreau. With matchless courage and determination she buried +her grief in the work in which her husband had been so interested, and, +after completing the unfinished survey, published the results of this +expedition under the title <i>Voyage au Trombetas</i>.</p> + +<p>Having completed this work, she was engaged by the states of Pará and +Amazonas to explore a number of other rivers in the vast territory known +as Amazonia. This commission involved the most arduous and dangerous +kind of labor and was a task which few men would have been willing to +undertake. It is doubtful if any other woman would have ventured on such +an expedition, and it is quite certain that no other one could have been +found that was so well equipped for this herculean undertaking or who +would have carried it to a more successful issue.</p> + +<p>Mme. Coudreau was in the service of Amazonia, in the capacity of +official explorer, from 1899 to 1906. Most of this time she spent in a +canoe on the affluents of the Amazon, or in her tent in the dense +forests under the equator. Her only companions were negroes, or Indians, +or Brazilian halfbreeds who served her as porters, cooks and boatmen. +Frequently they were in the forest wilds for many months at a time and +far away from every vestige of civilized life. As it was impossible to +take sufficient provisions with them to last them during the whole of +their journey, they had to depend on wild fruits and such fish and game +as they were able to secure. Often they were forced to live for weeks at +a time on an unchanging diet of manioc and tapir meat.</p> + +<p>But their sufferings were not confined to hunger and disagreeable—often +indigestible—food. There were the heavy steaming atmosphere and the +broiling rays of a superheated sun, especially when reflected from the +mirror-like surface of lake or river, which were so debilitating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> and +exhausting that physical exertion of any kind was at times almost +impossible. There were also the torrential and incessant rains—making +it impossible for them to cook their food or dry their clothing—which +added to their miseries whether in camp or in their canoe.</p> + +<p>Great, however, as were their trials on the river, they were trifling in +comparison with those in the woods. Here locomotion was impeded by +tangled undergrowth which was bound together by strands of lianas and +thorny vines which constituted an impenetrable barrier until a passage +was hewn through it with a machete. Under foot was a yielding morass +which threatened to absorb them. Overhead were countless chigoes, +garapatas and fire-ants which infested the body or buried themselves in +the flesh. Or there were clouds of mosquitoes which gave no rest day or +night. And worst of all was the ever-present danger of fever and +dysentery, not to speak of the dread diseases so common in certain +sections of the equatorial regions. It was then that Mme. Coudreau had +to act the part of a physician, as well as of a leader, even though she +was at the time such a sufferer herself that she was barely able to +stand.</p> + +<p>To make matters still more difficult for Mme. Coudreau, her employees at +times, especially when under the influence of liquor which they +contrived to obtain some way or other, became mutinous and refused to +accompany her to the end of her journey. At other times the expedition +was halted by their fear of wild beasts or savage Indians, or by +imaginary evils of many kinds, suggested to them by their superstitious +minds. On such occasions Mme. Coudreau never failed to show herself a +born leader of men, for she invariably—alone as she was with a crew who +were often half savages—was successful in suppressing incipient +rebellion and in restoring obedience and order.<a name="FNanchor_177_177" id="FNanchor_177_177"></a><a href="#Footnote_177_177" class="fnanchor">[177]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p> +<p>Continually confronted, as she was, by such trials and difficulties, +privations and dangers, one would imagine that the delicately reared +Frenchwoman would have sought immediate release from an engagement that +necessitated so much exposure and suffering and sought surcease of +sorrow in the distractions and gaieties of pleasure-loving Paris.</p> + +<p>Nothing, however, was farther from her thoughts. Intrepid and +resourceful, she feared no danger and hesitated<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> before no difficulty, +however great. As an explorer she was as venturesome as Crevaux and as +conscientious as La Condamine. Like them, who were both her countrymen, +she spent many years of her life in the equinoctial regions, and, like +them, she contributed immensely to our knowledge of the Land of the +Southern Cross.</p> + +<p>Never did the tropics have a greater fascination for anyone than for +Mme. Coudreau. During the twelve years she spent there, exploring its +rivers and traversing its interminable forests, the spell of Amazonia +was ever upon her and was never broken, even for a moment.</p> + +<p>"I have," she writes, "loved everything in Amazonia, the great majestic +woodland and the mysterious virgin forest, the beautiful rivers with +their traitorous waters and thundering cataracts, the suffocating air +and the perfumed breeze, the burning sun and the sweet freshness of +night, the impressive voice of the wind among the trees and the +torrential rain. And, contrary to the usual custom of man of bringing +everything under his domination, it is I who have become a captive of +this savage life which I love, and have permitted it to take possession +of all my soul and all my will."<a name="FNanchor_178_178" id="FNanchor_178_178"></a><a href="#Footnote_178_178" class="fnanchor">[178]</a></p> + +<p>Elsewhere she declares: "In the solitude of the virgin forest I am calm, +tranquil, experience no ennui and am almost merry. When I am obliged to +leave the great woodland the power to struggle grows less in me. I +become of an excessive sensibility. I feel more keenly life's blows. I +am not armed for elbowing my way and making a place for myself in the +sunshine. I neither love nor understand anything except my virgin +forest. There, indeed, I suffer from the inclemency of the weather, from +hunger, from sickness; but these are only physical sufferings and are +soon forgotten, while moral and interior pains, on the contrary, are +ineradicable."<a name="FNanchor_179_179" id="FNanchor_179_179"></a><a href="#Footnote_179_179" class="fnanchor">[179]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span></p><p>And still again she tells us: "The solitude of the virgin forest has +become a necessity for me; it attracts me by its mysterious silence, and +only in the great woods have I the impression of being at home."<a name="FNanchor_180_180" id="FNanchor_180_180"></a><a href="#Footnote_180_180" class="fnanchor">[180]</a></p> + +<p>Can we wonder that such an ardent lover of Nature and such a strenuous +votary of science was able to forget herself in her work and was able, +notwithstanding her toils and her sufferings, to produce six quarto +volumes of reports, in as many years, on the unexplored regions which +she had so carefully surveyed and charted? Can we be surprised that her +labors received due recognition from learned societies in both the New +and the Old World, and that she was acclaimed as an explorer who had +rendered distinct service to the cause of natural science, as well as to +geography?<a name="FNanchor_181_181" id="FNanchor_181_181"></a><a href="#Footnote_181_181" class="fnanchor">[181]</a></p> + +<p>When we recall the labors of this lone daughter of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> France in the wilds +of the tropics, with no one to communicate with except her +half-civilized servants and boatmen, we instinctively hark back to days +not long past and estimate the enormous progress women have made in +social and intellectual freedom within but a few decades.</p> + +<p>Owing to the policy of repression which so long prevailed regarding the +intellectual efforts of women, and the social obstacles which prevented +them from publicly acknowledging the offspring of their genius, women +like the Brontë sisters, George Sand and George Eliot were compelled to +conceal their identity under male designations. Because it was +considered immodest for a woman to appear before the public as an +author, Lady Nairne, after Burns, the most popular song writer in +Scotland, felt obliged to keep secret the authorship of her beautiful +poems.</p> + +<p>Similarly, family honor made it incumbent on Fanny Mendelssohn to +refrain from publishing her musical compositions under her own name. +Accordingly, they appeared along with those of her brother Felix, and so +similar are they in color and sentiment to his own productions that they +are indistinguishable from them, unless the author's signature be +attached. To satisfy an inane public opinion, they long contributed "to +swell the volume of her brother's fame," and there is reason to believe +that some of them still appear under his name at the present day.</p> + +<p>Yes, truly, when one recalls these and similar facts, one cannot help +exclaiming: "What a marvelous change in the attitude of the world toward +women within the memories of those still living!" Women like Miss +Ormerod, Miss Kingsley and Mme. Coudreau would have been ostracized if +they had dared to attempt, in the days of Lady Nairne, the Brontë +sisters and Fanny Mendelssohn, what they may now do not only without +censure but without exciting more than passing comment. The ban has been +lifted from what was for ages tabu for women, and the sphere of their +intellectual activities is now almost coëxtensive with that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> of the +sterner sex. Not only does society no longer point the finger of scorn +at the woman naturalist or the woman explorer, but it showers honors on +her while living and erects monuments to her memory when dead. A great +change, indeed, and one long and ardently desired. Verily, <i>tempora +mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis</i>.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_164_164" id="Footnote_164_164"></a><a href="#FNanchor_164_164"><span class="label">[164]</span></a> In his erudite work, <i>Geschichte der Botanik</i>, Vol. III, +p. 517, Koenigsberg, 1856, Ernest H. F. Meyer gives in a few words his +estimate of the excellence of Hildegard's <i>Physica</i>: "Aber als +ehrwürdiges Denkmal des Alterthums und einer zu jener Zeit nicht +gemeinen Naturkentniss empfehlen sich zumal deutschen Naturforschern +ihre vier Bücher der <i>Physica</i>.... Denn nicht nur der deutsche Botaniker +und Zoologe finden in ihrer Physik fast die ersten rohen Anfänge +vaterländische Naturforshung, auch dem Artzt bietet sic für jene Zeit +überraschende Erscheinung dar, eine nicht von Dioskorides abgeleitete, +sondern unverkennbar aus der Volksüberlieferung geschöpfte +Heilmittellehre; und der Sprachforscher stösst im lateinischen Text +beinahe Zeile um Zeile auf deutsche Ausdrücke seltener Sprachformen."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_165_165" id="Footnote_165_165"></a><a href="#FNanchor_165_165"><span class="label">[165]</span></a> Hildegardis <i>Opera Omnia</i>, p. 1122, Migne's Edition, +Paris, 1882.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_166_166" id="Footnote_166_166"></a><a href="#FNanchor_166_166"><span class="label">[166]</span></a> "Constat permulta S. Hildegardi nota jam fuisse, quæ +caeteri medii ævi scriptores nescierunt, quæque sagaces demum +recentiorum temporum indagatores reperierunt ac tamquam nova +ventitarunt." Ibid. Dr. Karl Jessen, in his thoughtful <i>Botanik der +Gegenwart und Vorzeit in Culturhistorischer Entwickelung</i>, p. 123, +Leipzig, 1864, expresses himself on the extraordinary medical knowledge +of the abbess of Bingen as follows: "Wer deutsche Volkarznei studieren +will, der studiere Hildegard und er wird Respect davor bekommen."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_167_167" id="Footnote_167_167"></a><a href="#FNanchor_167_167"><span class="label">[167]</span></a> <i>Compendio Storico della Scuola Anatomica di Bologna</i>, p. +358, by Michele Medici, Bologna, 1857, and <i>Notizie degli Scrittori +Bolognesi</i>, Tom. VI, p. 113, by Giovanni Fantuzzi, Bologna, 1788. +</p><p> +Certain writers tell us of another woman who distinguished herself in +anatomy in the early part of the fourteenth century. Her name was +Alessandra Giliani, who is said to have been a pupil and an assistant of +the celebrated Mondino, father of modern anatomy. In addition to +possessing great skill in dissection, she is reputed to have devised a +means of drawing the blood from the veins and arteries—even the most +minute—and then filling them with variously colored liquids which +quickly solidified. By this means, we are told, she was able to exhibit +the circulatory system in all its details and complexity, and to have +always on hand, for purposes of instruction, a model that was absolutely +true to nature. +</p><p> +How much truth there may be in these statements regarding a young girl, +who was only nineteen when she died, is difficult to determine. Medici, +in concluding his account of her and referring to the inscription on her +tomb, which seems to authenticate all the claims made for her, expresses +himself as follows: "In quoting this document, I do not intend that my +readers shall accord to it a credence that I myself abstain from giving +it, but only that they may know of it, if for no other reason than to +satisfy their curiosity." Op. cit., pp. 30 and 362, note I. Should the +traditions regarding this precocious girl be verified, it would be most +gratifying to the people of Bologna, for it would add one more to the +long list of her illustrious women.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_168_168" id="Footnote_168_168"></a><a href="#FNanchor_168_168"><span class="label">[168]</span></a> The titles of the two works of this remarkable woman are +of sufficient interest to be given in full. They are as follows: +</p><p> +1. <i>Véritable Déclaration de la Découverte des Mines et Minières par le +Moyen desquelles Sa Majesté et Sujets se peuvent passer des Pays +Etrangers</i>, Paris, 1632. +</p><p> +2. <i>La Restitution de Pluton à Mgr. l'Eminent Card. de Richelieu, des +Mines et Minières de France, cachées jusqu'à present au Ventre de la +Terre, par la Moyen desquelles les Finances de sa Majesté seront +beaucoup plus Grandes que celles de tous les Princes Chrestiens et ses +Sujets plus Heureux de tous les Peuples.</i> Paris, 1640.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_169_169" id="Footnote_169_169"></a><a href="#FNanchor_169_169"><span class="label">[169]</span></a> <i>Die Verdienste der Frauen um Naturwissenschaft and +Heilkunde</i>, p. 169, von Dr. C. F. Harless, Göttingen, 1830.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_170_170" id="Footnote_170_170"></a><a href="#FNanchor_170_170"><span class="label">[170]</span></a> The Latin title of this interesting work is <i>De +Generatione et Metamorphose Insectorum Surinamensium</i>, Amsterdam, 1705.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_171_171" id="Footnote_171_171"></a><a href="#FNanchor_171_171"><span class="label">[171]</span></a> The Latin edition of this work is entitled <i>Erucarum +Ortus, Alimenta et Paradoxa Metamorphosis</i>, Amsterdam, 1718. It was +afterwards translated into French and published under the title +<i>Histoire des Insectes de l'Europe</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_172_172" id="Footnote_172_172"></a><a href="#FNanchor_172_172"><span class="label">[172]</span></a> <i>Die Leistungen der deutschen Frau in den letzen +vierhundert Jahren auf wissenschaftlichem Gebiebte</i>, p. 85, von Elise +Oelsner, Guhrau, 1894.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_173_173" id="Footnote_173_173"></a><a href="#FNanchor_173_173"><span class="label">[173]</span></a> In his preface to <i>Les Maladies des Vers à Soie</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_174_174" id="Footnote_174_174"></a><a href="#FNanchor_174_174"><span class="label">[174]</span></a> It is estimated that the loss to the United States from +cattle ticks alone is $100,000,000 a year. According to the year-book of +the Agricultural Department for 1904, the annual losses to agriculture +from destructive insects reach the enormous sum of $420,000,000.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_175_175" id="Footnote_175_175"></a><a href="#FNanchor_175_175"><span class="label">[175]</span></a> The dean of the law faculty in presenting Miss Ormerod to +the vice-chancellor on this occasion and speaking before an audience of +three thousand people said, among other things: "The preëminent position +which Miss Ormerod holds in the world of science is the reward of +patient study and unwearying observation. Her investigations have been +chiefly directed towards the discovery of methods for the prevention of +the ravages of those insects which are injurious to orchard, field and +forest. Her labors have been crowned with such success, that she is +entitled to be hailed as the protectress of agriculture and the fruits +of the earth—a beneficent Demeter of the nineteenth century." <i>Eleanor +Ormerod, Economic Entomologist, Autobiography and Correspondence</i>, +Edited by Robert Wallace, p. 96, London, 1904.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_176_176" id="Footnote_176_176"></a><a href="#FNanchor_176_176"><span class="label">[176]</span></a> <i>The Canadian Entomologist</i>, September, 1901, in an +obituary notice of Miss Ormerod, well voiced the high appreciation in +which she was held throughout the civilized world in the following +paragraph: "Miss Ormerod was one of the most remarkable women of the +latter half of the nineteenth century and did more than any one else in +the British Isles to further the interests of farmers, fruit-growers and +gardeners by making known to them methods for controlling and subduing +their multiform insect pests. Her labors were unwearied and unselfish; +she received no remuneration for her services, but cheerfully expended +her private means in carrying out her investigations and publishing +their results. We know not now by whom in England this work can be +continued; it is not likely that anyone can follow in the unique path +laid out by Miss Ormerod; we may, therefore, cherish the hope that the +Government of the day will hold out a helping hand and establish an +entomological bureau for the lasting benefit of the great agricultural +interests of the country." Professor J. Ritzema Bos, the distinguished +entomologist of Holland, had no hesitation in proclaiming Miss Ormerod +the first economic entomologist in England and one of the most famous +economic entomologists in the world.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_177_177" id="Footnote_177_177"></a><a href="#FNanchor_177_177"><span class="label">[177]</span></a> The following dialogue between Mme. Coudreau and one of +her boatmen, Joas-Felix, who was the spokesman of his companions, +illustrates not only the bravery of the daring explorer, but also the +pusillanimity of her half-breed personnel when in the depths of the +forest at night: +</p><p> +"'Madam has no fear?' +</p><p> +"'Fear of what?' +</p><p> +"'Of tigers.' +</p><p> +"'No, it is not of tigers that I have fear.' +</p><p> +"'Of Indians?' +</p><p> +"'Neither have I fear of Indians.' +</p><p> +"'Then, madam, it is something which is in the woods, which we do not +know, that can harm us.' +</p><p> +"'You know very well what frightens me. I am afraid that the bats will +attack my chickens during the night. If you hear them making a noise you +must get up.' +</p><p> +"I laugh heartily in observing their astonished look and ask myself how +men whose consciences are stained with many bloody crimes can have fear +here. Joas-Felix gives me the explanation: +</p><p> +"'Madam makes game of us. None the less, madam, I am a man in the city +and in the savanna. With my poignard and machete I fear nothing, neither +man nor beast. But here, madam, where everything is dark, even in the +daytime; where an enemy may be lying in wait for us behind every tree; +it is not the same thing. It would be impossible for me to live in the +forest. One cannot see far enough in it.' +</p><p> +"Now I understand better their terror. The mysterious depth of the +virgin forest impresses them. The opaque obscurity of the night in the +underwood contrasts too strongly with the moonlit savanna where they +have been reared. The low and sombre vault of the woods oppresses them +and they imagine they are going to be crushed. They lose their heads and +see in every tree a phantom enemy. To reason with them is useless, for +when fear takes possession of them, there is nothing to be done." +<i>Voyage au Maycurú</i>, p. 127.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_178_178" id="Footnote_178_178"></a><a href="#FNanchor_178_178"><span class="label">[178]</span></a> <i>Voyage au Maycurú</i>, p. 1, Paris, 1903.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_179_179" id="Footnote_179_179"></a><a href="#FNanchor_179_179"><span class="label">[179]</span></a> <i>Voyage au Rio Curuá</i>, p. 85, Paris, 1903.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_180_180" id="Footnote_180_180"></a><a href="#FNanchor_180_180"><span class="label">[180]</span></a> Ibid., p. 1.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_181_181" id="Footnote_181_181"></a><a href="#FNanchor_181_181"><span class="label">[181]</span></a> In order that the reader may realize the immense extent +of territory that was covered by this strenuous woman's explorations, +during the twelve years she spent in Amazonia, it suffices to give the +titles of her books, all of which are profusely illustrated by +photographs taken by herself and by accurate charts of rivers, whose +courses were previously almost unknown. +</p><p> +The books written in collaboration with her husband are <i>Voyage au +Tapajos</i>, <i>Voyage au Xingu</i>, <i>Voyage au Tocantins-Araguaya</i>, <i>Voyage au +Itaboca et à l'Etacayuna</i>, <i>Voyage entre Tocantins et Xingu</i>, <i>et Voyage +au Yamunda</i>. +</p><p> +The books written by Mme. Coudreau after her husband's death are <i>Voyage +au Trombetas</i>, <i>Voyage au Cuminá</i>, <i>Voyage au Rio Curuá</i>, <i>Voyage a la +Mapuerá</i> and <i>Voyage au Maycurú</i>. +</p><p> +When one remembers that many of the watercourses here named would be +considered large rivers outside of South America; that, notwithstanding +their countless rapids and waterfalls, necessitating numberless +portages, Mme. Coudreau explored all these rivers from their embouchures +to as near their sources as the water would carry her rude dugouts, we +can form some idea of the miles she traveled and of the stupendous labor +that was involved in making these long journeys in the sweltering and +debilitating and insect-laden atmosphere of the Amazon basin.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>WOMEN IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY</h3> + + +<p>As woman was the first nurse, so was she also the first practitioner of +the healing art. Among savages the world over it is the women, in the +great majority of cases, who have the care of the sick and wounded, and +who, by reason of their superior knowledge of simples for the cure of +diseases, occupy the position of doctors. In certain parts of the +uncivilized world there are, it is true, shamans or medicine men; but +these are conjurers or exorcists, who profess to expel disease, or +rather the evil spirits causing the disease, by sorcery or incantation, +rather than physicians who essay to cure ailments or relieve suffering +by the use of substances which experience has showed to possess remedial +properties. In a word, the shaman is a kind of a religious functionary +who imposes on the ignorance of his tribe and who holds his position by +the fear he excites, and not by any knowledge he possesses of the +healing art. It was the same, we may believe, in the early history of +our race—women, and not men, were the first physicians; and they were +also most probably the first surgeons.</p> + +<p>According to Greek mythology, the god of the medical art was Æsculapius, +a male; but his six daughters, as antiquity beautifully expressed it, +were not only goddesses but were also medical mistresses—<i>artifices +medici</i>—of suffering humanity. Of these Hygiea was specially +distinguished as the goddess of health, or, rather, as the conserver of +good health, while Panacea was invoked as the restorer of health after +it had been impaired or lost.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span></p> + +<p>One of the most beautiful pictures in the Iliad is that representing the +daughter of Augea, King of the Epei, caring for the wounded and +suffering Greeks on the plain before Troy. She was:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"His eldest born, hight Agamede, with golden hair,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A leech was she, and well she knew all herbs on ground that grew."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Nothing deterred by the din of battle around her, she provided cordial +potions for the disabled warrior and prepared</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The gentle bath and washed their gory wounds."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>What a beautiful prototype of another ministering angel in the same land +nearly thirty centuries later, amid similar scenes of suffering—of one +who, though unsung by immortal bard, the world will never let die—the +courageous, the self-sacrificing Florence Nightingale.</p> + +<p>That there were in Greece from the earliest times numerous women +possessed of a high degree of medical skill is evidenced by many of the +ancient writers. They were what we would call medical herbalists, and +not a few of them exhibited a natural genius for determining the +curative virtues of rare plants and a remarkable sagacity in preparing +from them juices, infusions and soothing anodynes. Others there were +who, in addition to evincing the cunning of leechcraft in the +therapeutic art, were distinguished for nimble hands in treating painful +lesions and festering sores, and who, when occasion required, were +experts in "quickly drawing the barb from the flesh and healing the +wound of the soldier."</p> + +<p>In the Odyssey special mention is made of the surpassing expertness of +the Egyptian female leech, Polydamna, whose name signifies the subduer +of many diseases. The land of the Nile, the poet tells us, "teems with +drugs," and</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"There ev'ry man in skill medicinal<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Excels, for these are sons of Pæon all."<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>In this favored cradle of civilization, to which Greece owed so much of +its knowledge and culture, there were many women who, like Polydamna, +achieved distinction in the healing art, and many, too, we have reason +to think, who communicated their knowledge to their sisters in the fair +land of Hellas.</p> + +<p>But not only were there in Greece women physicians like Agamede, who +were noted for their general medicinal knowledge and practice, but there +were also others who made a specialty of treating ailments peculiar to +their own sex. This we learn from a passage in the <i>Hippolytus</i> of +Euripides, wherein the nurse of Phædra addressed the suffering queen in +the following words:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i28">"If under pains<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou labor, such as may not be revealed,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To succor thee thy female friends are here.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But if the other sex may know thy sufferings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Let the physician try his healing art."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>More positive information, however, is afforded us by the ancient Roman +author Hyginus, who, in writing of the Greek maiden, Agnodice, tells us +how the medical profession was legalized for all the free-born women of +Athens. Instead of a literal translation of Hyginus, the version of his +story is given in the quaint language of one Mrs. Celleor, a noted +midwife in the reign of James II.</p> + +<p>"Among the subtile Athenians," writes Mrs. Celleor, "a law at one time +forbade women to study or practice medicine or physick on pain of death, +which law continued some time, during which many women perished, both in +child-bearing and by private diseases, their modesty not permitting them +to admit of men either to deliver or cure them. But God finally stirred +up the spirit of Agnodice, a noble maid, to pity the miserable condition +of her own sex, and hazard her life to help them; which, to enable +herself to do, she apparelled her like a man and became the scholar<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> of +Hierophilos, the most learned physician of the time; and, having learnt +the art, she found out a woman that had long languished under private +diseases, and made proffer of her service to cure her, which the sick +person refused, thinking her to be a man; but, when Agnodice discovered +that she was a maid, the woman committed herself into her hands, who +cured her perfectly; and after her many others, with the like skill and +industry, so that in a short time she became the successful and beloved +physician of the whole sex."</p> + +<p>When it became known that Agnodice was a woman "she was like to be +condemned to death for transgressing the law—which, coming to the ears +of the noble women, they ran before the Areopagites, and, the house +being encompassed by most women of the city, the ladies entered before +the judges and told them they would no longer account them for husbands +and friends, but for cruel enemies, that condemned her to death who +restored to them their health, protesting they would all die with her if +she were put to death. This caused the magistrates to disannul the law +and make another, which gave gentlewomen leave to study and practice all +parts of physick to their own sex, giving large stipends to those that +did it well and carefully. And there were many noble women who studied +that practice and taught it publicly in their schools as long as Athens +flourished in learning."<a name="FNanchor_182_182" id="FNanchor_182_182"></a><a href="#Footnote_182_182" class="fnanchor">[182]</a></p> + +<p>After the time of Agnodice many Greek women won distinction in medicine, +some as practitioners in the healing art, others as writers on medical +subjects. Nor were their activities confined to the land of Hellas. They +were also found succoring the infirm and instructing the poor and +ignorant in Italy, Egypt and Asia Minor. Among these was Theano, the +wife of Pythagoras, who, after her husband's death, assumed charge of +his school of philosophy,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> and who, like her husband and teacher, was +distinguished for her attainments in medicine. The names of many others +occur in the pages of Hippocrates, Galen and Pliny; and frequent +references are made to the works and prescriptions of women doctors who +enjoyed more than ordinary celebrity during their time. Of these female +practitioners many confined their practice to the diseases of women and +children, while others excelled in surgery and pharmacy, as well as in +general medical practice.</p> + +<p>Among the medical women whom antiquity especially honored, particularly +during the Greco-Roman period, were Origenia, Aspasia—not the famous +wife of Pericles—and Cleopatra, who was not, however, as is often +asserted, the ill-fated queen of Egypt. Likewise deserving of special +mention was Metradora, of whom there is still preserved in Florence a +manuscript work on the diseases of women,<a name="FNanchor_183_183" id="FNanchor_183_183"></a><a href="#Footnote_183_183" class="fnanchor">[183]</a> and Antiochis, to whom +her admiring countrymen erected a statue bearing the following +inscription: "Antiochis, daughter of Diodotos of Tlos; the council and +the commune of the city of Tlos, in appreciation of her medical ability, +erected at their own expense this statue in her honor."</p> + +<p>Pliny, the naturalist, felicitates the Romans on having been for nearly +six hundred years free from the brood of doctors. These he does not +hesitate to berate roundly. His statement regarding the non-existence of +physicians, it must be observed, is somewhat exaggerated. It is true +that during the first five centuries there were no professional doctors +who lived entirely on their practice. There were, however, many men who +had by long experience gained an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> extensive knowledge of drugs and +simples, and who were able to dress wounds and treat diseases with +considerable success.</p> + +<p>The first Greek freeman to practice medicine in Rome was one Archagatos, +about two centuries B.C. He was soon followed by one of his countrymen +named Asclepiades. These two soon built up a great reputation as +successful practitioners, and were held in the highest esteem by the +people of Rome. In consequence of this and of the favorable conditions +offered foreigners for the practice of the healing art, there was soon a +large influx of physicians and surgeons from Greece, not only into Rome +but also into other parts of Italy.</p> + +<p>Not long after the arrival of Greek doctors in the capital of the Roman +world we learn of certain women physicians in Rome who were held in high +repute. Among these were Victoria and Leoparda, both mentioned by the +medical writer, Theodorus Priscianus. To Victoria, Priscianus dedicates +the third book of his <i>Rerum Medicarum</i>, and in the preface to this book +he refers to her as one who has not only an accurate knowledge of +medicine, but also as one who is a keen observer and experienced +practitioner.</p> + +<p>The word <i>medica</i>, which occurs in Latin authors of the classical +period, testifies to the existence of the woman doctor as early as the +age of Augustus.</p> + +<p>But the most important documents bearing on women physicians, not only +in the city of Rome but also in Italy, Gaul and the Iberian peninsula, +are the large body of epigraphic monuments which have recently been +brought to light, and which prove beyond all doubt that women were not +only obstetricians, but that they were successful practitioners in the +entire field of medical art. Thus a funeral tablet found in Portugal +tells of a woman who was a most excellent physician—<i>medica +optima</i>—while another describes the deceased not only as a woman +incomparable for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> her virtues, but also as a mistress of medical +science, <i>antistes disciplinæ in medicina fuit</i>.</p> + +<p>The Greek word for <i>medica</i>—<i>iatromaia</i>—occasionally found in some of +the inscriptions, seems to refer specially to women of Greek origin or +birth. This is particularly true of a monument erected to one Valiæ, who +is designated as <i>Kalista iatromaia</i>—the best doctor.<a name="FNanchor_184_184" id="FNanchor_184_184"></a><a href="#Footnote_184_184" class="fnanchor">[184]</a></p> + +<p>Among the many women who became converts to Christianity during the +early ages of the church a goodly number were physicians. Unfortunately, +our information respecting these votaries of the healing art is not as +complete as we could wish. One of the most noted of them is St. +Theodosia, whose name is given in the Roman martyrology for the +twenty-ninth of May. She was the mother of the martyr, St. Procopius, +and was distinguished for her knowledge of medicine and surgery, both of +which she practiced in Rome with the most signal success. She died a +heroic death by the sword during the persecution of Diocletian.</p> + +<p>Another woman who was as eminent for her knowledge of medicine as for +her holiness of life was St. Nicerata, who lived in Constantinople +during the reign of the emperor Arcadius. She is said to have cured St. +John Chrysostom of an affection of the stomach from which he was a +sufferer.</p> + +<p>To the Roman lady Fabiola, remarkable as the daughter of one of the most +illustrious patrician families of Rome, but more remarkable for her +sanctity and her boundless charity toward the poor, was due the erection +of the first hospital—a noble structure which she founded in Ostia, at +the mouth of the Tiber, which was then the port of entry to the capital +of the Roman empire. Here the noble matron received the poor and +suffering from all parts, and did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> everything in her power to afford +them succor in their wants and infirmities.</p> + +<p>It is difficult for us now, when hospitals and charitable institutions +of all kinds are so common, to understand what an innovation Fabiola's +unheard-of institution was considered by her contemporaries. For her +method of treating the needy and the suffering was as different from +that which had hitherto obtained as were the debasing lessons of +heathendom from the elevating precepts of the Gospels.</p> + +<p>No wonder that the news of this godlike work was soon wafted to the +uttermost bounds of the earth; that, in the words of St. Jerome, "summer +should announce in Britain what Egypt and Parthia had learned in the +spring." No wonder that the same eloquent hermit of Bethlehem should +proclaim the foundress of this home of the indigent and the afflicted to +be "the glory of the church, the astonishment of the Gentiles, the +mother of the poor and the consolation of the saints." No wonder that, +in contemplating her countless acts of charity, he should ignore the +fact that Fabiola was a daughter of the Fabii and a descendant of the +renowned Quintus Maximus, who, by his sage counsel, had saved his +country from her enemies, and that, recalling the words of Virgil, he +should declare: "If I had a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths and +iron lungs, I should not be able to enumerate all the maladies to which +Fabiola gave the most prodigal care and tenderness—to the extent even +of making the poor who were in health envy the good fortune of those who +were sick."<a name="FNanchor_185_185" id="FNanchor_185_185"></a><a href="#Footnote_185_185" class="fnanchor">[185]</a> No wonder that Fabiola's funeral, which brought +together the whole of Rome, was more like an apotheosis than the +transfer of the remains of the deceased to their last resting-place, and +that Jerome should declare, "the glory of Furius and Papirius<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> and +Scipio and Pompey, when they triumphed over the Gauls, the Sammites, +Numantia and Pontus" was less than that which was spontaneously accorded +to Fabiola, the solace of the sick and the comforter of the distressed. +For she had in her hospital at Ostia established a type of institution +that was to effect more for ameliorating the condition of suffering +humanity than anything that had before been dreamed of; something that +was to contribute immensely to the efforts of physicians and surgeons in +minimizing the sad ravages of wounds and disease; something whose +beneficent effects were to be felt through the centuries and in every +part of the world down to the wards of the military hospital at Scutari, +guarded by the watchful eyes of Florence Nightingale, and to the +leper-tenanted lazarettos, blessed by the ministrations of Father Damien +and the Sisters of Charity, on the desolate shores of plague-stricken +Molokai.</p> + +<p>After the fall of the Roman empire and through the long period of the +Middle Ages, when the monasteries and convents were almost the only +centers of learning and culture for the greater part of Europe, the +practice of medicine was to a great extent in the hands of monks and +nuns. For every religious house was then a hospital as well as a school, +a place where drugs and ointments were compounded and distributed, as +well as a place where manuscripts were transcribed and illuminated. At a +time when there were but few professional physicians and when these few +were widely separated from one another, the only places where the poor +could always be sure to find free medical treatment as well as abundant +alms were those sanctuaries of knowledge and charity where the love of +one's neighbor was never lost sight of in the love of science and +literature. And during this time, too, the care of the sick was regarded +as a duty incumbent on everyone, but particularly on those devoted to +the service of God in religion. It was considered, above all, as a duty +devolving<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> on women, especially on the lady in the castle and on the nun +in the convent.</p> + +<p>The old romance of <i>Sir Isumbras</i> gives us a charming picture of the +nuns of long ago receiving the wounded knight and ministering unto him +until he was made whole and strong, as witness the following verses:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The nonnes of him they were full fayne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">For that he had the Saracenes slayne<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And those haythene houndes.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And of his paynnes sare ganne them rewe.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ilke a day they made salves new<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And laid them till his woundes;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">They gave him metis and drynkis lythe,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And heled the knyghte wunder swythe."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>So universally during mediæval times was the healing art considered as +pertaining to woman's calling that it became a part of the curriculum in +convent schools; and no girl's education was considered complete unless +she had an elementary knowledge of medicine and of that part of surgery +which deals with the treatment of wounds. For during those troublous +times a woman was liable to be called upon at any time to nurse the sick +wayfarer or dress the wounds of those who had been maimed in battle or +in the tourney.</p> + +<p>Illustrations of these facts are found in many of the romances and +fabliaux of the Middle Ages. Thus, when a sick or wounded man was given +hospitality in a château or castle it was not the seigneur, but his wife +and daughters, as being better versed in medicine and surgery, who acted +as nurses and doctors and took entire charge of the patient until his +recovery.</p> + +<p>In the exquisite little story of <i>Aucassin et Nicolette</i>, the heroine is +pictured as setting the dislocated shoulder of her lover in the +following simple but touching language:</p> + +<p>"Nicolette searched his hurt, and perceived that his shoulder was out of +joint. She handled it so deftly with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> her white hands, and used such +skillful surgery that, by the grace of God, who loveth all true lovers, +the shoulder came back to its place. Then she plucked flowers and fresh +grasses and green leafage, and bound them tightly about the setting with +the hem torn from her shift, and he was altogether healed."</p> + +<p>And in the mediæval Latin poem, <i>Waltharius</i>, written by a German monk, +Ekkehard, reference is made to a sanguinary contest in which one of the +combatants falls to the earth seriously wounded. Seeing this, +Alpharides, in a loud voice, summons a young girl, who timidly comes +forward and dresses the unfortunate man's wound.<a name="FNanchor_186_186" id="FNanchor_186_186"></a><a href="#Footnote_186_186" class="fnanchor">[186]</a></p> + +<p>Still more to our purpose is a passage from the famous epic poem, +<i>Tristan and Isolde</i>, written by <i>Godfrey of Strasburg</i>, in which +Isolde, accompanied by her mother and cousin, is represented as +administering restoratives to Tristan, who had fallen exhausted after +his combat with the dragon. It shows that women, in accompanying an army +to the field of battle, always went provided with bandages and +medicaments for dressing wounds and fractured limbs. Similarly Angelica, +in <i>Orlando Furioso</i>, and Ermina, in <i>Jerusalem Delivered</i>, are +portrayed as surgeons with deftness of hand and leeches with rare +knowledge and skill.</p> + +<p>The frequent introduction of women doctors into the poems and romances +of the Middle Ages would of itself, if other evidence were wanting, +suffice to show what an important rôle women played in medicine and +surgery at a time when, in many parts of Europe, women were far better +educated and far more cultured than men—"when the knights and barons of +France and Germany were inclined to look upon reading and writing as +unmanly and almost degrading accomplishments, fit only for priests or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> +monks, and especially for priests or monks not too well born."<a name="FNanchor_187_187" id="FNanchor_187_187"></a><a href="#Footnote_187_187" class="fnanchor">[187]</a></p> + +<p>In the instances just quoted, as well as those mentioned by Homer and +Euripides, the writers do no more than faithfully reflect conditions +which then obtained, and truthfully report what were the occupations of +women when their status was so different from what it is to-day. But, +fortunately, we do not have to rely on works of the imagination for our +knowledge respecting the women practitioners of the healing art, either +during the Homeric period or during that which intervened between the +downfall of Rome and the dawn of the Renaissance. For the history of +medicine during mediæval times affords too many examples of women who +became famous for their knowledge of medicine, as well as for their +success in surgical and medical practice, to leave any doubt about the +matter. Besides this, we have still the writings of many of these women, +and are thus able to judge of their competency in those branches of +knowledge on which they shed so great luster.</p> + +<p>One of the most noted of them was the Benedictine abbess, St. Hildegard, +of Bingen on the Rhine, who was eminent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> not only as a theologian but +also as a writer whose treatises on various branches of science are +justly regarded as the most important productions of the kind during the +Middle Ages prior to the time of Albertus Magnus. Besides this, she not +only wrote many books on <i>materia medica</i>, on pathology, physiology and +therapeutics, but, as a practitioner, she gloriously sustained the best +traditions of her sex in both theoretical and practical medicine.</p> + +<p>Her work entitled <i>Liber Simplicis Medicinæ</i>, which deals with what in +the Saint's time was called "simples"—for the belief was then current +that each plant or herb was or provided a specific for some +disease—contains accounts of many plants used in <i>materia medica</i>, as +well as statements of their importance in therapeutics. Her descriptions +often indicate an observer of exceptionally keen perception and one +whose knowledge of science was far in advance of her epoch. The same +observations may be made respecting Hildegard 's work, <i>Liber Compositæ +Medicinæ</i>, in which she treats of the causes, signs and treatment of +diseases.<a name="FNanchor_188_188" id="FNanchor_188_188"></a><a href="#Footnote_188_188" class="fnanchor">[188]</a></p> + +<p>Still more remarkable, in many respects, is a treatise in nine books, +entitled <i>Physica</i> or <i>Liber Subtilitatum Diversarum Naturarum +Creaturarum</i>, which, among other things, treats of the various elements, +of plants, trees, minerals, fish, birds, quadrupeds, and of the manner +in which they may be of service to man. Of so great importance was this +book considered that several editions of it were printed as early as the +sixteenth century. No less an authority than the late Rudolph Virchow, +the founder of cellular pathology, characterizes it as an early <i>materia +medica</i>, curiously complete, considering the age to which it +belongs.<a name="FNanchor_189_189" id="FNanchor_189_189"></a><a href="#Footnote_189_189" class="fnanchor">[189]</a> And Hæser, in his history of medicine,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> directs attention +to the historical value of the book, declaring it to be "an independent +German treatise, based chiefly on popular experience."</p> + +<p>Dr. F. A. Reuss, of the University of Würtzburg, at the conclusion of +his <i>Prolegomena</i> to the <i>Physica</i> published in Migne's <i>Patrologia</i>, +expresses himself as follows regarding the writings and medical +knowledge of the illustrious abbess of Bingen: "Among all the saintly +<i>religieuses</i> who, during the Middle Ages, practiced medicine or wrote +treatises on it, the first, without contradiction, is Hildegard. +According to the monk Theodoric, who was an eye witness, she had to so +high a degree the gift of healing that no sick person had recourse to +her without being restored to health. There is among the books of this +prophetic virgin a work which treats of physics and medicine. Its title +is <i>De Natura Nominis Elementorum Diversarumque Creaturarum</i>, and it +embodies, as the same Theodoric fully explains, the secrets of nature +which were revealed to the saint by the prophetic spirit. All who wish +to write the history of the medical and natural sciences should read +this book, in which the holy virgin, initiated into all the secrets of +nature which were then known, and having received special assistance +from above, thoroughly examines and scrutinizes all that which was, +until then, buried in darkness and concealed from the eyes of mortals. +It is certain that Hildegard was acquainted with many things of which +the doctors of the Middle Ages were ignorant, and which the +investigators of our own age, after rediscovering them, have announced +as something entirely new."<a name="FNanchor_190_190" id="FNanchor_190_190"></a><a href="#Footnote_190_190" class="fnanchor">[190]</a></p> + +<p>The life and works of St. Hildegard throw a flood of light on many +subjects that have long been veiled in mystery. It explains why the +convents of the later Middle Ages were so famed as curative centers and +why the sick flocked to them for relief from far and near. It reveals +the real agencies employed in effecting the extraordinary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> cures that +were reported in so many religious houses—cures so extraordinary that +they were usually regarded by the multitude as miraculous—and discloses +the secret of the success of so many nuns in the alleviation of physical +and mental sufferings. It was not because they were thaumaturges, but +because they were good nurses, and because of their thorough knowledge +of the healing art, that they were able to diagnose and prescribe for +diseases of all kinds with a success which, in the estimation of the +multitude, savored of the supernatural.</p> + +<p>There was also another reason for the fame of convents as sanctuaries of +health. They were usually situated in healthy locations where there was +an abundance of pure water, fresh air and cheerful sunshine. Then there +were likewise a wholesome diet, good sanitary conditions, and, above +all, regularity of life.</p> + +<p>The same can be said of the hospitals connected with the convents. They +were not like some of the public hospitals of the eighteenth and +nineteenth centuries in many of the large cities of Europe—repulsive, +prison-like structures, with narrow windows and devoid of light and air +and the most necessary hygienic appliances—institutions that were +hospitals in name, but which were in reality too frequently breeding +places of disease and death.<a name="FNanchor_191_191" id="FNanchor_191_191"></a><a href="#Footnote_191_191" class="fnanchor">[191]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p> +<p>Unlike these, the hospitals presided over by nuns of the type of +Hildegard were splendid roomy structures with large windows and +abundance of light, pure air, with special provisions for the privacy of +the patients, and with sanitary arrangements that not only precluded the +dissemination of disease but which contributed materially to those +marvelous cures which the good people of the time attributed to +supernatural agencies rather than to the medical knowledge and skill of +the devoted nuns,<a name="FNanchor_192_192" id="FNanchor_192_192"></a><a href="#Footnote_192_192" class="fnanchor">[192]</a> who were the real conquerors of disease and +death.</p> + +<p>But the inmates of the cloister were not the only women who, during the +Middle Ages, achieved distinction by their writings on medical subjects +and by their signal success in the practice of the healing art. In +various parts of Europe, but especially in Italy and France, there were +at this time among women, outside as well as inside convent walls, many +daughters of Æsculapius and sisters of Hygeia who stood in such high +repute among their contemporaries that they received the same honors and +emoluments as were accorded to their masculine colleagues.</p> + +<p>This was particularly the case in Salerno, which was the venerated +mother of all Christian medical schools, and which, for nine centuries, +was universally regarded as "the unquestioned fountain and archetype of +orthodox medicine." Situated on the Gulf of Salerno, and laved by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> +cerulean waters of the Tyrrhenian sea, the <i>Civitas Hippocratica</i>, as it +was called on its medals, rejoiced in a salubrious climate, and was +celebrated throughout the world as the "City sacred to Phœbus, the +sedulous nurse of Minerva, the fountain of physic, the votary of +medicine, the handmaid of Nature, the destroyer of disease and the +strong adversary of death."<a name="FNanchor_193_193" id="FNanchor_193_193"></a><a href="#Footnote_193_193" class="fnanchor">[193]</a> For to this favored city flocked from +all quarters the lame and the halt and those afflicted with the tortures +of disease and the disabilities of advancing years. The noble and the +simple, crowned heads as well as the poorest of the poor, were found +there, all of them in quest of life's most precious boon—health and +strength.</p> + +<p>Never did the far-famed sanctuary of the god of medicine in Epidaurus +witness such an influx of invalids as gathered in the hospitals of +Salerno and pressed through the streets of the Hippocratic city, seeking +the aid of those doctors whose marvelous cures had given them a +world-wide reputation. Small wonder, then, that the <i>Regimen Santatis +Salernitanum</i>—that famous code of health of the school of Salerno—has +been translated into almost all the languages of modern Europe, and that +since 1480 no fewer than two hundred and fifty editions of it have been +published. "Not to have been familiar with it from beginning to end, not +to have been able to quote it orally as occasion might require, would, +during the Middle Ages, have cast serious suspicion upon the +professional culture of any physician."<a name="FNanchor_194_194" id="FNanchor_194_194"></a><a href="#Footnote_194_194" class="fnanchor">[194]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> But the noblest claims of +the Hippocratic city to the gratitude of humanity yet remain to be told. +A German traveler in the thirteenth century wrote:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Laudibus æternum nullum negat esse Salernum<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Illuc pro morbis totus circumfluit orbis."<a name="FNanchor_195_195" id="FNanchor_195_195"></a><a href="#Footnote_195_195" class="fnanchor">[195]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>This was because Salerno was universally recognized as the "day star" +and "morning glory" of the best culture in the healing art, and, still +more, because of the thorough instruction she gave in her schools of +medicine and the preëminence she so long held in every department of +medical lore.</p> + +<p>The course of study in medicine was long and thorough, and the candidate +applying for a degree had to pass a rigid examination and give proof not +only of his proficiency in every branch of the healing art, but also of +perfect acquaintance with the various branches of science and letters as +well. At the time of Frederick II, who organized all the different +schools of Salerno into a single university, a three years' course in +philosophy and literature was required before one could present himself +for entrance into the school of medicine. The courses in medicine lasted +five years, at least, after which a year of practice with an old +physician was required. In addition to this, if the candidate wished to +practice surgery he was obliged to devote one year to the study of human +anatomy and to the dissection of human bodies. Considering the progress +of knowledge since the time of Frederick II, it must be admitted that +the legal requirements enforced by the faculty of Salerno compare +favorably with those of the best of our medical schools of to-day.</p> + +<p>Still more to the credit of Salerno, long known as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> Athens of the +two Sicilies, was her boundless liberality toward scholarship and +culture regardless of sex. For, with a chivalrous admiration for +intellect, wherever found, and with a sense of intellectual justice that +has put to shame all medical schools outside of Italy, until less than +fifty years ago, the school of Salerno was the first to throw open its +portals to women as well as men, and give to an admiring world a number +of women—those celebrated <i>mulieres Salernitanæ</i>—who were eminent not +only as physicians, but also as professors of the theory and practice of +medicine. For this reason, if for no other, it can be truly affirmed +that "No school of medicine in any age or country, if only for this, can +ever over-peer her in renown; and, even as formerly in the universities +of Europe, at the bare mention of the name of the learned Cujacius, +every scholar instinctively uncovered himself, so at the very name of +Salernum, the fount and nurse of rational medicine, every physician +should recall her memory 'with mute thanks and secret ecstasy' as among +the most spotless and venerated chapters in the history of his +art."<a name="FNanchor_196_196" id="FNanchor_196_196"></a><a href="#Footnote_196_196" class="fnanchor">[196]</a></p> + +<p>The most noted professor and successful practitioner among the women of +Salerno was Trotula, wife of the distinguished physician, John +Platearius, and a member of the old noble family of the Ruggiero. She +flourished during the eleventh century and enjoyed a reputation as a +physician that was not inferior to that of the most noted doctors of her +time. Besides occupying a chair in the school of medicine and having an +extensive practice, she was the author of many works on medicine which +had a great vogue among her contemporaries. Some of them, especially +those relating to diseases of her own sex,<a name="FNanchor_197_197" id="FNanchor_197_197"></a><a href="#Footnote_197_197" class="fnanchor">[197]</a> were published<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> several +times after the invention of printing, and many manuscript copies of her +works are still found in various libraries of Europe. But she did not +confine her practice to the diseases of women. She was also well versed +in general medicine and exhibited, besides, as her works testify, marked +skill as a surgeon in many cases that would even now be considered as +peculiarly difficult of treatment.</p> + +<p>One of her books was entitled <i>De Compositione Medicamentorum</i>—the +Compounding of Medicaments—and it was this work, doubtless, that gave +her much of the fame she enjoyed beyond the confines of Italy. +Rutebœuf, a noted French trouvère of the thirteenth century, gives us +a quaint picture of a scene frequently witnessed in his day. Crowds were +frequently attracted by herbalists—venders of simples—who, stationed +at street corners or in other public places, near tables covered with a +cloth of flaring colors, were wont to descant, somewhat after the style +of certain of our patent-medicine hawkers and quack-salvers, upon the +extraordinary curative properties of the various drugs and panaceas +which they had for sale.</p> + +<p>"Good people," one of these traveling herb doctors would begin, "I am +not one of those poor preachers, nor one of those poor herbalists who +carry boxes and sachets and spread them out on a carpet. No, I am a +disciple of a great lady named Madame Trotte of Salerno, who performs +such marvels of every kind. And know ye that she is the wisest woman in +the four quarters of the world."</p> + +<p>Ordericus Vitalis, an English Benedictine monk, in his <i>Historia +Ecclesiastica</i>, tells us of the impression made by Trotula on Rudolfo +Malacorona, one of those famous itinerant scholars of the Middle Ages, +who spent their lives in wandering from one university to another in +pursuit of knowledge. He had been a student from his youth and was a man +of remarkable attainments in every department of learning. After +visiting and conferring with the learned men of the most celebrated +universities of France and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> Italy, he finally arrived at Salerno, where, +he informs us, he found no one who could cope with him in disputation +except <i>quandam sapientem matronam</i>—a certain very learned woman.<a name="FNanchor_198_198" id="FNanchor_198_198"></a><a href="#Footnote_198_198" class="fnanchor">[198]</a> +This was Trotula, who, by reason of the extraordinary cures she +effected, was known among her contemporaries as <i>magistra operis</i>—a +consummate practitioner. When, however, we consider the thorough course +of study that every one aspiring to a degree in medicine was obliged to +complete, women as well as men, it is not so surprising that Trotula +should be regarded both as a learned woman and as a successful +physician.</p> + +<p>Among other women doctors who did honor to Salerno and whose names have +come down to us were three who are known in history as Abella, Rebeca de +Guarna and Mercuriade. All of them achieved a great reputation by their +writings on medical subjects, especially Mercuriade, who distinguished +herself in surgery as well as in medicine. Still another woman deserving +special mention is Francesca, wife of Matteo de Romana, of Salerno. +After passing a very severe examination before a board composed of +physicians and surgeons, she was accorded the doctorate in surgery. An +official document of the time referring to this event reads as follows: +"Whereas the laws permit women to practice medicine, and whereas, from +the viewpoint of good morals, women are best adapted to the treatment of +their own sex, we, after having received the oath of fidelity, permit +the said Francesca to practice the said art of healing," etc.<a name="FNanchor_199_199" id="FNanchor_199_199"></a><a href="#Footnote_199_199" class="fnanchor">[199]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p><p>In view of the facts above mentioned regarding the University of +Salerno—the excellence of its work, its liberality and breadth of view, +its attitude toward the higher education of women, and its preëminence +for so many centuries as a school of medicine—is it surprising that it +was, until comparatively recent times, considered "the <i>mater et caput</i> +of medical authority in ethical matters," and that, so late as 1748, the +Medical Faculty of Paris should address an official letter to the +faculty of Salerno requesting its judgment regarding the rights of +precedence as between physicians and surgeons? But what is surprising, +and what, too,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> passes all understanding, is that the University of +London, after being empowered by royal charter to do all things that +could be done by any university, was legally advised that it could not +grant degrees to women without a fresh charter, because no university +had ever granted such degrees.<a name="FNanchor_200_200" id="FNanchor_200_200"></a><a href="#Footnote_200_200" class="fnanchor">[200]</a></p> + +<p>While women were winning such laurels in Salerno in every department of +the healing art, their sisters north of the Alps were not idle. As early +as 1292 there were in Paris no less than eight women doctors—called +<i>miresses</i> or <i>mediciennes</i>—whose names have come down to us, not to +speak of those who practiced in other parts of France. There was also a +certain number of women who devoted themselves to surgery and called by +the old Latin authors of the time <i>cyrurgiæ</i>.</p> + +<p>In Paris, however, conditions for studying and practicing medicine and +surgery were far from being as favorable to women as they were in +Salerno. As there were no schools open to them for the study of these +branches, they had to depend entirely for such knowledge as they were +able to acquire on the aid they could get from practicing doctors, the +reading of medical books and their own experience. The consequence was +that they were not at all so well equipped for their work as were the +women who enjoyed all the exceptional advantages offered the students at +Salerno. None of them was noted for scholarship, none of them was a +writer of books, and only one of them—Jacobe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> Felicie, about whom more +presently—rose above mediocrity.</p> + +<p>The reason for the great difference between the conditions of the women +doctors of Paris and those of Salerno is not far to seek. The Faculty of +Medicine in Paris was, from the beginning of its existence, unalterably +opposed to female medical practitioners. As early as 1220 it promulgated +an edict prohibiting the practice of medicine by any one who did not +belong to the faculty, and, according to its constitutions and by-laws, +only unmarried men were eligible to membership.</p> + +<p>For a long time the edict remained a dead letter. But eventually, as the +faculty grew in power and influence, it was able to enforce the +observance of its decrees. One of its first victims was Jacobe Felicie, +just mentioned, who was hailed before court for practicing medicine in +contravention of its edict issued many years before.</p> + +<p>Jacobe Felicie was a woman of noble birth, and had won distinction by +her success in the healing art. As the testimony at her trial revealed, +she never treated the sick for the sake of gain. In nearly all cases the +sick who had addressed themselves to her had been abandoned by their own +physicians. All the witnesses who had been called testified that they +had been cured by Jacobe Felicie, and all expressed their deepest +gratitude to her for her care and devotion. But, in spite of all these +facts, and in spite of the brilliant defence that this worthy woman +made, she was condemned to pay a heavy fine—condemned because, as the +indictment read, she had presumed to put her sickle into the harvest of +others-<i>falcem in messem mittere alienam</i>—and this was a crime.<a name="FNanchor_201_201" id="FNanchor_201_201"></a><a href="#Footnote_201_201" class="fnanchor">[201]</a> +The faculty was a close corporation and insisted that its members should +have a monopoly of all the honors and emoluments that were to accrue +from the treatment of the sick and suffering. What<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> a curious +adumbration of similar proceedings within the memory of many still +living!</p> + +<p>The prosecution of Jacobe Felicie recalls that of Agnodice in Greece +long ages before. And the plea urged for the necessity of a female +physician—that many a woman would rather die than reveal the secrets of +her infirmity to a man<a name="FNanchor_202_202" id="FNanchor_202_202"></a><a href="#Footnote_202_202" class="fnanchor">[202]</a>—was the same as that offered by the women +of Athens before the council of the Areopagus. It was the same agonizing +cry that had been heard thousands of times before and which has been +heard thousands of times since. Isabella of Castile was not the first of +the long list of victims who, for lack of a doctor of their own sex, +have been sacrificed through womanly modesty, and, more's the pity, she +will not be the last.</p> + +<p>Unfortunately for the women of France, the result of the prosecution of +Mme. Felicie was the very reverse of that instituted against Agnodice; +for the latter came off victorious, while the former was condemned and +punished. So crushing was the blow dealt to women practitioners, outside +of obstetrics, that they did not recover from its effects for more than +five hundred years. For it was not until 1868 that the École de Medicine +of Paris opened its doors to women, and it was not until nearly twenty +years later that female physicians were able to enter the hospitals of +the French capital as <i>internes</i>.<a name="FNanchor_203_203" id="FNanchor_203_203"></a><a href="#Footnote_203_203" class="fnanchor">[203]</a></p> + +<p>Until quite recent years there is very little to be said of women +physicians in England and Germany. Their practice, outside of that of +certain herb doctors, was confined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> chiefly to midwifery. There was no +provision made in either of these countries for the education of women +in medicine and surgery, and such a thing as a college where they could +receive instruction in the healing art was unknown. It is true that an +ecclesiastical law of Edgar, King of England, permitted women as well as +men to practice medicine, but this law was subsequently abolished by +Henry V.<a name="FNanchor_204_204" id="FNanchor_204_204"></a><a href="#Footnote_204_204" class="fnanchor">[204]</a></p> + +<p>During the reign of Henry VIII a law was again enacted in favor of women +physicians; for at that time an act was passed for the relief and +protection of "Divers honest psones, as well men as women, whom God +hathe endued with the knowledge of the nature, kind and operaçon of +certeyne herbes, rotes and waters, and the using and ministering them to +suche as be payned with customable diseases, for neighbourhode and +Goddes sake and of pitie and charitie, because <i>that</i> 'The Companie and +Fellowship of Surgeons of London, <i>mynding only their owne lucres and +nothing the profit or case of the diseased or patient</i>, have sued, vexed +and troubled' the aforesaid 'honest psones,' who were henceforth to be +allowed 'to practyse, use and mynistre in and to any outwarde sore, +swelling or disease, any herbes, oyntments, bathes, pultes +or emplasters, according to their cooning, experience and +knowledge—without sute, vexation, penaltie or loss of their +goods.'"<a name="FNanchor_205_205" id="FNanchor_205_205"></a><a href="#Footnote_205_205" class="fnanchor">[205]</a></p> + +<p>The italicized words in this quotation prove that the women doctors of +England had the same difficulties as their sisters in France, and that +the real reason of the opposition of the male practitioners was that +they wished to monopolize<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> the practice of medicine. They, like the +medical faculty of Paris, strenuously objected to women "putting the +sickle into their harvest," and they, accordingly, left nothing undone +to circumvent the intrusion of those whom they always regarded as +undesirable competitors.</p> + +<p>It was argued by the men that women, to begin with, lacked the strength +and capacity necessary for medical practice. It was also urged that it +was indelicate and unwomanly for the gentler sex to engage in the +healing art, and that, for their own good, they should be excluded from +it at all costs. Those who were willing to waive these objections +contended that women had not the knowledge necessary for the profession +of medicine and should be excluded on the score of ignorance. When women +sought to qualify themselves for medical practice by seeking instruction +under licenced practitioners or in medical schools, they found a deaf +ear turned to their requests. The doctors declined to teach them and the +medical schools, one and all, closed their doors against them.</p> + +<p>Thus it was that in England, France and Germany the practice of medicine +and surgery was always practically in the hands of men until only a +generation ago. Even the English midwives gradually "fell from their +high estate," and were left far behind the female obstetricians of +Germany and France. For these two countries can point to a number of +midwives who, by their knowledge, successful practice, and the books +they wrote, achieved a celebrity that still endures.</p> + +<p>Chief among these in Germany were Regina Joseph von Siebold, her +daughter Carlotta, and Frau Teresa Frei, all of whom, in the early part +of the last century, enjoyed an enviable reputation in the Fatherland.</p> + +<p>The first named, after following a course of lectures on physiology and +the diseases of women and children, and passing a brilliant examination +in the medical college of Darmstadt, devoted herself to the practice of +obstetrics,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> and with so great success that the University of Giessen in +1819 conferred on her the degree of doctor of obstetrics. Her daughter, +Carlotta, after studying obstetrics under her mother, went to the +University of Göttingen, where she devoted herself to physiology, +anatomy and pathology. After passing an examination and successfully +defending a number of theses in the University of Giessen, she was also +proclaimed a doctor of obstetrics. At a later date Frau Frei received a +similar degree.<a name="FNanchor_206_206" id="FNanchor_206_206"></a><a href="#Footnote_206_206" class="fnanchor">[206]</a></p> + +<p>More noted as <i>accoucheuses</i> and gynecologists than the three +distinguished women just mentioned were Mme. Marie Louise La Chapelle +and Mme. Marie Bovin, who, shortly after the French Revolution, entered +upon those wonderful careers in their chosen specialties which have +given them so unique a place in the annals of medicine.</p> + +<p>Mme. La Chapelle was particularly celebrated for the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> numerous +improvements she effected in lying-in hospitals, for the large number of +skilled midwives whom she furnished, not only to France, but also to the +whole of Europe, and, above all, for the excellent treatises which she +wrote on obstetrics, which gave her a reputation second to none among +her contemporaries, men or women. Her <i>Pratique des Accouchements</i>, in +three volumes, based on the immense number of fifty thousand cases at +which she presided, reveals an operator of rarest skill and genius. This +production was long regarded as a standard work on the topics discussed, +and for years exerted an immense influence in the medical world.</p> + +<p>Less skillful as an operator, but of greater ability as a doctor than +Mme. La Chapelle, was her illustrious contemporary, Mme. Bovin. +Possessing extraordinary insight as an investigator and marvelous +sagacity as a diagnostician, Mme. Bovin achieved the distinction of +being the first really great woman doctor of modern times. Her marvelous +success as a practitioner—Dupuytren said she had an eye at the tip of +her finger—her extended knowledge of the entire range of gynecology, +but above all her numerous treatises on the subject matter of her life +work, gave her a prestige that none of her sex had ever before enjoyed, +and commanded the admiration of the doctors of the world. Her <i>Memorial +de l'Art des Accouchements</i> passed through many editions and was +translated into several European languages. And so highly were her +scientific attainments valued in Germany that the University of Marburg +recognized them by conferring on her—<i>honoris causa</i>—the degree of +doctor of medicine and, had its rules permitted the admission of women, +the Royal Academy of Medicine would have honored her with a place among +its members. She was also the recipient of many other honors, besides +being a member of several learned societies. But the greatest monument +to her genius is a large illustrated treatise in two volumes, in which +she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> exhibits a wonderful knowledge of anatomy, physiology, surgery, +pathology and therapeutics. It gave her a large following in Germany as +well as in France, and there were not wanting distinguished German +<i>accoucheurs</i> who followed Mme. Bovin's teachings to the letter.</p> + +<p>The remarkable German and French women just named were all practically +self-made women. They won fame as they had acquired knowledge—chiefly +by courage, in spite of the countless obstacles that beset their paths. +They owed nothing to schools or universities, nothing to government +patronage or assistance, nothing to the medical fraternity as a whole. +Universities would not admit them to their lecture rooms or +laboratories, and the various medical faculties opposed them as +intruders into their jealously guarded domain, and as competitors whose +aspirations were to be frustrated, whatever the means employed. It is +true that, when some of the women mentioned had won world-wide renown by +their achievements, they were made the recipients of belated honors by +certain universities and learned societies; but these societies and +universities were then honoring themselves as much as the women who +received their degrees and diplomas of membership.</p> + +<p>How different it was in Italy, which, since the fall of the Roman +Empire, has ever been in the van of civilization, and which has always +continued the best traditions of Græco-Roman learning and +culture—Italy, which has been the home of such supreme masters of +literature, science, art as Dante, Petrarch, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, +Raphael, Michaelangelo, Brunelleschi—Italy, the mother of universities, +the birthplace of the Renaissance, and the recognized leader of +intellectual progress among the nations of the world. Here in the +favored land of the Muses and the Graces, women enjoyed all the rights +and privileges accorded to men; here the doors of schools and +universities were open to all regardless of sex; and art, science, +literature, law, medicine, jurisprudence counted its votaries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> among +women as well as among men; here, far from encountering jealousy and +opposition in the pursuit of knowledge or in the practice of the +professions, women never found aught but generous emulation and +sympathetic coöperation.</p> + +<p>For a thousand years women were welcomed into the arena of learning and +culture on the same footing as men. In Salerno, Bologna, Padua, Pavia, +they competed for the same honors and were contestants for the same +prizes that stimulated the exertions of the sterner sex. Position and +emolument were the guerdons of merit and ability, and the victor, +whether man or woman, was equally acclaimed and showered with equal +honor. Women asked for no favors in the intellectual arena and expected +none. All they desired were the same opportunities and the same +privileges as were granted the men, and these were never denied them. +From the time when Trotula taught in Salerno to the present, when +Giuseppina Catani is professor of general pathology in the medical +faculty of Bologna, the women of Italy always had access to the +universities and were at liberty to follow any course of study they +might elect. We thus find them achieving distinction in civil and canon +law, in medicine, in theology even, as well as in art, science, +literature, philosophy and linguistics. No department of knowledge had +any terrors for them, and there was none in which some of them did not +win undying fame. They held chairs of language, jurisprudence, +philosophy, physics, mathematics, medicine and anatomy, and filled these +positions with such marked ability that they commanded the admiration +and applause of all who heard them.</p> + +<p>This is not the place to tell of the triumphs of the women professors in +the Italian universities, or to recount the achievements of those who +were honored with degrees within their classic walls. Let it suffice to +recall the names of a few of those who won renown in medicine and +surgery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> and whose names are still in their own land pronounced with +respect and veneration.</p> + +<p>One of the most noted practitioners in Southern Italy, after the death +of Trotula and her compeers, was one Margarita, who had studied medicine +in Salerno. One of her patients was no less a personage than Ladislaus, +King of Naples. Among those that had diplomas for the practice of +surgery were Maria Incarnata, of Naples, and Thomasia de Matteo, of +Castro Isiae.</p> + +<p>That women enjoyed in Rome the same privileges in the practice of +medicine and surgery as their sisters in the southern part of the +peninsula is manifest from an edict issued by Pope Sixtus IV in +confirmation of a law promulgated by the Medical Faculty of Rome, which +reads as follows: "No man or woman, whether Christian or Jew, unless he +be a master or a licentiate in medicine, shall presume to treat the +human body either as a physician or as a surgeon."<a name="FNanchor_207_207" id="FNanchor_207_207"></a><a href="#Footnote_207_207" class="fnanchor">[207]</a></p> + +<p>In central and northern Italy—in Florence, Turin, Padua, Venice—as +well as in the southern part, we find constantly recurring instances of +women practicing medicine and surgery and winning for themselves an +enviable reputation as successful practitioners.</p> + +<p>But after the decline of Salerno, consequent on the establishment by +Frederick II of a school of medicine in Naples, the great center of +medicine and surgery, as of civil and canon law, was Bologna.<a name="FNanchor_208_208" id="FNanchor_208_208"></a><a href="#Footnote_208_208" class="fnanchor">[208]</a> So +renowned did it become<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> as a teaching and intellectual center that it +was, as Sarti informs us, known throughout Europe as <i>Civitas +Docta</i>—the learned city—and <i>Mater Studiorum</i>—the mother of studies. +On its coins were stamped the words <i>Bononia Docet</i>—Bologna +teaches—and on the city seal, which is still used for certain public +documents, were the words <i>Legum Bononia Mater</i>—Bologna, the Mother of +Laws.</p> + +<p>Here, more than in Salerno, more than in any other city in the world, +was, for long centuries, witnessed a blooming of female genius that has, +since the time of Gratian and Irnerius, given the University of Bologna +preëminence in the estimation of all friends of woman's education and +woman's culture. For here, within the walls of what was for centuries +the most celebrated university in Christendom, women had, for the first +time, an opportunity of devoting themselves at will to the study of any +and all branches of knowledge. And it can be truthfully affirmed that no +seat of learning can point to such a long list of eminent scholars and +teachers among the gentler sex as is to be found on the register of +Bologna's famous university. For here, to name only a few, achieved +distinction, either as students or as professors, such noted women as +Bitisia Gozzadina, Bettina and Novella Calendrini, Dorotea Bocchi, +Giovanna and Maddalena Bianchetti, Virginia Malvezzi, Maria Vittoria +Dosi, Elisabetta Sirani, Ippolita Grassi, Properzia de Rossi, Maria +Mastellagri, Laura Bassi, Maddelena Noe-Candedi, Clotilda Tambroni and +Anna Manzolini. In this honor list we have a group of savantes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> that +were famed throughout Europe for their attainments in law, philosophy, +science, ancient and modern languages, medicine, and surgery—the +rivals, and sometimes the superiors, in scholarship of the ablest men +among their distinguished colleagues.</p> + +<p>It would be a pleasure to recount the achievements of these justly +celebrated daughters of Italy; but lack of space precludes the mention +of more than one of them. This was Maria dalle Donne, who was born of +poor peasants near Bologna, and who at an early age exhibited +intelligence of a superior order. After pursuing her studies under the +ablest masters, she obtained from the University of Bologna, <i>maxima cum +laude</i>, the degree of doctor in philosophy and medicine. On account of +her knowledge of surgery, as well as of medicine, she was soon afterward +put in charge of the city's school for midwives. When Napoleon, in 1802, +passed through Bologna he was so struck by the exceptional ability of +the young <i>dottoressa</i> that, on the recommendation of the savant +Caterzani, he had instituted for her in the university a chair of +obstetrics—a position which she held until the time of her death, in +1842, with the greatest credit to herself and to the institution with +which she was identified.</p> + +<p>Maria dalle Donne is a worthy link between that long line of women +doctors, beginning with Trotula, who have so honored their sex in Italy, +and those still more numerous practitioners in the healing art who, +shortly after her death, began to spring up in all parts of the +civilized world.<a name="FNanchor_209_209" id="FNanchor_209_209"></a><a href="#Footnote_209_209" class="fnanchor">[209]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p> +<p>For it was about this time that the movement which had long been +agitated in behalf of the higher education of women began suddenly to +assume extraordinary vitality, not only throughout Europe but in America +as well. And to no women did this movement appeal so strongly as to +those who had long been looking forward to an opportunity to qualify +themselves for the learned professions, especially medicine. No sooner +did they descry the first flush of dawn on their long-deferred hopes +than they began to consider ways and means for putting their fondly +nurtured projects into execution.</p> + +<p>Seven years, almost to the day, after the death of Maria dalle Donne, +Miss Elizabeth Blackwell, a young woman in America, of English birth, +decided to enter college with a view of studying medicine and surgery. +But, at the very outset, she encountered all kinds of unforeseen +difficulties—difficulties that would have caused a less courageous and +determined woman to give up her plans in despair. She was told, in the +first place, that it was highly improper for a woman to study medicine +and that no decent woman would think of becoming a medical practitioner. +As to a lady studying or practicing surgery that, of course, was out of +the question.</p> + +<p>But a more serious obstacle than the conventionalities in the case was +the difficulty of finding a medical college that was willing to admit a +woman to its lecture rooms and laboratories. Miss Blackwell applied to +more than a dozen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> of the leading institutions of America, and received +a positive refusal to her request. Finally, when hope had almost +vanished, she received word from a small college in Geneva, New York, +announcing that her application had been favorably considered and that +she would be admitted as a student whenever she presented herself.</p> + +<p>The truth is that the faculty of the college was opposed to the young +woman's admission, but wished to escape the odium incident to a direct +refusal by referring the question to the class with a proviso which, it +was believed, would necessarily exclude her. "But in this it was greatly +surprised and disappointed. For the entire medical class, to the number +of about one hundred and fifty, decided unanimously in favor of the fair +applicant's admission. And they did more than this. They put themselves +on record regarding the equality of educational opportunities for women +and men in a way that must have put their timid professors to shame. +Their resolution, accompanying an invitation to the young woman to +become a member of the student body, was worded as follows:</p> + +<p>"'Resolved, That one of the radical principles of a republican +government is the universal education of both sexes; that to every +branch of scientific education the door should be equally open to all; +that the application of Elizabeth Blackwell to become a member of our +class meets our entire approbation, and, in extending our unanimous +invitation, we pledge ourselves that no conduct of ours shall cause her +to regret her attendance at this institution.'"</p> + +<p>The students were as good as their word. Their conduct, as Miss +Blackwell wrote years afterward, was always admirable and that of "true +Christian gentlemen." But the women of Geneva were shocked at the female +medical student. They stared at her as a curious animal; and the theory +was fully established that she was "either a bad woman, whose designs +would gradually become evident, or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> that, being insane, an outbreak of +insanity would soon be apparent."<a name="FNanchor_210_210" id="FNanchor_210_210"></a><a href="#Footnote_210_210" class="fnanchor">[210]</a></p> + +<p>In due time Miss Blackwell finished her course in medicine and surgery, +and graduated at the head of her class. The orator of the day, who was a +member of the faculty, naturally referred to the new departure that had +been made—the admission of a woman for the first time to a complete +medical education—and among other things declared that the experiment, +of which every member of the faculty was proud, "had proved that the +strongest intellect and nerve and the most untiring perseverance were +compatible with the softest attributes of feminine delicacy and +grace."<a name="FNanchor_211_211" id="FNanchor_211_211"></a><a href="#Footnote_211_211" class="fnanchor">[211]</a></p> + +<p>The awarding of the degree of M.D. for the first time to a woman in +America excited general comment and widespread interest, not only in the +United States, but in Europe as well. The public press was not +unfavorable in its opinion of the new departure, and even <i>Punch</i> could +not resist writing some verses, sympathetic, albeit humorous, in honor +of the fair M.D.<a name="FNanchor_212_212" id="FNanchor_212_212"></a><a href="#Footnote_212_212" class="fnanchor">[212]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></p><p>After spending some time abroad studying in the great hospitals of +Europe, Miss Blackwell started the practice of medicine in New York +City. At first, as she declares in her autobiographical sketches, it was +"very difficult, though steady, uphill work. I had," she tells us, "no +medical companionship, the profession stood aloof, and society was +distrustful of the innovation."</p> + +<p>The aloofness of the profession arose from a dread of successful +rivalry, and the men did not wish to encourage "the invasion by women of +their own preserves." "You cannot expect us," one of them frankly +admitted to her, "to furnish you with a stick to break our heads with."</p> + +<p>But, undeterred by opposition, Miss Blackwell continued her work, daily +making converts to the new movement and receiving substantial aid, as +well as sympathetic coöperation, from many people, both men and women, +prominent in society and public life. In 1854 she started a free +dispensary for poor women. Three years later she founded a hospital for +women and children, where young women physicians as well as patients +could be received. These were the humble beginnings of the present +flourishing institutions known as the New York Infirmary and the College +for Women. And in less than ten years after her graduation, Miss +Blackwell saw the new departure in medical practice successfully +established, not only in New York, but also in other large cities of the +United States. In 1869 the early pioneer medical work by women in +America was completed.</p> + +<p>"During the twenty years which followed the graduation of the first +woman physician, the public recognition of the justice and advantage of +such a measure had steadily grown. Throughout the northern states the +free and equal entrance of women into the profession of medicine was +secured. In Boston, New York and Philadelphia special medical schools +for women were sanctioned by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> legislatures, and in some +long-established colleges women were received as students in the +ordinary classes."<a name="FNanchor_213_213" id="FNanchor_213_213"></a><a href="#Footnote_213_213" class="fnanchor">[213]</a></p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the women in Europe were not idle nor heedless of the example +set by their brave sisters in America. The University of Zurich threw +open its portals to women, and was soon followed by those of Bern and +Geneva. The first woman to obtain a degree in medicine in Zurich—it was +in 1867—was Nadejda Suslowa, a Russian. She was soon followed by scores +of others from Europe and America, who found greater advantages and more +sympathy in Swiss universities than elsewhere.</p> + +<p>In 1869 the Medico-Chirurgical Academy of St. Petersburg conferred the +degree of M.D. upon Madame Kaschewarow, the first female candidate for +this honor. When her name was mentioned by the dean it was received with +an immense storm of applause which lasted several minutes. The ceremony +of investing her with the insignia of her dignity being over, her fellow +students and colleagues lifted her on a chair and carried her with +triumphant shouts throughout the halls.</p> + +<p>The first woman graduate from the University of France was Miss +Elizabeth Garrett, of England. She received her degree in medicine in +1870, and the following year the same institution conferred the doctor's +degree on Miss Mary C. Putnam, of New York.</p> + +<p>After these precedents had been established, the universities of the +various countries on the continent, following the examples set by those +in the United States and Switzerland, opened one after the other their +doors to women, and in most of them accorded them all the privileges of +<i>cives academici</i> enjoyed by the men.</p> + +<p>Great Britain held out against the new movement long after most of the +continental countries had fallen into line, nor did she surrender until +after a protracted and bitter fight, during which the men leading the +opposition exhibited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> evidences of selfishness and obscurantism that now +seem incredible.</p> + +<p>The leader in Great Britain of pioneer medical work for women was Miss +Sophia Jex-Blake, whose academic pathway was beset with difficulties far +sterner than had in the United States confronted her friend and +colleague, Miss Blackwell.</p> + +<p>Hearing much of the tolerance and liberality of the University of +London, she applied to it for admission as a student, but was informed +at once that the charter of the institution "had purposely been so +worded as to exclude the possibility of examining women for medical +degrees."</p> + +<p>After this rebuff she made application to the University of Edinburgh, +which, like the other Scotch universities, had always boasted of its +broad-mindedness and freedom from educational trammels. She was received +provisionally, and was, after a while, joined by six other women who had +in view the same object as herself. For a time, notwithstanding +opposition from certain quarters, everything was quiet and apparently +satisfactory. But the gathering storm soon broke, and the seven young +women, as they were one day entering the university gates, were actually +mobbed by a ruffianly band of students who had all along been opposed to +the presence of women in the class and lecture rooms. They pelted the +helpless females with street mud and hurled at them all the vile +epithets and heaped upon them all the abuse that their foul tongues +could command. These outrageous proceedings on the part of the rabble of +rowdies were allowed to continue for several days, and, had it not been +for a brave band of chivalrous young Irishmen among the students, who +formed themselves into a bodyguard for the protection of their fair +classmates, and were, in consequence, known as "The Irish Brigade," the +hapless women students would not have escaped bodily harm. What a marked +contrast between the conduct toward Miss Blackwell of the gallant +students<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> of the modest little American town and that of the cowardly +ruffians of the vaunted "Athens of the North!"</p> + +<p>But this was not all. The seven young women in question had matriculated +as students of the university with the understanding that they were to +have all the rights and privileges of the male students. But after the +disgraceful conduct of the mob just referred to, they discovered that +the authorities of the university were prepared to break faith with +them, and prevent them from getting their coveted degrees, and thus +debar them from all chance of medical practice.</p> + +<p>The reason why the university was induced to annul its contract, after +the women on their part had fully complied with all its stipulations, +soon became apparent. It was purely and simply to make it impossible for +women to secure a license as medical practitioners. Both in and outside +of Edinburgh the conviction daily grew stronger that women doctors were +a menace to the monopoly so long enjoyed by the medical fraternity, and +that the movement in their favor should be crushed by fair means or foul +before it got beyond control. The <i>Spectator</i> made this clear by stating +at the time of the controversy that "every profession in this +country"—England—"is more or less of a trades union," and yet the +members of these professions "would shake their heads and prate about +the necessity of stamping out trades unionism among workmen." "Women," +whined one of the doctors, "would snatch the bread from the mouths of +poor practitioners." Another doctor who had championed the cause of +women physicians, when commenting on the hypocritical objection that it +was unbecoming for women to practice medicine or surgery, expressed the +same idea in other words. "It appears," he declared, "that it is most +becoming and proper for a woman to discharge all the duties which are +incidental to our profession for thirty shillings a week; but, if she is +to have three or four guineas a day for discharging<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> the same duties, +then they are immoral and immodest and unsuited to the soft nature that +should characterize a lady."</p> + +<p>After Miss Jex-Blake and her companions learned that the university was +determined to refuse them the degrees to which they were entitled, they +brought suit against it for breach of contract. But, after a long and +expensive trial, the judge rendered a decision against them. They then +appealed to Parliament, and, after a protracted and strenuous campaign +on the part of friends whom they had enlisted in their cause, they saw +their opponents not only dragged at the chariot wheels of progress but +forced to help to turn them; for, in 1878, after nearly ten years of a +persistent, continuous struggle such as had rarely been witnessed in +woman's long battle for things of the mind—a struggle in which the +intrepid, dauntless Miss Jex-Blake "made the greatest of all the +contributions to the end attained"—the women of Great Britain had the +supreme satisfaction of winning what was probably the most glorious +victory which their sex had ever won.<a name="FNanchor_214_214" id="FNanchor_214_214"></a><a href="#Footnote_214_214" class="fnanchor">[214]</a> The war was over and +henceforward they were free—as were their sisters in other parts of the +world—as the women in Italy had been for a thousand years—to devote +themselves at will to the study and practice of the healing art without +let or hindrance.</p> + +<p>What a wonderful change has taken place in the medical world almost +within the space of a single generation! The tiny grain of mustard that +was sown by two lone women, the Misses Blackwell and Jex-Blake, in their +chosen field of effort has grown and "waxed a great tree."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> Women +doctors are now found in all parts of the civilized world and are +numbered by thousands. And so great has been their professional success, +so widespread is the desire to secure their services, especially in +countries like America and England, where opposition was in the +beginning especially bitter, that the proportion of women practitioners +in medicine and surgery is now regarded as the best index of a nation's +enlightenment.</p> + +<p>The healing art of Greece and Rome has broadened out into the noble +sciences of medicine and surgery of to-day. For, based as they now are +on the sciences of chemistry, botany, biology, hygiene, physiology, +anatomy and bacteriology, which have all witnessed such extraordinary +developments during the last half century, they both deserve a +preëminent place in the history of the sciences. And the success which +has crowned woman's efforts in surgery and medicine is not only a +conclusive indication of her capacity, so long denied by her +self-interested opponents, but also the most convincing indication that +she is at last properly occupied in a field of activity from which she +was too long excluded. Her contributions as writer and investigator +toward the progress of both sciences, even during the short time in +which she has been able to give proof of her ability, have been notable +and augur well for the share she will have in their future advancement. +But more important still is the refining influence she has already +exerted on both professions, and the relief she has been able to afford +to countless thousands of her own sex who would otherwise have been the +voluntary victims of untold misery. Women doctors are, indeed, not only +worthy representatives of Æsculapia Victrix and of the two sciences +which they have so elevated and so ennobled, but are also ministering +angels to poor, suffering humanity comparable only with the heroic +Sisters of Charity and the devoted nurses of the Red Cross.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_182_182" id="Footnote_182_182"></a><a href="#FNanchor_182_182"><span class="label">[182]</span></a> Quoted in <i>Medical Women</i>, p. 11, by Sophia Jex-Blake, M. +D., Edinburgh, 1886. Cf. Hyginus, <i>Fabularum Liber</i>, No. 274.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_183_183" id="Footnote_183_183"></a><a href="#FNanchor_183_183"><span class="label">[183]</span></a> Charles Daremberg, who, at the time of his death in 1872, +was professor of the history of medicine in the Faculty of Medicine in +Paris, had the intention of publishing this work Περι των +γυναιων ταζων.—On the Diseases of Women—but his premature death +prevented him from executing his project. It is to be hoped that some +one else, interested in woman's medical work, may at an early date give +this production to the public with an appropriate commentary.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_184_184" id="Footnote_184_184"></a><a href="#FNanchor_184_184"><span class="label">[184]</span></a> Cf. Hertzen et Rossi <i>Inscriptiones Urbis Romæ Latinæ</i>, +p. 1245, No. 9478, Berlin, 1882.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_185_185" id="Footnote_185_185"></a><a href="#FNanchor_185_185"><span class="label">[185]</span></a> "Non mihi si linguæ centum, oraque centum, ferrea vox ... +omnia morborum percurrere nomina possim quæ Fabiola in tanta miserorum +refregeria commutavit ut multi pauperum sani languentibus inviderent." +<i>Epistola ad Oceanum.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_186_186" id="Footnote_186_186"></a><a href="#FNanchor_186_186"><span class="label">[186]</span></a> Hæc inter timidam revocat clamore puellam Alpharides, +veniens quæ saucia quæque ligavit. +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">—Ekkehardi Primi <i>Waltharius</i>, Berlin, 1873.<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_187_187" id="Footnote_187_187"></a><a href="#FNanchor_187_187"><span class="label">[187]</span></a> That the Germans, at the time under discussion, regarded +learning as having an effeminating effect on men is well illustrated by +the following characteristic anecdote: "when Amasvintha, a very learned +woman who was a daughter of the Ostrogoth King, Theodoric, selected +three masters for the instruction of her son, the people became +indignant. 'Theodoric,' they exclaimed, 'never sent the children of the +Goths to school, learning making a woman of a man and rendering him +timorous. The saber and the lance are sufficient for him.'" Procopius, +<i>De Bello Gothico</i>, I, 2, Leipsic, 1905. +</p><p> +If we may judge by a letter from Pace to Dean Colet, the noted classical +scholar and founder of St. Paul's school in London, such views found +acceptance in England as late as the time of More and Erasmus. For we +are told of a British parent who expressed his opinion on the education +of men in these words: "I swear by God's body I'd rather that my son +should hang than study letters. The study of letters should be left to +rustics."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_188_188" id="Footnote_188_188"></a><a href="#FNanchor_188_188"><span class="label">[188]</span></a> This work was for a long time regarded as lost, but a +manuscript copy was recently found in Copenhagen, and it has since been +published by Teubner of Leipsic, under the title of <i>Hildegard's Causæ +et Curæ</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_189_189" id="Footnote_189_189"></a><a href="#FNanchor_189_189"><span class="label">[189]</span></a> <i>Archiv für Pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und +für Klinische Medicin</i>, Band 18, p. 286, Berlin.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_190_190" id="Footnote_190_190"></a><a href="#FNanchor_190_190"><span class="label">[190]</span></a> <i>S. Hildegardis Opera Omnia</i>, Ed. Migne, p. 1122, Paris, +1882.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_191_191" id="Footnote_191_191"></a><a href="#FNanchor_191_191"><span class="label">[191]</span></a> "In the municipal and state institutions of this period +the beautiful gardens, roomy halls and springs of water of the old +cloistral hospital of the Middle Ages were not heard of, still less the +comforts of their friendly interiors." <i>A History of Nursing</i>, Vol. I, +p. 500, M. Adelaide Nutting and Lavinia L. Dock, New York, 1907. +</p><p> +The mortality in some of the state hospitals from the latter part of the +seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century was appalling, often +as high as fifty and sixty per cent. This was due not only to shockingly +unsanitary conditions, but also to inordinate overcrowding. A large +proportion of the beds, incredible as it may seem, were purposely made +for four patients, and six were frequently crowded into them. "The +extraordinary spectacle was then to be seen of two or three small-pox +cases, or several surgical cases, lying on one bed." John Howard, in his +<i>Prisons and Hospitals</i>, pp. 176-177. Warrington, 1874, tells us of two +hospitals that were so crowded that he had "often seen five or six +patients in one bed, and some of them dying." +</p><p> +It is gratifying to learn that the chief agents in changing this +revolting condition, due to faulty construction and management of +hospitals, were women. Prominent among these benefactors of humanity +were Mme. Necker, Florence Nightingale, and the wise and alert superiors +of the various nursing sisterhoods.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_192_192" id="Footnote_192_192"></a><a href="#FNanchor_192_192"><span class="label">[192]</span></a> How like Chaucer's prioress who +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Was so charitable and so piteous,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And al was conscience and tender herte."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_193_193" id="Footnote_193_193"></a><a href="#FNanchor_193_193"><span class="label">[193]</span></a> Cf. <i>Lib. de Virtutibus et Laudibus</i>, by Ægidius, head +physician to Philip Augustus of France, in which occur the following +verses: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Urbs Phœbo sacrata, Minervæ sedula nutrix,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Fons physicæ, pugil eucrasiæ, cultrix medicinæ,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Assecla Naturæ, vitæ paranympha, salutis<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Promula fida; magis Lachesis soror, Atropos hostis.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Morbi pernicies, gravis adversaria mortis.<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +quoted in the appendix, p. xxxii, to S. de Renzi's, <i>Storia Documentata +della Scuola Medica di Salerno</i>, Naples, 1857.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_194_194" id="Footnote_194_194"></a><a href="#FNanchor_194_194"><span class="label">[194]</span></a> Cf. The introduction to the English translation of the +<i>Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum</i>, p. 28, by J. Ordronaux, Philadelphia, +1870.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_195_195" id="Footnote_195_195"></a><a href="#FNanchor_195_195"><span class="label">[195]</span></a> +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Immortal praise adorns Salerno's name<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To seek whose shrine the world once came."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_196_196" id="Footnote_196_196"></a><a href="#FNanchor_196_196"><span class="label">[196]</span></a> See <i>Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno</i>, +ut. sup., p. 474 et seq., and p. lxxvi et seq. of Appendix; also +Ordronaux, ut sup., p. 16.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_197_197" id="Footnote_197_197"></a><a href="#FNanchor_197_197"><span class="label">[197]</span></a> Probably her most noted work is the one which bears the +title <i>De Morbis Mulierum et Eorum Cura</i>—The Diseases of Women and +Their Cure.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_198_198" id="Footnote_198_198"></a><a href="#FNanchor_198_198"><span class="label">[198]</span></a> "Physicæ quoque scientiam tam copiose habuit ut in urbe +Psaleritana, ubi maxime medicorum scholæ ab antiquo tempore habentur, +neminem in medicinali arte, præter quandam sapientem matronam, sibi +parem inveniret." Migne, Patrologiæ Latinæ, Tom. 188, Col. 260.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_199_199" id="Footnote_199_199"></a><a href="#FNanchor_199_199"><span class="label">[199]</span></a> As this decree is of singular interest and importance, a +copy of the original is here given in full: +</p><p> +"Karolus, etc., Universis per Justitieratum Principatus citra Serras +Montorii constitutis presentes litteras inspecturis fidelibus paternis +et suis salutem, etc. In actionibus nostris utilitati puplice libenter +oportune perspicimus et honestatem morum in quantum suadet modestia +conservamus. Sane Francisca uxor Mathei de Romana de Salerno in Regia +Curia presens exposuit quod ipsa circa principale exercitium cirurgie +sufficiens circumspecto in talibus judicio reputatur. Propter quod +excellentie nostre supplicavit attentius ut licentiam sibi dignaremus +concedere in arte hujusmodi practicandi. Quia igitur per scriptum +puplicum universitatis terre Salerni presentatum eidem Regie Curie, +inventum est lucide quod Francisca prefata fidelis est et genere orta +fidelium ac examinata per medicos Regios paternos nostrosque cirurgicos, +in eadem arte cirurgie tamquam ydiota sufficiens est inventa, licet +alienum sit feminis conventibus interrese virorum, ne in matronalis +pudoris contumelia irruant et primum culpam vetite transgressionis +incurrant. Quia tamen de juris indicto medicine officium mulieribus est +concessum expedienter attento quod ad mulieres curandas egrotas de +honestate morum viris sunt femine aptiores, not recepto prius ab eadem +Francisca solito fidelitatis et quod iuxta tradiciones ipsius artis +curabit fideliter corporaliter Juramento, licentiam curandi et +practicandi sibi in eadem arte per Justitieratum jam dictum auctoritate +presentium impartimus. Quare fidelitati vestre precipimus quatenus +eandem Franciscam curare et practicari in prefata arte per Justitieratum +predictum ad honorem et fidelitatem paternam et nostram ac utilitatem +fidelium presentium earumdam libere permittatis, nullum sibi in hoc +impedimentum vel obstaculum interentes. Datum Neapoli per dominum +Bartholomeum de Capua, etc., Anno domini mcccxxi, die x Septembris v, +indictionis Regnorum dicti domini patris nostri anno xiii." +</p><p> +<i>Collectio Salernitana</i>, Tom. III, p. 338, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg, +and S. de Renzi, Naples, 1852-59.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_200_200" id="Footnote_200_200"></a><a href="#FNanchor_200_200"><span class="label">[200]</span></a> <i>Universities in the Middle Ages</i>, Vol. II, Part II, p. +712, by H. Rashdall, Oxford, 1895. The most exhaustive work on the +University of Salerno and its famous doctors, men and women, is a joint +work in five volumes entitled <i>Collectio Salernitana; ossia Documenti +Inediti e Trattati di Medicina appartenenti alla scuola Salernitana, +raccolti e illustrati</i>, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg e S. Renzi, Naples, +1852-59. Cf. also, <i>Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno</i>, +by S. de Renzi, Naples, 1857; <i>L'École de Salerne</i>, by C. Meaux, with +introduction by C. Daremberg, Paris, 1880, and Piero Giacosa's <i>Magistri +Salernitani Nondum Editi</i>, Turin, 1891.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_201_201" id="Footnote_201_201"></a><a href="#FNanchor_201_201"><span class="label">[201]</span></a> <i>Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis</i>, Tom. II, p. +150, and pp. 255 and 267, by Denifle and Chatelain, Paris, 1889-1891.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_202_202" id="Footnote_202_202"></a><a href="#FNanchor_202_202"><span class="label">[202]</span></a> "Mulier antea permitteret se mori, quam secreta +infirmitatis sui homini revelare propter honestatem sexus muliebris et +propter verecundiam quam revelando pateretur." <i>Chartularium +Universitatis Parisiensis</i>, Tom. II, p. 264, Paris, 1891.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_203_203" id="Footnote_203_203"></a><a href="#FNanchor_203_203"><span class="label">[203]</span></a> It may interest the reader to know that the first two +women to get the doctorate in the Paris School of Medicine were Miss +Elizabeth Garret, an English woman, and Miss Mary Putnam, an American. +The first woman permitted to practice in the Paris hospitals was +likewise an American, Miss Augusta Klumpke, of San Francisco.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_204_204" id="Footnote_204_204"></a><a href="#FNanchor_204_204"><span class="label">[204]</span></a> "Possunt et vir et fœmina medici esse." Cf. +Chiappelli, <i>Medicina negli Ultimi Tre Secoli del Medio Evo</i>, Milan, +1885.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_205_205" id="Footnote_205_205"></a><a href="#FNanchor_205_205"><span class="label">[205]</span></a> Quoted in <i>Woman's Work and Woman's Culture</i>, p. 87, +Josephine E. Butler, London, 1869. Dom Gasquet in his <i>English Monastic +Life</i>, p. 175, tells us that in the Wiltshire convents "the young maids +learned needlework, the art of confectionery, surgery—for anciently +there were no apothecaries or surgeons; the gentlewomen did cure their +poor neighbors—physic, drawing, etc."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_206_206" id="Footnote_206_206"></a><a href="#FNanchor_206_206"><span class="label">[206]</span></a> The first woman to receive the doctorate of medicine in +Germany was Frau Dorothea Christin Erxleben. Hers, however, was a wholly +exceptional case, and required the intervention of no less a personage +than Frederick the Great. In 1754, Frau Erxleben, who had made a +thorough course of humanities under her father, presented herself before +the faculty of the University of Halle, where she passed an oral +examination in Latin which lasted two hours. So impressed were the +examiners by her knowledge and eloquence that they did not hesitate to +adjudge her worthy of the coveted degree, which was accorded her by +virtue of a royal edict. +</p><p> +Her reception of the doctorate was made the occasion of a most +enthusiastic demonstration in her honor. Felicitations poured in upon +her from all quarters in both prose and verse. One of them, in lapidary +style, runs as follows: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Stupete nova litteraria,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Italia nonnumquam,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In Germania nunquam<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Visa vel audita<br /></span> +<span class="i0">At quo rarius eo carius."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +This, freely translated, adverts to the fact that an event, which before +had been witnessed only in Italy, was then being celebrated in Germany +for the first time, and was, for that very reason, specially deserving +of commemoration.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_207_207" id="Footnote_207_207"></a><a href="#FNanchor_207_207"><span class="label">[207]</span></a> "Nemo masculus aut fœmina, seu Christianus vel Judæus, +nisi Magister vel Licentiatus in Medicina foret, auderet humano corpori +mederi in physica vel in chyrurgia." Marini, <i>Archiatri Pontifici</i>, Tom. +I, p. 199, Roma, 1784.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_208_208" id="Footnote_208_208"></a><a href="#FNanchor_208_208"><span class="label">[208]</span></a> Thomas Aquinas, the Angel of the Schools, who had taught +in Salerno, and was well acquainted with the leading universities of +Europe, was wont to say "Quattuor sunt urbes cæteris præeminentes, +Parisius in Scientiis, Salernum in Medicinis, Bononia in legibus, +Aurelianis in actoribus—" there are four preëminent cities: Paris, in +the sciences; Salerno, in medicine; Bologna, in law; Orleans, in actors. +Op. 17. <i>De Virtutibus et Vitiis</i>, Cap. ult. +</p><p> +The mediæval poet, Galfrido, expressed the same idea in verse when he +wrote: +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"In morbis sanat medici virtute Salernum<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ægros: in causis Bononia legibus armat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nudos: Parisius dispensat in artibus illos<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Panes, unde cibat robustos: Aurelianis<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Educat in cunis actorum lacte tenellos."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_209_209" id="Footnote_209_209"></a><a href="#FNanchor_209_209"><span class="label">[209]</span></a> It may be remarked that it was a woman, Lady Mary +Montagu, who introduced inoculation with small-pox virus into Western +Europe, and that it was also a woman—a simple English milkmaid—who +communicated to Jenner the information which led to his discovery of a +prophylactic against small-pox. But of far greater importance was the +introduction into Europe of that priceless febrifuge and +antiperiodic—chinchona bark. This was due to the Countess of Chinchon, +vicereine of Peru. Having been cured by its virtues of an aggravated +case of tertian fever in 1638, while living in Lima, she lost no time, +on her return to Spain, in making known to the world the marvelous +curative properties of the precious quinine-producing bark. The powder +made from the bark was most appropriately called <i>Pulvis Comitessæ</i>—the +countess's powder—and by this name it was long known to druggists and +in commerce. Thanks to Linnæus, the memory of the gracious lady will +always be kept green, because her name is now borne by nearly eight +score species of the beautiful trees which constitute the great and +incomparable genus Chinchona. See <i>A Memoir of the Lady Ana de Osorio, +Countess of Chinchon, and Vice-Queen of Peru</i>, by Clements R. Markham, +London, 1874.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_210_210" id="Footnote_210_210"></a><a href="#FNanchor_210_210"><span class="label">[210]</span></a> <i>Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to +Women</i>, p. 70, by Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, London, 1895.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_211_211" id="Footnote_211_211"></a><a href="#FNanchor_211_211"><span class="label">[211]</span></a> Ibid., p. 91.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_212_212" id="Footnote_212_212"></a><a href="#FNanchor_212_212"><span class="label">[212]</span></a> +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Young ladies all, of every clime,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Especially of Britain<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who wholly occupy your time<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In novels or in knitting,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Whose highest skill is but to play,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Sing, dance or French to clack well,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Reflect on the example, pray,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of excellent Miss Blackwell.<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span> +<span class="i0">...*...*...*...*<br /></span> +<span class="i0"><br /></span> +<span class="i0">"For Doctrix Blackwell, that's the way<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To dub in rightful gender—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In her profession, ever may<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Prosperity attend her.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Punch a gold-headed parasol<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Suggests for presentation<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To one so well deserving all<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Esteem and Admiration."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_213_213" id="Footnote_213_213"></a><a href="#FNanchor_213_213"><span class="label">[213]</span></a> Op. cit., p. 241.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_214_214" id="Footnote_214_214"></a><a href="#FNanchor_214_214"><span class="label">[214]</span></a> For an interesting account of the long campaign for the +admission of women to medical schools and practice, see <i>Medical +Women—A Thesis and a History</i>, by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, Edinburgh, +1886. +</p><p> +For a more elaborate work on women in medicine, the reader may consult +with profit, <i>Histoire des Femmes Médecins</i>, by Mlle. Melanie Lepinska, +Paris, 1900.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>WOMEN IN ARCHÆOLOGY</h3> + + +<p>Archæology, in its broadest sense, is one of the most recent of the +sciences, and may be said to be a creation of the nineteenth century. In +its restricted sense, however, it dates back to the beginning of the +Italian Renaissance. For it was at this period that the collector's zeal +began to manifest itself, and that were brought together those priceless +treasures of ancient art which are to-day the pride of the museums of +Rome and Florence. It was then that Pope Sixtus IV and Julius II, his +nephew, laid the foundations of the great museums of the Capitol and the +Vatican, and enriched them with such famous masterpieces as the Ariadne, +the Nile, the Tiber, the Laocoön and the Apollo Belvidere. Their example +was quickly followed by such cardinals as Ippolito d'Este, Fernando de' +Medici, and by representatives of the leading princely houses of the +Italian peninsula. In rapid succession the palaces of the Borghese, +Chigi, Pamphili, Ludovisi, Barbarini and Aldobrandini became filled with +the choicest Greek and Roman antiques. In the course of time many of +these treasures found their way to the museums of Venice, Madrid, Paris, +Munich and Dresden, while still others were purchased by wealthy art +connoisseurs in various parts of Europe and Great Britain.</p> + +<p>In the beginning these antiques in marble and bronze were used chiefly +for decorative purposes. "Courts, stairs, fountains, galleries and +palaces were adorned with statues, busts, reliefs and sarcophagi applied +in such a manner as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> to become incorporated in contemporary art and +thereby to gain fresh life."<a name="FNanchor_215_215" id="FNanchor_215_215"></a><a href="#Footnote_215_215" class="fnanchor">[215]</a></p> + +<p>These treasures of antiquity, statues, bas-reliefs, mosaics, coins, +medals, busts, sarcophagi, and productions of ceramic art, although at +first used almost exclusively for decorating palaces and villas and +enriching museums, were eventually to become of inestimable value in the +study of the history of art and the civilization of Greece and Rome, as +well as of the various nations of antiquity with which they had come +into contact. Besides this, they supplied the necessary raw material not +only for classical archæology, but also for that more comprehensive +science of archæology which deals with the art, the architecture, the +language, the literature, the inscriptions, the manners, customs and +development of our race from prehistoric times until the present day.</p> + +<p>Among the women who took a prominent part in collecting material toward +the advancement of archæologic science were those illustrious ladies—as +celebrated for their knowledge and culture as for their noble lineage +and their patronage of men of letters—who presided over the brilliant +courts of Urbino, Mantua, Milan and Ferrara.</p> + +<p>Preëminent among these were Elizabetta Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, and +Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua. The palace of the former—"that +peerless lady who excelled all others in excellence"—was famous for its +precious antiques in bronze and marble, but above all for its superb +collection of rare old books and manuscripts in Greek, Latin and Hebrew.</p> + +<p>Isabella d'Este, who was through life the most intimate friend of +Elizabetta Gonzaga, was acclaimed by her contemporaries as "the first +lady in the world." She was a true daughter of the Renaissance, in the +heart of which she was brought up; and "the small, passing incidents of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> +her everyday life are to us memorials of the classic age when the gods +of Parnassus walked with men."<a name="FNanchor_216_216" id="FNanchor_216_216"></a><a href="#Footnote_216_216" class="fnanchor">[216]</a> She was an even more enthusiastic +collector than the Duchess of Urbino, and her magnificent palace in +Mantua was filled with the choicest works of Greek and Roman art that +were then procurable.</p> + +<p>She has been described as one who secured everything to which she took a +fancy. She had but to hear of the discovery of a beautiful antique, a +rare work in bronze or marble uncovered by the spade of the excavator, +when she forthwith made an effort to procure it for her priceless +collection. If that was not possible, she would not rest until she could +secure something else even more precious. She aimed at supremacy in +everything artistic and intellectual, and would be content with nothing +short of perfection. Hence it is that her collection of antiques, like +those of her friend, the Duchess of Urbino, is rightly regarded as +having been of singular value in preparing the way for the foundation of +scientific archæology—a foundation that was laid by the eminent German +scholar, Winckelmann, in the eighteenth century by the publication of +his masterly work—<i>History of the Art of Antiquity</i>.</p> + +<p>The first woman of eminence to take an active part in archæologic +excavation was the youngest sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, "the +beautiful, clever and ambitious Caroline." When Joachim Murat became +king of Naples, after his brother-in-law, Joseph Bonaparte, had in 1808 +been transferred to the throne of Spain, his wife, Queen Caroline, gave +at once a new impetus to the work of the excavation of Pompeii along the +lines planned a few years before by the eminent Neapolitan scholar, +Michele Arditi. She exhibited the keenest interest in the work, and the +notable discoveries which were made under her inspiring supervision of +this important undertaking show how much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> classical archæology owes to +her intelligent and munificent patronage.</p> + +<p>Queen Caroline proved her interest in the excavations that were to +contribute so much to our knowledge of antiquity "by appearing +frequently at Pompeii and stimulating the workmen to greater efforts. +She frequently spent entire days, during the great heat of summer, at +the excavations, to encourage the lazy workmen and to reward them in the +event of success. The funds were increased so as to make the employment +of six hundred men possible. The Street of Tombs was next uncovered, +forming a complete and solemn picture, greatly impressing the beholder +even to-day. For the first time a complete outline of an ancient +marketplace and its surroundings could be obtained. The market, closed +and inaccessible to wheeled traffic, was surrounded by a colonnade +filled with monuments, with the great temple in the background, and +beyond the arcades were other temples or public buildings, among the +principal being the stately Basilica. Constant and increased efforts +were thus crowned by important results. The Queen did not withhold +generous assistance. The French architect, Fr. Mazois, received from her +fifteen hundred francs while preparing his monumental work at +Pompeii."<a name="FNanchor_217_217" id="FNanchor_217_217"></a><a href="#Footnote_217_217" class="fnanchor">[217]</a></p> + +<p>It is not too much to say that Queen Caroline's archæological work at +Pompeii was as far-reaching in its results as was that of her +illustrious brother in the land of the Pharaohs. It drew in the most +impressive manner the attention of the world to the vast treasures of +art which lay concealed under the earth-covered ruins of the once noted +cities of the ancient world, and stimulated scholars and learned +societies to undertake similar researches in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> Sicily, Greece, +Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and the almost forgotten islands of the Ægean +Seas.</p> + +<p>While this energetic sister of the great Napoleon was occupied in +bringing to light those priceless treasures of art which had for +seventeen centuries lain beneath the ashes of Vesuvius, a bright, +refined, <i>spirituelle</i> young girl, born in Dublin and bred in England, +was unconsciously preparing herself for a brilliant career in the branch +of archæology known as Christian iconography. Her name was Anna Murphy, +better known to the world as Mrs. Jameson. At an early age she gave +evidence of unusual intelligence, and she had hardly attained to +womanhood when she was noted for her knowledge of languages and for her +remarkable attainments in art and literature. Numerous journeys to +France, Italy and Germany and a systematic study in the great museums +and art galleries of these countries, but, above all, her association +with the most distinguished scholars of Europe, completed her education +and prepared her for those splendid works on Christian art which have +made her name a household word throughout the world.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Jameson was a prolific writer, but those of her works on which her +fame chiefly rests are the ones which are classed under the general +title, <i>Sacred and Legendary Art</i>. They treat of God the Father and Son, +of the Madonna and the Saints, as illustrated in art from the earliest +ages to modern times. So masterly and exhaustive was her treatment of +the difficult subjects discussed in this <i>chef d'œuvre</i> of hers that +no less an authority than the eminent German archæologist, F. X. Kraus, +writes of this elaborate production as follows:</p> + +<p>"Neither before nor since has the subject matter of this work been +handled with such skill and thoroughness. The older iconographic works +were mere dilettanteism. For the first time since classical archæology +had applied the principles<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> of modern criticism to Greek and Roman +iconography, and had presented an example of scientific treatment free +from such reproach, was a serious iconography of our early Christian +monuments possible. Mrs. Jameson was the first to attempt this on a +large scale. It was clear to her—and here lay the advance which her +work reveals—that in order to accomplish her colossal task two things +must be realized. She must not build on a foundation of material that is +imperfect or brought together in a haphazard way. She must not only see +and test everything available in the way of monuments, but she must +likewise place the productions of literature and poetry beside those of +the plastic arts. It was clear to her, also, that, in this case, one +would throw light on the other, and that the investigator who would lay +claim to the name of archæologist must, moreover, study the spirit of a +people in all its monumental and literary manifestations.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Jameson strove to learn the mind and the mode of early Christian +times from the works of the Fathers. She saw in the hymns of the Middle +Ages and in the writings of the mystics the sources of the art ideas +which disclose themselves in the wall and glass paintings of our +cathedrals and in the entrancing creation of a Fiesole. She had also the +special advantage of being thoroughly imbued with Dante's ideas of the +plastic arts of the Middle Ages.</p> + +<p>"And all this is evidenced in a form which exhibits neither dry +dissertation nor wearisome nomenclature. Each of her articles is a +little essay. It teaches us what place the Madonna, or St. Catherine, or +some other saint has held in the memory and in the imagination of past +centuries. We behold the sainted forms flitting before our eyes in all +the charm of poetic perfection which was given them by the childlike +phantasy of the Middle Ages, and in all the power which they exercised +over men's minds, and which, however we may view the religious side of +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> question, certainly had the effect of creating forms of infinite +beauty and pictures of unspeakable reality."<a name="FNanchor_218_218" id="FNanchor_218_218"></a><a href="#Footnote_218_218" class="fnanchor">[218]</a></p> + +<p>When we recollect that Mrs. Jameson achieved so much before the +foundations of Christian archæology had been fully laid; before de +Rossi's monumental publications had supplied the means of interpreting +early Christian sculpture; before critics and archæologists were at one +regarding the significance of early Christian and Middle Age symbolism, +or agreed on the principles that were to guide to a correct +understanding of the pictures of Roman and Gothic art, and while +students were yet in ignorance as to the real influence of Byzantine art +on that of western Europe, we cannot but wonder at the courage and the +energy of this gifted woman in undertaking and in bringing to a happy +issue a work which, even to-day, with all our increased facilities and +greater array of facts, would be considered a herculean task.</p> + +<p>As we read her admirable volumes on <i>Sacred and Legendary Art</i> we can, +as did a close friend of hers, see the enraptured author "kindle into +enthusiasm amidst the gorgeous natural beauty, the antique memorials and +the sacred Christian relics of Italy," and we are prepared to believe, +with the same friend, that there was not "a cypress on the Roman hills, +or a sunny vine overhanging the southern gardens, or a picture in those +vast somber galleries of foreign palaces, or a catacomb spread out, vast +and dark, under the martyr churches of the City of the Seven Hills, +which was not associated with some vivid flashes of her intellect and +imagination." And we can also understand how "the strange, mystic +symbolism of the early mosaics was a familiar language to her," and why +she should experience special delight when she found herself "on the +polished marble of the Lateran floor or under the gorgeously somber +tribune of the Basilica of Santa Maria<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> Maggiore, reading off the quaint +emblems or expounding the pious thoughts of more than a thousand years +ago."<a name="FNanchor_219_219" id="FNanchor_219_219"></a><a href="#Footnote_219_219" class="fnanchor">[219]</a></p> + +<p>It is gratifying to know that Queen Victoria recognized the surpassing +merits of this noble woman by placing her on the civil list, and that +our own Longfellow was able to say of her masterpiece, <i>Sacred and +Legendary Art</i>, "It most amply supplies the cravings of the religious +sentiment of the spiritual nature within."</p> + +<p>A countrywoman of Mrs. Jameson and her contemporary, who also deserves +an honorable place in the literature of archæology, is Louise Twining. +Although inferior in intellectual attainments and literary activity to +the accomplished author of <i>Sacred and Legendary Art</i>, her two works on +<i>Types and Figures of the Bible Illustrated by Art</i> and <i>Symbols and +Emblems of Early Mediæval Christian Art</i> have given her a well-deserved +reputation on the Continent as well as in the British Isles. The latter +volume Mrs. Jameson herself declares in her <i>Legends of the Madonna</i> to +be "certainly the most complete and useful book of the kind which I know +of."</p> + +<p>A third woman who has won fame for her sex in the island kingdom in the +domain of archeology is Miss Margaret Stotes. Her activities, however, +have been chiefly confined to the antiquities of Ireland, on which she +is a recognized authority.</p> + +<p>The notable part she took in editing Lord Dunraven's great work, <i>Notes +on Irish Architecture</i>, established her reputation on a firm basis. +Among her other important works are <i>Early Christian Art in Ireland</i> and +<i>Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language</i>, chiefly collected and +drawn by George Petrie, one of the annual volumes of the Royal +Historical and Archæological Association of Ireland. This work has +justly been described as an epoch-making contribution to Christian +epigraphy and to our rapidly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> developing knowledge of Keltic language +and literature. The learned Dr. Krauss, than whom there is no more +competent judge, in referring to this splendid performance, does not +hesitate to affirm, "No man could have done better than this brave +college girl, whom I would wish to greet across the Channel with a +cordial <i>Macte virtute</i>."</p> + +<p>The women archæologists so far mentioned, with the exception of Queen +Caroline Murat, were conspicuous as writers rather than active +investigators in the field. There have been, however, quite a number who +have won distinction as "archæologists of the spade"—women who, either +alone or with their husbands, have superintended excavations in +different lands, which have yielded results of untold scientific value. +Among the most conspicuous of these are Mme. Sophia Schliemann, Mme. +Dieulafoy and the enterprising Yankee girl, Miss Harriet A. Boyd.</p> + +<p>Of these the first named is the wife of the late Dr. Henry Schliemann, +who immortalized himself by his famous excavations at Troy, Tiryns and +Mycenæ—enterprises which solved for us the great problem of nearly +thirty centuries and demonstrated in the most startling manner "the +truth of the foundations on which was framed the poetical conception +that has for thousands of years called forth the enchanted delight of +the educated world." During his meteoric career as an archæologist, +Schliemann was able to realize the dreams of his youth, and succeeded in +unveiling the mystery that had so long hung over Sacred Ilios, and to +give the heroes of the Iliad a local habitation on the rediscovered +Plain of Troy. And his glorious achievements we must credit largely to +that brave and devoted woman—his wife—who was ever at his side to +share in his trials and labors and to raise his drooping spirits in +hours of depression, or when hostile criticism treated him as a +visionary in the pursuit of a chimera.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Schliemann is a Greek lady who was born and bred under the shadow +of the Acropolis and a worthy descendant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> of those proud Athenian women +who wore the golden grasshopper in their hair as a sign that they were +natives of the City of the Violet Crown. She was not only dowered with +intellectual gifts of a high order, but she was also her husband's most +congenial companion and sympathetic friend in all his literary work, +while she was his very right hand in those glorious enterprises at +Hissarlik and Mycenæ, which secured for both of them undying fame.</p> + +<p>Dr. Schliemann was the first to attest the never-failing assistance +which he received from this noble woman who, as he informs us, was "a +warm admirer of Homer" and "with glad enthusiasm" joined her husband in +executing the great work which he had conceived in his early boyhood. +Usually they worked together, but at times Mrs. Schliemann superintended +a gang of laborers at one spot while the Doctor was occupied at another +in the immediate vicinity. Thus it was she who excavated the heroic +tumulus of Batieia in the Troad—that Batieia who, according to Homer, +was a queen of the Amazons and undertook a campaign against Troy.<a name="FNanchor_220_220" id="FNanchor_220_220"></a><a href="#Footnote_220_220" class="fnanchor">[220]</a></p> + +<p>Mme. Jane Dieulafoy is noted as the collaborator of her husband, Marcel +Dieulafoy, in the important archæological mission to Persia that was +entrusted to him by the French government. The results of this mission, +in which Mme.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> Dieulafoy had a conspicuous part, were published in Paris +in 1884 in five octavo volumes.</p> + +<p>It was during this expedition to the ancient empire of Cyrus and +Artaxerxes that this indefatigable couple became interested in the ruins +of Susa, the ancient capital of the Persian kings. On their return to +France they succeeded in securing money and supplies for conducting +excavations among these ruins which, in the end, yielded results which +were, in some respects, as important as those which rewarded the labors +of the Schliemanns in Greece and Asia Minor.</p> + +<p>So completely had Susa—the City of the Lilies—been buried and +forgotten for nearly two thousand years that even its site was almost as +much a matter of dispute as was that of ancient Troy. And yet it was one +of the greatest and richest cities of antiquity—the city of Esther and +Daniel, the city of the mighty Assuerus who reigned from India even unto +Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces—the city where the +great Alexander celebrated his nuptials with Statira, the daughter of +Darius, with a magnificent festival at which, according to Plutarch, +"there were no fewer than nine thousand guests, to each of which he gave +a golden cup for the libations."</p> + +<p>In December, 1884, the two brave and venturesome explorers were on their +way to Susa with high hopes, but not without a full knowledge of the +difficulties and dangers that they would have to confront among the +fanatical nomads of Arabistan, where the very name of Christian inspires +rage and horror. It meant, as Mme. Dieulafoy herself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> tells us, "to +cross the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf +and the deserts of Elam three times in less than a year; to pass whole +weeks without undressing; to sleep on the bare ground; to struggle +nights and days against robbers and thieves; to cross rivers without a +bridge; to suffer heat, rain, cold, mists, fever, fatigue, hunger, +thirst, the stings of divers insects; to lead this hard and perilous +existence without being guided by any interest other than the glory of +one's country."<a name="FNanchor_221_221" id="FNanchor_221_221"></a><a href="#Footnote_221_221" class="fnanchor">[221]</a></p> + +<p>In spite, however, of all the opposition which they encountered among +the fanatical Mussulmans of Arabistan and of the dreadful sufferings +incident to living in a desert where it was at times impossible to +secure the necessaries of life, their mission was successful, and their +account of their finds in the ancient capital of Elam was as thrilling +in its way as anything reported of the excavations at Troy or Pompeii. +Their splendid collection of specimens of ancient Persian art and +architecture, now on exhibition in the Museum of the Louvre, testifies +to the successful issue of their expedition and to their indomitable +energy in conducting researches under the most untoward +conditions.<a name="FNanchor_222_222" id="FNanchor_222_222"></a><a href="#Footnote_222_222" class="fnanchor">[222]</a><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> So highly did the French government value the part +Mme. Dieulafoy had taken in this arduous enterprise that it conferred on +her a distinction rarely awarded to a woman for scientific work—that of +Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.</p> + +<p>As an archæologist, the gifted and energetic American woman, Miss +Harriet Boyd—now Mrs. C. H. Hawes—has achieved an international +reputation for her remarkable excavations in the island of Crete. She is +a frequent contributor to archæological journals; but it is upon her +splendid work in the field that her fame will ultimately rest.</p> + +<p>Her first work of importance was undertaken as Fellow of the American +School of Classical Studies at Athens. This was in 1900, and the field +of her investigations was the Isthmus of Hierapetra in Crete. Here she +excavated numerous tombs and houses of the early Geometric Period, +<i>circa</i> 900 B.C., and paved the way for those brilliant discoveries +which rewarded her labors during the following three years.</p> + +<p>The investigations conducted during these three years under Miss Boyd's +directions yielded results of transcendent value. Assisted by three +young American women—the Misses B. E. Wheeler, Blanche E. Williams, and +Edith H. Hall—she superintended the work of more than a hundred native +employees whom she had on her payroll. By good fortune in the choice of +a site for excavation and by well-directed efforts she was soon able to +unearth one of the oldest of Cretan cities and to expose to view the +ruins of what was probably one of the ninety cities which Homer tells us +in his Odyssey graced the land of Crete—"a fair land and a rich, in the +midst of a wine-dark sea."</p> + +<p>So remarkable were the finds in this long-buried Minoan town and so well +preserved are its general features that it has justly been called the +Cretan Pompeii. It antedates by long centuries the oldest cities of +Greece and was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> flourishing center of commerce ages before the heroes +of the Iliad battled on the plains of Troy.</p> + +<p>It is not too much to say that the extraordinary discoveries made by +this enterprising Yankee girl at Gournia, no less than those made by +British and Italian archæologists at Knossos and Phæstos, have +completely revolutionized our ideas respecting the state of culture of +the inhabitants of Crete during the second and third millenia before the +Christian era. They have thrown a flood of light on the origins of +Mediterranean culture, and have, at the same time, supplied material for +a study of European civilization that was before entirely wanting.</p> + +<p>An enduring monument to Miss Boyd's ability as an archæologist is her +notable volume containing an account of her excavations at Gournia, +Vasilike and other prehistoric sites on the Isthmus of Hierapetra. It +will bear comparison with any similar productions by the Schliemanns or +the Dieulafoys. A later work on <i>Crete, the Forerunner of Greece</i>, which +she wrote in collaboration with her husband, Mr. C. H. Hawes, is also a +production of recognized merit. As a study on the origin of Greek +civilization it opens up many new vistas in pre-history and illumines +many questions that were before involved in mystery.</p> + +<p>Besides Mrs. Hawes, three other American women have achieved marked +distinction by their archæological researches. These are Mrs. Sarah +Yorke Stevenson, Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mrs. Zelia Nuttall.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stevenson has long been identified with the progress of +archæological research, especially with that in Egypt and the +Mediterranean. A prominent member of many learned societies, she is +likewise a writer and lecturer of note. She enjoys the distinction of +being the first woman whose name appears as a lecturer on the calendar +of the University of Harvard. In acknowledgment of her scholarly ability +and eminent services in the development of its Department of Archæology, +the University of Pennsylvania<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> has conferred upon her the honorary +degree of Doctor of Science.</p> + +<p>That American women have not been behind their sisters in Europe in +their enthusiasm for archæological investigation is evinced by the +researches and writings of Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mrs. Zelia +Nuttall, both of whom enjoy an international reputation in the learned +world.</p> + +<p>Miss Fletcher's chosen field of labor has been in ethnology and +anthropology. Her studies of the folk lore and the manners and customs +of various tribes of North American Indians have a distinct and +permanent value, while those of her contributions which have been +published by the Smithsonian Institution and the Bureau of +Ethnology—contributions based on personal knowledge of a long residence +among the tribes she writes about—show that she has exceptional talent +for the branches of archæology to which she has devoted many years of +earnest and successful study.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Nuttall is the daughter of an American mother and an English +father. Thanks to the care that was bestowed on her education by her +parents and to her long residence in the different countries of Europe, +she is proficient in seven languages. This knowledge of tongues has been +of inestimable advantage to her in her researches in European libraries +and in those historical and archæological investigations which have +rendered her famous. She has devoted special attention to the early +history, languages, religions and calendar systems of the primitive +inhabitants of Mexico and Central America, in all of which she is a +recognized authority.</p> + +<p>When, some years ago, the mysterious ruins of Mexico began to attract +the special attention of archæologists, Mrs. Nuttall was selected by the +University of California as the field director of the commission which +it sent to pursue archæological researches in this Egypt of the New +World. A more competent or a more enthusiastic director could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> not have +been chosen. Her finds in the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon at +Teotihuacan and elsewhere in our sister republic were especially +important. In recognition of her achievements President Porfirio Diaz +nominated Mrs. Nuttall honorary professor in the Mexican National +Museum. She was also offered the position of curator of the +archæological Museum of Mexico; but this office she declined. She holds +membership in a large number of learned societies in America and Europe +and is a frequent contributor to numerous magazines on historical and +archæological subjects. She has had the good fortune to discover a +number of important manuscripts illustrating the early history of +Mexico. Chief among these are a Hispano-American manuscript which she +dug out of one of the libraries of Madrid and another which was found in +a private collection in England and reproduced in facsimile in this +country. In honor of its fair discoverer it is now known as the Codex +Nuttall, and is regarded by experts as one of the most precious records +of ancient Mexico.</p> + +<p>What is probably Mrs. Nuttall's most valuable contribution to +archæological science is her erudite work entitled <i>The Fundamental +Principles of Old and New World Civilizations</i>. It is a comparative +research based on a study of the ancient Mexican, religious, +sociological and calendar systems, and represents thirteen years of +assiduous labor. It is a worthy monument to the scientific ability of +this gifted Americanist, and one which brilliantly illumines some of the +most controverted points of comparative archæology.</p> + +<p>The Nestor of women archæologists is Donna Ersilia +Caetani-Bovatelli—the daughter of the famous Dante scholar, the late +Duke Don Michel Angelo Caetani-Sermonetta. Since the days of Boniface +VIII, whom Dante scornfully denounced as <i>lo principe de' Pharisei</i>, the +family of the Caetani has been one of the most illustrious of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> Roman +nobility, and is to-day ranked with those of the Colonna and Orsini.</p> + +<p>Besides his thorough knowledge of Dante, whose <i>Divina Commedia</i> he +regarded as the great artistic production of the human mind—a work +which he knew by heart—the Duke of Sermonetta was deeply versed in +philology and archæology. No one was more familiar with the history and +antiquities of Rome than he was, nor a greater friend and patron of +scholars of every nationality. The Palazzo Caetani was the resort of not +only the savants of Rome, but also and especially of those who gathered +from all quarters of the world to study the rich collections of +antiquities for which the Eternal City is so famous. Here the ablest +authorities in history and archæology discussed the latest discoveries +among the ruins of Greece and Asia Minor, and the most recent finds in +the Forum or amidst the crumbling ruins of the palaces of the Cæsars.</p> + +<p>Having such a father and brought up in such an environment it is not +surprising that Donna Ersilia acquired at an early age that taste for +archæology which was, as events proved, to constitute the chief +occupation of her long and busy life. Having enjoyed and studied +literature and the languages under the best masters in Rome, she was +thoroughly prepared for the work of deciphering Greek and Latin +inscriptions and for an intelligent study of the ancient monuments of +Italy and Hellas.</p> + +<p>Her learned countryman, A. de Gubernatis, assures us that she has such a +thorough knowledge of Latin and Greek that she writes both with ease and +elegance, and that she is endowed with an admirable memory for philology +and archæology. Besides being a mistress of several modern languages, +she is also familiar with Sanscrit.</p> + +<p>Since the death of her husband, in 1879, she has devoted all her time, +outside of that given to the care and education of her children, to the +pursuit of classical archæology, in which she has long been regarded as +an authority of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span> first order. Her salon, unlike those of the +frivolous leaders of high life, has for many years been the favorite +rendezvous in Rome of learned men and women from every clime. Here were +seen the noted historians Gregorovius, Theodore Mommsen, and Giovanni +Battista de Rossi, the illustrious founder of Christian archæology. Here +the representatives of the French, German and American schools of +archæology meet to exchange views on their favorite science and to find +inspiration in the knowledge and enthusiasm of their gifted hostess, who +always takes an active part in their recondite discussions, and never +fails to contribute her share to these meetings, which have contributed +so much toward the advancement of science and the history of antiquity. +Whether the discussion turn on the deciphering of an ancient text, the +inscription of a monument or a recently excavated sarcophagus, Donna +Ersilia's opinion is eagerly sought, and her judgment is generally +unerring.</p> + +<p>This cultured and erudite daughter of sunny Italy has been a prolific +writer on her favorite branch of research. Besides contributing to such +publications as the <i>Nuova Antologia</i> and the bulletins of the +archæological commissions in Rome, she has found time to prepare for the +press a number of volumes of the highest value on divers questions of +Roman and Greek archæology.</p> + +<p>It is interesting, in this connection, to note the fact that, after Mme. +Curie had been refused admittance into the French Academy, one of the +members of this institution, who had voted against her on the ground +that she was a woman, had occasion to attend a meeting of the Academy of +the Lincei in Rome, an association which plays the same rôle in Italy as +does the French Academy in France, and found, to his astonishment, that +the dean of the department of archæology, as well as the presiding +officer of some of the most important meetings of the academy, was a +woman. She was no other than Donna Ersilia Caetani-Bovatelli, the +learned and gracious scion of an honored<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> race. So taken aback was the +Gallic opponent of <i>feminisme</i> that he could but exclaim: "<i>Diable!</i> +they order things differently in Italy from what we do in <i>la belle +France</i>."</p> + +<p>Considering their attainments and achievements, the two women who occupy +the highest place as archæologists in the English-speaking world are +Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson. They are the twin +daughters of the Rev. John Smith, an English clergyman, and have long +enjoyed an enviable reputation among Scriptural scholars and +Orientalists.</p> + +<p>During their youth they had the advantage of instruction under the best +masters, and, among other things, acquired a wide knowledge of the +modern and classical languages. Subsequent study and frequent visits to +Greece and the Orient made them proficient in modern Greek, Arabic, +Hebrew and Syriac. Becoming interested in the search for ancient +manuscripts, they resolved to make the long and arduous journey to the +Greek convent of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai.</p> + +<p>In the latter part of January, 1892, these two brave and enterprising +women left Suez for their destination in the heart of the Arabian +desert. They were accompanied only by their dragoman and Bedouin +servants. Eleven camels carried the two travelers, their baggage, tents +and provisions for fifty days. They had laid in supplies not only for +the two or three weeks they were to spend on the way to and from Sinai, +but also for the month they expected to remain at the Convent of St. +Catherine.</p> + +<p>Arriving at the end of their journey, they were most cordially received +by the monks, who afforded them every facility for examining the +treasures of their unique and venerable library. They immediately set to +work, and before they left the room in which the manuscripts were +preserved they had made one of the most remarkable finds of the century. +For, in closely inspecting a dirty, forbidding old manuscript whose +leaves had probably not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> been turned for centuries, they discovered a +palimpsest, of which the upper writing contained the biographies of +women saints, while that beneath proved to be one of the earliest copies +of the Syriac Gospels, if not the very earliest in existence.</p> + +<p>No find since the celebrated discovery by Tischendorf of the Sinaitic +Codex, in the same convent nearly fifty years before, ever excited such +interest among Scriptural scholars or was hailed with greater +rejoicings. It was by all Biblical students regarded as an invaluable +contribution to Scriptural literature, and as a find which "has doubled +our sources of knowledge of the darkest corner of New Testament +criticism." To distinguish it from the <i>Codex Sinaiticus</i>, the precious +manuscript brought to light by Mrs. Lewis has been very appropriately +named after the fortunate discoverer, and will hereafter be known as the +Codex Ludovicus.<a name="FNanchor_223_223" id="FNanchor_223_223"></a><a href="#Footnote_223_223" class="fnanchor">[223]</a></p> + +<p>Another find of rare importance made by the gifted twin sisters was a +Palestinian Syriac lectionary similar to the hitherto unique copy in the +Library of the Vatican. A<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> special interest attaches to this lectionary +from the fact that it is written in the language that was most probably +spoken by our Lord.</p> + +<p>Among other notable discoveries of Mrs. Lewis and her sister during the +four visits<a name="FNanchor_224_224" id="FNanchor_224_224"></a><a href="#Footnote_224_224" class="fnanchor">[224]</a> which they made to Mt. Sinai and Palestine between the +years 1892 and 1897 were a number of manuscripts in Arabic and a portion +of the original Hebrew manuscript of Ecclesiastes which was written +about 200 B.C. Previously the oldest copies of this book of the Old +Testament were the Greek and Syriac versions.</p> + +<p>What is specially remarkable about the discoveries made by Mrs. Lewis +and Mrs. Gibson is that they were able to make so many valuable finds +after the convent library at Mt. Sinai had been so frequently examined +by previous scholars. The indefatigable Tischendorf made three visits to +this library and had but one phenomenal success. But neither "he nor any +of the other wandering scholars who have visited the convent attained," +as has been well said, "to a tithe of the acquaintance with its +treasures which these energetic ladies possess."</p> + +<p>But more remarkable than the mere discovery of so many invaluable +manuscripts, which was, of course, an extraordinary achievement, is the +fact that these manuscripts, whether in Syriac, Arabic or Hebrew, have +been translated, annotated and edited by these same scholarly women. +Already more than a score of volumes have come from their prolific pens, +all evincing the keenest critical acumen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> and the highest order of +Biblical and archæological scholarship. The reader who desires a popular +account of their famous discoveries should by all means read Mrs. +Gibson's entertaining volume, <i>How the Codex Was Found</i>, and Mrs. Lewis' +charming little work entitled, <i>In the Shadow of Sinai</i>. As to those +men—and the species is yet far from extinct—who still doubt the +capacity of women for the higher kinds of intellectual effort, let them +glance at the pages of the numerous volumes given to the press by these +richly dowered women under the captions of <i>Studia Sinaitica</i> and <i>Horæ +Semiticæ</i>; and, if they are able to comprehend the evidence before them, +they will be forced to admit that the long-imagined difference between +the intellectual powers of men and women is one of fancy and not one of +reality.<a name="FNanchor_225_225" id="FNanchor_225_225"></a><a href="#Footnote_225_225" class="fnanchor">[225]</a></p> + +<p>And yet, strange to relate, while Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson were +electrifying the learned world by their achievements<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> in the highest +form of scholarship, the slow-moving University of Cambridge was gravely +debating "whether it was a proper thing to confer degrees upon women," +and preparing to answer the question in the negative. The fact that +there were "representatives of the unenfranchised sex at their gates who +had gathered more laurels in the field of scholarship than most of those +who belong to the privileged sex" did not appeal to the university dons +or prevent them from putting themselves on record as favoring a +condition of things which, at this late age of the world, should be +expected only among the women-enslaving followers of Mohammed.</p> + +<p>The saying that "a prophet hath no honor in his own country" was +fulfilled to the letter in the case of the two<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> women who had shed such +luster on the land of their birth. While foreign institutions were vying +with one another in showering honors on the two brilliant Englishwomen, +with whose praises the whole world was resounding, the University of +Cambridge was silent. The University of St. Andrews conferred on them +the degree of LL.D., while conservative old Heidelberg, casting aside +its age-old traditions, made haste to honor them with the degree of +Doctor of Divinity. In addition to this, Halle made Mrs. Lewis a Doctor +of Philosophy. One would have thought that sheer shame, if not patriotic +spirit, would have compelled the university in whose shadows the two +women had their home, and in which Mrs. Lewis' husband had held for +years an official appointment, to show itself equally appreciative of +superlative merit and equally ready to reward rare scholarship, +regardless of the sex of the beneficiaries. But no. The illustrious +archæologists and Biblical scholars were women, and this fact alone was +in the estimation of the Cambridge authorities enough to withhold from +them that recognition which was so spontaneously accorded them by the +great universities of the Continent.</p> + +<p>Nor was this the only instance of the kind. While the celebrated twin +sisters just referred to were so materially contributing to our +knowledge of Biblical lore, another Englishwoman, Jane E. Harrison, who +lived within hearing of the church bells of Cambridge, was lecturing to +delighted audiences in Newnham College on the history, mythology and +monuments of ancient Athens, and writing those learned works on the +religion and antiquities of Greece which have given her so conspicuous a +place among modern archæologists.<a name="FNanchor_226_226" id="FNanchor_226_226"></a><a href="#Footnote_226_226" class="fnanchor">[226]</a> But, as in the case of her +distinguished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> neighbors, the discoverers of the <i>Codex Ludovicus</i>, the +degrees she was honored with came not from Cambridge, with which, +through her fellowship in Newnham, she was so closely connected.</p> + +<p>And while this gifted lady was deserving so well of science and +literature, the undergraduate students of Cambridge, following the cue +given by the twenty-four hundred graduates who had just rejected the +proposal to give honorary degrees to women who could pass the required +examinations, were giving an exhibition of rowdyism which far surpassed +that which, a few years before, had so disgraced the University of +Edinburgh, when the same question of degrees for women was under +consideration.</p> + +<p>According to the report of an eye witness of the turbulent scene at +Cambridge, "The undergraduate students appeared to be, as a body, +viciously opposed to the proposal to give degrees to women, and became +fairly riotous. They hooted those who supported the reform and fired +crackers even in the Senate House and made the night lurid with bonfires +and powder. They put up insulting effigies of girl students, and such +mottoes as 'Get you to Girton, Beatrice. Get you to Newnham. Here is no +place for maids!'"</p> + +<p>Verily, when such scenes are possible in one of the world's great +intellectual centers—a place where, above all others, women should +receive due recognition for their contributions toward the progress of +knowledge—one is constrained to declare that what we call civilization +is still far from the ideal. And, when one witnesses the total +indifference of institutions like Cambridge and the French Academy to +the splendid achievements of women like Mrs. Lewis, Mrs. Gibson and Mme. +Curie, one cannot but exclaim in words Apocalyptic: "How long, O Lord, +holy and true," is this iniquitous discrimination against one-half of +our race to endure? O Lord, how long?</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_215_215" id="Footnote_215_215"></a><a href="#FNanchor_215_215"><span class="label">[215]</span></a> A. Michælis, <i>A Century of Archæological Discoveries</i>, p. +6, New York, 1908.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_216_216" id="Footnote_216_216"></a><a href="#FNanchor_216_216"><span class="label">[216]</span></a> <i>The Most Illustrious Ladies of the Renaissance</i>, p. 152, +by Christopher Hare, London, 1904.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_217_217" id="Footnote_217_217"></a><a href="#FNanchor_217_217"><span class="label">[217]</span></a> Michælis, Op. cit., p. 20, Cf. also Fiorelli's +<i>Pompeinarum Antiquitatum Historia</i>, Vol. I, Pars. III, Naples, 1860. +Arditi characterized Queen Caroline's interest in the excavations as +"<i>entusiasmo veramente ammirabile</i>."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_218_218" id="Footnote_218_218"></a><a href="#FNanchor_218_218"><span class="label">[218]</span></a> <i>Frauenarbeit in der Archæologie in Deutsche Rundschau</i>, +March, 1890, page 396.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_219_219" id="Footnote_219_219"></a><a href="#FNanchor_219_219"><span class="label">[219]</span></a> <i>Memoirs of the Life of Anna Jameson</i>, pp. 296-297, by +her niece, Geraldine Macpherson, London, 1878.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_220_220" id="Footnote_220_220"></a><a href="#FNanchor_220_220"><span class="label">[220]</span></a> <i>Ilios, the City and Country of the Trojans</i>, pp. +657-658, by Dr. Henry Schliemann, New York, 1881. +</p><p> +As an illustration of Mrs. Schliemann's devotion to the work which has +rendered her, as well as her husband, immortal, a single passage from +the volume just quoted, p. 261, is pertinent. Referring to the +sufferings and privations which they endured during their third year's +work at Hissarlik, Dr. Schliemann writes as follows: +</p><p> +"My poor wife and myself, therefore, suffered very much since the icy +north wind, which recalls Homer's frequent mention of the blasts of +Boreas, blew with such violence through the chinks of our house-walls, +which were made of planks, that we were not even able to light our lamps +in the evening, while the water which stood near the hearth froze into +solid masses. During the day we could, to some degree, bear the cold by +working in the excavations; but, in the evenings, we had nothing to keep +us warm except our enthusiasm for the great work of discovering Troy." +</p><p> +So high was Dr. Schliemann's opinion of his wife's ability as an +archæologist that he entrusted to her—as well as to their daughter, +Andromache, and son, Agamemnon—the continuation of the work which death +prevented him from completing.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_221_221" id="Footnote_221_221"></a><a href="#FNanchor_221_221"><span class="label">[221]</span></a> See Mme. Dieulafoy's graphic account of the expedition in +a work which has been translated into English under the title, <i>At Susa, +the Ancient Capital of the Kings of Persia, Narrative of Travel Through +Western Persia and Excavations Made at the Site of the Lost City of the +Lilies, 1884-1886</i>, Philadelphia, 1890. +</p><p> +See also her other related work—crowned by the French +Academy—entitled, <i>La Perse, La Chaldée et la Susiane</i>, Paris, 1887.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_222_222" id="Footnote_222_222"></a><a href="#FNanchor_222_222"><span class="label">[222]</span></a> Among the specimens secured were two of extraordinary +beauty and interest. One of them is a beautiful enameled frieze of a +lion and the other, likewise a work in enamel, represents a number of +polychrome figures of the Immortals—the name given to the guards of the +Great Kings of Persia. Both are truly magnificent specimens of ceramic +art, and compare favorably with anything of the kind which antiquity has +bequeathed to us. Commenting on the pictures of the Persian guards, Mme. +Dieulafoy writes: "Whatever their race may be, our Immortals appear fine +in line, fine in form, fine in color and constitute a ceramic work +infinitely superior to the bas-reliefs, so justly celebrated, of Lucca +della Robbia." Op. cit., p. 222.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_223_223" id="Footnote_223_223"></a><a href="#FNanchor_223_223"><span class="label">[223]</span></a> One passage in this codex bears so strongly on a leading +argument of this work that I cannot resist the temptation to give it +with Mrs. Lewis' own comment: +</p><p> +"The piece of my work," she writes, <i>In the Shadow of Sinai</i>, p. 98 et +seq., "which has given me the greatest satisfaction, consists in the +decipherment of two words in John IV, 27. They were well worth all our +visits to Sinai, for they illustrate an action of our Lord which seems +to be recorded nowhere else, and which has some degree of inherent +probability from what we know of His character. The passage is 'His +disciples came and wondered that with the women he was <i>standing and +talking</i>'.... +</p><p> +"Why was our Lord standing? He had been sitting on the wall when the +disciples left Him; and, we know that He was tired. Moreover, sitting is +the proper attitude for an Easterner when engaged in teaching. And an +ordinary Oriental would never rise of his own natural free will out of +politeness to a woman. It may be that He rose in His enthusiasm for the +great truths He was uttering; but, I like to think that His great heart, +which embraced the lowest of humanity, lifted Him above the restrictions +of His race and age, and made Him show that courtesy to our sex, even in +the person of a degraded specimen, which is considered among all really +progressive peoples to be a mark of true and noble manhood. To shed even +a faint light upon that wondrous story of His tabernacling amongst us is +an inestimable privilege and worthy of all the trouble we can possibly +take."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_224_224" id="Footnote_224_224"></a><a href="#FNanchor_224_224"><span class="label">[224]</span></a> Mrs. Gibson, unaccompanied by her sister, has since made +two more visits to Mt. Sinai in order to complete the work so +auspiciously begun.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_225_225" id="Footnote_225_225"></a><a href="#FNanchor_225_225"><span class="label">[225]</span></a> The following partial list of the works of these erudite +twins on subjects connected with Scripture and Oriental literature gives +some idea of their extraordinary attainments and of their prodigious +activity in researches that are usually considered entirely foreign to +the tastes and aptitudes of women. +</p><p> +<i>Some Pages of the Four Gospels Retranscribed From the Sinaitic +Palimpsest</i>, with a translation of the whole text by Agnes Smith Lewis. +</p><p> +<i>An Arabic Version of St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, +Galatians and part of Ephesians.</i> Edited from a ninth century MS. by +Margaret Dunlop Gibson. +</p><p> +<i>Apocrypha Sinaitica.</i> Containing the Anaphora Pilati in Syriac and +Arabic: the Syriac transcribed by J. Rendel Harris, and the Arabic by +Margaret Dunlop Gibson; also two recensions of the <i>Recognitions of +Clement</i>, in Arabic, transcribed and translated by Margaret Dunlop +Gibson. +</p><p> +<i>An Arabic Version of the Acts of the Apostles and the Seven Catholic +Epistles</i>, from an eighth or ninth century MS., with a treatise on the +Triune Nature of God and translation. Edited by Margaret Dunlop Gibson. +</p><p> +Apocrypha Arabica, Edited by Margaret D. Gibson, containing 1, <i>Kitab al +Magall</i> or the <i>Book of the Rolls</i>; 2, <i>The Story of the Aphikia Wife of +Jesus Ben Sira</i> (Carshuni); 3, <i>Cyprian and Justa</i>, in Arabic and Greek. +</p><p> +<i>Select Narratives of Holy Women</i>, from the Syro-Antiochene or Sinai +Palimpsest, as written above the Old Syriac Gospels in A. D. 778. +Translation by Agnes Smith Lewis. +</p><p> +<i>Apocrypha Syriaca Sinaitica</i>, being the <i>Protevangelium Jacobi</i> and +<i>Transitus Mariæ</i>, from a Palimpsest of the fifth or sixth century. +Edited by Agnes Smith Lewis. +</p><p> +<i>Forty-One Facsimiles of Dated Christian Arabic Manuscripts</i>, with Text +and English Translation, arranged by Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret +Dunlop Gibson, with introductory observations in Arabic calligraphy by +the Rev. David S. Margoliouth. +</p><p> +<i>The Didascalia Apostolorum in Syriac</i>, edited from a Mesopotamian MS, +with various readings and collations of other MS, by Margaret Dunlop +Gibson. +</p><p> +<i>The Arabic Version of the Acta Apocrypha Apostolorum</i>, edited and +translated by Agnes Smith Lewis, with fifth century fragments of the +Acta Thomæ, in Syriac. +</p><p> +<i>The Gospel of Isbodad in Syriac and English</i>, by Margaret D. Gibson. +</p><p> +<i>Acta Mythologica Apostolorum in Arabic</i>, with translation by Agnes +Smith Lewis. +</p><p> +For an elaborate and sympathetic account of the labors and discoveries +of Mrs. Lewis and her sister, the reader is referred to an article from +the pen of the learned Professor V. Ryssel, in the <i>Schweizerische +Theologische Zeitschrift</i>, XVI, Jahrgang, 1899.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_226_226" id="Footnote_226_226"></a><a href="#FNanchor_226_226"><span class="label">[226]</span></a> For an evidence of this learned lady's competency to deal +with the most recondite stores of history and archæology, the reader is +referred to two of her later works, viz., <i>Primitive Athens as Described +by Thucydides</i>, Cambridge, 1906, and <i>Prolegomena to the Study of Greek +Religion</i>, Cambridge University Press, 1903.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>WOMEN AS INVENTORS</h3> + + +<p>"There have been very learned women as there have been women warriors, +but there have never been women inventors."<a name="FNanchor_227_227" id="FNanchor_227_227"></a><a href="#Footnote_227_227" class="fnanchor">[227]</a> Thus wrote Voltaire +with that flippancy and cocksureness which was so characteristic of the +author of the <i>Dictionnaire Philosophique</i>—a man who was ever ready to +give, offhand, a categorical answer to any question that came before him +for discussion. His countryman, Proudhon, expressed the same opinion in +other words when he wrote, <i>Les femmes n'ont rien inventé, pas mème leur +quenouille</i>—women have invented nothing, not even their distaff.</p> + +<p>Had these two writers thoroughly sifted the evidence available, even in +their day, for a proper consideration of this interesting subject, they +would, both of them, have reached a very different conclusion from that +which is expressed in the sentences just quoted. Had they consulted the +records of antiquity, they would have learned that most of the earliest +and most important inventions were attributed to women; and, had they +studied the reports of explorers among the savage tribes of the modern +world, they would have found that these early legends and traditions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> +regarding the inventions of women were fully confirmed by what was being +done in their own time. Man's first needs were food, shelter and +clothing; and tradition in all parts of the world is unanimous in +ascribing to woman the invention, in essentially their present forms, of +all the arts most conducive to the preservation and well-being of our +race.</p> + +<p>In Egypt, as Diodorus Siculus informs us, the inventors of specially +useful things were, as a reward of their deserts, enrolled among the +gods, as were certain heroes among the ancient Greeks and Romans. +Foremost among these was Isis, who laid the foundation of agriculture by +the introduction of the culture of wheat and other cereals. Before her +time the Egyptians lived on roots and herbs. In lieu of these crude +articles of food, Isis gave them bread and other more wholesome +aliments. She invented the process of making linen and was the first to +apply a sail to the propulsion of a boat. To her also was attributed the +art of embalming, the discovery of many medicines and the beginnings of +Egyptian literature.</p> + +<p>Even more prominent was Pallas Athene, one of the greatest divinities of +the Greeks. Virgil, in his <i>Georgics</i>, invokes her as</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Inventor, Pallas, of the fatt'ning oil,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou founder of the plow and the plowman's toil."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>But not only was she regarded as the <i>oleæ inventrix</i>-inventress of the +olive—as Virgil phrases it, but also as the inventor of all +handicrafts, whether of women or men. Like Isis, she was deemed the +originator of agriculture and many of the mechanic arts. But, above all, +she was the inventor of musical instruments and those plastic and +graphic arts which have for ages placed Greece in the forefront of +civilization and culture.</p> + +<p>From the beginning it was woman who first made use of wool and flax for +textile fabrics; and of this prehistoric<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> woman one can affirm what +Solomon, in his <i>Book of Proverbs</i>, said of the virtuous woman of his +day:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"She seeketh wool and flax and worketh diligently with her hands;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>She was also the first one to weave cotton and silk. It was Mama Oclo, +the wife of Manco Capac, as the Inca historian, Garcilasso de la Vega, +tells us, who taught the women of ancient Peru "to sew and weave cotton +and wool and to make clothes for themselves, their husbands and +children."</p> + +<p>And it was a woman, Se-ling-she, the wife of the emperor, Hwang-te, who +lived nearly three thousand years before Christ, to whom the most +ancient Chinese writers assign the discovery of silk. Her name is +perpetuated in the name China, the goddess of silkworms, and under this +appellation she still receives divine honors.</p> + +<p>The preparation and weaving of silk were introduced into Japan by four +Chinese girls, and the new industry soon became there, as in China, one +of the chief sources, as it is to-day, of the country's wealth. To +perpetuate the memory of these four pioneer silk weavers the grateful +Japanese erected a temple in their honor in the province of Setsu.</p> + +<p>According to tradition, the eggs of the silk moth and the seed of the +mulberry tree were conveyed to India, concealed in the lining of her +headdress, by a Chinese princess. She was thus instrumental in +establishing in the region watered by the Indus and the Ganges the same +industry which her countrywomen had introduced into the Land of the +Rising Sun.</p> + +<p>Cashmere shawls and attar of roses, the costliest of perfumes, are +attributed to an Indian empress, Nur Mahal, whom her husband, in view of +her achievements, as well as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> on account of his passionate love for her, +called "The Light of the World."<a name="FNanchor_228_228" id="FNanchor_228_228"></a><a href="#Footnote_228_228" class="fnanchor">[228]</a></p> + +<p>And what shall we say of those exquisite creations of woman's brain and +hand—needle-point and pillow lace? These two inventions, like the +manufacture of silk, have given employment to tens of thousands of women +throughout the world; and, in such countries as Italy, Belgium and +France, where lace-making has received special attention, they have for +centuries been most prolific sources of revenue. Silk fabrics in ancient +Rome were worth their weight in gold. The finest specimens of point lace +are, even to-day, as highly prized as precious stones, and, like the +great masterpieces of plastic art, are handed down as heirlooms from +generation to generation. In no other instance, except possibly in the +hairspring of a watch, is there such an extraordinary difference in +value between the raw material and the finished product as there is in +the case of the finest thread lace.</p> + +<p>A great sensation was caused in Italy a few decades ago when a humble +workwoman, Signora Bassani, succeeded in rediscovering the peculiar +stitch of the celebrated Venetian point, which had been lost for +centuries. She was at once granted a patent for her invention, which was +by her countrymen regarded as an event of national importance.</p> + +<p>After painting and sculpture, probably no art has contributed more to +the development of the esthetic sense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> among the nations of the world +than has the art whose chief tools are the needle and the bobbin in the +deft hands of a beauty-loving woman. If the name of the first lace-maker +had not been lost in the mists of antiquity, it is reasonable to suppose +that she, too, would long since have had a monument erected to her +memory, as well as the weavers of silk and makers of attar of roses and +cashmere shawls. She was surely as deserving of such an honor.</p> + +<p>More conclusive information respecting woman as an inventor is, strange +as it may appear, afforded by a systematic study of the various races of +mankind which are still in a state of savagery. Such a study discloses +the interesting fact that woman, contrary to the declaration of +Proudhon, has not only been the inventor of the distaff, but that she +has furthermore—pace Voltaire—been the inventor of all the peaceful +arts of life, and the inventor, too, of the earliest forms of nearly all +the mechanical devices now in use in the world of industry.</p> + +<p>Architecture, as well as many other things, was credited by the ancient +Greeks to Minerva. This was a poetical way of stating the fact—now +generally accepted by men of science—that women were the first +homemakers. But the first home was a very simple and a very humble +structure. When not a cave, it was a simple shelter made of bark or +skins, sufficient to afford protection to the mother and her child. +Subsequently it was a lodge made of earth, of stone or wattle work or +adobe.</p> + +<p>Women were, in the light of anthropology, as well as in that of +mythology and tradition, the first to discover the nutritive and +medicinal values of fruits, seeds, nuts, roots and vegetables. They were +consequently the first gardeners and agriculturists and the first to +build up a materia medica. While men were engaged in the chase or in +warfare, women were gradually perfecting those divers domestic arts +which, in the course of time, became their recognized specialties. They +soon found that it was better to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> cultivate certain food plants and +trees than to depend on them for nourishment in the wild state. This was +particularly true in the case of such useful and widely distributed +species as wheat, rice, maize, the yam, potato, banana and cassava.</p> + +<p>At first most of these food products were used in the raw state, but +woman's quick inventive genius was not long in making one of the most +important and far-reaching discoveries—a method for producing fire. In +a certain sense this was the greatest discovery ever made, and the +Greeks showed their appreciation of the value of it by asserting that +fire was stolen from heaven. Considering its multifarious uses in +heating and cooking, thereby immensely adding to the comfort and +well-being of primitive man, we are not surprised that in certain parts +of the world fire has always been considered something sacred, and that +the old Romans instituted Vestal Virgins, and the ancient Peruvians +Virgins of the Sun, to preserve this precious element and have it ever +ready when required for sacrifice or for any of their various liturgical +functions. If any one ever deserved a "monument more durable than +bronze," it was the woman who, "on the edge of time," first drew the +Promethean spark from a piece of pyrites by striking it with flint or +produced it by the friction of two pieces of wood.</p> + +<p>After building a home and establishing in it a fireplace for the +preparation of food, woman's next concern was to secure more raiment +than was afforded by the traditional fig leaf. This she found in the +bark of certain trees, in the fiber of hemp and cotton and in the wool +of sheep and goats. With these and her distaff she spun thread, and from +the thread thus obtained she was by means of her primitive +loom—likewise her invention—able to provide all kinds of textile +fabrics for clothing for herself and family.</p> + +<p>But there was much more to invent before the home of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> primitive man, or +rather primitive woman, could be considered as fairly equipped. +Furniture and culinary utensils were required, and these, too, were +provided by the deft and cunning fingers of woman. She was the first +potter and the first basketmaker; and anyone who has lived among the +savages of any land, especially among the aborigines in the interior of +South America, knows what an important part is played in domestic +economy by native basketry and ceramic ware. Both of these articles were +at first of the simplest character, but woman's innate esthetic sense +soon enabled her to produce those highly ornate specimens of pottery and +basketry that are so highly prized in the public and private collections +of this country and Europe.</p> + +<p>The first device for converting grain into flour was, like the many +other articles already named, the invention of woman. Whether the simple +mortar and pestle of the North American Indian, or the Mexican metate +and muller, or the Irish quern, it was, in every case, the product of +woman's brain and handiwork, as it was also the basal prototype of our +most improved types of flouring mills. And so was the soapstone pot—the +predecessor of the iron or brass kettle—a woman's invention, as well as +many similar contrivances for preparing food.</p> + +<p>But what is probably the most remarkable culinary invention of woman in +the state of savagery is her unique contrivance for converting the +poisonous root of the <i>manihot utilissima</i>—the staple food of tropical +America—into a wholesome and nutritious aliment. It is a bag, called +<i>matapi</i>, which serves both as a press and as a sieve. For the +inhabitants of the vast basins of the Amazon and the Orinoco, where the +chief articles of diet are derived from the manihot and the plantain, +this invention of woman is the most important ever made and ranks in +importance with the discovery by the same skilled food purveyor of the +dietetic value of manihot itself.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p> + +<p>The first knife was a woman's invention, as the arrow-head and the spear +point were the inventions of her hunter husband. It was in the beginning +a most primitive implement; but, whether in the form of a simple flake +of flint of obsidian, or in that of an Eskimo ulu—the woman's knife—it +was the archetype of all the forms of cutlery now in use. With this rude +knife the primitive housewife skinned and carved the game brought to her +by her male companion. With it she scraped the interior of the hide and +cut it up into articles of clothing. She was thus the first furrier and +tailor. With it she made the first sandals and moccasins, and, in doing +so, became the first shoemaker and the original St. Crispin.</p> + +<p>To woman, the originator of the first home, is due also the invention of +the oven and the chimney. She was also the first maker of salt—that +all-important condiment and sanitary agent—and the first to obtain +nitre from wood ashes. She was the first engineer, as is evinced in her +invention of the parbuckle and in the bamboo conduit, which was the +predecessor of the great canals of Babylonia<a name="FNanchor_229_229" id="FNanchor_229_229"></a><a href="#Footnote_229_229" class="fnanchor">[229]</a> and the imposing +aqueducts of ancient Rome.</p> + +<p>Important, however, as are all the foregoing inventions, we must not +forget what was an equally important contribution by woman to the +welfare and progress of our race—the domestication of animals. No +discovery after that of artificially producing fire has contributed more +toward the development of our race than the taming of milk- and +fleece-bearing animals, like the cow, the sheep, the goat and the llama, +or of burden-bearing animals, like the horse, the ass, the camel and the +reindeer, or of hunting and watching animals like the faithful, +ubiquitous dog. For, in the first place, the domestication of these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> +supremely useful animals diminished man's labor as burden bearers. It +likewise supplemented the fecundity of women and facilitated the +multiplication of the race, because it supplied to the child a +nourishment that previously could be obtained only from the mother, who +had been obliged to suckle her young several years longer than was +necessary after the friendly goat and cow came to her aid. Still another +consequence of the domestication of animals was that it immensely +diminished the amount of woman's care and labor, afforded her the +necessary leisure to develop the arts of refinement, and stimulated +intellectual growth in a way that otherwise would have been impossible.</p> + +<p>It is often stated by certain writers who love to indulge in fanciful +speculations that women inventors got their ideas as home builders and +weavers and potters from nest-building birds, from web-weaving spiders, +and from clay workers like termites and mud wasps. Be this as it may, +the fact remains in all its inspiring truth that, in the matter of +industrialism, as opposed to the militancy of man, we can unhesitatingly +declare, with Virgil, <i>Dux femina facti</i>—woman was the leader in all +the arts of peace—arts which have been slowly perfected through the +ages until they present the extraordinary development which we now +witness.</p> + +<p>When we contemplate the splendid porcelain wares of Meissen and Sèvres, +or the countless varieties of cutlery produced in the factories of +Sheffield, or the beautiful textile fabrics from the looms of Lowell and +Manchester, or the delicate silks woven in the famous establishments of +Lombardy and Southern France, or the countless forms of footwear made in +Lynn and Chicago, or the exquisite furs brought from Siberia and the +Pribyloff Islands, and dyed in Leipsic and London, or the astonishing +output of food products from the factories of Pittsburgh and the immense +roller mills of Minneapolis, we little think that the colossal<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> wheels +of these vast and varied industries were set in motion by the inventive +genius of woman in the dim and distant prehistoric past.</p> + +<p>And yet such is the case. Her handiwork from the earliest pottery may be +traced through its manifold stages from its first rude beginnings to the +most gorgeous creations of ceramic art. The primeval knife of flint or +obsidian has become the keen tool of tempered steel; the simple distaff +has issued in the intricate Jacquard loom; the metate and pestle +actuated by a woman's arm have, by a long process of evolution, +developed into our mammoth roller mills impelled by water power, steam +or electricity.<a name="FNanchor_230_230" id="FNanchor_230_230"></a><a href="#Footnote_230_230" class="fnanchor">[230]</a></p> + +<p>But these extraordinary changes from the rude implements of prehistoric +time to the complicated machinery of the present is but a change of +kind, not one of principle. It is a change due to specialization of work +which became possible only when men, liberated from the avocations of +hunting and warfare, were able to take up the occupations of women, and +develop them in the manner with which we are now familiar.</p> + +<p>Why men, rather than women, should have achieved this work of +specialization; whether it was due to social causes or to woman's +physical and mental organization, or to these various factors combined, +we need not inquire; but such is the fact. Whereas in primitive times +every woman having a home was a cook, a butcher, a baker, a potter, a +weaver, a cutler, a miller, a tanner, a furrier, an engineer, man, in +assuming the work which was originally exclusively feminine and +performed by one and the same person, has subdivided and specialized by +improved forms of machinery and otherwise, so that what is now done is +accomplished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> more rapidly and to better purpose, and with +correspondingly greater results in the development of industry and in +the progress of civilization.</p> + +<p>And the remarkable fact is that many of the most important of these +improvements due to specialization have been made within the memory of +those yet living, while still others have been originated in quite +recent years. Nevertheless, great as has been the work of specialization +and coördination in every department of human industry during the last +few decades, it is, to judge by the reports of the Patent Office, as yet +in little more than its initial stage.</p> + +<p>We are now prepared for the consideration of the part woman has taken in +this specializing movement and for a discussion of her share in modern +inventions and in the improvements of those manifold inventions which +were due to her genius and industry untold ages ago. Considering the +short time during which her inventive mind has been specially active, +and the many handicaps which have been imposed on her, the wonder is not +that she has achieved so little in comparison with man, but rather that +she has accomplished so much.</p> + +<p>The first woman to receive a patent in the United States was Mary Kies. +It was issued May 5, 1809, for a process of straw-weaving with silk or +thread. Six years later Mary Brush was granted a patent for a corset. It +seems to have been quite satisfactory, for no other patent for this +article of feminine attire was issued to a woman until 1841, when one +was granted to Elizabeth Adams. During the thirty-two years which +elapsed between the issuing of a patent to Mary Kies and Elizabeth +Adams, but twenty other patents were granted to women. The chief of +these were for weaving hats from grass, manufacturing moccasins, +whitening leghorn straw, for a sheet-iron shovel, a cook stove and a +machine for cutting straw and fodder.</p> + +<p>During the decade following 1841, fourteen patents were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> issued to as +many different women. Among the articles patented by them were an +ice-cream freezer, a weighing scale and a fan attachment for a rocking +chair. It was not recorded, however, that this last invention, valuable +as it was apparently, ever became particularly popular. But by far the +most remarkable of woman's inventions during this period was a submarine +telescope and lamp, for which a patent was awarded in 1845 to Sarah +Mather.</p> + +<p>From 1851 to 1861, twenty-eight patents were issued to women—just twice +the number awarded them during the preceding decade. Most of these +patents were for articles of domestic use or feminine apparel. Four of +them, however, comprised a scale for instrumental music, for mounting +fluid lenses, a fountain pen and an improvement in reaping and mowing +machines.</p> + +<p>The following decade is remarkable for the wonderful increase in the +number of inventions due to women, for there was a sudden jump from +twenty-eight to four hundred and forty-one patents awarded them between +the years 1861 and 1871. Women now began to have confidence in their +inventive faculties, and, no longer content with exercising their genius +on articles of clothing and culinary utensils, sewing, washing and +churning machines, they began to devote their attention to objects that +were entirely foreign to their ordinary home activities. This is clearly +evinced by the patents they obtained for such inventions as improvements +in locomotive wheels, devices for reducing straw and other fibrous +substances for the manufacture of paper pulp, improvements in corn +huskers, low-water indicators, steam and other whistles, corn plows, a +method of constructing screw propellers, improvements in materials for +packing journals and bearings, in fire alarms, thermometers, railroad +car heaters, improvements in lubricating railway journals, in conveyors +of smoke and cinders for locomotives, in pyrotechnic night signals, +burglar alarms, railway car safety apparatus, in apparatus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> for punching +corrugated metals, desulphurizing ores and other similar inventions in +the domain of mechanical engineering, inventions that, at first blush, +would seem to be quite alien to the genius and capacity of woman.</p> + +<p>From now on women's inventions in the United States increased at an +extraordinary rate, for from 1871 until July 1, 1888, when the first +government report was made on the patents issued to women inventors, she +had to her credit nearly two thousand inventions, many of which were of +prime importance.<a name="FNanchor_231_231" id="FNanchor_231_231"></a><a href="#Footnote_231_231" class="fnanchor">[231]</a></p> + +<p>During the seven years following 1888 she was awarded twenty-five +hundred and twenty-six patents—more than the total number that had been +granted her during the preceding seventy-nine years. Between 1895 and +1910, three thousand six hundred and fifteen more patents were placed to +her credit, making a grand total for her first century of inventive +achievement of eight thousand five hundred and ninety-six patents. No +Patent Office reports are available since 1910, but the number of +inventions for which women have received patents since Mary Kies was +awarded hers on May 5, 1809, for "straw-weaving with silk or thread," +cannot be far from ten thousand. This fact will, doubtless, be a +revelation to that large class of men who still seem to share the views +of Voltaire and Proudhon that women are incapable of inventing even the +simplest article of domestic use.</p> + +<p>The following story well illustrates the prevailing ignorance regarding +the part women have taken in the invention of certain articles that are +so common that most people think they were never patented.</p> + +<p>"I was out driving once with an old farmer in Vermont," writes Mrs. Ada +C. Bowles, "and he told me,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> 'You women may talk about your rights, but +why don't you invent something?' I answered, 'Your horse's feed bag and +the shade over his head were both of them invented by women.' The old +fellow was so taken aback that he was barely able to gasp, 'Do tell!'"</p> + +<p>Had he investigated further he would have found that the flynet on his +horse's back, the tugs and other harness trimmings, the shoes on his +horse's feet<a name="FNanchor_232_232" id="FNanchor_232_232"></a><a href="#Footnote_232_232" class="fnanchor">[232]</a> and the buggy seat he then occupied were all the +inventions of women. He would, doubtless, also have discovered that the +currycomb he had used before starting out on his drive, as well as the +snap hook of the halter and the checkrein and the stall unhitching +device were likewise the inventions of members of that sex whose +capacity he was so disposed to depreciate; for women have been awarded +patents—in some instances several of them—for all the articles that +have been mentioned. He might furthermore have learned that the fellies +in his buggy wheels and his daughter's side saddle had been made under +women's patents; and that, to complete his surprise and confusion, the +leather used in his harness had been sewn by a machine patented by a +woman who was not only an inventor but who was also for many years the +manager and proprietor of a large harness factory in New York City.</p> + +<p>What particularly arrests one's attention in reading the Patent Office +reports is not only the large number of inventions by women, but also +the very wide range of the devices which they embrace. It is not +surprising to find them inventing and improving culinary utensils, house +furniture and furnishings, toilet articles, wearing apparel and +stationery, trunks and bags, toys and games, designs for printed and +textile fabrics, for boxes and baskets, screens, awnings, baby carriers, +musical instruments, appliances for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> washing and cleaning, attachments +for bicycles and type-writing machines, art, educational and medical +appliances; for these things are in keeping with their proper <i>métier</i>; +but it is surprising for those who are not familiar with the history of +modern inventions to learn of the share women have had in inventing and +improving agricultural implements, building appurtenances, motors of +various kinds, plumbing apparatus, theatrical stage mechanisms, and, +above all, countless railway appliances from a coupling or fender to an +apparatus for sanding railroad tracks, or a device for unloading +boxcars.</p> + +<p>Those who are still of the opinion of Voltaire and Proudhon—and their +name is legion—respecting woman's inventive powers, might be willing to +accord to her the capacity to design a new form of clothes pin, or hair +crimper, or rouge pad, or complexion mask, or powder puff, or baby +jumper; but they would limit her ability to contrivances of this +character. But what would these same people say if they were told that +over and above the things just mentioned for which many women have +actually received patents, the much depreciated female sex had been +granted patents for locomotive wheels, stuffing boxes, railway car +safety apparatus, life rafts, cut-offs for hydraulic and other engines, +street cars, mining machines, furnaces for smelting ores, +sound-deadening attachments for railway cars, feed pumps and transfer +apparatus for traction cars, machines for driving hoops on to barrels, +apparatus for destroying vegetation on and removing snow from railroads, +coke crushers, artificial stone compositions, elevated railways, new +forms of cattle cars, dams and reservoirs, welding seams of pipes and +hardening iron, alloys for bell metal and alloys to resemble silver, +methods of refining and hardening copper, processes for concentrating +ores, improvement in elevators and designs for raising sunken vessels? +And yet, incredible as it may appear to these scoffers at woman's +genius, patents for all these inventions,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> methods and processes—many +of them of exceeding value—and for hundreds of others of a similar +nature, have been issued to women during recent years. And the activity +of the fair inventors, far from abating, is becoming daily more +pronounced, and promises to reward their efforts with far greater +triumphs. Indeed, women are becoming so active in the numerous fields of +invention—even in such unlikely ones as metallurgy and civil, +mechanical and electrical engineering—that they bid fair to rival men +in what they have long regarded as their peculiar specialty.</p> + +<p>In 1892 a woman in New York was granted two patents, one for a process +of malting beer and the other for hooping malt liquors. These +inventions, however, are not so foreign to the avocation of woman as +they at first appear. For, if we may believe the teachings of ethnology +and prehistoric archæology in this matter, women were the first brewers. +The one, therefore, who two decades ago secured the two patents just +mentioned was but taking up anew an occupation in which her sex +furnished the first invention many thousand years ago.</p> + +<p>An instructive fact touching woman's inventive achievements is that her +fullest success is coincident with her enlarged opportunities for +education, and began with the breaking down of the prejudices which so +long existed against her having anything to do with the development of +the mechanical or industrial arts. When one recollects that the public +schools of Boston, established in 1642, were not open to girls until a +century and a half later, and then only for the most elementary branches +and for but one-half the year; and that girls did not have the benefit +of a high school education in the center of New England culture until +1852; and when one furthermore recalls the attitude of the general +public toward women and girls extending their activities beyond the +nursery and the kitchen, it is easy to understand that there was not +much encouragement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span> for them to exercise their inventive talent, even if +they had felt an inclination to do so.</p> + +<p>The experience of Miss Margaret Knight, of Boston, who in 1871 was +awarded a valuable patent for making a paper-bag machine is a case in +point and well illustrates some of the difficulties that women inventors +had to contend with only a few decades ago.</p> + +<p>"As a child," she writes to a friend, "I never cared for the things that +girls usually do; dolls never had any charms for me. I couldn't see the +sense of coddling bits of porcelain with senseless faces; the only +things I wanted were a jackknife, a gimlet and pieces of wood. My +friends were horrified. I was called a tomboy, but that made very little +impression on me. I sighed sometimes because I was not like other girls, +but wisely concluded that I couldn't help it, and sought further +consolation from my tools. I was always making things for my brothers. +Did they want anything in the line of playthings, they always said, +'Mattie will make them for us.' I was famous for my kites, and my sleds +were the envy and admiration of all the boys in town. I'm not surprised +at what I've done; I'm only sorry I couldn't have had as good a chance +as a boy, and have been put to my trade regularly."</p> + +<p>Even after she had demonstrated her skill as an inventor, Miss Knight +had to encounter the skepticism of the workmen to whom she entrusted the +manufacture of her machines. They questioned her ability to superintend +her own work, and it was only her persistency and remarkable competency +that ultimately converted their incredulity into respect and admiration.</p> + +<p>Since women have come into the possession of greater freedom than they +formerly enjoyed, and have been afforded better opportunities of +developing their inventive faculties, many of them have taken to +invention as an occupation, and with marked success. They find it the +easiest and most congenial way of earning a livelihood, and not a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> few +of them have been able thereby to accumulate comfortable fortunes, +besides developing industries that have given employment to thousands of +both sexes.</p> + +<p>Thus the straw industry in the United States is due to Miss Betsy +Metcalf, who, more than a century ago, produced the first straw bonnet +ever manufactured in this country. Since then the industry which this +woman originated has assumed immense proportions. The number of straw +hats now made in Massachusetts alone, not to speak of those annually +manufactured elsewhere, runs into the millions.</p> + +<p>Scarcely less wonderful is the industry developed by Miss Knight, +already mentioned, through her marvelous invention for manufacturing +satchel-bottom paper bags. Many men had previously essayed to solve the +problem which she attacked with such signal success, but all to no +purpose. So valuable was her invention considered by experts that she +refused fifty thousand dollars for it shortly after taking out her +patent.</p> + +<p>Often what are apparently the most trivial inventions prove the most +lucrative. Thus, a Chicago woman receives a handsome income for her +invention of a paper pail. A woman in San Francisco invented a baby +carriage, and received fourteen thousand dollars for her patent. The +gimlet-pointed screw, which was the idea of a little girl, has realized +to its patentee an independent fortune. Still more remarkable is the +Burden horseshoe machine, the invention of a woman, which turns out a +complete horseshoe every three seconds and which is said to have +effected a saving to the public of tens of millions of dollars.</p> + +<p>The cotton gin, one of the most useful and important of American +inventions—a machine that effected a complete revolution in the cotton +industry throughout the world—is due to a woman, Catherine L. Greene, +the wife of General Nathaniel Greene, of Revolutionary fame. After she +had fully developed in her own mind a method for separating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> the cotton +from its seed, which was after her husband's death, she intrusted the +making of the machine to Eli Whitney, who was then boarding with her, +and who had a Yankee's skill in the use of tools. Whitney was several +times on the point of abandoning as impossible the task which had been +assigned to him, but Mrs. Greene's faith in ultimate success never +wavered, and, thanks to her persistence in the work and the putting into +execution of her ideas, her great undertaking was finally crowned with +success. She did not apply for a patent for her invention in her own +name, because so opposed was public opinion to woman's having part in +mechanical occupation that she would have exposed herself to general +ridicule and to a loss of position in society. The consequence was that +Whitney—her employee—got credit for an invention which, in reality, +belonged to her. She was, however, subsequently able to retain a +subordinate interest in it through her second husband, Mr. Miller.</p> + +<p>This is only one of many instances in which patents, taken out in the +name of some man, are really due to women. The earliest development of +the mower and reaper, as well as the clover cleaner, belongs to Mrs. A. +H. Manning, of Plainfield, New Jersey. The patent on the clover cleaner +was issued in the name of her husband; but, as he failed to apply for a +patent for the mower and reaper, his wife was, after his death, robbed +of the fruit of her brain by a neighbor, whose name appears on the list +of patentees of an invention which originated with Mrs. Manning.</p> + +<p>A few years ago men of science awoke to the startling fact that the +earth's supply of nitrates was being rapidly exhausted. It was then +realized that, unless some new store of this essential fertilizer could +be found, it would soon be impossible to provide the food requisite for +the world's teeming millions. What was to be done? Never was a more +important problem presented to science for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> solution, and never did +science more quickly and efficaciously respond. It was soon recognized +that the earth's atmosphere was the only available storehouse for the +much-needed nitrogen. Forthwith scientists and inventors the world over +proceeded to tap this source of supply and to convert its vast stores of +nitrogen into the nitrates which are so indispensable to vegetable life.</p> + +<p>To form some idea of the importance of the problem and the urgency of +its solution, it may be stated that the amount of fertilizer required +for the cotton crop alone in the Southern States in 1911 was no less +than three million tons. What, then, must have been the total amount +used through the world for cereals and other crops that need constant +fertilizing? The famous nitrate deposits of Chili could supply only a +small fraction of the stupendous amount required, and they, according to +recent calculations, cannot continue to meet the present demands on them +for more than a hundred years longer, at most.</p> + +<p>The process involved, when once conceived, was simple enough, for it +merely required the conversion of the nitrogen of the air into nitric +acid, which in turn was employed in the production of nitrate of lime. +But, simple as it was, mankind had to wait a long time for its +origination, and action was taken only when necessity compelled. At +present there are numerous nitrate factories in France, Germany, +Austria, Sweden, Norway and the United States, and the output is already +enormous and constantly increasing. Electricity, that mysterious force +which has so frequently come to man's assistance during the last few +decades, is the agent employed.</p> + +<p>But who was the originator of the idea of utilizing the atmosphere for +the production of nitrates? Who took out the first patent for a process +for making nitrates by using the nitrogen of the air? It was a +Frenchwoman—Mme. Lefebre, of Paris—long since forgotten. As early as +1859 she obtained a patent in England for her invention, but,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> as the +need of fertilizers was not so urgent then as it is now, it was allowed +to drop into oblivion, and the matter was not again taken up until a +half-century later, when others secured the credit for an idea which was +first conceived by a woman who happened to have the misfortune to live +fifty years in advance of her time.</p> + +<p>It were easy to extend the list of important inventions due to women and +of patents which were issued in the name of their husbands or other men; +to tell of inventions, too, of whose fruits, because they happened to be +helpless or inexperienced women, the real patentees were often robbed; +but the foregoing instances are quite sufficient to show what woman's +keen inventive genius is capable of achieving in spite of all the +restrictions put on her sex, and in spite of her lack of training in the +mechanic arts.</p> + +<p>Had women, since the organization of our Patent Office, enjoyed all the +educational opportunities possessed by men; had they received the same +encouragement as the lordly sex to develop their inventive faculties; +had the laws of the country accorded them the rewards to which their +labor and genius entitled them, they would now have far more inventions +to their credit than those indicated in our government reports; and they +would, furthermore, be able to point to far more brilliant achievements +than have heretofore, under the unfavorable conditions under which they +were obliged to work, been possible. But when we recall all the +obstacles they have had to overcome and remember also the fact that most +of the patents referred to in the preceding pages have been secured by +women living in the United States—little being said of the modern +inventions of women in foreign countries—we can see that their record +is indeed a splendid one, that their achievements are not only worthy of +all praise, but also a happy augury for the future. When they shall have +the same freedom of action as men in all departments of activity in +which they exhibit special aptitude, when they shall have the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> +advantages of training and equipment and the prospect of the same +emoluments as the sterner sex for the products of their brainwork and +craftsmanship, then may we expect them to achieve the same distinction +in the mechanic arts as has rewarded their efforts in science and +literature; and then, too, may we hope to see them once more regain +something of that supremacy in invention which was theirs in the early +history of our race.</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_227_227" id="Footnote_227_227"></a><a href="#FNanchor_227_227"><span class="label">[227]</span></a> "On a vu des femmes très savantes, comme en fût des +guerrières, mais il n'y en eut jamais d'inventrices." <i>Dictionnaire +Philosophique, sub voce Femmes.</i> Condorcet, in commenting on this +statement, remarks that "if men capable of invention were alone to have +a place in the world, there would be many a vacant one, even in the +academies."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_228_228" id="Footnote_228_228"></a><a href="#FNanchor_228_228"><span class="label">[228]</span></a> That marvelous structure known as the Taj Mahal—India's +noblest tribute to the grace and goodness of Indian womanhood—is +sometimes said to be a monument to the memory of Nur Mahal. This is not +the case. This matchless gem of architecture— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">" ... The proud passion of an emperor's love<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Wrought into living stone, which gleams and soars<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With body of beauty shrining soul and thought."<br /></span> +</div></div> +<p> +is a monument to Nur Mahal's niece and successor as empress, +Mumtaz-Mahal—The Crown of the Palace—who, like her aunt, was a woman +of rare beauty and talent and endeared herself to her people by her +splendid qualities of mind and heart.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_229_229" id="Footnote_229_229"></a><a href="#FNanchor_229_229"><span class="label">[229]</span></a> The inventor of canals as well as of bridges over rivers +and causeways over morasses was, according to Greek historians, the +famous Assyrian queen, Semiramis, the builder of Babylon with its +wonderful hanging gardens.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_230_230" id="Footnote_230_230"></a><a href="#FNanchor_230_230"><span class="label">[230]</span></a> Among the works which treat of the subject-matter of the +foregoing pages the reader may consult with profit, <i>Woman's Share in +Primitive Culture</i>, by O. T. Mason, London, 1895; <i>Man and Woman</i>, the +introductory chapter, by Havelock Ellis, London, 1898; and <i>Histoire +Nouvelle des Arts et des Sciences</i>, by A. Renaud, Paris, 1878.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_231_231" id="Footnote_231_231"></a><a href="#FNanchor_231_231"><span class="label">[231]</span></a> Cf. <i>Women Inventors to whom patents have been granted by +the United States Government, Compiled under the Direction of the +Commissioner of Patents</i>, Washington, 1888. See also subsequent reports +of the Patent Office.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_232_232" id="Footnote_232_232"></a><a href="#FNanchor_232_232"><span class="label">[232]</span></a> To one woman, Mary E. Poupard, of London, England, were +granted in a single year no less than three patents for horse-shoes—two +of the patents being for sectional and segmental horse-shoes.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>WOMEN AS INSPIRERS AND COLLABORATORS IN SCIENCE</h3> + + +<p>One of the most interesting literary figures of the fifth century was +Caius Apollinaris Sidonius, who, after holding a number of important +civil offices, became the bishop of Clermont. The most valuable of his +extant works are his nine books of letters which are a mine of +information respecting the history of his age and the manners, customs +and ideals of his contemporaries.</p> + +<p>In one of these letters, addressed to Hesperius, a young friend of his +who exhibited special talent in polite literature, he expresses a +sentiment which applies as well to the votary of science as to the man +of letters. Referring to the assistance which women had given to their +husbands and friends in their studies, he conjures him to remember that +in days of old it was the wont of Martia, Terentia, Calpurnia, +Pudentilla and Rusticana to hold the lamp while their husbands, +Hortensius, Cicero, Pliny, Apuleius and Symmachus, were reading and +meditating.<a name="FNanchor_233_233" id="FNanchor_233_233"></a><a href="#Footnote_233_233" class="fnanchor">[233]</a></p> + +<p>This picture of women as light-bearers to the great orators and +philosophers just named is symbolic of them as the helpmates and +inspirers of men in every field of human activity and in every age of +the world's history. Always and everywhere, when permitted to occupy the +same social plane as men, women have been not only as lamps unto the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> +feet and as lights unto the paths of their male compeers in the ordinary +affairs of life, but have also been their guiding stars and ministering +angels in the highest spheres of intellectual effort.</p> + +<p>For nearly fifteen centuries St. Jerome has had the gratitude of the +church for his masterly translation, known as the Vulgate, of the Hebrew +Scriptures. But, had it not been for his two noble friends, Paula and +Eustochium, who were as eminent for their intellectual attainments as +they were for their descent from the most distinguished families of Rome +and Greece, there would have been no Vulgate. For they were not only his +inspirers in this colossal undertaking, but they were his active and +zealous collaborators as well.</p> + +<p>Dante and Petrarch are acclaimed as the morning stars of modern +literature, but both of them owed their immortality to the inspiration +of two pure-minded and noble-hearted women.</p> + +<p>In the concluding paragraph of his Vita Nuova—the most beautiful love +story ever written—Dante records his purpose to say of his inspirer, +the gentle, gracious Beatrice Portinari, "what was never said of any +woman." The outcome of this exalted purpose was the Divina Commedia, the +world's greatest literary masterpiece.</p> + +<p>Petrarch, the father of humanism, is the first to give Laura de Noves +credit for his attainments as a poet. In one of his poems he sings:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Blest be the year, the month, the hour, the day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The season and the time, and point of space,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And blest the beauteous country and the place<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where first of two eyes I felt the sway."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Elsewhere in one of his prose dialogues with St. Augustine he declares, +"Whatever you see in me, be it little or much, is due to her; nor would +I ever have attained to this measure of name and fame unless she had +cherished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> by those most noble influences that my feeble implanting of +virtues which nature had placed in this breast."<a name="FNanchor_234_234" id="FNanchor_234_234"></a><a href="#Footnote_234_234" class="fnanchor">[234]</a></p> + +<p>A no less remarkable inspirer, but in an entirely different sphere of +activity, was the devout and spotless Italian maiden, Chiara Schiffi, +better known as St. Clara. She was, as is well known, the ardent +coöperator of St. Francis Assisi in his great work of social and +religious reform which has contributed so much toward the welfare of +humanity. But it is not generally known what an important part she had +in this great undertaking, and how she sustained the Poverello during +long hours of trial and hardship. It was during these periods of care +and struggle that we see how courageous and intrepid was "this woman who +has always been represented as frail, emaciated, blanched like a flower +of the cloister."</p> + +<p>"She defended Francis not only against others but also against himself. +In those hours of dark discouragement which so often and so profoundly +disturb the noblest souls and sterilize the grandest efforts, she was +beside him to show the way. When he doubted his mission and thought of +fleeing to the heights of repose and solitary prayer, it was she who +showed him the ripening harvest with no reapers to gather it in, men +going astray with no shepherd to herd them, and drew him once again into +the train of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> the Galilean, into the number of those who give their +lives as a ransom for many."<a name="FNanchor_235_235" id="FNanchor_235_235"></a><a href="#Footnote_235_235" class="fnanchor">[235]</a></p> + +<p>It is under the shade of the olive trees of St. Damian, with his +sister-friend Clara caring for him, "that he composes his finest work, +that which Ernest Renan called the most perfect utterance of modern +religions sentiment, <i>The Canticle of the Sun</i>."<a name="FNanchor_236_236" id="FNanchor_236_236"></a><a href="#Footnote_236_236" class="fnanchor">[236]</a></p> + +<p>This canticle, however, beautiful as it is, lacks, as has well been +remarked, one strophe. "If it was not upon Francis' lips, it was surely +in his heart:"</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Be praised, Lord, for Sister Clara;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast made her silent, active, and sagacious,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And, by her, thy light shines in our hearts."<a name="FNanchor_237_237" id="FNanchor_237_237"></a><a href="#Footnote_237_237" class="fnanchor">[237]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It was through the inspiration and influence of Theodora that the famous +Church of St. Sophia, that matchless poem in marble and gold, that +imperishable monument to the glory of the true God, came into existence. +It was through her that Justinian conceived the idea of those <i>Pandects</i> +and <i>Institutes</i> which constitute the greatest glory of his reign, and +which are the basis of the <i>Code Napoleon</i> and of all modern +jurisprudence.</p> + +<p>It was to Vittoria Colonna that Michaelangelo dedicated many of the most +exquisite productions of his peerless genius. "He saw," as has been +said, "with her eyes and acted by her inspiration."</p> + +<p>Almost every one of Chopin's compositions was inspired by women, and a +large proportion of them are dedicated to them. The same may be said of +Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Beethoven, Weber, Schumann and other +illustrious composers. All these sons of genius believed with +Castiglione that "all inspiration must come from woman;"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> that she had +been expressly created and sent into the world to inspire them with +intelligence and creative power.</p> + +<p>M. Clavière declares that "There is hardly a philosopher or a poet of +the sixteenth century whose pages are not illuminated or gladdened by +the smile of some high-born lady."<a name="FNanchor_238_238" id="FNanchor_238_238"></a><a href="#Footnote_238_238" class="fnanchor">[238]</a></p> + +<p>What the brilliant Frenchman says of the influence of woman on the poets +and philosophers of a single century could with equal truth be said of +the poets and philosophers of every century from Anacreon and Plato to +the present day. And, still more, it can be predicated of woman's +inspiration and influence in every department of intellectual effort, in +art and architecture, in music and literature, in science in all its +departments, whether deductive or inductive.</p> + +<p>It has been well said, "Were history to be rewritten, with due regard to +women's share in it, many small causes, heretofore disregarded, would be +found fully to explain great and unlooked-for results.... For it is not +in outward facts, nor great names, nor noisy deeds, nor genealogies of +crowned heads, nor in tragic loves, nor ambitious or striking heroism, +nor crime, that we find proofs of the constant and secret working +whereby woman most effectually asserts herself. Certainly she has played +her part in the outward and visible history of the world, but in that +history which is told and written, which is buried in archives and +revivified in books, woman's part is always small when set beside that +of her companion, man. She contributes but little, and at this she may +surely rejoice, to the tales of battles and treaties of successions and +alliances, of violence, fraud, suspicions and hatreds. But if the inward +history of human affairs could be described as fully as the outward +facts; if the story of the family could be told together with the story +of the nation; if human thoughts could with certainty be divined from +human deeds, then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> the chief figure in this history of sentiment and +morals would certainly be that of Woman the Inspirer."<a name="FNanchor_239_239" id="FNanchor_239_239"></a><a href="#Footnote_239_239" class="fnanchor">[239]</a></p> + +<p>This same statement would hold equally good if applied to the part taken +by women in the history of science. Their achievements have, in most +cases, been so overshadowed by those of men that their work has been +usually regarded as a negligible quantity. But when one considers the +mainsprings of actions, and examines the silent undercurrents which +escape the notice of the superficial observer, one finds, as in social +and political history, that the most important scientific investigations +are often conducted, and the most momentous discoveries are made, in +consequence of the promptings of some devoted woman friend, or in virtue +of the still, small voice of a cherished wife, or sister, who prefers to +remain in the background in order that all the glory of achievement may +redound to the man.</p> + +<p>There have been, it may safely be asserted, few really eminent men in +science, as there have been few really eminent men in art or letters, or +in the great reform and religious movements of the world, who have not +been assisted by some woman light-bearer, as were Hortensius by Martia, +Tully by Terentia and Pliny by Calpurnia. There have been few that have +not, during hours of doubt and discouragement, been sustained and +stimulated as was Francis by Clara, and Jerome by Paula and Eustochium. +And there have been still fewer who have not had, like Petrarch and +Dante, their Laura or their Beatrice of whom each could say:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"This is the beacon guides to deeds of worth,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And urges me to see the glorious goal:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This bids me leave behind the vulgar throng."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>In the preceding chapters we have had notable examples of women whose +beneficent influence and coöperation have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> enabled distinguished men of +science to achieve results that would otherwise have been impossible. +Among these—to mention only a few—were Mme. Lavoisier and Mme. Curie +in chemistry, Mme. Lapaute and Miss Herschel in astronomy, Mrs. Agassiz +and Mme. Coudreau in natural science and exploration, Mme. Schliemann +and Mme. Dieulafoy in archæology.</p> + +<p>One of the most illustrious women inspirers of France was Catherine de +Parthenay, who, after attaining womanhood, became the brilliant Princess +de Rohan, and was recognized as one of the most learned and most +remarkable women of the sixteenth century. As a young girl she exhibited +rare intelligence and displayed special aptitude for the exact sciences. +For this reason her mother saw to it that her child had the benefit of +instruction under the ablest masters that could be secured.</p> + +<p>The most noted of these was François Viète, the learned French +mathematician, who is justly regarded as the father of modern algebra. +In his day, especially in the higher classes of society, the education +given to women was often more thorough than that afforded to men. For +this reason, too, women not infrequently became distinguished in +astronomy, which was then usually known under the name of astrology.</p> + +<p>Viète, in initiating his gifted pupil into the principles of this +science, became himself so enthusiastic a student of astronomy that he +determined to prepare an elaborate work on the subject—something on the +plan of the <i>Almagest</i> of Ptolemy—a work which he designated +<i>Harmonicum Celeste</i>.</p> + +<p>In order that the instruction given his pupil might not be lacking in +precision, Viète wrote out, with the most scrupulous care, the lessons +designed for her benefit. The manuscripts containing these lessons were +long preserved among the family archives, but nearly all of them were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> +unfortunately consigned to the flames during the French Revolution in +1793.</p> + +<p>No one was more interested in Viète's mathematical researches—those +researches which have rendered him so famous in the history of +science—than was the Princess de Rohan. The former pupil was the first +to receive notice of her distinguished master's discoveries and the +first to congratulate him on his success.</p> + +<p>It was to this cherished pupil, who always remained his friend and +benefactress, that Viète dedicated his important work on mathematical +analysis entitled <i>In Artem Analyticam Isagoge</i>. The words of the +dedication are a tribute to the learning and the genius of the pupil as +well as an expression of the gratitude of the teacher. It reads as +follows:</p> + +<p>"It is to you especially, august daughter of Melusine, that I am +indebted for my proficiency in mathematics, to attain which I was +encouraged by your love for this science, as well as your great +knowledge of it, and by your mastery of all other sciences, which one +cannot too much admire in a person of your noble lineage."<a name="FNanchor_240_240" id="FNanchor_240_240"></a><a href="#Footnote_240_240" class="fnanchor">[240]</a></p> + +<p>More interesting, and at the same time more pathetic, were the relations +of an Italian nun, Sister Maria Celeste, and the man whom Byron so +happily designates as</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The starry Galileo, with his woes."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Sister Celeste, who was a Franciscan nun in the convent of St. Matthew, +in Arcetri, was the great astronomer's eldest and favorite daughter. +They were greatly attached to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> each other, and the gentle religieuse was +not only her father's confidante and consoler in the hours of trial and +affliction, but was also his inspirer and ever-vigilant guardian angel. +She watched over him, not as a daughter over a father, but as a mother +watches over an only son.<a name="FNanchor_241_241" id="FNanchor_241_241"></a><a href="#Footnote_241_241" class="fnanchor">[241]</a></p> + +<p>All this is beautifully exhibited in her one hundred and twenty-four +letters which were published in 1891 for the first time. A few of these +letters, it is true, were published as early as 1852 by Alberi, in his +edition of the complete works of Galileo, and others were given to the +press at subsequent dates; but the world had to wait more than two and a +half centuries for a complete collection of all the known letters of +this remarkable daughter of an illustrious sire.</p> + +<p>These documents are precious for the insight they give into the sterling +character of a noble woman, but they are beyond price as sources of +information respecting the tenderly affectionate relations which existed +between her and one of the foremost men of science, not only of his own +age, but of all time. They show how he made her his confidante in all +his undertakings, and how she was his amanuensis, his counselor, his +inspirer; how her love was an incentive to the work that won for him +undying fame; how she was his support and comfort when suffering from +the jealousy of rivals or the enmity of those who were opposed to his +teachings.</p> + +<p>These letters cover a period of nearly eleven years—the most momentous +years of her father's busy and troubled life. Now playful, quaint, +elfish, then serious, vivid, confidential, they show that the writer's +intelligence was as rare as her nature was loyal and affectionate. At +times she half-apologizes for the length of a letter, "but you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> must +remember," she adds in excuse, "that I must put into this paper +everything that I should chatter to you in a week."</p> + +<p>No daughter was ever prouder of her father or loved him with a more +abounding love. "I pride myself," she says, "that I love and revere my +dearest father more, by far, than others love their fathers, and I +clearly perceive that, in return, he far surpasses the greater part of +other fathers in the love which he has for me, his loved daughter."</p> + +<p>When he was ill she prepared dishes and confections that she knew would +tempt his appetite. But she was not satisfied with looking after the +welfare of his body, for she took occasion to send with the cakes and +preserved fruits a sermonette for the benefit of his soul.</p> + +<p>An extract from one of her letters gives an insight into the character +of this devoted daughter, who, Galileo says in a letter to his friend, +Elia Diodati, "was a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness and most +tenderly attached to me."</p> + +<p>"Of the preserved citron you ordered," she writes him on the nineteenth +of December, 1625, "I have only been able to do a small quantity. I +feared the citrons were too shriveled for preserving, and so they +proved. I send two baked pears for these days of vigil. But the greatest +treat of all I send you is a rose, which ought to please you extremely, +seeing what a rarity it is at this season. And with the rose you must +accept its thorns, which represent the bitter passion of Our Lord, while +the green leaves represent the hope we may entertain that, through the +same sacred passion, we, having passed through the darkness of this +short winter of our mortal life, may attain to the brightness and +felicity of an eternal spring in heaven, which may our gracious God +grant us through His mercy."<a name="FNanchor_242_242" id="FNanchor_242_242"></a><a href="#Footnote_242_242" class="fnanchor">[242]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span></p> +<p>She always insists upon his keeping her fully informed about his studies +and discoveries. She is particular, also, about receiving without delay +copies of his latest publications. "I beg you," she writes in one of her +letters, "to be so kind as to send me that book of yours which has just +been published, <i>Il Saggiatore</i>, so that I may read it; for I have a +great desire to see it."</p> + +<p>On another occasion, after his difficulties with the Holy Office, when +she fancies her father is not keeping her fully informed about the +subject matter of his writings, she implores him to tell her on what +topic he is engaged, "if," she archly adds, "it be something I can +understand and you are not afraid that I will blab."</p> + +<p>And on still another occasion Sister Celeste reminds her father of a +promise of his to send her a small telescope. From this we should infer +that she desired to repeat the observations on the heavenly bodies that +had created such a sensation in the learned world, and which had given +occasion for such acrimonious controversy.</p> + +<p>In one of her earlier letters Sister Celeste calls her father's +attention to a promise of his to spend an afternoon with her and her +sister Arcangela, also a nun in the same convent. And, referring to one +of the regulations of the Franciscan cloister, she playfully observes: +"You will be able to sup in the parlor, since the excommunication is for +the table cloth"—O Sister Celeste!—"and not for the meats thereon."</p> + +<p>What would one not give for a stenographic report of the conversations +held that afternoon in the convent garden of Arcetri, as father and +daughters leisurely strolled through the peaceful enclosure, all quite +oblivious of the fleeting hours? How interesting would be a faithful +record of the confidences exchanged at the frugal meal in the evening in +the humble parlor of S. Matteo! We would willingly exchange many of the +famous <i>Dialoghi di Galileo<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> Galilei</i> for a verbatim report of what +passed between Sister Celeste and the father whom she so idolized.<a name="FNanchor_243_243" id="FNanchor_243_243"></a><a href="#Footnote_243_243" class="fnanchor">[243]</a></p> + +<p>Judging from her letters, she had many questions to ask him about his +studies, his experiments, his discoveries, his books, as well as about +more personal and domestic matters.</p> + +<p>Although there is no documentary proof of the fact, yet there is every +reason to believe that Galileo had taken personal charge of the +education of this, his favorite daughter. She shared his taste for +science and inherited not a little of his genius. Such being the case, +we may well believe that a faithful account of their conversations of +that day would be not only of surpassing interest, but would also throw +a flood of light on many questions now ill understood. They would +certainly tend to fill up the numerous lacunæ caused by the +disappearance of the letters of Galileo, which he wrote in answer to +those of his ever-cherished daughter.<a name="FNanchor_244_244" id="FNanchor_244_244"></a><a href="#Footnote_244_244" class="fnanchor">[244]</a></p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span></p><p>They would also show more clearly than any facts now available what an +unbounded influence the gentle nun had over the greatest intellect of +his time, and would, more clearly than anything in her correspondence, +exhibit Sister Celeste as the efficient co-worker and the abiding +inspirer of the father of modern physics and astronomy.</p> + +<p>But, although we have no record of this soul-communion between father +and daughter on the occasion in question; although we are deprived of +the invaluable letters which he wrote in reply to hers, we are, +nevertheless, from the evidence at hand, justified in regarding this +unique pair as being ever one in heart, aspirations and ideals, and +comparable in their mutual influence on each other with any of those +famous men and women who, through achievement on the one side and +inspiration and collaboration on the other, have ever been recognized as +the greatest benefactors of their race.</p> + +<p>One of Galileo's countrymen, G. B. Clemente de Nelli, was right when he +declared that, had it not been for the assistance and consolation which +he received from Sister Celeste, Galileo would have succumbed to the +blows that were showered upon him during the most trying part of his +career. An indication of this is given in one of the letters written by +Sister Celeste in the last year of her life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span></p> + +<p>While in a fit of despondency and imagining his friends had forgotten +him, Galileo, in a moment of bitterness, wrote in a letter to his +daughter: "My name is erased from the book of the living." "Nay," came +at once Sister Celeste's cheering reply, "say not that your name is +struck <i>de libro viventium</i>, for it is not so; neither in the greater +part of the world nor in your own country. Indeed, it seems to me that, +if for a brief moment your name and fame were clouded, they are now +restored to greater brightness, at which I am much astonished, for I +know that generally <i>Nemo propheta acceptus est in patria sua</i>. I am +afraid, however, if I begin quoting Latin, I shall fall into some +barbarism. But, of a truth, you are loved and esteemed here more than +ever."<a name="FNanchor_245_245" id="FNanchor_245_245"></a><a href="#Footnote_245_245" class="fnanchor">[245]</a></p> + +<p>How much Sister Celeste was to her father in every way was not known +until after her premature death in her thirty-fourth year. He was never +the same man afterward. Disconsolate and broken, he fancied he heard the +voice of the daughter he so fondly loved resounding through the house. +Brooding over his great loss, the heart-broken old man writes to a +friend in words of infinite pathos, "<i>Mi sento continuamente chiamare +della mia diletta figlioula</i>—I continually hear myself called by my +dearly beloved daughter." The eighth of January, 1642, he answered her +call and went to join her in a better world.</p> + +<p>Two other noted investigators, one of them a contemporary of Galileo, +owed much to the inspiration and encouragement which they received from +women. These were Descartes and Leibnitz. And the women that had the +most influence on them were representatives of royal families, who were +famous in their day for their love and knowledge and the extent of their +intellectual attainments.</p> + +<p>One of the most noted of these was Elizabeth of Bohemia, Princess +Palatine. She was the favorite pupil of Descartes, and it was to her +that he dedicated his great work, <i>Principia<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> Philosophiæ</i>. She, he +declared, understood him better than any one else he had ever met, for +"in her alone were united those generally separated talents for +metaphysics and for mathematics which are so characteristically +operative in the Cartesian system."<a name="FNanchor_246_246" id="FNanchor_246_246"></a><a href="#Footnote_246_246" class="fnanchor">[246]</a></p> + +<p>To this earnest student who was always absorbed in the mysteries of +metaphysics and the problems of geometry, Descartes could refuse +nothing. When distance separated them he continued his instructions by +correspondence. One of the results of this correspondence was his +treatise on <i>Passions de l'Âme</i>, in which he develops certain ethical +views suggested by the <i>Vita Beata</i> of Seneca.</p> + +<p>Another distinguished pupil of Descartes who exercised a marked +influence over him was the celebrated daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, +Queen Christine of Sweden. A mistress of many languages and an ardent +votary of science, she was a munificent patron of scientific men, a +great number of whom she had attracted to her court. The most +distinguished of these was Descartes, to whom she was deeply attached, +and with whom she had planned great things for science in Sweden, when +his career was cut short by a premature death.</p> + +<p>Not the least influence on the intellectual life of Leibnitz was Sophia +Charlotte, Queen of Prussia and mother of Frederick the Great. She was +the niece of Descartes' illustrious friend, Elizabeth of Bohemia, and, +as the pupil of Leibnitz, quite as gloriously associated as had been her +aunt with the father of Cartesianism.</p> + +<p>Leibnitz was as distinguished by genius as his royal pupil was by birth. +Besides being eminent as a philosopher and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> a statesman, he shared with +Newton the honor of discovering the calculus. Huxley pronounced him "a +man of science, in the modern sense, of the first rank," while the King +of Prussia declared of him, "He represents in himself a whole academy." +Through the coöperation of Sophia Charlotte he founded the Berlin +Academy of Sciences. For her he wrote one of the most notable of his +productions—his famed <i>Theodicy</i>.</p> + +<p>It would be difficult to estimate the influence of this learned queen on +Leibnitz, but it was undoubtedly greater than any other single influence +whatever. Her death was the greatest loss he ever suffered, and when she +was no more, the beautiful Berlin suburb, Charlottenburg—named after +her—where he had been so happy in reading and philosophizing with his +illustrious pupil, lost all attraction for him.</p> + +<p>A more striking illustration of woman's helpfulness is afforded in the +case of François Huber, the celebrated Swiss naturalist. Although blind +from his seventeenth year, he was able to carry on researches requiring +the keenest eyesight and the closest observation. This he was able to do +through the affectionate coöperation of his devoted wife, Marie Aimée.</p> + +<p>When her friends tried to dissuade her from marrying Huber, to whom she +had been engaged for some time, saying he had become blind, her reply +was worthy of her generous and noble nature: "He then needs me more than +ever."</p> + +<p>During the forty years of their married life her tenderness and devotion +to her husband were as unfailing as they were inspiring. He worked +through the eyes and hands of his wife as if they were his own. She was +his reader, his observer, his secretary, his enthusiastic collaborator +in all those investigations that have rendered him so famous. The blind +man devised the experiments to be made, and the quick-witted wife +executed them and recorded the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> observations which supplied the material +for his epoch-making work on bees, entitled <i>Nouvelles Observations sur +les Abeilles</i>. So accurate are his descriptions of the habits of the +winged creatures, to the study of which he devoted the best years of his +life, that one would think his great work was the production, not of a +man who had been blind for a quarter of a century, when he wrote it, but +of one who was gifted with exceptional keenness of vision and powers of +observation.</p> + +<p>"As long as she lived," exclaimed the great naturalist after his trusty +Aimée's death, "I was not sensible of the misfortune of being blind." +Nay, more. During her lifetime, when, though sightless, he was always so +happy in his work, he went so far as to aver that he would be miserable +were he to recover his eyesight. "I should not know," he declared, "to +what an extent a person in my condition could be beloved. Besides, to +me, my wife is always young, fresh and pretty, which is no light +matter." He could truly say of her, as Wordsworth said of his sister +Dorothy,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"She gave me eyes, she gave me ears,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">...*...*...*...*<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">And love and thought and joy."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We hear much of the achievements of Galvani and Faraday in the domain of +electricity and electromagnetism, but little is said of the women to +whom they were so greatly indebted for their success and fame.</p> + +<p>It was Galvani's wife who first directed his attention to the +convulsions of a frog's leg when placed near an electrical machine. This +induced him to make those celebrated investigations which led to the +foundation of a new science which has ever since been identified with +his name.</p> + +<p>It was Mrs. Marcet's works on science—especially her <i>Conversations on +Chemistry</i>—that inspired Faraday with a love of science and blazed for +him that road in chemical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> and physical experimentation which led to +such marvelous results. He was always proud to call her his first +teacher, and never hesitated to attribute to her that taste for +scientific research for which he became so preëminent. And it was his +devoted wife who was not only a helpmate but a soulmate as well for +nearly half a century, that had very much to do with the splendid +development of the germ which had been placed in his youthful mind by +Mrs. Marcet.</p> + +<p>The same may likewise be asserted of the wives of two distinguished +geologists—Charles Lyell and Xavier Hommaire de Hell. Mrs. Lyell was +intimately associated with her husband in all his scientific +undertakings, and her ready intellect contributed immensely toward +securing for him that enviable position which he attained of being the +premier geologist of his century. Mme. Hommaire de Hell deserves special +mention in the history of geology for the invaluable assistance which +she gave her husband in the scientific exploration of the basin of the +Caspian Sea. Not only did she share his labors and perils in this then +wild part of the world, and collaborate with him in the preparation of +the report for which the French government conferred on him the Cross of +the Legion of Honor, but she also wrote unaided the two descriptive +volumes of their great work, <i>Steppes de la Mer Caspienne</i>. Her part of +this great undertaking received the special commendation of M. +Villemain, who was the minister of public instruction, and had she not +belonged to the disenfranchized sex, she, too, would have been decorated +with the Cross of the Legion of Honor.</p> + +<p>All the world has heard of the daring explorations of Baker and +Livingstone in the Dark Continent, but how few are aware of the +important part taken in their great enterprises by their devoted and +heroic wives? Sir Samuel Baker immortalized himself by discovering Lake +Albert Nyanza, one of the main sources of the Nile, but in attaining<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> +this goal, which other explorers had in vain essayed to reach, he was +not alone. The companion of his triumph, as of his trials and hardships, +was Lady Baker, a woman who, although delicately reared, was as brave in +presence of danger as she was resourceful in trials and difficulties. +More than once her husband owed his life to her intrepidity and presence +of mind, when confronted by the treacherous savages of equatorial +Africa; and, if he achieved success where others failed, it was in no +slight measure due to her tact, her energy and perseverance in what +seemed at times a forlorn hope. "She had learned Arabic with him in a +year of necessary but wearisome delay; her mind traveled with his mind +as her feet had followed his footsteps." And, when after preliminary +toils without number, after braving dangers from climate, disease and +ruthless savages, they finally stood on the shore of that unknown sea +which was then first beheld by English eyes, she could, in contemplating +their achievements of which Albert Nyanza was the crowning glory, +exclaim with exaltation and truth, "<i>Quorum pars magna fui.</i>"</p> + +<p>When Livingstone lost, in the unexplored valley of the Zambesi, the +faithful wife who had been his inspiring companion in his wanderings in +darkest Africa, he lost completely that enthusiasm for deeds of high +emprise that before had been one of his leading characteristics. Writing +to his distinguished friend, Sir Roderick Murchison, he mournfully +declares: "I must confess this heavy stroke quite takes the heart out of +me. Everything that has happened only made me more determined to +overcome all difficulties; but after this sad stroke I feel crushed and +void of strength.... I shall do my duty still, but it is with a darkened +horizon that I again set about it."</p> + +<p>The noted English naturalist, Frank Buckland, in speaking of the aid +afforded by his gifted mother to her distinguished husband, Dr. +Buckland, writes as follows: "During the long period that Dr. Buckland +was engaged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> in writing the book which I now have the honor of editing, +my mother sat up night after night, for weeks and months consecutively, +writing to my father's dictation; and this often until the sun's rays, +shining through the shutters at early morn, warned the husband to cease +from thinking and the wife to rest her weary hand.</p> + +<p>"Not only with the pen did she render material assistance, but her +natural talent in the use of her pencil enabled her to give accurate +illustrations and finished drawings, many of which are perpetuated in +Dr. Buckland's works. She was also particularly clever and neat in +mending broken fossils. There are many specimens in the Oxford Museum, +now exhibiting their natural forms and beauty, which were restored by +her perseverance to shape from a mass of broken and almost comminuted +fragments. It was her occupation also to label the specimens, which she +did in a particularly neat way; and there is hardly a fossil or a bone +in the Oxford Museum which has not her handwriting upon it.</p> + +<p>"Notwithstanding her devotion to her husband's pursuits, she did not +neglect the education of her children, but occupied her mornings in +superintending their instruction in sound and useful knowledge. The +sterling value of her labors they now, in after life, fully appreciate, +and feel most thankful that they were blessed with so good a +mother."<a name="FNanchor_247_247" id="FNanchor_247_247"></a><a href="#Footnote_247_247" class="fnanchor">[247]</a></p> + +<p>What has been said of the influence and coöperation of the women already +named may, with equal truth, be affirmed of numberless others of recent +as well as of earlier date. It is particularly true of the wife of the +naturalist Heller and of the great astronomer, Kepler. It is true of the +wife of the illustrious mathematician, the Marquis de l'Hôpital. She not +only shared her husband's talent for mathematics, but was of special +assistance to him in preparing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> for the press his important <i>Analyse des +Infiniment Petits</i>. It is true of the wife of Asaph Hall, the +illustrious discoverer of the satellites of Mars. Often he was on the +point of abandoning the quest of these diminutive moons—which no one +had ever seen but which his calculations led him to believe really +existed—but he was encouraged by Mrs. Hall to continue his +observations, with the result that his labors and vigils were at last +rewarded by the startling discovery of Deimos and Phobos.</p> + +<p>And there is Mme. Pasteur, who, in her way, was quite as important a +factor in the scientific career of her immortal husband as were the +women just mentioned in the lives of their husbands, to whose triumphs +they so materially contributed.</p> + +<p>One of the great Frenchman's biographers has truly declared that "it is +impossible rightly to appreciate Pasteur's life without some +understanding of the immense assistance which he received in his home. +Whether in discussing forms of crystals, watching over experiments, +shielding her husband from all the daily fret of life, or busy at the +customary evening task of writing to his dictation, Madame Pasteur was +at once his most devoted assistant and incomparable companion. His +surroundings at home were entirely subordinated to his scientific life, +and his family shared with him both his trials and his triumphs. At the +time when Pasteur was engrossed with the study of anthrax, and, after +many difficulties and disappointments, had at length succeeded in +preparing a vaccine against it, he at once hurried from the laboratory +to communicate his great discovery first to his wife and daughter."<a name="FNanchor_248_248" id="FNanchor_248_248"></a><a href="#Footnote_248_248" class="fnanchor">[248]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></p> +<p>It was particularly during his long and arduous researches on the +disease of silkworms that Pasteur found his wife's aid of incalculable +value. For Mme. Pasteur and her daughter then constituted themselves +veritable silkworm rearers. They collected mulberry leaves, sorted +larvæ, and were unremitting in their labors during the continuance of +this memorable investigation. And not only in the silk-producing +districts of Southern France were they thus occupied, but also in a +special laboratory in École Normale, after their return to Paris.</p> + +<p>And, when in the midst of these researches, on the successful outcome of +which hinged one of the greatest sources of national wealth, the +indefatigable savant was stricken with paralysis and his life was for a +while despaired of, it was again his devoted helpmate that afforded him +solace in suffering and exercised a supervision over those experiments +which the great man was still conducting almost in the presence of +death.</p> + +<p>That Pasteur's life was prolonged for a quarter of a century after the +terrible attack of hemiplegia in 1868, that he was able to unravel the +deep mysteries of microbian life, that he was able to make discoveries +whose economical value to France was, in the estimation of Professor +Huxley, more than sufficient to liquidate the immense indemnity of five +billion francs exacted from his country by Germany at the termination of +the Franco-Prussian war, that he was able, especially during these +fruitful twenty-five years, to render his "scientific life like a +luminous trail in the great night of the infinitely little in those +ultimate abysses of being where life is born," was, in great measure, +due to the unceasing care, the untiring vigilance and the sympathetic +collaboration of one of the most devoted of wives and most noble and +whole-souled of women.</p> + +<p>What has been said of the influence and helpfulness of Mme. Pasteur can +be asserted with even greater truth of Elizabeth Agassiz and of Caroline +Herschel. For these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> two women, apart from the assistance they gave to a +loved husband and an idolized brother, in the labors that made them so +famous, both achieved distinction for their contributions to the +sciences which they individually cultivated with such splendid results. +And had they elected to devote all their time to scientific research, +instead of giving the greater part of it to those to whom they were so +devotedly attached, who can tell how much more brilliant would have been +their achievements and how much greater would have been the fame they +would have won for themselves. Both of them were dowered in an eminent +degree with taste and talent for science, and had they chosen to make it +the sole object of their life work, there can be no doubt that their +personal contributions to natural history and astronomy would have been +far greater than they were. As it was, they were so overshadowed by +those for whom they labored with such unselfishness and loyalty that the +real value of their work is too often forgotten when there is question +of the scientific triumphs of Louis Agassiz and Sir William Herschel.</p> + +<p>But they willed it so. They gladly effaced themselves that those whom +they loved with such a deep and abiding love might shine the more +brightly in the firmament of science. They preferred to spend and be +spent in strengthening the great workers and leaders with whose lives +their own were so thoroughly identified—"Inspiring them with courage, +keeping faith in their own ideas alive, in days of darkness</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'When all the world seems adverse to desert.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Both of these noble women had the same quality in common—absolute +devotion and unswerving faith in those to whose success and happiness +they had dedicated their lives. They sought nothing for themselves, they +thought nothing of themselves. They both had, to borrow the idea of +another,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> an intense power of sympathy, a generous love of giving +themselves to the service of others, which enabled them to transfuse the +force of their own personality into the objects to which they dedicated +their powers.</p> + +<p>In the preface of the joint work of Mr. and Mrs. Agassiz entitled <i>A +Journey in Brazil</i>, that delightful volume which throws such a flood of +light on the fauna and flora of the Amazon valley, occur the following +significant words regarding the share each had in producing the book: +"Our separate contributions have become so closely interwoven that we +should hardly know how to disconnect them." So was it with all their +undertakings. There was the same common interest, the same unity of +purpose, the same unselfish devotion to the cause of science during +those long years of toil which were so prolific in results of supreme +importance. Reading between the lines in <i>A Journey in Brazil</i>, and in +<i>Louis Agassiz, His Life and Correspondence</i>, written by Mrs. Agassiz, +we can easily fancy that the great naturalist owed as much, if not more, +to his wife's never-failing sympathy and inspiration as to her active +coöperation in his work, and we are ready to apply to her the words of +Longfellow when he sings:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And whenever the way seemed long,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or his heart began to fail,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She would sing a more wonderful song<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Or tell a more wonderful tale."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>As to Caroline Herschel as a helper and sustainer of her illustrious +brother, too much cannot be said. "In the days when he gave up a +lucrative career that he might devote himself to astronomy, it was owing +to her thrift and care that he was not harassed by the rankling +vexations of money matters. She had been his helper and assistant when +he was a leading musician; she became his helper and assistant when he +gave himself up to astronomy. By sheer force of will and devoted +affection she learned enough<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> of mathematics and of methods of +calculation, which to those unlearned seem mysteries, to be able to +commit to writing his researches. She became his assistant in the +workshop; she helped him to grind and polish his mirrors; she stood +beside his telescope in the nights of midwinter, to write down his +observations when the very ink was frozen in the bottle. She kept him +alive by her care; thinking nothing of herself, she lived for him. She +loved him and believed in him, and helped him with all her heart and +with all her strength. She might have become a distinguished woman on +her own account, for with the seven-foot Newtonian sweeper given her by +her brother she discovered eight comets first and last. But the pleasure +of seeking and finding for herself was scarcely tested. She 'minded the +heavens' for her brother; she worked for him, not for herself, and the +unconscious self-denial with which she gave up 'her own pleasure in the +use of her sweeper' is not the least beautiful picture in her +life."<a name="FNanchor_249_249" id="FNanchor_249_249"></a><a href="#Footnote_249_249" class="fnanchor">[249]</a></p> + +<p>While recounting the achievements of women who directly or indirectly +contributed to our knowledge of the earth and what it contains we cannot +forget what the world owes to the gracious and glorious Isabella of +Castile. For it is to her probably as much as to Columbus that a new +continent was discovered at the close of the fifteenth century. For, +while the doctors of Salamanca—most of whom were what Galileo called +"paper philosophers," men who fancied that a correct knowledge of the +physical universe was to be obtained by a collation of ancient +texts—were denouncing the great navigator as an idle dreamer, and +quoting the ill-founded notions of Pliny and Aristotle to prove the +impossibility of his carrying out his project, Isabella was quietly +revolving in her own mind the reasons which Columbus had adduced in +favor of his great enterprise. Having satisfied herself that his views +were sufficiently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> probable to justify action, she was prepared to make +any sacrifices to have his plans executed. The result of her decision is +but another illustration of the value of woman's quick intuition, as +against the slow reasoning processes of philosophers and men of science.</p> + +<p>Again, while considering what women have accomplished for the +advancement of science by inspiration and collaboration, we must not +lose sight of what they have done by suggestion. For, as John Stuart +Mill well observes: "It no doubt often happens that a person who has not +widely and accurately studied the thoughts of others on a subject has by +natural sagacity a happy intuition which he can suggest but cannot +prove, which yet, when matured, may be an important addition to +knowledge: but, even then, no justice can be done to it until some other +person, who does possess the previous acquirements, takes it in hand, +tests it, gives it a scientific or practical form, and fits it into its +place among the existing truths of philosophy or science. Is it supposed +that such felicitous thoughts do not occur to women? They occur by +hundreds to every woman of intellect; but they are mostly lost for want +of a husband or friend who has the other knowledge which can enable him +to estimate them properly and bring them before the world; and, even +when they are brought before it, they usually appear as his ideas, not +their real author's. Who can tell how many of the original thoughts put +forth by male writers belong to a woman by suggestion, to themselves +only by verifying and working out? If I may judge by my own case, a very +large proportion indeed."<a name="FNanchor_250_250" id="FNanchor_250_250"></a><a href="#Footnote_250_250" class="fnanchor">[250]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span></p> +<p>Nor should we forget those active and energetic women—and their number +is much greater than is ordinarily supposed—whose husbands, although +often endowed with genius of the highest order, were indolent by +temperament and disorderly and unmethodical by nature. Such men would, +in the majority of cases, have run to seed had not their genius been +given special force and impulse by their vigorous and methodical +helpmates. Sir William Hamilton, the most learned philosopher of the +Scottish school, is a striking instance in point; for it was due almost +entirely to the stimulation he received from his ever active wife that +he was always kept keyed up to his fullest working capacity as a +philosopher and became recognized the world over as one of the +commanding intellects of his age.</p> + +<p>"Lady Hamilton," writes Professor Veitch in his <i>Memoir of Sir William +Hamilton,</i> "had a power of keeping her husband up to what he had to do. +She contended wisely against a sort of energetic indolence which +characterized him, and which, while he was always laboring, made him apt +to put aside the task actually before him, sometimes diverted by +subjects of inquiry suggested in the course of study on the matter in +hand, sometimes discouraged by the difficulty of reducing to order the +immense mass of materials<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> he had accumulated in connection with it. +Then her resolution and cheerful disposition sustained and refreshed +him, and never more so than when, during the last twelve years of his +life, his bodily strength was broken and his spirit, though languid, yet +ceased not from mental toil. The truth is that Sir William's marriage, +his comparatively limited circumstances, and the character of his wife +supplied to a nature that would have been contented to spend its mighty +energies in work that brought no reward but in the doing of it, and that +might never have been made publicly known or available, the practical +force and impulse which enabled him to accomplish what he actually did +in literature and philosophy. It was this influence, without doubt, +which saved him from utter absorption in his world of rare, noble and +elevated but ever-increasingly unattainable ideas. But for it the serene +sea of abstract thought might have held him becalmed for life; and, in +the absence of all utterance of definite knowledge of his conclusions, +the world might have been left to an ignorant and mysterious wonder +about the unprofitable scholar."<a name="FNanchor_251_251" id="FNanchor_251_251"></a><a href="#Footnote_251_251" class="fnanchor">[251]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span></p> +<p>What has been so far said, important as it is, does not tell the whole +story of woman's influence on men of science, and consequently on the +progress of science. We should not have an adequate conception of women +as inspirers and collaborators if we did not advert to certain faculties +which they usually possess in a more eminent degree than the most of +men. It is a well-known fact that in many of the affairs of life women +are more practical, have more tact, and possess keener and quicker +perceptions than men. They are, too, more ideal, more romantic and more +enthusiastic.</p> + +<p>Men of science in their investigations usually proceed by the slow and +laborious process of collecting facts and collating phenomena, either by +observation or experiment, or both, and, from the observed facts and +phenomena, they formulate a law which explains and correlates them. This +is known as induction, a method which proceeds from facts to ideas.</p> + +<p>Women, on the contrary, are rather disposed to proceed from ideas to +facts; to explain phenomena from ideas which already exist in the mind, +without having recourse to the slow process of induction. This is the +deductive method, and is the very reverse of that employed by the +average man of science. It would, however, be a mistake to maintain that +the inductive method is always employed, for such is not the case. More +than a half a century ago the historian, Buckle, in a notable lecture +delivered in the Royal Institution of Great Britain, directed attention +to the fact that some of the greatest scientific discoveries had been +made by the deductive method.</p> + +<p>One of these was Newton's epoch-making discovery of universal +gravitation. While sitting in a garden he saw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> an apple fall, and this +simple fact caused him to advance from idea to idea, and to be carried, +by what Tyndall loved to call "the scientific use of the imagination," +into the distant realms of space. And, heedless of the operations of +nature, neither observing nor experimenting, the great philosopher, by +pure <i>a priori</i> reasoning, "completed the most sublime and majestic +speculation that it ever entered into the heart of man to conceive." "It +was," as Buckle well observes, "the triumph of an idea. It was the +audacity of genius." It was also the triumph of the deductive method in +the solution of a problem that one not a genius could have worked out +only by the long and toilsome process of induction.</p> + +<p>Similarly, the great law of metamorphosis in plants, "according to which +the stamens, pistils, corollas, bracts, petals and so forth, of every +plant, are simply modified leaves," was discovered not by an inductive +investigator, but by a poet. "Guided by his brilliant imagination, his +passion for beauty and his exquisite conception of form which supplied +him with ideas," Germany's greatest poet, Goethe, by reasoning +deductively, was able to generalize a law which lesser minds could never +have arrived at except through the application of the inductive method.</p> + +<p>So also was it in the science of crystallography. Its foundations were +laid, not by a mineralogist nor a mathematician, as one would suppose, +but by one of strong imagination and marked poetic temperament. Like +Goethe, Haüy was led by his ideas of beauty and symmetry to work +deductively on the problem before him. Descending from ideas to facts, +he finally succeeded, after a long series of subsequent labors, in +reading "the riddle which had baffled his able but unimaginative +predecessors."</p> + +<p>It is the possession of this deductive faculty, so characteristic of men +of genius—their ability to reach conclusions directly, as great +mathematicians perceive inferences which those less gifted reach only +after pages of elaborate calculations—which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> enable women, "not indeed +to make scientific discoveries, but to exercise the most momentous and +salutary influence over the method by which scientific discoveries are +made." For, as Buckle points out, men of science are too inclined to +employ the inductive method to the exclusion of the deductive.<a name="FNanchor_252_252" id="FNanchor_252_252"></a><a href="#Footnote_252_252" class="fnanchor">[252]</a> They +have become slaves to the tyranny of facts, and, as such, are +incompetent to further the progress of science as they would by using +both methods instead of one. And their slavery would be still more +complete and ignominious were it not for the great though unconscious +service to science rendered by women who have kept alive the deductive +habit of thought. "Their turn of thought, their habits of mind, their +conversation, their influence, insensibly extending over the whole +surface of society and frequently penetrating its intimate structure, +have, more than all other things put together, tended to raise us up +into an ideal world, lift us from the dust in which we are too prone to +grovel, and develop in us those germs of imagination which even the most +sluggish and apathetic understandings in some degree possess."</p> + +<p>From the foregoing observations it is manifest that the best results to +science are secured when men and women work together—men supplying the +slow, logical reasoning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> power, women the vivid, far-reaching +imagination; men generalizing from facts, women from ideas; men working +chiefly by induction, women principally by deduction. For thus +collaborating, each with his or her predominant faculties, the two +combined possess in a measure the elements which go to make up a man or +woman of genius and which enable them to achieve far more for the +advancement of science than would otherwise be possible.</p> + +<p>No one has ever given more eloquent expression to this truth than John +Stuart Mill, who was as keen as an observer as he was profound as a +thinker. Writing on the subject under discussion, he does not hesitate +to say: "Hardly anything can be of greater value to a man of theory and +speculation who employs himself, not in collecting materials of +knowledge by observation, but in working them up by processes of thought +into comprehensive truths of science and laws of conduct, than to carry +on his speculations in the companionship and under the criticism of a +really superior woman. There is nothing comparable to it for keeping his +thoughts within the limits of real things and the actual facts of +nature. A woman seldom runs wild after an abstraction.... Women's +thoughts are thus as useful in giving reality to those of thinking men +as men's thoughts in giving width and largeness to those of women. In +depth, as distinguished from breadth, I greatly doubt if even now women, +compared with men, are at any disadvantage."<a name="FNanchor_253_253" id="FNanchor_253_253"></a><a href="#Footnote_253_253" class="fnanchor">[253]</a></p> + +<p>We have already learned, from his own avowal, how much Mill was beholden +to his wife for her active coöperation in the production of those works +of his which have exerted so profound an influence on many phases of +modern thought. A more striking illustration of the value of woman's +assistance, but in the domain of biology, is found in the biography of +the late Professor Huxley. By those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> who know this distinguished man of +science—so remarkable for his intellectual vigor—only from his +writings, the impression would be gleaned that he was one of the most +independent of thinkers, and that his utterances on all subjects were +absolutely personal and entirely unmodified by suggestion or criticism +from any quarter.</p> + +<p>How far this view is from being correct is found in the statement by his +son that his father "invariably submitted his writings to the criticism +of his wife before they were seen by any other eye. To her judgment was +due the toning down of many a passage which erred by excess of vigor, +and the clearing up of phrases which would be obscure to the public. In +fact, if any essay met with her approval, he felt sure it would not fail +of its effect when published."<a name="FNanchor_254_254" id="FNanchor_254_254"></a><a href="#Footnote_254_254" class="fnanchor">[254]</a> She was not only his "help and stay +for forty years; in his struggles ready to counsel, in adversity to +comfort," but, over and above this, she was "the critic whose judgment +he valued above almost any, and whose praise he cared most to win"—the +other self who made his life work possible.<a name="FNanchor_255_255" id="FNanchor_255_255"></a><a href="#Footnote_255_255" class="fnanchor">[255]</a></p> + +<p>An intelligent, sympathetic pair of this kind—and this, as we have +seen, is but one of a multitude which illuminates and beautifies the +history of science—are competent to achieve wonders. They are like "the +two-celled heart beating with one full stroke"—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Two plummets dropt for one to sound the abyss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of science, and the secrets of the mind."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The woman is then truly, as De Lamennais in Scriptural phrases has it, +"Man's companion, man's assistant, bone of his bone and flesh of his +flesh," and, in her sublime and endearing character so complete in every +relation of life,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> she fully answers to the beautiful characterization +which Adam, in <i>Paradise Lost</i>, gives of his beloved Eve:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">"So absolute she seems,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">And in herself complete, so well to know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Her own, that what she wills to do or say<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Seems wisest, virtuosest, discreetest, best.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">...*...*...*...*<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">Authority and reason on her wait,<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">...*...*...*...*<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">* * * and, to consummate all,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Build in her loveliest, and create an awe<br /></span> +<span class="i0">About her, as a guard angelic plac'd."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_233_233" id="Footnote_233_233"></a><a href="#FNanchor_233_233"><span class="label">[233]</span></a> Sis oppido meminens quod olim Martia Hortensio, Terentia +Tullio, Calpurnia Plinio, Pudentilla Apuleio, Rusticana Symmacho +legentibus meditantibusque candelas and candelabra tenuerunt. Lib. II, +Epist. 10.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_234_234" id="Footnote_234_234"></a><a href="#FNanchor_234_234"><span class="label">[234]</span></a> "Verum hoc—seu gratitudini seu ineptiæ ascribendum—non +sileo, me quantulucunque conspicis, per illam esse, nec unquam ad hoc, +si quid est nominis aut gloriæ fuisse venturum, nisi virtutum tenuissman +sementem, quasi pectore in hoc natura locaverat, nobilissimis his +affectibus coluisset." Francisci Petrarchæ, <i>Colloquiorum Liber quem +Secretum Suum Inscripsit</i>, pp. 105-106, Berne, 1603. +</p><p> +In his canzone beginning with the words <i>Perchè la vita e breve</i>, +Petrarch declares to his inspirer— +</p> +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Thus if in me is nurst<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Any good fruit, from you the seed came first;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">To you, if such appear, the praise is due,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Barren myself till fertilized by you."<br /></span> +</div></div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_235_235" id="Footnote_235_235"></a><a href="#FNanchor_235_235"><span class="label">[235]</span></a> <i>The Life of St. Francis of Assisi</i>, by Paul Sabatier, p. +166, New York, 1894.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_236_236" id="Footnote_236_236"></a><a href="#FNanchor_236_236"><span class="label">[236]</span></a> Ibid., p. 167.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_237_237" id="Footnote_237_237"></a><a href="#FNanchor_237_237"><span class="label">[237]</span></a> Ibid., p. 307.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_238_238" id="Footnote_238_238"></a><a href="#FNanchor_238_238"><span class="label">[238]</span></a> <i>The Women of the Renaissance</i>, p. 394, New York, 1901.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_239_239" id="Footnote_239_239"></a><a href="#FNanchor_239_239"><span class="label">[239]</span></a> <i>Women of Florence</i>, by Isodoro del Lungo, p. xxvii, +London, 1907.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_240_240" id="Footnote_240_240"></a><a href="#FNanchor_240_240"><span class="label">[240]</span></a> This passage from the dedication is so important that I +reproduce the Latin original: "Omnino vitam, aut, si quid mihi carius +est, vobis autem debeo, tibi autem, o diva Melusinis, omne presertim +Mathematicis studium, ad quod me excitavit tum tuus in earn amor, tum +summa artis illius, quam tenes, peritia, immo vero nunquam satis +admiranda in tuo tamque regii et nobilis generis sexu Encyclopædia." +<i>François Viète, Inventeur de l'Algèbre Moderne</i>, p. 20, par Frederic +Ritter, Paris, 1895.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_241_241" id="Footnote_241_241"></a><a href="#FNanchor_241_241"><span class="label">[241]</span></a> "E nell' amore della figlia il grande astronomo trovò non +soltanto un conforto a suoi affanni, ma anche una guida benefica alla +quale sembrò egli abandonarsi con cieca tenerezza figliale." <i>La Storia +del Feminismo</i>, p. 509, by G. L. Arrighi, Florence, 1911.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_242_242" id="Footnote_242_242"></a><a href="#FNanchor_242_242"><span class="label">[242]</span></a> <i>Galileo Galilei e Suor Celeste</i>, by Antonio Favaro, p. +256 et seq., Florence, 1891.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_243_243" id="Footnote_243_243"></a><a href="#FNanchor_243_243"><span class="label">[243]</span></a> An English writer, discussing this subject, pertinently +observes: "For, after all, is it not the personal incidents and +commonplaces of life that gather interest as the centuries roll on, +while its more pretentious events often drop into mere literary lumber? +How much more interesting Dr. Johnson's incidental admission, 'I have a +strong inclination, Sir, to do nothing to-day,' is to us now than many +of his more formal utterances. And, in reality, is it the personal +element alone that is in the long run perennial? The wise may prate as +they will about the importance of maintaining the continuity of history +and of handing on the torch of science. The world cares for none of +these things; they interest only some few political economists and +laborious men. What does the crowd and poor little Tom Jones and his +nestful, for instance, care about the fact that Cheops was—at any rate +by courteous tradition—a mighty man of valor of such an era and land? +But little Tom Jones and the rest of us would become mightily interested +in this misty monster of many traditions, could we learn in some magical +way all he thought, hated and loved in his inmost heart of hearts." <i>The +National Review</i>, p. 461, June, 1889.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_244_244" id="Footnote_244_244"></a><a href="#FNanchor_244_244"><span class="label">[244]</span></a> The Duke of Peiresc, in a letter to Gassendi, regarding +Galileo, refers to certain letters—très belles epistres—of the great +philosopher, "à une sienne fille religieuse sur le sujet mesme des +matières traictèes en son dernier livre." This shows that Sister Celeste +was kept fully informed by her father respecting the nature and contents +of his various works while he was preparing them for the press. It +implies, likewise, that she was not only interested in them in a general +way, but that she was able to read them intelligently and appreciate +them as well. +</p><p> +How fondly Galileo treasured the letters written him by this daughter of +predilection is made known to us by Sister Celeste herself, when she +tells him in one of her letters "Resto confusa sentendo ch'ella conservi +le mie lettere, e dubito che il grande affeto que mi porta gliele +dimonstri piu compita di quello che sono." Op. cit., p. 317.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_245_245" id="Footnote_245_245"></a><a href="#FNanchor_245_245"><span class="label">[245]</span></a> Op. cit., p. 404.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_246_246" id="Footnote_246_246"></a><a href="#FNanchor_246_246"><span class="label">[246]</span></a> In the dedication of his <i>Principles of Philosophy</i> he +addresses his young friend and pupil in the following words: "Je puis +dire avec verité que je ne jamais rencontré que le seul esprit de votre +altesse auquel l'un et l'autre"—metaphysics and mathematics—"fût +également facile; ce qui fait quo j'ai une très juste raison de +l'estimer incomparable."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_247_247" id="Footnote_247_247"></a><a href="#FNanchor_247_247"><span class="label">[247]</span></a> <i>Geology and Mineralogy Considered with Reference to +Natural Theology</i>, by William Buckland, p. xxxvi, London, 1858.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_248_248" id="Footnote_248_248"></a><a href="#FNanchor_248_248"><span class="label">[248]</span></a> <i>Pasteur</i>, by Mr. and Mrs. Percy Frankland, p. 26 et +seq., London, 1898. A French writer referring to this happy discovery +expresses himself as follows: "Quand Pasteur trouva le vaccin de +charbon, il remonta triomphant de son laboratoire et les larmes lui +vinrent aux yeux en embrassant sa femme et sa fille auxquelles annoncait +sa victoire." <i>Revue Encyclopédique</i>, p. 20, Jan. 15, 1895.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_249_249" id="Footnote_249_249"></a><a href="#FNanchor_249_249"><span class="label">[249]</span></a> <i>Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel</i>, London, +1879, pp. vi and vii, by Mrs. John Herschel. Cf. Chap. IV of this Vol.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_250_250" id="Footnote_250_250"></a><a href="#FNanchor_250_250"><span class="label">[250]</span></a> <i>The Subjection of Women</i>, pp. 98, 99, London, 1909. +</p><p> +The idea herein expressed is beautifully accentuated in the touching +dedication to the author's work On Liberty, which reads as follows: +</p><p> +"To the beloved and deplored memory of her who was the inspirer, and in +part the author, of all that is best in my writings—the friend and wife +whose exalted sense of truth and right was my strongest incitement, and +whose approbation was my chief reward—I dedicate this volume. Like all +that I have written for many years, it belongs as much to her as to me; +but the work as it stands has had, in a very insufficient degree, the +inestimable advantage of her revision, some of the most important +portions having been reserved for a more careful re-examination, which +they are now never destined to receive. Were I but capable of +interpreting to the world one-half the great thoughts and noble feelings +which are buried in her grave, I should be the medium of a greater +benefit to it than is ever likely to arise from anything I can write, +unprompted and unassisted by her all but unrivalled wisdom." +</p><p> +The chivalrous sentiments expressed in this generous tribute by one of +the deepest thinkers of his time, to the memory of his noble and gifted +life-companion, extravagant as they may seem, are but echoes of similar +sentiments often voiced before by the world's greatest leaders of +thought and science.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_251_251" id="Footnote_251_251"></a><a href="#FNanchor_251_251"><span class="label">[251]</span></a> <i>Memoir of Sir William Hamilton</i>, by John Veitch, p. 136 +et seq., Edinburgh, 1869. +</p><p> +It is frequently said that women, unlike men, are indifferent to fame. +This may be true so far as they are personally concerned; but it is +certainly not true of them in regard to their husbands, or the men for +whom they have a genuine affection. This is abundantly proved by the +lives of Mme. Huber, Mme. Pasteur, Caroline Herschel and Lady Hamilton, +not to name others who have been mentioned in the foregoing pages. After +Sir William Hamilton, at the age of fifty-six, had been stricken by +hemiplegia on the right side, as the result of over-work, his faithful +wife became for twelve years eyes, hands and even mind for him. She read +and consulted books for him, and helped him to prepare his lectures and +the works which have given him such celebrity. "Everything that was sent +to the press and all the courses of lectures were written by her, either +to dictation or from copy." And when we remember that the lectures and +books were of the most abstruse character and that Lady Hamilton was +associated with her husband in his recondite work throughout his long +and brilliant career, we must confess that her conduct was not only +heroic to a degree, but also that the fame of the one she loved was to +her a matter of the deepest concern.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_252_252" id="Footnote_252_252"></a><a href="#FNanchor_252_252"><span class="label">[252]</span></a> "Induction is, indeed, a mighty weapon laid up in the +armory of the human mind, and by its aid great deeds have been +accomplished and noble conquests have been won. But in that armory there +is another weapon, I will not say of stronger make, but certainly of +keener edge; and, if that weapon had been oftener used during the +present and preceding century, our knowledge would be far more advanced +than it actually is. If the imagination had been more cultivated, if +there had been a closer union between the spirit of poetry and the +spirit of science, natural philosophy would have made greater progress, +because natural philosophers would have taken a higher and more +successful aim, and would have enlisted on their side a wider range of +human sympathies." Buckle: <i>The Influence of Women on the Progress of +Knowledge</i>.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_253_253" id="Footnote_253_253"></a><a href="#FNanchor_253_253"><span class="label">[253]</span></a> <i>The Subjection of Women</i>, ut sup., p. 87.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_254_254" id="Footnote_254_254"></a><a href="#FNanchor_254_254"><span class="label">[254]</span></a> <i>Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley</i>, by his son +Leonard Huxley, Vol. I, p. 324, New York, 1900.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_255_255" id="Footnote_255_255"></a><a href="#FNanchor_255_255"><span class="label">[255]</span></a> Ibid., p. 39, Vol. II, p. 458.</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span></p> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>THE FUTURE OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE:</h3> + +<h3>SUMMARY AND EPILOGUE</h3> + + +<p>Saint-Evremond, the first great master of the genteel style in French +literature, who was equally noted as a brilliant courtier, a graceful +wit, a professed Epicurean, and who exerted so marked an influence on +the writings of Voltaire and the essayists of Queen Anne's time, gives +us in one of his desultory productions an entertaining disquisition on +<i>La femme qui ne se trouve point et ne se trouvera jamais</i>—the woman +who is not and never will be found. The caption of this singular essay +admirably expresses the idea that the majority of mankind has, even +until the present day, held respecting woman in science. For them she +was non-existent. Nature, in their view, had disqualified her for +serious and, above all, for abstract science. Never, therefore, in the +opinion of these solemn wiseacres, had been found or could be found a +woman who had achieved distinction in science.</p> + +<p>The foregoing chapters show how ill-founded is such a view regarding +woman in times past. For that half of humanity which has produced such +scientific luminaries as Aspasia, Laura Bassi, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, +Sophie Germain, Mary Somerville, Caroline Herschel, Sónya Kovalévsky, +Agnes S. Lewis, Margaret Dunlop Gibson, Eleanor Ormerod and Mme. +Curie—to mention no others—is far from exhibiting any evidence of +intellectual disqualification and still farther from warranting any one +from declaring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span> that the successful pursuit of science is entirely +beyond the mental powers of womankind.</p> + +<p>The preceding pages, likewise, afford an answer to those who insist on +woman's incapacity for scientific pursuits, and point to the small +number of those that have attained eminence in any of the branches of +science; who continue to assert that the women named are but exceptions +to the rule of the hopeless inferiority of their sex, and that no +conclusions can be deduced from the paucity of women who have risen +above the intellectual level of their less fortunate or less highly +dowered sisters. They further show that, until the last few decades, +woman's environment was rarely if ever favorable to her pursuit of +science. From the days of Aspasia until the latter half of the +nineteenth century she was discriminated against by law, custom and +public opinion. Save only in Italy, she was excluded from the +universities and from learned societies in which she might have had an +opportunity of developing her intellect. In other countries her social +ostracism in all that pertained to mental development was so complete +and universal that she rarely had an opportunity of making a trial of +her powers or exhibiting her innate capacity. The consequence was that +her mind remained in a condition of comparative atrophy—a condition +that gave rise to that long prevalent belief in woman's intellectual +inferiority to man and her natural incapacity for everything that is not +light or frivolous.</p> + +<p>Practically all that women have achieved in science, until very recent +years, has been accomplished in defiance of that conventional code which +compelled them to confine their activities to the ordinary duties of the +household. The lives and achievements of the eminent mathematicians, +Sophie Germain and Mary Somerville, are good illustrations of the truth +of this assertion. It was only their persistence in the study of their +favorite branch of science, in spite of the opposition of their family +and friends, and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> spite of what was considered taboo for their sex by +the usages and ordinances of society, that they were able to attain that +eminence in the most abstruse of the sciences which won for them the +plaudits of the world. Both were virtually self-made women. Deprived of +the advantages of a college or university education, and denied the +stimulus afforded by membership in learned scientific associations, they +nevertheless succeeded by their own unaided efforts in winning a place +of highest honor in the Walhalla of men of science.</p> + +<p>M. Alphonse de Candolle, in his great work, <i>Histoire des Sciences et +des Savants depuis Deux Siècles</i>, devotes only two pages to the +consideration of woman in science. She is, to him, a negligible +quantity. And, although a professed man of science, he repeats, without +any scientific warrant whatever, all the gratuitous statements of his +predecessors regarding the superficial character of the female mind, "a +mind," he will have it, which "takes pleasure in ideas that are readily +seized by a kind of intuition;" a mind "to which the slow methods of +observation and calculation by which truth is surely arrived at are not +pleasing. Truths themselves," the Swiss savant continues, "independent +of their nature and possible consequences—especially general truths +which have no relation to a particular person—are of small moment to +most women. Add to this a feeble independence of opinion, a reasoning +faculty less intense than in man, and, finally, the horror of doubt, +that is, a state of mind in which all research in the sciences of +observation must begin and often end. These reasons are," according to +de Candolle, "more than sufficient to explain the position of women in +scientific pursuits."<a name="FNanchor_256_256" id="FNanchor_256_256"></a><a href="#Footnote_256_256" class="fnanchor">[256]</a></p> + +<p>They certainly are more than sufficient to explain their position if we +choose to accept the author's method of determining one's attainments in +the realm of science. His<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> chief test of one's eminence in science is +the number of learned societies to which one belongs. For De Candolle, +membership in one or more such bodies is <i>prima facie</i> evidence of +special distinction in some branch of science. But "We," he declares, +"do not see the name of any woman on the lists of learned men connected +with the principal academies. This is not due entirely to the fact that +the customs and regulations have made no provision for their admission, +for it is easy to assure one's self that no person of the feminine sex +has ever produced an original scientific work which has made its mark in +any science and commanded the attention of specialists in science. I do +not think it has ever been considered desirable to elect a woman a +member of any of the great scientific academies with restricted +membership."<a name="FNanchor_257_257" id="FNanchor_257_257"></a><a href="#Footnote_257_257" class="fnanchor">[257]</a></p> + +<p>When De Candolle insisted on membership in learned societies as a +necessary indication of scientific eminence, he must have known, what +everybody knew, that such exclusive societies as the French Academy of +Sciences and the Royal Society of Great Britain have always been dead +set against the admission of women members. It is difficult to imagine +that the learned author of the <i>History of Science and Scientists</i> was +entirely ignorant of the exclusion from the French Academy of Maria +Gaetana Agnesi solely because she was a woman. And he must have been +aware that, had it not been for her sex, Sophie Germain would have been +accorded a fauteuil in the same society for her remarkable +investigations in one of the difficult departments of mathematical +physics. He must likewise have been cognizant of the attitude of such +organizations as the Royal Society toward women, no matter how +meritorious their achievements in science.</p> + +<p>According to De Candolle's criterion, such women as Mme. Curie, Sónya +Kovalévsky, Eleanor Ormerod, Agnes S. Lewis, Margaret Dunlop Gibson have +accomplished nothing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> worthy of note because, forsooth, their names are +not found on the rolls of membership of the Royal Society or the French +Academy of Sciences—associations whose constitutions have been +purposely so framed as to exclude women from membership. It would, +indeed, be difficult to instance a more unfair or a more unscientific +test of woman's eminence in science, and that, too, proposed by one who +is supposed to be actuated in his judgments by rigorously scientific +methods. Had any of the women named belonged to the male sex, there +never would have been any question of their fitness to become members of +the societies in question. This is particularly true of Mme. Curie, who, +in the estimation of the world, has done more to enhance the prestige of +French science than any man of the present generation—a statement that +is sufficiently justified by the fact that she is the only one so far +who has twice, in competition with the greatest of the world's men of +science, succeeded in carrying away the great Nobel prize.<a name="FNanchor_258_258" id="FNanchor_258_258"></a><a href="#Footnote_258_258" class="fnanchor">[258]</a></p> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span></p> +<p>Not only have men, from time immemorial, been wont to point to woman's +incapacity for science as evidenced by the small number of those who +have achieved distinction in any of its branches, but they have also +taken a special pleasure in directing attention to the fact that no +woman has ever given to the world any of the great creations of genius, +or been the prime-mover in any of the far-reaching discoveries which +have so greatly contributed to the weal, the advancement and the +happiness of our race.</p> + +<p>No one, probably, has expressed himself on this subject in a more +positive or characteristic fashion than the noted litterateur and +philosopher, Count Joseph de Maistre. Writing from St. Petersburg to his +daughter, Constance, he says: "Voltaire, according to what you +affirm—for as to me, I know nothing, as I have not read all his works, +and have not read a line of them during the last thirty years—says that +women are capable of doing all that men do, etc. This is merely a +compliment paid to some pretty woman, or, rather, it is one of the +hundred thousand and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> thousand silly things which he said during his +lifetime. The very contrary is the truth. Women have produced no <i>chef +d'œuvre</i> of any kind whatsoever. They have been the authors neither +of the <i>Iliad</i>, nor the <i>Æneid</i>, nor the <i>Jerusalem Delivered</i>, nor +<i>Phèdre</i>, nor <i>Athalie</i> nor <i>Rodogune</i>, nor <i>The Misanthrope</i>, nor +<i>Tartufe</i>, nor <i>The Joueur</i>, nor <i>The Pantheon</i>, nor <i>The Church of St. +Peter's</i>, nor the <i>Venus de' Medici</i>, nor the <i>Apollo Belvidere</i>, nor +the <i>Principia</i>, nor the <i>Discourse on Universal History</i>, nor +<i>Telemachus</i>. They have invented neither algebra nor the telescope, nor +achromatic glasses nor the fire engine, nor hose-machines, etc."<a name="FNanchor_259_259" id="FNanchor_259_259"></a><a href="#Footnote_259_259" class="fnanchor">[259]</a></p> + +<p>All this is true, but what does it prove? It does not prove, as is so +frequently assumed, woman's lesser brain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> power or inferior +intelligence. It does not prove—as the learned Frenchman and those who +are similarly minded would have us believe—her incapacity for the +highest flights of genius in every sphere of intellectual effort. Such +assumptions are entirely negatived by woman's past achievements in all +departments of art, literature and science.</p> + +<p>Far from making the inference that De Maistre wished his daughter to +draw from his letter, we should, from what we know of woman's ability as +disclosed in the foregoing chapters, hesitate to set a limit to her +powers, or to declare apodictically that she could not have been the +author of works of as great merit as most of those—if not all of +them—mentioned as among men's supreme achievements. The simple fact +that Mme. Curie and Sónya Kovalévsky were able, in sciences usually +considered beyond female intelligence, to wrest from their male +competitors the most coveted prizes within the gift of the Nobel Prize +Commission and the French Academy of Sciences, demonstrates completely +that woman's assumed incapacity for even the most recondite scientific +pursuits is a mere figment of the masculine imagination.</p> + +<p>What women have done "that at least, if nothing else," as John Stuart +Mill aptly observes, "it is proved they can do. When we consider how +sedulously they are all trained away from, instead of being trained +toward, any of the occupations or objects reserved for men, it is +evident that I am taking very humble ground for them, when I rest their +case on what they have actually achieved. For, in this case, negative +evidence is worth little, while any positive evidence is conclusive. It +cannot be inferred to be impossible that a woman should be a Homer, or +an Aristotle, or a Michaelangelo, or a Beethoven, because no woman has +yet actually produced works comparable to theirs in any of those lines +of excellence. This negative fact at most leaves the question uncertain +and open to psychological<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> discussion. But it is quite certain that a +woman can be a Queen Elizabeth or a Deborah or a Joan of Arc, since this +is not inference but a fact."<a name="FNanchor_260_260" id="FNanchor_260_260"></a><a href="#Footnote_260_260" class="fnanchor">[260]</a></p> + +<p>In like manner it is quite certain that, in spite of all kinds of +disabilities and prejudices and adverse legislation, there have been a +large number of women who, in every department of intellectual activity, +have achieved marked distinction and won imperishable renown for their +proscribed sex. It is a fact, which admits of no question, that, +notwithstanding their being debarred from all the educational advantages +so generously lavished upon the dominant sex, women have since the days +of Sappho and Hypatia shown themselves the equals and often the +superiors of men in the highest and noblest spheres of mental +achievement.</p> + +<p>Such being the case, what, we may ask, would have been the result had +women, from that splendid Heroic Period of which Homer sings until the +present, enjoyed all the opportunities of mental development of which +men have systematically claimed the exclusive privilege?<a name="FNanchor_261_261" id="FNanchor_261_261"></a><a href="#Footnote_261_261" class="fnanchor">[261]</a> What would +now be their condition if, from the days of the Muses—who were but +learned women apotheosized—women had never been deprived of their +intellectual birthright and had been permitted to continue in the path +so auspiciously blazed by Corinna—the victor over Pindar—and Arete, +the splendor of Greece and the possessor of the mind of Socrates and the +tongue of Homer? What would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span> not now be their intellectual +efflorescence, if Plato's dream of twenty-three centuries ago of giving +women equal rights with men in all things of the mind could have been +realized; if those ardent female disciples of his, who so lovingly +followed him through the streets of Athens—"the home of the +intellectual and the beautiful"—and hung on his lips during his +matchless discourses in the groves of the Academy and on the banks of +the Ilyssus, could have continued that race of intellect and genius +which was the admiration and the inspiration of all Hellas during the +most brilliant period of its marvelous history?</p> + +<p>Speculating only on what the gifted daughters of Greece might have +achieved, we may easily believe that they would have kept pace with +their most highly gifted countrymen, and that, following in the +footsteps of Sappho and the other Muses of the "Terrestrial Nine," they +would have been worthy rivals of Homer, Pindar and Æschylus, and would +have occupied a prominent place in that brilliant galaxy of genius +composed of such luminaries as Anaxagoras, Sophocles, Euclid, +Archimedes, Theophrastus, Polygnotus, Diophantus, Pausanias and +Thucydides.</p> + +<p>To those who base their opinions on what so long has been the absurdly +anomalous condition of women and who, in formulating their theories of +human progress, completely ignore the fundamental laws of heredity, such +conjectures will seem extravagant, if not chimerical. But, when one +bears in mind the universal fact that offspring, whatever the sex, +inherits its characteristics and its powers from both parents alike; +that the soul, unlike the body, has no sex, and that, so far as +legitimate indications from the teachings of biology and psychology can +serve as a guide, there is no valid reason for asserting the mental +superiority of man over woman, one will be obliged to confess that these +surmises are far from being either fanciful or preposterous.</p> + +<p>It is then the veriest sophism to predicate woman's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> incapacity for +science and for intellectual achievements of the highest order on what +she has not accomplished in the past, or on the comparatively limited +number of her contributions to the advancement of knowledge; for up till +the present she has, for the most part, been but a dwarf of the +gynæceum,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Cramp'd under worse than South-sea isle taboo."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Had men been compelled to labor under similar conditions, it is doubtful +if they would have accomplished any more than women have now to their +credit.</p> + +<p>Considering woman's past achievements in science, as well as in other +departments of knowledge; considering her present opportunities for +developing her long-hampered faculties, and considering, especially, the +many new social and economic adjustments which have been made within the +last half century, in consequence of the greatly changed conditions of +modern life, it requires no prophetic vision to forecast what share the +gentler sex will have in the future advancement of science. That it will +be far greater than it has been hitherto there can be no reasonable +doubt. That the number of savantes of the type of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, +Sónya Kovalévsky and Mme. Curie will be greatly enlarged there is every +reason to believe. That among these coming votaries of science there +will be more than one woman who, even in the most abstruse sciences, +will stand</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Upon an even pedestal with man,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>seems to be assured by the achievements of many who are now so +materially adding to the sum of human knowledge.</p> + +<p>Is it probable that the future will bring forth women whose achievements +in science will rank with those of Euler, Faraday, Liebig, Leverrier, +Champollion and Geoffry Saint-Hillaire? It would be a rash man who would +answer in the negative. We cannot, as De Maistre seems<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> to do, reason +from what they have not done—when everything was against them—to what +they may do when conditions shall, in every way, be as favorable to them +as they always have been to the dominant sex.</p> + +<p>Still rasher would be the man who would attempt to prove the negative of +this question. Mere <i>a priori</i> arguments, based on preconceived bias or +on the vague and groundless impression that woman is essentially and +hopelessly the intellectual inferior of man, have no more value than +gratuitous opinions. The unprejudiced seeker after truth will insist on +a demonstration based on incontrovertible facts. He will appeal to +history to learn what the sex has already accomplished, and to science +to inquire if there be anything in the female brain to differentiate it +from that of the male, or to preclude woman from attaining the highest +rank in the activities of the intellect.</p> + +<p>The result of such an investigation will, I think, cause even the most +biased person to suspend judgment, if it does not induce him to align +himself with those who, finding no differences in the mental endowments +of the sexes, have reached the conclusion that the day will come, and, +mayhap, in the near future, when the achievements of women will be on a +par with those of man. The facts stated in the preceding chapters seem, +not unreasonably, to point to such a conclusion, if, indeed, they do not +warrant it as a necessary inference.</p> + +<p>A few considerations germane to this discussion will illustrate the +danger of forming hasty judgments regarding questions like the one under +discussion.</p> + +<p>During the last hundred years no country in the world has done more for +the education of the masses than the United States. Everything that +money could purchase and ingenuity suggest has been adopted to develop +the minds and stimulate the latent talents and genius of our youth. From +the primary schools to the highest and best equipped universities, a +special premium has been put on success in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> study, and the highest +rewards have awaited those who should make any notable contribution +towards the advancement of knowledge. But, notwithstanding all the +educational advantages our people have enjoyed and all the encouragement +they have received to achieve something of supreme excellence, our great +country with its teeming millions attracted from the most gifted nations +of the Old World has not yet produced a single man who has attained the +highest rank in either literature or art or science. Far from having a +preëminent master of song like Homer or Dante, we have not even a poet +approaching Goethe or Tasso or Camoens. We have no Cervantes, no Milton, +no Racine, no Molière. America has produced no Raphael or Michaelangelo; +no Mozart or Wagner or Tschaikovsky. Nor has it given us a Descartes, a +Leibnitz, a Newton or a Darwin. Would any one, from this complete +absence in America of representatives of the highest order in +literature, art and science, ever dream of concluding that we shall +never have such favorite sons of genius and such giants of intellect? +Does our comparative intellectual sterility in the past, and in a +country which seemed specially adapted to foster genius and attainments +of the highest order, justify any one in inferring that the days of +great geniuses, like the days of demigods, are gone never to return?</p> + +<p>And yet the number of men in our broad commonwealth who, during the past +hundred years, have enjoyed such signal opportunities for attaining +distinction in every domain of intellectual effort is incomparably +greater than that of all the women so favored since the earliest days of +human history. If, from the first flowering of Greek culture to the +present day, as many millions of women had enjoyed all the transcendent +advantages of education as have been in the United States so lavishly +accorded to the same number of millions of men, who will say that very +many of them would not have attained a much higher<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span> rank in science, as +well as in art and literature, than has yet been reached by any man that +America has yet produced? Who even, on the evidence now available, would +be warranted in denying that at least some of these millions of women +might have attained the very highest rank in every department of +intellectual achievement?</p> + +<p>Gray, in his <i>Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard</i>, muses on the +potential statesmen and the "mute, inglorious Miltons" of those +countless multitudes who, for lack of opportunity to develop their +inborn gifts, were condemned to pass their lives in obscurity and die, +"to Fortune and to Fame unknown." But how much more truthfully could his +words have been applied to that much larger number of women of rare +mental powers to whose eyes knowledge</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i28">"Her ample page<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>and whose God-given genius was ruthlessly suppressed from the cradle to +the grave?</p> + +<p>We are still in ignorance as to many of the conditions which are +essential to the development of genius and which contribute to its +loftiest flights. We have yet to learn how far the efflorescence of the +human mind is aided and modified by heredity, environment, atmosphere, +as well as by education, encouragement and other stimuli equally potent.</p> + +<p>But we do know that Germany, in spite of its famed universities and its +feverish intellectual activity in many departments of knowledge, had to +wait many long dreary centuries before it could point to a Goethe, a +Schiller, a Humboldt, a Bach, or a Beethoven. We know that France—so +long the reputed center of culture—has so far produced no great epic +poet, no Cervantes, no Murillo. But shall we affirm that she will never +give to the world imperishable works like <i>Paradise Lost</i>, <i>Don Quixote</i> +or the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span> <i>Immaculate Conception</i>? We know that Athens, which during the +most brilliant period of its history counted only fifty-four hundred +free-born citizens—less than the population of a small modern town—was +able to produce within a very brief epoch more men of supreme +distinction than all the rest of Europe from the Age of Pericles until +the dawn of the Renaissance. Hers is still the art of the world, the +literature of the world, the philosophy of the world, the culture of the +world. For twenty-five centuries her canons of taste and beauty have +guided poets, orators, artists; and her matchless productions have been +the inspiration, as they have been the despair, of the greatest geniuses +of our modern world.</p> + +<p>Had the women of Greece not been put under constraint just as they were +beginning to exhibit the splendid results of their intellectual +activities; had they been encouraged to develop to the utmost their +richly-dowered minds, as were the men, a far larger number of them, no +doubt, would have been as successful in carrying off coveted prizes in +the intellectual arena as was Corinna in her contests with Pindar. And +they would, likewise, as we may easily conceive, have greatly added to +the number of masterpieces of Greek intellect in science as well as in +art and letters.</p> + +<p>But the opportunity for women to test their powers, which was so +wantonly snatched from their sisters in the Hellenic world, seems again +to be offered to their sex. This opportunity, as has been stated, is due +chiefly to their persistence in claiming the same right as men to +intellectual development as well as to the countless proofs they have +given that their demands are founded on reason and justice. What shall +be the outcome of the new opportunity for woman to prove her capacity as +compared with man's in things of the intellect remains to be seen, but, +from indications she has during recent years given of her powers in +every branch of scientific inquiry, there can be little doubt that it +will be of such character as to place<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span> woman on a higher intellectual +plane than she has yet occupied. In physical strength and in the rougher +conflicts with the world she will doubtless always remain "the lesser +man," but, once she feels in full possession of liberty</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i6">"To burgeon out of all<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Within her,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>she will duly justify her advocates who throughout the centuries have +been</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Maintaining that with equal husbandry<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The woman were an equal to the man."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Not the least of the contributing factors to woman's intellectual +growth, and especially to her future achievements in science, are the +recent adjustments for women in social and economical conditions brought +about chiefly by far-reaching changes in the industrial world. Even so +late as the last half of the nineteenth century the energies of women, +when they were not engaged in the kitchen or the nursery, were spent on +the domestic loom, spinning wheel and the knitting needle. All the +various processes from carding the wool to making it into clothing for +all the members of the family were in the hands of the housewife. +Ready-made clothing was far from being as common and inexpensive as it +is now. Canned foods and cereals, which do away with so much of the +drudgery of the kitchen, were unknown. Electricity, which has proved to +be such a remarkable aid in every modern home, was little more than a +mysterious force that was utilized in the electric telegraph. Most of +the domestic labor-saving machines were still in their infancy and +possessed by but few people. Large fortunes were confined to only a +favored few in our great metropolises. The mass of the people was +preoccupied with the struggle for existence.</p> + +<p>But science, the spirit of invention and the advent of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span> age of +machinery have completely changed the conditions of life which obtained +but a generation ago. They have not only opened up for women countless +occupations that were undreamed of in their mother's time, but have also +given to tens of thousands of them the necessary means and leisure to +indulge their tastes for study and research and enabled an ever +increasing number of them to realize their aspirations for achieving +distinction in the divers departments of scientific research.</p> + +<p>As an instance of this marked change in the intellectual activity of +women, we need only consider what an important part they now take in our +present prodigious literary output, as compared with their share in +similar work but a few decades ago. As authors, as writers and readers +in the editorial rooms of our leading periodicals, as contributors to +learned journals and reviews dealing with every branch of science, even +the most abstruse, they now occupy a conspicuous place and are doing +work that is quite as creditable as that of men.</p> + +<p>And it is no longer necessary, in deference to public sentiment, for +them to write under a pseudonym, for it is no longer considered +unfeminine, as it was in the time of the Brontë sisters, for women to +acknowledge themselves the authors of books or of articles in magazines. +If they elect to devote their lives to literary or scientific work, they +will not be deterred from so doing by what Mrs. Grundy may say, or by +the fear that some feeble imitator of Molière may dub them as +<i>Précieuses Ridicules</i>. The value of their productions, like those of +men, is gauged solely by merit and not by any narrow-minded +considerations of the author's sex.</p> + +<p>So also will it be in all other occupations where women choose to gain +their livelihood by devoting themselves to scientific pursuits rather +than to manual labor or to secretarial work in the counting-room. There +are positions open for them in colleges, universities and the +government<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> service where, as professors or experts in every branch of +science, their talents have full liberty of action and where they have +the same opportunity of achieving distinction in their chosen life-work +as have their male colleagues.</p> + +<p>In Germany there are to-day a million more women than men. It is the +same in England. In France the number of women who are widows or +unmarried or divorcées or mothers with full-grown children aggregates no +less than four and a half millions. A similar condition obtains in other +parts of Europe. A large percentage of this number is without home ties +and, as the old fields of labor are no longer open to women, they are +forced to find new ones. They naturally demand the privilege of +exercising their talents in occupations which are most congenial to +them. Many have no inclination for any of the avocations in the +industrial or commercial world, but have a very decided inclination as +well as talent for scientific pursuits. Hence the ever-increasing number +of women who seek employment in chemical and biological laboratories, in +museums and astronomical observatories, as well as aspire to +professorships of science in schools and colleges. From this large +number of votaries of science some are sure to achieve distinction in +their calling and to contribute materially to the advancement of +knowledge. In the course of time the number of those, like Mme. Curie, +Mme. Coudreau, Mary Kingsley, Sónya Kovalévsky, Eleanor Ormerod, +Caroline Herschel, Zelia Nuttall, Harriet Boyd Hawes, Donna Eersilia +Bovatillo, Sophie Pereyaslawewa—to name only a few—who will become +prominent as chemists, explorers, naturalists, mathematicians, +entomologists, astronomers, archæologists, biologists will be vastly +increased, for women will find a greater stimulus for such work and more +numerous demands for their service in the constantly expanding sphere of +scientific research.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span></p> + +<p>Many women will, doubtless, become specialists in some specific branch +of science, particularly if they have a genuine love for it, or be fired +by an ambition to achieve fame as discoverers. But it is not probable +that they will ever specialize to the same extent as men do. For men +scientific work has to a large extent become a <i>métier</i>, and success, as +in industry, depends on a division of labor. Hence it is that their +field of investigation is daily becoming more and more circumscribed. +This is observable in all the sciences, but especially in such +all-embracing sciences as chemistry, biology, and archæology. A man now +does well if he master a single branch of any of these sciences, and is +hailed as exceptionally fortunate if he succeed in making some notable +discovery in his limited field of research. So great, indeed, has been +the activity of scientific men in every department of science during the +last half century, and so thoroughly have they explored the most hidden +recesses of nature, that it, at times, seems as if there were but little +left to discover. A prominent scientist recently well expressed the +difficulty of making any striking additions to our knowledge of nature +by asserting that all great discoveries would hereafter be made in the +sixth place of decimals. This statement is well illustrated by the +delicate experiments that were required to isolate such rare elements as +radium, polonium, helium and neon, which occur only in infinitesimal +quantities.</p> + +<p>While men of science will be forced to continue as specialists as long +as the love of fame, to consider no other motives of research, continues +to be a potent influence in their investigations, it is probable that +women will have less love for the long and tedious processes involved in +the more difficult kinds of specialization. They will, it seems likely, +be more inclined to acquire a general knowledge of the whole circle of +the sciences—a knowledge that will enable them to take a comprehensive +survey of nature. And it will be fortunate for themselves, as well as +for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span> the men who must perforce remain specialists, if they elect to do +so. For nothing gives falser views of nature as a whole, nothing more +unfits the mind for a proper apprehension of higher and more important +truths, nothing more incapacitates one for the enjoyment of the +masterpieces of literature or the sweeter amenities of life, than the +narrow occupation of a specialist who sees nothing in the universe but +electrons, microbes and protozoa.</p> + +<p>But just at the critical moment, when men of science would rather +discover a process than a law, when they are so preoccupied with the +infinitely little that they lose sight of the cosmos as a whole; when +their attention is so riveted on particular phenomena that they will no +longer have aptitude for rising from effects to causes; when they cease +to have any interest in general ideas and stray away from the guidance +of the true philosophic spirit; when, like Plato's cave men, they have +so long groped in darkness that their powers of vision are impaired, +then it is that woman, "The herald of a brighter race," comes to the +rescue and holds up to their astonished gaze the picture of an ideal +world whose existence they had almost forgotten. For women, as a rule, +love science for its own sake, and, unlike the specialists in question, +they are, in its pursuit, rarely actuated by any selfish or mercenary +interests, or by the hope of financial reward. Precise and never-ending +observations with the microscope and spectroscope, which at best give +them but a superficial knowledge of certain details of science, while it +leaves them in ignorance of the greater and better part of it, do not +appeal to them. They prefer general ideas to particular facts, and love +to roam over the whole realm of science rather than confine themselves +to one of its isolated corners.</p> + +<p>"Women," writes M. Étienne Lamy, the distinguished French Academician, +"group themselves at the center of human knowledge, whereas men disperse +themselves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> towards its outer boundaries. While men are always pushing +analysis to its utmost limits, women are seeking a synthesis. While men +are becoming more technical, women are becoming more intellectual. They +are better placed to observe the correlations of the different sciences, +and to subordinate them to the common and unique source of truth from +which they all descend. We seem, indeed, to be approaching a time when +women will become the conservers of general ideas."<a name="FNanchor_262_262" id="FNanchor_262_262"></a><a href="#Footnote_262_262" class="fnanchor">[262]</a></p> + +<p>In the preceding chapter reference was made to the fact that women are +naturally inclined to adopt the deductive method in their search for +truth when men would employ only the inductive method. This disposition +of theirs to arrive at conclusions by a kind of intuition, coupled with +their more pronounced idealism, is sure to react favorably on men, and +prevent them from becoming so involved in mere facts and phenomena as to +cause them to forget that it is as important to reason well as to +observe well—that the fundamental principles of a true philosophy are +quite as necessary for the eminent man of science as they are to the +trustworthy historian or commanding statesman.</p> + +<p>From what has been said, it is clear that man's ideal of the woman of +the future will be quite different from what it was but a little more +than a century ago, when Dr. Johnson could say that "any acquaintance +with books," among women, "was distinguished only to be censured." It +will be quite different from the ideal woman, as portrayed by poets and +novelists, for centuries past. For among the thousands of women painted +by our leading writers of fiction, poets and dramatists there are few, +if any, outside of those sketched by Tennyson in <i>The Princess</i>, who are +distinguished for their learning or for their love of intellectual +pursuits. Even Portia, Shakespeare's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> most learned woman, was, according +to her own confession, but</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"An unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpracticed."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And the heroines of the novelist, far from being women who had a thirst +for knowledge, or were eager</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i16">"To sound the abyss<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of science and the secrets of the mind,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>were those only whose chief attractions were physical graces and charms, +affectionate natures, brilliant wit together with "sweet laughs for +bird-notes and blue eyes for a heaven."</p> + +<p>Now, however, that women after ages of struggle are beginning to +experience a sense of intellectual freedom before unknown, and to exult +in the fact that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Knowledge is now no more a fountain sealed";<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>now that they are, for the first time, beginning, in every civilized +nation, to realize their age-long aspirations for unimpeded opportunity +in all the activities of the intellect; now that they are no longer</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i14">"Dismiss'd in shame to live<br /></span> +<span class="i0">No wiser than their mothers, household stuff,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Live chattels, ***<br /></span> +<span class="i0">*** laughing-stocks of Time,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>we may expect soon to see a marked change in the character of the ideal +woman as depicted in literature and as desired by the intelligent +portion of mankind.</p> + +<p>What woman's liberation from intellectual bondage and her freedom to +devote herself to scientific pursuits mean for the future of humanity it +is difficult at present adequately to forecast. That it will contribute +immensely to the betterment of social conditions and to the elevation of +the masses of humanity, there can be no doubt. Setting free the +imprisoned energies of one half of our race,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span> means more than doubling +mankind's capacity for advancement. For the failure to utilize woman's +vast energies, pining for an outlet, acted as a drag on man's own +potentialities, and thus retarded to an untold extent the world's +advancement. In times past, as has aptly been said, "an enormous part of +the brain power of mankind has been spent or wasted in smiting the +Philistines hip and thigh, and an enormous part of the brain power of +womankind has been spent in cajoling Sampson."</p> + +<p>It will mean that the women of the future will be more suitable +companions for the rapidly increasing number of highly educated men of +science; that having their intellects developed <i>pari passu</i> with those +of men, they will be able to sympathize with the noblest aims of their +husbands and assist them in their most important undertakings, as did +the wives of Huber, Lavoisier, Pasteur, Huxley, Louis Agassiz and others +scarcely less renowned in the annals of science. It will mean that they +will not only share in the joys and the sorrows of their +life-companions, but that they will also have a part in their thoughts, +their studies, their labors, their achievements. For one should bear in +mind that the first essential to a perfect union of hearts is a perfect +harmony of minds. Where neither husband nor wife is educated, the +virtues may suffice for companionship, but where the man is educated and +the woman ignorant, there are sooner or later estrangements and the wife +becomes little better than an old Japanese conception of her, "a cook +without pay," or a pasha's toy for an idle hour. Chrysalde in Molière's +<i>L'École des Femmes</i>, declares:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Qu'il est assez ennuyeux, que je crois,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">D'avoir toute sa vie une bête avec soi."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>A briefer and truer statement of the evils of unequal intellectual +mating was never penned.<a name="FNanchor_263_263" id="FNanchor_263_263"></a><a href="#Footnote_263_263" class="fnanchor">[263]</a> Men of intelligence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> are no longer, like +Rousseau, satisfied with an ignorant domestic for a wife, and still less +are they disposed with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span> Schopenhauer to regard woman as an incurable +Philistine, and as a mere intermediary between a child and a man. They +have learned by sad experience that it is contrary both to justice and +public policy to impose artificial restrictions on the acquisition of +knowledge by women, or to close to the vigorous and capable +representatives of their sex careers which are open to the weakest and +most incompetent men. History has taught them that the fall of Greece +and Rome was owing to the failure of these nations to make due provision +for the mental development of women.</p> + +<p>And women know that it was because of the inability of the wives of the +Athenians to enter into the thoughts of their highly educated husbands +and to sympathize with their aims and appreciate their achievements that +caused the men to leave them in their solitude and seek in the +companionship of the hetæræ the intellectual atmosphere which was +wanting in their own homes. They know, too, that the lack of knowledge +in the wife and the absence of virtue in the hetæræ, which brought such +disasters on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span> the most learned and most cultured of nations are still +evils to be guarded against, and that one of the means over and above +moral rule and revealed truth of safe-guarding their own interests and +preserving the sanctity of the home is to make themselves by knowledge +and culture the intellectual equals of their consorts.</p> + +<p>They realize also that if they are to attain the highest measure of +success as wives and mothers, a broad and thorough education—a +knowledge of science, as well as familiarity with art and literature and +the teachings of religion—is essential to them for their children's +sake. It is said that</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>but how much truer is it that "The domestic hearth is the first of +schools, and the best of lecture-rooms; for here the heart will +coöperate with the mind, the affections with the reasoning power." It is +only when the mothers of this, the woman's century, shall dispute with +men the primacy of erudition—when they shall prove their mastery of +those newer sciences by which our age sets such great store—when they +shall possess</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Seraphic intellect and force<br /></span> +<span class="i4">To seize and throw the doubts of man";<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>that their grown-up sons will have the same confidence in their +intelligence as they now have in their hearts. Then only will mothers be +properly equipped for developing the character of their children; for +inspiring them with a love of the true, the beautiful and the good; for +stimulating their talents and aiding them to attain to all the +sublimities of knowledge; for assisting them in doubt and despondency +and firing them with an ambition to strive for supreme excellence in all +that makes for the nobility of manhood and the glory of womanhood; for +making<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span> them, as Beatrice made Dante after he was renewed and purified +in the waters of Eunoe, "fit to mount up to the stars."</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<i>Puro e disposto a salire alle stelle.</i>"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The romantic idea of treating woman as a clinging vine, and thus +eliminating half the energies of humanity, is rapidly disappearing and +giving place to the idea that the strong are for the strong—the +intellectually strong; that the evolution of the race will be complete +only when men and women shall be associated in perfect unity of purpose, +and shall, in fullest sympathy, collaborate for the attainment of the +highest and the best. Then, indeed, will man's helpmate become to him +and to his children</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"More rich than pearls of Ind or gold of Ophir,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And in her sex more wonderful and rare."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Then will men and women for the first time fully supplement each other +in their aspirations and endeavors and realize somewhat of that oneness +of heart and mind which was so beautifully adumbrated in Plato's +androgyn. Then will the world witness the return of another Golden +Age—the Golden Age of Science—the Golden Age of cultured, noble, +perfect womanhood. Then to all who really think and love will be +manifest the clearness and power of vision of England's great poet +laureate when in matchless numbers he sings:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The woman's cause is man's; they rise or sink<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or free.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">...*...*...*...*<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">For woman is not undevelopt man<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But diverse: could we make her as the man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sweet Love were slain; his dearest bond is this,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Not like to like, but like in difference.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Yet in the long years liker must they grow;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The man be more of woman, she of man;<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span> +<span class="i0">He gain in sweetness and in moral height,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Till at the last she set herself to man,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like perfect music unto noble words;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And as these twain, upon the skirts of Time,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sit side by side, full-summ'd in all their powers,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Dispensing harvest, sowing the To-be,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Self-rev'rent each, and reverencing each,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Distinct in individualities,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But like each other ev'n as those who love,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then comes the statelier Eden back to men;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then reign the world's great bridals chaste and calm;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Then springs the crowning race of human-kind.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">May these things be!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_256_256" id="Footnote_256_256"></a><a href="#FNanchor_256_256"><span class="label">[256]</span></a> <i>Histoire des Sciences et des Savants</i>, p. 271, +Genève-Bale, 1885.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_257_257" id="Footnote_257_257"></a><a href="#FNanchor_257_257"><span class="label">[257]</span></a> Ibid., p. 270.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_258_258" id="Footnote_258_258"></a><a href="#FNanchor_258_258"><span class="label">[258]</span></a> A writer in the English magazine, <i>Nature</i>, under date of +January 12, 1911, when the European press was discussing Mme. Curie's +claims to membership in the French Academy of Sciences, makes the +following sane observations on the admission of women to the various +academies of the French Institute: +</p> +<div class="blockquot"><p>"There may be room for difference of opinion as to the +wisdom or expediency of permitting women to embark on the +troubled sea of politics, or of allowing them a determinate +voice in the settlement of questions which may affect the +existence or the destiny of a nation; but surely there ought +to be no question that in the peaceful walks of art, +literature and science, there should be the freest possible +scope extended to them, and that, as human beings, every +avenue to distinction and success should unreservedly be +open to them. +</p><p> +"All academies tend to be conservative and to move slowly; +they are the homes of privilege and of vested interest. Some +of them incline to be reactionary. They were created by men +for men and for the most part at a time when women played +little or no part in those occupations which such societies +were intended to foster and develop. But the times have +changed. Women have gradually won for themselves their +rightful position as human beings. We have now to recognize +that academies as seats of learning were made for humanity +and that, as members of the human race, women have the right +to look upon their heritage and property no less than men. +This consummation may not at once be reached, but, as it is +based upon reason and justice, it is certain to be attained +eventually."</p></div> + +<p> +A fortnight later the same magazine contained a second article, in which +the matter is treated in an equally manly fashion. +</p><p> +"As scientific work," the writer pertinently observes, "must ultimately +be judged by its merits, and not by the nationality or sex of its +author, we believe that the opposition to the election of women into +scientific societies will soon be seen to be unjust and detrimental to +the progress of natural knowledge. By no pedantic reasoning can the +rejection of a candidate for membership of a scientific society be +justified, if the work done places the candidate in the leading position +among other competitors. Science knows no nationality and should +recognize no distinction of sex, color or creed among those who are +contributing to its advancement. Believing that this is the conclusion +to which consideration of the question must inevitably lead, we have +confidence that the doors of all scientific societies will eventually be +open to women on equal terms with men."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_259_259" id="Footnote_259_259"></a><a href="#FNanchor_259_259"><span class="label">[259]</span></a> <i>Lettres et Opuscules Inédits du Comte Joseph de +Maistre</i>, Tom. I, p. 194, Paris, 1851. +</p><p> +It was this same brusque and original writer who asserted that "science +was a most dangerous thing for women; that no woman should study science +under penalty of becoming ridiculous and unhappy; that a coquette can +more readily get married than a savante." And he it was who declared +that women who attempted to emulate men in the pursuit of science are +monkeys and <i>donne barbute</i>—bearded women—and who designated Mme. de +Staël as "<i>la science en jupons, une impertinente femelette</i>"—science +in petticoats, a silly, impertinent female. +</p><p> +He, however, met an opponent worthy of his steel in the person of the +eloquent bishop of Orleans, Mgr. Dupanloup. In a lengthy and brilliant +critique of De Maistre's views he shows them to be untenable, if not +ridiculous. "I by no means," he writes, "agree with M. de Maistre that +'<i>la science en jupons</i>,' as he calls it, or talents of any kind +whatsoever, militates in the slightest against a woman being a good wife +or a good mother. Quite the contrary." And considering woman as the +companion and aid of man—<i>socia et adjutorium</i>—he expresses a view +which is quite the opposite of that championed by his distinguished +adversary for, in words precise and pregnant, he asserts that the +education of women cannot be too consistent, too serious, and too +solid—"<i>L'éducation des femmes ne saurait être trop suivie, trop +sérieuse et trop forte.</i>" <i>La Femme Studieuse</i>, p. 160, Paris, 1895.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_260_260" id="Footnote_260_260"></a><a href="#FNanchor_260_260"><span class="label">[260]</span></a> <i>The Subjection of Women</i>, p. 81, London, 1909.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_261_261" id="Footnote_261_261"></a><a href="#FNanchor_261_261"><span class="label">[261]</span></a> The late Mr. Gladstone asserts that "It would be hard to +discover any period of history or country of the world, not being +Christian, in which they"—women—"stood so high as with the Greeks of +the Heroic Age"—when the position of the Greek woman was so remarkable +and "so elevated, both absolutely and in comparison with what it became +in the Historic Ages of Greece and Rome amidst their elaborate +civilization." <i>Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age</i>, Vol. II, p. 479 +et seq., Oxford, 1858. Cf. also the same author's <i>Juventus Mundi</i>, p. +405 et seq., London, 1869.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_262_262" id="Footnote_262_262"></a><a href="#FNanchor_262_262"><span class="label">[262]</span></a> <i>La Femme de Demain</i>, pp. 45, 46, Paris, 1912.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_263_263" id="Footnote_263_263"></a><a href="#FNanchor_263_263"><span class="label">[263]</span></a> Dr. Johnson expressed the same sentiment when he declared +that a man of sense should meet a suitable companion in a wife. "It was +a miserable thing," he asserted in characteristic fashion, "when the +conversation could only be such as whether the mutton should be boiled +or roasted, and a probable dispute about that." +</p><p> +Sidney Smith, in a forceful and trenchant essay <i>On the Education of +Women</i>, written for the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> a century ago, gives it as +his deliberate opinion that "The instruction of women improves the stock +of natural talents, and employs more minds for the instruction and +amusement of the world; it increases the pleasures of society by +multiplying the topics upon which the two sexes take a common interest; +and makes marriage an intercourse of understanding as well as of +affection by giving dignity and importance to the female character. The +education of women favors public morals; it provides for every season of +life as well as for the brightest and the best; and leaves a woman when +she is stricken by the hand of time, not as she now is, destitute of +everything and neglected by all, but with the full power and the +splendid attractions of knowledge,—diffusing the elegant pleasures of +polite literature, and receiving the just homage of learned and +accomplished men." +</p><p> +As to the oft repeated commonplace of noodledom that higher education +puts an end to domestic economy and deteriorates the noblest qualities +of womanhood, the same clear-headed writer asks: "Can anything ... be +more perfectly absurd than to suppose that the care and perpetual +solicitude which a mother feels for her children, depends upon her +ignorance of Greek or mathematics; and that she would desert an infant +for a quadratic equation—that Cimmerian ignorance can aid parental +affection, or the circle of the arts and sciences produce its +destruction—that the moment you suffer women to eat of the tree of +knowledge the rest of the family will very soon be reduced to the same +kind of aërial and unsatisfactory diet?" +</p><p> +Still more insistent on the necessity of the broadest and deepest +education for woman—education in science as well as in art and +literature—is the Most Rev. Archbishop, J. L. Spalding, who by his +writing and lectures has done so much for the cause of the higher +education of both men and women. In an eloquent and pregnant discourse, +pronounced in the Church of the Gesù in Rome, in March, 1900, he told +his vast audience—composed of the élite of the Eternal City—that: +</p><p> +"If we are to have a race of enlightened, noble, and brave men, we must +give to woman the best education it is possible for her to receive. She +has the same right as man to become all that she may be, to know +whatever may be known, to do whatever is fair and just and good. In +souls there is no sex. If we leave half the race in ignorance, how shall +we hope to lift the other half into the light of truth and love? Let +woman's mental power increase, let her influence grow, and more and more +she will stand by the side of man as a helper in all his struggles to +make the will of God prevail. From the time the Virgin Mother held the +Infant Saviour in her arms, to this hour, woman has been the great lover +of Christ and the unweary helper of His little ones; and the more we +strengthen and illumine her, the more we add to her sublime faith and +devotion the power of knowledge and culture, the more efficaciously +shall she work to purify life, to make justice, temperance, chastity, +and love prevail. She is more unselfish, more capable of enthusiasm for +spiritual ends, she has more sympathy with what is beautiful, noble, and +godlike than man; and the more her knowledge increases, the more shall +she become a heavenly force to help spread God's kingdom on earth."</p></div> +</div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span></p> +<h2>BIBLIOGRAPHY</h2> + +<h3>PARTIAL LIST OF THE WORKS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT</h3> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Agassiz, Mrs. L.</span> Louis Agassiz, His Life and Correspondence. Boston, +1893.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Agnesi, Maria Gaetana.</span> Instituzioni Analitiche. Milan, 1748.</p> + +<p>----. Propositiones Philosophicæ. Milan, 1738.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Anzoletti, Luisa.</span> Maria Gaetana Agnesi. Milan, 1900.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Arrighi, G. L.</span> Storia del Feminismo. 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London.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dieulafoy, Mme.</span> At Susa the Ancient Capital of the Kings of Persia, +Narrative of Travel through Western Persia and Excavations made on the +Site of the Lost City of the Lilies, 1884-1886. Philadelphia, 1890.</p> + +<p>----. La Perse, la Chaldée et la Susane. Paris, 1887.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">D'istria, Dora.</span> Des Femmes par une Femme. Paris, 1865.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Donaldson, James.</span> Woman: Her Position in Ancient Greece and Rome among +the Early Christians. London, 1907.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Drane, Augusta T.</span> Christian Schools and Scholars. London, 1881.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Druon, H.</span> Œuvres de Synesius, Évêque de Ptolemais, Traduites +entièrement pour la première Fois en Francais et Précédées d'une Étude +Biographique et Littéraire. Paris, 1878.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dupanloup, Mgr.</span> La Femme Studieuse. Paris, 1895.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Eckstein, Lena.</span> Women Under Monasticism. Cambridge, 1896.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ellis, Havelock.</span> Man and Woman. London, 1898.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fantuzzi, Giovanni.</span> Notizie degli Scrittori Bolognesi. Bologna, 1781.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Favaro, Antonio.</span> Galileo Galilei e Suor Celeste. Florence, 1891.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fénelon, François de Salignac de la Mothe.</span> de L'éducation Des Filles. +Paris, 1881.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Finot, J.</span> Problems of the Sexes. New York, 1913.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Fiorelli, Jos.</span> Pompeinarum Antiquitatum Historia. Naples, 1860-1864.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Frankland, Mr. and Mrs. Percy.</span> Pasteur. London, 1898.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gasquet, Aidan.</span> Henry VIII and the English Monasteries. London, 1895.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gibson, Margaret Dunlop.</span> How the Codex was Found. Cambridge, 1893.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gicosa, Piero.</span> Magistri Salernitani Nondum Editi. Turin, 1891.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Girard, Paul.</span> L'Éducation Athénienne an Ve et IVe Siècle avant Jésus +Christ. Paris, 1889.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Gladstone, W. E.</span> Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age. Oxford, 1858.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Grimaux, E.</span> Lavoisier, 1743-1794, d'après sa Correspondence, Ses +Manuscrits, Ses Papiers de Famille et d'Autres Documents Inédits. Paris, +1896.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hall, G. Stanley.</span> Adolescence. New York, 1904.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hamel, F.</span> An Eighteenth Century Marquise. A Study of Émilie du Châtelet +and Her Times. New York, 1911.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Harless, C. F.</span> Die Verdienste der Frauen um Naturwissenschaft and +Heilkunde. Göttingen, 1830.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Harrison, Jane E.</span> Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion. Cambridge, +1903.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hawes, Harriet Boyd.</span> Gournia, Vasilike and Other Prehistoric Sites on +the Isthmus of Hierapetra, Crete. Philadelphia, 1908.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Henschel, G. E. T.</span> Daremberg, C., e Renzi de, S. Collectio Salernitana, +Ossia Documenti Inediti e Trattati di Medicina<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span> Appertenti alla la +Scuola Medica Salernitana. Naples, 1852-1859.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Herrade de Lansberg.</span> Hortus Deliciarum. Strasburg, 1901.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Herschel, Mrs. John.</span> Memoirs and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel. +London, 1879.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hertzen Et Rossi.</span> Inscriptiones Urbis Romæ Latinæ. Berlin, 1882.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hildegardis, S.</span> Causæ et Curæ. Leipsic, 1903.</p> + +<p>----. Opera Omnia, Edition Migne. Paris, 1882.</p> + +<p>----. Nova S. Hildegardis Opera. Ed. J. B. Card. Pitra. Paris, 1882.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hill, Georgiana.</span> Women in English Life. London, 1896.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Hunt, Caroline L.</span> The Life of Helen H. Richards. Boston, 1912.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Huxley, L. H.</span> Life and Letters of Thomas H. Huxley. New York, 1900.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jerome, St.</span> Epistolæ, Edition Vallarsi. Verona, 1734-42.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jex-Blake, Sophia.</span> Medical Women. Edinburgh, 1886.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jourdain, Charles.</span> Excursions Historiques et Philosophiques à travers le +Moyen Age. Paris, 1888.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kendall, Phebe M.</span> Maria Mitchell, Life, Letters and Journals. Boston, +1896.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kingsley, Mary H.</span> Travels in West Africa. London, 1897.</p> + +<p>----. West African Studies. London, 1899.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Kirchhoff, A.</span> Die Akademische Frau. Berlin, 1897.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Labé, Louize.</span> Œuvres de. Paris, 1871.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lagrange, F.</span> Histoire de Sainte Paule. Paris, 1870.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Laigle, Mathilde.</span> Le Livre de Trois Vertus de Christine de Pisan et son +Milieu Historique et Litéraire. Paris, 1912.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lalande, Jerome.</span> Bibliographie Astronomique. Paris, 1803.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lamy, E.</span> La Femme de Demain. Paris, 1912.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lange, Helene.</span> Higher Education of Women in Europe. New York, 1890.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Laurie, S. C.</span> Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Education. London, +1900.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lecky, W. E.</span> History of European Morals. New York, 1905.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lefevre, M.</span> La Femme à travers l'Histoire. Paris, 1902.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Leffler, Anna Carlotta.</span> Sónya Kovalévsky, Her Recollections of +Childhood, with a Biography. New York, 1895.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lepinska, Melanie, Mlle.</span> Histoire des Femmes Médecins. Paris, 1900.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lewis, Agnes Smith.</span> In the Shadow of Sinai. Cambridge, 1898.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ligier, Hermann.</span> De Hypatia Philosopha et Eclectismi Fine. Dijon, 1879.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lourbet, J.</span> La Femme devant la Science. Paris, 1896.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lungo, Isodoro del.</span> Women of Florence. London, 1907.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Macpherson, Geraldine.</span> Memoirs of the Life of Anna Jameson. London, +1878.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Maistre, Comte Joseph de.</span> Lettres Et Opuscules Inédits. Paris, 1851.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Marini, Gaetano.</span> Archiatri Pontifici. Rome, 1784.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mason, O. T.</span> Woman's Share in Primitive Culture. London, 1895.</p> + +<p>----. Origin of Inventions. London, 1895.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Maulde la Clavière, R. de.</span> The Women of the Renaissance. New York, 1901.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mazzuchelli, Giammaria.</span> Gli Scrittori d'Italia. Brescia, 1758.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Medici, Michele.</span> Compendio Storico della Scuola Anatomica di Bologna. +Bologna, 1857.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Menagius, Ægidius.</span> Historia Mulierum Philosopharum. Amsterdam, 1692.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Meyer, H. F.</span> Geschichte der Botanik. Königsburg, 1856.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Michælis, A.</span> A Century of Archæological Discoveries. New York, 1908.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Mill, John Stuart.</span> The Subjection of Women. London, 1909.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Möbius, P. J.</span> Ueber die Anlage zur Mathematik. Leipsic, 1907.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley.</span> Letters and Works of, Bohn Edition. London, +1887.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Montalambert, Comte de.</span> Monks of the West. London, 1896.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Myers, Annie N.</span> Woman's Work in America. New York, 1891.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Nuttall, Zelia.</span> The Fundamental Principles of Old and New World +Civilizations. Cambridge, Mass., 1901.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Nolhac, Pierre de.</span> Pétrarque et l'Humanisme. Paris, 1892.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Œlsner, Elise.</span> Die Leistungen der deutschen Frau in den letzen +vierhundert Jahren auf wissenschaftlichem Gebiete. Guhrau, 1894.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Ozanam, A. F.</span> Documents Inédits pour servir à l'Histoire Littéraire de +l'Italie. Paris, 1850.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Plato's Dialogues</span>, Jowett's Translation. London, 1892.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Poestion, J. C.</span>, Griechische Dicterinnen. Wien, 1876.</p> + +<p>----. Griechische Philosophinnen. Norden, 1885.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rashdall, H.</span> The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. Oxford, +1895.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rebière, A.</span> Les Femmes dans la Science. Paris, 1897.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Reich, Emil.</span> Woman through the Ages. London, 1908.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Renaud, A.</span> Histoire Nouvelle des Arts et des Sciences. Paris, 1878.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Renzi de, Salvatore.</span> Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno. +Naples, 1857.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rodocanachi, E.</span> La Femme Italienne à l'Epoque de la Renaissance. Paris, +1907.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Rousselot, Paul.</span> Histoire de l'Éducation des Femmes en France. Paris, +1883.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sabbadini, Remigio.</span> Vita di Guarino Veronese. Genoa, 1891.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sainte-Beuve, Charles-Augustin de.</span> Nouvelle Galerie de Femmes Célèbres. +Paris, 1872.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sarti, Mauri, et Fattorini, Mauri.</span> De Claris Archigymnasii Bononiensis +Professoribus a Sæculo XI usque ad Sæculum XIV. Bologna, 1888-1896.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schliemann, H.</span> Ilios, the City and Country of the Trojans. New York, +1881.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Schmidt, A.</span> Sur l'Age de Pericles. 1877-79.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sertillanges, A. D.</span> Féminisme et Christianisme. Paris, 1908.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Simon, Jules.</span> La Femme du Vingtième Siècle. Paris, 1892.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Socrates, Scholasticus.</span> Ecclesiastical History. London, 1848.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Somerville, Mary.</span> Personal Recollections from Early Life to Old Age. +Boston, 1874.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stanton, Theodore.</span> The Woman Question in Europe. New York, 1884.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Stupuy, H.</span> Œuvres Philosophiques de Sophie Germain. Paris, 1896.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Symonds, J. A.</span> A Short History of the Renaissance in Italy. London, +1893.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Thierry, A.</span> Saint Jerome, La Société Chrétienne à Rome et l'Émigration +Romaine en Terre Sainte. Paris, 1867.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Tiraboschi, G.</span> Storia della Letteratura Italiana. Milan, 1822.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Veitch, J.</span> Memoir of Sir William Hamilton. Edinburgh, 1869.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Vivès, Joannes Ludovicus.</span> De Tradendis Disciplinis. Colon, Agr., 1536.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wallace, R.</span> Eleanor Ormerod, Economic Entomologist, Autobiography and +Correspondence. London, 1904.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wharton, H. T.</span> Sappho. London, 1898.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wolf, J. C.</span> Mulierum Græcarum Quæ Oratione Prosa Usæ Sunt Fragmenta et +Elogia Græce et Latine. London, 1739.</p> + +<p>----. Poetriarum Octo, Erinnæ, Myrus, Myrtidis, Corinnæ, Telesillæ, +Praxillæ, Nossidis, Anytæ, Fragmenta et Elogia. Hamburg, 1734.</p> + +<p>----. Sapphus, Poetriæ Lesbiæ, Fragmenta et Elogia. Hamburg, 1733.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Woodward, W. H.</span> Vittorino da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators. +Cambridge, England, 1905.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Wright, T.</span> Womankind in Western Europe. London, 1869.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Zuccante, Giusseppe.</span> Fra il Pensiero Antico e il Moderno. Milan, 1905.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span></p> + +<p>Women Inventors to whom Patents have been granted by the United States +Government, Compiled under the Direction of the Commissioner of Patents. +Washington, D. C., 1888.</p> + +<p>Histoire Lettéraire de la France, Commencée par des Religieux +Bénédictins de S. Maur et Continuée par des Membres de l'Institut. +Paris, 1793-1906.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span></p> +<h2>INDEX</h2> + + +<p> +Abelard, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Abella, physician, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Abrégé de Navigation</i>, Lalande's, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Academy of ancient Athens, admission of women to, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Academy of the Lincei, Donna Caetani-Bovatelli, dean of, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Academy of Science, French. <i>See</i> French Academy of Science.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Acta Mythologica Apostolorum in Arabic</i>, translated by Agnes Lewis, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Adams, (Mrs.) Abigail, quoted, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Adams, Charles Francis, quoted, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Adams, Elizabeth, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Addison, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Adelheid, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ægidius, quoted, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Æschines, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Africa, Mary Kingsley's explorations in, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Agamede, physician, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aganice, daughter of Sesostris, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Agassiz, (Mrs.) Elizabeth Cary, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Agassiz, Jean Louis, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>, <a href='#Page_378'>378</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aglaonice, the first woman astronomer, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Agnesi, Maria Gaetana, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">knowledge of languages of, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">achievements of, in mathematics, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>-150;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">charitable works of, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>-151;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">exclusion of, from French Academy, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Agnodice, physician, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Agricola, Rudolph, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Agriculture, English Board of, <a href='#Page_250'>250</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Agriculturists, women as, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Agrippina, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>; prose writings of, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Albategni, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Albert the Great, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Alcæus, in praise of Sappho, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Alcala, University of, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Alciphoron, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Alexandria, Hypatia's work in, <a href='#Page_138'>138</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Algæ, Dr. Snow's work on, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Algarotti, Francisco, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Algebra, taught by Hypatia, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Alpine flora, Amalie Dietrich's collection of, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Amazonia, explorations of Madame Coudreau in, <a href='#Page_259'>259</a>-261.<br /> +<br /> +Ambrosius, Franciscus, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>.<br /> +<br /> +American Chemical Society, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +American Philosophical Society, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span>Amoretti, Maria Pellegrina, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ampère, in praise of Émilie du Châtelet, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Analyse des Infiniment Petits</i>, by Marquis l'Hôpital, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Anatomical models, perfected by Anna Manzolini, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">perfected by Mlle. Biheron, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Anatomy, the study of, by women, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>-238.<br /> +<br /> +Anaxagoras, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Ancren Riwle</i>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Andrea, Novella d', <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Andromeda, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Anguisciola sisters of Cremona, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Annals of Tacitus, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Antelmy, Agnesi's <i>Analytical Institutions</i> translated into French by, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Antiochis, physician, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Antipater, epigram of, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Anytæ, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Apelles, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Apocrypha Arabica</i>, edited by Margaret Gibson, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Apocrypha Sinaitica</i>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Apocrypha Syriaca Sinaitica</i>, edited by Agnes Lewis, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Apollonius, <i>Conic Sections</i> of, Hypatia's commentary on, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Apollonius of Perga, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aquinas, Thomas, quoted, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Arabic Version of the Acta Apocrypha Apostolorum</i> edited by Agnes Lewis, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Arabic Version of the Acts of the Apostles and the Seven Catholic Epistles</i>, edited by Margaret Gibson, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Arabic Version of St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians and part of Ephesians</i>, by Margaret Gibson, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Arago, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Archæology, museums of, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women in, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>-333;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">American women in, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>-324.</span><br /> +<br /> +Archagatos, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Archimedes, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Archlanassa, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ardinghelli, Maria Angela, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Arditi, Michele, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Areometer, invention of, by Hypatia, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Arete of Cyrene, teacher of philosophy, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>-199.<br /> +<br /> +Arezzo, Leonardo d', course of study for women planned by, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Ariosto, quoted, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a> <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in praise of Vittoria Colonna, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Aristippus, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aristotelian theory of difference between intellectual capacity of men and women, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aristotle, in praise of Sappho, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Arithmetica</i> of Diophantus, Hypatia's commentary on, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Arrighi, G. L., <a href='#Page_364'>364</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Art, achievements of women in, in Italy during the Renaissance, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ascham, Roger, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Asclepiades, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ashley, Mary, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span>Aske, Robert, quoted, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aspasia, of Miletus, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>-14, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aspasia, physician, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Assisi, St. Francis, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Astrolabe, invention of, by Hypatia, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Astronomical Canon</i>, Hypatia's, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Astronomical Society of France, Dorothea Klumpke first woman member of, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Astronomie des Dames</i>, Lalande's, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Astronomy, achievements of Hypatia in, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>-201;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women in, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>-196.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>At Susa</i> by Mme. Dieulafoy, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Athenæus, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Athens, position of women in, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>-5, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">culture of, <a href='#Page_404'>404</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Attica, <a href='#Page_198'>198</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Aucassin et Nicolette</i>, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Augustus, Emperor, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Aurelia, mother of Julius Cæsar, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Austen, Jane, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Auzoux, Dr., <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ayrton, Mrs. W. E., achievements of, in electricity, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Baker, Lady, wife of Sir Samuel Baker, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Balzac, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Barbapiccola, Eleonora, of Salerno, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bascom, Florence, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bassani, Signora, lace-maker, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bassi, Laura, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>-209, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">birth of, at Bologna, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Doctorate of Physics bestowed upon, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters of Voltaire to, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Bazzani, Doctor, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Beatrice, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Beausoleil, Baroness de, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>-240.<br /> +<br /> +Becquerel, M. H., <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Beethoven, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bellini, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bembo, Cardinal, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in praise of Elizabetta Gonzaga, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Benedict XIV, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Berlin Academy of Sciences, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bern, University of, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bernouilli, Jean, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bernstein, Dr. Julius, on intellectual capacity of women, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Berthollet, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Besant, Sir Walter, quoted, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>-105.<br /> +<br /> +Bianchetti, Giovanna, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bianchetti, Maddalena, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Biheron, Mlle., <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Biology, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as a basis for woman's equality with man, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Biot, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in praise of Sophie Germain, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Bishop, Isabella Bird, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Blackwell, Miss Elizabeth, physician, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>-304, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bobinski, Countess, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Boccaccio, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bocchi, Dorotea, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Boileau's satire on Mme. de la Sablière, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Boke of the Cyte of Ladyes</i>, quoted from, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span>Boleyn, Anne, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bollandists, on work of St. Hildegard, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bologna, Academy of Sciences of, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bologna, University of, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>-210, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>-299;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Middle Ages, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women lecturers and professors in, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dorotea Bucca of, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">degrees conferred upon Maddalena Canedi-Noe and Maria Vittoria Dosi by, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chair of higher mathematics in, given to Maria Gaetana Agnesi, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_148'>148</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Bonaparte, Caroline, archæological excavations of, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bonaparte, Joseph, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Borghini, Maria Selvaggia of Pisa, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Borromeo, Clelia Grillo, of Genoa, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bos, J. Ritzema, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Bossuet, Abbé, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Boston, public schools of, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Botany, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Frau Kablick's studies in, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Amalie Dietrich's studies in, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>-244;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">cryptoganic, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Bouchet, Jean, quoted, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Bovin, Mme. Marie, physician, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>-295.<br /> +<br /> +Bowles, Ada C., quoted, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>, <a href='#Page_347'>347</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Boyd, Ella F., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Boyd, Harriet, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">archæological investigations of, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Boyd, Mary E., of Smith, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brahe, Sophia, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brahe, Tycho, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brain, convolutions of, as an index to intelligence, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">frontal lobe of, in man and in woman, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gray matter of, and its relation to intelligence, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Brain weight, relation of, to mental power, <a href='#Page_118'>118</a>-122, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>-126.<br /> +<br /> +Brenzoni, Laura, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brescia, University of, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.<br /> +<br /> +British Museum, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Britton, Elizabeth G., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Broca, <a href='#Page_116'>116</a>, <a href='#Page_126'>126</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brontë sisters, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brosses, M. Charles de, quoted, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brougham, Lord, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brown, Alice, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bruce, Miss C., <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brush, Mary, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brussels, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Brutus, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bryn Mawr, College of, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bucca, Dorotea, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Büchner, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Buckland, Mrs. William, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Buckle, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>, <a href='#Page_386'>386</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Burckhardt, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Burney, Fanny, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Burnmeister, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Bush, Katherine J., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Butter, Josephine E., <a href='#Page_291'>291</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Cædmon, influence of St. Hilda on, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cæsar, Aurelia, mother of, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Caetani-Bovatelli, Donna Ersilia, archæologist, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>-327.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span>Caetani-Sermonetta, Duke of, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Caius Musonius Rufus, on education of women, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Calendrini, Bettina, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Calendrini, Novella, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +California, University of, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Calphurnia, letters of, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Calpurnia, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cambridge, University of, funds from suppressed convents devoted to, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">exclusion of women from, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>-333.</span><br /> +<br /> +Camoens, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Candolle, Alphonse de, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Canedi-Noe, Maddalena, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cannon, Annie J., <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Canova, in praise of Suor Plantilla Nelli, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Canticle of the Sun, The</i>, by St. Francis Assisi, quoted, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Cape Observations</i>, Herschel's, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Carlyle, quoted, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Cassius, wife of, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Castiglione, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in praise of women, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Catalogue of Eight Hundred and Sixty Stars Observed by Flamsteed but Not Included in the British Catalogue</i>, by Caroline Herschel, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Catani, Giuseppina, professor of pathology at Bologna, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Caterzani, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Catherine of Aragon, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cato, quoted, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Catullus, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Celeste, Sister Maria, daughter of Galileo, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>-369.<br /> +<br /> +Celleor, Mrs., quoted, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Celsus, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ceretta, Laura, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cervantes, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chantry, bust of Mary Somerville by, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Charity, Sisters of, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Charlemagne, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chateaubriand, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chatelain, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Châtelet, Émilie du, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>; <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>-153;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">achievements of, in astronomy, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>-177;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as mathematical physicist, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Chaucer, quoted, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Chemistry, women in, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>-232;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sanitary, <a href='#Page_218'>218</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Chesterfield, Lord, quoted, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chiavello, Livia, of Fabriano, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Chinchon, Countess of, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Chinchona bark, introduction of, into Europe, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Chopin, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language</i> by Miss Stotes, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Christine of Sweden, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Church of the Household, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>-34.<br /> +<br /> +Cibo, Catarina, of Genoa, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cicero, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tribute of, to Lælia, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Tulia's letters to, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Cirey, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Cité des Dames</i>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Clairaut, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">work of, with Mme. Lepaute, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Clapp, Cornelia M., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Clarke, Cora H., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Clavière, in praise of women, <a href='#Page_360'>360</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Claypole, Agnes M., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Claypole, Edith J., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cleopatra, physician, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span>Clerke, Agnes M. and Ellen M., <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Codex Ludovicus</i>, discovery of, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Codex Nuttall</i>, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Codex Sinaiticus</i>, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Coeducational institutions, comparative standing of men and women in, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Colonna, Vittoria, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Colton, Rev. John, Agnesi's <i>Analytical Institutions</i> translated into French by, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Columbus, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Comstock, Anna Botsford, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Comte, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Condé, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Condorcet, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Conic Sections</i>, of Apollonius, Hypatia's commentary on, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Connection of the Physical Sciences</i> by Mary Somerville, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Considérations Générales sur l'État des Sciences et des Lettres aux Différentes Époques de Leur Culture</i> by Sophie Germain, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Convent of Arles, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Poitiers, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of St. Hilda, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Bishopsheim, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of St. Rupert at Bingen, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Helfta, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Convent schools, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Convents, as centers of learning in Middle Ages, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>-53;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">suppression of, in England, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">advantages of, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">influence of, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>-53.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Conventus Matronarum</i>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Conversations on Chemistry</i>, by Mrs. Marcet, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Copernicus, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Corinna, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Corneille, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cornelia, wife of Pompey, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cotton gin, invention of, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Coudreau, Henri, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Coudreau, Mme. Octavie, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>-264;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">books by, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a> <i>footnote</i>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Courtier</i>, Castiglione's, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cramoisy, Marie, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cranial capacity, relation of, to mental energy, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>-117.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Crete, the Forerunner of Greece</i>, by Mrs. Hawes, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Crevaux, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Crisculo, Maria Angela, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cumming, Constance Gordon, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cummings, Clara E., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a><br /> +<br /> +Cunitz, Maria, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cunningham, Susan, of Swarthmore, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Curie, Mme. Marie Klodowska, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a>, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>-232;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">birth and early life of, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>-222;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">marriage of, to Pierre Curie, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">scientific investigations and discoveries of, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>-226;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">honors of, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>-232.</span><br /> +<br /> +Curie, Pierre, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cushman, Florence, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cuvier, weight of brain of, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Cyrene, school of philosophy at, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Dacier, Mme., <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Damien, Father, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Danophila, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dante, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span>Darboux, M., in praise of Dorothea Klumpke, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Daremberg, Dr. Charles, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>, <a href='#Page_287'>287</a> and <a href='#Page_288'>288</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Darmstadt, Medical College of, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Darwin, on man, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quoted, <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Darwin's <i>Origin of Species</i>, the French translation of, by Clemence Royer, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Davy gold medal of the Royal Society awarded to the Curies, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Davidson, Ada B., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Da Vinci, Leonardo, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dawes, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Decameron</i>, The, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>De Compositione Medicamentorum</i>, by Trotula, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Deffand, Mme. du, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Marquise du Châtelet ridiculed by, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a> and <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a> <i>footnote</i>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Deipnosophistœ</i>, of Athenæus, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Delambre, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.<br /> +<br /> +De Lamennais, on woman's intellectual inferiority, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>De Morbis Mulierum et Eorum Cura</i>, by Trotula, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Demosthenes, quoted, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a> <i>footnote</i>; <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Denifle, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Denver School of Mines, woman principal of, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>De Orbium Celestium Revolutionibus</i>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>De Problemate quodam Hydrometrico</i> by Laura Bassi, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>De Problemate quodam Mechanico</i> by Laura Bassi, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +De Prony, in praise of Sophie Germaine, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Descartes, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">doctrines of, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">female pupils of, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Destouches, <a href='#Page_86'>86</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Diaz, Porfirio, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Didascalia Apostolorum in Syriac, The</i>, edited by Margaret Gibson, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Diderot, attitude of, toward women, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dietrich, Amalie, botanist, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>-244.<br /> +<br /> +Dieulafoy, Mme., archæologist, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">archæological expeditions of, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>-321.</span><br /> +<br /> +Dieulafoy, Marcel, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Diocletian, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Diogenes, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Diophantus, <i>Arithmetica</i> of, Hypatia's commentary on, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Diotima of Mantinea, Socrates' tribute to, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Divina Commedia</i> by Dante, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dock, Lavinia L., <a href='#Page_280'>280</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Doni Gasquet on dissolution of convents, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Donne, Maria dalle, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as professor of obstetrics, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as surgeon, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>-300.</span><br /> +<br /> +Dorat, Jean, quoted, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Dosi, Maria Vittoria, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dramas of Hroswitha, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Draper, Mrs. Henry, endowment of the Henry Draper Memorial at Harvard by, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dryden, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dumée, Jeanne, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span>Dunraven's <i>Notes on Irish Architecture</i>, edited by Miss Stotes, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dupanloup, Mgr., quoted, <a href='#Page_396'>396</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Dupré, Marie, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Dupuytren, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<i>Early Christian Art in Ireland</i>, by Miss Stotes, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Eastman, Alice, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Ecclesia Domestica</i>, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>-34.<br /> +<br /> +Eckenstein, Lina, quoted, <a href='#Page_50'>50</a> <i>footnote</i>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on influence of convents, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +École de Médecine of Paris, admittance of women to, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>.<br /> +<br /> +École de Physique et de Chimie in Paris, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>École des Femmes</i>, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Edinburgh, University of, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">opposition of, to women, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Miss Ormerod receives degree of Doctor of Laws at, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Education, during the Renaissance, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>-75;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in England, in the Middle Ages, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>-42;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in France, in the post-Renaissance period, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>-85.</span><br /> +<br /> +Education of women in ancient Greece, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>-18;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in ancient Rome, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>-34;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Greece and Rome compared, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the Middle Ages, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>-54;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">during the Renaissance, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>-75;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Germany, in post-Renaissance period, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in England, in post-Renaissance period, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>-98;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the United States, in the post-Renaissance period <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">changes in, in last three-quarters of a century, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>-105;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Italy, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Edwards, Amelia B., <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Eigenman, Rose S., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Electricity, work of Mrs. Ayrton in, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Eliot, George, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Elizabeth of Bohemia, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Elizabeth, Queen, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">failure of, to provide for education of women, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Elizabeth of Sweden, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Elizabeth, wife of Hevilius, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ellis, Havelock, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_343'>343</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Élogie Historique</i>, Voltaire's, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Emerson, quoted, <a href='#Page_105'>105</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Encyclopedists, attitude of, toward women, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Engineering, on trans-Siberian railroad in charge of a woman, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>.<br /> +<br /> +England, education in, in the Middle Ages, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>-42;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">prestige of abbesses in, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">position of woman in, during the Renaissance, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">position of women in, during post-Renaissance period, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>-99;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women physicians in, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>-307;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feminine population of, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Entomology, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">achievements of Missouri woman in, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Entomology, economic, Eleanor Ormerod's work in, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>-252;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her publications on, <a href='#Page_249'>249</a>-250.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Entretiens sur l'Opinion de Copernic Touchant la Mobilité de la Terre</i>, by Jeanne Dumée, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Ephemeris</i> of the Academy of Sciences, Mme. Lepaute's work on, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Epicurus, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span>Épinay, Mme. d', <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Erasmus, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Erinna, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Erucarum Ortus, Alimenta et Paradoxa Metamorphosis</i>, by Frau Merian, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Erxleben, Dorothea Christin, physician, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Espinasse, Mlle. de l', <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Este, Beatriche d', Duchess of Milan, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Este, Isabella d', Marchioness of Mantua, archæologist, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Estienne, Robert, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ethnology, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Euler, Leonard, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Euripides, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quoted, <a href='#Page_3'>3</a> <i>footnote</i>; <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a> <i>footnote</i>; <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Eustochium, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>-34, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Everett, Alice, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Evolution, Clemence Royer's theory of, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Explorations carried on by women, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>-263.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Fabiola, physician, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>-274.<br /> +<br /> +Fabricius, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fairfax, Mary. <i>See</i> Somerville.<br /> +<br /> +Fairfax, Sir William, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fantuzzi, Giovanni, <a href='#Page_205'>205</a>, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Faraday, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fawcett, Mrs. Henry, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Faye, Mme., <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fedele, Cassandra, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Feijoo, Benito Jeronimo, <a href='#Page_110'>110</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Felicie, Jacobe, physician, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>-290.<br /> +<br /> +Feltre, Vittorino da, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a> and <a href='#Page_59'>59</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Femmes Savantes</i> of Molière, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>-87, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ferrara, court of, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ferrara, University of, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ferreyra, Bernada, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fiorelli, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Flammarion, Mme., <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fléchier, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fleming, Mrs. W., achievements of, in astronomy, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fletcher, Alice C., archæologist, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fontana, Lavinia, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Foot, Katherine, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Form and Rotation of the Earth, The</i>, by Mary Somerville, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fortunatus, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Forty-one Facsimiles of Dated Christian Arabic Manuscripts</i> by Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +France, women in, during the Renaissance, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women in, during the post-Renaissance period, <a href='#Page_81'>81</a>-93;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mineral resources of, Mme. de Beausoleil's interest in, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feminine population of, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +France, University of, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Frankland, Percy, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Frederick the Great, mother of, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Frei, Frau Teresa, physician, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>.<br /> +<br /> +French Academy of Sciences, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_146'>146</a>, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_232'>232</a> <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">exclusion of women from, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_229'>229</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +French Institute, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sophie Germain honored by, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">discrimination of, against women, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>-231 <i>footnote</i>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span>Frontal lobe of brain in man and in woman, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Fuller, Thomas, quoted, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations, The</i>, by Mrs. Nuttall, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Gadolinium, discovery of, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gage, Susanna Phelps, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Galfrido, quoted, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Galileo, <a href='#Page_364'>364</a>-369, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Galindo, Beatrix, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Galvani, Luigi, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Galvanic electricity, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gambara, Veronica, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gambetta, weight of brain of, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Garden of Delights.</i> <i>See</i> <i>Hortus Deliciarum</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Garrett, Elizabeth, physician, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a> <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gassendi, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Gaufrey</i>, Antoine Hamilton's, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gebert, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gegner prize from the French Academy of Sciences awarded to Mme. Curie, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>General Index of Reference to Every Observation of Every Star in the Above-mentioned British Catalogue</i>, by Caroline Herschel, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Geneva, University of, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Geneva, New York, College at, <a href='#Page_301'>301</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Genlis, Mme. de, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Geoffrin, Mme., <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Geographical Society of Berlin, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Geology, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Geometry, taught by Hypatia, <a href='#Page_139'>139</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Geraldini brothers, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gerberg, Abbess, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Germain, Sophia, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>-157, <a href='#Page_391'>391</a>, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>grand prix</i> of French Academy of Science won by, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">exclusion of, from French Academy, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Germanicus, wife of, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Germany, education in, during Middle Ages, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>-52;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">privileges of abbesses in, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">position of woman in, during the Renaissance, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>, <a href='#Page_74'>74</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women in, in post-Renaissance period, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>-95;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">universities of, open to women, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude of, toward women to-day, <a href='#Page_130'>130</a>-134;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">feminine population of, <a href='#Page_407'>407</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Gernez, M. D., <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>, <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Gertrude the Great, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gibbon, quoted, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gibson, Margaret Dunlop, archæologist, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>-332, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Giessen, University of, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Giliani, Alessandra, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>, <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Girton College, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gladstone, quoted, <a href='#Page_398'>398</a>, <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Glycera, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Goethe, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Golden, Katherine E., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Goldsmith, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Goncourt, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gonzaga, Cecelia, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a> and <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Gonzaga, Elizabetta, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gorgo, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quoted, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Gospel of Isbodad in Syriac and English</i>, by Margaret Gibson, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a>, <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Göttingen, University of, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gozzadina, Bitisia, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span>Gozzadini, Bettina, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gracchi, Cornelia, mother of the, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Granville, Lord, quoted, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a> and <a href='#Page_98'>98</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Grassi, Ippolita, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gravitation, discovery of, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gray matter in the brain, relation of, to intelligence, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gray's <i>Elegy</i>, quoted, <a href='#Page_403'>403</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Greece, ancient, woman and education in, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>-18, <a href='#Page_398'>398</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">position of woman in, compared with Rome, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>-27;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">medical women in, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>-271.</span><br /> +<br /> +Greene, Catherine L., cotton gin invented by, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Grey, Lady Jane, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Grignan, Mme. de, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Grimaldi, Cardinal, <a href='#Page_203'>203</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Guarna, Rebeca de, physician, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gubernatis, A. de, in praise of Donna Bovatelli, <a href='#Page_325'>325</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Gustavus of Sweden, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Hæckel, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hæser, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hall, Mrs. Asaph, <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hall, Edith H., archæologist, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Halle, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Halley, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hamilton, Antoine, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hamilton, Lady, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hamilton, Sir William, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hare, Christopher, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Harmony of Women</i>, by Perictione, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Harrison, Jane E., archæologist, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>, <a href='#Page_333'>333</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Harvard Observatory, women on staff of, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Harvard University, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Henry Draper Memorial at, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Haüy, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hawes, C. H., <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hawes, Mrs. C. H. <i>See</i> Boyd, Harriet.<br /> +<br /> +Heidelberg, University of, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Heine, quoted, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a> <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hell, Mme. Hommaire de, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Heller, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Helmholtz, Hermann von, weight of brain of, <a href='#Page_125'>125</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Heloise, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Henry VII, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Henry VIII, suppression of convents by, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">law of, in favor of women physicians, <a href='#Page_291'>291</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Henschel, G., <a href='#Page_287'>287</a> and <a href='#Page_288'>288</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Heptameron</i>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Heredity, as a basis for woman's equality with man, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Herpyllis, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Herrad, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Herschel, Caroline, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>-190, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a> <i>footnote</i>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">discoveries of, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">astronomical writings of, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">honors of, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>-189.</span><br /> +<br /> +Herschel, Mrs. John, quoted, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Herschel, Sir John, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Herschel, Sir William, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>-185, <a href='#Page_185'>185</a> and <a href='#Page_186'>186</a> <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_378'>378</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hertzen, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Hetæræ, the, <a href='#Page_9'>9</a>-12, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">mistresses of French salons compared with, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Hevilius, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span>Hierophilos, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hill, Georgiana, <i>Women in English Life</i>, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hinckley, Mary H., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hipparchia, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Histoire d'Henriette d'Angleterre</i>, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Histoire des Insects de l'Europe</i>, by Frau Merian, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Histoire des Sciences et des Savants depuis Deux Siècles</i>, Candolle's, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>History of the Art of Antiquity</i>, by Winckelmann, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hôpital, Marquis de l', <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Horace, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>, <a href='#Page_21'>21</a> <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Horæ Semiticæ</i>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hortensia, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Hortus Deliciarum</i>, by Herrad, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hospital, first, founded by Fabiola, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hôtel de Rambouillet, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>-89.<br /> +<br /> +Houllerigue, M. L., <a href='#Page_226'>226</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>How the Codex Was Found</i>, by Mrs. Gibson, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Howard, John, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Hroswitha, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>-45.<br /> +<br /> +Huber, Mme., <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Huber, François, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hudson, W. H., on the dramas of Hroswitha, <a href='#Page_44'>44</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Huggins, Lady, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Humboldt, Alexander von, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Huschke, <a href='#Page_122'>122</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Huxley, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on physical disability of women, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Huxley, Leonard, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Hyde, Dr. Ida H., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hyghens, Constantine, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Hypatia, <a href='#Page_235'>235</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">achievements of, in mathematics, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>-141;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">inventions of, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters of Synesius to, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">achievements of, in astronomy, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attainments of, in natural philosophy and astronomy, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>-201.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Icthyology, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Iliad</i>, translated by Mme. Dacier, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quotation from, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>In Artem Analyticam Isagoge</i>, by François Viète, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>In the Shadow of Sinai</i>, by Mrs. Lewis, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a> <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Incarnata, Maria, physician, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>.<br /> +<br /> +India, position of woman in, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Insects, destructive, Eleanor Ormerod's study of, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">her famous leaflets on, <a href='#Page_249'>249</a>, <a href='#Page_250'>250</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Insects, microscopic, Anna Comstock's work on, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Institut de Saint Cyr, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Institutions de Physique</i>, by Marquise du Châtelet, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Instituzioni Analitiche</i>, by Maria Gaetana Agnesi, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_144'>144</a>-150, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Inventions of Hypatia, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Inventors, women as, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>-355.<br /> +<br /> +Isabella of Castile, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>, <a href='#Page_380'>380</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Isabella of Spain, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Isis, inventions of, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Isocrates, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Isotta of Rimini, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Italy, women of the Renaissance in, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>-68;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women in, during the post-Renaissance periods, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>-81;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women mathematicians in, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>-151;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">education of women in, <a href='#Page_210'>210</a>, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Jacobi, Dr. Mary Putnam, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jameson, Mrs., work of, in Christian iconography, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>-316.<br /> +<br /> +Jansen, Mme., <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jaquier, Père, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jeffrey, Lord, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jenner, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Jerusalem Delivered</i>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jesus College, Cambridge, nunnery of St. Radegund transformed into, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Jex-Blake, Sophia, physician, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a> <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>-307.<br /> +<br /> +Johnson, Dr., <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quoted, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a> and <a href='#Page_413'>413</a> <i>footnote</i>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Jonson, Ben, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Joseph II of Austria, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Journey in Brazil</i>, by Mr. and Mrs. Agassiz, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Joya, Isabella de, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Juana, daughter of Isabella the Catholic, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Julius II, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Juvenal, quoted, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a> <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Kablick, Josephine, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>-243.<br /> +<br /> +Kant, Immanuel, on woman's incapacity for mathematics, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kaschewarow, Mme., physician, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kelvin, Lord, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kepler, <a href='#Page_375'>375</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kies, Mary, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">first United States patent awarded to, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Kingsley, Charles, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kingsley, George, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kingsley, Mary H., African explorer, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>-258, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kirch, Gottfried, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kirch, Maria, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kirchhoff, Arthur, investigation of, regarding intellectual capacity of women, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>-132.<br /> +<br /> +Kirwan's Essay on <i>Phlogiston</i>, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Klumpke, Anna, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Klumpke, Augusta, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a> <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Klumpke, Dorothea, <a href='#Page_193'>193</a>, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Klumpke, Julia, <a href='#Page_194'>194</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Knight, Miss, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Koenig, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Kovalévsky, Sónya, <a href='#Page_133'>133</a>, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>-165, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">weight of brain of, <a href='#Page_123'>123</a> and <i>footnote</i>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">studies of, in Germany, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">appointment of, to chair of higher mathematics, in University of Stockholm, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Prix Bordin</i> won by, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Krauss, Dr., <a href='#Page_313'>313</a> quoted, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a> quoted.<br /> +<br /> +Kronecker, in praise of Sónya Kovalévsky, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Labé, Louise, <a href='#Page_71'>71</a>.<br /> +<br /> +La Bruyière, <a href='#Page_108'>108</a>.<br /> +<br /> +La Caze prize awarded to the Curies, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +La Chappelle, Mme. Marie Louise, physician, <a href='#Page_293'>293</a>, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>.<br /> +<br /> +La Condamine, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a>.<br /> +<br /> +La Cruz, Juana de, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lælia, Cicero's tribute to, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +La Fayette, La Comtesse de, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>.<br /> +<br /> +La Fontaine, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lagrange, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.<br /> +<br /> +La Harpe, quoted, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lais, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lalande, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in praise of Mme. Lepaute, <a href='#Page_180'>180</a>, <a href='#Page_181'>181</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in praise of Mme. Lefrançais, <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span>Lamartine, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lamennais, de, quoted, <a href='#Page_388'>388</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lamy, M. Étienne, quoted, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>, <a href='#Page_410'>410</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Landi, Rosanna Somaglia, of Milan, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Langdon, Fannie E., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lanzi, in praise of Suor Plantilla Nelli, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>La Perse, La Chaldée et la Susiane</i>, by Mme. Dieulafoy, <a href='#Page_320'>320</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Laplace, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Laplace's <i>Méchanique Céleste</i>, Mary Somerville's translation of, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Lapse and Conversion of Theophilus</i>, by Hroswitha, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>.<br /> +<br /> +La Rochefoucauld, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lasthenia, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +La Vigne, Anne de, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lavoisier, Mme. Antoine Laurent, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>-216, <a href='#Page_225'>225</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Laws of Plato</i>, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Leavitt, Henrietta S., <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lebrixa, Francisca de, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lecky, on dissolution of convents, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lefebre, Mme., <a href='#Page_353'>353</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Le Fevre, Tanquil, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lefrançais, Mme., <a href='#Page_182'>182</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Legendre, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Legends of the Madonna</i>, by Mrs. Jameson, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Legion of Honor, decoration of, refused by Pierre Curie, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">chevalier of, conferred on Mme. Dieulafoy, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Legrange, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Leibnitz, <a href='#Page_173'>173</a>, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Leland, Eva F., <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lemmon, Sarah A. Plummer, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Leo X, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Leontium, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Leoparda, physician, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lepaute, Mme. Hortense, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">achievements of, in astronomy, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>-182.</span><br /> +<br /> +Lepinska, Melanie, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Lespinasse, Mlle., <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lewis, Mrs. Agnes Smith, archæologist, <a href='#Page_327'>327</a>-333.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Liber Compositæ Medicinæ</i>, by St. Hildegard, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Liber Simplicis Medicinæ</i>, by St. Hildegard, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Liber Subtilitatum Diversarum Naturarum Creaturarum</i>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Liebig, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Linnæus, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Lipmann, Professor, <a href='#Page_222'>222</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Literature, women in, in ancient Greece, <a href='#Page_1'>1</a>-18;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in ancient Rome, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>-30;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">achievements of Paula and Eustochium in, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>-34;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">achievements of women in, in Italy during the Renaissance, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>-62;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women of to-day in, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Livia, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Livingstone, David, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>, <a href='#Page_374'>374</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Livre des Fais et Bonnes Meurs du sage Roy Charles V</i>, by Christine de Pisan, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Livre des Faits d'Armes et de Chevalerie</i>, by Christine de Pisan, <a href='#Page_107'>107</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lombard, Peter, on equality of woman, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Lombroso, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>.<br /> +<br /> +London Chemical Society, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +London, University of, attitude of, toward women, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a> <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>, <a href='#Page_305'>305</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Longfellow, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>; quoted, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Losa, Isabella, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span>Louis XII, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Louis Agassiz, His Life and Correspondence</i>, <a href='#Page_379'>379</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Louise of Saxe-Gotha, Duchesse, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lungo, Isidoro del, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Luther, attitude of, toward women, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Luynes, Mlle. de, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lyceum of ancient Athens, admission of women to, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Lyell, Mrs. Charles, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Mace, Hanna, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Machina Cœlestis</i>, of Hevilius, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Macpherson, Geraldine, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Maintenon, Mme. de, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Maistre, Count Joseph de, quoted, <a href='#Page_395'>395</a>, <a href='#Page_396'>396</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Malacorona, Rudolfo, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Malatesta, Battista, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Malvezzi, Virginia, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mangord, daughters of, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Manning, Mrs. A. H., <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mantua, Marchioness of, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Manzolini, Anna Morandi, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>-238, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marburg, University of, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marcella, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marcet, Mrs., <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marchina, Marta, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Margaret of Navarre, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Margarita, physician, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Maria Theresa, Empress, <a href='#Page_147'>147</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marine invertebrates, Mary Rathbun's work on, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marine life, Sophia Pereyaslawzewa's study of, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Markham, Clements R., <a href='#Page_300'>300</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Marlow, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marmontel, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marot, Clement, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Marriage, intellectual development of women and, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Martia, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Martial, quoted, <a href='#Page_20'>20</a> <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Mary Kingsley Society of West Africa, The," <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mary Stuart, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Masi, Ernesto, <a href='#Page_208'>208</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Mason, O. T., <a href='#Page_343'>343</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Massachusetts Institute of Technology, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>, <a href='#Page_220'>220</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Massalsky, Princess Helena Kolzoff (Doria d'Istria), traveler, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mastellagri, Maria, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Matapi, the, woman's invention of, <a href='#Page_340'>340</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Materia medica, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mathematics, women in, <a href='#Page_136'>136</a>-166.<br /> +<br /> +Mather, Sarah, <a href='#Page_345'>345</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Matilda, Abbess of Quedlinburg, <a href='#Page_46'>46</a>, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Matildas of Helfta, <a href='#Page_49'>49</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Matteo, Thomasia de, physician, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Maupertuis, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Maury, Antonia C., <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mazois, Fr., <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mazzuchelli, quoted, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Meaux, C., <a href='#Page_288'>288</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Méchanique Céleste</i>, Laplace's, Mary Somerville's translation of, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Mechanism of the Heavens</i>, Mary Somerville's, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Medaglia, Diamante, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Medical women in Greece, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>-271;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Rome, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>-274;</span><br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">in England and Germany, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a>-295.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Medical Women—A Thesis and a History</i>, by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, <a href='#Page_307'>307</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Medici, Michele, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Medicine, attitude of Italian and Anglo-Saxon universities toward women students of, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women in, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>-308.</span><br /> +<br /> +Medico-Chirurgical Academy of St. Petersburg, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Melanchthon, daughter of, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Mémoire sur le Feu</i>, by Marquise du Châtelet, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Memoirs on Chemistry</i>, by Lavoisier, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Memorial de l'Art des Accouchements</i>, by Mme. Bovin, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Menagius, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Menander, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mendelssohn, Fanny, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mendelssohn, Felix, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mendoza, Doña Maria Pacheco de, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mercuriade, physician, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Merian, Dorothea and Helena, <a href='#Page_241'>241</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Merian, Maria Sibylla, naturalist, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>-242.<br /> +<br /> +Merriam, Florence, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Messia Castula, duumvira, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Metallurgy, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Metaneira, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Metcalf, Betsy, <a href='#Page_351'>351</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Meteorologico Ozonometric station at Rome organized by Caterina Scarpellini, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Metradora, physician, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mexican National Museum, <a href='#Page_324'>324</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Meyer, Ernest H. F., <a href='#Page_234'>234</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Michaelangelo, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Vittoria Colonna and, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Michælis, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Michelet</i>, quoted, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Middle Ages, the education of women during, <a href='#Page_34'>34</a>-54.<br /> +<br /> +Mill, John Stuart, <a href='#Page_109'>109</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on intellectual capacity of women, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quoted, <a href='#Page_381'>381</a>, <a href='#Page_387'>387</a>, <a href='#Page_397'>397</a>, <a href='#Page_398'>398</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Miller, Olive Thorne, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Milton, quoted, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mineralogy, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Herr Kablick's study of, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Minerva, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mines, Denver School of, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mining, Mme. de Beausoleil's treatment of, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mitchell, Maria, achievements of, in astronomy, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Molière, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>; plays of, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>-87;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Femmes Savantes</i>, and <i>Précieuses Ridicules</i> of, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>L'École des Femmes of</i>, <a href='#Page_412'>412</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Molluoca, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Molza, Tarquinia, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Monasteries, as centers of learning in Middle Ages, <a href='#Page_35'>35</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mondino, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Monographie de Turbellaries de la Mer Noire</i>, by Sophia Pereyaslawzewa, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, quoted, <a href='#Page_96'>96</a>, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a>; <a href='#Page_299'>299</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Montaigne, attitude of, toward women, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Montalembert, quoted, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Montespan, Mme. de, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Montesquieu, attitude of, toward women, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Montmorency, Charlotte de, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Montpensier, Duchess of, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_87'>87</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span>Morandi-Menzolini, Anna, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Morati, Fulvia Olympia, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a>.<br /> +<br /> +More, Sir Thomas, daughters of, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Morella, Juana, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Morphology, cellular, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Motherhood, intellectual development and, <a href='#Page_415'>415</a>, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Mozart, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Müller, John, of Königsburg, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Murat, Joachim, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Murfeldt, Mary E., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Murphy, Anna. <i>See</i> Jameson, Mrs.<br /> +<br /> +Myrtides, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Myrus, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Nairne, Lady, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Naples, school of medicine at, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Napoleon, <a href='#Page_155'>155</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">weight of brain of, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Natural sciences, women in, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>-264.<br /> +<br /> +Naturalists, Congress of, in 1893, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Nautical Almanac</i>, Miss Mitchell, compiler for, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Navarre, Pierre de, quoted, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Navier, <a href='#Page_156'>156</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Navigation, Janet Taylor's works on, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Necker, Mme., <a href='#Page_281'>281</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Nelli, Suor Plantilla, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Newnham College, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Jane E. Harrison's lectures at, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Newton, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>, <a href='#Page_384'>384</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Newtonism for Women</i>, Algarotti's, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Newton's <i>Principia</i>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mme. du Châtelet's translation of, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +New York Infirmary, <a href='#Page_303'>303</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Nicarete, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Nightingale, Florence, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Ninon de Lenclos, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_90'>90</a>, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Nobel prize, in chemistry awarded to Mme. Curie by King of Sweden, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in physics awarded to the Curies and M. H. Becquerel, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">won by Madame Curie, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Noe-Candedi, Maddelena, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Nogorola, Ginevra, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Nogorola, Isotta, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Nossidis, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles</i>, by François Huber, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Noves, Laura de, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Nuns, Anglo-Saxon, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>-42;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">German, <a href='#Page_43'>43</a>-50;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">accomplishments of, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">influence of, <a href='#Page_51'>51</a>-53;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">medical work of, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>-281.</span><br /> +<br /> +Nur Mahal, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Nuttall, Zelia, archæologist, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>-324.<br /> +<br /> +Nutting, M. Adelaide, <a href='#Page_280'>280</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Oclo, Mama, inventions of, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Octavia, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Odyssey, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">translated by Mme. Dacier, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quotation from, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>On Curves and Surfaces of Higher Order</i>, by Mary Somerville, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>On Molecular and Microscopic Science</i>, by Mary Somerville, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span><i>On the Theory of Differences</i>, by Mary Somerville, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Opuscula</i> of Anna Maria von Schurman, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ordronaux, J., <a href='#Page_283'>283</a> and <a href='#Page_284'>284</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Origenia, physician, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Origin de l'Homme et de Sociétés</i>, by Clemence Royer, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Orlando Furioso</i>, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ormerod, Eleanor, economic entomologist, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>-252, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">entomological publications of, <a href='#Page_249'>249</a>-250;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">important positions of, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Ornithology, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Orr, M. A., <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ostia, Fabiola's hospital at, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Otto III, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ovid, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>; in praise of Livia, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Oxford, H. Rashdall, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Oxford, University of, funds from suppressed convents devoted to, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude of, toward women, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Oxygen, discoveries of, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">discovery of, by Lavoisier, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Ozanam, quoted, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Padua, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Padua, University of, Elena Cornaro Piscopia honored by, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Palatine, Princess, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Paleontology, Frau Kablick's study of, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>-243.<br /> +<br /> +Palgrave, comparison of Milton and Cædmon by, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pallas Athene, inventions of, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Palmer, Mrs. Margaretta, of Yale, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Paradise Lost</i>, quoted from <a href='#Page_389'>389</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Paris, medical work of women in, <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>-290, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Faculty of Medicine in, opposition by, to Jacobe Felicie, <a href='#Page_289'>289</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Parthenay, Catherine de, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pascal, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pascal, Gilberte and Jaqueline, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Passions de l'Âme</i> of Descartes, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pasteur, Louis, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>, <a href='#Page_114'>114</a>, <a href='#Page_226'>226</a>, <a href='#Page_247'>247</a>, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pasteur, Mme., <a href='#Page_376'>376</a>, <a href='#Page_377'>377</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Patch, Edith M., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Patents granted to women inventors, <a href='#Page_344'>344</a>-355.<br /> +<br /> +Patterson, Florence Wambaugh, work in, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Patterson, Florence Wambaugh, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Paula, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>-34, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pavia, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">University of, degree conferred on Maria Pellegrina Amoretti by, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Peckham, Elizabeth W., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pennington, Lady, quoted, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Pennsylvania, University of, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pereyaslawzewa, Sophia, biologist, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>-245.<br /> +<br /> +Perez, Antonio, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Perez, Gregoria, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Perez, Luisa, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pericles, quoted, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">influence of Aspasia on, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>-14.</span><br /> +<br /> +Perictione, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Perugino, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Petraccini-Terretti, Maria, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Petrarch, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Pfeiffer, Ida, traveler, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Phelps, Almira Lincoln, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Phidias, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span>Philosophy, achievements of women in, in ancient Greece, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clemence Royer's books on, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Phryne, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Physica</i>, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>, <a href='#Page_234'>234</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Physica</i>, by St. Hildegard, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Physical Geography</i>, by Mary Somerville, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Physical power, relation of, to mental energy, arguments based on, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>-115, <a href='#Page_127'>127</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Physicians, women, in Italy, <a href='#Page_295'>295</a>-300;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">American attitude toward, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>-304;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>See also</i> Medical women.</span><br /> +<br /> +Physics, women in, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>-213;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Clemence Royer's books on, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Physiology, vegetable, Florence Patterson's work in, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pierry, Mme. du, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pindar, defeated by Corinna, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pio Albergo Trivulzio, Maria Gaetana Agnesi in charge of, <a href='#Page_149'>149</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women</i>, by Elizabeth<br /> +Blackwell, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Pisa, Leonardo da, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pisan, Christine de, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_106'>106</a>-108;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on intellectual capacity of women, <a href='#Page_134'>134</a>, <a href='#Page_135'>135</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Piscopia, Elena Cornaro, of Venice, <a href='#Page_77'>77</a>, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>, <a href='#Page_143'>143</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Planisphere, invention of, by Hypatia, <a href='#Page_140'>140</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Platearius, John, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Plato, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in praise of Sappho, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quoted, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">influence of Aspasia on, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on education of women, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">on the seclusion of Athenian women, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">ideal of, of equal rights for women, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Pliny, <a href='#Page_270'>270</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quoted, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Plotinus, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Plutarch, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quoted, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a> <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in praise of Cornelia, <a href='#Page_26'>26</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Poetry, achievements of women in, in ancient Greece, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>-7;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in ancient Rome, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in the Renaissance, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Pogson, Miss, in the Observatory of Madras, India, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Poisson, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Polignac, Cardinal, <a href='#Page_204'>204</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Politian, <a href='#Page_63'>63</a>, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Political economy, Clemence Royer's work in, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Polonium, discovery of, by Mme. Curie, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Polydamna, physician, <a href='#Page_267'>267</a>, <a href='#Page_268'>268</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pompeii, excavations of Queen Caroline at, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>, <a href='#Page_312'>312</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pope, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Porcia, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Portico, the admission of women to, <a href='#Page_10'>10</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Portinari, Beatrice, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Poupard, Mary E., <a href='#Page_347'>347</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Pratique des Accouchements</i>, by Mme. La Chapelle, <a href='#Page_294'>294</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Praxilla, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Praxiteles, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Précieuses Ridicules</i>, of Molière, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>-87, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Priestly, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Primitive Athens as Described by Thucydides</i>, by Jane E. Harrison, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Princesse de Clèves</i>, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span><i>Principia</i>, Newton's, Émilie du Châtelet's translation of, <a href='#Page_152'>152</a>, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_176'>176</a>, <a href='#Page_201'>201</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Principia Philosophiæ</i> of Descartes, <a href='#Page_369'>369</a>, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Priscianus, Theodorus, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Prix Bordin</i>, won by Sónya Kovalévsky, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Problema Practicum</i> of Anna Van Schurman, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Procopius, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Proctor, Mary, <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Proctor, R. A., <a href='#Page_196'>196</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Prodromus Astronomiæ</i>, of Hevilius, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion</i> by Jane E. Harrison, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Prony, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Proudhon, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_338'>338</a>, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Psalter, Latin, St. Jerome's version of, corrected by Paula and Eustochium, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>, <a href='#Page_33'>33</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Psychology, as a basis of woman's equality with man, <a href='#Page_399'>399</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Public affairs, woman's influence in, in ancient Rome, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>-25.<br /> +<br /> +Pudentilla, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Punch</i>, quoted, <a href='#Page_302'>302</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Pusey, E. B., <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Putnam, Mary C., physician, <a href='#Page_290'>290</a> <i>footnote</i>; <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Pythagoras, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>, <a href='#Page_197'>197</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Queensland Amalie Dietrich's botanical work in, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Quintilian, Hortensia praised by, <a href='#Page_27'>27</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Quintus Maximus, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Rabelais, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude of, toward women, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Radcliffe College, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Radium, discovery of, by the Curies, <a href='#Page_224'>224</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rambouillet, Marquise de, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Randolph, Harriet, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Raphael's <i>School of Athens</i>, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rashdall, quoted, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rasponi, Donna Felice, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rathbun, Mary J., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Recognitions of Clement</i> translated by Margaret Gibson, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Red Cross, nurses of, <a href='#Page_308'>308</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Reduction and Arrangement in the Form of Catalogue, in Zones, of All the Star-clusters and Nebulæ Observed by Sir W. Herschel in His Sweeps</i>, by Caroline Herschel, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Réflexions sur le Bonheur</i>, by Émilie du Châtelet, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Regimen Santatis Salernitanum</i>, <a href='#Page_282'>282</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Regiomontanus, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Reinhardt, Anna Barbara, <a href='#Page_154'>154</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Renaissance, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women poets of, <a href='#Page_7'>7</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">dates of, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>-56;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women and education during, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a>-75;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">in Italy, <a href='#Page_55'>55</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">literary exponents of, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women of, in Italy, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>-68;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women and education following, <a href='#Page_76'>76</a>-105.</span><br /> +<br /> +Renan, in praise of Mme. Royer, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Renaud, A., <a href='#Page_343'>343</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Renée, Duchess of Ferrara, <a href='#Page_65'>65</a>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Reni, Guido, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Renzi, S. de, <a href='#Page_287'>287</a> and <a href='#Page_288'>288</a>, <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Republic</i> of Plato, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span><i>Rerum Medicarum</i>, by Theodorus Priscianus, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Restitution de Pluton</i>, by Baroness de Beausoleil, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Retzius, Prof., <a href='#Page_124'>124</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Reuss, Dr. F. A., quoted on St. Hildegard, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ribera, Catherine, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Richards, Mrs. Ellen H., sanitary chemist, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>-220.<br /> +<br /> +Richelieu, Cardinal, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_239'>239</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ringle, Chevalier, <a href='#Page_238'>238</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ritter, Frederic, <a href='#Page_363'>363</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Ritter, Karl, <a href='#Page_256'>256</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Roberval, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Roccati, Cristina, <a href='#Page_142'>142</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rochechouart, Elizabeth de, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rochechouart, Gabrielle de, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rohan, Anne de, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rohan, Marie-Eleanore de, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rohan, Princesse de, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Romana, Francesca de, physician, <a href='#Page_286'>286</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rome, ancient woman and education in, <a href='#Page_18'>18</a>-34;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">medical women in, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>-274;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">medical faculty of, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Ronsard, quoted, <a href='#Page_70'>70</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Röntgen, <a href='#Page_223'>223</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rosales, Isabella, <a href='#Page_145'>145</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rossi, Giovanni Battista de, <a href='#Page_326'>326</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rossi, Properzia de, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rousseau, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quoted, <a href='#Page_30'>30</a> <i>footnote</i>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude of, toward women, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Royal Agricultural Society of England, <a href='#Page_251'>251</a>.<br /> +<br /> +"Royal Asiatic Society," <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Royal Astronomical Society, Mary Somerville elected to, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">gold medal bestowed upon Caroline Herschel by, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Caroline Herschel's books published by, <a href='#Page_186'>186</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Caroline Herschel elected to, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Royal College of Science for Ireland, comparative standing of men and women in, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Royal Historical and Archæological Association of Ireland, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Royal Institution of Great Britain, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Royal Irish Academy, election of Caroline Herschel to, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Royal Society of Great Britain, attitude of, toward women, <a href='#Page_230'>230</a>, <a href='#Page_393'>393</a>, <a href='#Page_394'>394</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Royal Swedish Academy, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Royer, Clemence Augustine, scientist, <a href='#Page_245'>245</a>-246.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Rudolphine Tables</i>, Maria Cunitz's abridgment of, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rümker, Mme., <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rusticana, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Rutebœuf, in praise of Trotula, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Ryssel, Professor V., <a href='#Page_331'>331</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Sabatier, Paul, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Sabbadini, quoted, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Sablière, Mme. de la, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>-173.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Sacred and Legendary Art</i> by Mrs. Jameson, <a href='#Page_313'>313</a>, <a href='#Page_315'>315</a>, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Andrews, University of, <a href='#Page_332'>332</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Augustine, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Boniface, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Clara, <a href='#Page_358'>358</a>, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Cyr, Institut de, <a href='#Page_83'>83</a>, <a href='#Page_84'>84</a>, <a href='#Page_85'>85</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Saint-Evremond, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_390'>390</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>-39.<br /> +<br /> +St. Hildegard, Abbess of the Convent of St. Rupert, <a href='#Page_45'>45</a>-48, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>-235;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">knowledge of astronomy of, <a href='#Page_169'>169</a>, <a href='#Page_170'>170</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">as physician, <a href='#Page_277'>277</a>-281.</span><br /> +<br /> +St. Jerome, <a href='#Page_31'>31</a>-33;<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">quoted, <a href='#Page_273'>273</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +St. Jerome's <i>Vulgate</i>, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. John of Beverly, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. John's College, Cambridge, endowment of, by funds from suppressed convents, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>, <a href='#Page_42'>42</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Lioba, Abbess of Bishopsheim, <a href='#Page_39'>39</a>, <a href='#Page_40'>40</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Nicerata, physician, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Radegund, Abbess of Poitiers, <a href='#Page_36'>36</a>.<br /> +<br /> +St. Theodosia, physician, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Salerno, <a href='#Page_53'>53</a>, <a href='#Page_54'>54</a> <i>footnotes</i>, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Salerno, University of, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>-288;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women as students and professors of medicine in, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>, <a href='#Page_281'>281</a>-288.</span><br /> +<br /> +Salons, French, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>-92.<br /> +<br /> +Samarium, discovery of, <a href='#Page_219'>219</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sand, George, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>, <a href='#Page_264'>264</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sanitation, study of, by Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, <a href='#Page_217'>217</a>-220.<br /> +<br /> +Sapienza, chair in, offered to Marta Marchina, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sappho, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>-8, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sarti, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Satire contre les Femmes</i>, Boileau's, <a href='#Page_172'>172</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Saussure, de, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Savari, Mme. Pauline, <a href='#Page_231'>231</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Saxony, privileges of abbesses in, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Scala, Alessandra, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Scarpellini, Caterina, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Scarpellini, Feliciano, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Scheele, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Schiffi, Chiara. <i>See</i> St. Clara.<br /> +<br /> +Schiller, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Schliemann, Dr. Henry, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Schliemann, Mme. Sophia, archæologist, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>, <a href='#Page_318'>318</a>, <a href='#Page_319'>319</a>, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Scholasticism, <a href='#Page_233'>233</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>School of Athens</i>, Raphael's, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Schopenhauer, <a href='#Page_111'>111</a>, <a href='#Page_414'>414</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Schubert, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Schumann, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Scipio Africanus, Cornelia, daughter of, <a href='#Page_22'>22</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Scott, Miss Charlotte Angas, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Scudéry, Madeleine de, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Scutari, <a href='#Page_274'>274</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sebastopol, biological station at, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Select Narratives of Holy Women</i> translated by Agnes Lewis, <a href='#Page_331'>331</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Selenographia</i> of Hevilius, <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Se-ling-she, invention of silk by, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Semiramis, <a href='#Page_341'>341</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Serment, Louise, <a href='#Page_82'>82</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Servilia, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sevigné, Mme. de, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Seymour, Anne, Margaret and Jane, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Shakespeare, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sheldon, J. M. Arms, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Shelley, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sidonius, Caius Apollinaris, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Siebold, Carlotta von, physician, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Siebold, Regina Joseph von, physician, <a href='#Page_292'>292</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sigea, Luisa, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Silkworms, Frau Merian's work on, <a href='#Page_242'>242</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Simms, Dr. Joseph, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Sir Isumbras</i>, <a href='#Page_275'>275</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sixtus IV, Pope, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Skull, relation of size of, to mental energy, arguments based on, <a href='#Page_115'>115</a>-117.<br /> +<br /> +Slosson, Annie T., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span>Small-pox, prevention of, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Smith, Emily A., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Smith, Sydney, quoted, <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Smithsonian Institute, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Snow, Dr. Julia W., <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Social and economic conditions, intellectual growth of women and, <a href='#Page_405'>405</a>, <a href='#Page_406'>406</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Socrates, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">tribute of, to Diotima of Mantinea, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">influence of Aspasia on, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>, <a href='#Page_13'>13</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">woman's equality with man asserted by, <a href='#Page_15'>15</a>, <a href='#Page_16'>16</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Solomon, quoted, <a href='#Page_336'>336</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Solon, in praise of Sappho, <a href='#Page_5'>5</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Some Pages of the Four Gospels Retranscribed from the Sinaitic Palimpsest</i>, by Agnes Lewis, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Somerville, Mary, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>-161, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_391'>391</a>, <a href='#Page_392'>392</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">early life of, <a href='#Page_157'>157</a>, <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">translation of Laplace's <i>Méchanique Céleste</i> by, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">honors of, <a href='#Page_159'>159</a>, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">books by, <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">home life of, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">election of, to Royal Astronomical Society, <a href='#Page_188'>188</a>, <a href='#Page_189'>189</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">achievements of, in astronomy, <a href='#Page_190'>190</a>, <a href='#Page_211'>211</a>, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">death of, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Somerville, Rev. Dr., <a href='#Page_158'>158</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sophia Charlotte, Queen of Prussia, <a href='#Page_370'>370</a>, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sophocles, <a href='#Page_12'>12</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sorbonne, lectures of Mme. Curie at, <a href='#Page_227'>227</a>.<br /> +<br /> +South America, Mme. Coudreau's explorations in, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>-263.<br /> +<br /> +Spain, women of the Renaissance in, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Spalding, Most Rev. Archbishop J. L., quoted, <a href='#Page_413'>413</a> and <a href='#Page_414'>414</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Spanheim, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Specialization in scientific research, <a href='#Page_408'>408</a>, <a href='#Page_409'>409</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Spectator</i>, <a href='#Page_306'>306</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Spencer, Herbert, <a href='#Page_2'>2</a>, <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Spenser, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Spiegelberg, Moritz von, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Spilimbergo, Irene di, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Staël, Mme. de, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_91'>91</a>, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Marquise du Châtelet ridiculed by, <a href='#Page_177'>177</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Stampa, Gaspara, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Steele, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stephens, Mabel C., <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Steppes de la Mer Caspienne</i>, by Mme. Hommaire de Hell, <a href='#Page_373'>373</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stevenson, Sarah Yorke, archæologist, <a href='#Page_322'>322</a>, <a href='#Page_323'>323</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stilpo, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Stockholm, University of, appointment of Sónya Kovalévsky to chair of higher mathematics in, <a href='#Page_162'>162</a>, <a href='#Page_183'>183</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sónya Kovalévsky's lectures at, <a href='#Page_164'>164</a> <i>footnote</i>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Stotes, Margaret, archæologist, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>, <a href='#Page_317'>317</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Strindberg, <a href='#Page_163'>163</a>, <a href='#Page_165'>165</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Strozi, Lorenza, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Studia Sinaitica</i>, <a href='#Page_330'>330</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Suetonius, quoted, <a href='#Page_19'>19</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Suidas, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Sulpicia, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Supellex Manzoliniana</i>, <a href='#Page_237'>237</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Surgery, women in, <a href='#Page_266'>266</a>-308.<br /> +<br /> +Surinam, insects of, Frau Merian's book on, <a href='#Page_240'>240</a>-241.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Survey of the Heavens</i>, by Sir William Herschel, <a href='#Page_187'>187</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Suslowa, Nadejda, physician, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span>Sviani, Elisabetta, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Swallow, Ellen. <i>See</i> Richards, Mrs. Ellen H.<br /> +<br /> +Swammerdam, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Swetchine, Mme., <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Swift, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a>, quoted, <a href='#Page_98'>98</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Symbols and Emblems of Early Mediæval Christian Art</i> by Louise Twining, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Symonds, J. A., <a href='#Page_113'>113</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Synesius, bishop of Ptolemais, <a href='#Page_141'>141</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_200'>200</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Tacitus, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>, <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>, <a href='#Page_28'>28</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Taine, comparison of Milton and Cædmon by, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Taj Mahal, <a href='#Page_337'>337</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Tambroni, Clotilda, professor of Greek, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>, <a href='#Page_79'>79</a>, <a href='#Page_209'>209</a>, <a href='#Page_298'>298</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tasso, Torquato, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Taylor, Janet, <a href='#Page_161'>161</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Telesilla, <a href='#Page_6'>6</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tencin, Mme., <a href='#Page_92'>92</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tennyson, quoted, <a href='#Page_416'>416</a>, <a href='#Page_417'>417</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Terentia, <a href='#Page_356'>356</a>, <a href='#Page_361'>361</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tertulla, <a href='#Page_23'>23</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Thais, <a href='#Page_11'>11</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Theano, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>, <a href='#Page_17'>17</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>, <a href='#Page_269'>269</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Themista, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Theodicy</i>, by Leibnitz, <a href='#Page_371'>371</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Theodora, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Theon, <a href='#Page_137'>137</a>, <a href='#Page_168'>168</a>, <a href='#Page_199'>199</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Thucydides, quoted, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Thurm, Christopher, <a href='#Page_174'>174</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tiberius, wife of, <a href='#Page_24'>24</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Tides of the Ocean and Atmosphere, The</i>, by Mary Somerville, <a href='#Page_212'>212</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tischendorf, <a href='#Page_328'>328</a>, <a href='#Page_329'>329</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Titian, <a href='#Page_61'>61</a>, <i>footnote</i>, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Traité de Chimie</i>, by Lavoisier, <a href='#Page_215'>215</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Traité d'Horlogerie</i>, <a href='#Page_179'>179</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Traité de Radio-Activité</i>, by Mme. Curie, <a href='#Page_228'>228</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Travelers, women, <a href='#Page_255'>255</a>-264.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Travels in West Africa</i>, by Mary H. Kingsley, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Treat, Mary, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Trinity college, Dublin, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Tristan und Isolde</i>, by Godfrey of Strasburg, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Trombetas, explored by Madame Coudreau, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Trotula of Salerno, physician, <a href='#Page_284'>284</a>-286, <a href='#Page_296'>296</a>, <a href='#Page_297'>297</a>, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tulia, letters of, <a href='#Page_29'>29</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Turgenieff, weight of brain of, <a href='#Page_119'>119</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Twining, Louise, archæologist, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Tyndall, <a href='#Page_385'>385</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Types and Figures of the Bible Illustrated by Art</i>, by Louise Twining, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +United States, women in, in post-Renaissance period, <a href='#Page_99'>99</a>, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women mathematicians in, <a href='#Page_166'>166</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women astronomers in, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">famous women naturalists in, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>-255;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women physicians in, <a href='#Page_300'>300</a>-304;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">education in, <a href='#Page_401'>401</a>, <a href='#Page_402'>402</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +United States National Museum, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Universities, of England, Scotland and Ireland, attitude of, toward women, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">of Germany open to women, <a href='#Page_101'>101</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">European, women as professors in, <a href='#Page_102'>102</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">coeducational, comparative standing of men and women in, <a href='#Page_128'>128</a>, <a href='#Page_129'>129</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Universities, Italian, attitude of, toward women, <a href='#Page_57'>57</a>, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a>;<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">women in, during the Renaissance, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>-65;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">women professors in, <a href='#Page_78'>78</a>-80;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude of, toward women, compared with that of Anglo-Saxons, <a href='#Page_80'>80</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +Urania, muse of astronomy, <a href='#Page_167'>167</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Urania Propitia</i>, by Maria Cunitz, <a href='#Page_171'>171</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Urbino, court of, <a href='#Page_66'>66</a>, <a href='#Page_67'>67</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Urbino, Duchess of, <a href='#Page_310'>310</a>, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Urbino, University of, <a href='#Page_62'>62</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Vaccination, <a href='#Page_299'>299</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Valiæ</i>, physician, <a href='#Page_272'>272</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Van Schurman, Anna Maria, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>, <a href='#Page_95'>95</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vasari, in praise of Suor Plantilla Nelli, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vasca de Gama, <a href='#Page_56'>56</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vasourie, <a href='#Page_236'>236</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vassar, Matthew, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vassar College, <a href='#Page_100'>100</a>, <a href='#Page_192'>192</a>, <a href='#Page_216'>216</a>, <a href='#Page_253'>253</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vatican, <a href='#Page_309'>309</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vega, Lopez, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Veitch, Professor John, quoted, <a href='#Page_382'>382</a>, <a href='#Page_383'>383</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Venerable Bede, quoted, <a href='#Page_37'>37</a>, <a href='#Page_38'>38</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Verronese, Guarino, <a href='#Page_58'>58</a> and <a href='#Page_59'>59</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Vico, Father de, <a href='#Page_191'>191</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Victoria, physician, <a href='#Page_271'>271</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Victoria, Queen, <a href='#Page_316'>316</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Viète, François, <a href='#Page_362'>362</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vigri, Caterina, <a href='#Page_60'>60</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Virchow, Rudolph, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>, <a href='#Page_278'>278</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Virgil, quoted, <a href='#Page_112'>112</a>, <a href='#Page_335'>335</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Vis viva</i>, views of Marquise du Châtelet on, <a href='#Page_202'>202</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Vita Nuova</i>, by Dante, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vitalis, Ordericus, <a href='#Page_285'>285</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Vivès, Juan, <a href='#Page_68'>68</a>, <a href='#Page_69'>69</a>, <a href='#Page_73'>73</a>, <a href='#Page_75'>75</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Voet, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Voght, <a href='#Page_246'>246</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Voiture, <a href='#Page_88'>88</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Voltaire, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>, <a href='#Page_117'>117</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">attitude of, toward women, <a href='#Page_93'>93</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Émilie du Châtelet and, <a href='#Page_151'>151</a>, <a href='#Page_153'>153</a>, <a href='#Page_178'>178</a> and <a href='#Page_179'>179</a> <i>footnote</i>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quoted <a href='#Page_175'>175</a>, <a href='#Page_206'>206</a>, <a href='#Page_334'>334</a>, <a href='#Page_346'>346</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">election of, to the Bologna Academy, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">letters of, to Laura Bassi, <a href='#Page_207'>207</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Voyage à la Mapuerá</i>, by Mme. Coudreau, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Voyage au Cuminá</i>, by Mme. Coudreau, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Voyage au Itaboca et à l'Etacayuna</i>, by the Coudreaux, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Voyage au Maycurú</i>, by Madame Coudreau, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a> and <a href='#Page_263'>263</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Voyage au Rio Curuá</i>, by Madame Coudreau, <a href='#Page_262'>262</a> and <a href='#Page_263'>263</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Voyage au Tapaos</i>, by the Coudreaux, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Voyage au Tocantins-Araguaya</i>, by the Coudreaux, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Voyage au Trombetas</i>, by Madame Coudreau, <a href='#Page_258'>258</a>, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Voyage au Xingu</i>, by the Coudreaux, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Voyage entre Tocantins et Xingu, et Voyage au Yamunda</i>, by the Coudreaux, <a href='#Page_263'>263</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Vulgate, <a href='#Page_357'>357</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">assistance of Paula and Eustochium in preparation of, <a href='#Page_32'>32</a>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Wagner, Rudolph, <a href='#Page_120'>120</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span>Wallace, Robert, <a href='#Page_252'>252</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Walpole, Horace, <a href='#Page_89'>89</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">quoted, <a href='#Page_97'>97</a> <i>footnote</i>.</span><br /> +<br /> +<i>Waltharius</i>, by Ekkehard, <a href='#Page_276'>276</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Warsaw, <a href='#Page_221'>221</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Watson, Sir William, quoted, <a href='#Page_184'>184</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Weber, <a href='#Page_359'>359</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wells, Louisa D., <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>West African Studies</i>, by Mary H. Kingsley, <a href='#Page_257'>257</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Westwood, <a href='#Page_248'>248</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wheeler, Miss B. E., archæologist, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whewell, Dr., <a href='#Page_160'>160</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whiting, Sarah F., of Wellesley, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whitney, Eli, <a href='#Page_352'>352</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Whitney, Mary W., of Vassar, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wilhelm II, attitude of, toward women, <a href='#Page_94'>94</a>.<br /> +<br /> +William of Auxerre, in praise of St. Hildegard, <a href='#Page_47'>47</a>, <a href='#Page_48'>48</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Williams, Blanche E., archæologist, <a href='#Page_321'>321</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Winckelmann, <a href='#Page_311'>311</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Winlock, Anna, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Wisdom</i>, by Perictione, <a href='#Page_8'>8</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Woman Under Monasticism</i>, Eckenstein's, <a href='#Page_52'>52</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<i>Women in English Life</i>, by Georgiana Hill, <a href='#Page_41'>41</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wordsworth, quoted, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Wordsworth, Dorothy, <a href='#Page_372'>372</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Worms, Fannie Langdon's study of, <a href='#Page_254'>254</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Würzburg, University of, <a href='#Page_279'>279</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Xenophon, quoted, <a href='#Page_4'>4</a>; <a href='#Page_25'>25</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Young, Annie S., of Mt. Holyoke, <a href='#Page_195'>195</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Young, Arthur, <a href='#Page_214'>214</a>.<br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Zoölogy, Herr Kablick's study of, <a href='#Page_243'>243</a>.<br /> +<br /> +Zoyosa, Casa, <a href='#Page_59'>59</a> <i>footnote</i>.<br /> +<br /> +Zurich, University of, <a href='#Page_244'>244</a>, <a href='#Page_304'>304</a>.<br /> +</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<h4>FOLLOWING THE CONQUISTADORES</h4> + + +<h3>Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena</h3> + +<p class="center">By <span class="smcap">H. J. Mozans</span>, A. M., Ph. D. Illustrated. 8vo, cloth, gilt top, uncut +edges. Price $3.00 net. By mail $3.20.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"His pages breathe the poetry of travel, the romance of Sir +John Mandeville, tempered by the moderation of scientific +research. This is a very model of a travel book, and the +author is to be congratulated on a result that will insure a +wide public for the promised sequel."—<i>The World</i>, London, +England.</p> + +<p>"The book is beyond question the most valuable of all the +books on South America which has appeared. It is as +interesting as a novel, full of entertaining anecdote and of +real value to the student. It contains some maps and +excellent illustrations from photographs."—<i>The Call</i>, San +Francisco, Cal.</p> + +<p>"This is a remarkably interesting book, leading us through a +region little known to the majority of English travelers, +and possessing, in consequence, that charm of novelty in +which works of the same description are occasionally +deficient."—<i>The Standard</i>, London, England.</p> + +<p>"The reader will find this trip with the author, "Up the +Orinoco and Down the Magdalena," as agreeable and +instructive as a personally conducted visit to the heart of +the Andes."—<i>Evening Transcript</i>, Boston, Mass.</p> + +<p>"This volume, remarkable alike for its instructive qualities +and the excellent composition, will open a vista of delight +to the reader who relishes travel."—<i>The News</i>, Charleston, +S. C.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Mozans sees the country with the trained and +experienced eye of a world traveler and with the well +stocked mind of the lover of literature. The past is linked +with the present, the unknown with the known, and poetically +appreciated in a way that is most delightful."—<i>The +Tribune</i>, Chicago, Ill.</p> + +<p>"The author, a traveler of many years of experience, who has +explored strange corners of the globe in every zone, +combines with accurate observation and a facile power of +description a knowledge of history that enables him to +illuminate his work with something of the romance that +attaches to the tales of the conquistadores in whose trail +he followed on this journey. The resulting book is one that +gives the reader a complete new set of impressions and ideas +concerning Venezuela and Columbia and the great rivers that +water these still unsettled lands."—The <i>Times Star</i>, +Cincinnati, Ohio.</p> + +<p>"Not since the appearance of Humboldt's "<i>Personal Narrative +of Travels in the Equinoctial Regions of America</i>" has the +fertile and romantic region of <i>Tierra Firma</i>—the scene of +the exploits of some of this most illustrious of the +<i>Conquistadores</i>—been so fully and so vividly described as +by Doctor Mozans in his instructive and fascinating volume +"<i>Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena</i>.""—<i>Bulletin of +the Pan-American Union.</i></p></div> + +<h3> +Along the Andes and Down the Amazon</h3> + +<p class="center">By <span class="smcap">H. J. Mozans</span>, A. M., Ph. D. With an Introduction by <span class="smcap">Theodore +Roosevelt</span>. Illustrated. 8vo, cloth, gilt top, uncut edges. Price $3.50 +net. By mail $3.70</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"It was a great project and a grand journey, but we do not +recall any writer who could describe it so delightfully as +Dr. Mozans. He has not only an irresistible literary charm, +but he is so saturated with knowledge of what he writes +about that all he writes has an irresistible +interest."—<i>The Herald</i>, Glasgow, Scotland.</p> + +<p>"Readers of Dr. Mozans' book have been impressed by the +remarkable, almost amazing, erudition shown in it. It has +also a modernity that is unusual in scholarly persons. Dr. +Mozans seems to have been everywhere and studied everything. +His especial interest in life has been thoroughly to +acquaint himself with the history, antiquities and people, +past and present, of northern South America."—<i>The Literary +Digest</i>, New York City.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Mozans writes English after our own style, and has a +point of view half philosophical and half poetic. He is +highly sensitive to the mystery of the dead civilizations of +the Andean plateaux, as well as to the abounding life of the +modern States, and the book generally is the pleasantest +account of South America we have encountered for a +considerable time."—<i>The Standard</i>, London, England.</p> + +<p>"To read his book is not only to travel with him to strange +places but also to be steeped in good literature."—<i>The +Record-Herald</i>, Chicago, Ill.</p> + +<p>"Great learning is often allied with great simplicity. It is +so in the case of Dr. Mozans. He is bubbling over with +information about the achievements of the Spanish +conquistadores and the subsequent history of the lands over +which they established their sway."—<i>The Field</i>, London, +England.</p> + +<p>"Whether Dr. Mozans' volume is resorted to for solid +information or mere entertainment it will well repay the +reading."—The <i>New York Times</i>.</p> + +<p>"A book which every traveler to South America, especially +every traveler to the west coast of the continent, will wish +to have in his handbag."—<i>Bulletin of the Pan-American +Union.</i></p> + +<p>"This is a delightful book from every +standpoint."—Ex-President Roosevelt, in the Introduction to +Dr. Mozans' book.</p> + +<p>"Like the well-known works of Waterton and Humboldt on South +America, the two books by Dr. Mozans are sure to have a +permanent value and to be recognized as soon as known, as +authorities on the countless subjects discussed in their +illuminating pages with such fairness and +scholarship."—<i>The Freeman's Journal</i>, New York City.</p></div> + + +<h4>D. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Woman in Science + With an Introductory Chapter on Woman's Long Struggle for Things of the Mind + + +Author: John Augustine Zahm + + + +Release Date: January 11, 2011 [eBook #34912] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN IN SCIENCE*** + + +E-text prepared by Bryan Ness, Josephine Paolucci, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images +generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries +(http://www.archive.org/details/americana) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/womaninsciencewi00mozaiala + + + + + +WOMAN IN SCIENCE + +With an Introductory Chapter on Woman's Long Struggle +for Things of the Mind + +by + +H. J. MOZANS, A.M., PH.D. + +Author of "Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena," +"Along the Andes and Down the Amazon," etc. + +[Illustration] + +Que e piu bella in donna que savere? + +DANTE, CONVITO. + + + + + + + +New York and London +D. Appleton and Company +1913 + +Copyright, 1913, by +D. Appleton and Company + +Printed in the United States of America + + + +TO +MRS. CHARLES M. SCHWAB +AS A SLIGHT TRIBUTE +TO HER CHARMING PERSONALITY +GOODNESS OF HEART AND NOBILITY OF SOUL +THIS VOLUME +IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED +WITH THE BEST WISHES OF +THE AUTHOR. + + + + +PREFACE + + +The following pages are the outcome of studies begun many years ago in +Greece and Italy. While wandering through the famed and picturesque land +of the Hellenes, rejoicing in the countless beauties of the islands of +the Ionian and Aegean seas or scaling the heights of Helicon and +Parnassus, all so redolent of the storied past, I saw on every side +tangible evidence of that marvelous race of men and women whose +matchless achievements have been the delight and inspiration of the +world for nearly three thousand years. But it was especially while +contemplating, from the portico of the Parthenon, the magnificent vista +which there meets the charmed vision, that I first fully experienced the +spell of the favored land of Hellas, so long the home of beauty and of +intellect. The scene before me was indeed enchanting beyond expression; +for, every ruin, every marble column, every rock had its history, and +evoked the most precious memories of men of godlike thoughts and of + + "A thousand glorious actions that may claim + Triumphal laurels and immortal fame." + +It was a tranquil and balmy night in midsummer. The sun, leaving a +gorgeous afterglow, had about an hour before disappeared behind the +azure-veiled mountains of Ithaca, where, in the long ago, lived and +loved the hero and the heroine of the incomparable Odyssey. The full +moon, just rising above the plain of Marathon, intensified the witchery +of that memorable spot consecrated by the valor of patriots battling +victoriously against the invading hordes of Asia. Hard by was the +Areopagus, where St. Paul preached to the "superstitious" Athenians on +"The Unknown God." Almost adjoining it was the Agora, where Socrates was +wont to hold converse with noble and simple on the sublimest questions +which can engage the human mind. Not distant was the site of the +celebrated "Painted Porch," where Zeno developed his famous system of +ethics. In another quarter were the shady walks of the Lyceum, where +Aristotle, "the master of those who know," lectured before an admiring +concourse of students from all parts of Hellas. Farther afield, on the +banks of the Cephissus, was the grove of Academus, where the divine +Plato expounded that admirable idealism which, with Aristotelianism, has +controlled the progress of speculative thought for more than twenty +centuries, and enunciated those admirable doctrines which have become +the common heritage of humanity. + +But where, in this venerable city--"the eye of Greece, mother of arts +and eloquence"--was the abode of Aspasia, the wife of Pericles and the +inspirer of the noblest minds of the Golden Age of Grecian civilization? +Where was that salon, renowned these four and twenty centuries as the +most brilliant court of culture the world has ever known, wherein this +gifted and accomplished daughter of Miletus gathered about her the most +learned men and women of her time? Whatever the location, there it was +that the wit and talent of Attica found a congenial trysting-place, and +human genius burst into fairest blossom. There it was that poets, +sculptors, painters, orators, philosophers, statesmen were all equally +at home. There Socrates discoursed on philosophy; there Euripides and +Sophocles read their plays; there Anaxagoras dilated upon the nature and +constitution of the universe; there Phidias, the greatest sculptor of +all time, and Ictinus and Callicrates unfolded their plans for that +supreme creation of architecture, the temple of Athena Parthenos on the +Acropolis. Like Michaelangelo, long centuries afterwards, who "saw with +the eyes and acted by the inspiration" of Vittoria Colonna, these +masters of Greek architecture and sculpture saw with the eyes and acted +by the sublime promptings of Aspasia, who was the greatest patron and +inspirer of men of genius the world has ever known. + +I felt then, as I feel now, that this superb monument to the virgin +goddess of wisdom and art and science was in great measure a monument to +the one who by her quick intelligence, her profound knowledge, her +inspiration, her patronage, her influence, had so much to do with its +erection--the wise, the cultured, the richly dowered Aspasia. + +This thought it was that started the train of reflections on the +intellectual achievements of women which eventually gave rise to the +idea of writing a book on woman's work in things of the mind. + +The following day, as I was entering the University of Athens, I noticed +above the stately portal a large and beautiful painting which, on +inspection, proved, to my great delight, to be nothing less than a +pictorial representation of my musings the night before on the portico +of the Parthenon. For there was Aspasia, just as I had fancied her in +her salon, seated beside Pericles, and surrounded by the greatest and +the wisest men of Greece. "This," I exclaimed, "shall be the +frontispiece of my book; it will tell more than many pages of text." Nor +did I rest till I had procured a copy of this excellent work of art. + +Shortly after my journey through Greece I visited the chief cities and +towns of Italy. I traversed the whole of Magna Graecia and, to enjoy the +local color of things Grecian and breathe, as far as might be, the +atmosphere which once enveloped the world's greatest thinkers, I stood +on the spot in Syracuse where Plato discoursed on the true, the +beautiful and the good, before enthusiastic audiences of men and women, +and wandered through the land inhabited by the ancient Bruttii, where +Pythagoras has his famous school of science and philosophy--a school +which was continued after the founder's death by his celebrated wife, +Theano. For in Crotona, as well as in Athens, and in Alexandria in the +time of Hypatia, women were teachers as well as scholars, and attained +to marked distinction in every branch of intellectual activity. + +As I visited, one after the other, what were once the great centers of +learning and culture in Magna Graecia, the idea of writing the book +aforementioned appealed to me more strongly from day to day, but it did +not assume definite form until after I had tarried for some weeks or +months in each of the great university towns of Italy. And as I wended +my way through the almost deserted streets of Salerno, which was for +centuries one of the noblest seats of learning in Christendom, and +recalled the achievements of its gifted daughters--those wonderful +_mulieres Salernitanae_, whose praises were once sounded throughout +Europe, but whose names have been almost forgotten--I began to realize, +as never before, that women of intellectual eminence have received too +little credit for their contributions to the progress of knowledge, and +should have a sympathetic historian of what they have achieved in the +domain of learning. + +But it was not until after I had visited the great university towns of +Bologna, Padua and Pavia, had become more familiar with their +fascinating histories and traditions, and surveyed there the scenes of +the great scholastic triumphs of women as students and professors, that +I fully realized the importance, if not the necessity, of such a work as +I had in contemplation. For then, as when standing in silent meditation +on the pronaos of the Parthenon, the past seemed to become present, and +the graceful figures of those illustrious daughters of _Italia la +Bella_, who have conferred such honor on both their country and on +womankind throughout the world, seemed to flit before me as they +returned to and from their lecture halls and laboratories, where their +discourses, in flowing Latin periods, had commanded the admiration and +the applause of students from every European country, from the Rock of +Cashel to the Athenian Acropolis. + +Only then did the magnitude and the difficulty of my self-imposed task +begin to dawn upon me. I saw that it would be impossible, if I were to +do justice to the subject, to compass in a single volume anything like +an adequate account of the contributions of women to the advancement of +general knowledge. I accordingly resolved to restrict my theme and +confine myself to an attempt to show what an important role women have +played in the development of those branches of knowledge in which they +are usually thought to have had but little part. + +The subject of my book thus, by a process of elimination, narrowed its +scope to woman's achievements in science. Many works in various +languages had been written on what women had accomplished in art, +literature, and state-craft, and there was, therefore, no special call +for a new volume on any of these topics. But, with the exception of a +few brief monographs in German, French and Italian, and an occasional +magazine article here and there, practically nothing had been written +about woman in science. The time, then, seemed opportune for entering +upon a field that had thus far been almost completely neglected; and, +although I soon discovered that the labor involved would be far greater +than I had anticipated, I never lost sight of the work which had its +virtual inception in the peerless sanctuary of Pallas Athena in the +"City of the Violet Crown." + +Duties and occupations innumerable have retarded the progress of the +work. But not the least cause of delay has been the difficulty of +locating the material essential to the production of a volume that would +do even partial justice to the numerous topics requiring treatment. My +experience, _parva componere magnis_, was not unlike that of Dr. +Johnson, who tells us in the preface to his _Dictionary of the English +Language_, "I saw that one inquiry only gave occasion to another, that +book referred to book, that to search was not always to find, and that +thus to pursue perfection was, like the first inhabitants of Arcadia, to +chase the sun, which, when they reached the hill where he seemed to +rest, was still beheld at the same distance from them." + +Although I have endeavored to give a place in this work to all women who +have achieved special distinction in science, it is not unlikely that I +may have inadvertently overlooked some, particularly among those of +recent years, who were deserving of mention. Should this be the case, I +shall be grateful for information which will enable me to correct such +oversights and render the volume, should there be a demand for more than +one edition, more complete and serviceable. And, although I have striven +to be as accurate as possible in all my statements, I can scarcely hope, +in traversing so broad a field, to have been wholly successful. For all +shortcomings, whether through omission or commission, + + "Quas aut incuria fudit, + Aut humana parum cavit natura," + +I crave the reader's indulgence, and trust that the present volume will +have at least the merit of stimulating some ambitious young Whewell to +explore more thoroughly the interesting field that I have but partially +reconnoitred, and give us ere long an adequate and comprehensive history +of the achievements of woman, not only in the inductive but in all the +sciences. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER PAGE + + I. WOMAN'S LONG STRUGGLE FOR THINGS OF THE MIND 1 + + II. WOMAN'S CAPACITY FOR SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS 106 + + III. WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS 136 + + IV. WOMEN IN ASTRONOMY 167 + + V. WOMEN IN PHYSICS 197 + + VI. WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY 214 + + VII. WOMEN IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 233 + + VIII. WOMEN IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY 266 + + IX. WOMEN IN ARCHAEOLOGY 309 + + X. WOMEN AS INVENTORS 334 + + XI. WOMEN AS INSPIRERS AND COLLABORATORS IN SCIENCE 356 + + XII. THE FUTURE OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE: SUMMARY AND EPILOGUE 390 + + BIBLIOGRAPHY 419 + + INDEX 427 + + + _Le donne son venute in excellenza + Di ciascun'arte, ove hanno posta cura; + E qualunque all'istorie abbia avvertenza, + Ne sente ancor la fama non oscura._ + + _What art so deep, what science so high, + But worthy women have thereto attained? + Who list in stories old to look may try, + And find my speech herein not false nor fain'd._ + + ARIOSTO, ORLANDO FURIOSO, + CANTO XX, STROPHE 2. + + _Ad omnem igitur doctrinam ... muliebres + animos natura comparavit._ + + MARIA GAETANA AGNESI. + + + + +WOMAN IN SCIENCE + + + + +CHAPTER I + +WOMAN'S LONG STRUGGLE FOR THINGS OF THE MIND + + +WOMAN AND EDUCATION IN ANCIENT GREECE + +I purpose to review the progress and achievements of woman in science +from her earliest efforts in ancient Greece down to the present time. I +shall relate how, in every department of natural knowledge, when not +inhibited by her environment, she has been the colleague and the +emulatress, if not the peer, of the most illustrious men who have +contributed to the increase and diffusion of human learning. But a +proper understanding of this subject seems to require some preliminary +survey of the many and diverse obstacles which, in every age of the +world's history, have opposed woman's advancement in general knowledge. +Without such preliminary survey it is impossible to realize the +intensity of her age-long struggle for freedom and justice in things of +the mind or fully to appreciate the comparative liberty and advantages +she now enjoys in almost every department of intellectual activity. +Neither could one understand why woman's achievements in science, +compared with those of men, have been so few and of so small import, +especially in times past, or why it is that, as a student of nature or +as an investigator in the various realms of pure and applied science, we +hear so little of her before the second half of the nineteenth century. + +To exhibit the nature of the difficulties woman has had to contend with +in every age and in every land, in order to secure what we now consider +her inalienable rights to things of the mind, it is not necessary to +review the history of female education, or to enter into the details of +her gradual progress forward and upward in the New and Old Worlds. But +it is necessary that we should know what was the attitude of mankind +toward woman's education during the leading epochs of the world's +history and what were, until almost our own day, the opinions of +men--scholars and rulers included--respecting the nature and the duties +of woman and what was considered, almost by all, her proper sphere of +action. Understanding the numerous and cruel handicaps which she had so +long to endure, the opposition to her aspirations which she had to +encounter, even during the most enlightened periods of the world's +history, and that, too, from those who should have been the first to +extend to her a helping hand, we can the better appreciate the extent of +her recent intellectual enfranchisement and of the value of the work she +has accomplished since she has been free to exercise those God-given +faculties which were so long held in restraint. + +The first great bar to the mental development of woman was the assumed +superiority of the male sex, the opinion, so generally accepted, that, +in the scheme of creation, woman was but "an accident, an imperfection, +an error of nature"; that she was either a slave conducing to man's +comfort, or, at best, a companion ministering to his amusement and +pleasure. + +From the earliest times she was regarded as man's inferior and relegated +to a subordinate position in society. She was, so it was averred, but a +diminutive man--a kind of mean between the lord of creation and the rest +of the animal kingdom. By some she was considered a kind of half man; by +others, as was cynically asserted, she was looked upon as a _mas +occasionatus_--a man marred in the making. She was, both mentally and +physically, what Spencer would call a man whose evolution had been +arrested, while man, as in the modern language of Darwin, was a woman, +whose evolution had been completed. + +When such views prevailed, it was inevitable that, so long as physical +force was the _force majeure_, a woman should be relegated to the +position of a slave or to that of "a mere glorified toy." Every man then +said, in effect, if not in words, of the woman who happened to be in his +power what Petruchio said of Katherine: + + "I will be master of what is mine own, + She is my goods, my chattels; she is my house, + My household stuff, my field, my barn, + My horse, my ox, my ass, my everything." + +Even after civilization had superseded savagery and barbarism, it was +still inevitable, so long as such views found acceptance, that woman +should continue to be held in vassalage and ignorance and to suffer all +the disabilities and privations of "the lesser man." She was studiously +excluded from civic and social functions and compelled to pass her life +in the restricted quarters of the harem or gyneceum. This was the case +among the Athenians, as well as among other peoples; for, during the +most brilliant period of their history, women, when not slaves or +hetaerae, were considered simply child-bearers or housekeepers.[1] A +girl's education, when she received any at all, was limited to reading, +writing and music, and for a knowledge of these subjects she was +dependent on her mother. From her earliest years the Athenian maiden was +made to realize that the great fountains of knowledge, which were +always available for her brothers, were closed to her. Her duty was to +become proficient in the use of the needle and the distaff, and, later +on, to learn how to embroider, to ply the loom and make garments for +herself and for the other members of her family. + +Until she was seven years old, she was brought up with her brothers +under the eye of her mother. During this period of childhood she had a +certain amount of freedom, but, after her seventh year, she was kept in +the gyneconitis--women's quarters--"under the strictest restraint, in +order," as Xenophon informs us in his _Oeconomicus_, "that she might +see as little, hear as little and ask as few questions as possible." On +rare occasions she was permitted to be a spectator at a religious +procession, or to take part in certain of the choral dances that +constituted so important a part in the religious ceremonies of ancient +Greece. Whether in public or in private, silence was always considered +an imperative duty for a woman. + +But more than this. Not only was she expected to observe silence +herself, but she was also expected so to conduct herself that no one +would have occasion to speak about her. Pericles, in a celebrated +discourse, gave expression to the prevailing opinion regarding this +phase of female excellence when, on a notable occasion, he addressed to +a certain number of women the following words: "Great will be your glory +in not falling short of your natural character; and greatest will be +hers who is least talked of among men whether for good or for evil."[2] + +From the foregoing observations it will be seen that the general +attitude of the Athenians toward woman was anything but favorable to her +intellectual development, or to her exerting any influence beyond the +limits of her own household. And what is said of the Greeks can be +affirmed, with still greater emphasis, of the other nations of +antiquity. Indeed, it can be safely asserted that, had they all entered +into a solemn compact systematically to discredit woman's mental +capacity and to repress all her noblest aspirations, they could not have +succeeded more effectually than by the methods they severally adopted. +In ancient Greece the condition of woman was little better than it is in +India to-day under the law of Manu, where the husband, no matter how +unworthy he may be, must be regarded by the wife as a god. + +And yet, notwithstanding the dominant force of public opinion and the +strange traditional prejudices that possessed for the majority of people +all the semblance and commanding power of truth, woman was here and +there able to break through the barriers that impeded her progress in +her quest of knowledge and to defy the social conventions that precluded +her from being seen or heard in the intellectual arena. + +One of the first and most notable of Greek women to assert her +independence and to emerge from the intellectual eclipse which had so +long kept her sex in obscurity, was the Lesbian Sappho, who, as a lyric +poet, stands, even to-day, without a superior. So great was her renown +among the ancients that she was called "The Poetess," as Homer was +called "The Poet." Solon, on hearing one of her songs sung at a banquet, +begged the singer to teach it to him at once that he might learn it and +die. Aristotle did not hesitate to endorse a judgment that ranked her +with Homer and Archilochus, while Plato, in his Phaedrus, exalts her +still higher by proclaiming her "the tenth Muse." Horace and Ovid and +Catullus strove to reproduce her passionate strains and rhythmic beauty; +but their efforts were little better than paraphrase and feeble +imitation. Her features were stamped on coins, "though she was but a +woman," and, after her death, altars were raised and temples erected in +honor of this "flower of the Graces," of + + "That mighty songstress, whose unrivaled powers + Weave for the Muse a crown of deathless flowers." + +Second only to the "violet-crowned, pure, sweetly-smiling Sappho," as +her rival, Alcaeus, calls her, were Gorgo, Andromeda and Corinna. The +last of these was the teacher of Pindar, the celebrated lyric poet, whom +she defeated five times in poetic contests in Thebes.[3] She was one of +the nine lyrical muses, corresponding to "the celestial nine," who dwelt +on the sacred slopes of Helicon.[4] Telesilla and Praxilla were two +others. The last named was by her countrymen ranked with Anacreon. + +Scarcely inferior to Corinna were those ardent pupils of Sappho, who had +flocked from the sunny isles of the Aegean and the laurel-crowned hills +of Greece around "the fair-haired Lesbian" in her island home, which +was, at the same time, a school of poetry and music. The most gifted of +these were Danophila, the Pamphylian, and Erinna, whose hexameters were +said by the ancients to reveal a genius equal to that of Homer. She died +at the early age of nineteen and has always excited a pathetic interest +because, like so many others of her sex since her time--women and +maidens of the loftiest spiritual aspirations,--she was condemned to the +spindle and the distaff when she wished to devote her life to the +service of the Muses. The following is her own epitaph: + + "These are Erinna's songs, how sweet, though slight! + For she was but a girl of nineteen years. + Yet stronger far than what most men can write; + Had death delayed, whose fame had equaled hers?" + +Never before nor since did such a wave of feminine genius pass over the +fragrant valleys and vine-clad plains of Greece. Never in any other +place or time shone so brilliant a galaxy of women of talent and +imagination; never was there a more perfect flowering of female +intelligence of the highest order. According to tradition, there +appeared in the favored land of Hellas, when the entire population of +the country was not equal to that of a fair-sized modern city, within +the brief space of a century, no fewer than seventy-six women poets. +When we remember that the Renaissance produced only about sixty female +poets, though in a more extended territory and with a much larger +population, and that none of them could approach the incomparable +Sappho, or even many of her pupils, in the perfection of their work, we +can realize the splendor of the achievements of the female intellect in +the Hellenic world during the golden age of feminine poetic art.[5] + +One would think that this phenomenal outburst of mental vigor, and +especially the marvelous achievements of Sappho, Corinna and those of +their pupils and followers, would have compelled the world for all +subsequent time to recognize the innate power of the female mind, and +perceive the wisdom--not to say justice--of according to women the same +advantages for the development of their inborn gifts as were afforded to +men. They had proved that, under favorable conditions, there was +essentially no difference between the male and the female intellect, and +that genius knows no sex. And this they demonstrated not only in poetry, +but also in philosophy and in other branches of human knowledge as well. + +Among those who had especially distinguished themselves were Hipparchia, +the wife of the philosopher Crates; Themista, the wife of Leon and a +correspondent of Epicurus, who was pronounced "a sort of female Solon"; +Perictione, a disciple of Pythagoras, who distinguished herself by her +writings on _Wisdom_ and _The Harmony of Woman_, and Leontium, a +disciple and companion of Epicurus, who wrote a work against +Theophrastus, which was pronounced by Cicero a model of style. + +And was not the school of Pythagoras at Crotona continued after his +death by his daughter and his wife, Theano? And did not this fact alone +manifest woman's capacity for abstract thought, as effectively as the +Lesbian school had demonstrated her talent for consummate verse?[6] + +But it was all to no purpose. The comparative freedom and advantages +which Sappho, Corinna and their friends had enjoyed was soon--for some +reason scarcely comprehensible by us--taken from all the women of Greece +except the peculiar class known in history as _hetaerae_--companions. +These we should now rank among the _demimonde_, but the Greek point of +view was different from ours. The hetaerae were the friends and companions +of the men who spent most of their time in public resorts, and they +accompanied them to the gymnasium, to banquets, the games, to the +theater and other similar assemblies from which the wives and daughters +of the Athenians, during the golden age of Greece, were rigorously +excluded. For so great was the seclusion in which the wives of the +Greeks then lived that they never attended public spectacles and never +left the house, unless accompanied by a female slave. They were not +permitted to see men except in the presence of their husbands, nor could +they have a seat even at their own tables, if their husbands happened to +have male guests. + +It was by reason of this strict seclusion and the enforced ignorance to +which they were subjected that we hear very little of the virtuous women +of this period of Greek history. We have records of a few instances of +filial and conjugal affection, but, outside of this, the names of the +wives and daughters of even the most distinguished citizens have long +since passed into oblivion. Only the hetaerae attracted public notice, and +only among them, during the period to which reference is now made, do we +find any women who achieved distinction by their intellectual +attainments, or by the influence which they exerted over those with whom +they were associated. + +But strange as it may appear, these extra-matrimonial connections, far +from incurring the censure which they would now provoke, received the +cordial recognition of both legislators and moralists, and even those +who were considered the most virtuous among men openly entered into +these relations without exposing themselves to the slightest stigma or +reproach. Many of the hetaerae, contrary to what is sometimes thought, +were "of highly moral character, temperate, thoughtful and earnest, and +were either unattached or attached to one man, and to all intents and +purposes married. Even if they had two or three attachments but behaved +in other respects with temperance and sobriety, such was the Greek +feeling in regard to their peculiar position that they did not bring +down upon themselves any censure from even the sternest of the Greek +moralists."[7] + +The most famous men of Greece, married as well as unmarried, had their +"companions," many of whom were as distinguished for their +accomplishments as for their wit and beauty. Thus Epicurus had Leontium, +Menander Glycera, Isocrates Metaneira, Aristotle Herpyllis, and Plato +Archlanassa, while Aristippus, the philosopher, Diogenes, the cynic, and +Demosthenes, the great orator, each had a companion bearing the name of +Lais.[8] More than this. So strongly had many of the hetaerae impressed +themselves on the esthetic sense of the beauty-loving Greeks that not a +few of them had statues erected in their honor, especially in Athens and +Corinth, and thus shared in the honor that hitherto had been reserved +exclusively for the goddess of beauty and love, fair Aphrodite. + +The hetaerae from Ionia and Aetolia were particularly conspicuous for their +intelligence and culture. And all of them, whencesoever they came, +enjoyed unrestricted liberty and, unlike the wives of the citizens of +Athens, had free access to the Portico and the Academy and the Lyceum, +and were permitted to attend the lectures of the philosophers on the +same footing as the men. Thus, to mention only a few, Thais was a pupil +of Alciphron, Nicarete of Stilpo, and Lasthenia of Plato. + +And so keen were their intellects and so marked was their progress in +the most abstract studies, that many of them were recognized as the most +distinguished pupils of their masters. This accounts, in part, for the +popularity of their salons, at which were gathered the most eminent +statesmen, poets, artists, philosophers and orators of the day. The +nearest approach in modern times to such trysting-places, where beauty, +wit and talent found a congenial atmosphere, were the celebrated salons +of Ninon de Lenclos, Mlle. de l'Espinasse and Mme. du Deffand. At these +reunions were discussed, not only the news of the day, but also, and +especially, art, science, literature and politics, and always to the +advantage of both guests and hostesses. + +Possessing such freedom and enjoying such splendid opportunities for +culture and intellectual advancement, it is not surprising that the +hetaerae played so remarkable a role in the social and civic life of +Greece, and that they were able to wield such influence over their +associates, and that they often attained even the highest royal honors. +Nor is it surprising to read in Plato's _Symposium_ the splendid tribute +which Socrates renders to Diotima of Mantinea, when, in discussing the +true nature of divine and eternal beauty, he speaks of her as his +teacher. + +Many of the hetaerae were not only the models but also the inspirers of +the most famous painters and sculptors of antiquity. Thus, Lais was the +companion and inspirer of Apelles, the most noted painter of Greece, +while Phryne, said to have been the most beautiful woman who ever lived, +was the inspirer of the peerless Praxitiles, who, in reproducing her +form, succeeded in bequeathing to the world what was undoubtedly the +most lovely representation of "the human form divine" that ever came +from a sculptor's chisel.[9] + +On account of the relations of the hetaerae, especially those of the +fourth and fifth centuries B.C., with the greatest men of their time, +the writers of antiquity thought them of sufficient importance to +preserve their history. One author has left us an account of no fewer +than one hundred and thirty-five of them. But, of all those whose names +have come down to us, by far the most noted, accomplished and +influential was the famous Aspasia of Miletus. In many respects she was +the most remarkable woman Greece ever produced. Of rare talent and +culture, of extraordinary tact and finesse, of a fascinating personality +combined with the grace and sensibility of her sex, together with a +masculine power of intellect, "this gracious Ionian," as has well been +said, "stands with Sappho on the pinnacle of Hellenic culture, each in +her own field the highest feminine representative of an esthetic race." + +At an early age she won the passionate love of the great statesman +Pericles, after which she entered upon that marvelous career which +secured for her a place in the front rank of the most eminent women of +all time. "Her house became the resort of all the great men of Athens. +Socrates was often there. Phidias and Anaxagoras were intimate +acquaintances, and probably Sophocles and Euripides were in constant +attendance. Indeed, never had any woman such a salon in the whole +history of man. The greatest sculptor that ever lived, the grandest man +of all antiquity, philosophers and poets, sculptors and painters, +statesmen and historians, met each other and discussed congenial +subjects in her rooms. And probably hence has arisen the tradition that +she was the teacher of Socrates in philosophy and politics, and Pericles +in rhetoric. Her influence was such as to stimulate men to their best, +and they attributed to her all that was best in themselves. Aspasia +seems especially to have thought earnestly on the duties and destiny of +women. The cultivated men who thronged her assemblies had no hesitation +in breaking through the conventionalities of Athenian society, and +brought their wives to the parties of Aspasia; and she discussed with +them the duties of wives. She thought they should be something more than +mere mothers and housewives. She urged them to cultivate their minds, +and be in all respects fit companions for their husbands."[10] + +She is said to have written some of the best speeches of Pericles--among +them his noted funeral oration over those who had died in battle before +the walls of Potidaea. As to Socrates, he himself explicitly refers to +her, in the _Memorabilia_, as his teacher. She is a notable character in +the Socratic dialogues and appears several times in those of Aeschines, +while there is every reason to believe that she strongly influenced the +views of Plato, as expressed by him in the _Republic_ respecting the +equality of woman with man. + +She was continually consulted regarding affairs of state, and her +influence in social and political matters was profound and far-reaching. +This is evidenced by the abuse heaped upon her by the comic dramatists +of the time. Referring to the ascendancy which she had over Pericles, +she was called Dejanira, the wife of Hercules; Hera, the queen of the +gods and wife of the Olympian Jove. It was asserted by her enemies that +the Samian war had been brought about at her instigation and that the +Peloponnesian war had been undertaken to avenge an insult which had been +offered her. These and similar statements which, when not absurd, were +greatly exaggerated, show the boundless influence she wielded over +Pericles, and what an important part she took in the government of +Greece in the zenith of its glory. + +But, however great her influence, we are warranted in asserting that it +was never exercised in an illegitimate manner. She was ever, as history +informs us, the good, the wise, the learned, the eloquent Aspasia. It +was her goodness, her wisdom, her rare and varied accomplishments, her +clear insight and noble purposes that gave her the wonderful power she +possessed and which enabled her, probably more than any one person, to +make the age of Pericles not only the most brilliant age of Greek +history, but also the most brilliant age of all time.[11] + +But, notwithstanding the beneficent influence which Aspasia ever exerted +on those about her, notwithstanding the heroic efforts she had made to +liberate her own sex from the restrictions that had so long harassed and +degraded it, the wives and daughters of the citizens of Athens were +still kept in almost absolute seclusion and denied the opportunities of +mental culture which were so generously accorded the free-born hetaerae +from Asia Minor and the islands of the Aegean. Socrates, as we learn from +Xenophon, asserted woman's equality with man, while Plato taught that +mentally there was no essential difference between man and woman. He +concluded, accordingly, that women of talent should have the same +educational advantages as men. In _The Republic_ as well as in the +_Laws_, when he refers to education--which he would make compulsory for +"all and sundry, as far as possible"--his views are far in advance of +those which have been entertained until the last half century. He would +have girls as well as boys thoroughly instructed in music and +gymnastic--"music for the mind and gymnastic for the body."[12] + +In the _Laws_ he contends that "women ought to share, as far as +possible, in education and in other ways with men. For consider:--if +women do not share in their whole life with men, then they must have +some other order of life." + +Again he asserts "Nothing can be more absurd than the practice which +prevails in our own country of men and women not following the same +pursuits with all their strength and with one mind, for thus the state, +instead of being a whole, is reduced to a half."[13] + +In _The Republic_ he expresses the same idea when he affirms that "the +gifts of nature are alike diffused in both"--men and women--"all the +pursuits of men are the pursuits of women."[14] + +These opinions of Socrates and Plato are so at variance with those of +their contemporaries, and so contrary to the custom that then obtained +of excluding all but free-born hetaerae from the advantages of education +and culture, that we cannot but think that they were due to the profound +influence which had been exercised directly or indirectly by Aspasia on +both of these great philosophers. Be this as it may, neither the efforts +of Aspasia nor the teachings of Socrates and Plato were able to remove +the bars to intellectual development from which the women of Greece had +so long suffered. A change in customs and laws concerning the rigid, +oriental seclusion of women did not come until much later, and then it +was under a new regime--that of the Caesars--while complete equality of +men and women in school and college was not recognized until long +centuries afterward. + +It is interesting to speculate regarding what Greece would have become +had she developed her women as she developed her men. Never in the +history of the world were there in any one city so many eminent +men--poets, orators, statesmen, painters, sculptors, architects, +philosophers--as in Athens, and yet not a single native-born Athenian +woman ever attained the least distinction in any department of art or +science or literature. We cannot conceive for a moment that Greece's +fertility in great men and barrenness in great women was due to the fact +that the mothers of such illustrious men were ordinary housewives and +entirely devoid of the talent and genius which gave immortality to their +distinguished sons. The careers of Aspasia and the achievements of +Sappho, Corinna, Myrtides, Erinna, Praxilla, Telesilla, Myrus, Anytae and +Nossidis, Theano and her daughter, to mention no others, absolutely +preclude such an assumption. + +The women in Greece, there can be no doubt about it, were as richly +endowed by nature as were the men, and only lacked the opportunities +that men enjoyed to achieve, in every sphere of intellectual activity, a +corresponding measure of success. They were extraordinary types, these +women of ancient Greece; for among them we find the dignified Roman +matron, the chatelaine of the Middle Ages, the brilliant woman of the +Renaissance and the cultured mistress of the French _salon_. But all +their talent, power and genius counted for naught. + +Had the civilization of Greece been a woman's civilization, as well as a +man's civilization, had there been a federation of all the Greek states, +as Aspasia seems to have striven for, instead of a number of small and +independent city-states; had the women of Hellas been allowed the same +liberty of action in intellectual work as was granted to the Italian +women during and after the revival of letters, and had they been +encouraged to develop all their latent powers that were so +systematically suppressed, and to work in unison with the men for the +welfare and advancement of a united nation, it is difficult to imagine +what a dazzling intellectual zenith a supremely gifted people, "full +summ'd in all their powers," would have attained. Their capacity for +work and for achieving great things would have been doubled and their +power as a political organization would have been practically +irresistible. + +"We are the only women that bring forth men," said Gorgo, the wife of +Leonidas. The Spartan mothers, who had more of liberty than their +Athenian sisters, did, indeed, bring forth warriors of undying renown; +but it was the mothers of Athens who, notwithstanding all their +grievous disabilities, gave to the world all the greatest masters in +art, literature, and philosophy--the men who through the ages have been +the leaders and the teachers of humanity, and who seem destined to hold +their exalted position until the end of time. + +The failure of the men of Greece to avail themselves of the immense +potential power, which they always kept latent in their women, was the +occasion of a terrible nemesis in the end. For this failure, coupled +with the frightful license introduced by a class of educated women, like +the hetaerae, without legal status or domestic ties, and the wave of +corruption that subsequently followed the advent of the countless +dissolute women who flocked to the Hellenic cities from every part of +the East, paved the way for the nation's downfall and for its ultimate +conquest by the resistless Roman legions that swept the once glorious +but ill-fated country of Pericles and Aspasia. + + +WOMAN AND EDUCATION IN ANCIENT ROME + +The condition of women in Rome, especially from 150 B.C. to 150 A.D., +was quite different from what it was in Athens, even during her palmiest +days. Owing to the lack of authentic documents we know but little of the +history of the Roman people during the first five hundred years of their +existence, but we do know that during this period many and important +changes were effected regarding the social and civil status of women. + +In the first place the Roman matron had much more freedom than was +accorded the Greek wife during the age of Pericles. Far from being kept +in oriental seclusion, like her Athenian sister, she was at liberty to +receive and dine with the friends of her husband, and to appear in +public whenever she desired. She went to the theater and the Forum; she +took part in all reputable entertainment, whether public or private. +Besides this, she had more and greater legal rights than Greek women +had ever known, and was treated rather as the peer and companion of man +than as his toy or his slave. + +Besides this, foreign women were never so conspicuous in Rome as in +Athens. Even after Greece had become a Roman province, and after _Graecia +capta Romam cepit_--when Greek ideas and Greek customs were introduced +into the capital of the Roman world--it was still the Roman matron that +was supreme. And, although many Greek women, some of them of rare beauty +and culture, found their way to Rome, especially under the empire, they +were always kept in the background and never succeeded in achieving +anything approaching the ascendancy which distinguished them during the +time of Aspasia. Their influence in literature and politics was almost +_nil_. + +In the case of the women of Rome, on the contrary, it may well be +questioned whether woman has ever wielded a greater influence than she +did during the three centuries that followed the reign of Augustus. But +she did not attain to this position of preeminence without a long and +bitter struggle. Every advance toward the goal of social and +intellectual equality was strenuously contested by the men, who wished +to limit the activities of their wives to the spindle, the distaff and +the loom and the other occupations of the household. For, as in Greece, +the generally accepted view was that woman, in the language of Gibbon, +"was created to please and obey. She was never supposed to have reached +the age of reason or experience." And her noblest epitaph, it was +averred, was couched in the following words: + + "She was gentle, pious, loved her husband, was skillful at + the loom and a good housekeeper."[15] + +As to her mental work, far from being considered on its own merits or as +a factor in the world's growth, it was flouted as + + "Mere woman's work + Expressing the comparative respect + Which means the absolute scorn." + +As early as 450 B.C., when the laws of the Twelve Tables were +promulgated, the girls of Rome received instruction in reading, writing +and arithmetic. "Up before dawn, with a lamp to light the way, and an +attendant to carry her satchel, the little Roman maiden of seven years, +or over, would trudge off to the portico where the schoolmaster wielded +his rod.[16] For some years this life continued, with but few holidays, +and those far between, until she attained some proficiency in the +rudiments. Then, most probably, her education in the scholastic sense +came to an end. Her brothers and boy schoolmates, if their parents +wished it, could proceed from the primary school to the secondary, where +geography, history and ethics were taught; where the art of elocution +was assiduously practiced and the works of the great Greek and Roman +poets were carefully read and expounded; but it was enough for the girl +to have learned how to read, write and cipher; she had then to learn her +domestic duties."[17] + +With the extension of the empire and the consequent enormous increase in +wealth and the rapid progress in social and intellectual freedom, there +was a notable change in the character of the education given to women, +at least to those of the wealthier and patrician families. This was, in +great measure, due to the wave of Hellenism which, shortly after the +conquest of Greece, broke upon the Roman capital with such irresistible +force. To the large and rapidly increasing number of women of keen +intellect and lofty aspirations, whose minds had hitherto been confined +to the comparatively barren field of Roman letters, the splendid +creations of Greek genius came as a revelation. To become thoroughly +versed in Greek poetry and proficient in the teachings of Greek +philosophy was the ambition of scores of Roman women, who soon became +noted for the extent and variety of their attainments, as well as for +their rare culture and charming personality. + +Among the pioneers of the intellectual movement in Rome, and one of the +most beautiful types of the learned women of her time, was the +celebrated daughter of the elder Scipio Africanus--Cornelia, mother of +the Gracchi. She is famous on account of her devotion to her two sons, +Tiberius and Caius. She was their teacher; and it was her educated and +refined mind that, more than anything else, contributed to the formation +of those splendid characters for which they were so highly esteemed by +their countrymen. Plutarch informs us that these noble sons of a noble +mother "were brought up by her so carefully that they became beyond +dispute the most accomplished of Roman youth; and, thus, they owed +perhaps more to their excellent upbringing than to their natural +parts."[18] One is not surprised to learn that this noble lady was +almost idolized by the Romans, and that they erected a statue to her +with the inscription, "Cornelia, Mother of the Gracchi." + +Scarcely less distinguished and accomplished was another Cornelia, the +wife of Pompey, the Great. "Besides her youthful beauty," writes +Plutarch, in his _Life of Pompey_, "she possessed other charms, for she +was well versed in literature, in playing on the lyre, and in geometry, +and she had been used to listen to philosophical discourses with profit. +Besides this, she had a disposition free from all affectation and +display of pedantry--blemishes which such acquirements usually breed in +women."[19] + +Then there was the cultured and devoted Aurelia, the mother of Julius +Caesar. It is safe to say that this eminent man was as much indebted to +his mother for his success and greatness as were Tiberius and Caius +Gracchus to the benign influence and careful teachings of the gentle and +virtuous Cornelia. Highly educated and of commanding personalities, both +these women, like many others of their time, contributed much to the +making of Roman history by the success they achieved in molding the +characters of some of the greatest men of their own or of any age. + +It is a splendid tribute that Cicero, in his _Orator_, pays to Laelia +when he tells of the purity of her language and the charm of her +conversation. "When I listen," he declares, "to my mother-in-law, +Laelia--for women preserve the traditional purity of accent the best +because, being limited in their intercourse with the multitude, they +retain their early impressions--I could imagine that I hear Plautus or +Naevius speaking, the pronunciation is so plain and simple, so perfectly +free from all affectation and display; from which I infer that such was +the accent of her father and his ancestors--not harsh like the +pronunciation to which I have just referred, not broad nor rustic nor +rugged, but terse, smooth and flowing."[20] + +These are a few of the cultured and learned women who shed glory on +their country by the refining influence which they exerted in the quiet +and unostentatious precincts of the family circle. But there were others +who chose a wider field for their activities, and who, by reason of +their unerring judgment, well-poised and highly cultivated minds, had so +won the confidence of the nation's greatest leaders that they were +frequently consulted on important affairs of state. Thus, Cicero tells +us of an interview which he had at Antium with Brutus and Cassius. +Besides the men, there were present on this occasion three women, who +took an active part in the discussion. These were Servilia, the mother +of Brutus, Porcia, the wife of Brutus and the daughter of Cato, and +Tertulla, the wife of Cassius and sister of Brutus. The views of the +women were not without effect, and so confident was Servilia of her +power that she engaged to have a certain clause in one of the decrees of +the Senate expunged. This is but one of many similar instances which +might be adduced from the lives of the women of Rome who took an active +part in politics. As we learn from Tacitus, their counsels and +assistance were considered of peculiar value by the Commonwealth. For, +when some of the sterner old moralists wished to exclude women from all +participation in public affairs, the Senate, after a heated debate, +decided by a large majority that the cooperation of women in questions +of administration, far from being a menace, as some contended, was so +beneficial to the state that it should be continued. + +Among other noteworthy makers of Roman history, besides those just +mentioned, is Livia, the wife of Augustus and the mother of Tiberius. So +great was her influence and so persistent was her activity in government +affairs, that it is sometimes asserted that she was the prime mover of +most of the public acts of both these rulers. This woman, whom Ovid +describes as having the features of Venus and the manner of Juno, and +who, he declares, "held her head above all vices," was credited with +having the benevolence of Ceres, the purity of Diana and the wisdom and +craft of Minerva--"a woman," as was said by one of her contemporaries, +"in all things more comparable to the gods than to men, who knew how to +use her power so as to turn away peril and advance the most deserving." + +Then there was the gracious, the virtuous, the self-sacrificing Octavia, +sister of the Emperor Augustus, who was so successful in composing grave +differences between her brother and her husband, and who so exerted her +influence for peace during the troublous times in which she lived that +she lives in history as a peacemaker. In marked contrast to this gentle +and sympathetic woman was the energetic and heroic Agrippina, the wife +of Germanicus. In many respects she was the most commanding personality +of her age, and exhibited in an eminent degree those sterling qualities +which we are wont to associate with the strong, dignified, courageous +women of ancient Rome, who gave to the world so many and so great men in +every sphere of human endeavor. "She was," as Tacitus informs us, "a +greater power in the army than legates and commanders, and she, a woman, +had quelled a mutiny which the emperor's authority could not check."[21] +She was, indeed, as has well been said, "a woman to whom one might +address an epic but never a sonnet." + +I have referred to these distinguished women because they are +embodiments of the best types of the noble, patrician families who made +the great Roman empire the admiration of all time, and because they +exhibit the wonderful advance that had been made in the general status +of women since the days of Pericles and Aspasia. I have referred to +them, also, to show what women are capable of achieving in the difficult +and complicated affairs of public life, when they are accorded the +necessary freedom of action and when they are properly equipped for work +by education and by association with men of learning and experience. +Comparing the secluded and illiterate Greek wife with the free and +highly accomplished Roman matron, we find almost as much difference +between the two as there is between a child and a fully developed +woman--all the difference there was between the unsophisticated young +wife, not quite fifteen, of whom Xenophon gives us such a charming +picture,[22] and the highly educated and competent mother of the +Gracchi. + +Of the Greek maiden we are told that, before her marriage she "had been +most carefully brought up to see and hear as little as possible and to +ask the fewest questions"; that her whole experience before her marriage +"consisted in knowing how to take the wool and make a dress, and in +seeing how her mother's handmaidens had their daily spinning tasks +assigned to them." Cornelia, on the contrary, was not only, as we have +seen, highly accomplished, but also one who, after her husband's death, +was quite prepared, as Plutarch assures us, to undertake the management +of the extensive property which he left his family, and who, we may well +believe, would also have been qualified, had the occasion demanded it, +to perform with distinction the same duties that fell to the lot of the +gifted wives of Germanicus and Augustus. + +Nothing in the history of Greek and Roman womanhood more strikingly +illustrates than the two instances given the vast difference in the +status of the wives of Greece and Rome, or exhibits more clearly the +advantages accruing to early training and thorough mental development. +If there was any difference in talent or intellect between the Greek and +the Roman woman it was, so far as we can determine, in favor of the +Greek. The sole reason, then, for such a marked difference in their +capacity for work and for achieving distinction in intellectual and +administrative fields of action arose from the lack of education in the +Athenian wife and the fullest measure of educational freedom enjoyed by +the Roman. That Aspasia, in spite of all the odds against her, was able +to rise to such a pinnacle of glory does not prove that she was the +superior of her countrywomen--the mothers of the greatest poets, artists +and philosophers of all time--but it exhibits rather her good fortune in +being able to effect a partnership with the greatest statesman of +Greece, and one who was at the same time fully able to appreciate all +her rare mental attainments and give her marvelous genius free scope for +development by cooperating with him in making the period during which he +held the reign of power the most brilliant one in the annals of human +progress. + +Plato, referring to the oriental seclusion to which Athenian wives were +condemned, speaks of them as "a race used to living out of the +sunshine," and that, too, among a people that habitually lived out of +doors. We have already seen how much greater freedom Roman women enjoyed +and how much more important was the role they played in public as well +as private life; but we have not told all. They not only went to, but +presided over, public games and religious ceremonies. They were admitted +to aristocratic clubs and had, under the empire, a regular assembly or +senate of their own, known as the _Conventus Matronarum_. Hortensia, the +daughter of the great orator Hortensius, pleaded the cause of her sex +before the tribunal of the triumvirs, and so eloquent and effective was +her speech that she not only won her case, but also won the praise of +the critic, Quintilian, for her splendid oratorical effort. + +Yet more. A certain woman in the Roman possessions in Africa had so +impressed her fellow citizens by her intellectual capacity and +administrative ability that she was chosen as one of the two chief +magistrates of the place. She is known in history as Messia Castula, +_duumvira_. It is true that the men of the older school, who would limit +woman's activities to the distaff and the loom, strongly objected to the +increasing freedom and power of women, and endeavored to counteract +their influence; but all to no purpose. And it was the crabbed old Cato, +the Censor, who growled in undisguised disgust:--"We Romans rule over +all men and our wives rule over us." + +But great as were the freedom and educational advantages of the Roman +women, the startling fact remains that, with the exception of a few +fragmentary verses of slight merit and of questionable authenticity, we +have absolutely no tangible evidence of the Roman woman's literary +ability while under pagan influence. We have seen, in considering her +intellectual attainments--especially after the introduction of Greek art +and letters into the City of the Seven Hills--that every woman who +pretended to culture was obliged to be familiar with the Greek as well +as with the Latin authors, that her education was deemed incomplete +without a knowledge of Greek poetry, oratory, history and philosophy, +but the fact is indisputable that Roman women were not producers like +their Greek sisters, and that in no instance did their productions reach +anything like the supreme excellence of the creations of a Corinna or a +Sappho. There was, it is true, Sulpicia, of whom Martial writes: "Let +every girl, whose wish it is to please a single man, read Sulpicia; let +every man, whose wish it is to please a single maid, read Sulpicia;" +but, if the few amatory verses that are credited to her represent the +highest flights of the Roman women in the domain of poetry, then, +indeed, were they far behind not only Sappho and Corinna, but also far +behind scores of their pupils. Martial does indeed speak of a young +maiden in whom were combined the eloquence of Plato with the austere +philosophy of the Porch, and who wrote verses worthy of a chaste Sappho; +but this was evidently a great exaggeration, for we have no other +evidence of her existence. + +The creative work of Roman women was, so far as we are able to judge, +quite as limited in prose as it was in poetry. Agrippina, the mother of +Nero, was one of the few prose writers whose name has come down to us. +From her memoirs it was that Tacitus received much of the material +incorporated in his _Annals_. + +That some of the women had literary ability of a high order is indicated +by a letter of Pliny to one of his correspondents, in which occurs the +following passage: + +"Pomponius Saturninus recently read me some letters which he averred had +been written by his wife. I believed that Plautus or Terence was being +read in prose. Whether they were really his wife's, as he maintains, or +his own, which he denies, he deserves equal honor, either because he +composes them or because he has made his wife, whom he married when a +mere girl, so learned and so polished."[23] + +Scarcely less distinguished for her taste in literature, and for her +talent as a letter writer, was Pliny's wife, Calphurnia, who, at his +request, wrote to him in his absence every day and sometimes even twice +a day. According to Cicero, his daughter Tulia was "the best and most +learned of women"; but her literary work, it is probable, did not extend +much beyond her letters to her illustrious father. Nevertheless, what +would we not give to possess these letters--to have as complete a +collection of them as we have of those of the great orator and +philosopher. They would be of inestimable value and would be absolutely +beyond compare, except, possibly, with the letters of Mme. du Deffand or +of Elizabeth Barrett Browning of a much later age. + +Considering the number of educated women that lived in the latter days +of the Republic and during the earlier part of the Empire, and their +well known culture and love of letters, it is reasonable to suppose that +they may have written much in both prose and verse of which we have no +record. Literary productions must have more than ordinary value to +survive two thousand years, and especially two thousand years of such +revolutions and upheavals as have convulsed the world since the time of +the _Pax Romana_, when all the world was at peace under Augustus. + +How much of the literary work of the women of to-day will receive +recognition twenty centuries hence? Some of it may, it is true, find a +place in the fireproof libraries of the time; but who, outside of a few +antiquarians, will take the trouble to read it or estimate its value? A +few anthologies containing our gems of prose and poetry will probably be +all that our fortieth century readers will deem worthy of notice. In +view of the chaotic condition of Europe for so many centuries, the +wonder is not that we have so little of the literary remains of Greece +and Rome, but rather that we have anything at all. + +As one might expect, the literary women of Rome, as well as those who +ventured to take part in public affairs, had their critics. The +satirists of the time were as unsparing of their ridicule as they were +long afterward when Moliere wrote his _Femmes Savantes_ and his +_Precieuses Ridicules_. And as for men of the old conservative type, a +learned woman was as much an object of horror as is a militant +suffragette in conservative England to-day. "No learned wife for me," +exclaims Martial, "but rather a well-fed slave."[24] + +And Juvenal had no more love for educated women than have some of our +contemporaries for a blue-stocking housekeeper. He gives his opinion of +them in the following characteristic fashion: + +"That woman is a worse nuisance than usual who, as soon as she reclines +on her couch, praises Virgil; makes excuses for doomed Dido; pits bards +against one another and compares them, and weighs Homer and Mars in the +balance. Teachers of literature give way, professors are vanquished, the +whole mob is hushed, and so great is the torrent of words that no lawyer +or auctioneer may speak, nor any other woman."[25] + +But if learned women had their enemies and detractors they also had +friends and defenders. Among these was the Stoic philosopher, C. +Musonius Rufus, who lived in the time of Nero. Like Plato, he contended +that women should have the same training as men and that the faculties +of both should be equally developed. The gist of his teaching is +contained in the statement that: + +"If the same virtues must pertain to men and women, it follows, +necessarily, that the same training and education must be suitable for +both."[26] + +Our brief sketch of women's work in ancient Rome would be incomplete +without some reference to the famous _Ecclesia Domestica_--Church of the +Household--on the Aventine, and the distinguished women who were its +chief ornaments. During the time of Pope Damasus, and not long before +the sacking of Rome by Alaric, the _Ecclesia Domestica_ was a kind of +conventual home to which had retired, or in which were frequently +gathered, some of the most noble and learned women of the city. Among +the most notable of these were Marcella and her friends, Paula and +Eustochium. + +For beauty of character and nobility of purpose and rare mental +endowments they recall the best traditions of a Cornelia or a +Calphurnia, while so great was their purity of life and so unbounded was +their charity to the poor and suffering that they were honored by being +numbered among the saints of the early church. But what specially +distinguished them among all the great women of the Roman world was +their great and varied learning. In this respect they probably were far +in advance of all their predecessors. For, in addition to a thorough +knowledge of Latin and Greek literature, history and philosophy, they +had, under the great theologian and orientalist, St. Jerome, become +proficient in Hebrew and deeply versed in Scripture. + +Special mention should be made of Paula and her daughter Eustochium; for +it is probable that, had it not been for their influence on Jerome, and +their active cooperation in his great life work, we should not have the +Latin version of the Scriptures that is to-day known as the Vulgate. +This is evinced from the letters of the saint himself and from what we +know of the lives of these two remarkable women, who, as St. Jerome +informs us in the epitaph which he had engraved on Paula's tomb in the +Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, were descended from the Scipios, +the Gracchi and the Pauli on the mother's side, and on the father's side +from the half-mythical kings of Sparta and Mycenae.[27] + +They aided him not only by their sympathy and by purchasing for him, +often at a great price, the manuscripts he needed for his colossal +undertaking, but also assisted him by their thorough knowledge of Latin, +Greek and Hebrew in translating the Sacred Books from the original +Hebrew into Latin. So great was Jerome's confidence in their scholarship +and so high was his appreciation of their ability and judgment that he +did not hesitate to submit his translations to them for their criticism +and approval. After he had completed his version of the first Book of +Kings, he turned it over to them, saying: "Read my Book of Kings--read +also the Latin and Greek translations and compare them with my version." +And they did read and compare and criticise. And more than this, they +frequently suggested modifications and corrections which the great man +accepted with touching humility and incorporated in a revised copy. + +More wonderful still, the Latin Psalter, as it has come down to us, is +not, as is generally supposed, the translation from the Hebrew of +Jerome, but rather a corrected version made from the Septuagint by his +illustrious collaborators--Paula and Eustochium. + +It is safe to say that no two women were ever engaged in a more +important or more difficult literary undertaking--one requiring keener +critical sense or more profound learning--than were Paula and +Eustochium, or one in which their efforts were crowned with more +brilliant success than were those of these two supreme exemplars of the +grace, the knowledge, the culture, the refinement of Roman +womanhood--the crowning glories of womanhood throughout the ages. + +St. Jerome showed his grateful recognition of the invaluable assistance +received from his devoted and talented co-workers by dedicating to them +a great number of his most important books. This scandalized the +pharisaical men of the time, who looked askance at all learned women and +resented particularly the preeminence given to Paula and her +accomplished daughter. But their reproaches provoked a reply from the +saint that was worthy of the most chivalrous champion of woman, and +revealed, at the same time, all the nobility of soul of the roused "Lion +of Bethlehem." It is not only a defence of his course, but also a +splendid tribute to his two illustrious friends, and a tribute also to +the great and good women of all time. + +"There are people, O Paula and Eustochium," exclaims the Christian +Cicero, vibrant with emotion and in a burst of eloquence that recalls +one of the burning philippics of Marcus Tullius, "who take offence at +seeing your names at the beginning of my works. These people do not know +that Olda prophesied when the men were mute; that while Barach was +atremble, Deborah saved Israel; that Judith and Esther delivered from +supreme peril the children of God. I pass over in silence Anna and +Elizabeth and the other holy women of the Gospel, but humble stars when +compared with the great luminary, Mary. Shall I speak now of the +illustrious women among the heathen? Does not Plato have Aspasia speak +in his dialogues? Does not Sappho hold the lyre at the same time as +Alcaeus and Pindar? Did not Themista philosophize with the sages of +Greece? And the mother of the Gracchi, your Cornelia, and the daughter +of Cato, wife of Brutus, before whom pale the austere virtue of the +father and the courage of the husband--are they not the pride of the +whole of Rome? I shall add but one word more. Was not it women to whom +our Lord first appeared after His resurrection? Yes, men could then +blush for not having sought what the women had found."[28] + +Time has spared a joint letter of Paula and Eustochium to their friend +Marcella--a letter which exhibits so well the rare culture and literary +ability of the writers that we cannot but lament that we have not more +of the correspondence which was carried on between the learned inmates +of the Church of the Household on the Aventine and Paula's convent home +near the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Such a collection would be +beyond price, as it would complete the picture of the age so well +sketched by St. Jerome; and, as a contribution to the literary world, it +would have a value not inferior to that of those exquisite classics of a +later age--the letters of Madame Sevigne to her daughter.[29] + + +WOMAN AND EDUCATION DURING THE MIDDLE AGES + +The period of nearly a thousand years intervening between the downfall +of Rome in A.D. 476 and the taking of Constantinople by the Turks in +1453 is usually known in history as the Middle Ages. By some it is +considered as synonymous with the Dark Ages, because of the decline of +learning and civilization during this long interval of time. The former +designation seems preferable, for, as we shall see, the latter is more +or less misleading. During the "wandering of the nations" in the fourth +and fifth centuries, and the long and fierce struggles between the +barbarian hordes from the north with the decadent peoples of the once +great Roman empire, there was, no doubt, a partial eclipse of the sun of +civilization; but the consequent darkness was not so dense nor so +general and long-continued as is sometimes imagined. The progress of +intellectual culture was, indeed, greatly retarded, but there was no +time when the light of learning was entirely extinguished. For even +during the most troublous times there were centers of culture in one +part of Europe or another. At one time the center was in Italy, at +another in Gaul, and, at still another, it was in Britain or Ireland or +Germany. + +But whether it was in the south, or the west or the north of Europe that +letters flourished, it was always the convent or the monastery that was +the home of learning and culture. Within these holy precincts the +literary treasures of antiquity were preserved and multiplied. Here +monks and nuns labored and studied, always keeping lighted the sacred +torch of knowledge--_Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt_--and +passing it on to the generations that succeeded them. That any of the +great literary masterpieces of Greece and Rome have come to us, in spite +of the destructive agencies of time and the wreck of empires, is due +wholly to the unremitting toil through long ages of the zealous and +intelligent inmates of the cloister. + +Of the monastic institutions for men there is no occasion to speak, +except in so far as they contributed to the intellectual advancement of +woman. In some cases the women of the cloister owed much to +ecclesiastics for their literary training; but there are not wanting +instances in which the nuns took the lead in education and had the +direction of schools which gave to the church priests and bishops of +recognized scholarship. + +Practically the only schools for girls during the Middle Ages were the +convents. Here were educated rich and poor, gentle and simple. And in +these homes of piety and learning the inmates enjoyed a peace and a +security that it was impossible to find elsewhere. They were free from +the dangers and annoyances that so often menaced them in their own homes +and were able to pursue their studies under the most favorable auspices. + +Among the first convent schools to achieve distinction were those of +Arles and Poitiers in Gaul, in the latter part of the sixth century. The +Abbess of Poitiers is known to us as St. Radegund. She not only had a +knowledge of letters rare for her age, but wrote poems of such merit +that they were until recently accepted as the productions of her master, +the poet Fortunatus,[30] who subsequently became bishop of Poitiers. + +Far more notable, however, than the convents of Arles and Poitiers was +the celebrated convent of St. Hilda at Whitby. Hilda, the foundress and +first abbess of Whitby, was a princess of the blood-royal and a +grand-niece of Edwin, the first Christian king of Northumbria. Her +convent and adjoining monastery for monks soon became the most noted +center of learning and culture in Britain. And so great was her +reputation for knowledge and wisdom that not only priests and bishops, +but also princes and kings sought her counsel in important matters of +church and state. + +As to the monks subject to her authority, she inspired them with so +great a love of knowledge, and urged them to so thorough a study of the +Scriptures, that her monastery became, as Venerable Bede informs us, a +school not only for missionaries but for bishops as well. He speaks in +particular of six ecclesiastical dignitaries who were sent forth from +this noble institution--all of whom were bishops. Five of them he +describes as men of singular merit and sanctity--"_singularis meriti et +sanctitatis viros_," while the sixth, he declared, was a man of rare +ability and learning--"_doctissimus et excellentis ingenii_." Of this +number was St. John of Beverly, who, we are told, "attained a degree of +popularity rare even in England, where the saints of old were so +universally and so readily popular."[31] Hilda governed her double +monastery with singular wisdom and success; and, so great was the love +and veneration she inspired among all classes that she merited the +epithet of "Mother of her Country." + +Celebrated, however, as Hilda was for her great educational work at +Whitby, she is probably better known to the world as the one who first +recognized and fostered the rare gifts of the poet Caedmon. "It is on the +lips of this cowherd," as Montalembert beautifully expresses it, "that +the Anglo-Saxon speech first bursts into poetry. Indeed, nothing in the +whole history of European literature is more original or more religious +than this first utterance of the English muse."[32] + +As soon as Hilda discovered the extraordinary poetic faculty of Caedmon, +she did not hesitate to regard it "as a special gift of God, worthy of +all respect and of the most tender care." And, in order that she might +the more readily develop the splendid talents of this literary prodigy, +the keen discerning abbess received Caedmon into the monastery of monks, +and had him translate the entire Bible into Anglo-Saxon. "As soon as the +Sacred Text was read for him he forthwith," as Bede declares, "ruminated +it as a clean animal ruminates its food, and transformed it into songs +so beautiful that all who heard were delighted." + +As his poetical faculty became more developed, his profoundly original +genius became more marked, and his inspiration more earnest and +impassioned. It was this Northumbrian cowherd, transformed into a monk +of Whitby, who sang before the abbess Hilda the revolt of Satan and +Paradise Lost, a thousand years earlier than Milton, in verses which may +still be admired even beside the immortal poem of the British Homer. So +remarkable, indeed, in some instances is the similarity in the +productions of the two poets that F. Palgrave, one of the most competent +of English critics, does not hesitate to declare that certain of +Caedmon's verses resembled so closely certain passages of the Paradise +Lost that some of Milton's lines seem almost like a translation from the +work of his distinguished predecessor. And M. Taine, in his _History of +English Literature_, referring to the "string of short, accumulated, +passionate images, like a succession of lightning flashes," of the old +Anglo-Saxon poet, asserts that "Milton's Satan exists in Caedmon's as the +picture exists in the sketch."[33] + +Well could Caedmon's first biographer, the Venerable Bede, say of him, +"Many Englishmen after him have tried to compose religious poems, but no +one has ever equaled the man who had only God for a master." And not +without warrant does the eloquent Montalembert, in the masterly work +just quoted, pen the following statement: "Apart from the interest which +attaches to Caedmon from a historical and literary point of view, his +life discloses to us essential peculiarities in the outward organization +and intellectual life of those great communities which in the seventh +century studded the coast of Northumbria, and which, with all their +numerous dependents, found often a more complete development under the +crozier of such a woman as Hilda than under the superiors of the other +sex."[34] + +Space precludes my telling of other convents which were centers of +literary activity, and of nuns who distinguished themselves by their +learning and by the benign influence which they exerted far beyond the +walls of the cloister. I cannot, however, refrain from referring to that +group of learned English nuns who are chiefly known by their Latin +correspondence with St. Boniface, the Apostle of Germany, and by the +assistance which they gave him in his arduous labors. Conspicuous among +these was St. Lioba, who, at the request of Boniface, left her home in +England to found a convent at Bischopsheim in Germany, which, under the +direction of its learned and zealous abbess, soon became the most +important educational center in that part of Europe. Teachers were +formed here for other schools in Germany and Lioba's biographer tells us +that there were few _monasteria feminarum_--monasteries of women--within +the sphere of Boniface's missionary activities for which Lioba's pupils +were not sought as instructresses. + +Like her illustrious countrywoman, St. Hilda, the abbess of Bischopsheim +was the friend and counselor of spiritual and temporal rulers. +Charlemagne, that eminent patron of scholars, had a great admiration for +her and gave her many substantial proofs of his esteem and veneration. +"Princes," writes her biographer, "loved her, noblemen received her, and +bishops gladly entertained her and conversed with her on the Scriptures +and on the institutions of religion, for she was familiar with many +writings and careful in giving advice. She was so bent on reading that +she never laid aside her book except to pray or to strengthen her slight +frame with food or sleep."[35] She was thoroughly conversant with the +books of the Old and the New Testaments and was, at the same time, +familiar with the writings of the Fathers. It is not surprising, then, +that she was regarded as an oracle, and that all classes flocked to her +as they did to the abbess of Whitby for guidance and assistance. + +From what has been said of the accomplishments and achievements of the +Anglo-Saxon nuns just mentioned, it is evident that they were, of a +truth, women of exceptional worth and of sterling character. And it is +equally clear that their pupils must have shared in the education and +culture of their distinguished teachers.[36] Many of them, in addition +to having a wide acquaintance with literature, sacred and profane, were +also mistresses of several languages. A woman's education, at this time, +was not complete unless she could write Latin and speak it fluently. The +author of that most interesting early English work, _Ancren Riwle_--Rule +of Anchoresses--presupposes in his auditors, for whose benefit his +instructions were given, a knowledge of Latin and French, as well as of +English. In certain convents Latin was almost the sole medium of +communication,--to such an extent, indeed, that a special rule was made +prohibiting "the use of the Latin tongue except under special +circumstances." + +"As long as the conventual system lasted the only schools for girls in +England were the convent schools where, says Robert Aske, 'the daughters +of gentlemen were brought up in virtue.' From an educational point of +view, the suppression of the convents was decidedly a blunder." Thus +writes Georgiana Hill in her instructive work on _Women in English +Life_, and there are, we fancy, but few readers of her instructive pages +who will not be inclined to agree with her conclusions.[37] Lecky speaks +of the dissolution of convents at the time of the Reformation as "far +from a benefit to women or the world."[38] And Dom Gasquet declares +"that destruction by Henry VIII of the conventual schools where the +female population, the rich as well as the poor, found their only +teachers, was the absolute extinction of any systematic education of +women for a long period."[39] + +But this is not all. The strangest and saddest result, consequent on the +suppression of the convents, was that men were made to profit by the +loss which women had sustained. The revenues of the houses that were +suppressed had been intended for the sole use and behoof of women, and +had been administered by them in this sense for centuries. When they +were appropriated by Henry VIII, it never occurred to him or his +ministers to make any provision for the education of women in lieu of +that which had so ruthlessly been wrested from them. Thus the nunnery of +St. Radegund, together with its revenues and possessions, was +transformed into Jesus College, Cambridge, while from the suppressed +convents of Bromhall in Berkshire and Lillechurch in Kent funds were +secured for the foundation and endowment of St. John's College, also at +Cambridge. Similarly, the properties of other nunneries, large and +small, were appropriated for the foundation of collegiate institutions +at Oxford, all of which were for the benefit of men. + +And so it was that, in a few short years, the great work of centuries +was undone and women were left little better educational facilities than +when the Anglo-Saxon nuns began their noble work in a land that was +enveloped in "one dark night of unillumined barbarism." + +One would have thought that Elizabeth, who was so highly educated, and +who did so much for the supremacy of her country on land and sea, would +have bethought herself of the necessity of doing something for the +education of her female subjects. But no. She did nothing for them, and +the founders of the endowed grammar schools, during her reign, gave +never a thought to the educational necessities of the girls. They made +provision only for the boys. In this respect, however, the "Virgin +Queen" was but following in the footsteps of the male sovereigns and +legislators who had preceded her, and who, although affecting an +interest in having women "sensible and virtuous, seem by their conduct +toward the sex to have entered into a general conspiracy to order it +otherwise." + +The truth is, when anything was achieved for the intellectual +advancement of women it was due either to private instruction or to the +result of a protracted struggle on the part of women themselves for what +they deemed their indefeasible rights. Had they relied on the +spontaneous action of men and on legislation in favor of female +education to which men had given the initiative, they would to-day be in +the same condition of ignorance and seclusion and servitude as was the +Athenian woman twenty-five centuries ago, and would occupy a status but +little above that of the inmates of oriental harems and zenanas. + +The Anglo-Saxon nuns were, as we have seen, specially distinguished for +their learning and for the splendid work they performed for the +education of their sex during the long period of the Middle Ages. But +however great their preeminence in these respects, they were not without +rivals. There were, besides the schools, already named, conducted by St. +Lioba and her companions, also flourishing schools in Germany under the +direction of native nuns, whose success as educators was as marked as +that of Lioba or Hilda, and who, in addition to their labors in the +class-room, achieved distinction by their productive work. The +Anglo-Saxon convents developed few writers, whereas those of Germany +produced several who not only shed luster on their sex but who also +showed what woman is capable of accomplishing when accorded some measure +of encouragement and full liberty of action. + +One of the most noted writers of her age was the famous nun of +Gandersheim, Hroswitha, who was born in the early part of the tenth +century. She was the pupil of the abbess Gerberg, who was of royal +lineage, and one of the most zealous promoters of learning and culture +in Saxony during the forty-two years of her rule in the convent to which +she and her favorite pupil gave undying renown. + +Hroswitha's literary work consists of legends and contemporary history +in metrical form and of her dramas written in the style of Terence. As a +writer of history and legends she ranks with the best authors of her +time, while as a writer of dramas she stands absolutely alone. Hers, +indeed, were the first dramatic compositions given to the world during +the long interval that elapsed between the last comedies of classic +antiquity and the first of the miracle plays which had such a vogue +between the twelfth and the sixteenth century. + +Her dramas, which, of all her works, have attracted the most attention, +are seven in number. They deal with the moral and mental conflicts which +characterized the period of transition from heathendom to Christianity. +Some of them exhibit poetic talent of a high order as well as the +inspiration and courage of genius. They reveal also a wide acquaintance +with the classic authors of Rome and Greece, besides a knowledge of many +of the Christian writers. They are, likewise, distinguished by +originality of treatment, complete mastery of the material used, as well +as by genuine beauty of rhyme and rhythm. In form, all the plays +preserve the simple directness of their model, Terence, while, in +conception, they embody the noblest ideals of Christian teaching. In +marked contrast to her model, who invariably exhibits the frailties and +lapses of woman, Hroswitha's plays turn on the resistance of her sex to +temptation, and on their steadfast adherence to duty and to vows +voluntarily assumed. A recent English writer, W. H. Hudson, in an +appreciative estimate of the work of this learned Benedictine nun +expresses himself as follows: + +"It is on the literary side alone that Hroswitha belongs to the classic +school. The spirit and essence of her work belong entirely to the Middle +Ages; for beneath the rigid garb of a dead language"--she wrote in +Latin--"beats the warm heart of a new era. Everything in her plays that +is not formal but essential, everything that is original and individual, +belongs wholly to the Christianized Germany of the tenth century. +Everywhere we can trace the influence of the atmosphere in which she +lived; every thought and every motive is colored by the spiritual +conditions of her time. The keynote of all her works is the conflict of +Christianity with paganism; and it is worthy of remark that in +Hroswitha's hands Christianity is throughout represented by the purity +and gentleness of woman, while paganism is embodied in what she +describes as the vigor of men--_virile robur_."[40] + +Among her legends the one entitled _The Lapse and Conversion of +Theophilus_ has a special interest as being the precursor of the +well-known legend of Faust. + +In Hroswitha's time, as in our own, there were people who were strongly +opposed to the higher education of women. There were others who would +deny them even the elements of an education--who declared that they +should be taught anything rather than reading and writing, which were a +cause of temptation and sin--that their knowledge should be confined +solely to the duties of an ordinary housewife, that their books should +consist solely of thimble, thread and needles--"_Et leurs livres, un de, +du fil et des aguilles._" Some, it is true, were willing to make an +exception in favor of nuns; but, as to all others, the less they knew +the better it was for their spiritual, if not for their temporal, +welfare also.[41] To those who were thus minded, Hroswitha pithily +replied that it was not knowledge itself but the bad use of it that was +dangerous--"_Nec scientia scibilis Deum offendit, sed injustitia +scientis._" + +Among other women who were Hroswitha's equals in knowledge, if not in +literary attainments, were several other nuns who illumined the closing +centuries of the Middle Ages. Chief among these were St. Hildegard, "the +sybil of the Rhine"; Herrad, the noted author of the _Hortus +Deliciarum--Garden of Delights_--and Matilda and Gertrude, those +remarkable mystical writers, whose descriptions of heaven and hell so +closely resemble those in the _Divina Commedia_ that many writers are of +the opinion that the great Florentine poet must have been familiar with +the accounts which they gave of their visions. + +St. Hildegard was for a third of a century the abbess of the convent of +St. Rupert at Bingen. So great was her reputation for sanctity and for +the extent and variety of her attainments that she was called "the +marvel of Germany." She is without doubt one of the most beautiful and +imposing as well as one of the greatest figures of the Middle +Ages--great beside such eminent contemporaries as Abelard, Martin of +Tours and Bernard of Clairvaux. People from all parts of the Christian +world sought her counsel; and her convent at Bingen became a Mecca for +all classes and conditions of men and women. But nothing shows better +the immense influence which she wielded than her letters of which nearly +three hundred have been preserved. + +Among her correspondents were people of the humble walks of life as well +as the highest representatives of Church and State. There were simple +monks and noble abbots; dukes, kings and queens; archbishops and +cardinals and no fewer than four Popes. Letters came to her from the +orient and the occident, from the patriarch of Jerusalem, from Queen +Bertha of Greece, from Frederick Barbarossa, Philip the Count of +Flanders, St. Bernard, the professors of the University of Paris; from +Henry II of England, and from his grand-daughter Eleonora, "The Damsel +of Brittany." It is safe to say that no woman during the Middle Ages +exercised a wider or more beneficent influence than did this humble +Benedictine abbess of Bingen on the Rhine and had unsought so large a +number of distinguished correspondents. And, if we accept the criterion +that influence is measured by the number and nature of one's relations, +it would be difficult to find in any age relations that were more select +or more cosmopolitan. + +But her astonishing collection of letters is the slightest product of +her intellectual activity. She is without doubt the most voluminous +woman writer of the Middle Ages. Her works on theology, Scripture and +science make no less than six or eight large octavo volumes. The +Bollandists, than whom there is no more competent authority, express +their amazement at the amount and quality of Hildegard's work. Witness +the following language of one of their number: "Although we may not be +surprised that our saint was interrogated regarding secret things by so +many men eminent both by reason of their dignity and their learning, I +am nevertheless forced to recognize with stupefaction that a woman +without instruction, and who had not acquired knowledge by study, was +consulted concerning the most difficult questions of theology and the +most subtle of Holy Scriptures, and that she gave, without hesitation, +the answers that were demanded by theology and Scripture."[42] + +Is it, then, surprising that the famous William of Auxerre, after a +critical examination of her works, should compare her with Peter +Lombard, the celebrated "Master of the Sentences,"[43] and one of the +most learned of the Schoolmen, and write that Hildegard is +_Sententiarum Magistra_--Mistress of the Sentences--and that "in her +works the words are not human but divine"? Has any woman writer ever +received higher praise, and from one so competent to express an opinion +as the scholarly divine of Auxerre? + + +Herrad, the gifted abbess of Hohenburg in Alsace, was a contemporary of +Hildegard, and, like her, was noted for her culture and wide range of +knowledge. She is chiefly known for her _Hortus Deliciarum_, a +remarkable work, encyclopaedic in character, which she wrote for the nuns +of her convent and which was designed to embody in words and in pictures +the knowledge of her age. + +Nothing that time has bequeathed to us gives us a clearer conception of +the manifold activities of a mediaeval nunnery, of the industry, talents +and enthusiastic love of learning of its inmates, than Herrad's +wonderful _Garden of Delights_. Nor is there any other work that gives +us a better knowledge of the manners, customs and ideals of the twelfth +century, or one that, in its particular sphere, is of more value to the +student of art, philology and archaeology. It exhibits Herrad's intense +interest in the intellectual advancement of her nuns and pupils as well +as her superior talent and acquirements. Unfortunately the manuscript +copy of this work was destroyed at the time of the bombardment of +Strasburg by the Germans in 1870, and our knowledge of it is limited to +portions of it which had previously been transcribed or to accounts left +of it by those who had examined it before its destruction. Of such +exceptional value was this unique work that the editor of the great +collection of pictures, which illustrates this remarkable book, does not +hesitate to declare that "Few illuminated manuscripts had acquired a +fame so well deserved as the _Hortus Deliciarum_ of Herrad."[44] + +No sketch, however brief, of the literary nuns of mediaeval Germany would +be complete without some reference to the learned religious of the +convent of Helfta, near Eisleben in Saxony. Of the abbess Gertrude we +read that her enthusiasm for knowledge was so great that she not only +inspired others with the same enthusiasm, but that she was an incessant +collector of books, which she had her nuns transcribe. Among her most +distinguished subjects were two religious by the name of Matilda, one of +whom was her sister, and a third, who, to distinguish her from the +abbess, is known as "Gertrude the Great." + +The writings of these nuns were inspired by that great mystic movement +which then prevailed in various parts of Europe and are among the most +impassioned productions of the age. For this reason they still have a +special claim on the attention of students of art and literature, as +well as those of theology and mysticism. Impressed by the similarity of +their ideas and descriptions as compared with those found in Dante's +great masterpiece, there are not wanting scholars who contend that the +prototype of the Matelda in the earthly paradise of the _Purgatorio_ was +none other than one of the Matildas of the famous convent of Helfta.[45] + +The writings of Hroswitha, Hildegard, Herrad, Gertrude and the Matildas, +to speak of no others, are the best evidence of the studious character +of the nuns of mediaeval times, and of their devotion to the cause of +education. They command, likewise, our admiration for the system of +training which made such development possible, and show that, in certain +departments, the schools as then conducted were on as high a plane as +any we have to-day.[46] They show us, too, that nuns and convent-bred +women of the age in question were of quite different mental calibre from +that of the "gentle lady of chivalry living in her bower, playing upon +her lute and waiting patiently for the return of her triumphant +knight," and quite different, too, from that of the castle +lady-loves--whose sole attractions were often no more than youth and +beauty--who inspired the impassioned lyrics of troubadour and +minnesinger. + +A recent writer sums up in a few words the status and the +accomplishments of the lady of the abbey in the following paragraph: + +"No institution of Europe has ever won for the lady the freedom and +development that she enjoyed in the convent in early days. The modern +college for women only feebly reproduces it, since the college for women +has arisen at a time when colleges in general are under a cloud. The +lady-abbess, on the other hand, was part of the two great social forces +of her time, feudalism and the Church. Great spiritual rewards and great +worldly prizes were alike within her grasp. She was treated as an equal +by the men of her class, as is witnessed by letters we still have from +popes and emperors to abbesses. She had the stimulus of competition with +men in executive capacity, in scholarship, and in artistic production, +since her work was freely set before the general public; but she was +relieved by the circumstances of her environment from the ceaseless +competition in common life of woman with woman for the favor of the +individual man. In the cloister of the great days, as on a small scale +in the college for women to-day, women were judged by each other as men +are everywhere judged by each other, for sterling qualities of head and +heart and character."[47] + +Nor is this all. Never was woman more highly honored, never was her +power and influence greater than during the period of conventual life +extending from Hilda of Whitby to Gertrude and the Matildas of Helfta, +and especially during that golden period of monasticism and chivalry +when cloister and court were the radiant centers of learning and +culture. Abbesses took part in ecclesiastical synods and councils and +assisted in the deliberations of national assemblies. In England, they +ranked with lords temporal and spiritual, and had the right to attend +the king's council or to send proxies to represent them, while in +Germany, where they held property directly from the king or emperor, +they enjoyed the rights and privileges of barons and, as such, took part +in the proceedings of the imperial diet either in person or through +their accredited representatives. In Saxony, the abbesses had the right +to strike coins bearing their own portraits, notably the abbesses of +Gandersheim and Quedlinburg. In England they were invested with +extraordinary powers, and in certain cases owed obedience to none save +the Pope. In Kent abbesses, as representatives of religion, came +immediately after bishops. + +Possessing such power and prestige, it is not surprising to learn that +abbesses wielded great influence in temporal as well as spiritual +matters; that it pervaded politics and extended to the courts of kings +and emperors. Thus, Matilda, the abbess of Quedlinburg, together with +Adelheid, the mother of Otto III who was but three years old at the time +of his father's death, practically ruled the empire. At a later period +during the prolonged absence in Italy of Otto III, the control of +affairs was entrusted to the abbess alone; and so successful was her +administration, and so vigorous were the measures which she adopted +against the invading Wends, that she commanded the admiration of all. In +view of these facts, the learned authoress of _Woman Under Monasticism_ +is fully warranted in declaring as she does "The career open to the +inmates of convents in England and on the Continent was greater than any +other ever thrown open to women in the course of modern European +history."[48] + +"The educational influence of convents during centuries," continues the +same writer, "cannot be rated too highly. Not only did their inmates +attain considerable knowledge but education in a nunnery, as we see from +Chaucer and others, secured an improved standing for those who were not +professed."[49] It prepared the way for, if it did not train, those +highly educated women who appeared during the time of the transition +between the Middle Ages and what is now designated as the Modern Period. + +Among these were Christine de Pisan, who was a prolific writer on many +subjects in both prose and verse, and who, it is said, was the first +woman to earn a livelihood by her pen.[50] There were also some of those +remarkable women who lectured on law in the University of Bologna, among +whom were Bettina Gozzadini,[51] who, some writers will have it, +occupied the chairs of law in her _alma mater_ as early as 1236, and the +celebrated Novella d'Andrea, of the following century, who frequently +acted as a substitute for her father, a professor of canon law in the +university, and who, by reason of her varied and profound knowledge, +held a prominent place among the most learned men of her time. Both of +these noted women were worthy prototypes of that long list of learned +Italian women who, during the Renaissance, won such honor for themselves +and such undying glory for their country. Not less remarkable were +several women of the school of Salerno, who, during its palmiest days, +distinguished themselves as teachers, writers and medical +practitioners,[52] and the still more remarkable daughters of one +Mangord, a professor of Paris, whose daughters taught Sacred +Scripture.[53] There were few in number, it is true, but they were the +worthy prototypes of those learned and brilliant women who achieved such +distinction and glory for their sex during that most interesting period +of history known as the Renaissance. + + +WOMAN AND EDUCATION DURING THE RENAISSANCE + +By the Renaissance we understand not only a phase in the development of +the nations of Europe but also that period of transition between the +mediaeval and the modern world during which the latent spiritual energies +of the Middle Ages developed into the intellectual forces and moral +habits of thought which now pervade the civilized world. Various dates +are assigned for its starting point. Among them is the fall of +Constantinople in 1453, when there was a great influx of scholars from +the famed metropolis on the Bosphorus to the Italian peninsula, who +brought with them those forgotten treasures of science and literature +which were so instrumental in producing that interesting phenomenon +known in history as the Revival of Learning. But whatever date be +assigned for the beginning of the Renaissance, whether it be the year +when Constantinople fell into the hands of the Turk or the fateful +millennial year which was to witness the termination of all things, +there certainly was never at any period a distinct breach of historical +continuity between the old order and the new. + +This is particularly true of Italy where the Renaissance had its origin. +For here, during the entire mediaeval period, there never was a time when +the study of antiquity was completely neglected; when the traditions of +the old Roman culture had died out, or when the art and the literature +of the classical ages of the past had ceased to exert an influence on +artists and scholars. Ozanam was, then, right when he declared that the +night of the Dark Age, which in Italy intervened between "the +intellectual daylight of antiquity and the dawn of the Renaissance," +was, in reality, like "one of those luminous nights in which the fading +brightness of evening is prolonged into the first beaming of the +morning."[54] + +So much, indeed, was this the case that those who have made the most +profound study of the Middle Ages recognize a first Renaissance in the +twelfth century, which was not less real than the Renaissance _par +excellence_ of the fifteenth century, a renaissance which counts such +masters of Latinity as Abelard, John of Salisbury and Hildebert of +Tours, and such schools as that of Chartres, where classical Latin was +taught with as much thoroughness as in the great universities of Europe +during the brilliant age of the humanists. It was then, as Rashdall +truly observes, that "a revival of architecture heralded, as it usually +does, a wider revival of Art. The schools of Christendom became thronged +as they were never thronged before. A passion for enquiry took the place +of the old routine. The Crusades brought different parts of Europe into +contact with one another and into contact with the new world of the +East--with a new religion and a new philosophy, with the Arabic +Aristotle, with the Arabic commentators on Aristotle, and eventually +even with Aristotle in the original Greek."[55] + +Roughly speaking, the Renaissance attained its culmination during the +second half of the fifteenth century. It was during this period that +gunpowder and printing with movable types were invented--the first +completely revolutionizing the methods of warfare and the second +marvelously facilitating the diffusion of knowledge. And it was during +the same period also that Vasco da Gama doubled the Cape of Good Hope, +that Columbus crossed the Sea of Darkness and that Copernicus laid the +foundation of modern astronomy. + +But this wonderful half-century constituted only a small portion of the +period embraced by the Renaissance. From the fall of Constantinople +until it attained the highest phase of development in England, the +Renaissance covers a period of nearly two centuries. The progress of the +intellectual and moral movement which it represented, from the land of +its birth, to the northern and western parts of Europe, was +comparatively slow. Thus, while Italy was exhibiting the full effulgence +of the re-birth, England was still in the feudal condition of the Middle +Ages. A striking illustration of this truth is seen in the fact that "a +brother of the Black Prince banqueted with Petrarch in the palace of +Galeazzo Visconti--that is to say, the founder of Italian humanism, the +representative of Italian despotic state-craft, and the companion of +Froissart's heroes met together at a marriage feast." "In Italy," as +Symonds has shown, "the keynote was struck by the _Novella_, as in +England by the drama."[56] The supreme exponents of the Renaissance as +manifested in literature were, without doubt, Ariosto in Italy, Rabelais +in France, Cervantes in Spain, Camoens in Portugal, Erasmus in the +Netherlands and Shakespeare in England. + +Considering the splendid achievements of men during the Renaissance in +every department of intellectual activity, one would imagine that women +also would have attained to a somewhat proportionate distinction, at +least in literature and the arts. But, outside of Italy, this was far +from being the case. In France, Spain, Portugal and England there were, +it is true, a certain number of women who won distinction by their +talents and learning, but these were the exceptions which but served to +throw into greater relief the prevailing ignorance of the great mass of +their sex, which had few, if any, of the advantages of instruction, even +in the most elementary branches of knowledge. + +The Italian women, as we have already seen, had commanded marked +recognition for their talents and learning even before the close of the +Middle Ages. The most famous of these were among those who, having +obtained the doctorate, became lecturers and professors in the great +university of Bologna. The existence and accomplishments of some of +these may, perhaps, be more or less legendary, but there can be no doubt +that many of them, some before the time of the Renaissance, had gained a +European reputation for the breadth and variety of their attainments. +But it was during the Renaissance that the remarkable flowering of the +intellect of the Italian woman was seen at its best. While the women in +the other parts of Europe, especially in England and Germany, were +suffering the ill effects consequent on the suppression of the convents, +which, for centuries, had been almost the only schools available for +girls, the women of Italy were taking an active part in the great +educational movement inaugurated by the revival of learning, and winning +the highest honors for their sex in every department of science, art and +literature. Not since the days of Sappho and Aspasia had woman attained +such prominence, and never were they, irrespective of class-condition, +accorded greater liberty, privileges or honor. The universities, which +had been opened to them at the close of the Middle Ages, gladly +conferred upon them the doctorate, and eagerly welcomed them to the +chairs of some of their most important faculties. The Renaissance was, +indeed, the heydey of the intellectual woman throughout the whole of the +Italian peninsula--a time when woman enjoyed the same scholastic freedom +as men, and when Mme. de Stael's dictum, _Le genie n'a pas de sexe_, +expressed a doctrine admitted in practice and not an academic theory. + +It would require a large volume, or rather many volumes, to do justice +to the learned women of Italy who conferred such honor upon their sex +during the period we are considering. Suffice it to mention a few of +those who achieved special distinction and whose memories are still +green in the land which had been made so illustrious by their talent and +genius. + +That which the modern reader finds the most surprising in the Italian +women of the Renaissance is their enthusiasm for the _literae +humaniores_--the Latin and Greek classics--and the proficiency which so +many of them, even at an early age, attained in the literature and +philosophy of antiquity. It was no uncommon thing for a girl in her +teens to write and speak Latin, while many of them were almost equally +familiar with Greek.[57] Thus Laura Brenzoni, of Verona, had such a +mastery of these two languages that she wrote and spoke them with ease, +while Alessandra Scala was so familiar with them that she employed them +in writing poetry. Lorenza Strozzi, who was educated in a convent and +eventually became a nun, was distinguished for her great versatility, +for her profound knowledge of science and art, as well as for her +proficiency in Latin and Greek. Her Latin poems were so highly valued +that they were translated into foreign languages. Livia Chiavello, of +Fabriano, was celebrated as one of the most brilliant representatives of +the Petrarchan school. Her style was so pure and noble that, had +Petrarch not lived, she alone would have upheld the honor of the vulgar +tongue. So successful was Isotta of Rimini in the cultivation of the +Muses that she was hailed as another Sappho. Cassandra Fedele, of +Venice, deserved, according to Polizian, the noted Florentine humanist, +to be ranked with that famous universal genius, Pico de la Mirandola. So +extensive were her attainments that in addition to being a thorough +mistress of Latin and Greek, she was likewise distinguished in music, +eloquence, philosophy and even theology. Leo X, Louis XII of France, and +Isabella of Spain were eager to have her as an ornament for their +courts, but the Venetian senate was so proud of its treasure that it was +unwilling to have her depart. Catarina Cibo, of Genoa, was another +prodigy of learning; for, besides a knowledge of Latin and Greek, +philosophy and theology, she was well acquainted with Hebrew. Donna +Felice Rasponi, of Ravenna, devoted herself to the study of Plato and +Aristotle, of Scripture and the Fathers. But, for the extent and variety +of her attainments, Tarquinia Molza seems to have eclipsed all her +contemporaries. She had as teachers the ablest scholars of an age of +distinguished scholars. Not only did she excel in poetry and the fine +arts, but she also had a rare knowledge of astronomy and mathematics, +Latin, Greek and Hebrew. And so great was the esteem in which she was +held that the senate of Rome conferred on her the singular honor of +Roman citizenship, transmissible in perpetuity to her descendants. The +Sovereign Pontiff and the flower of the Roman prelacy begged her to take +up her residence in the Eternal City, but she could not be prevailed +upon to leave the land of her birth. + +In the arts of sculpture and painting the women of Italy, during the +Renaissance, were no less illustrious than they were in science, +literature and philosophy. Indeed, many of the treasures in the Italian +churches and art galleries that still delight all lovers of the +beautiful are from the chisel and the brush of women who achieved +distinction between three and four centuries ago.[58] + +Probably the most famous sculptress was Properzia de Rossi, whose +ability was so remarkable that she excited the envy of the men who were +her competitors.[59] Among painters there was Suor Plantilla Nelli, who +was a nun and prioress in the convent of Santa Catarina in Florence. +Both Lanzi and Vasari bestow high praise on her work and declare some of +her productions to be of rare excellence. There were also Maria Angela +Crisculo, of whose splendid work many examples are still preserved in +the churches of Naples, and Lavinia Fontana of Bologna, who exhibited +such extraordinary ability as an artist that some of her pictures passed +for the work of her great contemporary, Guido Reni.[60] Still more +remarkable were the achievements of four sisters of the noted family +Anguisciola of Cremona. So admirable was the work of the eldest sister, +Sofonisba, that Philip II invited her to his court in Spain, where she +excited the amazement of every one by the splendid canvases which she +executed for her illustrious patron and for the members of the royal +family. + +Of the fifty female poets who flourished in Italy during the Renaissance +the most eminent were Gaspara Stampa, Veronica Gambara, and Vittoria +Colonna. Of such merit and exquisite finish were the productions of +their Muse that they are still read with never failing pleasure. So +highly did Cardinal Bembo,--the famous "dictator of letters"--value the +scholarship and critical acumen of Veronica Gambara that he never +published anything without previously submitting it to her judgment. But +far more eminent as a poet was the noble and accomplished Marchesa of +Pescara, Vittoria Colonna, who, on account of her talents and virtues, +was named _La Divina_. The friend and adviser of scholars and the +confidante of princes, she represented, as has truly been said, "the +best phases of the Renaissance, its learning, its intelligence, its +enthusiasm, its subtle Platonism, combined with a profound religious +faith and the trace of the mysticism of a simpler age." The chorus of +universal praise which was sung by her contemporaries is well echoed by +Ariosto when he writes of her: "She has not only made herself immortal +by her beautiful style, of which I have heard not better, but she can +raise from the tomb those of whom she speaks or writes and make them +live forever." But it was as the friend and inspirer of Michaelangelo +that she is best known to us to-day. "Without wings," he writes to her, +"I fly with your wings; by your genius I am raised to the skies; in your +soul my thought is born." + +Among those who specially distinguished themselves for their profound +scholarship, as exhibited in the halls of universities, were Dorotea +Bucca, who occupied a chair of medicine in the University of Bologna, +where, by reason of her rare eloquence and learning, she had students +from all parts of Europe; Laura Ceretta, of Brescia, who, during seven +years, gave public lectures on philosophy; Battista Malatesta, of +Urbino, who taught philosophy with such marked success that the most +distinguished professors of the day were forced to recognize themselves +as her inferiors; and Fulvia Olympia Morati, who "at the age of fourteen +wrote Latin letters and dialogues in Greek and Latin in the style of +Plato and Cicero," and who, when she was scarcely sixteen, "was invited +to give lectures in the University of Ferrara on the philosophical +problems of the _Paradoxes of Cicero_." So great, indeed, was her +knowledge of the ancient languages that she was offered the +professorship of Greek in the University of Heidelberg; but death cut +short her brilliant career before she could enter upon her duties in +this famed institution of learning. It was female professors of this +type--masters of Greek and Latin letters, who in the words of a recent +writer, "sent forth from Italy such students as Moritz von Spiegelberg +and Rudolph Agricola, to reform the instruction of Deventer and Zwoll +and prepare the way for Erasmus and Reuchlin." + +In the preceding list of learned women--and but a few only have been +named of the many who in every city of importance conferred undying +glory on their sex--it is clear that the Renaissance in Italy was, +indeed, the golden age of women. Never in history had they greater +freedom of action in things of the mind; never were they, except +probably in the case of the English and German abbesses of the Middle +Ages, treated with more marked deference and consideration or fairness; +never were their efforts more highly appreciated or more generously +rewarded, and never was their success more highly and enthusiastically +applauded. Temporal and spiritual rulers, princes and cardinals, Popes +and emperors vied with one another in paying just tribute to woman's +genius as well as to woman's virtue. The nun in the cloister as well as +the lady in the palace shared in the general enthusiasm for learning, +and they enjoyed throughout the peninsula the same opportunities as men +and received the same recognition for their work. Everywhere the +intellectual arena was open to them on the same terms as to men. +Incapacity and not sex was the only bar to entrance. + +But the men of those days, especially scholars of the type of Bembo, +Politian and Ariosto, were liberal and broad-minded men, who never for a +moment imagined that a woman was out of her sphere or unsexed because +she wore a doctor's cap or occupied a university chair. And far from +stigmatizing her as a singular or strong-minded woman, they recognized +her as one who had but enhanced the graces and virtues of her sex by the +added attractions of a cultivated mind and a developed intellect. Not +only did she escape the shafts of satire and ridicule, which are so +frequently aimed at the educated woman of to-day, but she was called +into the councils of temporal and spiritual rulers as well. + +Woe betide the ill-advised misogynist who should venture to declaim +against the inferiority of the female sex, or to protest against the +honors which an appreciative and a chivalrous age bestowed upon it with +so lavish a hand. The women of Italy, unlike those of other nations, +knew how to defend themselves, and were not afraid to take, when +occasion demanded, the pen in self-defense. This is evidenced by +numerous works which were written in response to certain narrow-minded +pamphleteers--_miseri pedanti_, pitiful pedants,--who would have the +activities of women limited to the nursery or the kitchen.[61] + +A striking characteristic of these learned women was the entire absence +of all priggism or pedantry. Whether lecturing on law or philosophy, or +discoursing in Latin before Popes and cardinals, or taking part in +discussions on art and literature with the eminent humanists of the day, +they ever retained that beautiful simplicity which gives such a charm to +true greatness of mind and is the best index of true scholarship and +noble, symmetrical womanhood. + +Nor did the rare intellectual attainments of these daughters of Italy +destroy that harmony of creation which, some will have it, is sure to be +jeopardized by giving women the same educational advantages as men. So +far was this from being the case that there were never more loyal and +helpful wives nor more devoted and stimulating mothers than there were +among those women who wrote verses in the language of Sappho, or +delivered public addresses in the tongue of Cicero. Still less did their +serious and long-protracted studies entail any of the dangers we hear so +much of nowadays. The large and healthy families of many of them prove +that intellectual work, even of the highest order, is not incompatible +with motherhood; and still less that it, _per se_, conduces, as is so +often asserted, to race-suicide. These facts are commended to the +consideration of our modern opponents of the higher education of women +and to those militant conservatives and old-time reactionaries who are +still averse to opening the doors of some of our older universities to +women--even such universities as Oxford, several of whose colleges were +founded on the revenues derived from suppressed educational institutions +which had been built and used for generations for the sole behoof of +women. + +But distinguished as were the women of Italy for their culture and +scholarship, they were yet more distinguished as patrons of learning, as +leaders and inspirers of the eminent men who were the chief +representatives of the Renaissance. Reference has already been made to +the influence of Vittoria Colonna on Michaelangelo--"who saw with her +eyes, acted by her inspiration, was lifted by her beyond the stars"--but +this is only one of many similar instances that might be adduced. +Indeed, to the student of the Italian Renaissance, the most interesting +feature of it was, not its women doctors and professors, but those noble +and accomplished ladies who made the courts of Ferrara, Mantua, Milan +and Urbino the most noted intellectual centers of Europe. + +The most beautiful ornaments of the first three courts were Renee, +duchess of Ferrara; Isabella d'Este, marchioness of Mantua, and Beatrice +d'Este, duchess of Milan. They were all women of exceptional learning +and culture, and each was the center of a galaxy of talent such as is +rarely witnessed in any one place. + +Among the men attracted to their courts were the most illustrious +scholars, artists, poets and musicians of the Renaissance. Here they +found congenial homes and breathed an atmosphere made fragrant by the +appreciation shown by their charming hostesses for their power and +genius. Here they found inspiration and a stimulus that spurred them on +to their greatest achievements. In Ferrara, where it was said that +"there were as many poets as there were frogs in the country round +about," were gathered the most gifted poets of the Renaissance who had +been attracted there to recite their latest masterpieces. Among them +were Clement Marot, the first poet of modern France, and Ariosto, the +immortal author of _Orlando Furioso_. There were the great painters, +Titian and Bellini, and the illustrious poet, Torquato Tasso, whose love +subsequently immortalized Renee's youngest daughter Leonora. + +A similar artistic and intellectual supremacy was held by Isabelle +d'Este. For portrait painters she had Titian and Leonardo da Vinci, +while, as decorators of her home, she had Bellini and Perugino, whose +compositions she herself arranged, even in the minutest details. So it +was likewise in the gay and brilliant court of Beatrice d'Este, in +Milan,--a place where artists and scholars of all nationalities were +always sure of a cordial welcome. + +But the ideal center of intellectual culture was the court of Urbino, +the central figure of which was the learned and accomplished Elizabetta +Gonzaga. This picturesque city of the eastern slope of the Apennines was +then to Italy what Athens had been to Greece in the days of Pericles; +and Elizabetta was to its court what Aspasia was in her own matchless +salon--the magnet which attracted all the artists and men of letters of +the age. + +Castiglione, whose great work, _The Courtier_, was partly written as a +memorial of the peerless woman who inspired it, gives us a vivid picture +of "the fair ladies, with their quick intelligence and ready sympathy," +discussing questions of art, literature, philosophy and Platonism, with +the most eminent scholars and artists of Europe. But Castiglione +confesses that he is unable to give us more than the mere outline of the +picture. "To paint the polished society of Urbino," as has been well +said, "we should need colors no palette contains--transparencies of the +Grecian sky, the indigo of certain seas, the liquid azure of certain +eyes. For more than a century the court of Urbino was regarded as the +supreme exemplar. In the seventeenth century, the Hotel de Rambouillet +was still striving to make itself a copy of it; unluckily such things as +these are not easily copied."[62] + +We are not surprised, then, at being told that "men moulded by Italian +ladies"--such ladies as graced the court of Urbino--"could be +distinguished among a thousand." Still less are we surprised to note the +immense difference between the refined and brilliant discussions of _The +Courtier_ as compared with the coarse tales of the _Decameron_ and +_Heptameron_. And we can understand the marvelous influence which +Castiglione's matchless work--inspired by the beloved Duchess +Elizabetta--had upon the masters of English literature--on Shakespeare, +Ben Jonson, Spenser, Marlow, Shelley. + +Cardinal Bembo, who was one of the most assiduous frequenters of this +famous court, in writing of Elizabetta, does not hesitate to declare: "I +have seen many excellent and noble women, and have heard of some who +were as illustrious for certain qualities, but in her alone among women, +all virtues were united and brought together. I have never seen nor +heard of any one who was her equal, and know very few who have even come +near her." + +It was Castiglione's experience at the court of Urbino, where he was a +daily witness of the irresistible influence of Elizabetta, that made him +give expression to the sentiment, "Man has for his portion physical +strength and external activities; all doing must be his, all inspiration +must come from woman." It was also this keen student of the mysterious +workings of woman's genius and of her secret, all-pervading influence, +at times and in places least suspected, who penned the notable +statement--worthy of the Renaissance--"Without women nothing is +possible, either in military courage, or art, or poetry, or music, or +philosophy, or even religion. God is truly seen only through them." + +Only a few words are necessary to tell of the learned women of the +Renaissance outside of Italy. On account of its intimate connection with +the Italian peninsula, Spain was the second country in Europe to +experience the effects of the new intellectual movement. Among the +educated Italians whom Isabella, the Catholic, had attracted to her +court were the brothers Geraldini, whom she appointed as teachers of her +children. Of her daughter, Juana, Juan Vives, the eminent Spanish +scholar, says she was able to make impromptu speeches in Latin, while +Catherine, who became the wife of Henry VIII, excited the admiration of +Erasmus by the extent and accuracy of her knowledge. It was from +Salamanca that Isabella summoned her own teacher of Latin, the learned +Beatrix Galindo,[63] who was a professor of rhetoric in the university +long before Elizabeth of England had studied the language of Virgil +under Ascham. + +Then there was Francisca de Lebrixa who often filled the chair of her +father, who was professor of history and rhetoric in the University of +Alcala, and Isabella Losa, of Cordova, who, among her other +acquirements, counted a knowledge of Greek and Hebrew. To his learned +daughters, Gregoria and Luisa, Antonio Perez, minister of Philip II, +wrote saying: "Do not imagine, when you are writing to me, that you are +addressing Cicero or some Greek author; lower your style to my level." +There were also Isabella de Joya, who commented on Scotus Erigena; +Catherine Ribera, the bard of love and faith; Dona Maria Pacheco de +Mendoza; Bernarda Ferreyra, to whom, on account of her rare scholarship, +Lopez de Vega dedicated his beautiful elegy _Phillis_; Juana Morella, +who, besides having a profound knowledge of music, philosophy, divinity +and jurisprudence, was the mistress of fourteen languages; Juana de la +Cruz, the famous Mexican nun whose poetry of superior merit, as well as +her exceptional attainments in many branches of knowledge, won for her +the epithet of the "Tenth Muse"; Luisa Sigea, who besides being a poet +was a mistress of the classical and several oriental languages, +including Hebrew and Syro-Chaldaic, and other learned women whom "no one +was astonished to see taking by main force the first rank in the spheres +of literature, philosophy and theology." + +So profoundly had the Renaissance affected the women of a limited circle +in England, that Erasmus could declare without exaggeration: "It is +charming to see the female sex demand classical instruction. The queen +is remarkably learned and her daughter writes good Latin. The home of +More is truly the abode of the Muses." + +The queen of whom Erasmus speaks is Catherine of Aragon, who was +educated in Spain, who was a pupil of Vives, and who, besides having a +thorough knowledge of Latin and Greek, was well acquainted with several +modern languages. The daughters of Sir Thomas More were among the most +learned women of their time and were, indeed, worthy of dwelling in "the +home of the Muses." + +Lady Jane Grey read Plato in the original at the age of thirteen.[64] +Anne, Margaret and Jane Seymour were likewise celebrated for their +knowledge of the classics, as were Anne Boleyn and Mary Stuart, who both +received their education in France, and especially Queen Elizabeth, who +was not only one of the most learned women of her time but was probably +also the most learned queen England has ever produced. There were, +however, no university professors or poets of eminence among the English +women, as there were in Italy and Spain, and their creative work was +practically nothing. + +Since the time of Hroswitha, Gertrude, the Matildas and Hildegard, the +learned woman has never been the ideal woman in Germany. When Olympia +Morati was on her way from Ferrara to Heidelberg to take the chair of +Greek, she found the daughters of professors and humanists devoting +themselves to sewing and embroidery instead of art and literature. Anna, +the eldest daughter of Melanchthon, was almost alone among the German +women of the Renaissance who had a knowledge of Latin. + +In France the most learned woman of her time was undoubtedly Margaret of +Angouleme, queen of Navarre. So great was her knowledge and so +enthusiastic was she in promoting the study of the Latin and Greek +classics that Michelet, with something of exaggeration, perhaps, calls +her "the amiable mother of the Renaissance in France."[65] She was noted +for her devotion to the study of Scripture and theology as well as Greek +and Hebrew. She always had around her, or was in correspondence with, +the most distinguished scholars, poets, artists, philosophers and +theologians of the age, and undoubtedly did much, as a patroness of men +of letters, toward furthering the literary movement in France. She is, +however, chiefly known to modern readers by her _Heptameron_--a work +which reveals too clearly the tastes of her associates and the manners +and customs of the time. + +With the exception of Margaret of Navarre, there were but few literary +women of more than ephemeral reputation during the French Renaissance. +Among these Louise Labe deserves mention, as she was the most +distinguished poetess in France during the sixteenth century.[66] She, +like Margaret, was the center of a coterie of men of letters; but the +reunions over which she presided, as well as those of the author of the +_Heptameron_, were entirely lacking in the dignity and refinement of +those of the polished court of Urbino in the days of the peerless +Elizabetta Gonzaga. + +From what has been said respecting the rare learning of the women of the +Renaissance, one might infer that women in general enjoyed special +educational facilities during this period of intellectual activity. +Paradoxical as it may seem, the very contrary was the case. For, as +history tells us, the education of the Renaissance was essentially +aristocratic. It was only for the women of the nobility and for the +wives and daughters of scholars, while the great majority of the sex +remained in a state of complete illiteracy. + +The environment of the daughters of scholars was peculiarly favorable to +their intellectual development, and learning was in a certain measure +their natural heritage. They did not receive their education in schools, +for there were then few or no schools for girls, but from their fathers +or from the men of letters who frequented their homes. A typical home of +this kind was that of the noted savant, Robert Estienne of Paris, +printer to Francis I. Here the language of conversation was Latin, not +only for the members of the family but also for the servants as +well.[67] Under such conditions we are not surprised to be informed +that the girls, as well as the boys, learned to speak Latin as well as +their mother tongue. And listening, as they did, to the daily +discussions on art and literature by the most learned men of a most +learned age, it was inevitable that they should acquire those vast +stores of knowledge on all subjects that so excite the astonishment of +our less studious women of to-day. + +With the daughters of the nobility it was the same. In their youth they +had, under the paternal roof, the benefit of the instruction of the most +eminent masters of the time. And as they grew up their constant +intercourse with learned men and the part they took in all literary and +social assemblies, which were so prominent a feature of the period, +enabled them to complete their education under the most favorable +auspices, and to have, before they were out of their teens, a fund of +information on all subjects that could not be obtained so well, even in +the best of our modern institutions of learning. + +It was to these daughters of the elite--_ingenuae puellae_--that Erasmus +and Vives addressed their treatises on education. They were the +privileged class at whose disposition were placed all the treasures of +Greek and Latin letters. It was, then, an easy matter for them to write +poetry and dissertations in the languages of Horace and Plato. And it +was often a necessity for them to speak Latin, for it was then the +universal language of the learned--the language that was understood +everywhere--in England as in Italy, in Germany as in France, in Flanders +as well as in Spain and Portugal. + +It was then that The Republic of Letters was a reality as never before; +that the man of letters was, of a truth, "a citizen of the world"; that +his country was wherever the cult of letters had priests or devotees. He +was what the ballad singer was during the Middle Ages, but with more +dignity and seriousness. He was the agent and representative of +intellectual life, the living symbol of the unity and solidarity of the +human mind. And as in time he linked the past to the present so likewise +in space he bound all peoples together and belonged equally to all. Such +was Erasmus of Holland, who was equally at home in France and +Switzerland, in Italy and England--everywhere received with the honor +accorded to princes of the blood royal. Such was Vives, of Spain, the +teacher of Catherine of Aragon, of Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII--at +one time professor in Louvain, at another in Oxford--always and +everywhere an ardent exponent of humanism for women as well as for men. +Such was Politian and such were scores of his contemporaries, who +carried the torch of knowledge from castle to castle and from court to +court, where maidens equally with youths enjoyed all the advantages +derivable from the lessons of such distinguished teachers and such +eminent leaders of culture. + +For it was a peculiarity of the scholar of the Renaissance that he was a +great traveler--seeking knowledge wherever it was to be found--and +carrying it with him whithersoever he went. He journeyed from university +to university, everywhere exchanging views with his intellectual +compeers, and everywhere diffusing the knowledge he had so laboriously +acquired. The consequence was a wonderful uniformity of education among +the higher classes--among women as well as among men--something that was +never known before. Through the generally diffused knowledge of Latin, +the common literary medium of communication, all the nations of Europe, +even those at war with one another, were brought together in an +intellectual brotherhood and in a way which gave scholarship a power and +a prestige that accrued to the benefit of women and men alike. + +But the educational advantages enjoyed by the women of the Renaissance +were not for the bourgeoisie--not for the daughters of peasants, +tradesmen and artisans. They were solely, as has been stated, for the +benefit of the children of princes or of scholars--of those only who +could claim either nobility of birth or nobility of genius.[68] Even the +most zealous of the humanists would have been surprised if they had been +asked to diffuse a portion of their light among the women of the masses. +For education, as they viewed it, was something solely for the +elect--for ladies of the court and not for women of a lower condition. +So far as the rest of womankind was concerned, their occupation was +limited, according to a Breton saying, to looking after altar, hearth, +and children--"_La femme se doit garder l'autel, le feu, les enfants_." + +It was about this time, too, that men began, especially in France and +Germany, to revive the anti-feminist crusade which had so retarded the +literary movement among the women of ancient Greece and Rome. They +refused to hear women and intellect spoken of together. The Germans +recognized no intelligence in them apart from domestic duties, and +seemed to belong to that strange race, that has not yet died out, which +believes woman to be "afflicted with the radical incapacity to acquire +an individual idea." "What the Italians called intelligence a German +would call tittle-tattle, trickery, the spirit of opposition. They +rejected such gratifications and had no intention of allowing Delilah to +shear them."[69] + +In the estimation of Luther, the intellectual aspirations of women were +not only an absurdity, but were also a positive peril. "Take them," he +says, "from their housewifery and they are good for nothing." He treated +the humanist Vives, preceptor of Mary Tudor, as "a dangerous spirit," +because the learned Spaniard was an ardent advocate of the higher +education of women. As to abstract and severe studies they were for +girls, according to one of Luther's contemporaries, but "vain and futile +quackeries." For an accomplished woman to quote the Fathers or the +ancient classical writers was to provoke ridicule, because to do so was +considered an indication of pedantry or affectation. Montaigne gave +expression to the age-old prejudice against woman by refusing to regard +her as anything but a pretty animal, while Rabelais, the coryphaeus of +the French Renaissance, declared that "Nature in creating woman lost the +good sense which she had displayed in the creation of all other things." + +Such being the views of the great leaders of thought and formers of +public opinion respecting the mental inferiority of woman--views which, +outside of Italy, had, with few exceptions, the cordial approval of the +supercilious, cockahoop male--is it necessary to add that the +Renaissance did nothing for popular education? The masses of women, +especially after the suppression of the convent schools in England and +Germany, were, in many parts of Europe, and notably in the two countries +mentioned, in a worse condition than they were during the Dark Ages.[70] + + +WOMAN AND EDUCATION BETWEEN THE RENAISSANCE AND THE TWENTIETH CENTURY + +The period following the Renaissance was not a brilliant one for woman, +especially outside of Italy. For in this favored land, even after the +decadence in literature that followed the glorious cinquecento, +intellectual life opposed so effective a barrier to the forces of +extinction which were at work in other parts of Europe, notably Germany +and England, that there were still in every part of the peninsula from +the fertile plains of Lombardy to the sunny Ionian sea, learned and +cultured women who were eager to emulate the achievements of their +illustrious sisters of Italy's golden age of art, and letters. We do +not, it is true, find among them a Properzia de Rossi, a Veronica +Gambara, or a Vittoria Colonna; but we find many earnest and +enthusiastic students in every department of knowledge. + +That which most impresses the student of education during this period of +Italian history is not the splendor of art and letters in court and +castle, which so dazzled Europe during the time of Renee of Ferrara and +Elizabetta Gonzaga of Urbino. We find, it is true, a goodly number of +women who won distinction as poets and artists; but it is rather those +who were devoted to more serious studies that arrest our +attention--women who attained eminence in physical and natural science, +in mathematics, in the classical and oriental languages, in philosophy, +law and theology. Space precludes the mention of more than a few of +these, but these few may be accepted as typical of many others almost +equally distinguished. + +Chief among those of whom their countrymen are specially proud are +Rosanna Somaglia Landi, of Milan, linguist and translator of Anacreon; +Maria Selvaggia Borghini, of Pisa, translator of the works of +Tertullian; Eleonora Barbapiccola, of Salerno, who translated into +Italian the _Principa Philosophiae_ of Descartes; Maria Angela +Arginghelli, of Naples, who was famed for her profound knowledge of +physics and the higher mathematics and who gave an Italian version of +Stephen Hales' _Vegetable Statics_. Then there was Clelia Grillo +Borromeo, of Genoa, who was so distinguished in science, mathematics, +mechanics and languages that a medal was struck in her honor bearing the +inscription, _Gloria Genuensium_--glory of the Genoese; and the still +more famous Elena Cornaro Piscopia, of Venice, who was truly a prodigy +of learning as well as a paragon of virtue. In addition to a knowledge +of many modern, classical and oriental tongues, she exhibited remarkable +proficiency in astronomy, mathematics, music, philosophy and theology. +After a course of study in the University of Padua and after the usual +examination and discourse in classic Latin on some of the questions of +Aristotelian philosophy, she had the doctorate of philosophy conferred +on her in the cathedral of Padua, in the presence of thousands of +learned men and applauding students from all parts of Europe. But not +content with conferring on this extraordinary woman the ring, wreath of +laurel and the ermine mozetta--the usual insignia of the doctorate--the +University, as a special mark of distinction, had a medal coined in +honor of the illustrious graduate bearing her effigy, with the words, as +the decree of the University expressed it, _ad perpetuam rei memoriam_. +That there was nothing superficial about this young woman's knowledge of +languages, it suffices to state that she was able to speak Latin and +Greek as fluently as her own Italian, and that so profound was her +knowledge of divinity that there were many distinguished ecclesiastics +in both Italy and France who favored conferring on her the doctorate in +theology. + +Among other young women who obtained the doctorate in various +universities were Maddalena Canedi-Noe and Maria Vittoria Dosi who, +after the usual course of study in the university of Bologna, obtained +the degree of doctor of civil law, and Maria Pellegrina Amoretti, who +received the degree of doctor in both canon and civil law in the +University of Pavia and with it the doctor's cap--_berreto dottorale_. +But more remarkable for learning than any of these university graduates +was Maria Gaetana Agnesi, one of the most extraordinary women scholars +of all time. On account of her wonderful knowledge of languages she was +called "The Oracle of Seven Tongues." This, however, is not her chief +title to fame. It is rather her marvelous achievements in the domain of +the higher mathematics. After the appearance of her most noted work, +_Instituzioni Analytiche_, she would at once have been elected a member +of the French Academy of Sciences had not the laws of this learned body +precluded the admission of women.[71] That great Maecenas of learning, +Benedict XIV, showed his appreciation of Maria Gaetana's exceptional +attainments by appointing her--_motu proprio_--to the chair of higher +mathematics in the University of Bologna. A similar honor had, in the +preceding century, been conferred on Marta Marchina, of Naples, when, on +account of her rare knowledge of letters, philosophy and theology, she +was offered a chair in the Sapienza, in Rome, an honor which her modesty +and love of retirement caused her to decline. + +We have seen that women professors achieved distinction in the Italian +universities even as early as the closing centuries of the Middle Ages. +The same was true during the Renaissance, and it has been equally true +during the period that has elapsed since the cinquecento. + +Among the most eminent of those who taught in the universities were +Laura Bassi, who had the chair of physics in the University of Bologna, +and Clotilde Tambroni, professor of the Greek language and literature in +the same institution of learning. So thorough was her knowledge of the +language of Plato that it was the opinion of her contemporaries that +there were then only three persons in Europe who equaled her in her +mastery of this classic tongue. It was this distinguished Hellenist who +graciously delivered the address when one of her countrywomen, Maria +dalle Donne, received her doctorate in medicine and surgery. After her +graduation Dr. dalle Donne was given charge of a school for midwives in +which she rendered the greatest service to her sex. Even the chair of +anatomy in the University of Bologna was held by a woman, Anna +Morandi-Menzolini, and her work was of the highest order. The same +position was held by another woman, Maria Petraccini-Terretti, in the +University of Ferrara. + +What a contrast between the attitude of the universities of Italy and +those of other parts of the world toward women as students and +professors! For a thousand years the doors of the Italian universities +have been open to women, as well as to men; and for a thousand years +women, as well as men, have received their degrees from these noble and +liberal institutions, and occupied the most important positions in their +gift, and that, too, with the approval and encouragement of both +spiritual and temporal rulers. For these wise and broad-minded men did +not regard it unwomanly for Laura Bassi to teach physics, for Clotilde +Tambroni to teach Greek, for Dorotea Bucca to teach medicine, for Maria +Gaetana to teach differential and integral calculus, for Anna Morandi to +teach anatomy, for Novella d'Andrea to teach canon law, or even, if we +may believe Denifle, one of the best of authorities, for the daughters +of a Paris professor to teach theology.[72] Yes, what a contrast, +indeed, between the Universities of Bologna and Padua, with their long +and honored list of women graduates and professors, and the +Universities of Cambridge and Oxford from which women have always been +and are still excluded, both as students and professors. + +Contrast, also, the honors shown to women as students and professors of +medicine in Salerno, in the thirteenth century, with the riots excited +among the chivalrous male students of the University of Edinburgh, when, +less than a half century ago, seven young women applied for the +privilege of attending the courses of lectures on medicine and surgery +in that institution. And contrast the sympathy and encouragement of +Italy with the almost brutal opposition which women in our own country +encountered when, but a few decades ago, they applied for admittance to +the medical schools of New York and Philadelphia. The difference between +the Italian and the Anglo-Saxon attitude toward women in the +all-important matters in question requires no comment.[73] + +One reason for the great difference between the women of Italy and those +of other parts of Europe in the matter of higher education during the +period we have been considering was the old Roman spirit of independence +of the former and their always insisting on what they regarded as their +natural and indefeasible rights. Following the example of the matrons of +ancient Rome, they insisted on being treated as the equals of men, and, +as a consequence, they demanded in the intellectual order all the +advantages that were accorded to men. They would never admit their +mental inferiority to man, and woe betide the luckless wight who even +insinuated such inferiority. The shafts of satire and ridicule were at +once directed against him by a score of women who were able to use the +pen as well as, if not better than, himself. Sometimes, however, such an +one was taken seriously, and then the result was a book by some clever +woman to prove that there was no difference in the intellectual power of +the two sexes--that, if there was a difference, it was in favor of the +gentler sex. There is quite a large number of such works in Italian; and +it must be said that the women always met the arguments of their +adversaries in a manner that does them the greatest credit. + +It was probably because of their insistence on the equality of the +sexes, as well as because of their achievements in every department of +mental activity, that the educated women of Italy enjoyed so many +privileges denied their sisters in other parts of Europe. Thus, in +addition to being treated as the equals of men in the universities, they +met them on an equal footing in the art, literary and scientific +societies and academies, in the proceedings of which they always +exhibited an active and enthusiastic interest. In these reunions the +women gained strength of mind and independence of character from the +men, while the men imbibed refinement and gentleness from the women. +Compare this condition with the systematic exclusion of women from +similar societies in other countries--even in this twentieth century of +ours--and one of the not least potent reasons for the intellectual +supremacy of the women of Italy will be apparent. + +Next after Italy, France was the country in which, during the +post-Renaissance period, women enjoyed the greatest advantages of mental +development. But we look in vain, even during the age of Louis XIV, for +that flowering of the female intellect that, at the same period, +rendered the daughters of Italy so famous. It is true that there was a +certain number of learned women in France during the seventeenth +century, and notably during the golden age of Louis XIV, for during this +period the traditions of the Renaissance were perpetuated and there was +still a lingering love of letters, at least among certain classes of the +aristocracy. + +Prominent among those who attracted attention for their learning were +Gilberte and Jaqueline Pascal, of the celebrated convent of Port Royal; +Marie-Eleanore de Rohan and Gabrielle de Rochechouart, both, like the +Pascal sisters, inmates of the cloister; Marie Cramoisy, wife of the +first director of the royal printing office, and Mlle. de Luynes, a +friend of Pascal. All these counted among their attainments a writing +knowledge of Latin, but were far from being able, like the Italian women +above mentioned, to speak it with the same fluency as they did their +mother tongue. + +In addition to the learned French women just named, there was Elisabeth +de Rochechouart, a niece of Mme. de Montespan, who was able to read +Plato in Greek, and Anne de Rohan, Princess of Guemene, who surprised +her countrymen by studying Hebrew. Then there were Mme. de Grignan, +Marie Dupre, Louise Serment, Anne de La Vigne, who, like the Princess +Palatine, Elisabeth, and Christine of Sweden, were ardent disciples of +Descartes, and took the lead among the _femmes philosophes_ of their +time. + +But for profound and varied scholarship Mme. Dacier, the daughter of the +erudite Tanquil Le Fevre, was the most famous of all the women of her +time in France. Possessed of rare power of eloquence and beauty of +style, together with an extraordinary capacity for criticism, there was +not a man in Europe who did not respect her judgment in matters of +literature and culture. But that for which she was specially celebrated +was her exceptional knowledge of Latin and Greek. She not only +translated the Iliad and the Odyssey but also several other of the +ancient classics. None of her contemporaries had a more thorough mastery +of the tongues of Homer and Virgil, nor did any of her countrymen +contribute more than she toward the advancement of the knowledge of the +literature of ancient Greece and Rome. So highly prized was her version +of the Iliad that it was translated by Ozell into English. Her version +of Plato's Phaedo was also translated into English and published by a +New York bookseller more than a century after her death. The scholarly +Menagius, in his _Historia Mulierum Philosopharum_, did not hesitate to +pronounce her the most learned woman of all time--_Feminarum quot sunt, +quot fuere doctissima_.[74] + +To Mme. de Maintenon, the morganatic wife of the Great Monarch, is due +the Institut de Saint-Cyr, the first state school for girls founded in +France. It was, however, solely for the daughters of the nobility. And, +although it was from the first under the direction of the foundress, a +woman who was before all else a teacher as well as one of the most +enlightened women of the most literary and philosophic age France ever +knew--the age when the French language was perfected, the age of the +Academy, of Boileau, Moliere, Racine, Bossuet, Descartes--the studies +prescribed in this institution, which was under the special patronage of +the king, were of the most elementary character. They comprised reading, +writing, arithmetic, grammar, music, drawing, dancing, and the elements +of history, mythology and geography. As to history, Mme. de Maintenon +was satisfied if the pupils of Saint-Cyr knew enough not to confound the +kings of France with those of other nations, and were able to avoid +mistaking a Roman emperor for the Emperor of China or Japan; or the King +of Spain or England for the King of Persia or Siam. And yet, restricted +as it was, her programme of studies was more complete than that of any +other girls' school in the kingdom. One of her reasons for not insisting +on a more thorough course was that "women never know but by halves, and +the little that they do know usually makes them proud, haughty and +talkative and disgusted with solid things."[75] + +In Saint-Cyr, the best girls' school in the kingdom, there was not a +word about the first principles of philosophy, nor about the physical +and natural sciences recommended by Fenelon. The elements just referred +to, combined with a goodly amount of esprit--_bien de l'esprit_--were +considered quite sufficient to prepare the future wives of the nobility +for all the duties they would be called upon to perform. + +Mme. de Maintenon had probably been unconsciously influenced by what she +had seen at the court of her liege lord, where the greater part of the +women were extremely ignorant. Even Mme. de Montespan, the king's +favorite, and for years the leading figure at the court, was no +exception. So ignorant was she that she was not even able to spell the +simplest and most common words.[76] + +And so it was with the most illustrious ladies of France. Many of them +were so devoid of instruction that they were unable either to read or to +write. Even the teachers in Saint-Cyr were so deficient in the simplest +rudiments of an education that Mme. de Maintenon found it necessary to +correct their letters, in order to teach them the most essential rules +of epistolary correspondence. In reality, the women of the age of Louis +XIV did not trouble themselves about an education as we understand it. +Endowed with esprit, with a natural and acquired taste for things +intellectual, they were satisfied with such knowledge as they could +glean from reading or conversation, and with comparatively few +exceptions, showed no disposition to devote long years to study in +school, much less in a university, as did their sisters to the south of +the Alps. + +The foundress of Saint-Cyr had likewise been influenced by her +environment as well as by the court--an environment which was becoming +daily more and more unfavorable to the education, especially anything +approaching the higher education, of women. A young woman's education +was considered complete when she was able to read, write, dance and play +some musical instrument. Anything more was deemed superfluous and +deserving of censure and ridicule rather than praise. + +It was at this time that Moliere's two celebrated plays, _Les Femmes +Savantes_ and _Les Precieuses Ridicules_, were given to the world. These +well-known productions, replete with the author's brightest flashes of +wit, and abounding in his most effective shafts of satire, produced at +once an immense sensation. As soon as published, they were in the hands +of everybody. Those who were opposed to the education of women--and the +number was daily increasing--had recourse to them as to arsenals which +supplied them with just the arms they had so long needed to decide in +their favor the long warfare which they had been conducting against the +gentler sex. The views of the bourgeois Chrysale as expressed to his +sister, Belise, were so in harmony with their own that they loved on +every occasion to repeat with him: + + "No, + It isn't decent, and for many reasons, + That womankind should study and know too much. + To teach her children what is right and wrong, + Manage her household, oversee her servants, + And keep expenses within bounds, should be + Her only study and philosophy. + Our fathers, on this point, showed great good sense; + They said a woman always knows enough + If but her understanding reaches + To telling, one from t'other, coat and breeches. + Their wives, who couldn't read, led honest lives, + Their households were their only learned theme, + And all their books were thimble, thread and needles. + With which they made their daughters' wedding outfits. + But now our women scorn to live like that; + They want to write and all be authoresses. + They think no knowledge is too deep for them."[77] + +Moliere's intention in writing these justly famous comedies was not, as +is so often asserted, to ridicule women of learning, but only those +superficial pedants who affected knowledge or loved to make a display of +the little knowledge they happened to possess. The result, however, was +quite different from what had been intended, for the poet's pleasantries +were taken so seriously, that even women of real learning, in order to +avoid ridicule, were condemned to absolute silence. The comic dramatist, +Destouches, expressed the prevailing opinion when he wrote: + + "Une femme savante + Doit cacher son savoir, ou c'est une imprudente."[78] + +Few French women thereafter had the courage to defend their sex, as did +their sisters in Italy, and the result was that, with a few exceptions, +like Mme. du Chatelet, Sophie Germain, and Mme. Lepaute, there were no +more learned women in France for fully two centuries. + +Never did satire and ridicule accomplish more, except probably in the +case of _Don Quixote_--that masterly creation of Cervantes which dealt +the death-blow to knight-errantry--than did _Les Femmes Savantes_ and +_Les Precieuses Ridicules_. The learned woman became as much an object +of derision in France as was the knight-errant in Spain. + +It was not, however, in the nature of the French woman, with all her +vivacity and energy, to be suppressed entirely or to be relegated for +long to the background in things of the mind. But, not then daring to +face the ridicule which was inevitable, if she devoted herself to +science or philosophy, she sought a substitute for her intellectual +activity in the salon. + +The first salon was established by an Italian woman, the Marquise de +Rambouillet, in 1617, and was modeled after the famous reunions held at +the court of Urbino under Elizabetta Gonzaga, a century before. Although +it never exhibited the splendor of its Italian prototype, the Hotel de +Rambouillet was for more than fifty years the most important literary +center of the kind in France. Here, owing to the tact, esprit, and +magnetic personality of Mme. de Rambouillet, were gathered the most +distinguished men and women of the time. Among them were poets, +philosophers, statesmen, ecclesiastics and ladies of rank, whose names +still dazzle us by their brilliancy. Bossuet, Moliere, La Fontaine, +Corneille and the great Conde were there; so were Flechier, Balzac, +Voiture, Saint-Evremont, Descartes and La Rochefoucauld; and so, too, +were Mme. de Sevigne, the Duchess of Montpensier, Madeleine de Scudery, +La Comtesse de La Fayette, Charlotte de Montmorency, and Cardinal +Richelieu who got from this noted salon the idea which led to his +greatest foundation--the French Academy. + +It was Mme. de Rambouillet who, through her reunions in her exquisite +_Chambre Bleue_, for the first time brought together elements that were +previously considered as belonging to different castes. It was she, +also, who created modern society with its purely intellectual hierarchy, +by having the representatives of the nobility meet men of science and +letters on an equal footing. It seems to us now the most natural thing +in the world for a great savant, a great poet, or a great philosopher, +to be received in the same salon with the Duchess of Montpensier--_La +Grande Mademoiselle_--but it was far from being so when the brilliant +young Italian matron--for she was a daughter of the noble Roman family +of the Savelli--began her epoch-making work in the Hotel de Rambouillet, +where, after overcoming countless difficulties and prejudices, she +eventually succeeded in bringing together, and in enlisting in a common +cause, the nobility of birth and the nobility of intellect, and +introducing into the exclusive set of Paris the same kind of social +coteries that had so long been popular in Urbino and Ferrara. + +The Hotel de Rambouillet was the exemplar of that long series of salons +which, for two centuries, were the favorite trysting-places of the +talent, the wit, the beauty of Europe, and which exerted such a potent +influence on society and on the progress of science and literature. The +mistress of the salon was supreme, and she maintained her supremacy by +her tact, sympathy, intelligence and mental alertness, rather than by +learning and superior mental power. + +Indeed, it is a singular fact that very few of the _salonieres_ were +learned women. The most gifted and the most learned of them were Mlle. +Lespinasse, Mme. de Stael, and Mme. Swetchine. Mme. Geoffrin, who was of +bourgeois origin, was so devoid of education that Voltaire said she was +unable to write two lines correctly. And yet, despite her educational +limitations, she became, by her own unaided efforts, the queen of +intellectual Europe. + +And, if we may judge by their portraits, most of the great leaders of +salons were homely, if not positively ugly, and many of them were +advanced in years. Thus, Mme. du Deffand--the female Voltaire--was +sixty-eight years old and blind when her friendship with Horace Walpole, +one of the wittiest Englishmen who ever lived, began--a friendship that +endured until her death at the age of eighty-three. The face of Mlle. de +Lespinasse was disfigured by small-pox and her eyesight was impaired; +and yet, without rank, wealth or beauty, she was the pivot around which +circled the talent and fashion of Paris, and whose personal magnetism +was so great that the state, the church, the court, as well as foreign +countries, had their most distinguished representatives in her salon. + +Here she received and entertained her friends every evening from five +until nine o'clock. "It was," writes La Harpe, "almost a title to +consideration to be received into this society." So great was the +influence exerted by Mlle. de Lespinasse that she bent savants to her +will by the sheer force of genius. Her salon became known as "the +ante-chamber of the French Academy"; for it was asserted that half the +academicians of her time owed their fauteuils to her active canvass in +their behalf. And so successful was she in opening the lips and minds of +her habitues, whether an historian like Hume, a philosopher like +Condillac, a statesman like Turgot, a mathematician like d'Alembert, a +litterateur like Marmontel or an encyclopedist like Condorcet, that it +was said of her that she made "marble feel and matter think." + +She was a veritable enchantress of the great and the learned of her +time. She did not, however, wield her magic wand through her learning, +or the accident of birth, or the physical attractions of person, but +solely by reason of her wonderful vivacity, charm of mind, and exquisite +tact, which consisted, as those who knew her well tell us, "in the art +of saying to each that which suits him," and in "making the best of the +minds of others, of interesting them, and of bringing them into play +without any appearance of constraint or effort." This rare faculty it +was which secured for her a supremacy in the world of thought and action +that has been accorded to but few women in the world's history. Vibrant +with emotion and passion, she reminds one of the gifted but hapless +Heloise. Marmontel, who had such a high opinion of her judgment that he +submitted his works for her criticism, as Moliere had submitted his to +Ninon de Lenclos, describes her as "the keenest intelligence, the most +ardent soul, the most inflammable imagination that has existed since +Sappho." + +But aside from what she achieved indirectly through the habitues of her +salon, what has this supremely clever woman left to the world? Only a +few love letters to a heartless coxcomb. + +And what have the other noted salonieres from the time of the Marquise +de Rambouillet to that of Mme. Swetchine--full two centuries--bequeathed +to us that is worth preserving? With the exception of the works of Mme. +de Stael, whom Lord Jeffrey declared to be "the greatest female writer +in any age or country," we have little more than certain _Memoires_ and +_Correspondances_ whose chief claims to fame rest on the vivid pictures +which they present of the manners and customs of the time and of the +celebrities who were regarded as the chief ornaments of the salons which +they severally frequented. Most of these works were posthumous; for few +women, after Moliere's merciless scoring of learned women, had the +courage to appear in print. Even Mme. de Scudery, one of the most gifted +and prolific writers of the period, gave her first novel to the world +under her brother's name. And so tabooed was female authorship that Mme. +de La Fayette, one of the most brilliant of the _precieuses_, disclaimed +all knowledge of her _Princesse de Cleves_, while her masterpiece, +_Histoire d'Henriette d'Angleterre_, was not published until after her +death. + +The truth is that the period of the salon was for the most part a period +of contrasts and contradictions. At first the better educated +_salonieres_ were chiefly interested in belles-lettres. Then they +devoted themselves more to science and philosophy, and finally, during +the years immediately preceding the Revolution, they found their +greatest pleasure in politics. As for the men, while professing to adore +women, they had little esteem for them, and still less respect. Often, +it is true, the women who frequented the salons were deserving neither +of respect nor of esteem. + +Sydney Smith spoke of those under the old regime as "women of brilliant +talents who violated all the common duties of life and gave very +pleasant little suppers." It was certainly true of many of them--even of +some of the most distinguished--such, for instance, as Mme. d'Epinay, +Mme. du Deffand, Ninon de Lenclos and Mme. Tencin, the mother of +D'Alembert. There was little in their manner of life to distinguish them +from the _hetaerae_ of ancient Athens, and it was probably owing to this +fact, as well as their wit and brilliancy, that many of them attained +such preeminence as social leaders. The statesmen, philosophers, men of +science and letters of France, like those of Greece more than two +thousand years before, wanted distraction and amusement. That the +mistresses of the salons should be women of learning was of little +moment. The all important thing for their habitues was that they should +be good entertainers--that they should be witty, tactful and +sympathetic--and, if ignorant, that they should be brilliantly ignorant, +and, at the same time, enchantingly frank and naive. + +Strange as it may appear there was as much hostility to learned women at +the close of the eighteenth century as there was in the time of Louis +XIV. And the remarkable fact is that the strongest opponents of women's +education were found among the most prominent writers and scholars of +the day--men who, like their predecessors of old, based their opposition +on the assumed mental inferiority of woman. Thus, to Rousseau, woman was +at best but "an imperfect man," and, in many respects, little more than +"a grown-up child." Search after abstract and speculative truths, +principles and axioms in science, "everything that tends to generalize +ideas is outside of her competence." That means that women are to be +excluded from the study of mathematics and the physical sciences, +because they are incapable of generalization, abstraction, and the +mental concentration that these subjects demand. Even the masterpieces +of literature, according to him, are beyond their comprehension. In a +word, feminine studies, Rousseau will have it, should relate exclusively +to practical and domestic matters and he endorses the words of Moliere +that + + "It is not seemly, and for many reasons, + That a woman should study and know so many things." + +Diderot, Montesquieu, Voltaire and the Encyclopedists share the views of +Rousseau. Diderot declares that serious studies do not comport with +woman's sex, while Montesquieu would limit female education to mere +accomplishments. + +But this is not all. Antagonistic as these men were to the education of +the daughters of the nobility and the well-to-do, they were entirely +opposed to the education of the children of the poor. "The good of +society," it was averred, "demands that the instruction of the people +extend not beyond their occupations." "The poor," declares Rousseau, +"have no need of instruction," and Voltaire and the Encyclopedists say, +"Amen."[79] + +Very little need be said about the education of women in Germany during +the period we have been considering. When there was any at all, it was +of the most rudimentary character, while as to books, they were limited +to the kind recommended by Byron for the women of modern Greece--"books +of piety and cookery." The attitude of the Germans generally toward +female education, for centuries past, was clearly defined by the Kaiser +Wilhelm II, when, a few years ago, he publicly stated: "I agree with my +wife. She says women have no business to interfere with anything +outside of the four K's, that is, _Kinder_, _Kirche_, _Kueche_, +_Kleider_--children, church, kitchen, clothes." + +There was, however, during the period we are now considering, one +remarkable example of a learned woman of Teutonic origin. This was the +famous Anna Maria van Schurman, who was one of the most gifted women +that ever lived. She was, probably, as near to being a universal genius +as any one of her sex of whom we have knowledge. Artist, musician, poet, +philosopher, theologian, linguist, she was the admiration of the +scholars of the world and the pride of the Low Countries--the land of +her birth. She lived when Holland was in the van of human progress and +amidst of the splendors of the Dutch Renaissance. She was the friend and +correspondent of the most distinguished scholars and most noted +celebrities of her time. Among these were Voet, Spanheim, Descartes, +Gassendi, Constantine Huyghens, Princess Elizabeth of Bohemia, Queen +Christina of Sweden, and Cardinal Richelieu. To go to the Netherlands, +it was then said, without seeing Anna van Schurman, was like going to +Paris without seeing the king. She was hailed as "The Tenth Muse," "The +Sappho of Holland," "The Oracle of Art," "The Star of Utrecht." + +That, however, which gave the greatest renown to the "Learned Maid," as +Anna was called, was her extraordinary knowledge of languages. For, +besides being proficient in the chief modern tongues of Europe, she was +well acquainted with Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syro-Chaldaic and Ethiopic. +The oriental languages she studied as an aid to the better understanding +of Holy Scripture. + +She was the author of several works, among which was an Ethiopic grammar +which was acclaimed by the professors of the Dutch universities as a +marvelous achievement. Her best known volume is designated _Opuscula_. +It was brought out by the Elzevirs in Leyden and went through several +editions. It is composed of letters and short treatises in French, +Latin, Greek and Hebrew--in verse as well as prose. + +Of more value, if less striking, than the productions named were the +"Learned Maid's" writings in favor of the intellectual enfranchisement +of her own sex. In a letter to Dr. Rivet, Professor of Theology in +Leyden, she declares: + +"My deep regard for learning, my conviction that equal justice is the +right of all, impel me to protest against the theory which would allow +only a minority of my sex to attain to what is in the opinion of all men +most worth having. For, since wisdom is admitted to be the crown of +human achievement, and is within every man's right to aim at in +proportion to his opportunities, I cannot see why a young girl, in whom +we admit a desire of self-improvement, should not be encouraged to +acquire the best that life affords." + +To those who objected that the distaff and the needle were sufficient to +occupy women's minds, Anna Maria made answer that the words of +Plutarch--"It becomes a perfect man to know what is to be known and to +do what is to be done"--applied with equal truth to a perfect woman.[80] + +In England, until the latter part of the nineteenth century, the +educational status of women was but little better than in Germany. +During the Stuart period schools for girls were so scarce that most of +those who received any education at all obtained it at home under +private tutors. Even then it rarely embraced more than reading, writing, +needlework, singing, dancing and playing on the lute or virginal.[81] + +As to the higher studies for women, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu writes as +follows: "My sex is usually forbid studies of this nature and folly +reckoned so much our proper sphere that we are sooner pardoned any +excesses of that than the least pretensions to reading or good sense. We +are permitted no books but such as tend to the weakening or effeminating +of the mind. Our natural defects are in every way indulged, and it is +looked upon as in a degree criminal to improve our reason or fancy we +have any.... There is hardly a creature in the world more despicable or +more liable to universal ridicule than that of a learned woman: these +words imply, according to the received sense, a tattling, impertinent, +vain and conceited creature."[82] + +Higher studies for their daughters were regarded by the generality of +men, the same writer tells us, "as great a profanation as the clergy +would do if the laity would presume to exercise the functions of the +priesthood." + +Referring to the handicaps suffered by the women of England in the +pursuit of knowledge, the same writer declares: "We are educated in the +grossest ignorance, and no art is omitted to stifle our natural reason; +if some few get above their nurses' instructions, our knowledge must be +concealed and be as useless to the world as gold in the mine." + +Lord Chesterfield, in _His Letters to His Son_, expresses the opinion of +his contemporaries when he writes on the same subject as follows: "Women +are only children of a larger growth; they have an entertaining tattle, +sometimes wit; but, for solid reasoning, good sense, I never in my life +knew one who had it, or who reasoned or acted consequentially for +twenty-four hours together.... A man of sense only trifles with them, +plays with them, humors and flatters them as he does a sprightly forward +child; but he neither consults them about nor trusts them with serious +matters, though he often makes them believe he does both, which is the +thing in the world which they are proud of; for they love mightily to be +dabbling in business, which, by the way, they always spoil, and, being +distrustful that men in general look upon them in a trifling light, they +almost adore that man who talks to them seriously and seems to consult +and trust them."[83] + +And this was written by that "mirror of politeness and chivalry" whose +name has for two centuries been synonymous with that of a perfect +gentleman! And Lady Montagu was compelled to pen her caustic and +pathetic plaints during the age of Pope, Steele, Addison, Swift,[84] +Johnson, Dryden and Goldsmith--the most brilliant pleiad of literary men +that England had known since the days of Shakespeare. + +So unnatural for women were literary and scientific pursuits regarded by +all classes that the few who attained any eminence in them were classed +as abnormal creatures who deserved no more consideration than did the +_Precieuses_ across the Channel. And so great was the power of public +sentiment against women writers that Fanny Burney was afraid to +acknowledge the authorship of _Evelina_. Even in Jane Austen's days, the +feeling that a woman, in writing a book, was overstepping the +limitations of her sex was so pronounced that she never actually avowed +the authorship of those charming works which have been the delight of +three generations of readers. It was this same sentiment that caused the +Bronte sisters and George Eliot, as well as many other notable women, to +write under pseudonyms. They feared to disclose their sex lest their +works, if known as the productions of women, should be _ipso facto_ +branded as of inferior merit. + +During the period in question women fared no better in the United States +than in England. They were subject to the same educational debarment and +were the victims of the same snobbery and intolerance. The Pilgrim +Fathers and their descendants for many generations made no secret of +their belief in the mental inferiority of woman, and applied to her the +gospel of liberty contained in the following words of Eve to Adam as +given in _Paradise Lost_: + + "My author and dispenser, what thou bidst + Unargued I obey; so God ordains; + God is thy law, thou mine: to know no more + Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise." + +To the Puritan of New England, as to the Puritan Milton, the relative +attainments of woman and man were tersely expressed in Tennyson's +couplet: + + "She knows but matters of the house, + And he, he knows a thousand things." + +To us one of the most astounding facts in the educational history of New +England is the long time during which girls were without free school +opportunities. Thus, although schools had been established within twenty +years after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, it was not until a +century and a half later that their doors were opened to girls. The +public schools of Boston were established in 1642, but were not opened +for girls until 1789; and then only for instruction in spelling, reading +and composition, and that but one half of the year. There was no high +school in Boston, the vaunted Athens of America, until 1852. + +Harvard College was founded in 1636 for the education of "ye English and +Indian youth of this country in knowledge and godlyness," but in this +institution no provision was made for women and its doors are still +closed to them. + +"The prevailing notion of the purpose of education," declares Charles +Francis Adams, in speaking of Harvard College, "was attended with one +remarkable consequence--the cultivation of the female mind was regarded +with utter indifference; as Mrs. Abigail Adams says in one of her +letters, 'it was fashionable to ridicule learning.'"[85] + +It was not until 1865 that Matthew Vassar, "recognizing in women the +same intellectual constitution as in man," founded the first woman's +college in the United States. This was soon followed by similar +institutions in various parts of this country and Europe. In less than +ten years thereafter Girton and Newnham colleges were founded at +Cambridge, England, in order that women might be enabled to enter upon a +regular university career. + +In all the universities of England, Scotland and Ireland, except Oxford, +Cambridge[86] and Trinity College, Dublin, women are now admitted to +all departments, pass the same examinations as the men and receive the +same academic degrees. Germany, whose institutions for the higher +education of men have so long been justly famous, was exceedingly slow +to open its universities to women, and then only after the most stubborn +opposition of those who still maintained that the studies of women +should be limited to the three R's and their occupations confined to the +four K's. But even in this conservative country the cause of woman has +at length triumphed, and she now enjoys educational advantages that a +few decades ago were deemed forever impossible. + + +And so it is in every civilized country. Woman's long struggle for +complete intellectual freedom is almost ended, and certain victory is +already in sight. In spite of the sarcasm and ridicule of satirists and +comic poets, in spite of the antipathy of philosophers and the +antagonism of legislators who persisted in treating women as inferior +beings, they are finally in view of the goal toward which they have +through so many long ages been bending their best efforts. Moreover, so +effective and so concentrated has been their work during recent years +that they have accomplished more toward securing complete intellectual +enfranchisement than during the previous thirty centuries. + +From the former home of the Vikings to the romantic land of the Cid, +from the capital of Holy Russia to the fair metropolis of the Golden +Gate, women are now welcomed to the very institutions from which but a +few years ago they were so systematically excluded. They attend the same +courses as men, pass the same examinations and receive the same degrees +and honors. Their sex is no longer a bar to positions and employment +that only a generation ago were considered proper only for the proud +and imperious male. They have proved beyond cavil that genius knows not +sex, and that, given a fair opportunity, they are competent to achieve +success in every department of human effort. + +Thus, to speak only of Europe, there are to-day women professors in the +universities of Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Greece and Russia, +as there have been in Italy since the closing years of the Dark Ages. +They lecture on science, literature, law and medicine, and in a manner +to extort the admiration of their erstwhile antagonists. In Germany and +Hungary there are women chemists and architects, while it is a matter of +record that the best construction work done on the trans-Siberian +railroad was that in charge of a woman engineer. + +As an illustration of the marvelous change which has been brought about +during the last three-quarters of a century in the educational status of +woman, I can do no better than transcribe a few passages from a work by +Sir Walter Besant describing the transformation of woman during the +reign of Queen Victoria; for it applies to all civilized countries as +well as to England. + +"The young lady of 1837 has been to a fashionable school; she has +learned accomplishments, deportment and dress. She is full of sentiment; +there was an amazing amount of sentiment in the air about that time; she +loves to talk and read about gallant knights, crusaders and troubadors; +she gently touches the guitar; her sentiment, or her little affectation, +has touched her with a graceful melancholy, a becoming stoop, a sweet +pensiveness. She loves the aristocracy, even although her home is in +that part of London called Bloomsbury, whither the belted earl cometh +not, even though her papa goes into the City; she reads a deal of +poetry, especially those poems which deal with the affections, of which +there are many at this time. On Sunday she goes to church religiously +and pensively, followed by a footman carrying her prayerbook and a long +stick; she can play on the guitar and the piano a few easy pieces which +she has learned. She knows a few words of French, which she produces at +frequent intervals; as to history, geography, science, the condition of +the people, her mind is an entire blank; she knows nothing of these +things. Her conversation is commonplace, as her ideas are limited; she +can not reason on any subject whatever because of her ignorance; or, as +she herself would say, because she is a woman. In her presence, and +indeed in the presence of ladies generally, men talk trivialities. There +was indeed a general belief that women were creatures incapable of +argument, or of reason, or of connected thought. It was no use arguing +about the matter. The Lord had made them so. Women, said the +philosophers, can not understand logic; they see things, if they do see +them at all, by instinctive perception. This theory accounted for +everything, for those cases when women undoubtedly did 'see things.' +Also it fully justified people in withholding from women any kind of +education worthy the name. A quite needless expense, you understand." + +Her amusements, we are told, were "those of an amateur--a few pieces on +the guitar and the piano and some slight power of sketching or flower +painting in water-colors." The literature she read "endeavored to mold +woman on the theory of recognized intellectual inferiority to man. She +was considered beneath him in intellect as in physical strength; she was +exhorted to defer to man; to acknowledge his superiority; not to show +herself anxious to combat his opinions.... + +"This system of artificial restraints certainly produced faithful wives, +gentle mothers, loving sisters, able housewives. God forbid that we +should say otherwise, but it is certain that the intellectual +attainments of women were then what we should call contemptible, and the +range of subjects of which they knew nothing was absurdly narrow and +limited. I detect the woman of 1840 in the character of Mrs. Clive +Newcome, and, indeed, in Mrs. George Osborne, and in other familiar +characters of Thackeray." + +Then Sir Walter, turning to the young Englishwoman of 1897, thus +describes her: + +"She is educated. Whatsoever things are taught to the young man are +taught to the young woman; the keys of knowledge are given to her; she +gathers of the famous tree; if she wants to explore the wickedness of +the world she can do so, for it is all in the books. The secrets of +nature are not closed to her; she can learn the structure of the body if +she wishes. The secrets of science are all open to her if she cares to +study them. + +"At school, at college, she studies just as the young man studies, but +harder and with greater concentration. She has proved her ability in the +Honors Tripos of every branch; she has beaten the senior wrangler in +mathematics; she has taken a 'first-class' in classics, in history, in +science, in languages. She has proved, not that she is a man's equal in +intellect, though she claims so much, because she has not yet advanced +any branch of learning, of science, one single step, but she has proved +her capacity to take her place beside the young men who are the flower +of their generation--the young men who stand in the first class of +honors when they take their degree.... + +"Personal independence--that is the keynote of the situation. Mothers no +longer attempt the old control over their daughters; they would find it +impossible. The girls go off by themselves on their bicycles; they go +about as they please; they neither compromise themselves nor get talked +about; for the first time in man's history it is regarded as a right and +proper thing to trust a girl as a boy insists upon being trusted. Out of +this personal freedom will come, I dare say, a change in the old +feelings of young man to maiden. He will not see in her a frail, tender +plant which must be protected from cold winds; she can protect herself +perfectly well. He will not see in her any longer a creature of sweet +emotions and pure aspirations, coupled with a complete ignorance of the +world, because she already knows all that she wants to know.... + +"Perhaps the greatest change is that woman now does thoroughly what +before she only did as an amateur."[87] + +Yes, the world is beginning at last to realize the truth of the +proposition which the learned Maria Gaetana Agnesi so eloquently +defended nearly two centuries ago--to wit, that nature has endowed the +female mind with a capacity for all knowledge, and that, in depriving +women of an opportunity of acquiring knowledge, men work against the +best interests of the public weal.[88] + +We are at the long last near that millennium which Emerson had in mind +when, in 1822, he predicted "a time when higher institutions for the +education of young women would be as needful as colleges for young +men"--that millennium for which women have hoped and striven ever since +Sappho sang and Aspasia inspired the brightest, the noblest minds of +Greece. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Demosthenes _In Neaeram_, 122. [Greek: Tas men gar hetairas hedones +henek' echomen, tas de pallakas tes kath' hemeran therapeias tou +somatos, tas de gynaikas tou paidopoieisthai gnesios kai ton endon +zylaka pisten echein]. + +As indicative of the comparative value of men and women, as members of +society, in the estimation of the Greeks, Euripides makes Iphigenia give +utterance to the following sentiment: + + "More than a thousand women is one man + Worthy to see the light of life." + +[2] [Greek: Tes te gar, hyparchouses zuseos me cheirosi genesthai hymin +megale e doxa' kai hes an ep' elachiston aretes peri e psogou en arsesi +kleos e.] Thucidides, _History of the Peloponnesian War, II_, 45. + +"Phidias," Plutarch tells us in his _Conjugal Precepts_, "made the +statue of Venus at Elis with one foot on the shell of a tortoise, to +signify two great duties of a virtuous woman, which are to keep at home +and be silent. For she is only to speak to her husband or by her +husband." + +[3] Ariosto, referring to the undying fame of Sappho and Corinna, +expresses himself in words as beautiful as they are true, as witness the +following couplet: + + Saffo e Corinna, perche furon dotte, + Splendono illustri, e mai non veggon notte. + + --ORLANDO FURIOSO, Canto XX, strophe I. + +[4] The nine "Terrestrial Muses" were Sappho, Erinna, Myrus, Myrtis, +Corinna, Telesilla, Praxilla, Nossis and Anyta. + +The Greek poet Antipater embodies the names of the "Terrestrial Nine" in +an epigram which is well rendered in the appended Latin translation: + + Has divinis linguis Helicon nutrivit mulieres + Hymnis, et Macedon Pierias scopulus, + Prexillam, Myro, Anytae os, foeminam Homerum, + Lesbidum Sappho ornamentum capillatarum. + Erinnam, Telesillam nobilem, teque Corinna, + Strenuum Palladis scutum quae cecinit. + Nossidem muliebri lingua, et dulsisonam Myrtin, + Omnes immortalium operatrices librorum. + Novem quidem Musas magnum coelum, novem vero illas + Terra genuit hominibus, immortalem laetitiam. + +[5] Cf. _Poetriarum octo, Erinnae, Myrus, Mytidis, Corinnae, Telesillae, +Praxillae, Nossidis, Anytae fragmenta et elogia_, by J. C. Wolf Hamburg, +1734. See also the charming memoir "Sappho" by H. T. Wharton, London, +1898, and _Griechische Dicterinnen_, by J. C. Poestion, Vienna, 1876. + +[6] See _Mulierum Graecarum quae oratione prosa usae sunt fragmenta et +elogia Graece et Latine_, by J. C. Wolf, London, 1739, _Historia Mulierum +Philosopharum_, scriptore Aegidio Menagio, Lugduni, 1690, _Griechische +Philosophinnen_, by J. C. Poestion, Norden, 1885, and _Le Donne alle +Scuole dei Filosofi Greci_ in _Saggi e Note Critiche_, by A. Chiappelli, +Bologna, 1895. + +[7] _Woman: Her Position and Influence in Ancient Greece and Rome and +Among the Early Christians_, pp. 58 and 59, by James Donaldson, London, +1907. + +[8] There were several hetaerae named Lais. One of them, apparently a +native of Corinth, was celebrated throughout Greece as the most +beautiful woman of her age. + +[9] For information respecting the hetaerae the reader is referred to the +_Letters_ of Alciphron, to Lucian's _Dialogues_ on courtesans, and more +particularly to the _Deipnosophists_ of Athenaeus, Chap. XIII. See also +_The Lives and Opinions of the Ancient Philosophers_, by Diogenes +Laertius, Bohn Edition, London. + +[10] Donaldson, op. cit., pp. 61 and 62. + +Adolph Schmidt, one of the late biographers of Aspasia, accepts these +statements as true and credits to Aspasia the making of both Pericles +and Socrates. His views are also shared by other modern writers who have +made a special study of the subject. + +According to some writers an indirect allusion to Aspasia's intellectual +superiority is found in the _Medea_ of Euripedes in the following verses +of the women's chorus: + + "In subtle questions I full many a time + Have heretofore engaged, and this great point + Debated, whether woman should extend + Her search into abstruse and hidden truths. + But we too have a Muse, who with our sex + Associates to expound the mystic lore + Of wisdom, though she dwell not with us all." + +[11] It is proper to add that certain modern writers will not admit that +Aspasia was ever an hetaera in the sense of being a courtesan. After +Pericles had divorced his first wife, he lived with Aspasia as his +second wife, to whom he was devoted and faithful until death. According +to Greek law, which forbade Athenian citizens to marry foreign women, he +could not be her legal husband; but, there can be no doubt that he +always treated her with all the respect and affection due to a wife. His +dying words: "Athens entrusted her greatness and Aspasia her happiness +to me," clearly evince her nobility of character and the place she must +ever have occupied in the great statesman's heart. + +The most important notices in ancient writings, respecting Aspasia, are +found in Plutarch's _Pericles_, Xenophon's _Memorabilia_ of Socrates and +Plato's _Menexenus_. Among the most valuable of modern works on the same +subject is _Aspasie de Milet_, by L. Becq de Fouquieres, Paris, 1872. +Cf. also _Aspasie et le Siecle de Pericles_, Paris, 1862; _Histoire des +Deux Aspasies_, by Le Comte de Bievre, Paris, 1736, and A. Schmidt's +_Sur l'Age de Pericles_, 1877-79. + +[12] Under the term music, Plato, like his contemporaries, included +reading, writing, literature, mathematics, astronomy and harmony. It was +opposed to gymnastic as mental to bodily training. Both music and +gymnastic, however, were intended for the benefit of the soul. + +[13] _The Dialogues of Plato, Laws_, VII, 805, Jowett's translation, New +York, 1892. + +[14] Op. cit., _The Republic_, V, 451 et seq. and 466. + +[15] It was the boast of the Emperor Augustus that all his clothes were +woven by his wife, sister or daughter. Suetonius, in his _Lives of the +Twelve Caesars_, informs us that this great master of the world _filiam +et neptes ita instituit ut etiam lanificio assuefaceret_. + +[16] This type of the old Roman schoolmaster is alluded to in the +following well known verses of Martial: + + "Quid tibi nobiscum est, ludi scelerate magister, + Invisum pueris virginibusque caput? + Nondum cristati rupere silentia Galli + Murmure jam saevo verberibusque tonas." + + --Lib. IX, 79. + +which have been rendered as follows: + + Despiteful pedant, why dost me pursue, + Thou head detested by the younger crew? + Before the cock proclaims the day is near + Thy direful threats and lashes stun my ear. + +Martial elsewhere refers to "Ferulaeque tristes, sceptra +pedagogorum"--melancholy rods, sceptres of pedagogues--and it appears +from one of Juvenal's satires that "to withdraw the hand from the rod" +was a phrase meaning "to leave school." + +[17] _Woman Through the Ages_, Vol. I, pp. 110, 111, by Emil Reich, +London, 1908. + +Schoolhouses among the Romans, as well as among the Greeks, were quite +different from our modern, well-equipped buildings. Usually, at least, +in earlier times, instruction was given in the open air, in some quiet +street corner or in _tabernae_--sheds or lean-tos--as in certain +Mohametan countries to-day. Horace refers to this in _Epistola_ XX, Lib. +I, when he writes: + + "Ut pueros elementa docentem + Occupet extremis in vicis balba senectus." + +In such schools the pupils sat on the floor or the bare ground, or, if +the lessons were given on the street, they sat on the stones. There were +no desks, or, if there were any benches, they had no backs. The pupils +were, therefore, perforce obliged to write on their knees. + +Cf. _Historical Survey of Pre-Christian Education_, pp. 278 and 346, by +S. S. Laurie, London, 1900. + +[18] Cf. his _Tiberius Gracchus_. Cicero says of them, "Non tam in +gremio educatos quam sermone matris." + +[19] Ibidem, _Life of Pompey_. + +[20] _De Oratore_, Lib. III, Cap. XII. + +[21] "Potiorem iam apud exercitus Agrippinam quam legatos, quam duces; +compressam a muliere seditionem, cui nomen principis obsistere non +quiverit." _Annales_, Lib. I, Cap. 69. + +[22] _Oeconomicus_, VII, 5, 6. + +[23] _Epistolae_, Lib. I, 16. + +[24] Sit mihi verna satur, sit non doctissima conjux. _Epigrammata_, +Lib. II, 90. + +Martial's taste in this respect was the same as that of Heine, who said +of the woman he loved: "She has never read a line of my writings and +does not even know what a poet is," and the same as that of Rousseau, +who declared that his last flame, Therese Lavasseur, could not tell the +time of day. + +[25] Satire VI, 434-440. + +[26] _Joannis Stobaei Florilegium_, Vol. IV, p. 212, Teubner's edition, +1857. + +[27] The following is the epitaph as written by St. Jerome, "the +Christian Cicero": + + Scipio quam genuit, Pauli fudere parentes, + Gracchorum soboles, Agamemnonis inclyta proles, + Hoc jacet in tumulo, Paulam dixere priores, + Euxtochii genetrix, Romani prima senatus, + Pauperiem Christi et Bethlehemitica rura secuta est. + +[28] In his preface to the _Commentary on Sophonius_. + +[29] For an exhaustive account of the lives and achievements of St. +Jerome and his noble friends, Paula and Eustochium, the reader is +referred to _L'Histoire de Sainte Paule_, by F. Lagrange, Paris, 1870, +and _Saint Jerome, La Societe Chretienne a Rome et l'Emigration Romaine +en Terre Sainte_, by A. Thierry, Paris, 1867. Cf. also _Woman's Work in +Bible Study and Translation_, by A. H. Johns in _The Catholic World_, +New York, June, 1912. + +[30] See _Histoire de Sainte Radegonde, Reine de France_, in Chap. XX, +par Em. Briand, Paris, 1897. + +[31] _Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum_, Lib. IV, Cap. 23. + +[32] _The Monks of the West_, Book XI, Chap. II. + +[33] Vol. I, pp. 46 and 49, New York, 1871. + +[34] Op. cit., Book XI, Chap. II. + +It will interest the reader to know that Caedmon has a place among the +saints in the _Acta Sanctorum_ of the Bollandists. See the special +article on him in Vol. II, p. 552, under the caption of "_De S. Cedmono, +cantore theodidacto_." + +[35] _Woman Under Monasticism._ Chapter IV, Sec. 2, by Lina Eckenstein, +Cambridge, 1896. In this chapter is an interesting account of the +Anglo-Saxon nuns who were among the correspondents of Boniface. + +[36] The reader will recall Chaucer's account in the _Canterbury Tales_ +of the wife of the well-to-do miller of Trumpyngton: + + "A wyf he hadde y-comen of noble kyn; + + She was y-fostred in a nonnerye. + + There dorste no wight clepen hir but 'Dame;' + + What for hire kynnrede and hir nortelrie, + That she had lerned in the nonnerie." + + --_Reeve's Tale._ + +[37] Pp. 78, 79, London, 1897. + +[38] _History of European Morals_, Vol. II, p. 369, New York, 1905. + +[39] _Henry VIII and the English Monasteries_, London, 1895. + +[40] _The English Historical Review_, July, 1888. + +Another recent writer affirms without hesitation that "Hroswitha has +earned a place apart in the Pantheon of women poets and writers. She +alone in those troublous times of the tenth century recalls to our minds +the existence of dramatic art; her name, indeed, deserves to be rescued +from oblivion and to become a household word." _Fortnightly Review_, p. +450, March, 1896. + +[41] _Histoire de l'Education de Femmes en France_, Tom. I, p. 72 et +seq. par Paul Rousselot, Paris, 1883. + +A certain jurisconsult of the thirteenth century, one Pierre de Navarre, +expressed the sentiment of many of his contemporaries when he wrote the +following paragraph: + +"Toutes fames doivent savoir filer et coudre; car la pauvre en aura +mestier et la riche conoistra mieux l'oeuvre des autres. A fame ne +doit-on apprendre lettre ni escrire, si ce n'est especiaument pour estre +nonain, car par lire et escrire, de fame sont maint mal avenu." + +[42] _Opera Omnia S. Hildegardis_, Tom. 197, Col. 48 of Migne's +_Patrologiae Cursus Completus_. Cf. also _Nova S. Hildegardis Opera_, +edidit Cardinalis Pitra, Paris, 1882, and _Das Leben und Wirken der +Heiligen Hildegardis_, von J. P. Schmelzeis, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1878. + +[43] It was Peter Lombard, whose _Sentences_ "became the very canon of +orthodoxy for all succeeding ages," who, in marked contrast with those +of ancient and modern times that regarded woman as the inferior or slave +of man, asserted her equality with him in a sentence that should be +written in letters of gold. "Woman," he declares, _Sententiarum_, Lib. +II, Disp. 18, "was not taken from the head of man, for she was not +intended to be his ruler, nor from his foot, for she was not intended to +be his slave, but from his side, for she was intended to be his +companion and comfort." + +In this view the great Schoolman but follows the teachings of St. +Augustine. For in his commentary, _De Genesi ad Litteram_, Lib. 9, Cap. +13, the learned bishop of Hippo writes: "Quia igitur viro nec domina nec +ancilla parabatur, sed socia, nec de capite, nec de pedibus, sed de +latere fuerat producenda, ut juxta se producendam cognosceret, quam de +suo latere sumptam didecisset." Again the same illustrious doctor +declares that woman was formed from man's side in order that it might be +manifest that she was created to be united with him in love--in +consortium creabatur dilectionis. + +[44] Cf. _Hortus Deliciarum_, by Herrad de Lansberg, folio with one +hundred and ten plates, Strasburg, 1901, and _Herrade de Landsberg_, by +Charles Schmidt, Strasburg. + +The erudite academician, Charles Jourdain, says of Herrad's great work +"L'encyclopedie qu'on lui doit, _l'Hortus Deliciarum_, embrasse toutes +les parties des connaissances humaines, depuis la science divine jusqu'a +l'agriculture et la metrologie, et on s'etonne a bon droit qu'un tel +ouvrage, qui supposait une erudition si variee et si methodique, soit +sorti d'une plume feminine. Quelle impression produirait aujourd'hui +l'annonce d'une encyclopedie qui aurait pour auteur une simple, +religieuse? Parlerons-nous des femmes du monde? Il n'existe d'elles, au +XXe siecle, non plus que dans les siecles precedents aucun ouvrage +comparable a _l'Hortus Deliciarum_." _Excursions Historiques et +Philosophiques_, p. 480, Paris, 1888. + +[45] See _Revelationes Mechtildianae ac Gertrudianae_, edit, Oudin, for +the Benedictines at Solesmes, 1875. + +[46] In her scholarly work on _Woman Under Monasticism_, p. 479, Lina +Eckenstein writes as follows regarding the studies pursued in the +convents of the Middle Ages: + +"The contributions of nuns to literature, as well as incidental remarks, +show that the curriculum of study in the nunnery was as liberal as that +accepted by the monks, and embraced all available writing whether by +Christian or profane authors. While Scripture and the writing of the +Fathers of the Church at all times formed the groundwork of monastic +studies, Cicero at this period was read by the side of Boethus, Virgil +by the side of Martianus Capella, Terence by the side of Isidore of +Seville. From remarks made by Hroswitha we see that the coarseness of +the Latin dramatists made no reason for their being forbidden to nuns, +though she would have seen it otherwise; and, Herrad was so far +impressed by the wisdom of the heathen philosophers of antiquity that +she pronounced this wisdom to be the 'product of the Holy Spirit also.' +Throughout the literary world, as represented by convents, the use of +Latin was general, and made possible the even spread of culture in +districts that were widely remote from each other and practically +without intercourse." + +[47] _The Lady_, p. 71, by Emily James Putnam, New York, 1910. + +[48] Eckenstein, op. cit., p. 478. + +[49] Ut. Sup., 479-480. + +[50] See _Womankind in Western Europe_, p. 288 et seq., by Thomas +Wright, London, 1869. + +[51] "Pertinere videtur ad haec tempora Betisia Gozzadini non minus +generis claritate quam eloquentia ac legum professione illustris.... +Betisiam Ghirardaccius et nostri ab eo deinceps scriptores eximiis +laudibus certatim extulerunt." _De Claris Archigymnasii Bononiensis +Professoribus a Saeculo XI usque ad Saeculum XIV_, Tom. I, p. 171, +Bologna, 1888-1896. + +[52] L'Ecole de Salerne, p. 18, par C. Meaux, Paris, 1880. Among the +most noted of these women was Trotula, who, about the middle of the +eleventh century, wrote on the diseases of women as well as on other +medical subjects. Compare the attitude of the school of Salerno towards +women with that of the University of London, eight hundred years later. +When, in the latter half of the nineteenth century, women applied to +this university for degrees in medicine, they were informed, as H. +Rashdall writes in _The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages_, Vol. +II, Part II, p. 712, Oxford, 1895, that "the University of London, +although it had been empowered by Royal Charter to do all things that +could be done by any University, was legally advised that it could not +grant degrees to women without a fresh Charter, because no University +had ever granted such degrees." Cf. also Haeser's _Lehrbuch der +Geschichte der Medicin_, Band I, p. 645, et seq., Jena, 1875. Verily, +the so-called dark ages have risen up to condemn our vaunted age of +enlightenment! + +[53] _Die Entstehung der Universitaeten des Mittelalters bis 1400_, Band +I, p. 233, Berlin, 1885, von P. Heinrick Denifle, assistant archivist of +the Vatican Library, and _Histoire Literaire de la France, Commence par +des Religieux Benedictins de S. Maur et Continue par des Membres de +l'Institut_, Tom. IX, 281, Paris, 1733-1906. + +[54] "Une de ces nuits lumineuses ou les dernieres clartes du soir se +prolongent jusqu'aux premieres blancheurs du matin." _Documents +Inedits_, p. 78, Paris, 1850. + +[55] _The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages_, Vol. I, p. 31, +Oxford, 1895. + +[56] _A Short History of the Renaissance in Italy_, p. 277, London, +1893. + +[57] Cecelia Gonzaga, a pupil of the celebrated humanist, Vittorino da +Feltre, read the Gospels in Greek when she was only seven years old. +Isotta and Ginevra Nogorola, pupils of the humanist, Guarino Verronese, +likewise distinguished themselves at an early age by their rare +knowledge of Latin and Greek. In later years all three enjoyed great +celebrity for their learning, and were, like Battista di Montefeltro, +women of genuine humanist sympathies. Cecelia Gonzaga's scholarship was +in no wise inferior to that of her learned brothers, who were among the +most noted students of the famous Casa Zoyosa in Mantua, where Vittorino +da Feltre achieved such distinction as an educator in the early part of +the Italian Renaissance. The learned Italian writer, Sabbadini, +beautifully expressed the relation of women to Humanism, when he +declares, in his _Vida di Guarino, "L'Humanismo si sposa alla gentilezza +feminile_,"--humanism weds feminine gentility. + +[58] Among them are the pictures of Caterina Vigri, which are preserved +in the Pinacoteca of Bologna and in the Academia of Venice. + +[59] No less an authority than the illustrious sculptor, Canova, +declared that her early death was one of the greatest losses ever +suffered by Italian art. + +[60] It was also said of the Venetian artist, Irene di Spilimbergo, that +her pictures were of such excellence that they were frequently mistaken +for those of her illustrious master, Titian. + +[61] Among these works may be mentioned _Il Merito delle Donne_, by +Modesta Pozzo di Zorgi, Venice, 1600; _La Nobilita e l'Excellenza delle +Donne_, by Lucrezia Marinelli, Venice, 1601; _De Ingenii Muliebris ad +Doctrinam et Meliores Litteras Aptitudine_, by Anna van Schurman, +Leyden, 1641; _Les Dames Illustres_, by Jaquette Guillame, Paris, 1665, +and _L'Egalite des Hommes et des Femmes_, by Marie le Jars de Gournay, +Paris, 1622. The last named work was by the celebrated _fille +d'alliance_--adopted daughter--of Montaigne. It is to her that we owe +the _textus receptus_ of the _Essais_ of the illustrious litterateur. + +[62] _The Women of the Renaissance_, p. 290, by R. de Maulde la +Claviere, New York, 1901. + +[63] Called _La Latina_, because of her thorough knowledge of the Latin +language. + +[64] The famous Hellenist, Roger Ascham, tells of his astonishment on +finding Lady Jane Grey, when she was only fourteen years of age, reading +Plato's Phaedo in Greek, when all the other members of the family were +amusing themselves in the park. On his inquiry why she did not join the +others in their pastime, she smilingly replied: "I wit all their sport +in the park is but a shadow to that pleasure I find in Plato. Alas, good +folk, they never knew what true pleasure meant." + +[65] To the poet Ronsard, she was a woman beyond compare, as is evinced +by the following lines of a pastoral ode addressed to her: + + "La Royne Marguerite, + La plus belle fleur d'elite + Qu'onques la terre enfanta." + +[66] Cf. Oeuvres de Lovize Labe, nouvelle edition emprimee en caracteres +dits de civilite, Paris, 1871. + +[67] The French poet, Jean Dorat, who was then professor of Latin in the +College de France, expresses this fact in the following strophe: + + "Nempe uxor, ancillae, clientes, liberi, + Non segnis examen domus, + Quo Plautus ore, quo Terentius, solent + Quotidiane loqui." + +[68] A prominent writer of the time, Jean Bouchet, expressed the +prevailing opinion regarding the education of the women of the masses in +the following quaint sentence: "Je suis bien d'opinion que les femmes de +bas estat, et qui sont contrainctes vaquer aux choses familieres et +domestiques, ne doivent vaquer aux lettres, parce que c'est chose +repugnante a rusticite; mais, les roynes, princesses et aultres dames +qui ne se doib vent pour reverence de leur estat, appliquer a mesnage." +Cf. Rousellot's _Histoire de l'Education des Femmes en France_, Tom. I, +p. 109, Paris, 1883. + +His ideal of a woman of the peasant type was apparently Joan of Arc, +who, according to her own declaration, did not know a from b--"_elle +declarait ne savoir ni a ni b_." + +[69] Claviere, op. cit., p. 415. + +[70] The noted English divine, Thomas Fuller, chaplain to Charles II, +recognized the irreparable loss to women occasioned by the destruction +of the nunneries by the Reformers. "There were," he tells us in his +quaint language, "good she schools wherein the girls and maids of the +neyghborhood were taught to read and work.... Yea, give me leave to say, +if such feminine foundations had still continued, ... haply the weaker +sex, besides the avoiding modern inconveniences, might be heyghtened to +a higher perfection than hitherto hath been attained." _Church History_, +Vol. III, p. 336, 1845. + +[71] M. Thureau Dangin, the perpetual secretary of the French Academy, +wrote, "La tradition ne veut pas d'academiciennes." + +[72] Carlyle, in a lecture on Dante, and the _Divina Commedia_, declares +that "Italy has produced a greater number of great men than any other +nation, men distinguished in art, thinking, conduct, and everywhere in +the departments of intellect." He could with equal truth have said that +Italy has produced more great women than any other nation. + +[73] _Medical Women_, p. 63, et seq., by Sophia Jex-Blake, Edinburgh, +1886, and _Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women_, +Chap. III, by Elizabeth Blackwell, London, 1895. + +[74] Mme. Dacier was a remarkable exception chiefly because she was the +daughter and pupil of one Hellenist before becoming the wife of another. + +[75] _Lettres et Entretiens sur l'Education de Filles_, Tom. I, pp. +225-231. + +Compare this superficial course of study at Saint-Cyr with the elaborate +course mapped out by Lionardo d'Arezzo in a letter addressed to the +illustrious lady, Baptista Malatesta. In the broad programme of +education for women recommended by this eminent man of letters, "poet, +orator, historian, and the rest, all must be studied, each must +contribute a share. Our learning thus becomes full, ready, varied, +elegant, available for action or for discourse on all subjects." + +Lionardo's curriculum of studies for women was quite as comprehensive as +that required for men, "with perhaps a little less stress upon rhetoric +and more upon religion. There was no assumption that a lower standard of +attainment is inevitably a consequence of smaller capacity." + +Nor was this thorough study of letters by the women of Italy +"unfavorably regarded by social opinion"; neither did it introduce "a +new standard of womanly activity. Women, indeed, at this epoch, seem to +have preserved their moral and intellectual balance under the stress of +the new enthusiasm better than men. The learned ladies were, in actual +life, good wives and mothers, domestic and virtuous women of strong +judgment and not seldom of marked capacity in affairs." Cf. _Vittorino +da Feltre and Other Humanist Educators_, pp. 122, 132, 197, by W. H. +Woodward, Cambridge, 1905. + +[76] Thus, in a letter of hers to Mme. de Lauzun occurs a sentence like +the following: "Il lia sy lontant que je n'ay antandu parler de vous." +The duchess of Monpensier, daughter of Gaston d'Orleans, in a letter to +her father exhibits a similar ignorance of her own language, when she +writes: "J'ai cru que Votre Altesse seret bien ese de savoir sete +istoire." Quoted by Rousselot in his _Histoire de l'Education des Femmes +en France_, Tom. I, p. 287. + +[77] _Les Femmes Savantes_, Act II, Scene 7. + +[78] Destouches, in his _L'Homme singulier_, makes one of his female +characters, who loves study, speak in the following pathetic fashion: + + "A learned woman ought--so I surmise-- + Conceal her knowledge, or she'll be unwise. + If pedantry a mental blemish be + At all times outlawed by society, + If 'gainst a pedant all the world inveighs, + Shall pass unchecked in woman pedant's ways? + I hold it sure, condemned my sex is quite + To trifling nothings as its sole birthright; + Ridiculous 'tis thought outside its 'sphere'; + The learned woman dare not such appear; + Nay, she must even cloak her brilliancy + So envy leave in peace stupidity; + Must keep the level of the common kind, + To subjects commonplace devote her mind, + And treating these she must be like the rest. + Lo, in such garb refinement must be dressed: + That knowledge shall not make her seem unwise, + She must herself in foolishness disguise." + + --Act III, Scene 7. + +[79] No one, however, went so far in his opposition to the education of +women as the notorious Silvain _Marechal_, the author of _Projet d'une +Loi portant Defense d'Apprendre a Lire aux Femmes_, who would have a law +passed forbidding women to learn to read. He maintained that a knowledge +of science and letters interfered with their being good housekeepers. +"Reason," he avers, "does not approve of women studying chemistry. Women +who are unable to read make the best soup. I would rather," he declares +in the words of Balzac, "have a wife with a beard than a wife who is +educated." See pp. 40, 50 and 51, of the edition of this strange work, +published at Brussels, 1847. + +[80] In her _Problema Practicum_, addressed to Dr. Rivet, Anna van +Schurman states and develops in true syllogistic form a series of +propositions in defense of her thesis in favor of the higher education +of women. Two of these propositions are here given as illustrative of +her points of view: + +I. Cui natura inest scientiarum artiumque desiderium, ei conveniunt +scientiae et artes. Atque feminae natura inest scientiarum artiumque +desiderium. Ergo. + +II Quidquid intellectum hominis perficit et exornat, id femmae Christianae +convenit. Atqui scientiae et artes intellectum hominis perficiunt et +exornant. Ergo. See _Nobiliss. Virginis Annae Schurman Opuscula_, pp. 35 +and 41, Leyden, 1656, and her _De Ingenii Muliebris ad Doctrinam et +Meliores Literas Aptitudine_, Leyden, 1641. Cf. also _Anna van +Schurman_, Chap. IV, by Una Birch, London, 1909. + +[81] A writer of the seventeenth century gives the following as the +popular programme of female study: "To learn alle pointes of good +housewifery, spinning of linen, the ordering of dairies, to see to the +salting of meate, brewing, bakery, and to understand the common prices +of all houshold provisions. To keepe account of all things, to know the +condition of the poultry--for it misbecomes no woman to be a hen-wife. +To know how to order your clothes and with frugality to mend them and to +buy but what is necessary with ready money. To love to keep at home." +How like the German four K's and the words on the sarcophagus of a Roman +matron--_lanifica_, _frugi_, _domiseda_--a diligent plyer of the +distaff, thrifty and a stay-at-home. + +[82] _The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu_, Vol. II, p. +5, Bohn Edition, 1887. + +[83] Letter XLIX, London, Sept. 5, O. S., 1748. + +Walpole, writing in 1773, makes the following curious declaration: "I +made a discovery--Lady Nuneham is a poetess, and writes with great ease +and sense some poetry, but is as afraid of the character, as if it was a +sin to make verses." And Lord Granville tells us of an eminent statesman +and man of letters who, in the early part of the last century, was so +troubled on discovering in his daughter a talent for poetry that he +"appealed to her affection for him, and made a request to her never to +write verses again. He was not afraid of her becoming a good poetess, +but he was afraid of the disadvantages which were likely to be suffered +by her, if she were supposed to be a lady of literary attainments." + +[84] It was Swift who had such a low opinion of woman's intellect that +in writing to one of his fair correspondents he told her that she could +"never arrive in point of learning to the perfection of a schoolboy." +Lady Pennington, strange to say, seems to have shared his views, for in +a manual of advice to young ladies, she declares: "A sensible woman will +soon be convinced that all the learning the utmost application can make +her master of will be in many points inferior to that of the schoolboy." +"At the time the Tatler first appeared in the female world any +acquaintance with books was distinguished only to be censured," and it +was then considered "more important for a woman to dance a minuet well +than to know a foreign language." + +[85] The wife of President John Adams, descended from the most +illustrious colonial families, writing in 1817, regarding the +educational opportunities of the girls of her time and rank, expressed +herself as follows: + +"Female education in the best families went no farther than writing and +arithmetic, and, in some few and rare instances, music and dancing." +According to her grandson, Charles Francis Adams, "The only chance for +much intellectual improvement in the female sex was to be found in the +families of the educated class, and in occasional intercourse with the +learned of the day. Whatever of useful instruction was secured in the +practical conduct of life came from maternal lips; and, what of farther +mental development depended more upon the eagerness with which the +casual teachings of daily conversation were treasured up than upon any +labor expended purposely to promote it." _Familiar Letters of John Adams +and His Wife, Abigail Adams, During the Revolution, With a Memoir of +Mrs. Adams_, by Charles Francis Adams, pp. X and XI, New York, 1876. + +[86] When the students of Girton and Newnham in 1897, after passing the +Cambridge examinations--many of them with the highest honors--applied +for degrees, "the undergraduate world was stirred to a fine frenzy of +wrath against all womankind," and an astonished world saw re-enacted +scenes scarcely less disgraceful than those which characterized the +riotous demonstrations which, seventeen years before, had greeted seven +young women at the portals of the University of Edinburgh. + +[87] _The Queen's Reign_, Chap. V, London, 1897. + +[88] Proposition third, of her _Propositiones Philosophicae_, Milan, +1738, reads as follows: + +"Optime etiam de universa Philosophia infirmiorem sexum meruisse nullus +infirmabitur; nam praeter septuaginta fere eruditissimas, Mulieres, quas +recenset Menagius, complures alias quovis tempore floruisse novimus, quae +in philosophicis disciplinis maximam ingenii laudem sunt assecutae. Ad +omnem igitur doctrinam, eruditionemque etiam muliebres animos Natura +comparavit: quare paulo injuriosius cum feminis agunt qui eis bonarum +artium cultu omnino interdicunt, eo vel maxime, quod haec illarum studia +privatis, publicisque rebus non modo haud noxia futura sint verum etiam +perutilia." + +This admirable work, with its one hundred and ninety-one propositions, +is commended to those who may have any doubt regarding the learning or +capacity of the Italian women who have been referred to in the preceding +pages. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +WOMAN'S CAPACITY FOR SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS + + +In a curious old black-letter volume entitled _The Boke of the Cyte of +Ladyes_, published in England in 1521 by Henry Pepwell, occurs the +following passage: "I mervayle gretely of the opynyon of some men that +say they wolde in no wyse that theyr daughters or wyves or kynnes-women +sholde lerne scyences, and that it sholde apayre theyr condycyons. This +thing is not to say ne to sustayne. That the woman apayreth by conynge +it is not well to beleve. As the proverb saythe, 'that nature gyveth may +not be taken away.'" + +The book from which this remarkable quotation is taken is a translation +of Christine de Pisan's _La Cite des Dames_, which was written early in +the fifteenth century. It is a capital defence against the slanderers of +the gentler sex and an armory of arguments for all time against those +men who declare that "women are fit for nothing but to bear children and +spin." It shows conclusively that conynge--knowledge--far from tending +to injure women's character--apayre theyr condycyons--as was asserted by +Christine's antagonists, contributes, on the contrary, to elevate and +ennoble them and to render them better mothers and more useful members +of society. + +Notwithstanding that it was written five hundred years ago, and +notwithstanding its "antiquated allegorical dress and its quaint +pre-Renaissance notions of history," it is in many of its aspects a +surprisingly modern production. The line of argument adopted by the +writer is virtually the same as that which is adopted to-day in the +discussion of the same questions which are so ably treated in this +long-forgotten book[89] and show that Christine de Pisan was in every +way a worthy champion of her sex. + +No woman of her time was more competent to discuss the capacity of her +sex for science as well as for other intellectual pursuits than was this +learned daughter of Italy. She was not only a woman of profound and +varied knowledge, but was also, as stated in the preceding chapter, the +first woman to earn her living by her pen. Besides writing _The City of +Ladies_ and more verses--mostly ballads and virelays--than are contained +in the _Divina Commedia_, she was also the author of many other works on +the most diverse subjects. She is best known to historians as the author +of _Livre des Fais et Bonnes Meurs du sage Roy Charles V_, which is a +graphic account of the court and policy of this monarch, and of the +_Livre des Faits d'Armes et de Chevalerie_. The latter work is not, as +might be imagined from its title, a collection of tales of chivalry, +but, incredible as it may seem, a profound and systematic treatise on +military tactics and international law. It deals with "many topics of +the highest policy, from the manners of a good general and the minutiae +of siege operations to the wager of battle, safe-conducts and letters of +marque," and was deemed so important by Henry VII that at his expressed +desire it was translated into English and published by Caxton under the +title of _The Boke of Fayettes of Armes and Chyvalrye_. Even so late as +the time of Henry VIII it was regarded as an authoritative manual on the +topics treated. + +So great, indeed, was the extent and variety of Christine's attainments, +so thoroughly had she studied the Latin and Greek authors, sacred and +profane, and so profound was her knowledge of all the subjects which she +dealt with in her numerous books that "one cannot but feel a certain +astonishment when one finds in a woman in the fourteenth century an +erudition such as is hardly possessed by the most laborious of men." + +When we read the eloquent plea which this learned woman of five +centuries ago makes in behalf of her sex, when we note the examples she +quotes of women "illumined of great sciences," and consider the +arguments by which she demonstrated the capacity of women for all +scientific pursuits, we can easily fancy that we are reading the brief +of some modern exponent of the woman's rights movement and are almost +disposed to believe that La Bruyiere was right when he declared, _Les +anciens ont tout dit_. For so cogent is Christine's reasoning and so +thoroughly does she traverse her subject from every point of view that +she has left later writers little to add to the controversy except +matters of detail which were not available in her time. + +In spite, however, of Christine's _Cyte of Ladyes_, "in which," +according to our mediaeval paragon, "women, hitherto scattered and +defenceless, were forever to find refuge against all their slanderers," +in spite of the fact that the foundations of this city were laid by +Reason, that its walls and cloisters were built on Righteousness, and +its battlements and high towers on Justice, in spite of the fact that +the material entering into its construction was "stronger and more +durable than any marble," and that it was, as our author declares, "a +city right fair, without fear and of perpetual during to the world--a +city that should never be brought to nought," Christine's work was soon +lost sight of, and the right of women to the same intellectual +advantages as men was as strongly denied as it had been before she had +so valiantly championed their cause, and denied, too, on the assumed +ground of their innate incapacity. + +It mattered not that during the succeeding centuries other women took up +the cause for which the author of _La Cite des Dames_ had so nobly +battled; it mattered not that countless women in every civilized country +of the globe distinguished themselves by their achievements in every +department of science and gave evidence of talent and genius of the +highest order; it mattered not that chivalrous representatives of the +sterner sex, like John Stuart Mill, came forward to plead the case of +that half of humanity which had so long been held in cruel subjection. +The attitude of the world toward the intellectually disfranchised sex +remained unchanged almost until our own time. + +But, although women now enjoy advantages in the pursuit of science which +were undreamed of only a generation ago, the age-old prejudices +respecting woman's mental powers and her capacity for the more abstract +branches of science still prevail. It is useless to cite instances of +women who have attained eminence in astronomy, mathematics, archaeology, +or in any other science whatever. Such instances, we are assured, are +only exceptions and prove nothing. Men like Lombroso are willing to +admit the existence of an occasional woman of talent, but they deny the +existence of genius in one who is truly a womanly woman.[90] For, with +Goncourt, they flippantly assert, _Il n'y a pas de femmes de genie: +lorsqu'elles sont des genies, elles sont des hommes_--there are no women +of genius; when they have genius they are men. + +The reasons that now influence men for affirming the intellectual +disparity of the sexes are, it must be observed, quite different from +what they were in the time of Christine de Pisan--quite different from +what they were half a century ago. Our forebears, in their endless +disputations regarding woman's mental inferiority, based their arguments +on _a priori_ deductions, or on metaphysical considerations which proved +nothing and which were often irrelevant, if not absurd. + +Thus the Aristotelians, accepting as true the doctrine of the four +elements as well as the superimposed doctrine of the four elemental +qualities, sought to explain the properties of all compound bodies by +these primal qualities. In this way they explained the various virtues +of drugs and medicines. And by the same process of reasoning they +explained the assumed difference between male and female brains. They +assumed, to begin with, that there was a difference between the +intellectual capacities of men and women. They then assumed that this +difference in capacity was due to the difference in character and +texture of the female as compared with those of the male brain. They +next further assumed that the doctrines of the four elements and of the +four elemental qualities were established beyond question, and then +assumed again that the reason of woman's inferior capacity was due to +the fact that her brain was moister and softer, and, therefore, more +impressionable than that of man. No wonder that the old Spanish +Benedictine, Benito Jeronimo Feijoo, in his chivalrous _Defensa de la +Mujer_, lost all patience with such fantastic theorizers and wrote: "Did +I write ... to display my wit, I could easily, by deducting a chain of +consequences from received principles, shew that man's understanding, +weighed in the balance with female capacity, would be found so light as +to kick the beam."[91] + +Abandoning the Aristotelian method of envisaging the question under +discussion, our modern philosophers have recourse to the recent +sciences of biology and psycho-physiology to prove what they, too, +assume to be true--viz., woman's incurable mental weakness. Like their +predecessors, they are dominated by passion, prejudice, the errors of +countless centuries, and, like them, they approach the subject on which +they are to pronounce judgment, with minds warped by long ages of +imperious instincts, ignorant preconceptions and social bias. They will +quote the opinions of Proudhon and Schopenhauer--as if they had the +value of mathematical demonstrations--on the mental inferiority of +women, and will declare with unblushing assurance that no woman has ever +produced a single work of any kind of enduring worth. With the German +pessimist, they will blatantly declare, taken as a whole, "women are and +remain thoroughgoing Philistines and quite incurable."[92] With the +French socialist they will assert, as if it were an axiomatic truth, +that "thought in every living being is proportional to force"--that +"physical force is not less necessary for thought than for muscular +labor." + +They have apparently no more doubt respecting the truth of these +assumptions than had their predecessors, the Aristotelians, respecting +their assumptions of the four elements and their first qualities. Their +process of reasoning is somewhat as follows: "Woman is smaller and +weaker than man. This is a matter of simple observation, confirmed by +the teachings of physiology. Therefore, woman is physically and +intellectually inferior to man. Therefore she is incapable of any of +those great conceptions and achievements in science or philosophy which +have so distinguished the male sex in every age of the world's history. +That she is thus weaker and inferior physically and intellectually and +forever incapacitated from successfully competing with man in the +intellectual arena is a fatality for which, we are gravely told, there +is no remedy, and to which women, consequently, must resign themselves +as to one of the inexorable laws of nature." + +It would be difficult to cite a more preposterous example of +ratiocination. If it were true that there is a necessary relation +between vigor of body and vigor of mind; that mental power is +proportional to physical power; that thought is but a special form of +energy and capable of transformation, like heat, light and electricity; +that it, like the various physical forces, has its chemical and +mechanical equivalents; that psychic work corresponds to a certain +amount of chemical or thermic action; that intellectual capacity in man +is proportional to muscular strength; it would follow that the great +leaders of thought and action through the ages have been Goliaths in +stature and Herculeses in strength. But so far is this conclusion from +being warranted that it is almost the reverse of the truth. For many, if +not the majority, of the great geniuses of the world in every age have +been either men of small frame or men of delicate and precarious health. + +Among the men of genius who were noted for their diminutive stature were +Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Archimedes, Epicurus, Horace, +Albertus Magnus, Montaigne, Lipsius, Spinoza, Erasmus, Lalande, Charles +Lamb, Keats, Balzac and Thiers. Many others were remarkable for their +spare form. Among these in the prime of life were Aristotle, +Demosthenes, Cicero, St. Paul, Kepler, Pascal, Boileau, Fenelon, +D'Alembert, Napoleon, Lincoln and Leo XIII. Others, like Aesop, +Brunelleschi, Leopardi, Magliabecchi, Parini, Scarron, Talleyrand, Pope, +Goldsmith, Byron, Sir Walter Scott, to mention only a few of the most +eminent, were either hunchbacked, lame, rachitic or clubfooted. + +Others, still, were the victims of chronic ill health, or of nervous +disorders of the most serious character. Virgil was of a delicate and +frail constitution. He essayed the bar, but shrank from it and turned to +the "contemplation of diviner things." Nor was Horace, though less +completely a recluse and more of a _bon vivant_, a strong man. Both of +them, as scholars will remember, sought the couch, while Maecenas went +off to the tennis court. Pope's life, says Johnson, was a long disease. +Johnson himself, though large and muscular, had queer health and a +tormenting constitution. Schiller wrote most of his best work while +struggling against a painful malady, and Heine's "mattress grave" is +proverbial. France furnishes an excellent example in Pascal.[93] + +Some of the most noted leaders of thought in our own era were likewise +chronic invalids. Among these were the scholarly theologian, E. B. +Pusey, and J. A. Symonds, the historian of the Renaissance. There was +also Herbert Spencer, who was frequently forced by nervous breakdowns to +take long periods of absolute rest. More remarkable still was the case +of the famous naturalist, Charles Darwin. "It is," writes his son, "a +principal feature of his life that for nearly forty years he never knew +one day of the health of ordinary men, and that thus his life was one +long struggle against the weariness and the strain of sickness."[94] +But, notwithstanding his continued ill health and the spinal anemia from +which he suffered, he was able to conduct those epoch-making researches +which put him in the forefront of men of science, and to write those +famous books which have completely revolutionized our views of nature +and nature's laws. + +But a still more remarkable illustration of the fact that there is no +necessary relation between muscular and mental power, between physical +well-being and intellectual energy, is afforded by the illustrious +discoverer of the world of the infinitely little, Louis Pasteur. +Stricken by hemiplegia shortly after he had begun those brilliant +investigations which have rendered him immortal, he remained affected by +partial paralysis until the end of his life. His friends had reason to +fear that this attack, even if he should survive it, would weaken or +extinguish his spirit of initiative, if it did not make further work +entirely impossible. But this was far from the case. For a quarter of a +century he continued with unabated activity those marvelous labors which +are forever associated with his name. And it was after, not before, his +misfortune that he made his most famous discoveries in the domain of +microbian life, and placed in the hands of physicians and surgeons those +infallible means of combatting disease which have made him one of the +greatest benefactors of suffering humanity. The complete separation of +the intellectual from the motor faculties was never more clearly +exhibited than in this case, nor was it ever more completely +demonstrated by an experiment, whose validity no one could question, +that power of mind does not necessarily depend on strength or health of +body. It proved, also, in the most telling manner that it is not +muscular but psychic force which avails most, whether to the individual +or to society. And it showed, at the same time, the utter absurdity of +those theories which would fatally connect intellectual with physical +debility in woman, and would forever adjudge the physically weaker sex +to be of hopeless inferiority in all things of the mind. + +What has been said of men achieving renown, notwithstanding ill health, +may likewise be affirmed of women. The case of Elizabeth Barrett +Browning is scarcely less remarkable than that of Darwin. In spite of +being a chronic invalid the greater part of her life, she attained a +position in letters reached by but few of her contemporaries. The same +almost may be said of the three Bronte sisters. The deadly seeds of +consumption were sown in their systems in early youth, but, although +fully aware that life had "passed them by with averted head," they +were, through their indomitable wills, able to send forth from their +bleak home in the wild Yorkshire moors works of genius that still +instruct and delight the world. + +From the foregoing it is clear that valetudinarianism, if it prove +anything, proves not that it renders intellectual effort impossible, but +that it serves as a discipline for the soul. It forces the mind to +husband its strength, and thus enables it to accomplish by economy and +concentration of effort that which the same mind in a healthy body, with +the distractions of society and the allurements of life, would be unable +to accomplish. It exemplifies in the most striking manner the truth of +what Socrates says in Plato's _Republic_ about the beneficent action of +the "bridle of Theages," preventing an infirm friend of his from +embracing politics and keeping him true to his first love--philosophy. + +Failing to show any necessary connection between superior physique and +intellectual capacity, between health of body and mental activity, +between the amount of food consumed and the degree of intelligence, the +class of thinkers whose theories are now under consideration found +themselves forced to abandon the argument based on robust health and +physical strength and seek elsewhere for support of their views. This, +they soon announced, was found in the greater cranial capacity and +greater brain weight of the male as compared with that of the female. +Following up this fancied clew, anthropologists the world over began +measuring skulls and weighing brains in order to determine the supposed +ratio of sex-difference. + +The results of these investigations were far from corroborating the +preconceived notions of those who had fancied a necessary correlation +between mental capacity and size of cranium, between the weight of +encephalon and degree of intelligence. For it was soon discovered that +cranial capacity depended on many causes--many of them unknown--and that +people having the largest skulls were often far from being the ones +dowered with the greatest intellectual power. It was found, for +instance, that climate was a determining factor--that the inhabitants of +northern regions have larger heads than those who live farther south. +Thus the Lapps, in proportion to their stature, have the largest heads +in Europe. After these come in order the Scandinavians, the Germans, the +French, the Italians, the Arabs. + +It was found also that the least cranial capacity of the ancient +Egyptians coincides with the most brilliant period of their +civilization--that of the eighteenth dynasty. Measurements of skulls +unearthed at Pompeii showed that the heads of the Romans who lived two +thousand years ago were larger than the heads of the Romans of to-day. +Similarly, the skulls of the lake-dwellers of Switzerland were larger +than those of the Swiss people of the present time, while the average +circumference of the skulls measured in the catacombs of Paris is more +than an inch greater than that of the Parisians who have died during the +last half century. The circumference of the skulls of a large number of +mound-builders, excavated some years ago near Carrollton, Illinois, +exceeded that of the average head of white men in New York of our day by +nearly three inches. This shows that the culture of the white race +during long centuries has not developed its cranial capacity to equal +that of the uncultured Indians who flourished in the Mississippi valley +untold generations ago. + +The skulls of Quaternary men were likewise very voluminous, although +they belonged to a race whose mental manifestations were infantile in +the extreme. Even the celebrated Engis skull, one of the most ancient in +existence, has been described by the late Professor Huxley as well +formed and considerably larger than the average of the European skulls +of to-day, not only in the width and height of the forehead, but also in +the cubic capacity of the whole. Furthermore, the eminent craniologist, +Broca, has proved that the illiterate peasants of Auvergne have a much +greater cranial capacity than that of the learned and cultured denizens +of Paris. And, as if to show conclusively that there is no necessary +connection between intellectual capacity and size of cranium, authentic +measurements disclose the fact that some of the most gifted men the +world has known had small heads. Among these were Dante and Voltaire. +The skull of the latter is one of the smallest which has thus far been +observed. + +What has been said regarding the relation of cranial volume to +intellectual capacity, as revealed by the measurements of the skulls of +ancient and modern, savage and civilized peoples may likewise be +predicated of the differences in the sizes of the crania of men and +women. No argument as to the greater or less intelligence of either sex +can be based on mere craniometric determinations. "At the best, cranial +capacity is but a rough indication of brain size; and to measure brain +size by the external size of the skull furnishes still rougher and more +fallacious approximations, since the male skull is more massive than the +female." + +Even the slight morphological differences between male and female +skulls--some anthropologists deny that there are any at all--afford no +more ground for conclusions in favor of the superiority of one or the +other sex than the relative differences in size. Such trifling +differences as do exist exhibit, as Virchow has pointed out, an +approximation of men to the savage, simian and senile type, and an +approach of women to the infantile type. Havelock Ellis, commenting on +this difference, pertinently remarks, "It is open to a man in a +Pharisaic mood to thank God that his cranial type is far removed from +the infantile. It is equally open to woman in such a mood to be thankful +that her cranial type does not approach the senile."[95] + +But much stress as has been laid on physical power, health and cranial +capacity, as determining factors of intellectual capacity and sexual +differences, far greater stress has been laid on conclusions deducible +from the relative brain weights of different classes of people as well +as of different sexes. It was assumed that by a critical study of the +brain, by careful weighings of many brains of both sexes and of many +races, it would be easy to secure conclusive evidence that the size and +weight of the brain increase with the amount of intelligence of the +individual. It was also assumed that function not only makes the organ, +but also develops it. Brain became synonymous with mind. A large brain +implied vigor of thought; a small brain was evidence of mental +inferiority. + +Physiology had demonstrated unquestionably that the muscles of the body +are enlarged by exercise. It was assumed by those who are wont to +measure mind in terms of matter that the brain, being the organ of +thought, was also developed by exercise. It was also assumed that the +development of the brain was in a direct ratio to its activity. The +greater its activity the greater its mass, and the greater the mass the +greater the degree of intelligence. In other words, it was assumed that +there was an exact and invariable proportion between weight of brain and +amount of brain power. + +None of the theories which have already been adverted to have been so +full of assumptions and prejudices or vitiated by so many fallacies and +over-hasty generalizations as this. No subject has possessed a greater +fascination for anthropologists, and no subject has been prolific in +more diverse and conflicting conclusions. Many men of science who, in +other matters, were noted for their care in weighing evidence, before +formulating theories, completely lost the scientific spirit when they +began to weigh brains and to draw conclusions respecting the relations +of brain weight and mental power, and to establish ratios between the +character of the convolutions of the organ of thought and the degree of +intelligence of its possessor. + +Contrary to what is generally believed, a large brain is not always an +indication of superior capacity or intelligence. There have been, it is +true, a number of men of genius who were the possessors of large brains, +but there have also been others whose brains were of but medium weight. + +The largest known brains of intellectual workers were those of Cuvier, +the noted zoologist, and Turgenieff, the distinguished novelist. The +brain of the Frenchman weighed 1830 grams, while that of the Russian +totaled 2012 grams. Among other large brains--even larger than +Cuvier's--were those of a bricklayer, which weighed 1900 grams, and of +an ordinary laborer, which reached 1924 grams. The largest brains on +record were that of an ignorant laborer named Rustan, which weighed 2222 +grams; that of a weak-minded London newsboy, which weighed 2268 grams, +and that of a twenty-one-year-old epileptic idiot, which had the unheard +of weight of 2850 grams.[96] + +The seven largest recorded female brains were three weighing 1580 grams +each, one of which belonged to a medical student of marked ability, +while the other two belonged to quite undistinguished women. There were +two others weighing 1587 each, one of which belonged to an insane woman. +Still heavier than these by far were the brains of an insane woman who +died of consumption, and of a dwarfed Indian squaw. The brain of the +first weighed 1742 grams; while that of the second was no less than 2084 +grams. + +From the foregoing examples it is evident that a large brain is far from +being a certain index of mental capacity or of superior intelligence. It +is frequently the very reverse. If, for instance, it fail to receive +the necessary supply of blood, it will be inert or disordered and will +prove to be a dangerous possession rather than a precious endowment. +Epileptics usually have brains that are large relatively to the size of +the body. And, while it is probably true that the great thinkers and men +of action of the world have, in most instances, had comparatively large +brains, it is also true that the brain weights of but few of them +exceeded 1500 grams, while those of many fall below 1200 grams. + +Thus the brain of Gambetta, "the foremost Frenchman of his time," +weighed only 1159 grams, while the weight of the brain of Napoleon I was +1502 grams--barely equal to that of a negro described by the +anthropologist Broca, and but little superior to that of a Hottentot +mentioned by Dr. Jeffries Wyman.[97] + +The late Dr. Joseph Simms found the average brain weight of sixty +persons who were either imbeciles, idiots, criminals or men of ordinary +mind to be 1792 grams, while that of sixty famous men was 1454 grams, a +difference in favor of men not noted for intellectual greatness of 338 +grams. These figures are far from showing that large brains are a +necessary concomitant of mental capacity. + +In view of these and many similar facts, we are not surprised that the +eminent German anatomist and anthropologist, Rudolph Wagner, should +declare that "very intelligent men do not differ strikingly in brain +weight from less gifted men," and that the noted French physician, +Esquirol, should assert that "no size or form of head or brain is +incident to idiocy or superior talent." + +So far as civilized races are concerned, there can be no doubt that the +absolute weight of the male is greater than that of the female brain. +According to the investigations of seven of the most notable +anthropologists, who have given special attention to the subject under +consideration, and who, collectively, have carefully weighed many +thousands of brains, the average brain weight of men in Europe is 1381 +grams, while that of women is 1237 grams. This shows a difference +between the average weight of the brain in man and woman of 144 grams. + +But, if it must be conceded that the absolute weight of man's brain is +greater than woman's, is it likewise true that the relative weight is +greater? This is a question which demands an answer, as it is impossible +to come to any just conclusion respecting the intellectual capacity of +woman expressed in terms of brain weight, unless we can affirm with +certainty that men's brains are relatively, as well as absolutely, +larger than those of women. + +Speaking of the relative weight of brain in man implies a term of +comparison. Several methods of estimating the sexual proportions of +brain mass have been suggested, but only two of them have met with any +favor. These are determining the ratio of brain weight to body weight or +body height. + +According to the investigations of anthropologists of acknowledged +authority, the average brain weight of woman is to that of man in +England and France as 90 is to 100. The average stature of men and women +in the same countries is as 93 to 100. This gives man an excess of brain +weight over that of woman of something more than an ounce. But this +slight difference in weight has been considered sufficient to constitute +it "a fundamental sexual distinction." When, however, it is considered +that men are not only taller but also larger than women, this apparent +advantage of an ounce in favor of the male entirely disappears, and the +result is that the relative amount of brain mass in the two sexes is +practically equal. + +Because of the manifest inaccuracy of the stature criterion, many +eminent anthropologists have prepared to estimate sexual differences in +brain weight by adopting the method based on the ratio of brain mass to +body weight. According to this method, women are found to possess +brains which are equal to or even somewhat larger than those of men. If +the comparative excess of non-vital tissue in the form of fat in woman +be eliminated and estimates be based only on the active organic mass of +her body, as compared with the same mass in man, the excess of brain +weight in woman over that in man will be still more marked. + +A careful study, then, of the brain as a whole, far from proving woman's +inferiority to man, rather proves her superiority. The same may be said +regarding sexual distinctions based on certain parts of the brain. + +Some years ago it was positively asserted that the development of the +frontal lobe exhibited a pronounced difference in the two sexes. It was +said to be much greater in man than in woman and was regarded as a +distinguishing characteristic of the male sex. This was in keeping with +the generally accepted assumption that this portion of the brain is the +seat of the higher intellectual processes. Further investigation, +however, showed that there was practically no sexual difference in the +frontal lobe of the brain, or, if there was a difference, it was +probably in favor of woman. + +It has also become recognized that there is no valid reason for +considering the anterior portion of the brain as the seat of the higher +mental functions. It is possible, but in the present state of science it +can neither be affirmed nor denied. So far as our present knowledge +goes, it seems more likely that the whole of the brain, especially the +sensori-motor regions of its middle part, have a part in mental +operations. At all events, it can certainly be affirmed that Huschke's +distinction of man and woman into _homo frontalis et homo parietalis_ is +utterly devoid of foundation in fact. + +Many anthropologists have fancied that a certain index of the degree of +intelligence is to be found in the convolutions of the brain. The +tortuous foldings of the female brain, it is asserted, are less ample, +less pronounced and less beautiful. "Behold," they exclaim, "a most +positive evidence of inferiority." These men overlook the fact that +certain animals, notably the elephant and divers species of cetaceans, +have cerebral convolutions that are more complex than those of man. If, +then, brain convolutions were, as claimed, a certain index of the degree +of intelligence, the whale or the elephant, and not man--_pace_ +Shakespeare--would be "the paragon of animals." + +But men of science are by no means at one on this alleged sexual +difference in brain convolutions. On the contrary, there are many +eminent physiologists and anatomists who contend that the superficies of +brain convolutions in women is relatively greater than in men. For those +who believe--and they are probably the majority at present--that the +seat of mental activity is in the gray matter of the brain, this greater +brain surface, due to its convolutions, would be a decided compensation +for woman's relatively smaller brain volume.[98] + +In whatever way, then, we consider the brains of men and women, whether +we compare the ratio of brain weight to height of body or to weight of +body, or compare the relative amounts of gray matter in the two sexes, +the advantage, in spite of her smaller body, is distinctly in favor of +woman. + +From the preceding considerations it seems clear that there is no ground +from the point of view of brain anatomy for considering one sex as +superior to the other. They evince, too, that quality as well as +quantity of brain tissue must be considered in all our discussions on +the relations between the volume of brain and the intelligence of its +possessor. Whales and elephants have much larger brains than men, but +they nevertheless stand far below him in intelligence. + +It must be remembered, also, that the brain is not only an organ of +mental function. It is likewise the center of the entire nervous system, +and its volume, therefore, must correspond with the size and number of +nerve trunks under its control. In man, as in animals, the brain +elements are to a great extent but sensori-motor delegates whose +function is the regulation and government of every part of the body. The +superior size of the whale's brain, as compared with that of man, can +readily be understood when we reflect on the much greater amount of +territory which these sensori-motor delegates represent. When this fact +is borne in mind it will be found that the whale's brain, relatively to +that of man, is extremely small. For while the ratio of man's brain +weight to that of his body is as 1 to 36, the ratio of the whale's brain +weight to its immense body is but 1 to 3,000. + +As an evidence that quality often counts for more than quantity, brain +anatomists would do well to reflect on the marvelous intelligence +displayed by ants and termites, those mites of animated nature which so +excited the admiration of the naturalist Pliny and caused Darwin to +declare, "The brain of an ant is one of the most marvelous atoms of +matter in the world, perhaps more so than the brain of man."[99] + +Moreover, when discussing the relative brain weights of the two sexes, +we must not lose sight of the fact that we have, with the solitary +exception of the eminent Russian mathematician, Sonya Kovalevsky,[100] +no record of the brain weights of any eminently intellectual woman. The +brains of scores of men of genius and exceptional mentality have been +weighed, but we are utterly ignorant of the weight of brain of such +women as Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Madame de Stael, Maria Theresa, Sophie +Germain, George Sand, Harriet Martineau, George Eliot, Eleanor Ormerod, +Mary Somerville, and others of the same caliber. The only data so far +available, regarding the average brain weight of women, are such as have +been obtained from the inmates of hospitals, prisons and pauper +institutions. And yet we are asked to accept the average based on such +data as a fair term of comparison with the average male brain weight as +increased by the superior weight of brain of such men as Cuvier and +Turgenieff. And this is called science![101] + +The attempt, then, to prove by weighing and measuring and studying +brains that man is the intellectual superior of woman has been an +ignominious failure. The old belief that woman is by nature and cerebral +organization less intelligent than man is not borne out by the +investigations of those best qualified to pronounce an opinion on the +subject. To assert, as so many do, that woman was created man's +intellectual inferior is begging the question. Science can adduce no +proof of such a gratuitous statement. Broca, the most eminent of French +anthropologists, regarded as an absurdity the attempt to establish a +necessary relation between the development of intelligence and the +volume and weight of the encephalon. With the ripe knowledge of his +mature years he was inclined to believe that the apparent difference in +intelligence in the two sexes was owing, not to a difference of brain +organization, but rather to a difference of education, physical as well +as mental, and that, with equal opportunities for intellectual and +physical development, the present sexual differences that we have been +considering--differences which are due not to nature but to the long +ages of restraint and subjection under which women have lived--would +gradually be lessened, and that men and women would eventually approach +that equality which characterizes them in the state of nature.[102] + +Realizing the impossibility of arriving, by the study of brain sizes and +structure, at any satisfactory conclusion respecting the relative +intellectual capacities of men and women, seekers after truth cast about +for other methods that were free from the errors and fallacies of those +which had proved so unreliable. The attempt to base the alleged mental +inferiority of woman upon the facial angle of Camper, the metafacial +angle of Serres, the craniofacial angle of Huxley, the sphenoidal angle +of Welcker, or the nasobasal angle of Virchow had issued in utter +failure, and had proved for the thousandth time that it is easier to +formulate theories than to establish their validity. It was evident, +notwithstanding the assertions of certain materialistic theorists, that +the brain did not secrete thought as the liver secretes bile; it was +evident, too, that intelligence could not be estimated in terms of any +kind of mechanical units. Psycho-physiologists had no sort of +dynamometer for measuring brain power as they would measure muscular +energy. By means of the plethysmograph they might determine the amount +of blood sent to the brain in a given time, but they had no psychometer +of any description which would enable them to estimate the quantity, +much less the quality, of psychic force such a blood supply was +competent to produce. + +Many, of course, still remained adherents of the old view that woman +must ever remain the mental inferior of man because she is by nature +physically weaker. These persons, however, seemed to lose sight of the +fact that women who lead a rational life--who are not the slaves of +fashion or the victims of luxury--have little to complain of on the +score of physical weakness. This is evidenced by the life and habits of +the women of the people, as well as by the tasks performed by women +among savage tribes, who in health and strength are little, if at all, +inferior to their male companions. + +The late Professor Huxley, in referring to this subject, exhibited his +usual acumen and sanity in such matters when he indited the following +paragraph: + +"We have heard a great deal lately about the physical disabilities of +women. Some of these alleged impediments, no doubt, are really inherent +in their organization, but nine-tenths of them are artificial--the +products of their mode of life. I believe that nothing would tend so +effectually to get rid of these creations of idleness, weariness and +that 'over-stimulation of the emotions' which in plainer spoken days +used to be called wantonness, than a fair share of healthy work, +directed toward a definite object, combined with an equally fair share +of healthy play, during the years of adolescence; and those who are best +acquainted with the acquirements of an average medical practitioner will +find it hardest to believe that the attempt to reach that standard is +like to prove exhausting to an ordinarily intelligent and well-educated +woman."[103] + +Substantially the same views are held by Mrs. Henry Fawcett and Dr. Mary +Putnam Jacobi, whose rare experience and knowledge give their opinions +on the subject under consideration special weight and value. + +After men of science had tried the various theories above enumerated and +found them wanting, they finally bethought themselves of investigating +the relative intellectual standing of male and female students in +coeducational institutions, and inquiring into their comparative +capacity for different branches of knowledge, as made known by their +professors and by the results of oral and written examinations. +Considering the simplicity of this method and the fact that it is the +more rational way to reach reliable conclusions, the wonder is that it +was not thought of sooner. It excludes the bias of prepossessions and +preconceived theories and lends itself to the discussion of results +based on incontestable facts. + +The first coeducational institution in which the intellectual capacity +of women, in competition with men, was fairly tested was, strange to +say, in the Royal College of Science for Ireland. This was somewhat more +than half a century ago. When the time of examinations came, both the +men and women students were handed the same examination papers. At the +public distribution of prizes, at the close of the session, "the +ladies," in the words of a Dublin paper, "vindicated the genius of their +sex by carrying off the highest prizes." In zoology, botany, physics, +chemistry and mathematics they proved themselves the peers, and +frequently the superiors, of their male competitors. + +"The success of the female students disturbed, of course, very much the +preconceived notions of some people, who had always taken for granted +that the female intellect was inferior to the male; and, not being able +to combat the stubborn facts that appeared from time to time in the +newspapers, when the results of the examinations were published, they +tried to account for them."[104] + +These cavillers, however, soon discovered that there was no way of +accounting for the disconcerting fact which confronted them, except by +confessing that their theory regarding the mental inferiority of women +was not substantiated by fact. This unexpected demand for the +unconditional surrender of their long-cherished theory of male +superiority was a crushing and humiliating blow to their pride of +intellect, but there was no remedy for it, nor was it accompanied by any +balm of consolation that they, at the time, felt disposed to regard as +adequate compensation for their lost prestige--a prestige which their +overweening sex had claimed from time immemorial. + +Similar experiments under even more trying conditions were subsequently +made in the United States and in other parts of the world, and +everywhere with the same results. In the universities of Switzerland, +France, England, Germany and Russia women, when given a fair +opportunity, were able to demonstrate to the satisfaction of all +unprejudiced judges that the long-vaunted superiority of the male +intellect was a myth; that intelligence, like genius, has no sex. + +One of the most interesting and comprehensive investigations ever +undertaken regarding this long-debated question was made some years ago +by Arthur Kirchhoff, an enterprising German journalist.[105] It +consisted in collecting and collaborating the opinions of more than a +hundred of the most distinguished professors of the Fatherland, besides +the opinions of a number of eminent writers and teachers in girls' high +schools. These constitute a volume of nearly four hundred pages, and +embody the views on the capacity of woman for science of professors of +theology, jurisprudence, anatomy, physiology, surgery, psychology, +history, gynecology, psychiatry, philology, philosophy, art, +mathematics, physics, astronomy, chemistry, zoology, botany, geology, +paleontology and technology. The investigation, indeed, covered every +branch of knowledge and evoked the deliberate views of those who were +looked upon as the leading representatives of German thought and +culture. + +This book possesses a special value from the fact that, of all peoples +in Europe, the Germans have been the most refractory to the claims of +women to be received at the universities on the same footing as men. The +German professors, naturally, share the conservatism of their +countrymen, and, like them, are wedded to routine when there is question +of introducing innovations into their social, political or educational +systems. One would anticipate, then, that, when called upon to give +their honest opinions respecting the intellectual capacity of women, as +compared with that of men, their answer would be decidedly in favor of +the sterner sex. "For," they will ask, "have not all the achievements in +science which have given the Fatherland such prestige in the eyes of the +world been due entirely to men? Have the women of Germany ever +undertaken the solution of any great scientific problem, or have they +ever made any notable contribution to scientific advancement? They have +not." + +Yet, notwithstanding all these facts, notwithstanding all traditions and +prejudices and social bias, the unexpected has happened, even in +conservative, old-fashioned Germany. The German professor may be +tenacious of preconceived views; he may be a stickler for ancient +customs and usages; nevertheless, when he is called upon to give a +question a categorical answer which can be arrived at by observation or +experiment, he may generally, in spite of his likes or dislikes, be +counted on to give a decision in accord with the principles of +legitimate induction. He may have his prejudices--and who has not?--but, +when one appeals to him in the name of science and justice, he will +rarely be found wanting. Regardless of all personal consideration, he +will feel that loyalty to science, of which he is the avowed devotee, +requires him to consider a question proposed to him as he would a +scientific problem--something to be decided solely by such evidence as +may be available. + +To the exceeding gratification of the believers in the intellectual +equality of the sexes, this proved to be the case in Herr Kirchhoff's +investigation. The answers of the German professors, contrary to what +most people would have anticipated, were, by a surprising majority, in +favor of women. But their answers were in keeping with the changed +educational conditions in Germany, as well as in other parts of the +civilized world. Had Herr Kirchhoff undertaken his investigation a few +decades earlier, the result would undoubtedly have been different, for +women were then excluded from the universities and the professors had +not had an opportunity of accurately testing their intellectual +capacities. But having, during the latter part of the nineteenth +century, had them as students in their lecture halls and laboratories, +where they were able to study their mental powers and determine the +value of their work by strict scientific methods, they were in a better +position to express an opinion on the question at issue than would, a +few years previously, have been possible. + +Accordingly, even the declared enemies of the woman's movement among the +German professorate were forced to admit the intellectual equality of +the two sexes. For they, too, as well as men of science in other parts +of Europe, had been measuring skulls and weighing brains; they, too, had +been studying woman's mental caliber in the light of the new psychology; +they, too, had been watching her work in the various departments of the +university; and, notwithstanding all their observations and experiments, +they were unable to detect any difference between men and women in brain +organization or in intellectual capacity. And, as might have been +foreseen, results harmonized perfectly with those arrived at by +investigators in other parts of the world--namely, that in things of the +mind there is perfect sexual equality. + +Among the hundred and more professors whose opinions are given in Herr +Kirchhoff's book there were, of course, a few who were not prepared to +subscribe to the findings of the great majority of their colleagues. But +the reasons they assign for dissent were, at least in some instances, +little better founded than that of a certain professor of chemistry in +the University of Geneva, who, a few years ago, gravely declared that +women have no aptitude for science because, forsooth, in chemical +manipulations they break more test-tubes than men. Verily, "a Daniel +come to judgment." + +What probably more deeply impressed the German professors than anything +else was the marked talent and taste of many of the women students for +the abstract sciences, especially for the higher mathematics. For it had +always been asserted that these branches of knowledge were beyond +woman's capacity and that she had an instinctive antipathy for abstruse +reasoning and for abstractions of all kinds. When, however, they +discovered women whose delight was to discuss the theory of elliptic +functions or curves defined by differential equations; when they found a +mathematical genius like Sonya Kovalevsky speculating on the fourth +dimension, and carrying away from the mathematicians of the world the +most coveted prize of the French Academy of Sciences, they were forced +to confess that another of their illusions was dissipated, and to +acknowledge that they had no longer anything on which to base their long +and fondly cherished opinion of the mental inequality of the sexes. + +As an evidence of the extraordinary change that had been effected among +the conservative Germans in the course of a few years respecting their +attitude toward the admission of the "Academic Woman" to the +universities, and, consequently, toward her intellectual capacity, it +will suffice to reproduce a sentence from the elaborately expressed +opinion of Dr. Julius Bernstein, professor of physiology in the +University of Halle. "After reflection on the subject," he declares, "I +am convinced that neither God nor religion, neither custom nor law, and +still less science, warrants one in maintaining any essential difference +in this respect between the male and the female sex."[106] + +The controversy of centuries regarding woman's intellectual capacity was +now virtually settled beyond all peradventure. Woman had conquered, and +her final victory had been won in the heart of the enemy's country, yea, +even in what was thought to be the impregnable fortress of her +relentless foes. It was achieved where the proud Teuton male had +imagined that he was unapproachable and beyond compare--in the +laboratories and lecture rooms of his great universities--more +irresistible, in his estimation, than the Kaiser's trained legions in +battle array. + +It finally dawned upon the leaders of thought in the Fatherland, as it +had but shortly before dawned upon philosophers and men of science in +other lands, that the reputed sexual difference in intelligence was not +due to difference in brain size or brain structure, or innate power of +intellect, but rather to some other factors which had been neglected, or +overlooked, as being unessential or of minor importance. These factors, +on further investigation, proved to be education and opportunity. + +As far back as 1869 that keen observer and philosopher, John Stuart +Mill, had expressed himself on the subject in the following words: "Like +the French compared with the English, the Irish with the Swiss, the +Greeks or Italians compared with the German races, so women compared +with men may be found, on the average, to do the same things with some +variety in the particular kind of excellence. But that they would do +them fully as well, on the whole, if their education and cultivation +were adapted to correcting instead of aggravating the infirmities +incident to their temperament, I see not the smallest reason to +doubt."[107] + +It would be difficult to find a better illustration of the sluggishness +of the male as compared with the female mind than the tardiness of men +of science in arriving at a sane conclusion respecting the subject of +this chapter. For five hundred years ago Christine de Pisan arrived at +the same conclusion which the learned professors of Germany reached only +in the last decade of the nineteenth century. Discussing in _La Cite des +Dames_ the question at issue she writes as follows: "I say to thee +again, and doubt never the contrary, that if it were the custom to put +the little maidens to the school, and they were made to learn the +sciences as they do to the men-children, that they should learn as +perfectly, and they should be as well entered into the subtleties of all +the arts and sciences as men be. And peradventure, there should be more +of them, for I have teached heretofore that by how much women have the +body more soft than the men have, and less able to do divers things, by +so much they have the understanding more sharp there as they apply it." + +Christine de Pisan's statement is virtually a challenge demanding the +same educational opportunities for women as were accorded to men. But it +was a challenge that men did not see fit to accept until full five +centuries had elapsed, and until it was no longer possible to deny +giving satisfaction to the long-aggrieved half of humanity. It was also +an appeal to experiment and an appeal, likewise, to the teachings of +history in lands where women have enjoyed the same educational +advantages as men. + +Having reviewed the many disabilities which so long retarded woman's +intellectual advancement, and considered some of the objections which +were urged against her capacity for scientific pursuits, we are now +prepared to consider the appeal of Christine de Pisan and deal with it +on its merits. This we shall do by a brief survey of woman's +achievements in the various branches of science in which she has been +accorded the same intellectual opportunities that were so long the +exclusive privilege of her male compeer. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[89] An edition of this work, based on an old manuscript in La +Bibliotheque Nationale of Paris, in French, is announced to appear in +France at an early date. An interesting account of this precious volume +has recently been published by Mlle. Mathilde Laigle, Ph. D., under the +title of _Le Livre de Trois Vertus de Christine de Pisan et son Milieu +Historique et Litteraire_. It is to be hoped that some enterprising +English publisher will soon favor us with a reprint of the quaint old, +but none the less valuable, volume, _The Boke of the Cyte of Ladyes_. + +[90] Quando la genialita compare nella donna e sempre associata a grandi +anomalie: e la piu grande e la somiglianza coi maschi--la virilita. +_L'Uomo di Genio_, sesta edizione, p. 261, Torino, 1894. + +[91] _An Essay on the Learning, Genius and Abilities of the Fair Sex, +Proving Them Not Inferior to Man_, p. 142, London, 1774. + +[92] Schopenhauer, _Studies in Pessimism_, p. 115, London, 1891. + +[93] _The Literary Advantages of Weak Health_, in the _Spectator_ for +October, 1894. + +[94] _The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin_, edited by his son, +Francis Darwin, Vol. I, p. 136, New York, 1888. + +[95] _Man and Woman_, p. 94, London, 1898. + +[96] Cf. _Das Hirngewicht des Menschen_, pp. 21 and 137, by Theodor L. +W. von Bischoff, Bonn, 1880, and Dr. G. van Walsem in _Neurologisches +Centralblatt_, pp. 578-580, Leipsic, July 1, 1899. + +[97] _L'Anthropologie_, pp. 336-337, by Paul Topinard, Paris, 1876. + +[98] The importance of gray matter in mental processes has evidently +been greatly overestimated, for it has been found to be thicker in the +brains of negroes, murderers and ignorant persons than it was in the +encephalon of Daniel Webster. It is also much thicker in the brains of +dolphins, porpoises and other cetaceans than it is in the most +intellectual of men. + +[99] _The Descent of Man_, Vol. I, p. 145, London, 1871. + +[100] The brain of Sonya Kovalevsky was not weighed until it had been +four years in alcohol. Prof. Gustaf Retzius then wrote an elaborate +account of it and estimated that its weight, at the time of Sonya's +death, was 1385 grams. The brain-weight of her illustrious contemporary, +Hermann von Helmholtz, was 1440 grams. But when the body-weights of +these two eminent mathematicians are borne in mind--Sonya was short and +slender--it will be seen that the relative amount of brain tissue was +greater in the woman than in the man. Cf. _Das Gehirn des Mathematikers +Sonja Kovalewski in Biologische Untersuchungen_, von Prof. Dr. Gustaf +Retzius, pp. 1-17, Stockholm, 1900. + +[101] The reader who desires more detailed information respecting the +brain-weights of men and women of various races and the relation of +brain-weight to intelligence may consult with profit the following works +and articles: _Memoires d'Anthropologie de Paul Broca_, 5 Vols., Paris, +1871-1888; _Alte und Neue Gehirn Probleme nebst einer 1078 Falle +umfassenden Gehirngewichstatistik aus den Kgl. pathologisch-anatomischen +Institut zu Muenchen_, von W. W. Wendt, Muenchen, 1909; Gehirngewicht und +Intelligenz, by Dr. F. K. Walter, Rostok, 1911; _Gehirngewicht und +Intelligenz_, by Dr. J. Draeseke, Hamburg, in _Archiv fuer Rassen und +Gesellschafts Biologe_, pp. 499-522, 1906; _Brain Weights and +Intellectual Capacity_, by Joseph Simms, M. D., in the _Popular Science +Monthly_, December, 1898, and _The Growth of the Brain_, by H. H. +Donaldson, London, 1895. + +[102] "Quand on songe a la difference qui separe de notre temps +l'education intellectuelle de l'homme de celle de la femme, on se +demande si ce n'est pas cette influence qui retrecit le cervaux et le +crane feminins, et si, les deux sexes etant livres a leur spontaneite, +leur cervaux ne tendraient pas a se ressembler, aussi qu'il arrive chez +les sauvages." _Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie_, p. 503, Paris, +July 3, 1879. + +[103] _Times_, London, July 8, 1874. Cf. Chap. XVII, on "Adolescent +Girls and Their Education," in _Adolescence_, Vol. II, by G. Stanley +Hall, New York, 1904. + +[104] _The Study of Science by Women in the Contemporary Review_ for +March, 1869. + +[105] _Die Akademische Frau. Gutachten hervorragender +Universitaeten-professoren, Frauenlehrer und Schriftsteller ueber die +Befaehigung der Frau zum wissenschaftlichen Studium and Berufe +herausgegeben von Arthur Kirchhoff_, Berlin, 1897. + +[106] "Ich komme beim Nachdenken hieruber zu der Ueberzeigung, dass kein +Gott und keine Religion, kein Herkommen und kein Gesetz, aber +ebensowenig die Wissenschaft uns das Recht erteilen, in dieser Beziehung +zwischen dem mannerlichen und weiblichen Geschlect einen principiellen +Unterschied zu statuiren." _Die Akademische Frau_, p. 41. + +[107] _The Subjection of Women_, p. 91, London, 1909. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS + + +"All abstract speculations, all knowledge which is dry, however useful +it may be, must be abandoned to the laborious and solid mind of man.... +For this reason women will never learn geometry." + +In these words Immanuel Kant, more than a century ago, gave expression +to an opinion that had obtained since the earliest times respecting the +incapacity of the female mind for abstract science, and notably for +mathematics. Women, it was averred, could readily assimilate what is +concrete, but, like children, they have a natural repugnance for +everything which is abstract. They are competent to discuss details and +to deal with particulars, but become hopelessly lost when they attempt +to generalize or deal with universals. + +De Lamennais shares Kant's opinion concerning woman's intellectual +inferiority and does not hesitate to express himself on the subject in +the most unequivocal manner. "I have never," he writes, "met a woman who +was competent to follow a course of reasoning the half of a quarter of +an hour--_un demi quart d'heure_. She has qualities which are wanting in +us, qualities of a particular, inexpressible charm; but, in the matter +of reason, logic, the power to connect ideas, to enchain principles of +knowledge and perceive their relationships, woman, even the most highly +gifted, rarely attains to the height of a man of mediocre capacity." + +But it is not only in the past that such views found acceptance. They +prevail even to-day to almost the same extent as during the ages of +long ago. How far they have any foundation in fact can best be +determined by a brief survey of what woman has achieved in the domain of +mathematics. + +Athenaeus, a Greek writer who flourished about A.D. 200, tells us in his +_Deipnosophistae_ of several Greek women who excelled in mathematics, as +well as philosophy, but details are wanting as to their attainments in +this branch of knowledge. If, however, we may judge from the number of +women--particularly among the hetaerae--who became eminent in the various +schools of philosophy, especially during the pre-Christian era, we must +conclude that many of them were well versed in geometry and astronomy as +well as in the general science of numbers. Menagius declares that he +found no fewer than sixty-five women philosophers mentioned in the +writings of the ancients[108]; and, judging from what we know of the +character of the studies pursued in certain of the philosophical +schools, especially those of Plato[109] and Pythagoras, and the +enthusiasm which women manifested in every department of knowledge, +there can be no doubt that they achieved the same measure of success in +mathematics as in philosophy and literature.[110] + +The first woman mathematician, regarding whose attainments we have any +positive knowledge, is the celebrated Hypatia, a Neo-platonic +philosopher, whose unhappy fate at the hands of an Alexandrian mob in +the early part of the fifth century has given rise to many legends and +romances which have contributed not a little toward obscuring the real +facts of her extraordinary career. She was the daughter of Theon, who +was distinguished as a mathematician and astronomer and as a professor +in the school of Alexandria, which was then probably the greatest seat +of learning in the world. Born about the year 375 A. D., she at an early +age evinced the possession of those talents that were subsequently to +render her so illustrious. So great indeed was her genius and so rapid +was her progress in this branch of knowledge under the tuition of her +father that she soon completely eclipsed her master in his chosen +specialty. + +There is reason to believe--although the fact is not definitely +established--that she studied for a while in Athens in the school of +philosophy conducted by Plutarch the Younger and his daughter +Asclepigenia. After her return from Athens, Hypatia was invited by the +magistrates of Alexandria to teach mathematics and philosophy. Here in +brief time her lecture room was filled by eager and enthusiastic +students from all parts of the civilized world. She was also gifted with +a high order of eloquence and with a voice so marvelous that it was +declared to be "divine." + +Regarding her much vaunted beauty, nothing certain is known, as +antiquity has bequeathed to us no medal or statue by which we could form +an estimate of her physical grace. But, be this as it may, it is certain +that she commanded the admiration and respect of all for her great +learning, and that she bore the mantle of science and philosophy with so +great modesty and self-confidence that she won all hearts. A letter +addressed to "The Muse," or to "The Philosopher"--[Greek: Te +Philosopho]--was sure to be delivered to her at once. Small wonder, +then, to find a Greek poet inditing to her an epigram containing the +following sentiment: + +"When I see thee and hear thy word I thee adore; it is the ethereal +constellation of the Virgin, which I contemplate, for to the heavens thy +whole life is devoted, O august Hypatia, ideal of eloquence and +wisdom's immaculate star."[111] + +But it was as a mathematician that Hypatia most excelled. She taught not +only geometry and astronomy, but also the new science of algebra, which +had but a short time before been introduced by Diophantus. And, singular +to relate, no further progress was made in the mathematical sciences, as +taught by Hypatia, until the time of Newton, Leibnitz and +Descartes,--more than twelve centuries later. + +Hypatia was the author of three works on mathematics, all of which have +been lost, or destroyed by the ravages of time. One of these was a +commentary on the _Arithmetica_ of Diophantus. The original treatise--or +rather the part which has come down to us--was found about the middle of +the fifteenth century in the Vatican Library, whither it had probably +been brought after Constantinople had fallen into the possession of the +Turks. This valuable work, as annotated by the great French +mathematicians Bachet and Fermat, gives us a good idea of the extent of +Hypatia's attainments as a mathematician. + +Another of Hypatia's works was a treatise on the _Conic Sections_ by +Apollonius of Perga--surnamed "The Great Geometer." Next to Archimedes, +he was the most distinguished of the Greek geometricians; and the last +four books of his conics constitute the chief portions of the higher +geometry of the ancients. Moreover, they offer some elegant geometrical +solutions of problems which, with all the resources of our modern +analytical method, are not without difficulty. The greater part of this +precious work has been preserved and has engaged the attention of +several of the most illustrious of modern mathematicians--among them +Borelli, Viviani, Fermat, Barrow and others. The famous English +astronomer, Halley, regarded this production of Apollonius of such +importance that he learned Arabic for the express purpose of translating +it from the version that had been made into this language. + +A woman who could achieve distinction by her commentaries on such works +as the _Arithmetica_ of Diophantus, of the _Conic Sections_ of +Apollonius, and occupy an honored place among such mathematicians as +Fermat, Borelli, and Halley, must have had a genius for mathematics, and +we can well believe that the glowing tributes paid by her contemporaries +to her extraordinary powers of intellect were fully deserved. If, with +Pascal, we see in mathematics "the highest exercise of the +intelligence," and agree with him in placing geometers in the first rank +of intellectual princes--_princes de l'esprit_--we must admit that +Hypatia was indeed exceptionally dowered by Him whom Plato calls "The +Great Geometer." + +There is still a third work of this ill-fated woman that deserves +notice--namely, her _Astronomical Canon_, which dealt with the movements +of the heavenly bodies. It is the general opinion that this was but a +commentary on the tables of Ptolemy, in which event it is still possible +that it may be found incorporated in the work of her father, Theon, on +the same subject. + +In addition to her works on astronomy and mathematics, Hypatia is +credited with several inventions of importance, some of which are still +in daily use. Among these are an apparatus for distilling water, another +for measuring the level of water, and a third an instrument for +determining the specific gravity of liquids--what we should now call an +areometer. Besides these apparatus, she was likewise the inventor of an +astrolabe and a planisphere. + +One of her most distinguished pupils was the eminent Neo-platonist +philosopher, Synesius, who became the Bishop of Ptolemais in the +Pentapolis of Libya. His letters constitute our chief source of +information respecting this remarkable woman. Seven of them are +addressed to her, and in four others he makes mention of her. In one of +them he writes: "We have seen and we have heard her who presides at the +sacred mysteries of philosophy." In another he apostrophizes her as "My +benefactress, my teacher,--_magistra_--my sister, my mother." + +In science Hypatia was among the women of antiquity what Sappho was in +poetry and what Aspasia was in philosophy and eloquence--the chiefest +glory of her sex. In profundity of knowledge and variety of attainments +she had few peers among her contemporaries, and she is entitled to a +conspicuous place among such luminaries of science as Ptolemy, Euclid, +Apollonius, Diophantus and Hipparchus.[112] + +It is a matter of regret to the admirers of this favored daughter of the +Muses that she is absent from Raphael's _School of Athens_; but, had her +achievements been as well known and appreciated in his day as they are +now, we can readily believe that the incomparable artist would have +found a place for her in this masterpiece with the matchless form and +features of his beloved Fornarina. + +After the death of Hypatia the science of mathematics remained +stationary for many long centuries. Outside of certain Moors in Spain, +the only mathematicians of note in Europe, until the Renaissance, were +Gerbert, afterward Pope Silvester II, and Leonardo da Pisa. The first +woman to attract special attention for her knowledge of mathematics was +Heloise, the noted pupil of Abelard. According to Franciscus Ambrosius, +who edited the works of Abelard and Heloise in 1616, the famous prioress +of The Paraclete was a prodigy of learning, for besides having a +knowledge of Latin, Greek and Hebrew, which was something extremely rare +in her time, she was also well versed in philosophy, theology and +mathematics, and inferior in these branches only to Abelard himself, who +was probably the most eminent scholar of his age.[113] + +Many Italian women, as we have seen in a preceding chapter, were noted +for their proficiency in the various branches of mathematics. Some of +the most distinguished of them flourished during the seventeenth and +eighteenth centuries. Among these were Elena Cornaro Piscopia, +celebrated as a linguist as well as a mathematician; Maria Angela +Ardinghelli, translator of the _Vegetable Statics_ of Stephen Hales; +Cristina Roccati, who taught physics for twenty-seven years in the +Scientific Institute of Rovigo, and Clelia Borromeo, fondly called by +her countrymen _gloria Genuensium_--the glory of the Genoese. In +addition to a special talent for languages, she possessed so great a +capacity for mathematics and mechanics that no problem in these sciences +seemed to be beyond her comprehension.[114] Then there was also Diamante +Medaglia, a mathematician of note, who wrote a special dissertation on +the importance of mathematics in the curriculum of studies for women, +_Alle matematiche, alle matematiche prestino l'opera loro le donne, onde +non cadano in crassi paralogismi_--"To mathematics, to mathematics," +she cries, "let women devote attention for mental discipline."[115] + +The most illustrious, by far, of the women mathematicians of Italy was +Maria Gaetana Agnesi, who was born in Milan in 1718 and died there at +the age of eighty-one. At an early age she exhibited rare intelligence +and soon distinguished herself by her extraordinary talent for +languages. At the age of five she spoke French with ease and +correctness, while only six years later she was able to translate Greek +into Latin at sight and to speak the former as fluently as her own +Italian. At the early age of nine she startled the learned men and women +of her native city by discoursing for an hour in Latin on the rights of +women to the study of science. This discourse--_Oratio_--was not, as +usually stated, her own composition, but a translation from the Italian +of a discourse written by her teacher of Latin. That a child of nine +years should speak in the language of Cicero for a full hour before a +learned assembly and without once losing the thread of her discourse +was, indeed, a wonderful performance, and we are not surprised to learn +that she was regarded by her countrymen as an infant prodigy.[116] + +In addition to Italian, French, Latin and Greek, she was acquainted with +German, Spanish and Hebrew. For this reason she was, like Elena Cornaro +Piscopia, the famous "Venetian Minerva," called Oracolo +Settilingue--Oracle of Seven Languages.[117] + +But it was in the higher mathematics that Maria Gaetana was to win her +chief title to fame in the world of learning. So successful had she been +in her prosecution of this branch of science that she was, at the early +age of twenty, able to enter upon her monumental work--_Le Instituzioni +Analitiche_--a treatise in two large quarto volumes on the differential +and integral calculus. To this difficult task she devoted ten years of +arduous and uninterrupted labor. And if we may credit her biographer, +she consecrated the nights as well as the days to her herculean +undertaking. For frequently, after working in vain on a difficult +problem during the day, she was known to bound from her bed during the +night while sound asleep and, like a somnambulist, make her way through +a long suite of rooms to her study, where she wrote out the solution of +the problem and then returned to her bed. The following morning, on +returning to her desk, she found, to her great surprise, that while +asleep she had fully solved the problem which had been the subject of +her meditations during the day and of her dreams during the night. Could +the psychiatrist who so loves to deal with obscure mental phenomena find +a more interesting case to engage his attention or one more worthy of +the most careful investigation? + +Finally Maria Gaetana's _opus majus_ was completed and given to the +public. It would be impossible to describe the sensation it produced in +the learned world. Everybody talked about it; everybody admired the +profound learning of the author, and acclaimed her: "Il portento del +sesso, unico al Mondo"--the portent of her sex, unique in the world. By +a single effort of her genius she had completely demolished that fabric +of false reasoning which had so long been appealed to as proof positive +of woman's intellectual inferiority, especially in the domain of +abstract science. Maria Gaetana's victory was complete, and her victory +was likewise a victory for her sex. She had demonstrated once for all, +and beyond a quirk or quibble, that women could attain to the highest +eminence in mathematics as well as in literature, that supreme +excellence in any department of knowledge was not a question of sex but +a question of education and opportunity, and that in things of the mind +there was essentially no difference between the male and the female +intellect. + +The world saw in Agnesi a worthy accession to that noble band of gifted +women who count among their number a Sappho, a Corinna, an Aspasia, a +Hypatia, a Paula, a Hroswitha, a Dacier, an Isabella Rosales who, in the +sixteenth century, successfully defended the most difficult theological +theses in the presence of Paul III and the entire college of cardinals. +And so delighted were the women--especially those in Italy--with the +signal triumph of their eminent sister that they defied the traducers +of their sex--_muliebris sapientiae infensissimis hostibus_--to continue +any longer their unreasonable campaign against the rights of women which +were based on the intellectual equality of the two sexes. + +So highly did the French Academy of Science value Agnesi's achievement +that she would at once have been made a member of this learned body had +it not been against the constitutions to admit a woman to membership. M. +Motigny, one of the committee appointed by the Academy to report on the +work, in his letter to the author, among other things, writes: "Permit +me, Mademoiselle, to unite my personal homage to the plaudits of the +entire Academy. I have the pleasure of making known to my country an +extremely useful work which has long been desired, and which has +hitherto"--both in France and in England--"existed only in outline. I do +not know any work of this kind which is clearer, more methodic or more +comprehensive than your _Analytical Institutions_. There is none in any +language which can guide more surely, lead more quickly, and conduct +further those who wish to advance in the mathematical sciences. I admire +particularly the art with which you bring under uniform methods the +divers conclusions scattered among the works of geometers and reached by +methods entirely different." + +As an indication of the exceptional merit of Agnesi's work, even long +after its publication in 1748, it suffices to state that the second +volume of the_ Instituzioni Analitiche_ was translated into French in +1775 by Antelmy and annotated by the Abbe Bossuet, a member of the +French Academy and a collaborator of D'Alembert on the mathematical part +of the famous _Encyclopedie_. + +A still greater proof of the estimation in which Agnesi's work was held +by men of science is the fact that it was translated in its entirety +into English by the Rev. John Colton, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics +in the University of Cambridge, and published in 1801, fifty-two years +after it had appeared in Italian. His impression of the methods followed +by the Milanese _savante_ was so favorable that, in the words of a +contemporary writer, it "gave rise to his very spirited resolution of +learning a new language at an advanced period of life, that he might +make himself perfect master of them."[118] + +Gratifying, however, as were the tributes of admiration and appreciation +which came to Agnesi from all quarters, from learned societies, from +eminent mathematicians, from sovereigns--the Empress Maria Theresa sent +her a splendid diamond ring and a precious crystal casket bejeweled with +diamonds--that which touched her most deeply was, undoubtedly, the +recognition which she received from the great Maecenas of his age, Pope +Benedict XIV. As Cardinal Lambertini and Archbishop of Bologna, he had +taken a conspicuous part in the honors showered on Laura Bassi when she +received her doctorate, and was specially delighted when she was made +professor of physics in his favored university. Being himself familiar +with the higher mathematics, he recognized at once the exceptional merit +of Maria Gaetana's work and showed his appreciation of it not only by +letters and presents, but also by having her, _motu proprio_, appointed +by the Bolognese senate as professor of higher mathematics in the +University of Bologna. + +In advising her of this appointment, he writes her that he had in view +the honor of the University in which he had always taken a special +interest, and that the appointment carried with it no obligation of +thanks on her part but rather on his--_che porta seco ch'ella non deve +ringraziar Noi, ma che Noi dobbiamo ringraziar lei_. The interest that +this wise and broad-minded pontiff exhibited in the advancement of +learned women and the rewards he was ever ready to accord to their +achievements in science and literature--especially in the cases of Laura +Bassi and Maria Gaetana Agnesi--is in keeping with the policy pursued by +his predecessors, and accounts in great measure for that large number of +learned women in Italy who, since the opening of the first universities, +have been the glory of their sex and country. + +But ardent as was the desire of the Supreme Pontiff to have Agnesi +occupy the chair of mathematics, and numerous as were the appeals of her +friends and the members of the university faculty to have her accept the +appointment that carried with it such signal honor, she could never be +induced to leave her beloved Milan. For, after completing her +masterpiece, she resolved to retire from the world and devote the rest +of her life to the care of the poor, the sick and the helpless in her +native city. She did not, however, as is so frequently asserted, enter +the convent and become a nun.[119] During many years after her +retirement from the world, she lived in her own home, a part of which +she had converted into a hospital. During the last fifteen years of her +life she had charge of the Pio Albergo Trivulzio--a large institution +founded by Prince Trivulzio for the aged poor who were without home or +assistance. + +She had devoted ten years of the flower of her life to the writing of +her _Instituzioni Analitiche_--prepared primarily for the benefit of one +of her brothers who had a taste for mathematics--and, after it was +finished, she entered upon that long career of heroic charity which was +terminated only at her death at the advanced age of eighty-one. + +One loves to speculate regarding Maria Gaetana's possible achievements +if she had continued during the rest of her life that science in which, +during a few short years, she had won such distinction. She had made her +own the discoveries of Newton, Leibnitz, Roberval, Fermat, Descartes, +Riccati, Euler, the brothers Bernouilli, and had mastered the entire +science of mathematics then known. Her pinions were trimmed for essaying +loftier flights than any hitherto attempted, and her intellect was +prepared, as one of her scientific friends expressed it, "for fixing the +limits of the infinite." But while the world of science was still +sounding her praises and predicting for her still greater triumphs in +the field of analysis, it learned with surprise and sorrow that she had +bid adieu to those studies in which she had achieved such extraordinary +success, and had consecrated her life to the service of the poor and the +afflicted. She disappeared completely from those literary and scientific +reunions where she had so long been the most conspicuous figure, and was +thenceforth known only as the ministering angel of the suffering and the +abandoned. For half a century hers was a life of the most heroic charity +and self-abnegation. Very readily, therefore, we can understand why a +recent representative of the scientific world should desire to see her +name placed on the calendar of saints.[120] + +Had Agnesi devoted her entire life to science instead of abandoning it +just when she was prepared to do her best work, she might to-day be +ranked among such supreme mathematicians as Lagrange, Monge, Laplace and +the Bernouillis, all of whom were her contemporaries. Even as it was, +she has been placed beside Cardan, Leibnitz and Euler for her remarkable +powers of analysis of infinitesimals, while the best proof of the +literary value of her _Instituzioni Analitiche_ is the fact that it has +been selected by the famous society Della Crusca as a _testo di +lingua_--a work considered as a classic of its kind and used in the +preparation of the great authoritative dictionary of the Italian +language. + +But by consecrating herself to charity she probably accomplished far +more for humanity and for the well-being of her sex than if she had +elected to continue her work in the higher mathematics. There had been +many learned women in Italy before her time and many since; many who +were distinguished as Hellenists, as Latinists, as polyglots, as +mathematicians--women like the Roccati, the Borghini, the Brassi, the +Ardinghelli, the Barbapiccola, the Caminer Turra, the Tambroni; but +Maria Gaetana Agnesi surpasses them all, not only in knowledge, but as a +potent influence for the diffusion of culture and the spirit of +brotherhood, for the expansion of benevolence and charity, and, above +all, for the elevation of woman. She was also, as her latest and best +biographer beautifully expresses it, "an inspired _condottiera_ who, in +the field of civility, anticipated the conquests of these latter days." +She was, indeed, as her epitaph informs us, _pietate_, _doctrina_, +_beneficentia insignis_, and as such she will live in the memory of our +race as long as men shall admire genius and love virtue. + +In the year following the publication of Agnesi's _Instituzioni +Analitiche_ was recorded the premature and tragic death of the +distinguished French mathematician, the Marquise Emilie du Chatelet. She +has been described as a "thinker and scientist, precieuse and pedant, +but not the less a coquette--in short, a woman of contradictions."[121] +To most readers she is better known by reason of her liaison with +Voltaire, of whom she is regarded as a mere satellite, than for her work +in science. But she was far more than a satellite that shone by the +light received from the sage of Ferney. For there can be no doubt that +she was a highly gifted woman who, besides having a thorough knowledge +of several languages, including Latin, possessed a special talent for +mathematics. It was said of her that "she read Virgil, Pope and algebra +as others read novels," and that she was able "to multiply nine figures +by nine others in her head." No less an authority than the illustrious +Ampere declared her to be "a genius in geometry." + +Among her teachers in mathematics were Clairaut, Koenig, Maupertuis, +Pere Jaquier and Jean Bernouilli, the immediate predecessors of such +distinguished mathematicians as Monge, Lagrange, d'Alembert and Laplace. +At her Chateau of Cirey, where she and Voltaire spent many years +together, she was visited by learned men from various parts of Europe. +Among these was the Italian scholar, Francisco Algarotti, who was the +author of a work entitled _Newtonism for Women_. And as Mme. du Chatelet +was an ardent admirer of Newton, the author of the _Principia_ soon +became a strong bond of union between her and the brilliant Italian. She +called the savants who frequented her chateau at Cirey the _Emiliens_ +and purposed writing memoirs to be entitled _Emiliana_--a design, +however, which she was never able to execute. + +The first work of importance from the pen of the Marquise was entitled +_Institutions de Physique_. In it she gave an exposition of the +philosophy of Leibnitz and dissertations on space, time and force. In +the discussion of the last topic she seems to have anticipated some of +the later conclusions of science respecting the nature of energy. + +Her most noted achievement, however, was her translation of Newton's +_Principia_, the first translation into French of this epoch-making +work. To translate this masterpiece from its original Latin, it was +necessary that the Marquise, in order to make it intelligible to others, +should have a thorough understanding of it herself. To the translation +she added a commentary, which shows that Mme. du Chatelet had a +mathematical mind of undoubted power. She labored assiduously on this +great undertaking for many years and completed it only shortly before +her death; but it was not published until ten years after her demise. + +In his _Elogie Historique_ on the Marquise's translation of the +_Principia_, Voltaire, in his usual flamboyant style, declares "Two +wonders have been performed: one that Newton was able to write this +work, the other that a woman could translate and explain it." In an +effort to express in a single sentence all his admiration for his +talented friend he does not hesitate to state: "Never was woman so +learned as she, and never did anyone less deserve that people should say +of her, 'She is a learned woman.'" Again he refers to her with +characteristic Frenchiness as "a woman who has translated and explained +Newton, in one word a very great man--_en un mot un tres grand +homme_."[122] + +But, although the extent of her attainments and her ability as a +mathematician were unquestionable, she fell far short of her great +contemporary, Gaetana Agnesi, both in the depth and breadth of her +scholarship and in her power of infinitesimal analysis. As to her moral +character, she was infinitely inferior to the saintly savante of +Milan. She was by inclination and profession an Epicurean and an +avowed sensualist. In her little treatise, _Reflexions sur le +Bonheur_--Reflections on Happiness--she unblushingly asserts "that we +have nothing to do in this world except procure for ourselves agreeable +sensations." Considering her profligate life, bordering at times on +utter _abandon_, we are not surprised that one of her countrymen has +characterized her as "_Femme sans foi, sans moeurs, sans pudeur_,"--a +woman without faith, without morals, without shame.[123] + +Anna Barbara Reinhardt of Winterthur in Switzerland was another woman of +exceptional mathematical talent. She is remarkable for having extended +and improved the solution of a difficult problem that specially engaged +the attention of Maupertuis. According to so competent an authority as +Jean Bernouilli, she was the superior, as a mathematician, of the +Marquise de Chatelet. + +Of a more original and profound mathematical mind was Sophie Germain, a +countrywoman of the Marquise du Chatelet. Hers was the glory of being +one of the founders of mathematical physics. A pupil of Lagrange and a +co-worker with Biot, Legendre, Poisson and Lagrange, she has justly been +called by De Prony "the Hypatia of the nineteenth century." + +Her success, however, was not achieved without overcoming many and great +difficulties. In the first place, she had to overcome the opposition of +her family, who were decidedly averse to her studying mathematics. "Of +what use," they asked, "was geometry to a girl?" But in trying to +extinguish her ardor for mathematics they but augmented it. Alone and +unaided she read every work on mathematics she could find. The study of +this science had such a fascination for her that it became a passion. It +occupied her mind day and night. Finally her parents, becoming alarmed +about her health and resolved to force her to take the necessary repose, +left her bedroom without fire or light, and even removed from it her +clothing after she had gone to bed. She feigned to be resigned; but when +all were asleep, she arose and, wrapping herself in quilts and blankets, +she devoted herself to her favorite studies, even when the cold was so +intense that the ink was frozen in her ink-horn. Not infrequently she +was found in the morning chilled through, having been so engrossed in +her studies that she was not aware of her condition. Before such a +determined will, so extraordinary for one of her age, the family of the +young Sophie had the wisdom to permit her to dispose of her time and +genius according to her own pleasure. And they did well. Like the great +geometer of Syracuse, Archimedes, who had ever been her inspiration in +the study of mathematics, she would have died rather than abandon a +problem which, for the time being, engaged her attention. + +She first attracted the attention of savants by her mathematical theory +of Chladni's figures. By the order of Napoleon, the Academy of Science +had offered a prize for the one who would "Give the mathematical theory +of the vibration of elastic surfaces and compare it with the results of +experiment." Lagrange declared the problem insoluble without a new +system of analysis, which was yet to be invented. The consequence was +that no one attempted its solution except one who, until then, was +almost unknown in the mathematical world; and this one was Sophie +Germain. + +Great was the surprise of the savants of Europe when they learned that +the winner of the _grand prix_ of the Academy was a woman. She became at +once the recipient of congratulations from the most noted mathematicians +of the world. This eventually brought her into scientific relations with +such eminent men as Delambre, Fourier, Cauchy, Ampere, Navier, +Gauss[124] and others already mentioned. + +It was in 1816, after eight years of work on the problem, that her last +memoir on vibrating surfaces was crowned in a public seance of the +_Institut de France_. After this event Mlle. Germain was treated as an +equal by the great mathematicians of France. She shared their labors and +was invited to attend the sessions of the _Institut_, which was the +highest honor that this famous body had ever conferred on a woman. + +The noted mathematician, M. Navier, was so impressed with the +extraordinary powers of analysis evinced by one of Mlle. Germain's +memoirs on vibrating surfaces that he did not hesitate to declare that +"it is a work which few men are able to read and which only one woman +was able to write." + +Biot, in the _Journal de Savants_, March, 1817, writes that Mlle. +Germain is probably the one of her sex who has most deeply penetrated +the science of mathematics, not excepting Mme. du Chatelet, _for here +there was no Clairaut_.[125] + +Like Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mlle. Germain was endowed with a profoundly +philosophical mind as well as with a remarkable talent for mathematics. +This is attested by her interesting work entitled _Considerations +Generales sur l'Etat des Sciences et des Lettres aux Differentes Epoques +de Leur Culture_. All things considered, she was probably the most +profoundly intellectual woman that France has yet produced. And yet, +strange as it may seem, when the state official came to make out the +death certificate of this eminent associate and co-worker of the most +illustrious members of the French Academy of Sciences he designated her +as a _rentiere_--_annuitant_--not as a _mathematicienne_. Nor is this +all. When the Eiffel tower was erected, in which the engineers were +obliged to give special attention to the elasticity of the materials +used, there were inscribed on this lofty structure the names of +seventy-two savants. But one will not find in this list the name of that +daughter of genius, whose researches contributed so much toward +establishing the theory of the elasticity of metals,--Sophie Germain. +Was she excluded from this list for the same reason that Agnesi was +ineligible to membership in the French Academy--because she was a +woman? It would seem so. If such, indeed, was the case, more is the +shame for those who were responsible for such ingratitude toward one who +had deserved so well of science, and who by her achievements had won an +enviable place in the hall of fame.[126] + +Four years after the birth of Sophie Germain was born in Jedburgh, +Scotland, one whom an English writer has declared was "the most +remarkable scientific woman our country has produced." She was the +daughter of a naval officer, Sir William Fairfax; but is best known as +Mary Somerville. Her life has been well described as an "unobtrusive +record of what can be done by the steady culture of good natural powers +and the pursuit of a high standard of excellence in order to win for a +woman a distinguished place in the sphere naturally reserved for men, +without parting with any of those characteristics of mind, or character, +or demeanor which have ever been taken to form the grace and the glory +of womanhood."[127] + +The surroundings of her youth were not conducive to scientific pursuits. +On the contrary, they were entirely unfavorable to her manifest +inclinations in that direction. Having scarcely any of the advantages of +a school education, she was obliged to depend almost entirely on her own +unaided efforts for the knowledge she actually acquired. She, like +Sophie Germain, was essentially a self-made woman; and her success was +achieved only after long labor and suffering and in spite of the +persistent opposition of family and friends. + +When she was about fifteen years old, the future Mrs. Somerville +received her first introduction to mathematics; and then, strange to +say, it was through a fashion magazine. At the end of a page of this +magazine, "I read," writes Mrs. Somerville, "what appeared to me to be +simply an arithmetical question; but in turning the page I was surprised +to see strange-looking lines mixed with letters, chiefly X's and Y's, +and asked 'What is that?'" She was told it was a kind of arithmetic, +called algebra. + +Her interest was at once aroused; and she resolved forthwith to seek +information regarding the curious lines and letters which had so excited +her curiosity. "Unfortunately," she tells us, "none of our acquaintances +or relatives knew anything of science or natural history; nor, had they +done so, should I have had courage to ask of them a question, for I +should have been laughed at." + +Finally she was able to secure a copy of a work on algebra and a Euclid. +Although without a teacher she immediately applied herself to master the +contents of these two works, but she had to do so by stealth in bed +after she had retired for the night. When her father learned of what was +going on, he said to the girl's mother, "Peg, we must put a stop to +this, or we shall have Mary in a straightjacket one of these days." The +mother, who had no more sympathy with her daughter's scientific pursuits +than had the father, and, fully convinced, like the great majority of +her sex, that woman's duties should be confined to the affairs of the +household, strove to divert her daughter's mind from her "unladylike" +pursuits. But her efforts were ineffectual. The young woman, in spite of +all obstacles and opposition, contrived to continue her cherished +studies; and, through her uncle, the Rev. Dr. Somerville, afterward her +father-in-law, she was able to become proficient in both Latin and +Greek. When she was thirty-three years of age she became the happy +possessor of a small library of mathematical works. "I had now," she +writes, "the means, and pursued my studies with increased assiduity; +concealment was no longer necessary, nor was it attempted. I was +considered eccentric and foolish, and my conduct was highly disapproved +of by many, especially by some members of my own family."[128] + +In March, 1827, Mrs. Somerville received a letter from Lord Brougham, +who had heard of her remarkable acquirements, begging her to prepare for +English readers a popular exposition of Laplace's great work--_Mecanique +Celeste_. She was overwhelmed with astonishment at this request, for her +modesty made her diffident of her powers; and she felt that her +self-acquired knowledge of science was so far inferior to that of +university men that it would be sheer presumption for her to undertake +the task proposed to her. She was, however, finally persuaded to make +the attempt, with the proviso that her manuscript should be consigned to +the flames unless it fulfilled the expectations of those who urged its +production. + +In less than a year her work, to which she gave the name of _The +Mechanism of the Heavens_, was ready for the press. But it was far more +than a translation and epitome, as originally intended by its projector, +Lord Brougham; for, in addition to the views of Laplace, it contained +the independent opinions of the translator respecting the propositions +of the illustrious French savant. No sooner was the work published than +Mrs. Somerville found herself famous. She had, as Sir John Herschel +expressed it, "written for posterity," and her book placed her at once +among the leading scientific writers and thinkers of the day. She was +elected an honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society at the same +time as Caroline Herschel, they being the first two women thus honored. +Her bust, by Chantry, was placed in the great hall of the Royal Society, +and she was made a member of many other scientific societies in Europe +and America. In recognition of her services to science she was granted +by the government a pension of L200 a year--a sum which was shortly +afterward increased to L300. In addition to all this, Mrs. Somerville +had the satisfaction of learning that her work was so highly esteemed by +Dr. Whewell, the great master of Trinity, that it was, chiefly on his +recommendation, introduced as a textbook in the University of Cambridge +and prescribed as "an essential work to those students who aspire to the +highest places in the examinations." What Mme. du Chatelet had done for +Newton, Mrs. Somerville did for Laplace. + +Among other books from the pen of this highly gifted woman is her +_Connection of the Physical Sciences_ and a work entitled _Physical +Geography_, which, together with the _Mechanism of the Heavens_, was the +object of the "profound admiration" of Humboldt. Then there is a number +of very abstruse monographs on mathematical subjects, one of which is a +treatise of two hundred and forty-six pages _On Curves and Surfaces of +Higher Orders_, which, she tells us, she "wrote _con amore_ to fill up +her morning hours while spending the winter in Southern Italy." + +Her last work was a treatise _On Molecular and Microscopic Science_ +embodying the most recondite investigations on the subject. This book, +begun after she had passed her eightieth birthday, occupied her for many +years and was not ready for publication until she was close upon her +ninetieth year. Her last occupations, continued until the day of her +death at the advanced age of ninety-two, were the reading of a book on +_Quaternions_ and the review and completion of a volume _On the Theory +of Differences_. + +Like her illustrious friend, the great Humboldt, Mary Somerville was +possessed of extraordinary physical vigor, and, like him, she retained +her mental powers unimpaired until the last. And like her great rival in +mathematics, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, she was always "beautifully womanly." +Her scientific and literary occupations did not cause her to neglect +the duties of her household or to disregard "the graceful and artistic +accomplishments of an elegant woman of the world." Her daughter Martha +writes of her: "It would be almost incredible were I to describe how +much my mother contrived to do in the course of the day. When my sister +and I were small children, although busily engaged in writing for the +press, she used to teach us for three hours in the morning, besides +managing her house carefully, reading the newspapers--for she was always +a keen and, I must add, a liberal politician--and the most important new +books on all subjects, grave and gay. In addition to this, she freely +visited and received her friends.... Gay and cheerful company was a +pleasant relaxation after a hard day's work."[129] + +The life of Mary Somerville, like that of Gaetana Agnesi, proves that +the pursuit of science is not, as so often asserted, incompatible with +domestic and social duties. It also disposes of the fallacy, so +generally entertained, that intellectual labor is detrimental to the +health of women and antagonistic to longevity. The truth is that it is +yet to be demonstrated that intellectual work, even of the severest +kind, is, _per se_, more deleterious to women than to those of the +stronger sex. + +Scarcely less remarkable as a mathematician was Mrs. Somerville's +distinguished contemporary, Janet Taylor, who was known as the "Mrs. +Somerville of the Marine World." She was the author of numerous works on +navigation and nautical astronomy which in their day were highly prized +by seafaring men. In recognition of her valuable services to the marine +world she was placed on the civil list of the British government. + +As an eminent mathematician as well as a "representative of the highest +intellectual accomplishments to which women have attained," Sonya +Kovalevsky will ever occupy an honored place among the votaries of +science. In many respects this richly endowed daughter of Holy Russia +was _par excellence_ the woman of genius of the latter half of the +nineteenth century. + +She was born in Moscow in 1850, but although her career was brief it was +one of meteoric splendor. At an early age she exhibited an unusual +talent for mathematics and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Not +being able to obtain in her own country the educational advantages she +desired, she resolved at the age of eighteen to go to Germany with a +view of pursuing her studies there under more favorable auspices. + +She first matriculated in the University of Heidelberg, where she spent +two years in studying mathematics under the most eminent professors of +that famous old institution. Thence she went to Berlin. She could not +enter the University there, as its doors were closed to female students; +but she was fortunate enough to prevail on the illustrious Professor +Weierstrass, regarded by many as the father of mathematical analysis, to +give her private lessons. He soon discovered to his astonishment that +this child-woman had "the gift of intuitive genius to a degree he had +seldom found among even his older and more developed students." Under +this eminent mathematician Sonya spent about three years, at the end of +which period she was able to present to the University of Goettingen +three theses which she had written under the direction of her professor. +The merit of her work and the testimonials which she was able to present +from Weierstrass, Kirchhoff and others were of such supreme excellence +that she was exempted from an oral examination and was enabled, by a +very special privilege, to receive her doctorate without appearing in +person. + +Not long after receiving her doctor's degree--one of the first to be +granted to a woman by a German university--she was offered the chair of +higher mathematics in the University of Stockholm. She was the first +woman in Europe, outside of Italy, to be thus honored. But her +appointment had to be made in the face of great opposition. No other +university, it was urged by the conservatives, had yet offered a +professor's chair to a woman. Strindberg, one of the leaders of modern +Swedish literature, wrote an article in which he proved, "as decidedly +as that two and two make four, what a monstrosity is a woman who is a +professor of mathematics, and how unnecessary, injurious and out of +place she is."[130] + +The fame that came to Sonya through her achievements in the German and +Swedish universities was immensely enhanced when, on Christmas eve, +1888, "at a solemn session of the French Academy of Sciences, she +received in person the _Prix Bordin_--the greatest scientific honor +which any woman had ever gained; one of the greatest honors, indeed, to +which any one can aspire." + +She became at once the heroine of the hour and was thenceforth "a +European celebrity with a place in history." She was feted by men of +science whithersoever she went and hailed by the women of the world as +the glory of her sex and as the most brilliant type of intellectual +womanhood. + +Mme. Kovalevsky's printed mathematical works embrace only a few memoirs +including those which she presented for her doctorate and for the _Prix +Bordin_. But brief as they are, all of these memoirs are regarded by +mathematicians as being of special value. This is particularly true of +the memoirs, which secured for her the _Prix Bordin_; for it contains +the solution of a problem that long had baffled the genius of the +greatest mathematicians. + +The prize had been opened to the competition of the mathematicians of +the world, and the astonishment of the committee of the French Academy +was beyond expression when it was found that the successful contestant +was a woman.[131] + +Everyone admired her varied and profound knowledge, but, above all, her +amazing powers of analysis. A German mathematician, Kronecker, did not +hesitate to declare that "the history of mathematics will speak of her +as one of the rarest investigators."[132] + +Shortly before her premature death, she had planned a great work on +mathematics. All who are interested in the intellectual capacities and +achievements of woman must regret that she was unable to complete what +would undoubtedly have been the noblest monument of woman's scientific +genius. She was then in the prime of life and perfectly equipped for the +work she had in mind. Considering the extraordinary receptive and +productive power of this richly dowered woman, there can be little +doubt, had she lived a few years longer, that she would have produced a +work that would have caused her to be ranked among the greatest +mathematicians of the nineteenth century. + +It is pleasant to record that this woman of masculine mind, masculine +energy and masculine genius, far from being mannish or unwomanly, was, +on the contrary, a woman of a truly feminine heart; and that, although a +giantess in intellectual attainments, she was in grace and charm and +delicacy of sentiment one of the noblest types of beautiful womanhood. +She could with the greatest ease turn from a lecture on _Abel's +Functions_ or a research on Saturn's rings to the writing of verse in +French or of a novel in Russian or to collaborating with her friend, the +Duchess of Cajanello, on a drama in Swedish, or to making a lace collar +for her little daughter, Fouzi, to whom she was most tenderly +attached.[133] + +Little more than a quarter of a century has elapsed since Strindberg, +expressing the sentiment of the great majority of the men of his time, +declared that a woman professor of mathematics is a monstrosity. But +during this short period what a change has been effected in the attitude +of the world toward women who devote themselves to the study and the +teaching of science! Women mathematicians are found to-day in all +civilized countries, and no sane person now considers it any more +"unwomanly" or more "monstrous" for them to study or teach mathematics +than for them to teach music or needlework. Yet more. They are now +frequent contributors to mathematical magazines and to the official +bulletins of learned societies, and not infrequently they are on the +editorial staffs of publications devoted exclusively to mathematics. +They are also found as computers in some of the largest astronomical +observatories, where the speed and accuracy of their work have evoked +the most favorable comment. + +Of women in America, who have distinguished themselves by their work in +the higher mathematics, it suffices to mention the name of Miss +Charlotte Angas Scott, recently deceased, who was for years professor of +mathematics in the College of Bryn Mawr. Her writings on various +problems of the higher mathematics show that she faithfully followed in +the footsteps of her illustrious predecessors,--Hypatia, Agnesi, du +Chatelet, Germain, Somerville and Kovalevsky. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[108] "Ipse mulieres Philosophas in libris Veterum sexaginta quinque +reperi," _Historia Mulierum Philosopharum_, p. 3, Amstelodami, 1692. + +[109] Plato had inscribed above the entrance of his school, [Greek: +Oudeis ageometretos eisito]. Let no one enter here who is not a +geometer. + +[110] Menagius in referring to this matter, op. cit., p. 37, writes as +follows: "Meritrices Graecas plerasque humanioribus literis et +mathematicis disciplinis operam dedisse notat Athenaeus." + +[111] The sentiment of the Greek epigram is well expressed in the +following Latin verses: + + "Quando intueor te, adoro, et sermones, + Virginis domum sideream intuens. + E coelis enim tua sunt opera, + Hypatia casta, sermonum venustas, + Impollutum astrum sapientis doctrinae." + +[112] Among modern works on Hypatia may be mentioned _Hypatia, die +Philosophin von Alexandria_, by St. Wolt, Vienna, 1879; _Hypatia von +Alexandria_, by W. A. Meyer, Heidelberg, 1886; _Ipazia Alessandrina_, by +D. Guido Bigoni, Venize, 1887, and _De Hypatia_, by B. Ligier, Dijon, +1879. + +[113] Ambrosius in his preface to the works of Abelard and Heloise +refers to the latter as "Clarum sui sexus sidus et ornamentum," and +declares "necnon mathesin, philosophiam et theologiam a viro suo edocta, +illo solo minor fuit." + +[114] Mazzuchelli says of her in his _Museo_, "Sembra non avervi nella +Natura cosa la piu intralciata ed oscura nelle storie, ne finalemente la +piu astrusa nelle matematiche e nelle mecchaniche, che a lei conta non +sia e palese, e che sfugga la capacita del suo spirito." _Dizionario +Biografico_, Vol. I, p. 122, by Ambrogio Levati, Milano, 1821. + +[115] _Delle Donne Illustri Italiane del XIII al XIX Secolo_, p. 268, +Roma. + +[116] The full title of this celebrated discourse is _Oratio qua +ostenditur Artium liberalium studia a Faemineo sexu neutiquam abhorere, +habita a Maria de Agnesis Rhetoricae Operam Dante, Anno aetatis suae nono +nondum exacto, die 18, Augusti, 1727_. It is found at the end of a work +entitled _Discorsi Academici di varj autori Viventi intorno agli Stuj +delle Donne in Padova_, 1729. This subject, it may be remarked, +frequently engaged the attention of Maria Gaetana as she advanced in +years, for we find it among the questions discussed in her +_Propositiones Philosophicae_, pp. 2 and 3, Mediolani, 1738. + +[117] M. Charles de Brosses, in his _Lettres Familieres ecrites de +l'Italie en 1739 et 1740_, speaks of Agnesi in terms that recall the +marvelous stories which are related of Admirable Crichton and Pico della +Mirandola. "She appeared to me," he tells us, "something more +stupendous--_una cosa piu stupenda_--than the Duomo of Milan." Having +been invited to a _conversazione_ for the purpose of meeting this +wonderful woman, the learned Frenchman found her to be a "young lady of +about eighteen or twenty." She was surrounded by "about thirty people +... many of them from different parts of Europe." The discussion turned +on various questions of mathematics and natural philosophy. + +"She spoke," writes de Brosses, "wonderfully well on these subjects, +though she could not have been prepared beforehand any more than we +were. She is much attached to the philosophy of Newton; and, it is +marvelous to see a person of her age so conversant with such abstruse +subjects. Yet, however much I was surprised at the extent and depth of +her knowledge, I was still more amazed to hear her speak Latin ... with +such purity, ease and accuracy, that I do not recollect any book in +modern Latin written in so classical a style as that in which she +pronounced these discourses.... The conversation afterwards became +general, everyone speaking in the language of his own country, and she +answering in the same language; for, her knowledge of languages is +prodigious." + +[118] At the conclusion of an elaborate review of Colton's translation +of Agnesi's _Instituzioni Analitiche_ in the _Edinburgh Review_ for +January, 1804, the writer expresses himself as follows: "We cannot take +leave of a work that does so much honor to female genius, without +earnestly recommending the perusal of it to those who believe that great +talents are bestowed by nature exclusively on man, and who allege that +women, even in their highest attainments, are to be compared only to +_grown children_, and have, in no instance, given proofs of original and +inventive powers, of a capacity for patient research, or for profound +investigation. Let those who hold these opinions endeavor to follow the +author of the _Analytical Institutions_ through the long series of +demonstrations, which she has contrived with so much skill and explained +with such elegance and perspicuity. If they are able to do so, and to +compare her work with others of the same kind, they will probably +retract their former opinions, and acknowledge that, in one instance at +least, intellectual powers of the highest order have been lodged in the +brain of a woman. + +"At si gelidus obstiterit circum praecordia sanguis; and if they are +unable to attend this illustrious female in her scientific excursions, +of course, they will not see the reasons for admiring her genius that +others do; but they may at least learn to think modestly of their own." + +[119] It is surprising how many legends have obtained respecting the +life of Agnesi after the publication of her _Instituzioni Analitiche_. +Thus, the writer of the article in the _Edinburgh Review_, above quoted, +declares that "she retired to a convent of _blue nuns_,"--a statement +that has frequently been repeated in many of our most noted +encyclopedias. + +In a _Prospetto Biografico delle Donne Italiane_, written by G. C. +Facchini and published in Venice in 1824, it is stated that Maria +Gaetana was selected by the Pope to occupy "the chair of mathematics +which had been left vacant by the death of her father," while Cavazza in +his work _"Le Scuole dell," Antico Studio Bolognese_, pp. 289-290, +published in Milan in 1896, assures us that Gaetana Agnesi taught +analytical geometry in the University of Bologna for full forty-eight +years. The facts are that neither the father nor the daughter ever +taught even a single hour either in this or in any other university. Cf. +_Maria Gaetana Agnesi_, p. 273 et seq., by Luisa Anzoletti, Milano, +1900. This is far the best life of Milan's illustrious daughter that has +yet appeared. The reader may also consult with profit the _Elogio +Storico_ di Maria Gaetana Agnesi, by Antonio Frisi, Milano, 1799, and +_Gli Scrittori d'Italia_, of G. Mazzuchelli, Tom. I, Par. I, p. 198 et +seq., Brescia, 1795. + +[120] M. Rebiere, in _his Les Femmes dans la Science_, p. 13, Paris, +1897, writes, "Ne pourrait-on aller plus loin et canonizer notre Agnesi? +J'estime, moi profane, que ce serait une sainte qui en vaudrait bien +d'autres." + +[121] _An Eighteenth Century Marquise, a Study of Emilie du Chatelet_, +p. 5, by F. Hamel, New York, 1911. + +[122] Preface to Mme. du Chatelet's translation of the _Principia_ of +Newton, Paris, 1740. + +[123] Voltaire's last tribute, "The Divine Emilie," or, as Frederick II +was wont to call her, "Venus-Newton," concluded with the following +verses: + + "L'Univers a perdu la sublime Emilie; + Elle aimait les plaisirs, les arts, la verite; + Les dieux, en lui donnant leur ame et genie, + N'avaient garde pour eux que l'immortalite." + +The universe has lost the sublime Emilie; she loved pleasure, the arts, +truth; the gods, in giving her their soul and genius, retained for +themselves only immortality. + +For further information of this extraordinary woman, see _Lettres de la +Mme. du Chatelet, Reunies pour la premiere fois_, par Eugene Asse, +Paris, 1882. + +[124] At the beginning of her correspondence with Gauss, Legendre and +Lagrange Mlle. Germain concealed her sex under a pseudonym, "in order," +as she declared, "to escape the ridicule attached to a woman devoted to +science"--_craignant le ridicule attache au titre de femme savante_. +She, too, suffered from the widespread effects of Moliere's _Les Femmes +Savantes_, as had many a gifted woman before her time and as have many +others of a much later date. + +[125] This celebrated mathematician, as is well-known, was a +collaborator with Mme. du Chatelet in her translation of Newton's +_Principia_. + +[126] For further information respecting this remarkable woman the +reader is referred to _Oeuvres Philosophiques de Sophie Germain Suivies +de Pensees et de Lettres Inedites et Precedees d'une Etude sur sa Vie et +ses Oeuvres_, par. H. Stupy, Paris, 1896. One may also consult +Todhunter's _History of the Theory of Elasticity and of the Strength of +Materials_, Vol. I, pp. 147-160, Cambridge, 1886, in which is given a +careful resume of Mlle. Germain's mathematical memoirs on elastic +surfaces. + +[127] _Saturday Review_, January 10, 1874. + +[128] _Personal Recollections, From Early Life to Old Age, of Mary +Somerville_, p. 80, Boston, 1874. + +[129] _Personal Recollections_, ut sup., p. 5. + +[130] _Sonya Kovalevsky, Her Recollections of Childhood, With a +Biography_, by Anna Carlotta Leffler, p. 219, New York, 1895. + +[131] "The prize was doubled to five thousand francs, on account of the +'quite extraordinary service rendered to mathematical physics by this +work,' which the Academy of Sciences pronounced 'a remarkable work.' The +competing dissertations were signed with mottoes, not with names, and +the jury of the Academy made the award in utter ignorance that the +winner was a woman. Her dissertation was printed, by order of the +Academy, in the _Memoires des Savants Etrangers_. In the following year +Mme. Kovalevsky received a prize of fifteen hundred kroner from the +Stockholm Academy for two works connected with the foregoing." + +[132] Men of science will realize the capacity of this gifted Russian +woman as a mathematician when they learn that she gave in the University +of Stockholm courses of lectures on such subjects as the following: + +Theory of derived partial equations; theory of potential functions; +applications of the theory of elliptic functions; theory of Abelian +functions, according to Weierstrass; curves defined by differential +equations, according to Poincare; application of analysis to the theory +of whole numbers. How many men are there who give more advanced +mathematical courses than these? + +[133] To a friend, who expressed surprise at her fluttering to and fro +between mathematics and literature, she made a reply which deserves a +place here, as it gives a better idea than anything else of the +wonderful versatility of this gifted daughter of Russia. "I understand," +she writes, "your surprise at my being able to busy myself +simultaneously with literature and mathematics. Many who have never had +an opportunity of knowing any more about mathematics confound it with +arithmetic, and consider it an arid science. In reality, however, it is +a science which requires a great amount of imagination, and one of the +leading mathematicians of our century states the case quite correctly +when he says that it is impossible to be a mathematician without being a +poet in soul. Only, of course, in order to comprehend the accuracy of +this definition, one must renounce the ancient prejudice that a poet +must invent something which does not exist, that imagination and +invention are identical. It seems to me that the poet has only to +perceive that which others do not perceive, to look deeper than others +look. And the mathematician must do the same thing. As for myself, all +my life I have been unable to decide for which I had the greater +inclination, mathematics or literature. As soon as my brain grows +wearied of purely abstract speculations it immediately begins to incline +to observations on life, to narrative, and _vice versa_, everything in +life begins to appear insignificant and uninteresting, and only the +eternal, immutable laws of science attract me. It is very possible that +I should have accomplished more in either of these lines, if I had +devoted myself exclusively to it; nevertheless, I cannot give up either +of them completely." + +From Ellen Key's _Biography of the Duchess of Cajanello_, quoted in Anna +Leffler's biography of Sonya Kovalevsky, ut sup, pp. 317-318. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +WOMEN IN ASTRONOMY + + +Urania, the muse of astronomy, was a woman; and, although most of her +devotees have been men, the number of the gentler sex who have achieved +success in the cultivation of the science of the stars has been much +larger than is usually supposed. + +There is reason to believe that woman's interest in astronomy dates back +to early Egyptian and Babylonian times when the star-gazers in the +fertile valley of the Nile and on the broad plains of Chaldea were so +active, and when they made so many important discoveries respecting the +laws and movements of the heavenly bodies. According to Plutarch, +Aganice, the daughter of Sesostris, King of Egypt, tried to predict +future events by the aid of celestial globes and by the study of the +constellations. Her observations, however, were in the interests of +astrology rather than of astronomy, as we now understand the science. + +The first woman whose name has come down to us, who deserved to be +regarded as an astronomer, was most probably Aglaonice, the daughter of +Hegetoris of Thessaly. By means of the lunar cycle known as the Saros, a +period discovered by the Chaldean astronomers and embracing a little +more than eighteen years, during which the eclipses of the moon and sun +recur in nearly the same order as during the preceding period, this +Greek woman was able to predict eclipses. The people among whom she +lived regarded her as a sorceress; but she flouted them all, and +declared that she was able to make the sun and moon disappear at will. + +The first woman, however, to attain eminence as an astronomer was +undoubtedly Hypatia, that universal genius of the ancient world, who +seemed equally at home in literature, philosophy and mathematics, and +who may justly be regarded as one of the most highly gifted women that +has ever lived. In Alexandria, where she was born and lived, this +accomplished daughter of Theon taught not only philosophy, but also +algebra, geometry and astronomy. One of her pupils, Synesius, who became +Bishop of Ptolemais, informs us that she was the inventor of two +important astronomical instruments: an astrolabe and a planisphere. In +addition to two mathematical works, a _Treatise on the Conics of +Apollonius_ and a _Commentary on the Arithmetic of Diophantus_, which +was in reality a treatise on algebra, she was the author of an +_Astronomical Canon_, which contained tables regarding the movements of +the heavenly bodies. It is generally supposed that this was an original +work; but there are some who think it was but a commentary on the tables +of Ptolemy. In this latter case Hypatia's work may still exist in +connection with that of her father, Theon, on the same subject.[134] + +If the works of Hypatia had not been destroyed by the ravages of time, +they would undoubtedly prove that she fully merited all the encomiums +bestowed on her by antiquity for her genius; and they would also prove, +we may well believe, that she deserved to be ranked not only with the +eminent mathematicians upon whose works she commented, but also with +such masters of astronomic science as Ptolemy, Eratosthenes and +Aristarchus. + +After the tragic death of Hypatia many centuries elapsed before any +other woman attracted attention for her work in astronomy. Indeed, so +neglected was the study of the heavens between the time of Hypatia and +the Arab prince and astronomer, Albategni, who flourished during the +latter part of the ninth century and the early part of the tenth, that +only eight observations, it is asserted, were recorded during this long +period. The works and observations of Albategni, it may be remarked, +have a particular interest from the fact that they form a connecting +link between those of the Alexandrine astronomers and those of modern +Europe. + +Antoine Hamilton, in his _Gaufrey_--a parody on _The Thousand and One +Nights_--tells of a Saracen princess, _Fleur d'Epine_, who, before she +was fifteen years of age, was able not only to speak Latin and Romance, +but who was also "better acquainted than any woman in the world with the +movements of the stars and the moon." + + "Et du cours des etoiles et de la lune luisant + Savoit moult plus que fame de chest siecle vivant." + +If any woman between the time of Hypatia and Galileo deserved such high +praise for her astronomical knowledge it was certainly Saint Hildegard, +the famous Benedictine abbess of Bingen on the Rhine. She has well been +called "the marvel of the twelfth century," not only on account of her +sanctity, but also on account of her extraordinary attainments in every +branch of knowledge then cultivated. + +When treating of the sun, Hildegard tells us that it is in the center of +the firmament and holds in place the stars that gravitate around it, as +the earth attracts the creatures which inhabit it. This view of a +twelfth century nun is indeed remarkable. For, in her time, the earth +was by everyone considered as the center of the firmament, while +universal gravitation--the sublime discovery of Newton--had not as yet +entered into the scientific theories of that epoch. + +Hildegard likewise anticipates subsequent discoveries regarding the +alternation of the seasons. "If," she writes, "it is cold in the winter +time on the part of the earth which we inhabit, the other part must be +warm, in order that the temperature of the earth may always be in +equilibrium." That she should have arrived at this conclusion before +navigators had visited the southern hemisphere is truly +astonishing.[135] + +"The stars," she continues, "have neither the same brightness nor the +same size. They are kept in their course by a superior body." Here again +is her idea of universal gravitation. + +These stars, she further declares, are not immovable, but they traverse +the firmament in its entirety. And to make clearer her conception of the +motion of the stars, she compares this motion to that of the blood in +the veins. To hear one of this early period speaking of blood coursing +through the veins and thus traversing the whole body of man seems to +presage, in a remarkable manner, the beautiful discoveries of Cesalpino +and Harvey regarding the circulation of the blood. + +The most celebrated astronomer of the early Renaissance was John Mueller, +of Koenigsburg, better known as Regiomontanus. In his observatory in +Nuremberg he was ably assisted by his wife who exhibited a special +interest in astronomy. At the end of the sixteenth century, Sophia +Brahe, the youngest sister of Tycho Brahe, following in the footsteps of +her illustrious brother, attained great celebrity as an astronomer. + +More distinguished for her astronomical work than either of these two +women was Maria Cunitz, a Silesian, who, from her tenderest years, +displayed extraordinary zeal for study and who eventually became +mistress of seven languages, among which were Latin, Greek and Hebrew. +She also cultivated poetry, music and painting; but her favorite studies +were mathematics and astronomy. At the solicitation of her husband, she +undertook the preparation of an abridgment of the _Rudolphine Tables_. +Her work, under the name of _Urania Propitia_, was published after her +death by her husband, and gained for the talented authoress the name of +"The second Hypatia."[136] + +Shortly after the completion of _Urania Propitia_, a French woman, +Jeanne Dumee, distinguished herself by writing a work on the theory of +Copernicus entitled _Entretiens sur l'Opinion de Copernic Touchant la +Mobilite de la Terre_. So far as known, this work was never published, +but the original manuscript is still preserved in the National Library +of Paris. The authoress deems it necessary it apologize for writing on a +subject that is usually considered foreign to her sex and to explain why +she was ambitious to discuss questions to which the women of her time +never gave any thought. It was that she might "prove to them that they +are not incapable of study, if they wish to make the effort, because +between the brain of a woman and that of a man there is no +difference."[137] + +How often before had not women endeavored to prove the equality of brain +power of the two sexes, and how often since have they bent their efforts +in this direction! And yet the majority of men still remain skeptical +about such equality. + +Among the contemporaries of Jeanne Dumee were two other women who gained +more than ordinary distinction by their attainments in astronomy. These +were Mme. de la Sabliere, in France, and Maria Margaret Kirch, of +Germany. + +Mme. de la Sabliere evinced from an early age a special aptitude for +science, especially for physics and astronomy. She studied mathematics +under the eminent mathematician, Roberval, and at the age of thirty was +famous. Her home became the resort of learned and eminent men, including +some of the most noted characters of the age. Among these was Sobieski, +King of Poland. But it is as the friend and protectress of La Fontaine +and as the object of Boileau's satire that she is best known. + +For a woman to devote herself to the study of science so soon after the +appearance of Moliere's _Les Femmes Savantes_ argued more than ordinary +courage. But for her to become distinguished for her scientific +acquirements was almost tantamount to defying public opinion. The great +majority of men had come to regard learned women in the same light as +those who were so mercilessly derided in the _Precieuses Ridicules_; and +they had, accordingly, no hesitation in treating them as unbearable +pedants. No one could have made less parade of her learning than Mme. de +la Sabliere, or striven more successfully to conceal her admirable +gifts. But this was not sufficient. She was known to have devoted +special study to science, particularly to astronomy, and this was +sufficient to make her the target of the satirists of her time. + +By an act that wounded the self-love of Boileau this Venus Urania, as +she has been called, soon found herself the victim of the satirist's +well-directed shafts. The poet does not name her, but refers to her as + + "Cette savante + Qu'estime Roberval et que Sauveur frequente----" + +this learned woman whom Roberval esteems and whom Sauveur frequents. And +with the view of pricking the object of his spleen in her most sensitive +part, he tells, in his _Satire contre les Femmes_, how she, with +astrolabe in hand, spends her nights in making observations of the +planet Jupiter and how this occupation has had the effect of weakening +her sight and ruining her complexion.[138] + +Mme. de la Sabliere does not, however, seem to have been greatly +perturbed by the ungracious effusions of the satirist, for she continued +her cultivation of astronomy as before the poet's ill-natured outburst. +She probably found ample compensation in the writings of La Fontaine, +who addressed her as his muse and proclaimed her as one in whom were +combined manly beauty and feminine grace--_beaute d'homme avec grace de +femme_. + +Maria Kirch, born at Panitch, near Leipsic, in 1670, was the wife of a +Berlin astronomer, Gottfried Kirch. After her marriage she, like her +three sisters-in-law, became her husband's pupil in astronomy. In 1702, +as his assistant in observations and calculations, she was fortunate +enough to discover a comet. She was the friend of Leibnitz, and was by +him presented to the court of Prussia. It is a matter of regret to those +of her own sex that this comet was not, as it should have been, named +after its discoverer. + +The death of Herr Kirch, which took place in 1710, caused no +interruption in Frau Kirch's astronomical occupations. Among the +evidences of her activity is a work which she wrote in 1713 on the +conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the year following. In our day the +conjunction of planets is for the laity a mere matter of curiosity, +while for professional astronomers it is quite devoid of particular +interest. But it was not so in the time of Maria Kirch, for then +astronomy was so intimately associated with astrology that mankind +attributed to such special positions of the planets a certain occult and +capricious influence on the destiny of the earth and its inhabitants. As +theoretical astronomy progressed, such erroneous notions were +abandoned, because it was then recognized that the conjunction of the +superior planets was not something fortuitous, but something that was +reproduced at fixed periods by the known movements of these bodies. +Writers on the subject made it a point to warn the public that they had +nothing in common with astrologers. Among these was Christopher Thurm, +who published a work on the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 1681. +Similarly, the book of Maria Kirch contains only astronomical +calculations and nothing more--a fact that redounds to the honor of the +author and to the age in which she lived. + +The daughters of Maria Kirch, even long after their mother's death, +continued to occupy themselves with astronomy. They calculated for the +Berlin Academy of Sciences its _Almanac_ and _Ephemeris_, which were +among the sources of revenue of this learned body. + +During the same period a number of French and Italian astronomers had +female collaborators in their own families. Celsus, the celebrated +professor of Upsala, and a pupil of the son of Gottfried Kirch, had been +accorded a most cordial reception, while passing through Paris on his +way to Bologna, by De L'Isle who had a sister who was devoted to +astronomy. On his arrival in Italy he found that his new master, the +director of the observatory at Bologna, had two sisters, Teresa and +Maddalena, both of great learning, who, like their brother, were engaged +in the study of the heavens and collaborated with him in the preparation +of the _Ephemeris_ of Bologna. This caused Celsus, in a letter to Kirch, +to declare "I begin to believe that it is the destiny of all the +astronomers whom I have had the honor of becoming acquainted with during +my journey to have learned sisters. I have also a sister, although not a +very learned one. To preserve the harmony, we must make an astronomer of +her."[139] + +The Polish astronomer, Hevilius, who had an observatory at Dantzig, is +noted for having made the most accurate observations that had been known +before the adaptation of the telescope to astronomical instruments. He +is also noted for his _Prodromus Astronomiae_, a catalogue of 1,888 +stars; for his _Selenographia_, containing accurate descriptions and +drawings of the moon in her different phases and librations, and for his +_Machina Coelestis_, which contained the results of forty years of +observations and labor. Much of his success and eminence, however, was +due to his intelligent and devoted wife, Elizabeth, who, during +twenty-seven years, was a zealous collaborator and should share the +credit usually given to her husband. It was she who, after his death, +edited and published their joint work, the _Prodromus Astronomiae_. + +Among the women most distinguished in the eighteenth century for +astronomical pursuits was the Marquise du Chatelet, who was likewise +famous for her knowledge of mathematics. It was she who accomplished the +difficult task of translating Newton's _Principia_ into French. "This +translation," writes Voltaire, "which the most learned men of France +should have made and which the others should study, was undertaken by a +woman and completed to the astonishment and glory of her country."[140] + +France was at this time devoted to the doctrines of Descartes and to his +theory of elementary vortices; and Voltaire, who had been deeply +impressed by the admirable simplicity of Newton's theory of universal +attraction as a means of explaining the seemingly complex motions of +the heavenly bodies, resolved to make his countrymen acquainted with the +teachings of the great English geometer and, at the same time, dethrone +Descartes in the French Academy. It was, indeed, a huge undertaking; +but, thanks to the ability which Mme. du Chatelet displayed in +translating and elucidating Newton's immortal masterpiece, he lived to +see his dream realized. + +How proud Mme. du Chatelet's countrywomen must have been of her! How +they must have rejoiced in her success and acclaimed her as the +intellectual glory of her sex! How they must have pointed to her work as +a triumphant refutation of the age-old belief in woman's incapacity for +mathematics and all abstract science! How they must have been elated to +find one of their number successfully executing a task which would have +taxed the powers of the most eminent mathematicians of France! How they +must have associated her truly notable performance with similar +achievements of Hypatia and Maria Gaetana Agnesi and discerned in it +concrete evidence of the falsity of all those imputations of mental +inferiority which had been fostered by "man's huge egotism and woman's +carefully coddled superstition." How they must have been encouraged by +her achievement and spurred on to emulate her by similar contributions +to the advancement of science! + +That is what we think now; but the light and frivolous women who +constituted the leaders of society in Mme. du Chatelet's day, and who +were devoured by envy and jealousy of one who was so much their superior +in intellect were not so minded. Far from sympathizing with her work, +they proved to be her most virulent critics and most pronounced enemies. +Neither Moliere nor Boileau could have heaped more ridicule on the +pedantic women of their time than was meted out to the translator of the +_Principia_ by certain noble dames of provincial chateaux or by +distinguished habituees of prominent Parisian salons. + +Thus the petulant _ennuyee_, Mme. de Stael, in a letter to her friend, +Mme. du Deffand, writing of Mme. du Chatelet, who was then her guest at +Sceaux, tells us that "she is now passing in review her principles. This +is a task she performs every year, else they might, perhaps, make their +escape and run to such a distance that she would never be able to +recover any of them. I verily believe that they are in durance vile +while in her possession, as they were certainly not born with her. She +does well to keep a strict watch over them."[141] + +And, in her turn, Mme. du Deffand, who was wont to pose as the intimate +friend of Mme. du Chatelet, did not hesitate to write and circulate a +pen portrait of this friend--and that after the unhappy woman was in her +grave--which for bitter reviling and brutal villification has probably +never been equalled. A witty Frenchman observed of this portrait that it +reminded him of an observation once made by a medical acquaintance of +his concerning one of his patients: "'My friend fell ill; I attended +him. He died; I dissected him.'"[142] + +Among other women astronomers of the eighteenth century who deserve +mention are Mme. du Pierry, the Duchesse Louise of Saxe-Gotha, and Mme. +Hortense Lepaute. + +According to Lalande, Mme. du Pierry was the first woman professor of +astronomy in Paris. He dedicated to her his _Astronomie des Dames_, and +incorporated in his own works many of her memoirs on astronomical +subjects. She devoted much time to calculating eclipses with a view to +accurately determining the motion of the moon, and was, besides, the +author of numerous astronomical tables which exhibit patient research +and unquestioned skill. + +The Duchesse Louise had a great reputation as a rapid and accurate +computer, and was celebrated for the number and variety of her +computations. Her modesty, however, prevented her from publishing +anything or even having her work quoted. + +Considering, however, the amount and character of her work, the most +eminent woman astronomer that France has yet produced was, without +doubt, Mme. Hortense Lepaute, the wife of the royal clockmaker of +France. She first distinguished herself by her investigations on the +oscillations of pendulums of different lengths, an account of which is +to be found in her husband's valuable work, _Traite d'Horlogerie_, +published in 1755. + +In 1759 Lalande, who was then the Director of the Paris Observatory, +engaged Mme. Lepaute and the celebrated mathematician, Clairaut, to +determine the amount of the attraction of Jupiter and Saturn on Halley's +comet, whose return was expected in that year. So difficult was this +problem, and so numerous were the complications involved, that Lalande +frankly confesses that he would not have dared to undertake its solution +without Mme. Lepaute's assistance. For it necessitated calculating for +every degree, and for one hundred and fifty years the distances and +forces of each of the planets with reference to the comet. "It would be +difficult," declares Lalande, "to realize the courage which this +enterprise required, if one did not know that for more than six months +we calculated from morning until night, sometimes even at meals, and +that at the end of this enforced labor I was stricken by a malady which +affected me during the rest of my life." Clairaut was so impressed by +Mme. Lepaute's energy and skill during this time that he declared "her +ardor was surprising," and he did not hesitate to call her _La savante +calculatrice_--the learned computer.[143] + +The eclipse of 1762 also engaged Mme. Lepaute's attention, as did also +the annular eclipse of 1764. The latter was a curious phenomenon for +France, as it had never before been observed. Mme. Lepaute calculated it +for the whole of Europe and published a chart showing its path for every +quarter of an hour. She also published another chart for Paris, in which +were exhibited the different phases of the eclipse. + +On the occasion of the different eclipses which she had calculated, Mme. +Lepaute recognized the advantage of having a table of parallactic +angles. She accordingly prepared a very extended table of this kind +which was published by the French government. Besides this table, she +was the author of numerous memoirs on astronomical subjects. Among them +was one embracing calculations based on all the observations which had +been made on the transit of Venus in 1761. + +"In 1759," again writes Lalande, "I was given charge of the +_Connaissance des Temps_, a work which the Academy of Sciences published +every year for the use of astronomers and navigators, the calculations +for which gave occupation to several persons. I had the good fortune to +find in Mme. Lepaute a co-worker without whom I should not have been +able to undertake the labor required. She continued in this occupation +until 1774, when another Academician assumed this laborious task. But +she thereupon began work on the _Ephemeris_, of which the seventh volume +in quarto, which appeared in 1774, goes to 1784, and of which the +eighth, published in 1783, extends to the year 1792. In this latter +volume she made, unaided, all the computations for the sun, the moon and +all the planets. + +"This long series of calculations finally enfeebled her eyesight, which +had been excellent, and she was in the last years of her life obliged to +discontinue them."[144] + +In view of her extraordinary and long-continued work in her chosen +specialty, M. Lalande was quite warranted in stating that "Mme. Lepaute +is the only woman in France who has acquired veritable knowledge in +astronomy; and she is now replaced only by Mme. du Pierry, who has +published divers astronomical calculations, and who has deserved to have +dedicated to her _L'Astronomie des Dames_, which appeared in 1786." + +It is gratifying to know that the beautiful Japan Rose--originally +called _Pautia_, but changed to _Hortensia_ by Jussieu--was named after +this distinguished woman. It is also gratifying to be assured that her +engrossing work in astronomy in no wise caused her to neglect her home +duties or to lose that sweetness of character and delicacy of refinement +for which she was noted before she entered upon the absorbing and taxing +career of astronomical computer. + +The wife of Lalande's nephew, Mme. Lefrancais de Lalande, proved herself +in many respects a worthy successor of Mme. Lepaute. "My niece," writes +her uncle, Jerome Lalande, "aids her husband in his observations and +draws conclusions from them by calculation. She has reduced the +observations of ten thousand stars, and prepared a work of three hundred +pages of horary tables--an immense work for her age and sex. They are +incorporated in my _Abrege de Navigation_. + +"She is one of the rare women who have written scientific books. She has +published tables for finding the time at sea by the altitude of the sun +and stars. These tables were printed in 1791 by the order of the +National Assembly.... In 1799 she published a catalogue of ten thousand +stars, reduced and calculated." + +This distinguished observer and computer had a daughter in whom her +grand-uncle was particularly interested. "This daughter of astronomy," +he tells us, "was born the twentieth of January, 1790, the day on which +we at Paris saw for the first time the comet which Miss Caroline +Herschel had just discovered. The child was accordingly named Caroline; +her godfather was Delambre." + +The discoverer of the comet referred to was, in many ways, a most +remarkable woman. She was the sister of Sir William Herschel, the +illustrious pioneer of modern physical astronomy and the virtual founder +of sidereal science, as we know it to-day. She was also the aunt of Sir +John Herschel, who was the only rival of his uncle, Sir William, as an +explorer of the heavens. + +But she was far more than a mere relative of these immortal leaders in +astronomic science. She herself was an astronomer of distinction, and +is known, in the annals of astronomy, as the discoverer of no fewer than +eight comets. Great, however, as was her skill as an observer and +computer, it was as her brother's assistant that she is entitled to the +most distinction. Her affection for him was as unbounded as her devotion +to his life work was abiding and productive of great results. For fifty +years, after joining him in England--they both had been born and bred in +Hanover--she was ever at his side, to assist him in his labors and to +cheer him by her words of counsel and encouragement. She helped him to +grind and polish the mirrors that were used in his epoch-making +reflectors. This was a most arduous task; for, at that time, there was +no machinery sufficiently exact for grinding specula, and, as a +consequence, the work had all to be done by hand. So interested was the +great astronomer in his work, when polishing his larger specula, that he +forgot all about the passage of time, and on these occasions his sister +was constantly obliged, as she herself informs us, "to feed him by +putting the victuals by bits into his mouth by way of keeping him +alive." When finishing his seven-foot reflector he was on one occasion +found so intent on his work that "he had not taken his hands from it for +sixteen hours together." + +In our day, when all kinds of astronomical apparatus are made by +machinery, it is difficult for us to realize what stupendous labor was +required to produce those giant telescopes with which the Herschels made +their great discoveries and by which they, at the same time, +revolutionized the science of the stars. For they had not only to design +and make the specula, but also the mountings of the mirrors as well. +And, in order to obtain the money required for material and workmen, +they were obliged to make telescopes for sale. This meant an immense +loss of precious time that would otherwise have been devoted to the +study of the heavens. + +After long years of struggle, during which the devoted brother and +sister overcame countless difficulties of every kind, their condition +was somewhat ameliorated by financial aid from the government and by +William's appointment to the position of astronomer royal with a salary +of L200 a year. When Sir William Watson heard that this limited sum had +been granted by George III to the discoverer of Georgium Sidus--the +planet now known as Uranus--he exclaimed, "Never bought monarch honor so +cheap." + +Shortly afterwards Caroline was appointed as assistant to her brother at +a salary of L50 a year. This we should now consider but a nominal sum, +but she managed to live on it. When she received the first quarterly +payment of twelve pounds she wrote in her memoirs, "It was the first +money I ever in all my lifetime thought myself to be at liberty to spend +to my liking." Her appointment as assistant to her brother is notable +from the fact that she was the first woman in England, if not in the +world, to hold such a position in the government service. + +Miss Herschel held this official appointment until Sir William's death +in 1822. When not acting as her brother's assistant or secretary, she +devoted her time to what she quaintly called "minding the heavens." It +was during this period that she made her most important discoveries. As +assistant, however, to so indefatigable an observer as Sir William +Herschel, she had but little time for sweeping the heavens, for, when at +home, Sir William "was invariably accustomed to carry on his +observations until day-break, circumstances permitting, without regard +to seasons; it was the business of his assistant to note the clocks and +to write down the observations from his dictations as they were made. +Subsequently she assisted in the laborious numerical calculations and +reductions, so that it was only during his absence from home or when any +other interruption of his regular course of observation occurred that +she was able to devote herself to the Newtonian sweeper, which she used +to such good purpose. Besides the eight comets by her discovered, she +detected several remarkable nebulae and clusters of stars, previously +unnoticed, especially the superb nebulae known as No. 1, Class V, in Sir +William Herschel's catalogue. Long practice taught her to make light of +her work. 'An observer at your twenty-foot when sweeping,' she wrote +many years after, 'wants nothing but a being who _can_ and _will_ +execute his commands with the quickness of lightning; for you will have +seen that in many sweeps six or twice six objects have been secured and +described in one minute of time.'"[145] + +It was her quick, intelligent action, combined with a patience, +enthusiasm and powers of endurance that were most extraordinary, that +made Caroline Herschel so valuable as an assistant to her brother, and +enabled him to achieve the unique position which is his among the +world's greatest astronomers. Had she been able to devote all her time +to "minding the heavens," it is certain that she would have made many +more discoveries than are now credited to her; but her service to +astronomy would have been less than it was as the auxiliary of her +illustrious brother. No two ever did better "teamwork"; no two were ever +more devoted to each other or exhibited greater enthusiasm in the task +to which they so heroically devoted their lives.[146] + +In addition to her arduous and engrossing duties as secretary and +assistant to her brother, Caroline found time to prepare a number of +works for the press. Among these were a _Catalogue of Eight Hundred and +Sixty Stars Observed by Flamsteed but not Included in the British +Catalogue_ and _A General Index of Reference to Every Observation of +Every Star in the Above-mentioned British Catalogue_. She had the honor +of having these two works published by the Royal Society. Another, and a +more valuable work, was _The Reduction and Arrangement in the Form of +Catalogue, in Zones, of All the Star-Clusters and Nebulae Observed by Sir +W. Herschel in His Sweeps_. It was for this catalogue that a gold medal +was voted to her by the Royal Astronomical Society in 1828--a production +that was characterized as "a work of immense labor" and "an +extraordinary monument to the unextinguished ardor of a lady of +seventy-five in the cause of abstract science." To her nephew, Sir John +Herschel, it proved invaluable, as it supplied the needful data "when he +undertook the review of the nebulae of the northern hemisphere." It was +also a fitting prelude to Sir John's _Cape Observations_, a copy of +which great work she received from her nephew nearly twenty years +subsequently, after he had completed his famous observations of the +southern heavens in his observatory at the Cape of Good Hope. + +"By a most striking and happy coincidence," writes Mrs. John Herschel, +"she, whose unflagging toil had so greatly contributed to its successful +prosecution in the hands of her beloved brother, lived to witness its +triumphant termination through the no less persistent industry and +strenuous labor of his son; and her last days were crowned by the +possession of the work which brought to its glorious conclusion Sir +William Herschel's vast undertaking--_The Survey of the Heavens_." + +That Miss Herschel's labors in the cause of astronomy were appreciated +by her contemporaries is evidenced by the honors of which she was the +recipient. The first of these honors came in the form of a gold medal, +unanimously awarded by the Royal Astronomical Society for her reduction +of twenty-five hundred nebulae "discovered by her illustrious brother, +which may be considered as the completion of a series of exertions +probably unparalleled either in magnitude or importance in the annals of +astronomical labor." + +It was on this occasion, when referring to the immensity of the task +which Sir William Herschel had undertaken, that the vice-president of +the society paid a deserving tribute to the great astronomer's devoted +sister, in which is found the following statement: + +"Miss Herschel it was who by right acted as his amanuensis; she it was +whose pen conveyed to paper his observations as they issued from his +lips; she it was who noted the right ascensions and polar distances of +the objects observed; she it was who, having passed the night near the +instrument, took the rough manuscripts to her cottage at the dawn of day +and produced a fair copy of the night's work on the following morning; +she it was who planned the labor of each succeeding night; she it was +who reduced every observation, made every calculation; she it was who +arranged everything in systematic order; and she it was who helped him +to obtain his imperishable name."[147] + +Besides this gold medal from the Royal Astronomical Society, Miss +Herschel also received two others, one from the King of Denmark and the +other from the King of Prussia. The latter was accompanied by a most +eulogistic letter from Alexander von Humboldt, who informed her that the +medal was awarded her "in recognition of the valuable services rendered +by her as the fellow worker of her immortal brother, Sir William +Herschel, by discoveries, observations and laborious calculations." + +In 1835, when she was eighty-five years of age, Miss Herschel had the +signal honor of being elected, along with Mrs. Somerville, an honorary +member of the Royal Astronomical Society. As they were the first two +women in England to receive such recognition for their contributions to +science, it seems desirable to reproduce here an extract from the report +of the council of the society regarding the bestowal of an honor which +marked so distinct a change in England of the attitude that should be +taken toward women who excelled in intellectual achievements. The +extract reads as follows: + +"Your council has no small pleasure in recommending that the names of +two ladies distinguished in different walks of astronomy be placed on +the list of honorary members. On the propriety of such a step, in an +astronomical point of view, there can be but one voice; and your council +is of the opinion that the time is gone by when either feeling or +prejudice, by whichever name it may be proper to call it, should be +allowed to interfere with the payment of a well-earned tribute of +respect. Your council has hitherto felt that, whatever might be its own +sentiment on the subject, or however able and willing it might be to +defend such a measure, it had no right to place the name of a lady in a +position the propriety of which might be contested, though upon what it +might consider narrow grounds and false principles. But your council has +no fear that such a difference could now take place between any men +whose opinion could avail to guide the society at large; and, abandoning +compliment on the one hand and false delicacy on the other, submits +that, while the tests of astronomical merit should in no case be applied +to the works of a woman less severely than to those of a man, the sex of +the former should no longer be an obstacle to her receiving any +acknowledgment which might be held due to the latter. And your council, +therefore, recommends this meeting to add to the list of honorary +members the names of Miss Caroline Herschel and Mrs. Somerville, of +whose astronomical knowledge, and of the utility of the ends to which it +has been applied, it is not necessary to recount the proofs."[148] + +Three years after this splendid recognition of Miss Herschel's +astronomical labors she was elected an honorary member of the Royal +Irish Academy. + +But exceptional as were the honors conferred on her by sovereigns and +learned societies, none of them afforded her the extreme satisfaction +that she experienced on the receipt of a copy, shortly before her death, +of her nephew's epochal _Cape Observations_; for, as has well been said, +"nothing in the power of man to bestow could have given such pleasure on +her death-bed as this last crowning completion of her brother's work." +We are told that a copy, just from the press, of his immortal work, _De +Orbium Celestium Revolutionibus_, in which he had established the +heliocentric theory of the planetary system, was placed in the hands of +Copernicus on the day of his death, just a few hours before he expired. +He seemed conscious of what it was; but, after touching it and +contemplating it for a moment, he lapsed into a state of insensibility +which soon terminated in death. With Miss Herschel the case was +different. Although in her ninety-seventh year, she still retained +possession of all her faculties and was fully able to appreciate the +volume which told of the crowning of her brother's life work--a volume +which must have given her additional satisfaction when she recalled her +fifty years of loyal service at her brother's side as his associate and +ministering angel in the greatest work ever undertaken by a single man +in the history of astronomy. + +Caroline Herschel died at the advanced age of ninety-seven years and ten +months, retaining to the last her interest in astronomy which had +occupied her mind for more than three-quarters of a century. + +Her epitaph, composed by herself, is engraved on a heavy stone slab +which covers her grave and contains the following words: "The eyes of +her who is glorified were here below turned to the starry heavens. Her +own discoveries of comets and her participation in the immortal labors +of her brother, William Herschel, bear witness of this to future ages." + +Space precludes any extended reference to Miss Herschel's distinguished +associate in the Royal Astronomical Society, Mrs. Somerville, whose +masterly translation and exposition of Laplace's _Mecanique Celeste_ +secured for her so enviable a place among the mathematicians of her +time, and placed all English students of mathematical astronomy under +such deep obligations. It is true that she ever manifested a lively +interest in celestial phenomena; but it is rather as a mathematician +than as an astronomer that she will be remembered by the devotees of +science. + +The first American woman to win distinction in astronomy was Miss Maria +Mitchell. Born in the island of Nantucket in 1818, she, at an early age, +displayed remarkable talent for astronomy and mathematics. Her first +instructor was her father, who, besides being a school teacher, had +from his youth been an enthusiastic student of astronomy, and that, too, +at a time when very little attention was given to its study in this +country, and when the observatory of Harvard College consisted of only a +little projection to an old mansion in Cambridge, in which there was a +small telescope. + +At the age of thirteen little Maria counted seconds by the chronometer +for her father while he observed the annular eclipse of the sun in 1831; +and from that time on she was his assiduous co-worker in the study of +the heavens. After teaching school for some years, she became the +librarian of the Nantucket Atheneum, a position which she held for +nearly twenty years. Here she continued the study of her favorite +science, and read all the books on astronomy which she could obtain. It +was during this period that she read Bowditch's translation of Laplace's +_Mecanique Celeste_ and Gauss's _Theoria Motus Corporum Caelestium_ in +the original. + +On the evening of October 1, 1847, she was the discoverer of a comet +that attracted great attention because it secured for her a medal +offered by the King of Denmark in 1831 for the first one who should +discover a telescopic comet. The same comet was observed by Father de +Vico in Rome two days subsequently, by Dawes in England on October +seventh, and by Madame Ruemker, wife of the director of the observatory +of Hamburg, on the eleventh of the same month. As there was no Atlantic +cable in those days, it was not known who was the fortunate winner of +the prize until nearly a year afterward, when word was received from +Denmark announcing that the priority of Miss Mitchell's discovery had +been recognized and that she would be the recipient of the prize, which, +for a while, it was thought would go to De Vico or Madame Ruemker.[149] + +In 1849 Miss Mitchell was appointed a compiler for the _Nautical +Almanac_, a position she held for nineteen years. During the same period +she was employed by the United States Coast Survey. + +When Vassar College was opened in 1865 for the higher education of +women, Miss Mitchell was called to fill the chair of astronomy and to be +the first director of the observatory. In this position she soon +succeeded in giving astronomy a prominence that it never had had before +in any other college for women, and in but few for men. + +Miss Mitchell was a member of several learned societies and the author +of a number of papers containing the results of her observations on +Jupiter and Saturn and their satellites. But she is notable chiefly for +being the first woman astronomer in the United States and for training +up a number of young women who have followed in her footsteps as +enthusiastic astronomers. She held her position at Vassar until 1889, +when she died, a few months before her seventy-first birthday. + +Since the pioneer days of Miss Caroline Herschel, the number of women +throughout the world who have achieved distinction in astronomy has +rapidly augmented. One of the most noted of these was Caterina +Scarpellini, niece of Feliciano Scarpellini, professor of astronomy in +Rome, restorer of the Academy of the Lyncei, and founder of the +Capitoline Observatory. Born in 1808, she manifested at an early age a +decided taste for astronomy, which was carefully developed by her uncle. +She it was who organized the Meteorologico Ozonometric station in Rome +and edited its monthly bulletin. She exhibited a special interest in +shooting stars and prepared the first catalogue of these meteors +observed in Italy. In 1854 she discovered a comet. She has also left +valuable studies on the probable influence of the moon on +earthquakes--studies which brought her distinction from several of the +learned societies of Europe. In 1872 the Italian government decreed her +a gold medal for her statistical labors in science. Since her death her +countrymen have recognized the value of her contributions to science by +erecting a statue to her memory. + +Another woman who has won enduring fame in the annals of astronomy is +Miss Dorothea Klumpke, of San Francisco. While yet quite young, she and +her sisters were taken to Europe to be educated. There she soon became +proficient in a number of languages, and then devoted herself to the +study of mathematics and astronomy. After securing her baccalaureate and +licentiate in Paris, she applied for admission as a student to the Paris +observatory. "The directors of the observatory consulted the statutes. +No woman had hitherto proposed herself as a colleague, but there was no +rule opposing it. They themselves approved, and gave her a telescope to +make her own observations. After a time she completed the work begun by +Mme. Kovalevsky on the rings of Saturn, which she made the subject of +her thesis, and, when she had become Doctor of Science, she was given a +decoration by the Institute and made an _Officier de l'Academie_." + +After Miss Klumpke had brilliantly defended her thesis in the Sorbonne, +M. Darboux, the president of the jury, complimented the young American +doctor on her splendid work and concluded a notable address in her honor +in the following laudatory words: + +"The great names of Galileo, of Huyghens, of Cassini, of Laplace, +without speaking of those of my illustrious colleagues and friends, are +attached to the history of every serious step forward made in this +attractive and difficult theory of Saturn's rings. Your work constitutes +another valuable contribution to the same subject and places you in an +honorable rank beside those women who have consecrated themselves to the +study of mathematics. In the last century Maria Agnesi gave us a +treatise on the differential and integral calculus. Since then Sophie +Germain, as remarkable for her literary and philosophical talent as for +her faculty for mathematics, won the esteem of the great geometricians +who honored our country at the commencement of this century. It is but a +few years since the Academy awarded one of its most beautiful prizes +which will place the name of Mme. Kovalevsky beside those of Euler and +Lagrange in the history of discoveries relative to the theory of the +movement of a solid body about a fixed point.... And you, mademoiselle, +your thesis is the first which a woman has presented and successfully +defended before our faculty for the degree of doctor in mathematics. You +worthily open the way, and the faculty unanimously makes haste to +declare you worthy of obtaining the degree of doctor." + +Besides her thesis just referred to, Miss Klumpke is the author of +numerous communications to scientific journals and learned societies +regarding her researches on the spectra of stars and meteorites and +other allied subjects. For many years she was at the head of the bureau +in the Paris Observatory for measuring the photographic plates that are +to be used in the large catalogue of stars and map of the heavens which +are to constitute the crowning achievements of the International +Astronomical Congress. She was the first woman to be elected a member of +the Astronomical Society of France, and the character of her work as an +observer as well as a computer has given her an enviable position among +the astronomers of the world.[150] + +In America another woman has won renown among astronomers by +successfully executing the same kind of work as was entrusted to Miss +Dorothea Klumpke in Paris. For many years Mrs. W. Fleming, with her +large corps of women assistants, had charge of the immense collection of +astronomical photographs in the Observatory of Harvard University. To +her and her staff were assigned the reductions and measurements of the +photographic and photometric work done in Cambridge and Arequipa, Peru. +She was singularly successful in her studies of photographic plates and +made many discoveries which astronomers regard of the greatest +importance. By such studies she and her assistants detected many new +nebulae, double and variable stars, besides spectra of different types +and of rare interest. In addition to this they examined and classified +tens of thousands of photographs of stellar spectra, a labor which +involved countless details of reduction and measurements of exceeding +delicacy and skill. + +A complete list of the women who, during the past half century, have +devoted themselves to the study of astronomy and who have contributed to +its advancement by their observations and writings would be a very long +one. Among those, however, whose labors have attracted special notice, +mention must be made of the Misses Antonia C. Maury, Florence Cushman, +Louisa D. Wells, Mabel C. Stephens, Eva F. Leland, Anna Winlock, Annie +J. Cannon and Henrietta S. Leavitt, all of whom are on the staff of the +Harvard Observatory. + +Then, too, there are many women who occupy important positions as +professors or assistant professors in our colleges and universities. +Chief among these in the United States are Sarah F. Whiting, of +Wellesley; Mary W. Whitney, of Vassar; Mary E. Boyd, of Smith; Susan +Cunningham, of Swarthmore, and Annie S. Young, of Mt. Holyoke. Nor must +we forget such able computers as Mrs. Margaretta Palmer, of Yale, and +Miss Hanna Mace, the clever assistant of the late Simon Newcomb in the +Naval Observatory in Washington. + +In the Old World among the women who, during the last few decades, have +materially contributed to the progress of astronomy, either as observers +and computers or as writers, are Miss Alice Everett, who has done +splendid work in the observatories of Greenwich and Potsdam, Misses M. +A. Orr, Mary Ashley, Alice Brown, Mary Proctor--daughter of the late +astronomer, R. A. Proctor--Agnes M. and Ellen M. Clerke, and Lady +Huggins, of England; Mmes. Jansen, Faye, and Flammarion, in France; the +Countess Bobinski, in Russia; and Miss Pogson, in the Observatory of +Madras, India. + +In conclusion, it is but just to observe that women's work in astronomy +has by no means been confined to their contributions as observers, +writers and computers. Reference must also be made to the financial aid +which they have given to various observatories and learned societies for +the furtherance of astronomical research both in the New and the Old +World. It must suffice here to recall the endowment at Harvard +University of the Henry Draper Memorial, by Mrs. Henry Draper, in order +that the work of photographing stellar spectra, which occupied her +husband's later years, might be continued under the most favorable +auspices, and the munificent sum of fifty thousand dollars given by Miss +C. Bruce, of New York, for the construction of a large telescope +especially designed for photographing faint stars and nebulae. The +photographs taken with this instrument will be used in the preparation +of the great chart of the heavens which is to be the joint production of +the chief observatories of the world. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[134] Cf. the preceding chapter, p. 140. See also _Histoire de +l'Astronomie Ancienne_, Tom. I, p. 317, par. M. Delambre, Paris, 1817. + +[135] "Calor etiam solis in hieme maior est sub terra quam super terram, +quod si tunc frigus tantum esset sub terra quam super terram, vel si in +aestate calor tantus esset sub terra quantus est super terram, de +immoderatione ista terra tota scinderetur." _Hildegardis Causae et Curae_, +p. 7, Lipsiae, 1903. + +[136] _Commentaire de Theon d'Alexandrie_, p. X, translated by the Abbe +Halma, Paris, 1882. + +[137] "Enfin de leur faire connoistre qu'elles ne sont pas incapable de +l'estude, si elles s'en vouloient donner la peine puisqu'entre le +cerveau d'une femme et celui d'un homme il n'y a aucune difference." Cf. +_Journal de Savans_, Tom. III, p. 304, a Amsterdam, 1687. + +[138] + + D'ou vient qu'elle a l'oeil trouble et le teint si terni? + C'est que sur le calcul, dit-on, de Cassini, + Un astrolabe a la main, elle a, dans la gouttiere, + A suivre Jupiter passe la nuit entiere. + +[139] "Celebre inter observatores hujus aevi nomen adeptus est Godfredus +Kirchius, astronomus nuper regius in Societate Scienciarum Berlinensi; +mense Julio A, 1710 mortuus. Ejus vidua, Maria Magdalena Winckelmannia, +non minore in observando et calculo astronomico dexteritate pollet, ac +in utroque labore maritum, cum viveret, fideliter juvit ... quod laudi +ducitur foeminae ea animo comprehendisse, quae sine ingenii vi studiique +assiduitate non comprehenduntur," _Acta Eruditorum_, pp. 78, 79, Lipsiae, +1712. + +[140] _Preface Historique_ to _Principes Mathematiques de la Philosophie +Naturelle_ par feue Madame la Marquise du Chastellet, Tom. I, p. V, +Paris, 1759. + +[141] _The Unpublished Correspondence of Madame du Deffand_, Vol. I, pp. +202-203, London, 1810. + +[142] Mme. du Deffand's venomous letter, somewhat abridged, reads as +follows: "Imagine a tall, hard and withered woman, narrow-chested, with +large limbs, enormous feet, a very small head, a thin face, a pointed +nose, two small sea-green eyes, her color dark, her complexion florid, +her mouth flat, her teeth set far apart and very much decayed; there is +the figure of the beautiful Emilie, a figure with which she is so well +pleased that she spares nothing for the sake of setting it off. Her +manner of dressing her hair, her adornments, her top-knots, her jewelry, +all are in profusion; but, as she wishes to be lovely in spite of +nature, and as she wishes to appear magnificent in spite of fortune, she +is obliged, in order to obtain superfluities, to go without necessaries +such as under-garments and other trifles. + +"She was born with sufficient intellect, and the desire to appear as +though she had a great deal made her prefer to study the most abstract +sciences rather than more general and pleasant branches of knowledge. +She thought she would gain a greater reputation by this peculiarity and +a more decided superiority over other women. + +"She did not limit herself to this ambition. She wished to be a princess +as well, and she became so, not by the grace of God nor by that of the +King, but by her own act. This absurdity went on like the others. One +became accustomed to regard her as a princess of the theatre, and one +almost forgot that she was a woman of rank. + +"Madame worked so hard to appear what she was not that no one knew what +she really was. Even her faults were perhaps not natural. They may have +had something to do with her pretensions, her want of respect with +regard to the state of princess, her dullness in that of _savante_, and +her stupidity in that of a _jolie femme_. + +"However much of a celebrity Mme. du Chatelet may be, she would not be +satisfied if she were not celebrated, and that is what she desired in +becoming the friend of M. de Voltaire. To him she owes the _eclat_ of +her life, and it is to him that she will owe immortality." See _Lettres +de la Marquise du Deffand a Horace Walpole_, Tom. I, pp. 200-201, Paris, +1824. + +As a contrast to this atrocious caricature, it is but due to the memory +of Mme. du Chatelet to give her portrait by Voltaire, to whom she was +ever the beautiful, the charming Urania, the + + "Vaste et puissante genie, + Minerve de la France, immortelle Emilie." + +It is contained in the following verses: + + "L'esprit sublime et la delicatesse, + L'oubli charmante de sa propre beaute + L'amitie tendre et l'amour emporte + Sont les attraits de ma belle maitresse." + +If the whole truth were known, it would, doubtless, be found somewhere +between the above extreme and contradictory views, and the cause of the +caustic statements of Mesdames de Stael and du Deffand would probably be +found to be quite accurately expressed in the first part of Voltaire's +_Epistle on Calumny_, which was written about the beginning of his +particular relationship with "the divine Emilie." The first lines of +this epistle, as translated by Smollett, are: + + "Since beautiful, 'twill be your fate, + Emelia, to incur much hate; + Almost one-half of human race + Will even curse you to your face; + Possesst of genius, noblest fire, + With fear you will each breast inspire; + As you too easily confide, + You'll often be betrayed, belied; + You ne'er of virtue made parade, + To hypocrites no court you've paid, + Therefore, of Calumny beware, + Foe to the virtuous and the fair." + +[143] In his work on _Comets_, Clairaut at first gave Mme. Lepaute full +credit for her work which had been of such inestimable service to +himself; but, in order to gratify a woman who, having pretensions +without knowledge, was very jealous of the superior attainments of Mme. +Lepaute, he had the weakness subsequently to suppress his generous +tribute to merit. Commenting on this strange conduct of his assistant, +Lalande expresses himself as follows: "We know that it is not rare to +see ordinary women depreciate those who have knowledge, tax them with +pedantry and contest their merit in order to avenge themselves upon them +for their superiority. The latter are so few in number that the others +have almost succeeded in making them conceal their acquirements." + +[144] _Bibliographie Astronomique_, pp. 676-687, par Jerome de la Lande, +Paris, 1803. + +[145] _Memoirs and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel_, p. 144, by Mrs. +John Herschel, London, 1879. + +[146] So sensitive was Miss Herschel in her old age regarding the +reputation of her brother, William, who had always been her idol and the +one in whom she had concentrated all her affection, that she came to +look askance at every person and thing that seemed calculated to dull +the glory of his achievements. Thus her niece, in writing to Sir John +Herschel, after her death, declares: "She looked upon progress in +science as so much detraction from her brother's fame; and, even your +investigations would have become a source of estrangement had she been +with you." In a letter to Sir John Herschel, written four years before +her death, she exhibits, in an amusing fashion, her jealous spirit anent +the great telescope of Lord Rosse. "They talk of nothing here at the +clubs," she writes, "but of the great mirror and the great man who made +it. I have but one answer for all--_Der Kerl ist ein Narr_--the fellow +is a fool." + +Even "Every word said in her own praise seemed to be so much taken away +from the honour due to her brother. She had lived so many years in +companionship with a truly great man, and in the presence of the +unfathomable depths of the starry heavens, that praise of herself seemed +childish exaggeration." And notwithstanding the honor and recognition +which she received from learned men and learned societies for her truly +remarkable astronomical labors, her dominant idea was always the +same--"I am nothing. I have done nothing. All I am, all I know, I owe to +my brother. I am only a tool which he shaped to his use--a well-trained +puppy-dog would have done as much." Op. cit., pp. IX, 335 and 346. + +[147] Op. cit., p. 224. + +[148] _Memoirs and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel_, ut. sup., pp. +226-227. + +[149] _Maria Mitchell, Life, Letters and Journals_, compiled by Phebe +Mitchell Kendall, p. 267 et seq., Boston, 1896. + +[150] Miss Klumpke, the reader may be interested in knowing, belongs to +a singularly gifted family. Her sister, Augusta, is a distinguished +physician and an authority on nervous diseases. Hers is the glory to be +the first woman permitted, after an exceptionally severe examination, to +serve as _interne_ in the Paris hospitals. Julia, her youngest sister, +who achieved distinction as a violinist with Ysaye, was one of the first +to pass the examination required of women entering the Paris _Lycees_, +while Anna, the eldest, has won fame as an artist, and as the friend, +heiress and executrix of France's famous daughter, Rosa Bonheur. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +WOMEN IN PHYSICS + + +Physics, being one of the inductive sciences, received little attention +until modern times. True, the Greeks were familiar with some of the +fundamental facts of the mechanics of solids and fluids, and had some +notions respecting the various physical forces; but their knowledge of +what until recently was known as natural philosophy was extremely +limited. Aristotle, Pythagoras and Archimedes were among the most +successful investigators of their time respecting the laws and +properties of matter, and contributed materially to the advancement of +knowledge regarding the phenomena of the material universe; but the sum +total of their information of what we now know as physics could be +embodied in a few pages. + +In view of the foregoing facts, we should not expect to find women +engaged in the study, much less in the teaching, of physical science +during ancient times. And yet, if we are to credit Boccaccio, who bases +his statements on those of early Greek writers, there was at least one +woman that won distinction by her knowledge of natural philosophy as +early as the days of Socrates. In his work, _De Laudibus Mulierum_, +which treats of the achievements of some of the illustrious +representatives of the gentler sex, the genial author of the _Decameron_ +gives special praise to one Arete of Cyrene for the breadth and variety +of her attainments. She was the daughter of Aristippus, the founder of +the Cyrenaic school of philosophy, and is represented as being a +veritable prodigy of learning. For among her many claims to distinction +she is said to have publicly taught natural and moral philosophy in the +schools and academies of Attica for thirty-five years, to have written +forty books, and to have counted among her pupils one hundred and ten +philosophers. She was so highly esteemed by her countrymen that they +inscribed on her tomb an epitaph which declared that she was the +splendor of Greece and possessed the beauty of Helen, the virtue of +Thirma, the pen of Aristippus, the soul of Socrates, and the tongue of +Homer.[151] + +This is high praise, indeed, but, when we recollect that Arete lived +during the golden age of Greek learning and culture, that she had +exceptional opportunities of acquiring knowledge in every department of +intellectual effort; when we recall the large number of women who, in +their time, distinguished themselves by their learning and +accomplishment, and reflect on the advantages they enjoyed as pupils of +the ablest teachers of the Lyceum, the Portico, and the Academy; when we +remember further that they lived in an atmosphere of intelligence such +as has since been unknown; when we call to mind the signal success that +rewarded the pursuit of knowledge by the scores of women mentioned by +Athenaeus and other Greek writers; when we peruse the fragmentary notices +of their achievements as recorded in the pages of more recent +investigators regarding the educational facilities of a certain class +of women living in Athens and the eminence which they attained in +science, philosophy and literature, we can realize that the character +and amount of Arete's work as an author and as a teacher have not been +overestimated. + +Living in an age of prodigious mental activity, when women, as well as +men, were actuated by an abiding love of knowledge for its own sake, +there is nothing surprising in finding a woman like Arete commanding the +admiration of her countrymen by her learning and eloquence. For was not +the learned and eloquent Aspasia her contemporary? And did not Theano, +the wife of Pythagoras, take charge of her husband's school after his +death; and does not antiquity credit her with being not only a +successful teacher of philosophy, but also a writer of books of +recognized value? Such being the case, what is there incredible in the +statements made by ancient writers regarding the literary activity of +Arete, and about her eminence as a teacher of science and philosophy? +She was but one of many of the Greek women of her age that won renown by +their gifts of intellect and by their contributions to the educational +work of their time and country. + +Better known than Arete, but probably not superior to her as a teacher +or writer, was the illustrious Hypatia of Alexandria. She, too, like her +distinguished predecessor in Athens, was an instructor in natural +philosophy, as well as other branches of science. Of her we know more +than we do of the daughter of Aristippus, but even our knowledge of the +acquisitions and achievements of Hypatia is, unfortunately, extremely +meager. We do, however, know from the historian, Socrates, and from +Synesius, bishop of Ptolemais, who was her pupil, that she was one of +the most richly dowered women of all time. Born and educated in +Alexandria when its schools and scholars were the most celebrated in the +world, she was even at an early age regarded as a marvel of learning. +For, not satisfied with excelling her father, Theon, in mathematics, of +which he was a distinguished professor, she, as Suidas informs us, +devoted herself to the study of philosophy with such success that she +was soon regarded as the ablest living exponent of the doctrines of +Plato and Aristotle. "Her knowledge," writes the historian, Socrates, +"was so great that she far surpassed all the philosophers of her time. +And succeeding Plotinus, in the Platonic school which he had founded in +the city of Alexandria, she taught all the branches of philosophy with +such signal success that students flocked to her in crowds from all +parts."[152] Her home, as well as her lecture room, was the resort of +the most noted scholars of the day, and was, with the exception of the +Library and the Museum, the most frequented intellectual center of the +great city of learning and culture. Small wonder, then, that her +contemporaries lauded her as an oracle and as the most brilliant +luminary in Alexandria's splendid galaxy of thinkers and +scholars--_sapientis artis sidus integerrimum_. + +Among the many inventions attributed to Hypatia, besides the planisphere +and astrolabe which she designed for the use of astronomers, are several +employed in the study of natural philosophy. Probably the most useful of +these is an areometer mentioned by her pupil Synesius. He calls it a +hydroscope and describes it as having the form and size of a flute, and +graduated in such wise that it can be used for determining the density +of liquids. That Hypatia was thoroughly familiar with the science of +natural philosophy, as then known, there can be no doubt. That she also +contributed materially to its advancement, as well as to that of +astronomy, in which she always exhibited a special interest, there is +every reason to believe.[153] + +After the death of Hypatia, the study of natural philosophy was almost +entirely neglected for more than a thousand years. The first woman in +modern times to attract attention by her discussion of physical problems +was the famous Marquise du Chatelet, although she was better known as a +mathematician and as the translator into the French of Newton's +_Principia_. In her chateau at Cirey she had a well-equipped physical +cabinet in which she took special delight. But in her time, as in that +of Hypatia, natural philosophy was far from being the broad experimental +science which it has become through the marvelous discoveries made in +heat, light, electricity and magnetism during the last hundred years, as +well as through those countless brilliant investigations which have led +up to our present doctrine of the correlation and conservation of the +various physical forces. There was then no occasion for those delicate +instruments of precision which are now found in every physical +laboratory by means of which the man of science is able to investigate +phenomena and determine laws that were quite unknown until a few years +ago. + +In the time of Mme. du Chatelet, as during the century following, +natural philosophy consisted rather in the mechanical and mathematical +than in the physical study of nature. This is illustrated by the title +of the great work on the translation of which she spent the best years +of her life--Newton's immortal _Philosophiae Naturalis Principia +Mathematica_. + +The Marquise's first scientific work was an investigation regarding the +nature of fire. The French Academy of Sciences had offered a prize for +the best memoir on the subject. Among the contestants for the coveted +honor were the chatelaine of Cirey and the celebrated Swiss +mathematician, Leonard Euler. The Marquise was unsuccessful in the +contest, but her paper was of such value that the eminent physicist and +astronomer, Arago, was able to characterize it as an "elegant piece of +work, embracing all the facts relating to the subject then known to +science and containing among the experiments suggested one which proved +so fecund in the hands of Herschel." In this remarkable _Memoire sur le +Feu_, which is printed in the _Collections_ of the Academy, the Marquise +anticipates the results of subsequent researches of others by +maintaining that both heat and light have the same cause, or, as we +should now say, are both modes of motion. + +The second book written by this remarkable woman is entitled +_Institutions de Physique_, and was dedicated to her son, for whose +benefit it was primarily written. It deals specially with the philosophy +of Leibnitz and discusses such questions as force, time and space. Her +views respecting the nature of the force called _vis viva_, which was +much discussed in her time, are of particular interest, as they are not +only opposed to those which were held by Descartes and Newton, but also +because they are in essential accord with those now accepted in the +world of science. + +All things considered, the Marquise du Chatelet deservedly takes high +rank in the history of mathematical physics. In this department of +science she has had few, if any, superiors among her own sex. And, when +we recollect that she labored while the foundations of dynamics were +still being laid, we shall more readily appreciate the difficulties she +had to contend with and the distinct service which her researches and +writings rendered to the cause of natural philosophy among her +contemporaries. + +The first woman to occupy a chair of physics in a university was the +famous daughter of Italy, Laura Maria Catarina Bassi. She was born in +Bologna in 1711--but five years after the birth of Madame du +Chatelet--and from her most tender years she exhibited an exceptional +facility for the acquisition of knowledge. + +After she had, through the assistance of excellent masters, become +proficient in French and Latin, she took up the study of logic, +metaphysics and natural philosophy. In all these branches of learning +her progress was so rapid that it far exceeded the fondest expectations +of her parents and teachers. Thanks to a wonderful memory and a highly +developed reasoning faculty, she was able, while still a young maiden, +to prove herself the possessor of knowledge that is ordinarily obtained +only in the maturity of age and after long years of systematic study. + +When she had attained the twenty-first year of her age she was induced +by her family and friends--much against her own inclination, however--to +take part in a public disputation on philosophy. Her entering the lists +against some of the most distinguished scholars of the time was made the +occasion for an unusual demonstration in her honor. The hall of the +university in which such intellectual jousts were generally held was too +small for the multitude that was eager to witness the young girl's +formal appearance among the scholars and the notables of the old +university city. It was, accordingly, arranged that the disputation +should be held in the great hall of the public Palace of the Senators. + +Among the vast assemblage present at the disputation were Cardinal +Grimaldi, the papal legate; Cardinal Archbishop Lambertini, afterwards +Pope Benedict XIV; the gonfalonier, senators, literati from far and +near, leading members of the nobility and representatives of all the +religious orders. + +When the argumentation began the young girl found herself pitted against +five of the most distinguished scholars of Bologna. But she was fully +equal to the occasion and passed the ordeal to which she was subjected +in a manner that excited the admiration and won the plaudits of all +present. Cardinal Lambertini was so impressed with the brilliant defence +which she had made against the five trained dialecticians and the +evidence she gave of varied and profound learning that he paid her a +special visit the next day in her own home to renew his congratulations +on her signal triumph and to encourage her to continue the prosecution +of her studies. + +In less than a month after this interesting event Laura Bassi, in +response to the expressed desire of the whole of Bologna, presented +herself as a candidate for the doctorate in philosophy. This was the +occasion for a still more brilliant and imposing ceremony. It was held +in the spacious Hall of Hercules in the Communal Palace, which was +magnificently decorated for the splendid function. In addition to the +distinguished personages who had been spectators of the fair student's +triumph a few weeks before, there was present in the vast audience the +noted French ecclesiastic, Cardinal Polignac, who was on his way from +Rome to France. + +The heroine of the hour, dressed in a black gown, was ushered into the +great hall, preceded by two college beadles and accompanied by two of +the most prominent ladies of the Bolognese nobility. She was given a +seat between the chancellor and the prior of the university, who, in +turn, were flanked by the professors and officials of the institution. + +After the usual preliminaries of the function were over the prior of the +university, Doctor Bazzani, rose and pronounced an eloquent discourse in +Latin to which Laura made a suitable response in the same language. She +was then crowned with a laurel wreath exquisitely wrought in silver, and +had thrown round her the _vajo_, or university gown, both symbols of the +doctorate. After this the young doctor proceeded to where the three +cardinals were seated, and in delicately chosen words, also in Latin, +expressed to them her thanks for the honor of their presence. All then +withdrew to the apartments of the gonfalonier, where refreshments were +served in sumptuous style, after which the young _Laureata_, accompanied +by a numerous cortege and applauded by the entire city, was escorted to +her home. + +So profound was the impression made on the university senate by the deep +erudition of Laura Bassi that it was eager to secure her services in its +teaching body. But, before she could be offered a chair in the +institution, long-established custom required that she should pass a +public examination on the subject matter which she was to teach. Five +examiners were chosen by lot, and all of them proved to be men whose +names, says Fantuzzi, "will always be held by our university in glorious +remembrance." They had all to promise under oath that the candidate for +the chair should have no knowledge before the examination of the +questions which were to be asked, and that the test of the aspirant's +qualifications to fill the position sought should be absolutely free +from any suspicion of favoritism or partiality. + +Notwithstanding the difficulties she had to confront, Laura acquitted +herself with even greater credit than on former occasions of a similar +character. There was no question in the mind of any one present at the +examination of the candidate's ability to fill the chair of physics, and +it was, accordingly, offered to her by acclamation. + +The first public lecture of the gifted young _dottoressa_ was made the +occasion of a demonstration such as the old walls of the university had +rarely witnessed. Her lecture room was thronged by the elite of the +city, as well as by a large class of enthusiastic students. All were +charmed by her eloquence and amazed at the complete mastery she evinced +of the subject she had selected for discussion. From that day forth her +reputation as a scholar and a teacher was established, and her lectures +were attended by appreciative students from all parts of Europe. She +was especially popular with the students from Greece, Germany and +Poland, and her popularity, far from waning, waxed greater with the +passing years. + +At the time of Laura's entering upon her professional career the senate +of Bologna had a medal coined in her honor, on the obverse of which was +her name and effigy, while on the reverse there was an image of Minerva, +with the inscription, _Soli cui fas vidisse Minervam_. + +Far from interrupting her studies, which had hitherto been the joy of +her life, Laura's university work gave new zest to the literary and +scientific pursuits which had always such a fascination for her. Among +the subjects that specially engaged her attention were studies so +diverse as Greek and the higher mathematics. She was particularly +interested in the great physico-mathematical work of Newton, and did not +rest until she had thoroughly mastered the contents of his epoch-making +_Principia_. + +A few years after she had become a member of the university faculty +Laura was a European celebrity, and no one eminent by learning or birth +passed through Bologna without availing himself of the opportunity of +making the acquaintance of so extraordinary a woman. Men of science and +letters vied with princes and emperors in doing honor to one who was +looked upon by many as being, like Arete of old, endowed with a soul and +a genius far above that of ordinary mortals, and as being the possessor +of a talent that indicated something superhuman. + +Laura Bassi was in constant correspondence with the most celebrated +scholars of Europe, and more especially with those who had attained +eminence in her special line of work. Among the letters received from +her illustrious correspondents were two from Voltaire. They were written +shortly after the author had been refused admittance into the French +academy. He then bethought himself of securing membership in the Academy +of Sciences of Bologna. This, he reasoned, would be a splendid tribute +to the versatility of his genius and would, at the same time, be a +biting satire on the demigods of French literature who had dared to +exclude him from their society. + +That he might not meet the same refusal on the part of the Academy of +Bologna as he had experienced in Paris, Voltaire determined not to rely +entirely on the good will of the male members of the Bolognese academy. +He accordingly resolved to enlist the services of Laura Bassi, who was +one of the leading members of this distinguished body, and trust to her +influence in his behalf on the hearts of her colleagues. + +The first letter, written in Italian, is so characteristic of the writer +that it will bear reproduction. + +"Most Illustrious Lady," he writes from Paris, the 23d of November, +1744, "I have been wishing to journey to Bologna in order to be able one +day to tell my countrymen I have seen Signora Bassi; but, being deprived +of this honor, let it at least be permitted me to place at your feet +this philosophic homage and to salute the honor of her age and of women. +There is not a Bassi in London, and I should be more happy to be a +member of the Academy of Bologna than of that of the English, although +it has produced a Newton. If your protection should obtain for me this +title, of which I am so ambitious, the gratitude of my heart will be +equal to my admiration for yourself. I beg you to excuse the style of a +foreigner who presumes to write you in Italian, but who is as great an +admirer of yours as if he were born in Bologna." + +The second letter of Voltaire is in response to one received from Laura +Bassi announcing that he had been elected to membership in the Bologna +Academy. The first sentence of it suffices to indicate its tenor. +"Nothing," he writes, "was ever more grateful to me than to receive from +your hand the first advice that I had the honor, by means of your favor, +of being united by this new link to one who had already bound me to her +car by all the chains of esteem and admiration."[154] + +Like so many of her gifted sisters of sunny Italy, Laura was in every +way "a perfect woman nobly planned." Of a deeply religious nature, she +was as pious as she was intelligent, and was throughout her life the +devoted friend of the poor and the afflicted. The mother of twelve +children, she never permitted her scientific and literary work to +conflict with her domestic duties or to detract in the least from the +singular affection which so closely united her to her husband and +children. She was as much at home with the needle and the spindle as she +was with her books and the apparatus of her laboratory. And she was +equally admirable whether superintending her household, looking after +her children, entertaining the great and the learned of the world, or in +holding the rapt attention of her students in the lecture room. She was, +indeed, a living proof that higher education is not incompatible with +woman's natural avocations; and that cerebral development does not lead +to race suicide and all the other dire results attributed to it by a +certain class of our modern sociologists and anti-feminists. + +Considering her manifold duties as a professor in the university and the +mother of a large family, it was scarcely to be expected that Laura +Bassi would have much time for writing for the press. She was, however, +able to devote some of her leisure moments to the cultivation of the +Muses, of whom, Fantuzzi informs us, she was a favorite. Her verses, as +well as her contributions to the science of physics, are scattered +through various publications, but they suffice to show that the accounts +of her transmitted to us by her contemporaries were not +exaggerated.[155] + +A learned French traveler who visited Laura in Bologna describes her as +having a face that was sweet, serious and modest. Her eyes were dark and +sparkling, and she was blessed with a powerful memory, a solid judgment, +and a ready imagination. "She conversed fluently with me in Latin for an +hour with grace and precision. She is very proficient in metaphysics; +but she prefers modern physics, particularly that of Newton." + +How many of our college women of to-day could readily carry on a +conversation in Latin, if this were the sole medium of communication, or +discuss the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle in the tongue of Cicero, +or give public lectures on the physico-mathematical discoveries of +Descartes and Newton in what was the universal language of the learned +world, even less than a century ago? + +It must not, however, be inferred from the foregoing statements +regarding the great intellectual capacity of Laura Bassi or the +enthusiastic demonstrations that were so frequently made in her honor +that she was unique in this respect among her countrywomen. Special +attention has been called to her as a type of the large number of her +sex who, by their learning and culture, graced the courts and honored +the universities of her country for full ten centuries. Scarcely had +death removed Laura Bassi from a career in which for twenty-eight years +she had won the plaudits of the whole of Europe, when the University of +Bologna welcomed to its learned halls two other women who, in their +respective lines of research, were fully as eminent as their departed +countrywoman. These were Maria dalle Donne, for whom Napoleon +established a chair of obstetrics, and Clotilda Tambroni, the famous +professor of Greek, of whom a noted Hellenist declared, "Only three +persons in Europe are able to write Greek as well as she does, and not +more than fifteen are able to understand her." + +Burckhardt, in his thoughtful work on the culture of the Italian +Renaissance, has a paragraph which expresses, in a few words, what was +always the attitude of the Italian father toward the education of his +daughter. + +"The education of the woman of the upper class was absolutely the same +as that of the man. The Italian of the Renaissance did not for a moment +hesitate to give his son and daughter the same literary and +philosophical training. He considered the knowledge of the works of +antiquity life's greatest good, and he could not, therefore, deny to +woman participation in such knowledge. Hence the perfection attained by +the daughters of noble families in writing and speaking Latin."[156] + +This attitude of the members of the nobility toward the education of +their daughters was essentially the same as that of the universities of +Italy toward women who had a thirst for knowledge. For from the dawn of +learning in Salerno to the present there never was a time when women +were not as cordially welcomed to the universities as students and +professors as were the men; and never a time when the merit of +intellectual work was not determined without regard to sex. + +In Bologna, where were passed the sixty-seven years of her mortal life, +the name of Laura Bassi, like that of her illustrious colleague, Luigi +Galvani, is one to conjure with, and a name that is still pronounced +with respect and reverence. Her last resting place is in the Church of +Corpus Domini, the same sacred shrine in which were deposited all that +was mortal of the renowned discoverer of galvanic electricity.[157] + +Two years after Signora Bassi was gathered to her fathers there was born +near Edinburgh to a Scotch admiral, Sir William George Fairfax, an +infant daughter who was destined to shed as much luster on her sex in +the British Isles as the incomparable Laura Bassi had diffused on +womankind in Italy during her brilliant career in "Bologna, the +learned." She is known in the annals of science as Mary Somerville, and +was in every way a worthy successor of her famous sister in Italy, both +as a woman and as a votary of science. + +Although her chief title to fame is her notable work in mathematical +astronomy, especially her translation of Laplace's _Mechanique Celeste_, +she is likewise to be accorded a prominent place among scientific +investigators for her contributions to physics and cognate branches of +knowledge. Chief among these are her works on the _Connection of the +Physical Sciences_ and _Physical Geography_. As to the last production, +no less an authority than Alexander von Humboldt pronounced it an exact +and admirable treatise, and wrote of it as "that excellent work which +has charmed and instructed me since its first appearance." + +In a letter from the illustrious German savant to the gifted authoress +of the two last-named volumes occurs the following paragraph: "To the +great superiority you possess and which has so nobly illustrated your +name on the high regions of mathematical analysis, you add, Madam, a +variety of information in all parts of physics and descriptive natural +history. After the _Mechanism of the Heavens_, the philosophical +_Connection of the Physical Sciences_ has been the object of my profound +admiration.... The author of the vast _Cosmos_ should more than any one +else salute the _Physical Geography_ of Mary Somerville.... I know of +no work on physical geography in any language that can compare with +yours." + +Among the other works by Mrs. Somerville, treating of physical subjects +or of subjects intimately related to physics are _The Form and Rotation +of the Earth_, _The Tides of the Ocean and Atmosphere_, and an abstruse +investigation _On Molecular and Microscopic Science_. The last volume +was published in 1869, when its author was near her ninetieth year, and +bore as its motto St. Augustine's sublime words: _Deus magnus in magnis, +maximus in minimis_--God is great in great things, greatest in the +least. + +After Mrs. Somerville's death, in 1872, at the advanced age of +ninety-two, the number of women who devoted themselves to the study and +teaching of physics was greatly augmented. The brilliant success of +Laura Bassi and Mary Somerville had not been without results, and their +notable achievements as authors and teachers had the effect of +stimulating women everywhere to emulate their example, and encouraging +them to devote more attention to a branch of science which, until then, +had been regarded by the general public as beyond the sphere and +capacity of what was assumed to be the intellectually weaker sex. + +One of the most eminent scientific women of the present day in England +is Mrs. Ayrton, the wife of the late Professor W. E. Ayrton, the +well-known electrician. Her chosen field of research, like that of her +husband, has been electricity, in which she has achieved marked +distinction. Her investigations on the electric arc and on the sand +ripples of the seashore won for her the first medal ever awarded to a +woman by the Royal Society. When, however, in 1902, she was formally +nominated for fellowship in this same society, she failed of election +because the council of the society discovered that "it had no legal +power to elect a married woman to this distinction." + +How different it was in the case of Laura Bassi, who was an active +member of all the leading scientific and literary societies of Italy, +where from time immemorial women have been as cordially welcomed to +membership in its learned societies as to the chairs of its great +universities. + +The list of the women who in Europe and America are now engaged in +physical research and in teaching physics in schools and colleges is a +long one, and the work accomplished by them is, in many cases, of a high +order of merit. It is only, indeed, during the present generation that +such work has been made generally accessible to them; and, considering +the success which has already attended their efforts in this branch of +science, we have every reason to believe that the future will bring +forth many others of their sex who will take rank with such intellectual +luminaries as Hypatia, Mme. du Chatelet, Laura Bassi and Mary +Somerville. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[151] "Publice philosophiam naturalem et moralem in scholis Academiisque +Atticis docuit haec foemina annis XXXV, libros composuit XL, discipulos +habuit philosophos CX, obiit anno aetatis LXXVII, cui tale Athenienses +statuere epitaphium: + + Nobilis hic Arete dormit, lux Helladis, ore + Tyndaris at tibi par, Icarioti, fide. + Patris Aristippi calamumque animamque dederunt, + Socratis huic linguam Maeonidaeque Dii." + + --Boccaccio, _De Laudibus Mulierum_, Lib. II. + +Cf. Wolf's _Mulierum Graecarum quae Oratione Prosa Usae Sunt Fragmenta et +Elogia_, pp. 283 et seq., London, 1739. + +[152] "Mulier quaedam fuit Alexandriae, nomine Hypatia, Theonis filia. Haec +ad tantam eruditionem pervenerat ut omnes sui temporis philosophos longo +intervallo superaret, et in Platonicam scholam a Plotino deductam +succederet, cunctasque philosophiae disciplinas auditoribus exponeret. +Quocirca omnes philosophiae studiosi ad illam undique confluebant." +_Socrates, Historiae Ecclesiasticae_, Lib. VII, Cap. 15. + +[153] For extracts from the ancient authors regarding Hypatia, as well +as for the extant letters to her from her friend and pupil, Synesius, +the reader is referred to Wolf's erudite _Mulierum Graecarum quae Oratione +Prosa Usae sunt Fragmenta et Elogia_, pp. 72-91, ut sup. + +[154] Ernesto Masi, _Studi e Ritratti_, p. 166 et seq., Bologna, 1881. + +[155] Two of her Latin dissertations on certain physical problems were +published in the _Commentaries of the Bologna Institute_. One of them is +entitled _De Problemate quodam Mechanico_; the other _De Problemate +quodam Hydrometrico_. Many of her lectures on physics still exist in +manuscript, and it is to be hoped that at least the titles of them may +be given in a biography of the learned author which has been long +desired and long promised. + +[156] _Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien_, Vol. I, p. 363, 1869. + +[157] As no satisfactory biography of Laura Bassi has yet been written, +most of our knowledge respecting her is limited to that found in +Fantuzzi's _Notizie degli Scrittori Bolognesi_, Tom. I, pp. 384-391, and +Mazzuchelli's _Gli Scrittori d'Italia_, Vol. II, Part I, pp. 527-529, +Brescia, 1758. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY + + +The first woman deserving special mention in the history of chemistry is +the wife of the immortal Lavoisier, the most famous of the founders of +modern chemical science. While yet in her teens, this remarkable woman +gave evidence of exceptional intelligence and will power. She was +thoroughly devoted to her husband, and had the greatest admiration for +his genius. Her highest ambition was to prove herself worthy of him and +to render herself competent to assist him in those investigations that +have given him such imperishable renown. With this end in view, she +learned Latin and English, and she thus became an accomplished +translator from these languages of any chemical works which might aid +her spouse in his epoch-making researches. It was she who translated for +him the chemical memoirs of Cavendish, Henry, Kirwan, Priestly and other +noted English scientific investigators. + +Arthur Young, well known in his day as a traveler and author, who in +1787 made the acquaintance of Madame Lavoisier, describes her as a woman +full of animation, good sense and knowledge. In referring to a breakfast +she had given him, he declares that "unquestionably the best part of the +repast was her conversation on Kirwan's _Essay on Phlogiston_, which she +was then translating, and on other subjects which a woman of sense, +working in the laboratory of her husband, knows so well how to make +interesting." + +She was an ardent co-worker with her husband in his laboratory and +materially aided him in his labors. Under his direction she wrote the +results of the experiments that were made, as is evidenced by the +records of his work. As a pupil of the illustrious painter, David, she +was naturally skillful in drawing. Besides this, she was a good +engraver, and it is to her that are due the illustrations in Lavoisier's +great _Traite de Chimie_, which contributed so much toward +revolutionizing the science of chemistry. It was, indeed, the first work +that deserved to be regarded as a textbook of modern chemistry. Among +her drawings are two of special interest. They represent her as seated +at a table in the laboratory, taking notes, while her husband and his +assistant, Seguin, are making an experiment on the phenomena of +respiration.[158] + +All Mme. Lavoisier's writings testify to her great admiration of the +genius of her husband. Intimately associated with him in his work, she +combatted for the triumph of his ideas and sought to make converts to +them. One of her most notable converts was the Swiss chemist, de +Saussure. "You have, Madame," he writes her, "triumphed over my doubts, +at least in the matter of phlogiston, which is the principal object of +the interesting work of which you have done me the honor of sending me a +copy." + +After Lavoisier's tragic death on the guillotine, it was his devoted +wife who edited his _Memoirs on Chemistry_, of which Lavoisier had +himself projected the publication. The two volumes constituting this +work were not for sale, but were gratuitously distributed by the +bereaved widow among the most eminent scientific men of the epoch. +Cuvier, in acknowledging the receipt of these precious memoirs, +declares: "All the friends of science are under obligations to you for +your sorrowful determination to publish this collection of papers and to +publish them as they were written--a melancholy monument of your loss +and theirs--a loss which humanity will feel for centuries." + +To realize the importance of the work in which Mme. Lavoisier +participated, it suffices to recall the fact that her husband, as one of +the creators of modern chemistry, was the first to demonstrate the +existence of the law of the conservation of matter, which declares that +in all chemical changes nothing is lost and nothing is created. The +co-discoverer with Scheele and Priestly of oxygen, he was the first one +to exhibit the role of this important element in the phenomena of +combustion and respiration and the first, also, to lay the foundations +of a chemical nomenclature. We are not, then, surprised to learn that +Mme. Lavoisier's salon, even long after her lamented husband's death, +was frequented by the most eminent savants of the time. For here were +gathered such scientific luminaries as Cuvier, Laplace, Arago, Lagrange, +Prony, Berthollet, Delambre, Biot, Humboldt, and others scarcely less +brilliant. + +After the conclusion of Mme. Lavoisier's work in the laboratory of her +husband, little was accomplished by women in chemistry for more than +half a century. The reason was simple. Chemistry was not a part of the +curriculum of studies for girls either in Europe or America. Even +"during the sixties," writes a teacher of one of the prominent female +seminaries of the United States, "the study of chemistry was mostly +confined to the textbook, supplemented once a year by a course of +lectures from an itinerant expert, who with his tanks of various gases +produced highly spectacular effects." + +When one recollects that the first institution in America--Vassar--for +the higher education of women was not opened until 1865, one will +understand that there were previously to this date few opportunities for +women to study either chemistry or any of the other sciences. + +The first scientific institution to open its doors to women was the +Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This was on May 11, 1876, when +the governing board of the institute decided that "hereafter special +students in chemistry shall be admitted without regard to sex." In less +than a year after this event every department of this institution was +open to women, and any one who could pass the requisite examination was +admitted as a student. + +Five years, however, before women were formally admitted to the courses +of chemistry an energetic young graduate from Vassar, eager to devote +her life to the pursuit of science, had, as an exceptional favor, been +allowed to enter the Institute as a special student in chemistry. As she +was the first woman in the United States to enter a strictly +professional scientific school, her entrance marks the beginning of a +new epoch in the history of female education. The name of this ardent +votary of science was Miss Ellen Swallow, better known to the world as +Mrs. Ellen H. Richards. + +Mrs. Richards had not devoted herself long to the study of her favorite +science before she resolved to apply the knowledge thus gained to the +problems of daily life. She saw, among other things, the necessity of a +complete reform in domestic economy, and resolutely set to work to have +her views adopted and put in practice. She was, in consequence, one of +the first leaders of the crusade in behalf of pure food, and her +lectures and books on this all-important subject contributed greatly +toward the diffusion of exact knowledge respecting the dangers lurking +in unwholesome food. + +She was likewise one of the first to apply the science of chemistry to +an exhaustive study of the science of nutrition--to the study of food +and the proper preparation of food materials. In this she was eminently +successful, and was able to achieve for home economics what the +illustrious Liebig had many years before accomplished for agricultural +chemistry--put it on a firm and lasting basis. To her the kitchen was +the center and source of political economy. + +The facts of science, indeed, were to Mrs. Richards more than mere +uncorrelated facts. They are potential agencies of service, and their +chief value consists in their enabling us to control our environment in +such wise as to secure the maximum of physical well being. Hence her +constant insistence on personal cleanliness, on the cleanliness of food, +of the house we live in, and, above all, of the kitchen. Hence, also, +her preaching, in season and out of season, on the necessity of pure +air, pure water and abundance of vitalizing sunshine. + +We cannot, then, wonder that sanitary chemistry eventually became the +life work of Mrs. Richards, and that, when the course of sanitary +engineering was inaugurated in the Institute of Technology--the first +course of its kind in the world--she became an important agent in its +development and contributed immensely to its popularity and prestige. + +She held the position of instructor of sanitary chemistry in the +institute for twenty-seven years. During this time she trained a large +number of young men in her chosen specialty, and these, after +graduating, engaged in similar work in various parts of the New and the +Old World. + +The branch of sanitary chemistry to which Mrs. Richards devoted most +attention was air, water and sewage analysis. In this she was a +recognized expert, and her advice and services were sought in all parts +of the country. During the last three years of her life she acted, +according to her own testimony, as general sanitary adviser to no fewer +than two score corporations and schools. In addition to this she was +also during this brief period consulted on the subject of foods by +nearly two hundred educational and other institutions. + +What, however, constituted the greatest contribution of Mrs. Richards to +the public health was the part she took in the great sanitary survey of +the waters of the State of Massachusetts. During this long and +laborious investigation she analyzed more than forty thousand samples of +water. These analyses exhibited the condition of the water from all +parts of the state during all seasons of the year and were of the +greatest value in solving a number of important problems in state +sanitation. + +But notwithstanding the drafts made on her time and energy by her +classwork in the laboratory and her occupation as sanitary engineer for +scores of public and private institutions, she still found leisure to +engage in many important movements which had in view the public health +and the betterment of sanitary conditions in city and country. It is +safe to say that no one ever put her knowledge of chemical science to +more practical use or made it more perfectly subserve the public weal +than did Mrs. Richards. To spread among the masses a knowledge of the +principles of sanitation, to make them realize how indispensable to +health are pure food, pure water, pure air and life-giving sunshine was +her great mission in life, and in this she displayed an energy and a +tireless zeal which were an inspiration to all with whom she came into +contact. + +This indefatigable woman, it is proper to record here, might have +distinguished herself as a discoverer in chemical science had she +elected to devote her life to original research rather than to utilizing +the knowledge already available for the welfare of her fellows. Thus, +after a careful analysis of the rare mineral samarskite, she found an +insoluble residue which led her to believe might contain unknown +elements. This view she repeatedly expressed to her co-workers in the +laboratory. But she was unwilling to take from what she regarded more +important work the time necessary for making investigations which might +have given her undying fame as a discoverer. For not long afterward this +insoluble residue, in the hands of two French chemists, yielded the +exceedingly rare elements, samarium and gadolinium. + +Another chemist of a less altruistic nature than Mrs. Richards would not +have resisted the temptation to achieve distinction in the domain of +original research. But where there was so much suffering to be relieved +and so much ignorance to be removed regarding the most fundamental +principles of sanitation, this philanthropic woman preferred to put to +practical use what she called "the considerable body of useful knowledge +now lying on our shelves." + +Her duty, as she conceived it, is well indicated in the following +paragraph, taken from a thoughtful discussion by her of the subject of +home economics a short time before her death in 1911. "The sanitary +research worker in laboratory and field," she declares, "has gone nearly +to the limit of his value. He will soon be smothered in his own work, if +no one takes it. Meanwhile children die by the thousands; contagious +diseases take toll of hundreds; back alleys remain foul and the streets +are unswept; school-houses are unwashed and danger lurks in the drinking +cups and about the towels. Dust is stirred up each morning with the +feather duster to greet the warm, moist noses and throats of the +children. To the watchful expert it seems like the old cities dancing +and making merry on the eve of a volcanic outbreak."[159] + +From the day in 1873 when Mrs. Richards received from the Institute of +Technology the degree of Bachelor of Science--a degree which made her +not only the first woman graduate of this institution, but also the +first graduate in the United States of a strictly scientific seat of +learning--the number of women who have devoted themselves to chemical +pursuits is legion. They are now found in every civilized country in +both hemispheres and their number is daily increasing. They are +everywhere doing excellent work as teachers in classrooms and +laboratories and holding their own with men as chemical experts in +manufacturing establishments and government institutions. Many of them +have done original work of a high order, and distinguished themselves by +their valuable contributions to contemporary chemical literature. Space, +however, precludes more than a general reference to their achievements, +for the names only of those who have done meritorious work in chemistry +would make a very long list. + +Passing over, then, all the lesser feminine lights in chemistry who, in +various fields of activity, have rendered such distinct service during +the past generation, we come to one who for nearly two decades has stood +in the forefront of the great chemists of the world. This is that +renowned daughter of Poland, Mme. Marie Klodowska Curie, whose name will +always be identified with some of the most remarkable discoveries which +have ever been made in the long-continued study of the material +universe. + +Marie Klodowska was born in Warsaw, in 1868. Her father was a professor +of chemistry in the university of the former Polish capital; and it is +undoubtedly from him that his brilliantly dowered daughter has inherited +her love of chemistry and her extraordinary genius for scientific +research. Owing to the paltry salary he received, Professor Klodowska +was obliged to make little Marie his laboratory assistant while she was +quite a young girl. Instead, then, of playing with tops and dolls, her +time was occupied in cleaning evaporating dishes and test tubes and in +assisting her father to prepare for his lectures and experiments. And it +was thus that, at an early age, she acquired a taste for that science in +which she was subsequently to achieve such world-wide fame. + +While still a young woman, her love of science drew her to Paris, where +she arrived with only fifty francs in her purse. But, possessed of +dauntless courage and unfaltering perseverance, she was prepared to make +any sacrifice in the pursuit of knowledge. + +Her first home in the gay French metropolis was a poorly furnished +garret in an obscure part of the city, and her diet was for so long a +time restricted to black bread and skimmed milk that she afterward +avowed that she had to cultivate a taste for wine and meat. And so +intensely cold was her cheerless room in winter that the little bottle +of milk which was daily left at her door was speedily congealed. At this +time the poor girl was living on less than ten cents a day, but still +cherishing all the while the fond hope that she might eventually secure +a position as a student assistant in some good chemical laboratory. + +After a long struggle with poverty and after countless disappointments +in quest of a position where she could gratify her ambition as a student +of chemistry, she finally found occupation as a poorly paid assistant in +the laboratory conducted by Professor Lipmann. She was not, however, at +work a week before this distinguished investigator recognized in the +young woman one whose knowledge of chemistry and faculty for original +research were far above the average. She was accordingly transferred +without delay from the menial employment in which she had been engaged +and given every possible facility for prosecuting work as an original +investigator. + +It was shortly after this event that Marie Klodowska met the noted +savant, Pierre Curie. He was not long in discovering in her a kindred +spirit--one who, besides having exceptional talent in experimental +chemistry, was actuated by an ardent love of science. It was then that +he determined to make her his wife. A single sentence in a letter he +wrote at this time to the object of his admiration and affection +reveals, better than anything else, the devotion of this matchless pair +in the cause of science. "What a great thing it would be," he exclaims, +"to unite our lives and work together for the sake of science and +humanity." These simple words were the keynote to the ideal life led by +this incomparable couple during the eleven years they worked together +in perfect unity of thought and aspiration before the sudden and +premature extinction of the husband's life gave such a shock to the +entire scientific world. + +After her marriage the gifted young Polish woman had reached the goal of +her ambition. She was able to devote herself exclusively to what was +henceforth to constitute her life work in one of the best laboratories +of Paris, that of the Ecole de Physique et de Chimie, and that, too, in +collaboration with her husband, from whom she was never separated during +the entire period of their married life for even a single day. + +It was about this time that Mme. Curie had her interest aroused by the +brilliant discoveries of Roentgen and Becquerel regarding radiant matter. +After a long series of carefully conducted experiments on the compounds +of uranium and thorium, she, with the intuition of genius, opened up to +the world of science an entirely new field of research. But she soon +realized that the labor involved in the investigations which she had +planned was entirely beyond the capacity of any one person. It was then +that she succeeded in enlisting her husband's interest in the +undertaking which was to lead to such marvelous results. + +Confining their work to a careful analytical study of the residue of the +famous Bohemian pitchblend--an extremely complex mineral, largely +composed of oxide of uranium--they soon found themselves confronted by +most extraordinary radio-active phenomena. Continuing their researches, +their labor was rewarded by the discovery of a new element which Mme. +Curie, in her enthusiasm, named in honor of the land of her birth, +polonium. + +As their investigations progressed, they became correspondingly +difficult. They were dealing with substances which exist in pitchblend +residue only in infinitesimal quantities--not more than three troy grams +to the ton. The difficulties they had to contend with were enough to +discourage the stoutest heart. Few believed in their theories, while +the majority of those who had some intimation of the character of their +work were persuaded that they were pursuing a phantom. But the +indefatigable pair toiled on day and night and continued their +experiments through long years of poverty and deferred hopes. + +Considering the herculean task in which they were engaged for so many +years, we scarcely know which to admire most, their clearness of vision, +which made them divine success; their profound knowledge, which guided +them in the choice of reagents; or the indomitable perseverance which +characterized them in their laborious task and in the countless +sacrifices which they were obliged to make before their efforts were +crowned with success. + +During this long search into the inner heart of nature, Pierre Curie was +often so discouraged and depressed that, had he not been sustained by +his more sanguine wife, he would time and again have given up his +investigations in despair. But Marie Curie never faltered. She never +lost faith in their theories or confidence in the outcome of their great +undertaking. Before her deft hands and fertile brain difficulties +vanished as if under the magic wand of Prospero. + +At length, after countless experiments of the most delicate character, +after bringing to bear on the solution of the problem before them the +most refined methods of chemical analysis, they were rewarded by one of +the most extraordinary discoveries recorded in the annals of science. +With the announcement of the discovery of radium, the Curies sprang into +world-wide fame, and the name of the wonderful woman who had been the +prime mover in the supreme achievement was on every lip. Pierre Curie +himself declared that more than half of the epochal discovery belonged +to his wife. It was she who began the work. It was she who, after her +marriage, enlisted in it the cooperation of her husband. It was she +whose invincible patience and persistence--typical of the noblest +representatives of her race--supported him during periods of doubt and +despondency and fanned his flagging spirits to new endeavor. It can +indeed be truthfully asserted that had it not been for her penetrating +intelligence, her tenacity of purpose and her keenness of vision, which +were never at fault, the great victory which crowned their efforts would +never have been achieved.[160] + +Compare their work with that which was accomplished by their illustrious +predecessors, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, and his wife, a century +earlier. The latter, by their discovery of and experiments with oxygen, +were able to explain the until then mysterious phenomena of combustion +and respiration and to coordinate numberless facts which had before +stood isolated and enigmatic. But the reverse was the case in the +discovery of that extraordinary and uncanny element, radium. It +completely subverted many long-established theories and necessitated an +entirely new view of the nature of energy and of the constitution of +matter. A substance that seemed capable of emitting light and heat +indefinitely, with little or no appreciable change or transformation, +appeared to sap the very foundations of the fundamental principle of the +conservation of energy. + +Subsequent investigations seemed only to render "confusion worse +confounded." They appeared to justify the dreams of the alchemists of +old, not only regarding the transmutation of metals but also respecting +the elixir of life. For was not this apparently absurd idea vindicated +by the observed curative properties--bordering almost on the +miraculous--this marvelous element was reputed to possess! Its virtues, +it was averred, transcended the fabled properties of the famous red +tincture and the philosopher's stone combined, and many were prepared to +find in it a panacea for the most distressing of human ailments, from +lupus and rodent ulcer to cancer and other frightful forms of morbid +degeneration.[161] + +And the end is not yet. Continued investigations, made in all parts of +the world since the discovery of radium by the Curies, have but +emphasized its mysterious properties, and compelled a revision of many +of our most cherished theories in chemistry, physics and astronomy. No +one single discovery, not even Pasteur's far-reaching discovery of +microbic life, it may safely be asserted, has ever been more subversive +of long-accepted views in certain domains of science, or given rise to +more perplexing problems regarding matters which were previously thought +to be thoroughly understood. + +Never in the entire history of science have the results of a woman's +scientific researches been so stupendous or so revolutionary. And never +has any one achievement in science reflected more glory on womankind +than that which is so largely due to the genius and the perseverance of +Mme. Curie. + +After their startling discovery, honors and tributes to their genius +came in rapid succession to the gifted couple. On the recommendation of +the venerable British savant, Lord Kelvin, they were awarded the Davy +gold medal by the Royal Society. Shortly after this they shared with M. +H. Becquerel in the Nobel prize for physics bestowed on them by Sweden. +Then came laggard France with its decoration of the Legion of Honor. But +it was offered only to the man. There was nothing for the woman. Pierre +Curie showed his spirit and chivalry by declining to accept the +proffered honor unless his wife could share it with him. His answer was +simple, but its meaning could not be mistaken. "This decoration," he +said, "has no bearing on my work."[162] + +Shortly after her husband's death Mme. Curie was appointed as his +successor as special lecturer in the Sorbonne. This was the first time +that this conservative old university ever invited a woman to a full +professorship. But she soon showed that she was thoroughly competent to +fill the position with honor and eclat. She has the elite of society and +the world's most noted men of science among her auditors. The crowned +heads of the Old World eagerly seek an opportunity to witness her +experiments and hear her discourse on what is by all odds the most +marvelous element in nature. + +Mme. Curie has not allowed her lectures in the Sorbonne to interfere +with the continuation of the researches which have won for her such +world-wide renown. Since the sudden taking off of her husband by a +passing truck on a Paris bridge, she has succeeded in isolating both +radium and polonium--only the chlorides and bromides of these elements +were previously known--besides doing other work scarcely less +remarkable. And besides all this, she has also found time to write a +connected account of her investigations under the title of _Traite de +Radio-Activite_--a work that reflects as much honor on her sex as did +_Le Instituzioni Analitiche_ of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, which won for her, +through that celebrated patron of learning, Benedict XIV, the chair of +higher mathematics in the University of Bologna. + +The list of learned societies to which Mme. Curie belongs is an extended +one. To mention only a few, she is an honorary or foreign member of the +London Chemical Society, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the +Royal Swedish Academy, the American Chemical Society, the American +Philosophical Society, and the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. +Petersburg. From the universities of Geneva and Edinburgh she has +received the honorary degree of doctor. + +In 1898 she received the Gegner prize from the French Academy of +Sciences for her elaborate researches on the magnetic properties of iron +and steel, as also for her investigations relating to radio-activity. +The same prize was again awarded to her in 1900, and still again in +1903. With her husband she received in 1901 the La Caze prize of ten +thousand francs; and in 1903 she received a part of the Osiris prize of +sixty thousand francs. Since her husband's death in 1906 Mme. Curie has +been awarded the coveted Nobel prize in chemistry, which was placed in +her hand by the King of Sweden on December 11, 1911--a prize which +increased the exchequer of the fair recipient by nearly two hundred +thousand francs. Having before been the beneficiary of the Nobel prize +for physics, in conjunction with her husband and M. H. Becquerel, Mme. +Curie is thus the first person to be twice singled out for the world 's +highest financial recognition of scientific research. + +It would take too long to enumerate all the medals and prizes and honors +which have come to this remarkable woman from foreign countries. But she +has doubtless been the recipient of more trophies of undying fame +during the last decade and a half than any other one person during the +same brief period of intellectual activity. And all these tokens of +recognition of genius were showered upon her not because she was a +woman, but in spite of this fact. Had she been a man, she would have +been honored with the other distinctions which tradition and prejudice +still persist in denying to one of the proscribed sex, no matter how +great her merit or how signal her achievements. + +At a recent scientific congress, held in Brussels, it was decided to +prepare a standard of measurement of radium emanations. It was the +unanimous opinion of the congress that Mme. Curie was better equipped +than any other person for establishing such a standard; and she was +accordingly requested to undertake the delicate and difficult task--a +commission which she executed to the satisfaction of all concerned. + +This unit of measurement, it is gratifying to learn, will be known as +the curie--a word which will enter the same category as the volt, the +ohm, the ampere, the farad, and a few others which will perpetuate the +names of the world's greatest geniuses in the domain of experimental +science. + +When, not long since, there was a vacancy among the immortals of the +French Academy, there was a generally expressed desire that it should be +filled by one who was universally recognized as among the foremost of +living scientists. The name of Mme. Curie trembled on every lip; and the +hope was entertained that the Academy would honor itself by admitting +the world-famed savante among its members. Considering her achievements, +she had no competitor, and was, in the estimation of all outside of the +Academy, the one person in France who was most deserving of the coveted +honor. + +But no. She was a woman; and for that reason alone she was excluded from +an institution the sole object of whose establishment was the reward of +merit and the advancement of learning. The age-old prejudice against +women who devote themselves to the study of science, or who contribute +to the progress of knowledge, was still as dominant as it was in the +days of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, a century and a half before. Mme. Curie, +like her famous sister in Italy, might win the plaudits of the world for +her achievements; but she could have no recognition from the one +institution, above all others, that was specially founded to foster the +development of science and literature, and to crown the efforts of those +who had proven themselves worthy of the Academy's highest honor. The +attitude of the French institution toward Mme. Curie was exactly like +that of the Royal Society of Great Britain when Mrs. Ayrton's name was +up for membership. The answer to both applicants was in effect, if not +in words, "No woman need apply." + +When one reads of the sad experiences of Mme. Curie and Mrs. Ayrton with +the learned societies of Paris and London, one instinctively asks, "When +will the day come when women, in every part of the civilized world, +shall enjoy all the rights and privileges in every field of intellectual +effort which have so long been theirs in the favored land of Dante and +Beatrice--the motherland of learned societies and universities?" For not +until the advent of the day when such exclusive organizations as +the Royal Society and the French Academy of Sciences, such +ultra-conservative universities as Oxford and Cambridge shall admit +women on the same footing as men, will these institutions be more than +half serving the best interests of humanity.[163] + +Women, it is true, are now eligible to many literary and scientific +associations from which they were formerly debarred, and are, in most +countries, admitted to colleges and universities whose portals were +closed to them until only a few years ago; but until they shall be +welcomed to all universities and all societies whose objects are the +advancement of knowledge, until they shall participate in the +advantages and prestige accruing from connection with these +organizations, they will have reason to feel that they are not yet in +the full possession of the intellectual advantages for which they have +so long yearned--that they have been but partially liberated from that +educational disqualification in which they have been held during so many +long centuries of deferred hopes and fruitless struggles. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[158] _Lavoisier 1743-1794, d'apres sa Correspondence, Ses Manuscrits, +Ses Papiers de Famille et d'Autres Documents Inedits_, p. 42 et seq., +par E. Grimaux, Paris, 1896. + +[159] _The Life of Ellen H. Richards_, p. 273 et seq., by Caroline L. +Hunt, Boston, 1912. + +[160] Mme. Curie, in an article which she wrote shortly after her +discovery of radium, shows that she possesses a genius for inductive +science of the highest type. "It was at the close of the year 1897," she +writes, "that I began to study the compounds of uranium, the properties +of which had greatly attracted my interest. Here was a substance +emitting spontaneously and continually radiations similar to Roentgen +rays, whereas ordinarily, Roentgen rays can be produced only in a vacuum +tube with the expenditure of electrical energy. By what process can +uranium furnish the same rays without expenditure of energy and without +undergoing apparent modification? Is uranium the only body whose +compounds emit similar rays? Such were the questions I asked myself; and +it was while seeking to answer them that I entered into the researches +which have led to the discovery of radium." _Radium and Radio-Activity +in The Century Magazine_, for January, 1904. + +[161] _Notice sur Pierre Curie_, p. 20 et seq., by M. D. Gernez, Paris, +1907, and _Le Radium, Son Origine et ses Transformations_, by M. L. +Houllerigue, in _La Revue de Paris_, May 1, 1911. + +[162] The day following Pierre Curie's refusal of the decoration offered +by the Government, the elder of his two daughters, little Irene, climbed +upon her father's knee and put a red geranium in the lapel of his coat. +"Now, papa," she gravely remarked, "you are decorated with the Legion of +Honor." "In this case," the fond father replied, "I make no objection." + +[163] A few days before Mme. Curie's name was to come before the Academy +of Sciences as a candidate for membership, the French Institute in its +quarterly plenary meeting of the five academies, of which the Institute +is composed, decided by a vote of ninety to fifty-two against the +eligibility of women to membership, and put itself on record in favor of +the "immutable tradition against the election of women, which it seemed +eminently wise to respect." + +Commenting on this decision of The Immortals, a writer in the well-known +English magazine, _Nature_, under date of January 12, 1911, penned the +following pertinent paragraph: + +"It remains to be seen what the Academy of Sciences will do in the face +of such an expression of opinion. Mme. Curie is deservedly popular in +French scientific circles. It is everywhere recognized that her work is +of transcendent merit, and that it has contributed enormously to the +prestige of France as a home of experimental inquiry. Indeed, it is not +too much to say that the discovery and isolation of the radio-active +elements are among the most striking and fruitful results of a field of +investigation preeminently French. If any prophet is to have honour in +his own country--even if the country be only the land of his +adoption--surely, that honour ought to belong to Mme. Curie. At this +moment, Mme. Curie is without doubt, in the eyes of the world, the +dominant figure in French chemistry. There is no question that any man +who had contributed to the sum of human knowledge what she has made +known, would years ago have gained that recognition at the hands of his +colleagues, which Mme. Curie's friends are now desirous of securing for +her. It is incomprehensible, therefore, on any ethical principles of +right and justice that, because she happens to be a woman, she should be +denied the laurels which her preeminent scientific achievement has +earned for her." + +Compare this frank and honest statement with that of a contributor, +about the same date, to _La Revue du Monde_, of Paris. Guided by his +myopic vision and diseased imagination, this writer discerns in the +admittance of women into the grand old institution of Richelieu and +Napoleon the imminent triumph of what Prudhon called pornocracy and the +eventual opening of the portals of the Palais Mazarin to representatives +of the type of Lais and Phryne, on the Hellenic pretext that "Beauty is +the supreme merit." + +It is gratifying, however, to the friends of woman's cause to learn that +Mme. Curie's candidacy was defeated by only two votes. Her competitor, +M. Branly, received thirty votes against the Polish woman's +twenty-eight. She thus fared far better than did Mme. Pauline Savari, +who aspired to the fauteuil made vacant by the death of Renan, regarding +whose candidature the Academy curtly declared, "Considering that its +traditions do not permit it to examine this question, the Academy passes +to the order of the day." Thus, it will be seen that, in spite of the +long-continued opposition to women members, the French Academy is more +than likely to offer its next vacant chair to the pride and glory of +Poland,--the immortal discoverer of radium and polonium. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +WOMEN IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES + + +It is reasonable to suppose that women, who are such lovers of nature, +have always had a greater or less interest in the natural sciences, +especially in botany and zoology; but the fact remains that the first +one of their sex to write at any length on the various kingdoms of +nature was that extraordinary nun of the Middle Ages, St. Hildegard, the +learned abbess of the Benedictine convent of St. Rupert, at Bingen on +the Rhine. Of an exceptionally versatile and inquiring mind, her range +of study and acquirement was truly encyclopaedic. In this respect she was +the worthy forerunner of Albert the Great, the famous _Doctor +Universalis_ of Scholasticism. + +Although St. Hildegard has much to say about nature in several of her +works, the one of chiefest interest to us as an exposition of the +natural history of her time is her treatise entitled _Liber Subtilitatum +Diversarum Naturarum Creaturarum_. It is usually known by its more +abbreviated name, _Physica_, and, considering the circumstances under +which it was written, is, in many ways, a most remarkable production. It +consists of nine books treating of minerals, plants, fishes, birds, +insects and quadrupeds. The book on plants is composed of no fewer than +two hundred and thirty chapters, while that on birds contains +seventy-two chapters. + +In reading Hildegard's descriptions of animated nature we are often +reminded of Pliny's great work on natural history; but, so far as known, +there is no positive evidence that the learned religieuse had any +acquaintance whatever with the writings of the old Roman naturalist. Had +she had, the general tenor of her work would have been quite different +from what it actually is. + +The mystery, then, is, what were the sources of _Physica_? Some have +fancied that Hildegard in preparing this made use of the writings not +only of Pliny and Virgil, but also of those of Macer, Constantinus +Africanus, Walafrid Strabo, Isodore of Seville, and other writers who +were in great vogue during the Middle Ages. The general consensus of +opinion, however, of those who have carefully studied this interesting +problem is that the gentle nun was not acquainted with any of the +authors named, except, possibly, Isodore of Seville, whose works were +all held in high esteem, especially during the period of Hildegard's +greatest literary activity. + +Hildegard's _Physica_ has a special value for philologists, as well as +for students of natural history, for it contains the German names of +plants still used by the people of the Fatherland seven hundred years +after they were penned by the painstaking abbess of St. Rupert's.[164] + +Referring to the Saint's work entitled _De Natura Hominis, Elementorum, +Diversarumque Creaturarum_--a treatise on the nature of man, the +elements and divers created things--no less an authority than Dr. +Charles Daremberg declares that it will always hold an important place +in the history of medical art and of inanimate and animate +nature--_insignis semper locus debetitur in artis medicae rerumque +naturalium historia_.[165] + +He even goes further and affirms that Hildegard was familiar with +numerous facts of science regarding which other mediaeval writers were +entirely ignorant. More than this. She was acquainted with many of +nature's secrets which were unknown to men of science until recent +times, and which, on being disclosed by modern researches, have been +proclaimed to the world as new discoveries.[166] + +One reason why St. Hildegard's writings on botany, zoology and +mineralogy are not better known is that few students care to make the +effort to master her voluminous works. They require long and assiduous +study and a knowledge of her peculiarities of style and expression which +is acquired only after patient and persistent labor. But the labor is +not in vain, as is evidenced by the numerous monographs which have +appeared in recent years, especially in Germany, on the scientific works +of this marvelous nun of the twelfth century. All things considered, the +Abbess of Bingen may be said to hold the same position in the natural +sciences of her time as was held in the physical and mathematical +sciences seven hundred years earlier by the illustrious Hypatia of +Alexandria. + +After the death of St. Hildegard, full six centuries elapsed before any +one of her sex again achieved distinction in the domain of natural +science. And then, strange to relate, the first woman who won fame by +her knowledge of science and by her contributions to it, did so in the +field where a woman would, one would think, be least disposed to +exercise her talent and least likely to find congenial work. It was in +the then comparatively new science of human anatomy--a science which had +been inaugurated in the famous medical schools of Salerno and which was +subsequently so highly developed in the great University of Bologna. + +The name of this remarkable woman was Anna Morandi Manzolini. She was +born in 1716 in Bologna, where, after a brilliant career in her favorite +branch of science, she died at the age of fifty-eight. She held the +chair of anatomy in the University of Bologna for many years, and is +noted for a number of important discoveries made as the result of her +dissections of cadavers. + +But she won a still greater title to fame by the marvelous skill which +she exhibited in making anatomical models out of indurated wax. They +were so carefully fashioned that some of them could scarcely be +distinguished from the parts of the body from which they were modeled. +As aids in the study of anatomy they were most highly valued and eagerly +sought for on all sides. The collection which she made for her own use +was, after her death, acquired by the Medical Institute of Bologna and +prized as one of its most precious possessions. + +Three years after her demise, Luigi Galvani, professor of anatomy in the +same university in which Anna had achieved such fame, made use of these +wax models for a course of lectures on the organs and structure of the +human body. + +These famous models, first perfected by Anna Manzolini, were the +archetypes of the exquisite wax models of Vassourie as well as of the +unrivaled _papier-mache_ creations of Dr. Auzoux and of all similar +productions now so extensively used in our schools and colleges. + +Even during the lifetime of the gifted modeler there were demands for +specimens of her work from all parts of Italy. From many cities in +Europe, even from London and St. Petersburg, she received the most +flattering offers for her services. So eager was Milan to have her +accept a position which had been offered her that the city authorities +sent her a blank contract and begged her to name her own conditions. But +she could never be induced to leave the home of her childhood and the +city which had witnessed and applauded her triumphs of maturer years. + +Men of learning and eminence, on passing through Bologna, invariably +made it a point to call on the learned _professora_ in order to make her +acquaintance and to see her wonderful anatomical collection, which was +celebrated throughout Europe as _Supellex Manzoliniana_. Among these +visitors was Joseph II of Austria. So greatly was His Majesty impressed +by Anna's rare intellectual attainments and by her marvelous skill in +reproducing the various parts of the "human form divine" that he could +not take leave of her without showing his appreciation of them by +loading her with gifts worthy of a sovereign.[167] + +A contemporary of Anna Manzolini, who also distinguished herself in the +preparation of anatomical models, was the French woman, Mlle. Biheron. +Her facsimiles of parts of the human body were, according to Mme. de +Genlis, so true to nature that they could not be distinguished from the +originals. This led the facetious Chevalier Ringle, after examining a +specimen of her handiwork, to declare, "Verily, it is so perfect that it +lacks only the odor of the natural object." + +While yet prince royal, Gustavus of Sweden visited the French Academy of +Sciences in Paris. Here he was entertained by a number of experiments in +anatomy. The demonstrator was Mlle. Biheron, who is said to have had a +veritable passion for both anatomy and surgery. So impressed was +Gustavus with the extraordinary skill and knowledge of this gifted +daughter of France that he offered her the position of demonstrator of +anatomy in the royal University of Sweden. + +Other branches of science, apparently quite as alien as anatomy to +women's taste and talent, are mineralogy and metallurgy. Yet as early as +the first half of the seventeenth century, the Baroness de Beausoleil +had achieved a great reputation by her investigations into the mineral +treasures of France. Indeed, she may, strange as it may appear, be +regarded as the first mining engineer of her native land. She details +the qualifications of a mining engineer and tells us he must, among +other things, be well versed in chemistry, mineralogy, geometry, +mechanics and hydraulics. As for herself, she assures us that she +devoted thirty years of unremitting study to these divers branches. + +To Mme. de Beausoleil is also attributed the glory of awakening her +countrymen's interest in the mineral resources of France, and of showing +them how their proper exploitation would inure not only to the credit of +the nation abroad but also to its prosperity at home. + +She was the author of two works which prove that she was a woman of rare +attainments combined with exceptional breadth of view and political +acumen. She was deeply concerned in the development of the mineral +resources of her country and foresaw how greatly they could be made to +contribute to the augmentation of the nation's finances. + +Her work entitled _La Restitution de Pluton_ is a report on the mines +and ore deposits of France, and is a document as precious as it is +curious. It was addressed to Cardinal Richelieu, and shows how the +French monarch could, if the subterranean treasures of the country were +properly developed, become the greatest ruler in Christendom and his +subjects the happiest of all peoples. + +Another report by this energetic and enthusiastic woman is in the same +strain. In it she proves how the King of France, by utilizing the +underground riches of his country, could make himself and his people +independent of all other nations.[168] + +In these two productions Mme. de Beausoleil treats of the science of +mining, the different kinds of mines, the assaying of ores and the +divers methods of smelting them, as well as of the general principles of +metallurgy, as then understood. But, unlike the majority of her +contemporaries, this enlightened woman had no patience with those who +believed that the earth's hidden treasures could not be discovered +without recourse to magic or to the aid of demons. She was unsparing in +her ridicule of those who had faith in the existence of gnomes and +kobolds, or thought that ore deposits could be located only by +divining-rods or similar foolish contrivances which were relics of an +ignorant and superstitious age. + +The same century that witnessed the exploring activity of the Baroness +de Beausoleil saw the beginnings of the notable achievements of a +daughter of Germany, well known in the annals of science as Maria +Sibylla Merian. Born in Frankfort in 1647, she died in Amsterdam in +1717, after a somewhat checkered career, most of which was devoted to +the pursuit of natural history. So fond was she of flowers and insects +that it is said they told her all their secrets. + +After having familiarized herself with the fauna and flora of her native +land, she proceeded to investigate the collections of the principal +European cabinets of natural history. This only fired her ambition to +see more of the world and study Nature where she is seen in her greatest +splendor and luxuriance. + +She accordingly resolved to undertake a journey to the equatorial +regions of South America. Such a voyage can now be made with comparative +ease, but in her days it was fraught with discomforts and dangers of all +kinds, and one that no woman thought to venture on unless obliged to do +so by stern necessity. + +But she was set on investigating animals and plants in their own +habitats in the glorious and exuberant flora of the tropics and, +accompanied by her two daughters, Helena and Dorothea, she embarked for +Surinam. Here, assisted by her daughters, who, like their mother, were +both skillful artists, the intrepid naturalist spent two years in +studying the wonders of plant and animal life that everywhere greeted +her delighted vision. All the time not occupied in research work was +devoted to sketching and painting those superb insects that are so +abundant in tropical fields and forests.[169] + +Returning to Holland with her precious scientific treasures, she began +the preparation of a work that will long endure as a monument to her +knowledge and industry. It was a magnificent volume in folio on the +insects of Surinam. It appeared simultaneously in Dutch and Latin, and +was subsequently translated into French. + +In illustrating this sumptuous work, Frau Merian was greatly assisted by +her younger daughter, Dorothea. The etchings and hand-colored +reproductions of the gorgeous butterflies and flowers of Surinam +commanded universal admiration, and marked a new epoch in book-making. +Even to-day this noble volume is eagerly sought by both book-lovers and +men of science, for it is not only a work of rare conception and beauty +but also one of exceptional accuracy in illustration and statement of +fact.[170] + +Besides etchings of multiform insects, lizards and batrachians +indigenous to Dutch Guiana, there were in this unique volume carefully +executed illustrations of plants and trees peculiar to tropical America, +such as vanilla, cacao, and the species of manihot which constitutes the +staff of life of so large a portion of the population in the basins of +the Amazon and the Orinoco. + +A new and enlarged edition of this work was published after Frau +Merian's death by her daughter Dorothea. The same gifted daughter showed +her interest in her parent's work and her devotion to her memory by +bringing out a beautifully illustrated edition of her mother's earliest +work which treated of the wonderful life-history of silkworms.[171] + +The century following that which had celebrated the scientific triumphs +of Maria Merian found in Josephine Kablick, born in 1787 in Hohenelbe, +Bohemia, a woman who was destined to prove a worthy successor, as a +nature-student, of the noted daughter of Frankfort-on-the-Main. + +From her tenderest years she exhibited a passionate love for every form +of plant life. In addition to this, she had, while yet young, the good +fortune of studying under the best botanists of her time. + +Soon she became an enthusiastic collector and was in a short time the +happy possessor of a herbarium which contained many new species of +plants which she had discovered during her frequent botanical +excursions. From making collections for her private herbarium, she was +gradually led to make collections for the schools and colleges of her +native country, as well as for the museums and learned societies of +various parts of Europe. Many public institutions owed to her cordial +cooperation some of the choicest treasures in their herbaria, and not a +few botanical writers of her day found in her an intelligent and +sympathetic collaborator. + +But Frau Kablick's interest in nature was not confined to plants. She +was an assiduous student of paleontology as well as of botany, and the +many fossil animals and plants named in her honor testify to her success +in the pursuit of her favorite branches of science. + +There was nothing of the conventional blue-stocking about this ardent +votary of nature. Strong and healthy, neither wind nor rain interfered +with her fieldwork in botany or paleontology. It was her greatest +pleasure to roam through dark forests and scale high mountains in search +of new species of plants and fossils. And the success which rewarded her +efforts was such that the old and trained naturalists among her male +friends had reason to envy her good fortune as an explorer. + +But Frau Kablick never permitted her frequent excursions, or her +devotion to science, to cause her to neglect the duties of her +household. Fortunately, her husband was also an ardent student of +nature, and while his wife was devoting her attention to botany and +paleontology, he was making investigations in zoology and mineralogy. +They spent fifty happy years together in the pursuit of science and +their joint efforts contributed not a little toward the advancement of +the branches of science to which they had devoted their lives with such +well-directed effort and enthusiasm. + +As the fruitful life of Josephine Kablick who had shed such luster on +her sex in Bohemia was drawing to a close, a young woman in Germany, +Amalie Dietrich by name, was preparing herself to fill the void which +would be occasioned by her predecessor's death. Her first love, as a +young girl, was plant life, and this was subsequently accentuated by her +husband, who was not only a botanist himself but also one who belonged +to a distinguished family of botanists. + +A keen observer and an indefatigable collector, Frau Dietrich soon +became known throughout Europe as a botanist of marked ability and +daring. She was wont, unaccompanied, to climb the highest peaks of the +Salzburg Alps, and spend entire weeks there seeking new species of +Alpine flora. During the day she explored the deep ravines and clambered +along the brambly ledges of beetling precipices, and during the night +she sought shelter and repose in the humble hut of some hospitable +herdsman. + +Valuable, however, as was Amalie Dietrich's work in the Austrian Alps, +it was but a preparation for that which some years later she was to +enter upon in far-off Australia. Here she devoted twelve of the best +years of her life to the cultivation of botany in the virgin soil of +Queensland. Here, too, she surprised everyone by her venturesome spirit +no less than by her irrepressible zeal in making collections. Heedless +of danger, she plunged quite alone into the wilderness and spent days +and weeks at a time with the wild aborigines. + +But she secured what she went in quest of,--a large and valuable +collection of plants, containing many new and interesting species. +Besides these, she was able to bring back with her to Europe a large +mass of zoological specimens as well as countless domestic utensils and +implements of warfare and husbandry employed by the savages among whom +she so frequently journeyed and with whose manners and customs she +eventually became so familiar. + +Modest and trustworthy, Frau Dietrich had a host of friends in the +scientific world, and the number of plants which bear her name are not +only a tribute to her worth, but a striking evidence of the extent of +her activity in the pursuit of the science which became the absorbing +passion of her life.[172] + +Of Russian women who have become specially noted for their contributions +to natural science, a very prominent place must be assigned to Sophia +Pereyaslawzewa. After receiving the doctorate of science in the +University of Zurich, she became director of the biological station at +Sebastopol, a position she held with great eclat during twelve years. +Here she made numerous important researches on manifold forms of marine +life and prepared many works for the press in German and French, as well +as in her native Russian. Her _Monographie de Turbellaries de la Mer +Noire_, a large and beautifully illustrated volume published at Odessa +in 1892, placed her at once among biologists of the first rank. Indeed, +so meritorious was this production of the talented daughter of Holy +Russia that the Congress of Naturalists in 1893 did not hesitate to +recognize its exceptional value by conferring on the fair authoress a +special prize. + +This gifted biologist has since rendered distinct service in the cause +of science by her explorations of the Gulf of Naples and the coasts of +France. Her activity is prodigious, and the long list of books and +monographs which she has published on the lower forms of marine life in +the Black and Mediterranean seas shows that she has a capacity for work +that is truly extraordinary. + +Here is, probably, the place to make mention of a woman of encyclopaedic +mind, Clemence Augustine Royer, who was born in 1830 in Nantes, France. +She wrote on such a variety of subjects that it is difficult to classify +her. She was in no sense of the word a specialist, and she seems by +temperament to have been averse to confining herself to any one branch +of knowledge. + +Her first work to attract particular attention was one on a topic +connected with political economy. A prize had been offered for the +discussion of this subject, and the little French woman acquitted +herself so well that she had the honor of sharing the prize with the +noted Proudhon. She has also written many works on philosophy and +physics. Among these are two which attracted considerable notice at the +time of their publication. In one of them she attacks the positivism of +Comte; in the other she assails Laplace's hypothesis regarding the +origin of the material universe. + +But the work which made her famous, particularly in France, was her +translation into French in 1862 of Darwin's _Origin of Species_. It is +safe to say that this version created as much of a sensation in France +as the original had caused in Great Britain and America. Her preface to +the work of the English naturalist, in which she indicates the results +which flow from an acceptance of the transformist theory, created a +veritable storm in both religious and scientific circles. + +So gratified was Madame Royer by the impression made by this preface and +so pleased was she with the controversy which she had started, that she +expanded her summary of the theory of evolution as therein given and +published it in 1870 under the title of _Origine de l'Homme et de +Societes_. This production was so revolutionary in character and so +subversive of teachings long held sacred that it provoked an indignant +protest from all quarters, and the author was at once ranked with such +radical exponents of the new science as Voght, Buechner and Haeckel. + +After the appearance of this production, she wrote numerous other works, +several of them on subjects relating to natural science, especially in +its connection with anthropology and prehistoric archaeology. And so +great was her breadth of view and so exceptional was her grasp of all +subjects discussed by her that Renan declared of her, _Elle est presque +un homme de genie_--She is almost a man of genius. + +Mme. Royer was frequently spoken of as a candidate for the French +Institute, but she was so well aware of the prejudices against the +admission of women to membership in this learned body that she never +allowed herself to consider the proposal seriously. She was certainly a +brainy woman, and in her own department of intellectual effort she +exhibited as much talent as did George Sand and Mme. de Stael in +literature and history. + +An entirely different type of woman from the radical and disputatious +Mme. Royer was the charming and cultured lady, Miss Eleanor Ormerod, her +contemporary, who, in her chosen department of science, won both fame +and the lasting gratitude of her fellowmen. + +Miss Ormerod, unlike Mme. Royer, was preeminently a specialist, and the +branch of science in which she achieved distinction was entomology, or +rather that branch of it known as economic entomology. From her +childhood she manifested an unusual interest in all forms of insects, +but particularly in those which are serviceable to mankind or are +destructive to farms and gardens, orchards and forests. + +Fortunately for the gratification of her peculiar bent of mind, nearly +half of Miss Ormerod's life was spent in a locality which was specially +favorable to the study of insects which are obnoxious to the gardener, +the farmer and the forester. This was at the confluence of the Wye and +the Severn, where her father owned a large landed estate, part of which +was under cultivation and part wood and park land. + +Here the young girl made her first collection of insects, and here she +began her studies on the cause and nature of the parasitic attacks upon +crops. Here she first realized the frightful ravages that were +occasioned by the manifold insect pests that infest not only trees, +shrubs, cereals and vegetables, but also flocks and herds as well. And +here, too, she resolved to devote her life to devising preventive and +remedial treatment for the evils which were robbing the husbandman of so +great a part of the fruits of his toil. + +After taking this generous resolution, the life of our young heroine +was, like that of Liebig and Pasteur, devoted to the welfare of her +fellowmen. And like these noble benefactors of their race, her thought +was always how she might prevent the losses and increase the products of +the tillers of the soil. Entomology with her was not mere +nomenclature--a knowledge of strange and fantastic names, which, with +the ignorant, constitutes a distinction--but one of the most practical +and useful of the sciences. + +Miss Ormerod might, had she so elected, have won fame as a systematic +entomologist and as a distinguished contributor to the already long list +of genera and species of insects. She might have devoted herself to +theoretical work, or bent her energies towards the general advancement +of the science, like Fabricius, Swammerdam, Westwood and Burnmeister; +but she preferred to forego all the glory that might accrue from +pursuing such a course, and to direct her efforts in such wise as to be +of most service to humanity. + +Like the great Pasteur, after his long and laborious experimental +researches on silkworm diseases, Miss Ormerod could, at the end of her +illustrious career, declare with truth: "The results which I have +obtained are, perhaps, less brilliant than those which I might have +anticipated from researches pursued in the field of pure science, but I +have the satisfaction of having served my country in endeavoring, to the +best of my ability, to discover the remedy for great misery. It is to +the honor of a scientific man that he values discoveries which at their +birth can only obtain the esteem of his equals, far above those which at +once conquer the favor of the crowd by the immediate utility of their +application; but, in the presence of misfortune, it is equally an honor +to sacrifice everything in the endeavor to relieve it."[173] + +Miss Ormerod's labors were not, it is true, instrumental in rescuing +from destruction a nation's chief industries, as were Pasteur's in the +case of his famous researches on the phyloxera of the grape vine or the +pebrine of the silkworm. Nor had they to do with such frightful +industrial disturbances as have frequently been occasioned by rinderpest +or by the potato blight in Ireland in 1845. + +This is true in so far as any one pest is concerned. But when one +reflects on the scope of Miss Ormerod's investigations and considers how +far-reaching were her researches and how many and diverse industries +were embraced by the remedial and prophylactic measures which she +proposed, one cannot but realize the immense importance of her +life-work. + +The fact that her activities were confined chiefly to old and well-known +pests--insects from which the farmer and the gardener and the forester +had suffered for centuries, and which they had come to regard as +necessary and inevitable evils--does not detract from the merit and the +value of her labors. That she should have taken up a work which affected +so many people and have been so successful in abating, or in entirely +removing evils which had so long afflicted agriculturists and +stock-growers, shows that she was a woman of rare courage and +determination as well as one of invincible persistence and of +intellectual resources of a very high order. + +During more than a quarter of a century Miss Ormerod devoted practically +the whole of her time to the study of economic entomology and to +spreading a knowledge of it among her countrymen. From 1877 to 1898 she +published annual reports on injurious insects and sent them broadcast +throughout Great Britain and her colonies. In addition to this she wrote +a number of manuals and textbooks on insects injurious to food crops, +forest trees, orchards and bush fruits. + +Nor was this all. She also prepared for gratuitous distribution a large +number of four-page leaflets on the most common farm pests. Of the +leaflet, for instance, on the warble-fly, its life-history, methods of +prevention and remedy, no less than a hundred and seventy thousand +copies were printed. And so great was the demand for her leaflet on the +gooseberry red spider that a single mail brought her an order for three +thousand copies. + +Miss Ormerod, it is proper to state here, received no remuneration +whatever for her great services to the public. On the contrary, she gave +not only all her time gratuitously, but bore a great part of the expense +of printing and distributing her publications. The amount of good she +thus did unaided and alone cannot be estimated. + +In her leaflet on the warble-fly, also known as bot-fly, she estimates +the annual damage to the stock-growers of the United Kingdom from this +pest at from L3,000,000 to L4,000,000. The losses due to fruit, grain +and vegetable insects of various kinds, before she began her insect +crusade, were much greater. In Great Britain and her colonies they +amounted to very many millions of pounds sterling every year.[174] + +And most of these losses, as she demonstrated, were preventable by +simple precautions which she eventually succeeded in inducing the people +to adopt. How much she was instrumental in saving annually to the +farmers and gardeners of England by her writings and lectures can only +be imagined, but the sum must have been immense. + +When we recollect that Miss Ormerod accomplished all her work before it +occurred to the English Board of Agriculture to appoint a government +entomologist, we shall realize what a pioneer she was in the career in +which she achieved such distinction and through which she conferred such +inestimable benefits upon her fellows. + +Miss Ormerod's entomological publications, especially her annual +reports, brought her into relations with people of all classes +throughout the whole world. Her correspondence, in consequence, was +enormous, and not infrequently amounted to from fifty to a hundred +letters a day. The great entomologists of Europe and America held her in +the highest esteem, and had implicit faith in her judgment in all +matters pertaining to her specialty. + +One day she would receive a letter from an English gardener begging for +a remedy against the strawberry beetle. The next day she would have a +similar letter regarding mite-galls on black currants, or pea-weevil +larvae or clover-eel worms. Again there would be a communication from +Norway requesting advice about the Hessian fly, or from Argentina asking +information concerning a certain kind of destructive grass beetle, or +from India appealing for help against a pernicious species of forest +fly, or from South Africa seeking a relief from the boot-beetle. And +still again, she was consulted by her foreign correspondents about +termites, which were causing havoc among the young cocoa trees of +Ceylon, or about certain peculiar species of Australian larvae, or about +the devastating action of the pine beetle in the Scotch forests, or +about the wheat midge and antler moth in Finland. + +One day she had a communication from the Austrian Embassy regarding a +beetle that was eating the oats about Constantinople, and not long +afterwards she received a letter from the Chinese Minister in London +begging for information as to how to prevent the ravages of certain +noxious bugs in the lee-chee orchards of China. + +In view of all these facts it is not surprising that Miss Ormerod became +an active and valued colleague of some of England's most noted +scientific men. Professor Huxley said of her in connection with certain +work performed by her as a member of one of the committees to which he +belonged that "she knew more about the business" than all the rest put +together. + +Miss Ormerod's services and attainments, it is gratifying to note, were +not without recognition in high quarters. Besides being in constant +correspondence with the most eminent entomologists of the world, +consulting entomologist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England and +examiner in agricultural entomology in the University of Edinburgh, she +was a member of many learned societies in both the Old and the New +World. She was also the recipient of many medals, two of which came from +Russia. + +The honor, however, which gave her the most pleasure was the degree of +Doctor of Laws, which was conferred on her by the University of +Edinburgh. It was the first time this old and conservative institution +thus honored a woman, but in honoring Miss Ormerod it honored itself as +well.[175] + +But when one considers the magnitude of Miss Ormerod's services to her +country and to the world, when one reflects on the tens of millions of +pounds sterling which she saved to the British Empire by her researches +and writings, these honors seem trivial and unworthy of the great nation +which she so signally benefited. If any of her countrymen had labored so +long and so successfully and made so many sacrifices for the welfare of +the nation as she had, he would have been knighted or ennobled. But +age-long prejudices and traditions will not yet permit England to bestow +the same honors on women as on men, no matter how brilliant their +attainments or how distinguished their services to the crown and to +humanity. Recognition of this kind may possibly come as one of the +desirable innovations of the twentieth century. No lover of fair play +can deny "'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished."[176] + +The names of the women in the United States who have become prominent by +their researches and writings in the various branches of the natural +sciences would make a long list. And when one recalls the fact that it +was only in the latter part of the nineteenth century that American +women were afforded an opportunity to study science, it is a matter of +surprise that the list is so extended. For practically no provision was +made for the serious pursuit by them of the natural sciences until the +opening of Vassar College in 1865, and it was not until the closing +years of the century that the portals of many men's colleges were +unlocked and thrown open to the hitherto proscribed sex. Considering all +the obstacles they had to overcome, the ignorance, the prejudice, the +opposition of all kinds they had to combat in the United States, women +have already accomplished wonders and bid fair to achieve much more in +the near future. + +Now almost every educational institution in the land, private or state, +has one or more women professors or associate professors. They teach all +the branches of the natural sciences that are taught by their male +colleagues,--botany, geology, mineralogy, zoology, anatomy, bacteriology +and all the numerous subdivisions of these sciences,--and they teach +them with success and eclat. + +They also occupy responsible scientific positions in various state and +federal institutions. Thus one woman has been the principal of the +Denver School of Mines, while another has been the state entomologist +for Missouri. Women are also found doing important work in the National +Museum, in the Smithsonian Institution, and in the Agricultural +Department in Washington, as well as in the various museums, botanical +gardens and public laboratories of the country from the Atlantic to the +Pacific. + +Among those who have deserved well of science in the United States by +their investigations and writings are Olive Thorne Miller and Florence +Merriam in ornithology; Susanna Phelps Gage, Dr. Ida H. Hyde, Mary H. +Hinckley, Cornelia M. Clapp, Edith J. and Agnes M. Claypole in biology; +Rose S. Eigenman in icthyology; Edith M. Patch, Elizabeth W. Peckham, +Emily A. Smith, Cora H. Clarke, J. M. Arms Sheldon, Mary Treat, Mary E. +Murfeldt, Annie T. Slosson in entomology; Elizabeth G. Britton and Clara +E. Cummings in cryptogamic botany; Sarah A. Plummer Lemmon, Katherine E. +Golden, Alice Eastman and Almira Lincoln Phelps in general botany; Ada +D. Davidson, Ella F. Boyd and Florence Bascom in geology. Besides these, +special mention should also be made of Dr. Julia W. Snow for her work on +the microscopical forms of fresh-water algae; Anna Botsford Comstock for +her contributions to our knowledge of microscopic insects; Katherine J. +Bush for her monographs on shallow and deep-water molusca; Harriet +Randolph and Fannie E. Langdon for their studies on worms, and Katherine +Foot for her papers on cellular morphology. Particularly notable, too, +is the work that has been done on marine invertebrates by Mary J. +Rathbun in the United States National Museum and by Florence Wambaugh +Patterson in vegetable physiology and pathology in the Department of +Agriculture in Washington. + +But much as the women just named deserve recognition for their +achievements in the various branches of science to which they have +severally devoted themselves, the one who will always be specially +remembered, not only for her valuable contributions to divers branches +of natural science, but also for her labors in behalf of higher female +education--particularly as president of Radcliffe College--is Mrs. +Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, the wife of the celebrated Swiss-American +naturalist, who gave such an impetus to the study of natural science in +the United States, and whose influence on the general advancement of +science in all its departments has proved so enduring and so +far-reaching. As an inspirer of and collaborator with her gifted +husband, Mrs. Agassiz deserves a large page in the annals of science, +while as an enthusiastic student of nature and as one who communicated +her enthusiasm to her students, and at the same time held up before them +the highest ideals of womanhood, she is sure of a portion of that +immortality which has been decreed to her illustrious life-partner, Jean +Louis Agassiz. + +This chapter would not be complete without some reference to that large +class of women travelers who, directly or indirectly, have contributed +so much to the advancement of the natural sciences. The gifted Roumanian +writer and traveler, Princess Helena Kolzoff Massalsky,--better known +under her pseudonym, Doria d'Istria,--somewhere expresses the opinion +that a woman traveler admirably supplements the scientific work of the +male explorer by bringing to it aptitudes that the latter does not +possess. For she notes many things in nature, as well as in the national +life and popular customs of the countries which she traverses, which +escape the more hebetudinous perceptions of men, and thus a vast field, +that would otherwise remain unknown, is opened to observation and +critical study. + +One of the most noted travelers of her sex in the nineteenth century was +the famous Ida Pfeiffer, of Austria. During the years intervening +between 1842 and 1858, the date of her death, she traveled nearly two +hundred thousand miles and, in so doing, visited nearly every quarter of +the globe. When one recalls the difficulties and discomforts of +transportation in the early part of the last century, as compared with +our present facilities and conveniences, and bears in mind the fact that +her traveling expenses for an entire year were less than those of a +Lamartine or a Chateaubriand for a single week, we must admit that her +achievements were, indeed, extraordinary. + +Besides being the author of numerous books which had for many years a +great vogue--books which, by reason of the keen observations and the +absolutely truthful narratives of their author, are still of special +value to the student of geography and ethnology--she made collections +illustrative of botany, mineralogy and entomology which were +subsequently secured for the British Museum and other similar +institutions in Europe. + +No one more highly appreciated Frau Pfeiffer's efforts in behalf of +science than did the illustrious Alexander von Humboldt, whose +friendship was one of the greatest joys of this remarkable woman's life. +Through his recommendation and that of the noted geographer, Karl +Ritter, she was made an honorary member of the Geographical Society of +Berlin. Besides this, the King of Prussia conferred on her the gold +medal for arts and sciences. + +Three other women, all representatives of Great Britain, likewise +deserve notice for their extensive travels and the interesting and +instructive accounts which they published of them. These are Constance +Gordon Cumming, Isabella Bird Bishop and Amelia B. Edwards. + +More notable in many respects than these three distinguished women were +Miss Mary H. Kingsley and Madame Octavie Coudreau. For their +contributions to science and for their daring adventures in savage +lands, they have won for themselves an unique position among women +explorers. + +Miss Kingsley--the niece of the well-known writer and naturalist, +Charles Kingsley--exhibited much of her uncle's literary ability and +love of nature. So complete was her intellectual grasp of the most +difficult problems, and so rare was her overflowing sympathy for all of +God's creatures, that she was well described as possessing "the brain of +a man and the heart of a woman." + +In order to get at first-hand information that was necessary to complete +a work which her father, George Kingsley, had, owing to his premature +death, left unfinished, she determined to visit that part of West Africa +"where all authorities agreed that the Africans were at their wildest +and worst." Accompanied only by the natives, she travelled among +cannibals, pushed her way through mangrove swamps and pestilential +morasses. She spent months in a canoe exploring the territory watered by +the Calabar and Ogowe rivers, often in imminent peril of death from wild +animals or wilder men. + +When not studying the manners and customs of the native tribes, she was +hunting fishes and reptiles in streams and quagmires and collecting +insects in the weird, grim twilight of the equatorial forest with its +inextricable tangle of creepers, its great hanging tapestries of vines +and flowers, its myriads of bush-ropes, suspended from the summits of +tall buttressed trees, "some as straight as plumb lines, others coiled +round and intertwined among each other until one could fancy one was +looking on some mighty battle between armies of gigantic serpents that +had been arrested at its height by some mighty spell." + +The results of Miss Kingsley's wanderings in this dark and uncanny +wilderness and among the savage tribes visited by her were her two +instructive volumes entitled _Travels in West Africa_ and _West African +Studies_. In addition to these two works from her pen there are +deposited in the British Museum an interesting collection of insects, +fishes and reptiles--many of them new species and some of them named in +her honor--which testifies to her activity as a collector and her +enthusiasm as a naturalist. + +Her brilliant and useful career was cut short in Cape Colony, whither +she had gone as an army nurse during the Boer war. In view of her +achievements one is not surprised to learn that her countrymen regarded +her premature taking-off as a national misfortune. The noblest monument +to her memory is "The Mary Kingsley Society of West Africa," whose +object is to carry on, as far as may be, the beneficent work she began +on the West African coast and to accomplish for English rule in this +part of the world what the "Royal Asiatic Society" has achieved for +British administration in India. + +Madame Coudreau is designated in _Qui Etes-Vous_--the French Who's +Who--as an _exploratrice_. This well characterizes her; for, if not the +first woman explorer by profession, she is certainly the most energetic +and successful. + +Her first work was in French Guiana, under instructions from the +colonial minister of France. This was in 1894. The following year she +began the scientific exploration of the province of Para in northern +Brazil, in collaboration with her husband, Henri Coudreau, who had +previously distinguished himself by his achievements as a writer and as +an explorer in French Guiana. The fruit of their joint work from 1895 to +1899 was six quarto volumes profusely illustrated by photographs which +they had taken and by carefully executed charts of the various rivers +which they had explored. + +While engaged in the exploration of the Trombetas, a tributary of the +Amazon, Henri Coudreau was taken seriously ill, and, after a few days' +struggle against the disease with which he was stricken, he expired in +the depths of the forest primeval, where he was buried by his desolate +and disconsolate widow. After such a calamity any other woman would +have left the tropics at once and returned to her home and friends. Not +so Mme. Coudreau. With matchless courage and determination she buried +her grief in the work in which her husband had been so interested, and, +after completing the unfinished survey, published the results of this +expedition under the title _Voyage au Trombetas_. + +Having completed this work, she was engaged by the states of Para and +Amazonas to explore a number of other rivers in the vast territory known +as Amazonia. This commission involved the most arduous and dangerous +kind of labor and was a task which few men would have been willing to +undertake. It is doubtful if any other woman would have ventured on such +an expedition, and it is quite certain that no other one could have been +found that was so well equipped for this herculean undertaking or who +would have carried it to a more successful issue. + +Mme. Coudreau was in the service of Amazonia, in the capacity of +official explorer, from 1899 to 1906. Most of this time she spent in a +canoe on the affluents of the Amazon, or in her tent in the dense +forests under the equator. Her only companions were negroes, or Indians, +or Brazilian halfbreeds who served her as porters, cooks and boatmen. +Frequently they were in the forest wilds for many months at a time and +far away from every vestige of civilized life. As it was impossible to +take sufficient provisions with them to last them during the whole of +their journey, they had to depend on wild fruits and such fish and game +as they were able to secure. Often they were forced to live for weeks at +a time on an unchanging diet of manioc and tapir meat. + +But their sufferings were not confined to hunger and disagreeable--often +indigestible--food. There were the heavy steaming atmosphere and the +broiling rays of a superheated sun, especially when reflected from the +mirror-like surface of lake or river, which were so debilitating and +exhausting that physical exertion of any kind was at times almost +impossible. There were also the torrential and incessant rains--making +it impossible for them to cook their food or dry their clothing--which +added to their miseries whether in camp or in their canoe. + +Great, however, as were their trials on the river, they were trifling in +comparison with those in the woods. Here locomotion was impeded by +tangled undergrowth which was bound together by strands of lianas and +thorny vines which constituted an impenetrable barrier until a passage +was hewn through it with a machete. Under foot was a yielding morass +which threatened to absorb them. Overhead were countless chigoes, +garapatas and fire-ants which infested the body or buried themselves in +the flesh. Or there were clouds of mosquitoes which gave no rest day or +night. And worst of all was the ever-present danger of fever and +dysentery, not to speak of the dread diseases so common in certain +sections of the equatorial regions. It was then that Mme. Coudreau had +to act the part of a physician, as well as of a leader, even though she +was at the time such a sufferer herself that she was barely able to +stand. + +To make matters still more difficult for Mme. Coudreau, her employees at +times, especially when under the influence of liquor which they +contrived to obtain some way or other, became mutinous and refused to +accompany her to the end of her journey. At other times the expedition +was halted by their fear of wild beasts or savage Indians, or by +imaginary evils of many kinds, suggested to them by their superstitious +minds. On such occasions Mme. Coudreau never failed to show herself a +born leader of men, for she invariably--alone as she was with a crew who +were often half savages--was successful in suppressing incipient +rebellion and in restoring obedience and order.[177] + +Continually confronted, as she was, by such trials and difficulties, +privations and dangers, one would imagine that the delicately reared +Frenchwoman would have sought immediate release from an engagement that +necessitated so much exposure and suffering and sought surcease of +sorrow in the distractions and gaieties of pleasure-loving Paris. + +Nothing, however, was farther from her thoughts. Intrepid and +resourceful, she feared no danger and hesitated before no difficulty, +however great. As an explorer she was as venturesome as Crevaux and as +conscientious as La Condamine. Like them, who were both her countrymen, +she spent many years of her life in the equinoctial regions, and, like +them, she contributed immensely to our knowledge of the Land of the +Southern Cross. + +Never did the tropics have a greater fascination for anyone than for +Mme. Coudreau. During the twelve years she spent there, exploring its +rivers and traversing its interminable forests, the spell of Amazonia +was ever upon her and was never broken, even for a moment. + +"I have," she writes, "loved everything in Amazonia, the great majestic +woodland and the mysterious virgin forest, the beautiful rivers with +their traitorous waters and thundering cataracts, the suffocating air +and the perfumed breeze, the burning sun and the sweet freshness of +night, the impressive voice of the wind among the trees and the +torrential rain. And, contrary to the usual custom of man of bringing +everything under his domination, it is I who have become a captive of +this savage life which I love, and have permitted it to take possession +of all my soul and all my will."[178] + +Elsewhere she declares: "In the solitude of the virgin forest I am calm, +tranquil, experience no ennui and am almost merry. When I am obliged to +leave the great woodland the power to struggle grows less in me. I +become of an excessive sensibility. I feel more keenly life's blows. I +am not armed for elbowing my way and making a place for myself in the +sunshine. I neither love nor understand anything except my virgin +forest. There, indeed, I suffer from the inclemency of the weather, from +hunger, from sickness; but these are only physical sufferings and are +soon forgotten, while moral and interior pains, on the contrary, are +ineradicable."[179] + +And still again she tells us: "The solitude of the virgin forest has +become a necessity for me; it attracts me by its mysterious silence, and +only in the great woods have I the impression of being at home."[180] + +Can we wonder that such an ardent lover of Nature and such a strenuous +votary of science was able to forget herself in her work and was able, +notwithstanding her toils and her sufferings, to produce six quarto +volumes of reports, in as many years, on the unexplored regions which +she had so carefully surveyed and charted? Can we be surprised that her +labors received due recognition from learned societies in both the New +and the Old World, and that she was acclaimed as an explorer who had +rendered distinct service to the cause of natural science, as well as to +geography?[181] + +When we recall the labors of this lone daughter of France in the wilds +of the tropics, with no one to communicate with except her +half-civilized servants and boatmen, we instinctively hark back to days +not long past and estimate the enormous progress women have made in +social and intellectual freedom within but a few decades. + +Owing to the policy of repression which so long prevailed regarding the +intellectual efforts of women, and the social obstacles which prevented +them from publicly acknowledging the offspring of their genius, women +like the Bronte sisters, George Sand and George Eliot were compelled to +conceal their identity under male designations. Because it was +considered immodest for a woman to appear before the public as an +author, Lady Nairne, after Burns, the most popular song writer in +Scotland, felt obliged to keep secret the authorship of her beautiful +poems. + +Similarly, family honor made it incumbent on Fanny Mendelssohn to +refrain from publishing her musical compositions under her own name. +Accordingly, they appeared along with those of her brother Felix, and so +similar are they in color and sentiment to his own productions that they +are indistinguishable from them, unless the author's signature be +attached. To satisfy an inane public opinion, they long contributed "to +swell the volume of her brother's fame," and there is reason to believe +that some of them still appear under his name at the present day. + +Yes, truly, when one recalls these and similar facts, one cannot help +exclaiming: "What a marvelous change in the attitude of the world toward +women within the memories of those still living!" Women like Miss +Ormerod, Miss Kingsley and Mme. Coudreau would have been ostracized if +they had dared to attempt, in the days of Lady Nairne, the Bronte +sisters and Fanny Mendelssohn, what they may now do not only without +censure but without exciting more than passing comment. The ban has been +lifted from what was for ages tabu for women, and the sphere of their +intellectual activities is now almost coextensive with that of the +sterner sex. Not only does society no longer point the finger of scorn +at the woman naturalist or the woman explorer, but it showers honors on +her while living and erects monuments to her memory when dead. A great +change, indeed, and one long and ardently desired. Verily, _tempora +mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[164] In his erudite work, _Geschichte der Botanik_, Vol. III, p. 517, +Koenigsberg, 1856, Ernest H. F. Meyer gives in a few words his estimate +of the excellence of Hildegard's _Physica_: "Aber als ehrwuerdiges +Denkmal des Alterthums und einer zu jener Zeit nicht gemeinen +Naturkentniss empfehlen sich zumal deutschen Naturforschern ihre vier +Buecher der _Physica_.... Denn nicht nur der deutsche Botaniker und +Zoologe finden in ihrer Physik fast die ersten rohen Anfaenge +vaterlaendische Naturforshung, auch dem Artzt bietet sic fuer jene Zeit +ueberraschende Erscheinung dar, eine nicht von Dioskorides abgeleitete, +sondern unverkennbar aus der Volksueberlieferung geschoepfte +Heilmittellehre; und der Sprachforscher stoesst im lateinischen Text +beinahe Zeile um Zeile auf deutsche Ausdruecke seltener Sprachformen." + +[165] Hildegardis _Opera Omnia_, p. 1122, Migne's Edition, Paris, 1882. + +[166] "Constat permulta S. Hildegardi nota jam fuisse, quae caeteri medii +aevi scriptores nescierunt, quaeque sagaces demum recentiorum temporum +indagatores reperierunt ac tamquam nova ventitarunt." Ibid. Dr. Karl +Jessen, in his thoughtful _Botanik der Gegenwart und Vorzeit in +Culturhistorischer Entwickelung_, p. 123, Leipzig, 1864, expresses +himself on the extraordinary medical knowledge of the abbess of Bingen +as follows: "Wer deutsche Volkarznei studieren will, der studiere +Hildegard und er wird Respect davor bekommen." + +[167] _Compendio Storico della Scuola Anatomica di Bologna_, p. 358, by +Michele Medici, Bologna, 1857, and _Notizie degli Scrittori Bolognesi_, +Tom. VI, p. 113, by Giovanni Fantuzzi, Bologna, 1788. + +Certain writers tell us of another woman who distinguished herself in +anatomy in the early part of the fourteenth century. Her name was +Alessandra Giliani, who is said to have been a pupil and an assistant of +the celebrated Mondino, father of modern anatomy. In addition to +possessing great skill in dissection, she is reputed to have devised a +means of drawing the blood from the veins and arteries--even the most +minute--and then filling them with variously colored liquids which +quickly solidified. By this means, we are told, she was able to exhibit +the circulatory system in all its details and complexity, and to have +always on hand, for purposes of instruction, a model that was absolutely +true to nature. + +How much truth there may be in these statements regarding a young girl, +who was only nineteen when she died, is difficult to determine. Medici, +in concluding his account of her and referring to the inscription on her +tomb, which seems to authenticate all the claims made for her, expresses +himself as follows: "In quoting this document, I do not intend that my +readers shall accord to it a credence that I myself abstain from giving +it, but only that they may know of it, if for no other reason than to +satisfy their curiosity." Op. cit., pp. 30 and 362, note I. Should the +traditions regarding this precocious girl be verified, it would be most +gratifying to the people of Bologna, for it would add one more to the +long list of her illustrious women. + +[168] The titles of the two works of this remarkable woman are of +sufficient interest to be given in full. They are as follows: + +1. _Veritable Declaration de la Decouverte des Mines et Minieres par le +Moyen desquelles Sa Majeste et Sujets se peuvent passer des Pays +Etrangers_, Paris, 1632. + +2. _La Restitution de Pluton a Mgr. l'Eminent Card. de Richelieu, des +Mines et Minieres de France, cachees jusqu'a present au Ventre de la +Terre, par la Moyen desquelles les Finances de sa Majeste seront +beaucoup plus Grandes que celles de tous les Princes Chrestiens et ses +Sujets plus Heureux de tous les Peuples._ Paris, 1640. + +[169] _Die Verdienste der Frauen um Naturwissenschaft and Heilkunde_, p. +169, von Dr. C. F. Harless, Goettingen, 1830. + +[170] The Latin title of this interesting work is _De Generatione et +Metamorphose Insectorum Surinamensium_, Amsterdam, 1705. + +[171] The Latin edition of this work is entitled _Erucarum Ortus, +Alimenta et Paradoxa Metamorphosis_, Amsterdam, 1718. It was afterwards +translated into French and published under the title _Histoire des +Insectes de l'Europe_. + +[172] _Die Leistungen der deutschen Frau in den letzen vierhundert +Jahren auf wissenschaftlichem Gebiebte_, p. 85, von Elise Oelsner, +Guhrau, 1894. + +[173] In his preface to _Les Maladies des Vers a Soie_. + +[174] It is estimated that the loss to the United States from cattle +ticks alone is $100,000,000 a year. According to the year-book of the +Agricultural Department for 1904, the annual losses to agriculture from +destructive insects reach the enormous sum of $420,000,000. + +[175] The dean of the law faculty in presenting Miss Ormerod to the +vice-chancellor on this occasion and speaking before an audience of +three thousand people said, among other things: "The preeminent position +which Miss Ormerod holds in the world of science is the reward of +patient study and unwearying observation. Her investigations have been +chiefly directed towards the discovery of methods for the prevention of +the ravages of those insects which are injurious to orchard, field and +forest. Her labors have been crowned with such success, that she is +entitled to be hailed as the protectress of agriculture and the fruits +of the earth--a beneficent Demeter of the nineteenth century." _Eleanor +Ormerod, Economic Entomologist, Autobiography and Correspondence_, +Edited by Robert Wallace, p. 96, London, 1904. + +[176] _The Canadian Entomologist_, September, 1901, in an obituary +notice of Miss Ormerod, well voiced the high appreciation in which she +was held throughout the civilized world in the following paragraph: +"Miss Ormerod was one of the most remarkable women of the latter half of +the nineteenth century and did more than any one else in the British +Isles to further the interests of farmers, fruit-growers and gardeners +by making known to them methods for controlling and subduing their +multiform insect pests. Her labors were unwearied and unselfish; she +received no remuneration for her services, but cheerfully expended her +private means in carrying out her investigations and publishing their +results. We know not now by whom in England this work can be continued; +it is not likely that anyone can follow in the unique path laid out by +Miss Ormerod; we may, therefore, cherish the hope that the Government of +the day will hold out a helping hand and establish an entomological +bureau for the lasting benefit of the great agricultural interests of +the country." Professor J. Ritzema Bos, the distinguished entomologist +of Holland, had no hesitation in proclaiming Miss Ormerod the first +economic entomologist in England and one of the most famous economic +entomologists in the world. + +[177] The following dialogue between Mme. Coudreau and one of her +boatmen, Joas-Felix, who was the spokesman of his companions, +illustrates not only the bravery of the daring explorer, but also the +pusillanimity of her half-breed personnel when in the depths of the +forest at night: + +"'Madam has no fear?' + +"'Fear of what?' + +"'Of tigers.' + +"'No, it is not of tigers that I have fear.' + +"'Of Indians?' + +"'Neither have I fear of Indians.' + +"'Then, madam, it is something which is in the woods, which we do not +know, that can harm us.' + +"'You know very well what frightens me. I am afraid that the bats will +attack my chickens during the night. If you hear them making a noise you +must get up.' + +"I laugh heartily in observing their astonished look and ask myself how +men whose consciences are stained with many bloody crimes can have fear +here. Joas-Felix gives me the explanation: + +"'Madam makes game of us. None the less, madam, I am a man in the city +and in the savanna. With my poignard and machete I fear nothing, neither +man nor beast. But here, madam, where everything is dark, even in the +daytime; where an enemy may be lying in wait for us behind every tree; +it is not the same thing. It would be impossible for me to live in the +forest. One cannot see far enough in it.' + +"Now I understand better their terror. The mysterious depth of the +virgin forest impresses them. The opaque obscurity of the night in the +underwood contrasts too strongly with the moonlit savanna where they +have been reared. The low and sombre vault of the woods oppresses them +and they imagine they are going to be crushed. They lose their heads and +see in every tree a phantom enemy. To reason with them is useless, for +when fear takes possession of them, there is nothing to be done." +_Voyage au Maycuru_, p. 127. + +[178] _Voyage au Maycuru_, p. 1, Paris, 1903. + +[179] _Voyage au Rio Curua_, p. 85, Paris, 1903. + +[180] Ibid., p. 1. + +[181] In order that the reader may realize the immense extent of +territory that was covered by this strenuous woman's explorations, +during the twelve years she spent in Amazonia, it suffices to give the +titles of her books, all of which are profusely illustrated by +photographs taken by herself and by accurate charts of rivers, whose +courses were previously almost unknown. + +The books written in collaboration with her husband are _Voyage au +Tapajos_, _Voyage au Xingu_, _Voyage au Tocantins-Araguaya_, _Voyage au +Itaboca et a l'Etacayuna_, _Voyage entre Tocantins et Xingu_, _et Voyage +au Yamunda_. + +The books written by Mme. Coudreau after her husband's death are _Voyage +au Trombetas_, _Voyage au Cumina_, _Voyage au Rio Curua_, _Voyage a la +Mapuera_ and _Voyage au Maycuru_. + +When one remembers that many of the watercourses here named would be +considered large rivers outside of South America; that, notwithstanding +their countless rapids and waterfalls, necessitating numberless +portages, Mme. Coudreau explored all these rivers from their embouchures +to as near their sources as the water would carry her rude dugouts, we +can form some idea of the miles she traveled and of the stupendous labor +that was involved in making these long journeys in the sweltering and +debilitating and insect-laden atmosphere of the Amazon basin. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WOMEN IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY + + +As woman was the first nurse, so was she also the first practitioner of +the healing art. Among savages the world over it is the women, in the +great majority of cases, who have the care of the sick and wounded, and +who, by reason of their superior knowledge of simples for the cure of +diseases, occupy the position of doctors. In certain parts of the +uncivilized world there are, it is true, shamans or medicine men; but +these are conjurers or exorcists, who profess to expel disease, or +rather the evil spirits causing the disease, by sorcery or incantation, +rather than physicians who essay to cure ailments or relieve suffering +by the use of substances which experience has showed to possess remedial +properties. In a word, the shaman is a kind of a religious functionary +who imposes on the ignorance of his tribe and who holds his position by +the fear he excites, and not by any knowledge he possesses of the +healing art. It was the same, we may believe, in the early history of +our race--women, and not men, were the first physicians; and they were +also most probably the first surgeons. + +According to Greek mythology, the god of the medical art was Aesculapius, +a male; but his six daughters, as antiquity beautifully expressed it, +were not only goddesses but were also medical mistresses--_artifices +medici_--of suffering humanity. Of these Hygiea was specially +distinguished as the goddess of health, or, rather, as the conserver of +good health, while Panacea was invoked as the restorer of health after +it had been impaired or lost. + +One of the most beautiful pictures in the Iliad is that representing the +daughter of Augea, King of the Epei, caring for the wounded and +suffering Greeks on the plain before Troy. She was: + + "His eldest born, hight Agamede, with golden hair, + A leech was she, and well she knew all herbs on ground that grew." + +Nothing deterred by the din of battle around her, she provided cordial +potions for the disabled warrior and prepared + + "The gentle bath and washed their gory wounds." + +What a beautiful prototype of another ministering angel in the same land +nearly thirty centuries later, amid similar scenes of suffering--of one +who, though unsung by immortal bard, the world will never let die--the +courageous, the self-sacrificing Florence Nightingale. + +That there were in Greece from the earliest times numerous women +possessed of a high degree of medical skill is evidenced by many of the +ancient writers. They were what we would call medical herbalists, and +not a few of them exhibited a natural genius for determining the +curative virtues of rare plants and a remarkable sagacity in preparing +from them juices, infusions and soothing anodynes. Others there were +who, in addition to evincing the cunning of leechcraft in the +therapeutic art, were distinguished for nimble hands in treating painful +lesions and festering sores, and who, when occasion required, were +experts in "quickly drawing the barb from the flesh and healing the +wound of the soldier." + +In the Odyssey special mention is made of the surpassing expertness of +the Egyptian female leech, Polydamna, whose name signifies the subduer +of many diseases. The land of the Nile, the poet tells us, "teems with +drugs," and + + "There ev'ry man in skill medicinal + Excels, for these are sons of Paeon all." + +In this favored cradle of civilization, to which Greece owed so much of +its knowledge and culture, there were many women who, like Polydamna, +achieved distinction in the healing art, and many, too, we have reason +to think, who communicated their knowledge to their sisters in the fair +land of Hellas. + +But not only were there in Greece women physicians like Agamede, who +were noted for their general medicinal knowledge and practice, but there +were also others who made a specialty of treating ailments peculiar to +their own sex. This we learn from a passage in the _Hippolytus_ of +Euripides, wherein the nurse of Phaedra addressed the suffering queen in +the following words: + + "If under pains + Thou labor, such as may not be revealed, + To succor thee thy female friends are here. + But if the other sex may know thy sufferings + Let the physician try his healing art." + +More positive information, however, is afforded us by the ancient Roman +author Hyginus, who, in writing of the Greek maiden, Agnodice, tells us +how the medical profession was legalized for all the free-born women of +Athens. Instead of a literal translation of Hyginus, the version of his +story is given in the quaint language of one Mrs. Celleor, a noted +midwife in the reign of James II. + +"Among the subtile Athenians," writes Mrs. Celleor, "a law at one time +forbade women to study or practice medicine or physick on pain of death, +which law continued some time, during which many women perished, both in +child-bearing and by private diseases, their modesty not permitting them +to admit of men either to deliver or cure them. But God finally stirred +up the spirit of Agnodice, a noble maid, to pity the miserable condition +of her own sex, and hazard her life to help them; which, to enable +herself to do, she apparelled her like a man and became the scholar of +Hierophilos, the most learned physician of the time; and, having learnt +the art, she found out a woman that had long languished under private +diseases, and made proffer of her service to cure her, which the sick +person refused, thinking her to be a man; but, when Agnodice discovered +that she was a maid, the woman committed herself into her hands, who +cured her perfectly; and after her many others, with the like skill and +industry, so that in a short time she became the successful and beloved +physician of the whole sex." + +When it became known that Agnodice was a woman "she was like to be +condemned to death for transgressing the law--which, coming to the ears +of the noble women, they ran before the Areopagites, and, the house +being encompassed by most women of the city, the ladies entered before +the judges and told them they would no longer account them for husbands +and friends, but for cruel enemies, that condemned her to death who +restored to them their health, protesting they would all die with her if +she were put to death. This caused the magistrates to disannul the law +and make another, which gave gentlewomen leave to study and practice all +parts of physick to their own sex, giving large stipends to those that +did it well and carefully. And there were many noble women who studied +that practice and taught it publicly in their schools as long as Athens +flourished in learning."[182] + +After the time of Agnodice many Greek women won distinction in medicine, +some as practitioners in the healing art, others as writers on medical +subjects. Nor were their activities confined to the land of Hellas. They +were also found succoring the infirm and instructing the poor and +ignorant in Italy, Egypt and Asia Minor. Among these was Theano, the +wife of Pythagoras, who, after her husband's death, assumed charge of +his school of philosophy, and who, like her husband and teacher, was +distinguished for her attainments in medicine. The names of many others +occur in the pages of Hippocrates, Galen and Pliny; and frequent +references are made to the works and prescriptions of women doctors who +enjoyed more than ordinary celebrity during their time. Of these female +practitioners many confined their practice to the diseases of women and +children, while others excelled in surgery and pharmacy, as well as in +general medical practice. + +Among the medical women whom antiquity especially honored, particularly +during the Greco-Roman period, were Origenia, Aspasia--not the famous +wife of Pericles--and Cleopatra, who was not, however, as is often +asserted, the ill-fated queen of Egypt. Likewise deserving of special +mention was Metradora, of whom there is still preserved in Florence a +manuscript work on the diseases of women,[183] and Antiochis, to whom +her admiring countrymen erected a statue bearing the following +inscription: "Antiochis, daughter of Diodotos of Tlos; the council and +the commune of the city of Tlos, in appreciation of her medical ability, +erected at their own expense this statue in her honor." + +Pliny, the naturalist, felicitates the Romans on having been for nearly +six hundred years free from the brood of doctors. These he does not +hesitate to berate roundly. His statement regarding the non-existence of +physicians, it must be observed, is somewhat exaggerated. It is true +that during the first five centuries there were no professional doctors +who lived entirely on their practice. There were, however, many men who +had by long experience gained an extensive knowledge of drugs and +simples, and who were able to dress wounds and treat diseases with +considerable success. + +The first Greek freeman to practice medicine in Rome was one Archagatos, +about two centuries B.C. He was soon followed by one of his countrymen +named Asclepiades. These two soon built up a great reputation as +successful practitioners, and were held in the highest esteem by the +people of Rome. In consequence of this and of the favorable conditions +offered foreigners for the practice of the healing art, there was soon a +large influx of physicians and surgeons from Greece, not only into Rome +but also into other parts of Italy. + +Not long after the arrival of Greek doctors in the capital of the Roman +world we learn of certain women physicians in Rome who were held in high +repute. Among these were Victoria and Leoparda, both mentioned by the +medical writer, Theodorus Priscianus. To Victoria, Priscianus dedicates +the third book of his _Rerum Medicarum_, and in the preface to this book +he refers to her as one who has not only an accurate knowledge of +medicine, but also as one who is a keen observer and experienced +practitioner. + +The word _medica_, which occurs in Latin authors of the classical +period, testifies to the existence of the woman doctor as early as the +age of Augustus. + +But the most important documents bearing on women physicians, not only +in the city of Rome but also in Italy, Gaul and the Iberian peninsula, +are the large body of epigraphic monuments which have recently been +brought to light, and which prove beyond all doubt that women were not +only obstetricians, but that they were successful practitioners in the +entire field of medical art. Thus a funeral tablet found in Portugal +tells of a woman who was a most excellent physician--_medica +optima_--while another describes the deceased not only as a woman +incomparable for her virtues, but also as a mistress of medical +science, _antistes disciplinae in medicina fuit_. + +The Greek word for _medica_--_iatromaia_--occasionally found in some of +the inscriptions, seems to refer specially to women of Greek origin or +birth. This is particularly true of a monument erected to one Valiae, who +is designated as _Kalista iatromaia_--the best doctor.[184] + +Among the many women who became converts to Christianity during the +early ages of the church a goodly number were physicians. Unfortunately, +our information respecting these votaries of the healing art is not as +complete as we could wish. One of the most noted of them is St. +Theodosia, whose name is given in the Roman martyrology for the +twenty-ninth of May. She was the mother of the martyr, St. Procopius, +and was distinguished for her knowledge of medicine and surgery, both of +which she practiced in Rome with the most signal success. She died a +heroic death by the sword during the persecution of Diocletian. + +Another woman who was as eminent for her knowledge of medicine as for +her holiness of life was St. Nicerata, who lived in Constantinople +during the reign of the emperor Arcadius. She is said to have cured St. +John Chrysostom of an affection of the stomach from which he was a +sufferer. + +To the Roman lady Fabiola, remarkable as the daughter of one of the most +illustrious patrician families of Rome, but more remarkable for her +sanctity and her boundless charity toward the poor, was due the erection +of the first hospital--a noble structure which she founded in Ostia, at +the mouth of the Tiber, which was then the port of entry to the capital +of the Roman empire. Here the noble matron received the poor and +suffering from all parts, and did everything in her power to afford +them succor in their wants and infirmities. + +It is difficult for us now, when hospitals and charitable institutions +of all kinds are so common, to understand what an innovation Fabiola's +unheard-of institution was considered by her contemporaries. For her +method of treating the needy and the suffering was as different from +that which had hitherto obtained as were the debasing lessons of +heathendom from the elevating precepts of the Gospels. + +No wonder that the news of this godlike work was soon wafted to the +uttermost bounds of the earth; that, in the words of St. Jerome, "summer +should announce in Britain what Egypt and Parthia had learned in the +spring." No wonder that the same eloquent hermit of Bethlehem should +proclaim the foundress of this home of the indigent and the afflicted to +be "the glory of the church, the astonishment of the Gentiles, the +mother of the poor and the consolation of the saints." No wonder that, +in contemplating her countless acts of charity, he should ignore the +fact that Fabiola was a daughter of the Fabii and a descendant of the +renowned Quintus Maximus, who, by his sage counsel, had saved his +country from her enemies, and that, recalling the words of Virgil, he +should declare: "If I had a hundred tongues and a hundred mouths and +iron lungs, I should not be able to enumerate all the maladies to which +Fabiola gave the most prodigal care and tenderness--to the extent even +of making the poor who were in health envy the good fortune of those who +were sick."[185] No wonder that Fabiola's funeral, which brought +together the whole of Rome, was more like an apotheosis than the +transfer of the remains of the deceased to their last resting-place, and +that Jerome should declare, "the glory of Furius and Papirius and +Scipio and Pompey, when they triumphed over the Gauls, the Sammites, +Numantia and Pontus" was less than that which was spontaneously accorded +to Fabiola, the solace of the sick and the comforter of the distressed. +For she had in her hospital at Ostia established a type of institution +that was to effect more for ameliorating the condition of suffering +humanity than anything that had before been dreamed of; something that +was to contribute immensely to the efforts of physicians and surgeons in +minimizing the sad ravages of wounds and disease; something whose +beneficent effects were to be felt through the centuries and in every +part of the world down to the wards of the military hospital at Scutari, +guarded by the watchful eyes of Florence Nightingale, and to the +leper-tenanted lazarettos, blessed by the ministrations of Father Damien +and the Sisters of Charity, on the desolate shores of plague-stricken +Molokai. + +After the fall of the Roman empire and through the long period of the +Middle Ages, when the monasteries and convents were almost the only +centers of learning and culture for the greater part of Europe, the +practice of medicine was to a great extent in the hands of monks and +nuns. For every religious house was then a hospital as well as a school, +a place where drugs and ointments were compounded and distributed, as +well as a place where manuscripts were transcribed and illuminated. At a +time when there were but few professional physicians and when these few +were widely separated from one another, the only places where the poor +could always be sure to find free medical treatment as well as abundant +alms were those sanctuaries of knowledge and charity where the love of +one's neighbor was never lost sight of in the love of science and +literature. And during this time, too, the care of the sick was regarded +as a duty incumbent on everyone, but particularly on those devoted to +the service of God in religion. It was considered, above all, as a duty +devolving on women, especially on the lady in the castle and on the nun +in the convent. + +The old romance of _Sir Isumbras_ gives us a charming picture of the +nuns of long ago receiving the wounded knight and ministering unto him +until he was made whole and strong, as witness the following verses: + + "The nonnes of him they were full fayne, + For that he had the Saracenes slayne + And those haythene houndes. + And of his paynnes sare ganne them rewe. + Ilke a day they made salves new + And laid them till his woundes; + They gave him metis and drynkis lythe, + And heled the knyghte wunder swythe." + +So universally during mediaeval times was the healing art considered as +pertaining to woman's calling that it became a part of the curriculum in +convent schools; and no girl's education was considered complete unless +she had an elementary knowledge of medicine and of that part of surgery +which deals with the treatment of wounds. For during those troublous +times a woman was liable to be called upon at any time to nurse the sick +wayfarer or dress the wounds of those who had been maimed in battle or +in the tourney. + +Illustrations of these facts are found in many of the romances and +fabliaux of the Middle Ages. Thus, when a sick or wounded man was given +hospitality in a chateau or castle it was not the seigneur, but his wife +and daughters, as being better versed in medicine and surgery, who acted +as nurses and doctors and took entire charge of the patient until his +recovery. + +In the exquisite little story of _Aucassin et Nicolette_, the heroine is +pictured as setting the dislocated shoulder of her lover in the +following simple but touching language: + +"Nicolette searched his hurt, and perceived that his shoulder was out of +joint. She handled it so deftly with her white hands, and used such +skillful surgery that, by the grace of God, who loveth all true lovers, +the shoulder came back to its place. Then she plucked flowers and fresh +grasses and green leafage, and bound them tightly about the setting with +the hem torn from her shift, and he was altogether healed." + +And in the mediaeval Latin poem, _Waltharius_, written by a German monk, +Ekkehard, reference is made to a sanguinary contest in which one of the +combatants falls to the earth seriously wounded. Seeing this, +Alpharides, in a loud voice, summons a young girl, who timidly comes +forward and dresses the unfortunate man's wound.[186] + +Still more to our purpose is a passage from the famous epic poem, +_Tristan and Isolde_, written by _Godfrey of Strasburg_, in which +Isolde, accompanied by her mother and cousin, is represented as +administering restoratives to Tristan, who had fallen exhausted after +his combat with the dragon. It shows that women, in accompanying an army +to the field of battle, always went provided with bandages and +medicaments for dressing wounds and fractured limbs. Similarly Angelica, +in _Orlando Furioso_, and Ermina, in _Jerusalem Delivered_, are +portrayed as surgeons with deftness of hand and leeches with rare +knowledge and skill. + +The frequent introduction of women doctors into the poems and romances +of the Middle Ages would of itself, if other evidence were wanting, +suffice to show what an important role women played in medicine and +surgery at a time when, in many parts of Europe, women were far better +educated and far more cultured than men--"when the knights and barons of +France and Germany were inclined to look upon reading and writing as +unmanly and almost degrading accomplishments, fit only for priests or +monks, and especially for priests or monks not too well born."[187] + +In the instances just quoted, as well as those mentioned by Homer and +Euripides, the writers do no more than faithfully reflect conditions +which then obtained, and truthfully report what were the occupations of +women when their status was so different from what it is to-day. But, +fortunately, we do not have to rely on works of the imagination for our +knowledge respecting the women practitioners of the healing art, either +during the Homeric period or during that which intervened between the +downfall of Rome and the dawn of the Renaissance. For the history of +medicine during mediaeval times affords too many examples of women who +became famous for their knowledge of medicine, as well as for their +success in surgical and medical practice, to leave any doubt about the +matter. Besides this, we have still the writings of many of these women, +and are thus able to judge of their competency in those branches of +knowledge on which they shed so great luster. + +One of the most noted of them was the Benedictine abbess, St. Hildegard, +of Bingen on the Rhine, who was eminent not only as a theologian but +also as a writer whose treatises on various branches of science are +justly regarded as the most important productions of the kind during the +Middle Ages prior to the time of Albertus Magnus. Besides this, she not +only wrote many books on _materia medica_, on pathology, physiology and +therapeutics, but, as a practitioner, she gloriously sustained the best +traditions of her sex in both theoretical and practical medicine. + +Her work entitled _Liber Simplicis Medicinae_, which deals with what in +the Saint's time was called "simples"--for the belief was then current +that each plant or herb was or provided a specific for some +disease--contains accounts of many plants used in _materia medica_, as +well as statements of their importance in therapeutics. Her descriptions +often indicate an observer of exceptionally keen perception and one +whose knowledge of science was far in advance of her epoch. The same +observations may be made respecting Hildegard 's work, _Liber Compositae +Medicinae_, in which she treats of the causes, signs and treatment of +diseases.[188] + +Still more remarkable, in many respects, is a treatise in nine books, +entitled _Physica_ or _Liber Subtilitatum Diversarum Naturarum +Creaturarum_, which, among other things, treats of the various elements, +of plants, trees, minerals, fish, birds, quadrupeds, and of the manner +in which they may be of service to man. Of so great importance was this +book considered that several editions of it were printed as early as the +sixteenth century. No less an authority than the late Rudolph Virchow, +the founder of cellular pathology, characterizes it as an early _materia +medica_, curiously complete, considering the age to which it +belongs.[189] And Haeser, in his history of medicine, directs attention +to the historical value of the book, declaring it to be "an independent +German treatise, based chiefly on popular experience." + +Dr. F. A. Reuss, of the University of Wuertzburg, at the conclusion of +his _Prolegomena_ to the _Physica_ published in Migne's _Patrologia_, +expresses himself as follows regarding the writings and medical +knowledge of the illustrious abbess of Bingen: "Among all the saintly +_religieuses_ who, during the Middle Ages, practiced medicine or wrote +treatises on it, the first, without contradiction, is Hildegard. +According to the monk Theodoric, who was an eye witness, she had to so +high a degree the gift of healing that no sick person had recourse to +her without being restored to health. There is among the books of this +prophetic virgin a work which treats of physics and medicine. Its title +is _De Natura Nominis Elementorum Diversarumque Creaturarum_, and it +embodies, as the same Theodoric fully explains, the secrets of nature +which were revealed to the saint by the prophetic spirit. All who wish +to write the history of the medical and natural sciences should read +this book, in which the holy virgin, initiated into all the secrets of +nature which were then known, and having received special assistance +from above, thoroughly examines and scrutinizes all that which was, +until then, buried in darkness and concealed from the eyes of mortals. +It is certain that Hildegard was acquainted with many things of which +the doctors of the Middle Ages were ignorant, and which the +investigators of our own age, after rediscovering them, have announced +as something entirely new."[190] + +The life and works of St. Hildegard throw a flood of light on many +subjects that have long been veiled in mystery. It explains why the +convents of the later Middle Ages were so famed as curative centers and +why the sick flocked to them for relief from far and near. It reveals +the real agencies employed in effecting the extraordinary cures that +were reported in so many religious houses--cures so extraordinary that +they were usually regarded by the multitude as miraculous--and discloses +the secret of the success of so many nuns in the alleviation of physical +and mental sufferings. It was not because they were thaumaturges, but +because they were good nurses, and because of their thorough knowledge +of the healing art, that they were able to diagnose and prescribe for +diseases of all kinds with a success which, in the estimation of the +multitude, savored of the supernatural. + +There was also another reason for the fame of convents as sanctuaries of +health. They were usually situated in healthy locations where there was +an abundance of pure water, fresh air and cheerful sunshine. Then there +were likewise a wholesome diet, good sanitary conditions, and, above +all, regularity of life. + +The same can be said of the hospitals connected with the convents. They +were not like some of the public hospitals of the eighteenth and +nineteenth centuries in many of the large cities of Europe--repulsive, +prison-like structures, with narrow windows and devoid of light and air +and the most necessary hygienic appliances--institutions that were +hospitals in name, but which were in reality too frequently breeding +places of disease and death.[191] + +Unlike these, the hospitals presided over by nuns of the type of +Hildegard were splendid roomy structures with large windows and +abundance of light, pure air, with special provisions for the privacy of +the patients, and with sanitary arrangements that not only precluded the +dissemination of disease but which contributed materially to those +marvelous cures which the good people of the time attributed to +supernatural agencies rather than to the medical knowledge and skill of +the devoted nuns,[192] who were the real conquerors of disease and +death. + +But the inmates of the cloister were not the only women who, during the +Middle Ages, achieved distinction by their writings on medical subjects +and by their signal success in the practice of the healing art. In +various parts of Europe, but especially in Italy and France, there were +at this time among women, outside as well as inside convent walls, many +daughters of Aesculapius and sisters of Hygeia who stood in such high +repute among their contemporaries that they received the same honors and +emoluments as were accorded to their masculine colleagues. + +This was particularly the case in Salerno, which was the venerated +mother of all Christian medical schools, and which, for nine centuries, +was universally regarded as "the unquestioned fountain and archetype of +orthodox medicine." Situated on the Gulf of Salerno, and laved by the +cerulean waters of the Tyrrhenian sea, the _Civitas Hippocratica_, as it +was called on its medals, rejoiced in a salubrious climate, and was +celebrated throughout the world as the "City sacred to Phoebus, the +sedulous nurse of Minerva, the fountain of physic, the votary of +medicine, the handmaid of Nature, the destroyer of disease and the +strong adversary of death."[193] For to this favored city flocked from +all quarters the lame and the halt and those afflicted with the tortures +of disease and the disabilities of advancing years. The noble and the +simple, crowned heads as well as the poorest of the poor, were found +there, all of them in quest of life's most precious boon--health and +strength. + +Never did the far-famed sanctuary of the god of medicine in Epidaurus +witness such an influx of invalids as gathered in the hospitals of +Salerno and pressed through the streets of the Hippocratic city, seeking +the aid of those doctors whose marvelous cures had given them a +world-wide reputation. Small wonder, then, that the _Regimen Santatis +Salernitanum_--that famous code of health of the school of Salerno--has +been translated into almost all the languages of modern Europe, and that +since 1480 no fewer than two hundred and fifty editions of it have been +published. "Not to have been familiar with it from beginning to end, not +to have been able to quote it orally as occasion might require, would, +during the Middle Ages, have cast serious suspicion upon the +professional culture of any physician."[194] But the noblest claims of +the Hippocratic city to the gratitude of humanity yet remain to be told. +A German traveler in the thirteenth century wrote: + + "Laudibus aeternum nullum negat esse Salernum + Illuc pro morbis totus circumfluit orbis."[195] + +This was because Salerno was universally recognized as the "day star" +and "morning glory" of the best culture in the healing art, and, still +more, because of the thorough instruction she gave in her schools of +medicine and the preeminence she so long held in every department of +medical lore. + +The course of study in medicine was long and thorough, and the candidate +applying for a degree had to pass a rigid examination and give proof not +only of his proficiency in every branch of the healing art, but also of +perfect acquaintance with the various branches of science and letters as +well. At the time of Frederick II, who organized all the different +schools of Salerno into a single university, a three years' course in +philosophy and literature was required before one could present himself +for entrance into the school of medicine. The courses in medicine lasted +five years, at least, after which a year of practice with an old +physician was required. In addition to this, if the candidate wished to +practice surgery he was obliged to devote one year to the study of human +anatomy and to the dissection of human bodies. Considering the progress +of knowledge since the time of Frederick II, it must be admitted that +the legal requirements enforced by the faculty of Salerno compare +favorably with those of the best of our medical schools of to-day. + +Still more to the credit of Salerno, long known as the Athens of the +two Sicilies, was her boundless liberality toward scholarship and +culture regardless of sex. For, with a chivalrous admiration for +intellect, wherever found, and with a sense of intellectual justice that +has put to shame all medical schools outside of Italy, until less than +fifty years ago, the school of Salerno was the first to throw open its +portals to women as well as men, and give to an admiring world a number +of women--those celebrated _mulieres Salernitanae_--who were eminent not +only as physicians, but also as professors of the theory and practice of +medicine. For this reason, if for no other, it can be truly affirmed +that "No school of medicine in any age or country, if only for this, can +ever over-peer her in renown; and, even as formerly in the universities +of Europe, at the bare mention of the name of the learned Cujacius, +every scholar instinctively uncovered himself, so at the very name of +Salernum, the fount and nurse of rational medicine, every physician +should recall her memory 'with mute thanks and secret ecstasy' as among +the most spotless and venerated chapters in the history of his +art."[196] + +The most noted professor and successful practitioner among the women of +Salerno was Trotula, wife of the distinguished physician, John +Platearius, and a member of the old noble family of the Ruggiero. She +flourished during the eleventh century and enjoyed a reputation as a +physician that was not inferior to that of the most noted doctors of her +time. Besides occupying a chair in the school of medicine and having an +extensive practice, she was the author of many works on medicine which +had a great vogue among her contemporaries. Some of them, especially +those relating to diseases of her own sex,[197] were published several +times after the invention of printing, and many manuscript copies of her +works are still found in various libraries of Europe. But she did not +confine her practice to the diseases of women. She was also well versed +in general medicine and exhibited, besides, as her works testify, marked +skill as a surgeon in many cases that would even now be considered as +peculiarly difficult of treatment. + +One of her books was entitled _De Compositione Medicamentorum_--the +Compounding of Medicaments--and it was this work, doubtless, that gave +her much of the fame she enjoyed beyond the confines of Italy. +Ruteboeuf, a noted French trouvere of the thirteenth century, gives us +a quaint picture of a scene frequently witnessed in his day. Crowds were +frequently attracted by herbalists--venders of simples--who, stationed +at street corners or in other public places, near tables covered with a +cloth of flaring colors, were wont to descant, somewhat after the style +of certain of our patent-medicine hawkers and quack-salvers, upon the +extraordinary curative properties of the various drugs and panaceas +which they had for sale. + +"Good people," one of these traveling herb doctors would begin, "I am +not one of those poor preachers, nor one of those poor herbalists who +carry boxes and sachets and spread them out on a carpet. No, I am a +disciple of a great lady named Madame Trotte of Salerno, who performs +such marvels of every kind. And know ye that she is the wisest woman in +the four quarters of the world." + +Ordericus Vitalis, an English Benedictine monk, in his _Historia +Ecclesiastica_, tells us of the impression made by Trotula on Rudolfo +Malacorona, one of those famous itinerant scholars of the Middle Ages, +who spent their lives in wandering from one university to another in +pursuit of knowledge. He had been a student from his youth and was a man +of remarkable attainments in every department of learning. After +visiting and conferring with the learned men of the most celebrated +universities of France and Italy, he finally arrived at Salerno, where, +he informs us, he found no one who could cope with him in disputation +except _quandam sapientem matronam_--a certain very learned woman.[198] +This was Trotula, who, by reason of the extraordinary cures she +effected, was known among her contemporaries as _magistra operis_--a +consummate practitioner. When, however, we consider the thorough course +of study that every one aspiring to a degree in medicine was obliged to +complete, women as well as men, it is not so surprising that Trotula +should be regarded both as a learned woman and as a successful +physician. + +Among other women doctors who did honor to Salerno and whose names have +come down to us were three who are known in history as Abella, Rebeca de +Guarna and Mercuriade. All of them achieved a great reputation by their +writings on medical subjects, especially Mercuriade, who distinguished +herself in surgery as well as in medicine. Still another woman deserving +special mention is Francesca, wife of Matteo de Romana, of Salerno. +After passing a very severe examination before a board composed of +physicians and surgeons, she was accorded the doctorate in surgery. An +official document of the time referring to this event reads as follows: +"Whereas the laws permit women to practice medicine, and whereas, from +the viewpoint of good morals, women are best adapted to the treatment of +their own sex, we, after having received the oath of fidelity, permit +the said Francesca to practice the said art of healing," etc.[199] + +In view of the facts above mentioned regarding the University of +Salerno--the excellence of its work, its liberality and breadth of view, +its attitude toward the higher education of women, and its preeminence +for so many centuries as a school of medicine--is it surprising that it +was, until comparatively recent times, considered "the _mater et caput_ +of medical authority in ethical matters," and that, so late as 1748, the +Medical Faculty of Paris should address an official letter to the +faculty of Salerno requesting its judgment regarding the rights of +precedence as between physicians and surgeons? But what is surprising, +and what, too, passes all understanding, is that the University of +London, after being empowered by royal charter to do all things that +could be done by any university, was legally advised that it could not +grant degrees to women without a fresh charter, because no university +had ever granted such degrees.[200] + +While women were winning such laurels in Salerno in every department of +the healing art, their sisters north of the Alps were not idle. As early +as 1292 there were in Paris no less than eight women doctors--called +_miresses_ or _mediciennes_--whose names have come down to us, not to +speak of those who practiced in other parts of France. There was also a +certain number of women who devoted themselves to surgery and called by +the old Latin authors of the time _cyrurgiae_. + +In Paris, however, conditions for studying and practicing medicine and +surgery were far from being as favorable to women as they were in +Salerno. As there were no schools open to them for the study of these +branches, they had to depend entirely for such knowledge as they were +able to acquire on the aid they could get from practicing doctors, the +reading of medical books and their own experience. The consequence was +that they were not at all so well equipped for their work as were the +women who enjoyed all the exceptional advantages offered the students at +Salerno. None of them was noted for scholarship, none of them was a +writer of books, and only one of them--Jacobe Felicie, about whom more +presently--rose above mediocrity. + +The reason for the great difference between the conditions of the women +doctors of Paris and those of Salerno is not far to seek. The Faculty of +Medicine in Paris was, from the beginning of its existence, unalterably +opposed to female medical practitioners. As early as 1220 it promulgated +an edict prohibiting the practice of medicine by any one who did not +belong to the faculty, and, according to its constitutions and by-laws, +only unmarried men were eligible to membership. + +For a long time the edict remained a dead letter. But eventually, as the +faculty grew in power and influence, it was able to enforce the +observance of its decrees. One of its first victims was Jacobe Felicie, +just mentioned, who was hailed before court for practicing medicine in +contravention of its edict issued many years before. + +Jacobe Felicie was a woman of noble birth, and had won distinction by +her success in the healing art. As the testimony at her trial revealed, +she never treated the sick for the sake of gain. In nearly all cases the +sick who had addressed themselves to her had been abandoned by their own +physicians. All the witnesses who had been called testified that they +had been cured by Jacobe Felicie, and all expressed their deepest +gratitude to her for her care and devotion. But, in spite of all these +facts, and in spite of the brilliant defence that this worthy woman +made, she was condemned to pay a heavy fine--condemned because, as the +indictment read, she had presumed to put her sickle into the harvest of +others-_falcem in messem mittere alienam_--and this was a crime.[201] +The faculty was a close corporation and insisted that its members should +have a monopoly of all the honors and emoluments that were to accrue +from the treatment of the sick and suffering. What a curious +adumbration of similar proceedings within the memory of many still +living! + +The prosecution of Jacobe Felicie recalls that of Agnodice in Greece +long ages before. And the plea urged for the necessity of a female +physician--that many a woman would rather die than reveal the secrets of +her infirmity to a man[202]--was the same as that offered by the women +of Athens before the council of the Areopagus. It was the same agonizing +cry that had been heard thousands of times before and which has been +heard thousands of times since. Isabella of Castile was not the first of +the long list of victims who, for lack of a doctor of their own sex, +have been sacrificed through womanly modesty, and, more's the pity, she +will not be the last. + +Unfortunately for the women of France, the result of the prosecution of +Mme. Felicie was the very reverse of that instituted against Agnodice; +for the latter came off victorious, while the former was condemned and +punished. So crushing was the blow dealt to women practitioners, outside +of obstetrics, that they did not recover from its effects for more than +five hundred years. For it was not until 1868 that the Ecole de Medicine +of Paris opened its doors to women, and it was not until nearly twenty +years later that female physicians were able to enter the hospitals of +the French capital as _internes_.[203] + +Until quite recent years there is very little to be said of women +physicians in England and Germany. Their practice, outside of that of +certain herb doctors, was confined chiefly to midwifery. There was no +provision made in either of these countries for the education of women +in medicine and surgery, and such a thing as a college where they could +receive instruction in the healing art was unknown. It is true that an +ecclesiastical law of Edgar, King of England, permitted women as well as +men to practice medicine, but this law was subsequently abolished by +Henry V.[204] + +During the reign of Henry VIII a law was again enacted in favor of women +physicians; for at that time an act was passed for the relief and +protection of "Divers honest psones, as well men as women, whom God +hathe endued with the knowledge of the nature, kind and operacon of +certeyne herbes, rotes and waters, and the using and ministering them to +suche as be payned with customable diseases, for neighbourhode and +Goddes sake and of pitie and charitie, because _that_ 'The Companie and +Fellowship of Surgeons of London, _mynding only their owne lucres and +nothing the profit or case of the diseased or patient_, have sued, vexed +and troubled' the aforesaid 'honest psones,' who were henceforth to be +allowed 'to practyse, use and mynistre in and to any outwarde sore, +swelling or disease, any herbes, oyntments, bathes, pultes +or emplasters, according to their cooning, experience and +knowledge--without sute, vexation, penaltie or loss of their +goods.'"[205] + +The italicized words in this quotation prove that the women doctors of +England had the same difficulties as their sisters in France, and that +the real reason of the opposition of the male practitioners was that +they wished to monopolize the practice of medicine. They, like the +medical faculty of Paris, strenuously objected to women "putting the +sickle into their harvest," and they, accordingly, left nothing undone +to circumvent the intrusion of those whom they always regarded as +undesirable competitors. + +It was argued by the men that women, to begin with, lacked the strength +and capacity necessary for medical practice. It was also urged that it +was indelicate and unwomanly for the gentler sex to engage in the +healing art, and that, for their own good, they should be excluded from +it at all costs. Those who were willing to waive these objections +contended that women had not the knowledge necessary for the profession +of medicine and should be excluded on the score of ignorance. When women +sought to qualify themselves for medical practice by seeking instruction +under licenced practitioners or in medical schools, they found a deaf +ear turned to their requests. The doctors declined to teach them and the +medical schools, one and all, closed their doors against them. + +Thus it was that in England, France and Germany the practice of medicine +and surgery was always practically in the hands of men until only a +generation ago. Even the English midwives gradually "fell from their +high estate," and were left far behind the female obstetricians of +Germany and France. For these two countries can point to a number of +midwives who, by their knowledge, successful practice, and the books +they wrote, achieved a celebrity that still endures. + +Chief among these in Germany were Regina Joseph von Siebold, her +daughter Carlotta, and Frau Teresa Frei, all of whom, in the early part +of the last century, enjoyed an enviable reputation in the Fatherland. + +The first named, after following a course of lectures on physiology and +the diseases of women and children, and passing a brilliant examination +in the medical college of Darmstadt, devoted herself to the practice of +obstetrics, and with so great success that the University of Giessen in +1819 conferred on her the degree of doctor of obstetrics. Her daughter, +Carlotta, after studying obstetrics under her mother, went to the +University of Goettingen, where she devoted herself to physiology, +anatomy and pathology. After passing an examination and successfully +defending a number of theses in the University of Giessen, she was also +proclaimed a doctor of obstetrics. At a later date Frau Frei received a +similar degree.[206] + +More noted as _accoucheuses_ and gynecologists than the three +distinguished women just mentioned were Mme. Marie Louise La Chapelle +and Mme. Marie Bovin, who, shortly after the French Revolution, entered +upon those wonderful careers in their chosen specialties which have +given them so unique a place in the annals of medicine. + +Mme. La Chapelle was particularly celebrated for the numerous +improvements she effected in lying-in hospitals, for the large number of +skilled midwives whom she furnished, not only to France, but also to the +whole of Europe, and, above all, for the excellent treatises which she +wrote on obstetrics, which gave her a reputation second to none among +her contemporaries, men or women. Her _Pratique des Accouchements_, in +three volumes, based on the immense number of fifty thousand cases at +which she presided, reveals an operator of rarest skill and genius. This +production was long regarded as a standard work on the topics discussed, +and for years exerted an immense influence in the medical world. + +Less skillful as an operator, but of greater ability as a doctor than +Mme. La Chapelle, was her illustrious contemporary, Mme. Bovin. +Possessing extraordinary insight as an investigator and marvelous +sagacity as a diagnostician, Mme. Bovin achieved the distinction of +being the first really great woman doctor of modern times. Her marvelous +success as a practitioner--Dupuytren said she had an eye at the tip of +her finger--her extended knowledge of the entire range of gynecology, +but above all her numerous treatises on the subject matter of her life +work, gave her a prestige that none of her sex had ever before enjoyed, +and commanded the admiration of the doctors of the world. Her _Memorial +de l'Art des Accouchements_ passed through many editions and was +translated into several European languages. And so highly were her +scientific attainments valued in Germany that the University of Marburg +recognized them by conferring on her--_honoris causa_--the degree of +doctor of medicine and, had its rules permitted the admission of women, +the Royal Academy of Medicine would have honored her with a place among +its members. She was also the recipient of many other honors, besides +being a member of several learned societies. But the greatest monument +to her genius is a large illustrated treatise in two volumes, in which +she exhibits a wonderful knowledge of anatomy, physiology, surgery, +pathology and therapeutics. It gave her a large following in Germany as +well as in France, and there were not wanting distinguished German +_accoucheurs_ who followed Mme. Bovin's teachings to the letter. + +The remarkable German and French women just named were all practically +self-made women. They won fame as they had acquired knowledge--chiefly +by courage, in spite of the countless obstacles that beset their paths. +They owed nothing to schools or universities, nothing to government +patronage or assistance, nothing to the medical fraternity as a whole. +Universities would not admit them to their lecture rooms or +laboratories, and the various medical faculties opposed them as +intruders into their jealously guarded domain, and as competitors whose +aspirations were to be frustrated, whatever the means employed. It is +true that, when some of the women mentioned had won world-wide renown by +their achievements, they were made the recipients of belated honors by +certain universities and learned societies; but these societies and +universities were then honoring themselves as much as the women who +received their degrees and diplomas of membership. + +How different it was in Italy, which, since the fall of the Roman +Empire, has ever been in the van of civilization, and which has always +continued the best traditions of Graeco-Roman learning and +culture--Italy, which has been the home of such supreme masters of +literature, science, art as Dante, Petrarch, Galileo, Leonardo da Vinci, +Raphael, Michaelangelo, Brunelleschi--Italy, the mother of universities, +the birthplace of the Renaissance, and the recognized leader of +intellectual progress among the nations of the world. Here in the +favored land of the Muses and the Graces, women enjoyed all the rights +and privileges accorded to men; here the doors of schools and +universities were open to all regardless of sex; and art, science, +literature, law, medicine, jurisprudence counted its votaries among +women as well as among men; here, far from encountering jealousy and +opposition in the pursuit of knowledge or in the practice of the +professions, women never found aught but generous emulation and +sympathetic cooperation. + +For a thousand years women were welcomed into the arena of learning and +culture on the same footing as men. In Salerno, Bologna, Padua, Pavia, +they competed for the same honors and were contestants for the same +prizes that stimulated the exertions of the sterner sex. Position and +emolument were the guerdons of merit and ability, and the victor, +whether man or woman, was equally acclaimed and showered with equal +honor. Women asked for no favors in the intellectual arena and expected +none. All they desired were the same opportunities and the same +privileges as were granted the men, and these were never denied them. +From the time when Trotula taught in Salerno to the present, when +Giuseppina Catani is professor of general pathology in the medical +faculty of Bologna, the women of Italy always had access to the +universities and were at liberty to follow any course of study they +might elect. We thus find them achieving distinction in civil and canon +law, in medicine, in theology even, as well as in art, science, +literature, philosophy and linguistics. No department of knowledge had +any terrors for them, and there was none in which some of them did not +win undying fame. They held chairs of language, jurisprudence, +philosophy, physics, mathematics, medicine and anatomy, and filled these +positions with such marked ability that they commanded the admiration +and applause of all who heard them. + +This is not the place to tell of the triumphs of the women professors in +the Italian universities, or to recount the achievements of those who +were honored with degrees within their classic walls. Let it suffice to +recall the names of a few of those who won renown in medicine and +surgery and whose names are still in their own land pronounced with +respect and veneration. + +One of the most noted practitioners in Southern Italy, after the death +of Trotula and her compeers, was one Margarita, who had studied medicine +in Salerno. One of her patients was no less a personage than Ladislaus, +King of Naples. Among those that had diplomas for the practice of +surgery were Maria Incarnata, of Naples, and Thomasia de Matteo, of +Castro Isiae. + +That women enjoyed in Rome the same privileges in the practice of +medicine and surgery as their sisters in the southern part of the +peninsula is manifest from an edict issued by Pope Sixtus IV in +confirmation of a law promulgated by the Medical Faculty of Rome, which +reads as follows: "No man or woman, whether Christian or Jew, unless he +be a master or a licentiate in medicine, shall presume to treat the +human body either as a physician or as a surgeon."[207] + +In central and northern Italy--in Florence, Turin, Padua, Venice--as +well as in the southern part, we find constantly recurring instances of +women practicing medicine and surgery and winning for themselves an +enviable reputation as successful practitioners. + +But after the decline of Salerno, consequent on the establishment by +Frederick II of a school of medicine in Naples, the great center of +medicine and surgery, as of civil and canon law, was Bologna.[208] So +renowned did it become as a teaching and intellectual center that it +was, as Sarti informs us, known throughout Europe as _Civitas +Docta_--the learned city--and _Mater Studiorum_--the mother of studies. +On its coins were stamped the words _Bononia Docet_--Bologna +teaches--and on the city seal, which is still used for certain public +documents, were the words _Legum Bononia Mater_--Bologna, the Mother of +Laws. + +Here, more than in Salerno, more than in any other city in the world, +was, for long centuries, witnessed a blooming of female genius that has, +since the time of Gratian and Irnerius, given the University of Bologna +preeminence in the estimation of all friends of woman's education and +woman's culture. For here, within the walls of what was for centuries +the most celebrated university in Christendom, women had, for the first +time, an opportunity of devoting themselves at will to the study of any +and all branches of knowledge. And it can be truthfully affirmed that no +seat of learning can point to such a long list of eminent scholars and +teachers among the gentler sex as is to be found on the register of +Bologna's famous university. For here, to name only a few, achieved +distinction, either as students or as professors, such noted women as +Bitisia Gozzadina, Bettina and Novella Calendrini, Dorotea Bocchi, +Giovanna and Maddalena Bianchetti, Virginia Malvezzi, Maria Vittoria +Dosi, Elisabetta Sirani, Ippolita Grassi, Properzia de Rossi, Maria +Mastellagri, Laura Bassi, Maddelena Noe-Candedi, Clotilda Tambroni and +Anna Manzolini. In this honor list we have a group of savantes that +were famed throughout Europe for their attainments in law, philosophy, +science, ancient and modern languages, medicine, and surgery--the +rivals, and sometimes the superiors, in scholarship of the ablest men +among their distinguished colleagues. + +It would be a pleasure to recount the achievements of these justly +celebrated daughters of Italy; but lack of space precludes the mention +of more than one of them. This was Maria dalle Donne, who was born of +poor peasants near Bologna, and who at an early age exhibited +intelligence of a superior order. After pursuing her studies under the +ablest masters, she obtained from the University of Bologna, _maxima cum +laude_, the degree of doctor in philosophy and medicine. On account of +her knowledge of surgery, as well as of medicine, she was soon afterward +put in charge of the city's school for midwives. When Napoleon, in 1802, +passed through Bologna he was so struck by the exceptional ability of +the young _dottoressa_ that, on the recommendation of the savant +Caterzani, he had instituted for her in the university a chair of +obstetrics--a position which she held until the time of her death, in +1842, with the greatest credit to herself and to the institution with +which she was identified. + +Maria dalle Donne is a worthy link between that long line of women +doctors, beginning with Trotula, who have so honored their sex in Italy, +and those still more numerous practitioners in the healing art who, +shortly after her death, began to spring up in all parts of the +civilized world.[209] + +For it was about this time that the movement which had long been +agitated in behalf of the higher education of women began suddenly to +assume extraordinary vitality, not only throughout Europe but in America +as well. And to no women did this movement appeal so strongly as to +those who had long been looking forward to an opportunity to qualify +themselves for the learned professions, especially medicine. No sooner +did they descry the first flush of dawn on their long-deferred hopes +than they began to consider ways and means for putting their fondly +nurtured projects into execution. + +Seven years, almost to the day, after the death of Maria dalle Donne, +Miss Elizabeth Blackwell, a young woman in America, of English birth, +decided to enter college with a view of studying medicine and surgery. +But, at the very outset, she encountered all kinds of unforeseen +difficulties--difficulties that would have caused a less courageous and +determined woman to give up her plans in despair. She was told, in the +first place, that it was highly improper for a woman to study medicine +and that no decent woman would think of becoming a medical practitioner. +As to a lady studying or practicing surgery that, of course, was out of +the question. + +But a more serious obstacle than the conventionalities in the case was +the difficulty of finding a medical college that was willing to admit a +woman to its lecture rooms and laboratories. Miss Blackwell applied to +more than a dozen of the leading institutions of America, and received +a positive refusal to her request. Finally, when hope had almost +vanished, she received word from a small college in Geneva, New York, +announcing that her application had been favorably considered and that +she would be admitted as a student whenever she presented herself. + +The truth is that the faculty of the college was opposed to the young +woman's admission, but wished to escape the odium incident to a direct +refusal by referring the question to the class with a proviso which, it +was believed, would necessarily exclude her. "But in this it was greatly +surprised and disappointed. For the entire medical class, to the number +of about one hundred and fifty, decided unanimously in favor of the fair +applicant's admission. And they did more than this. They put themselves +on record regarding the equality of educational opportunities for women +and men in a way that must have put their timid professors to shame. +Their resolution, accompanying an invitation to the young woman to +become a member of the student body, was worded as follows: + +"'Resolved, That one of the radical principles of a republican +government is the universal education of both sexes; that to every +branch of scientific education the door should be equally open to all; +that the application of Elizabeth Blackwell to become a member of our +class meets our entire approbation, and, in extending our unanimous +invitation, we pledge ourselves that no conduct of ours shall cause her +to regret her attendance at this institution.'" + +The students were as good as their word. Their conduct, as Miss +Blackwell wrote years afterward, was always admirable and that of "true +Christian gentlemen." But the women of Geneva were shocked at the female +medical student. They stared at her as a curious animal; and the theory +was fully established that she was "either a bad woman, whose designs +would gradually become evident, or that, being insane, an outbreak of +insanity would soon be apparent."[210] + +In due time Miss Blackwell finished her course in medicine and surgery, +and graduated at the head of her class. The orator of the day, who was a +member of the faculty, naturally referred to the new departure that had +been made--the admission of a woman for the first time to a complete +medical education--and among other things declared that the experiment, +of which every member of the faculty was proud, "had proved that the +strongest intellect and nerve and the most untiring perseverance were +compatible with the softest attributes of feminine delicacy and +grace."[211] + +The awarding of the degree of M.D. for the first time to a woman in +America excited general comment and widespread interest, not only in the +United States, but in Europe as well. The public press was not +unfavorable in its opinion of the new departure, and even _Punch_ could +not resist writing some verses, sympathetic, albeit humorous, in honor +of the fair M.D.[212] + +After spending some time abroad studying in the great hospitals of +Europe, Miss Blackwell started the practice of medicine in New York +City. At first, as she declares in her autobiographical sketches, it was +"very difficult, though steady, uphill work. I had," she tells us, "no +medical companionship, the profession stood aloof, and society was +distrustful of the innovation." + +The aloofness of the profession arose from a dread of successful +rivalry, and the men did not wish to encourage "the invasion by women of +their own preserves." "You cannot expect us," one of them frankly +admitted to her, "to furnish you with a stick to break our heads with." + +But, undeterred by opposition, Miss Blackwell continued her work, daily +making converts to the new movement and receiving substantial aid, as +well as sympathetic cooperation, from many people, both men and women, +prominent in society and public life. In 1854 she started a free +dispensary for poor women. Three years later she founded a hospital for +women and children, where young women physicians as well as patients +could be received. These were the humble beginnings of the present +flourishing institutions known as the New York Infirmary and the College +for Women. And in less than ten years after her graduation, Miss +Blackwell saw the new departure in medical practice successfully +established, not only in New York, but also in other large cities of the +United States. In 1869 the early pioneer medical work by women in +America was completed. + +"During the twenty years which followed the graduation of the first +woman physician, the public recognition of the justice and advantage of +such a measure had steadily grown. Throughout the northern states the +free and equal entrance of women into the profession of medicine was +secured. In Boston, New York and Philadelphia special medical schools +for women were sanctioned by the legislatures, and in some +long-established colleges women were received as students in the +ordinary classes."[213] + +Meanwhile, the women in Europe were not idle nor heedless of the example +set by their brave sisters in America. The University of Zurich threw +open its portals to women, and was soon followed by those of Bern and +Geneva. The first woman to obtain a degree in medicine in Zurich--it was +in 1867--was Nadejda Suslowa, a Russian. She was soon followed by scores +of others from Europe and America, who found greater advantages and more +sympathy in Swiss universities than elsewhere. + +In 1869 the Medico-Chirurgical Academy of St. Petersburg conferred the +degree of M.D. upon Madame Kaschewarow, the first female candidate for +this honor. When her name was mentioned by the dean it was received with +an immense storm of applause which lasted several minutes. The ceremony +of investing her with the insignia of her dignity being over, her fellow +students and colleagues lifted her on a chair and carried her with +triumphant shouts throughout the halls. + +The first woman graduate from the University of France was Miss +Elizabeth Garrett, of England. She received her degree in medicine in +1870, and the following year the same institution conferred the doctor's +degree on Miss Mary C. Putnam, of New York. + +After these precedents had been established, the universities of the +various countries on the continent, following the examples set by those +in the United States and Switzerland, opened one after the other their +doors to women, and in most of them accorded them all the privileges of +_cives academici_ enjoyed by the men. + +Great Britain held out against the new movement long after most of the +continental countries had fallen into line, nor did she surrender until +after a protracted and bitter fight, during which the men leading the +opposition exhibited evidences of selfishness and obscurantism that now +seem incredible. + +The leader in Great Britain of pioneer medical work for women was Miss +Sophia Jex-Blake, whose academic pathway was beset with difficulties far +sterner than had in the United States confronted her friend and +colleague, Miss Blackwell. + +Hearing much of the tolerance and liberality of the University of +London, she applied to it for admission as a student, but was informed +at once that the charter of the institution "had purposely been so +worded as to exclude the possibility of examining women for medical +degrees." + +After this rebuff she made application to the University of Edinburgh, +which, like the other Scotch universities, had always boasted of its +broad-mindedness and freedom from educational trammels. She was received +provisionally, and was, after a while, joined by six other women who had +in view the same object as herself. For a time, notwithstanding +opposition from certain quarters, everything was quiet and apparently +satisfactory. But the gathering storm soon broke, and the seven young +women, as they were one day entering the university gates, were actually +mobbed by a ruffianly band of students who had all along been opposed to +the presence of women in the class and lecture rooms. They pelted the +helpless females with street mud and hurled at them all the vile +epithets and heaped upon them all the abuse that their foul tongues +could command. These outrageous proceedings on the part of the rabble of +rowdies were allowed to continue for several days, and, had it not been +for a brave band of chivalrous young Irishmen among the students, who +formed themselves into a bodyguard for the protection of their fair +classmates, and were, in consequence, known as "The Irish Brigade," the +hapless women students would not have escaped bodily harm. What a marked +contrast between the conduct toward Miss Blackwell of the gallant +students of the modest little American town and that of the cowardly +ruffians of the vaunted "Athens of the North!" + +But this was not all. The seven young women in question had matriculated +as students of the university with the understanding that they were to +have all the rights and privileges of the male students. But after the +disgraceful conduct of the mob just referred to, they discovered that +the authorities of the university were prepared to break faith with +them, and prevent them from getting their coveted degrees, and thus +debar them from all chance of medical practice. + +The reason why the university was induced to annul its contract, after +the women on their part had fully complied with all its stipulations, +soon became apparent. It was purely and simply to make it impossible for +women to secure a license as medical practitioners. Both in and outside +of Edinburgh the conviction daily grew stronger that women doctors were +a menace to the monopoly so long enjoyed by the medical fraternity, and +that the movement in their favor should be crushed by fair means or foul +before it got beyond control. The _Spectator_ made this clear by stating +at the time of the controversy that "every profession in this +country"--England--"is more or less of a trades union," and yet the +members of these professions "would shake their heads and prate about +the necessity of stamping out trades unionism among workmen." "Women," +whined one of the doctors, "would snatch the bread from the mouths of +poor practitioners." Another doctor who had championed the cause of +women physicians, when commenting on the hypocritical objection that it +was unbecoming for women to practice medicine or surgery, expressed the +same idea in other words. "It appears," he declared, "that it is most +becoming and proper for a woman to discharge all the duties which are +incidental to our profession for thirty shillings a week; but, if she is +to have three or four guineas a day for discharging the same duties, +then they are immoral and immodest and unsuited to the soft nature that +should characterize a lady." + +After Miss Jex-Blake and her companions learned that the university was +determined to refuse them the degrees to which they were entitled, they +brought suit against it for breach of contract. But, after a long and +expensive trial, the judge rendered a decision against them. They then +appealed to Parliament, and, after a protracted and strenuous campaign +on the part of friends whom they had enlisted in their cause, they saw +their opponents not only dragged at the chariot wheels of progress but +forced to help to turn them; for, in 1878, after nearly ten years of a +persistent, continuous struggle such as had rarely been witnessed in +woman's long battle for things of the mind--a struggle in which the +intrepid, dauntless Miss Jex-Blake "made the greatest of all the +contributions to the end attained"--the women of Great Britain had the +supreme satisfaction of winning what was probably the most glorious +victory which their sex had ever won.[214] The war was over and +henceforward they were free--as were their sisters in other parts of the +world--as the women in Italy had been for a thousand years--to devote +themselves at will to the study and practice of the healing art without +let or hindrance. + +What a wonderful change has taken place in the medical world almost +within the space of a single generation! The tiny grain of mustard that +was sown by two lone women, the Misses Blackwell and Jex-Blake, in their +chosen field of effort has grown and "waxed a great tree." Women +doctors are now found in all parts of the civilized world and are +numbered by thousands. And so great has been their professional success, +so widespread is the desire to secure their services, especially in +countries like America and England, where opposition was in the +beginning especially bitter, that the proportion of women practitioners +in medicine and surgery is now regarded as the best index of a nation's +enlightenment. + +The healing art of Greece and Rome has broadened out into the noble +sciences of medicine and surgery of to-day. For, based as they now are +on the sciences of chemistry, botany, biology, hygiene, physiology, +anatomy and bacteriology, which have all witnessed such extraordinary +developments during the last half century, they both deserve a +preeminent place in the history of the sciences. And the success which +has crowned woman's efforts in surgery and medicine is not only a +conclusive indication of her capacity, so long denied by her +self-interested opponents, but also the most convincing indication that +she is at last properly occupied in a field of activity from which she +was too long excluded. Her contributions as writer and investigator +toward the progress of both sciences, even during the short time in +which she has been able to give proof of her ability, have been notable +and augur well for the share she will have in their future advancement. +But more important still is the refining influence she has already +exerted on both professions, and the relief she has been able to afford +to countless thousands of her own sex who would otherwise have been the +voluntary victims of untold misery. Women doctors are, indeed, not only +worthy representatives of Aesculapia Victrix and of the two sciences +which they have so elevated and so ennobled, but are also ministering +angels to poor, suffering humanity comparable only with the heroic +Sisters of Charity and the devoted nurses of the Red Cross. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[182] Quoted in _Medical Women_, p. 11, by Sophia Jex-Blake, M. D., +Edinburgh, 1886. Cf. Hyginus, _Fabularum Liber_, No. 274. + +[183] Charles Daremberg, who, at the time of his death in 1872, was +professor of the history of medicine in the Faculty of Medicine in +Paris, had the intention of publishing this work [Greek: Peri ton +gynaichaion tazon].--On the Diseases of Women--but his premature death +prevented him from executing his project. It is to be hoped that some +one else, interested in woman's medical work, may at an early date give +this production to the public with an appropriate commentary. + +[184] Cf. Hertzen et Rossi _Inscriptiones Urbis Romae Latinae_, p. 1245, +No. 9478, Berlin, 1882. + +[185] "Non mihi si linguae centum, oraque centum, ferrea vox ... omnia +morborum percurrere nomina possim quae Fabiola in tanta miserorum +refregeria commutavit ut multi pauperum sani languentibus inviderent." +_Epistola ad Oceanum._ + +[186] Haec inter timidam revocat clamore puellam Alpharides, veniens quae +saucia quaeque ligavit. + + --Ekkehardi Primi _Waltharius_, Berlin, 1873. + +[187] That the Germans, at the time under discussion, regarded learning +as having an effeminating effect on men is well illustrated by the +following characteristic anecdote: "when Amasvintha, a very learned +woman who was a daughter of the Ostrogoth King, Theodoric, selected +three masters for the instruction of her son, the people became +indignant. 'Theodoric,' they exclaimed, 'never sent the children of the +Goths to school, learning making a woman of a man and rendering him +timorous. The saber and the lance are sufficient for him.'" Procopius, +_De Bello Gothico_, I, 2, Leipsic, 1905. + +If we may judge by a letter from Pace to Dean Colet, the noted classical +scholar and founder of St. Paul's school in London, such views found +acceptance in England as late as the time of More and Erasmus. For we +are told of a British parent who expressed his opinion on the education +of men in these words: "I swear by God's body I'd rather that my son +should hang than study letters. The study of letters should be left to +rustics." + +[188] This work was for a long time regarded as lost, but a manuscript +copy was recently found in Copenhagen, and it has since been published +by Teubner of Leipsic, under the title of _Hildegard's Causae et Curae_. + +[189] _Archiv fuer Pathologische Anatomie und Physiologie und fuer +Klinische Medicin_, Band 18, p. 286, Berlin. + +[190] _S. Hildegardis Opera Omnia_, Ed. Migne, p. 1122, Paris, 1882. + +[191] "In the municipal and state institutions of this period the +beautiful gardens, roomy halls and springs of water of the old cloistral +hospital of the Middle Ages were not heard of, still less the comforts +of their friendly interiors." _A History of Nursing_, Vol. I, p. 500, M. +Adelaide Nutting and Lavinia L. Dock, New York, 1907. + +The mortality in some of the state hospitals from the latter part of the +seventeenth to the middle of the nineteenth century was appalling, often +as high as fifty and sixty per cent. This was due not only to shockingly +unsanitary conditions, but also to inordinate overcrowding. A large +proportion of the beds, incredible as it may seem, were purposely made +for four patients, and six were frequently crowded into them. "The +extraordinary spectacle was then to be seen of two or three small-pox +cases, or several surgical cases, lying on one bed." John Howard, in his +_Prisons and Hospitals_, pp. 176-177. Warrington, 1874, tells us of two +hospitals that were so crowded that he had "often seen five or six +patients in one bed, and some of them dying." + +It is gratifying to learn that the chief agents in changing this +revolting condition, due to faulty construction and management of +hospitals, were women. Prominent among these benefactors of humanity +were Mme. Necker, Florence Nightingale, and the wise and alert superiors +of the various nursing sisterhoods. + +[192] How like Chaucer's prioress who + + "Was so charitable and so piteous, + And al was conscience and tender herte." + +[193] Cf. _Lib. de Virtutibus et Laudibus_, by Aegidius, head physician +to Philip Augustus of France, in which occur the following verses: + + Urbs Phoebo sacrata, Minervae sedula nutrix, + Fons physicae, pugil eucrasiae, cultrix medicinae, + Assecla Naturae, vitae paranympha, salutis + Promula fida; magis Lachesis soror, Atropos hostis. + Morbi pernicies, gravis adversaria mortis. + +quoted in the appendix, p. xxxii, to S. de Renzi's, _Storia Documentata +della Scuola Medica di Salerno_, Naples, 1857. + +[194] Cf. The introduction to the English translation of the _Regimen +Sanitatis Salernitanum_, p. 28, by J. Ordronaux, Philadelphia, 1870. + +[195] + + "Immortal praise adorns Salerno's name + To seek whose shrine the world once came." + +[196] See _Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno_, ut. sup., +p. 474 et seq., and p. lxxvi et seq. of Appendix; also Ordronaux, ut +sup., p. 16. + +[197] Probably her most noted work is the one which bears the title _De +Morbis Mulierum et Eorum Cura_--The Diseases of Women and Their Cure. + +[198] "Physicae quoque scientiam tam copiose habuit ut in urbe +Psaleritana, ubi maxime medicorum scholae ab antiquo tempore habentur, +neminem in medicinali arte, praeter quandam sapientem matronam, sibi +parem inveniret." Migne, Patrologiae Latinae, Tom. 188, Col. 260. + +[199] As this decree is of singular interest and importance, a copy of +the original is here given in full: + +"Karolus, etc., Universis per Justitieratum Principatus citra Serras +Montorii constitutis presentes litteras inspecturis fidelibus paternis +et suis salutem, etc. In actionibus nostris utilitati puplice libenter +oportune perspicimus et honestatem morum in quantum suadet modestia +conservamus. Sane Francisca uxor Mathei de Romana de Salerno in Regia +Curia presens exposuit quod ipsa circa principale exercitium cirurgie +sufficiens circumspecto in talibus judicio reputatur. Propter quod +excellentie nostre supplicavit attentius ut licentiam sibi dignaremus +concedere in arte hujusmodi practicandi. Quia igitur per scriptum +puplicum universitatis terre Salerni presentatum eidem Regie Curie, +inventum est lucide quod Francisca prefata fidelis est et genere orta +fidelium ac examinata per medicos Regios paternos nostrosque cirurgicos, +in eadem arte cirurgie tamquam ydiota sufficiens est inventa, licet +alienum sit feminis conventibus interrese virorum, ne in matronalis +pudoris contumelia irruant et primum culpam vetite transgressionis +incurrant. Quia tamen de juris indicto medicine officium mulieribus est +concessum expedienter attento quod ad mulieres curandas egrotas de +honestate morum viris sunt femine aptiores, not recepto prius ab eadem +Francisca solito fidelitatis et quod iuxta tradiciones ipsius artis +curabit fideliter corporaliter Juramento, licentiam curandi et +practicandi sibi in eadem arte per Justitieratum jam dictum auctoritate +presentium impartimus. Quare fidelitati vestre precipimus quatenus +eandem Franciscam curare et practicari in prefata arte per Justitieratum +predictum ad honorem et fidelitatem paternam et nostram ac utilitatem +fidelium presentium earumdam libere permittatis, nullum sibi in hoc +impedimentum vel obstaculum interentes. Datum Neapoli per dominum +Bartholomeum de Capua, etc., Anno domini mcccxxi, die x Septembris v, +indictionis Regnorum dicti domini patris nostri anno xiii." + +_Collectio Salernitana_, Tom. III, p. 338, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg, +and S. de Renzi, Naples, 1852-59. + +[200] _Universities in the Middle Ages_, Vol. II, Part II, p. 712, by H. +Rashdall, Oxford, 1895. The most exhaustive work on the University of +Salerno and its famous doctors, men and women, is a joint work in five +volumes entitled _Collectio Salernitana; ossia Documenti Inediti e +Trattati di Medicina appartenenti alla scuola Salernitana, raccolti e +illustrati_, by G. Henschel, C. Daremberg e S. Renzi, Naples, 1852-59. +Cf. also, _Storia Documentata della Scuola Medica di Salerno_, by S. de +Renzi, Naples, 1857; _L'Ecole de Salerne_, by C. Meaux, with +introduction by C. Daremberg, Paris, 1880, and Piero Giacosa's _Magistri +Salernitani Nondum Editi_, Turin, 1891. + +[201] _Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis_, Tom. II, p. 150, and pp. +255 and 267, by Denifle and Chatelain, Paris, 1889-1891. + +[202] "Mulier antea permitteret se mori, quam secreta infirmitatis sui +homini revelare propter honestatem sexus muliebris et propter +verecundiam quam revelando pateretur." _Chartularium Universitatis +Parisiensis_, Tom. II, p. 264, Paris, 1891. + +[203] It may interest the reader to know that the first two women to get +the doctorate in the Paris School of Medicine were Miss Elizabeth +Garret, an English woman, and Miss Mary Putnam, an American. The first +woman permitted to practice in the Paris hospitals was likewise an +American, Miss Augusta Klumpke, of San Francisco. + +[204] "Possunt et vir et foemina medici esse." Cf. Chiappelli, _Medicina +negli Ultimi Tre Secoli del Medio Evo_, Milan, 1885. + +[205] Quoted in _Woman's Work and Woman's Culture_, p. 87, Josephine E. +Butler, London, 1869. Dom Gasquet in his _English Monastic Life_, p. +175, tells us that in the Wiltshire convents "the young maids learned +needlework, the art of confectionery, surgery--for anciently there were +no apothecaries or surgeons; the gentlewomen did cure their poor +neighbors--physic, drawing, etc." + +[206] The first woman to receive the doctorate of medicine in Germany +was Frau Dorothea Christin Erxleben. Hers, however, was a wholly +exceptional case, and required the intervention of no less a personage +than Frederick the Great. In 1754, Frau Erxleben, who had made a +thorough course of humanities under her father, presented herself before +the faculty of the University of Halle, where she passed an oral +examination in Latin which lasted two hours. So impressed were the +examiners by her knowledge and eloquence that they did not hesitate to +adjudge her worthy of the coveted degree, which was accorded her by +virtue of a royal edict. + +Her reception of the doctorate was made the occasion of a most +enthusiastic demonstration in her honor. Felicitations poured in upon +her from all quarters in both prose and verse. One of them, in lapidary +style, runs as follows: + + "Stupete nova litteraria, + In Italia nonnumquam, + In Germania nunquam + Visa vel audita + At quo rarius eo carius." + +This, freely translated, adverts to the fact that an event, which before +had been witnessed only in Italy, was then being celebrated in Germany +for the first time, and was, for that very reason, specially deserving +of commemoration. + +[207] "Nemo masculus aut foemina, seu Christianus vel Judaeus, nisi +Magister vel Licentiatus in Medicina foret, auderet humano corpori +mederi in physica vel in chyrurgia." Marini, _Archiatri Pontifici_, Tom. +I, p. 199, Roma, 1784. + +[208] Thomas Aquinas, the Angel of the Schools, who had taught in +Salerno, and was well acquainted with the leading universities of +Europe, was wont to say "Quattuor sunt urbes caeteris praeeminentes, +Parisius in Scientiis, Salernum in Medicinis, Bononia in legibus, +Aurelianis in actoribus--" there are four preeminent cities: Paris, in +the sciences; Salerno, in medicine; Bologna, in law; Orleans, in actors. +Op. 17. _De Virtutibus et Vitiis_, Cap. ult. + +The mediaeval poet, Galfrido, expressed the same idea in verse when he +wrote: + + "In morbis sanat medici virtute Salernum + Aegros: in causis Bononia legibus armat + Nudos: Parisius dispensat in artibus illos + Panes, unde cibat robustos: Aurelianis + Educat in cunis actorum lacte tenellos." + +[209] It may be remarked that it was a woman, Lady Mary Montagu, who +introduced inoculation with small-pox virus into Western Europe, and +that it was also a woman--a simple English milkmaid--who communicated to +Jenner the information which led to his discovery of a prophylactic +against small-pox. But of far greater importance was the introduction +into Europe of that priceless febrifuge and antiperiodic--chinchona +bark. This was due to the Countess of Chinchon, vicereine of Peru. +Having been cured by its virtues of an aggravated case of tertian fever +in 1638, while living in Lima, she lost no time, on her return to Spain, +in making known to the world the marvelous curative properties of the +precious quinine-producing bark. The powder made from the bark was most +appropriately called _Pulvis Comitessae_--the countess's powder--and by +this name it was long known to druggists and in commerce. Thanks to +Linnaeus, the memory of the gracious lady will always be kept green, +because her name is now borne by nearly eight score species of the +beautiful trees which constitute the great and incomparable genus +Chinchona. See _A Memoir of the Lady Ana de Osorio, Countess of +Chinchon, and Vice-Queen of Peru_, by Clements R. Markham, London, 1874. + +[210] _Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women_, p. 70, +by Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, London, 1895. + +[211] Ibid., p. 91. + +[212] + + "Young ladies all, of every clime, + Especially of Britain + Who wholly occupy your time + In novels or in knitting, + Whose highest skill is but to play, + Sing, dance or French to clack well, + Reflect on the example, pray, + Of excellent Miss Blackwell. + + ...*...*...*...* + + "For Doctrix Blackwell, that's the way + To dub in rightful gender-- + In her profession, ever may + Prosperity attend her. + Punch a gold-headed parasol + Suggests for presentation + To one so well deserving all + Esteem and Admiration." + +[213] Op. cit., p. 241. + +[214] For an interesting account of the long campaign for the admission +of women to medical schools and practice, see _Medical Women--A Thesis +and a History_, by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, Edinburgh, 1886. + +For a more elaborate work on women in medicine, the reader may consult +with profit, _Histoire des Femmes Medecins_, by Mlle. Melanie Lepinska, +Paris, 1900. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +WOMEN IN ARCHAEOLOGY + + +Archaeology, in its broadest sense, is one of the most recent of the +sciences, and may be said to be a creation of the nineteenth century. In +its restricted sense, however, it dates back to the beginning of the +Italian Renaissance. For it was at this period that the collector's zeal +began to manifest itself, and that were brought together those priceless +treasures of ancient art which are to-day the pride of the museums of +Rome and Florence. It was then that Pope Sixtus IV and Julius II, his +nephew, laid the foundations of the great museums of the Capitol and the +Vatican, and enriched them with such famous masterpieces as the Ariadne, +the Nile, the Tiber, the Laocoon and the Apollo Belvidere. Their example +was quickly followed by such cardinals as Ippolito d'Este, Fernando de' +Medici, and by representatives of the leading princely houses of the +Italian peninsula. In rapid succession the palaces of the Borghese, +Chigi, Pamphili, Ludovisi, Barbarini and Aldobrandini became filled with +the choicest Greek and Roman antiques. In the course of time many of +these treasures found their way to the museums of Venice, Madrid, Paris, +Munich and Dresden, while still others were purchased by wealthy art +connoisseurs in various parts of Europe and Great Britain. + +In the beginning these antiques in marble and bronze were used chiefly +for decorative purposes. "Courts, stairs, fountains, galleries and +palaces were adorned with statues, busts, reliefs and sarcophagi applied +in such a manner as to become incorporated in contemporary art and +thereby to gain fresh life."[215] + +These treasures of antiquity, statues, bas-reliefs, mosaics, coins, +medals, busts, sarcophagi, and productions of ceramic art, although at +first used almost exclusively for decorating palaces and villas and +enriching museums, were eventually to become of inestimable value in the +study of the history of art and the civilization of Greece and Rome, as +well as of the various nations of antiquity with which they had come +into contact. Besides this, they supplied the necessary raw material not +only for classical archaeology, but also for that more comprehensive +science of archaeology which deals with the art, the architecture, the +language, the literature, the inscriptions, the manners, customs and +development of our race from prehistoric times until the present day. + +Among the women who took a prominent part in collecting material toward +the advancement of archaeologic science were those illustrious ladies--as +celebrated for their knowledge and culture as for their noble lineage +and their patronage of men of letters--who presided over the brilliant +courts of Urbino, Mantua, Milan and Ferrara. + +Preeminent among these were Elizabetta Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, and +Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua. The palace of the former--"that +peerless lady who excelled all others in excellence"--was famous for its +precious antiques in bronze and marble, but above all for its superb +collection of rare old books and manuscripts in Greek, Latin and Hebrew. + +Isabella d'Este, who was through life the most intimate friend of +Elizabetta Gonzaga, was acclaimed by her contemporaries as "the first +lady in the world." She was a true daughter of the Renaissance, in the +heart of which she was brought up; and "the small, passing incidents of +her everyday life are to us memorials of the classic age when the gods +of Parnassus walked with men."[216] She was an even more enthusiastic +collector than the Duchess of Urbino, and her magnificent palace in +Mantua was filled with the choicest works of Greek and Roman art that +were then procurable. + +She has been described as one who secured everything to which she took a +fancy. She had but to hear of the discovery of a beautiful antique, a +rare work in bronze or marble uncovered by the spade of the excavator, +when she forthwith made an effort to procure it for her priceless +collection. If that was not possible, she would not rest until she could +secure something else even more precious. She aimed at supremacy in +everything artistic and intellectual, and would be content with nothing +short of perfection. Hence it is that her collection of antiques, like +those of her friend, the Duchess of Urbino, is rightly regarded as +having been of singular value in preparing the way for the foundation of +scientific archaeology--a foundation that was laid by the eminent German +scholar, Winckelmann, in the eighteenth century by the publication of +his masterly work--_History of the Art of Antiquity_. + +The first woman of eminence to take an active part in archaeologic +excavation was the youngest sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, "the +beautiful, clever and ambitious Caroline." When Joachim Murat became +king of Naples, after his brother-in-law, Joseph Bonaparte, had in 1808 +been transferred to the throne of Spain, his wife, Queen Caroline, gave +at once a new impetus to the work of the excavation of Pompeii along the +lines planned a few years before by the eminent Neapolitan scholar, +Michele Arditi. She exhibited the keenest interest in the work, and the +notable discoveries which were made under her inspiring supervision of +this important undertaking show how much classical archaeology owes to +her intelligent and munificent patronage. + +Queen Caroline proved her interest in the excavations that were to +contribute so much to our knowledge of antiquity "by appearing +frequently at Pompeii and stimulating the workmen to greater efforts. +She frequently spent entire days, during the great heat of summer, at +the excavations, to encourage the lazy workmen and to reward them in the +event of success. The funds were increased so as to make the employment +of six hundred men possible. The Street of Tombs was next uncovered, +forming a complete and solemn picture, greatly impressing the beholder +even to-day. For the first time a complete outline of an ancient +marketplace and its surroundings could be obtained. The market, closed +and inaccessible to wheeled traffic, was surrounded by a colonnade +filled with monuments, with the great temple in the background, and +beyond the arcades were other temples or public buildings, among the +principal being the stately Basilica. Constant and increased efforts +were thus crowned by important results. The Queen did not withhold +generous assistance. The French architect, Fr. Mazois, received from her +fifteen hundred francs while preparing his monumental work at +Pompeii."[217] + +It is not too much to say that Queen Caroline's archaeological work at +Pompeii was as far-reaching in its results as was that of her +illustrious brother in the land of the Pharaohs. It drew in the most +impressive manner the attention of the world to the vast treasures of +art which lay concealed under the earth-covered ruins of the once noted +cities of the ancient world, and stimulated scholars and learned +societies to undertake similar researches in Sicily, Greece, +Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and the almost forgotten islands of the Aegean +Seas. + +While this energetic sister of the great Napoleon was occupied in +bringing to light those priceless treasures of art which had for +seventeen centuries lain beneath the ashes of Vesuvius, a bright, +refined, _spirituelle_ young girl, born in Dublin and bred in England, +was unconsciously preparing herself for a brilliant career in the branch +of archaeology known as Christian iconography. Her name was Anna Murphy, +better known to the world as Mrs. Jameson. At an early age she gave +evidence of unusual intelligence, and she had hardly attained to +womanhood when she was noted for her knowledge of languages and for her +remarkable attainments in art and literature. Numerous journeys to +France, Italy and Germany and a systematic study in the great museums +and art galleries of these countries, but, above all, her association +with the most distinguished scholars of Europe, completed her education +and prepared her for those splendid works on Christian art which have +made her name a household word throughout the world. + +Mrs. Jameson was a prolific writer, but those of her works on which her +fame chiefly rests are the ones which are classed under the general +title, _Sacred and Legendary Art_. They treat of God the Father and Son, +of the Madonna and the Saints, as illustrated in art from the earliest +ages to modern times. So masterly and exhaustive was her treatment of +the difficult subjects discussed in this _chef d'oeuvre_ of hers that +no less an authority than the eminent German archaeologist, F. X. Kraus, +writes of this elaborate production as follows: + +"Neither before nor since has the subject matter of this work been +handled with such skill and thoroughness. The older iconographic works +were mere dilettanteism. For the first time since classical archaeology +had applied the principles of modern criticism to Greek and Roman +iconography, and had presented an example of scientific treatment free +from such reproach, was a serious iconography of our early Christian +monuments possible. Mrs. Jameson was the first to attempt this on a +large scale. It was clear to her--and here lay the advance which her +work reveals--that in order to accomplish her colossal task two things +must be realized. She must not build on a foundation of material that is +imperfect or brought together in a haphazard way. She must not only see +and test everything available in the way of monuments, but she must +likewise place the productions of literature and poetry beside those of +the plastic arts. It was clear to her, also, that, in this case, one +would throw light on the other, and that the investigator who would lay +claim to the name of archaeologist must, moreover, study the spirit of a +people in all its monumental and literary manifestations. + +"Mrs. Jameson strove to learn the mind and the mode of early Christian +times from the works of the Fathers. She saw in the hymns of the Middle +Ages and in the writings of the mystics the sources of the art ideas +which disclose themselves in the wall and glass paintings of our +cathedrals and in the entrancing creation of a Fiesole. She had also the +special advantage of being thoroughly imbued with Dante's ideas of the +plastic arts of the Middle Ages. + +"And all this is evidenced in a form which exhibits neither dry +dissertation nor wearisome nomenclature. Each of her articles is a +little essay. It teaches us what place the Madonna, or St. Catherine, or +some other saint has held in the memory and in the imagination of past +centuries. We behold the sainted forms flitting before our eyes in all +the charm of poetic perfection which was given them by the childlike +phantasy of the Middle Ages, and in all the power which they exercised +over men's minds, and which, however we may view the religious side of +the question, certainly had the effect of creating forms of infinite +beauty and pictures of unspeakable reality."[218] + +When we recollect that Mrs. Jameson achieved so much before the +foundations of Christian archaeology had been fully laid; before de +Rossi's monumental publications had supplied the means of interpreting +early Christian sculpture; before critics and archaeologists were at one +regarding the significance of early Christian and Middle Age symbolism, +or agreed on the principles that were to guide to a correct +understanding of the pictures of Roman and Gothic art, and while +students were yet in ignorance as to the real influence of Byzantine art +on that of western Europe, we cannot but wonder at the courage and the +energy of this gifted woman in undertaking and in bringing to a happy +issue a work which, even to-day, with all our increased facilities and +greater array of facts, would be considered a herculean task. + +As we read her admirable volumes on _Sacred and Legendary Art_ we can, +as did a close friend of hers, see the enraptured author "kindle into +enthusiasm amidst the gorgeous natural beauty, the antique memorials and +the sacred Christian relics of Italy," and we are prepared to believe, +with the same friend, that there was not "a cypress on the Roman hills, +or a sunny vine overhanging the southern gardens, or a picture in those +vast somber galleries of foreign palaces, or a catacomb spread out, vast +and dark, under the martyr churches of the City of the Seven Hills, +which was not associated with some vivid flashes of her intellect and +imagination." And we can also understand how "the strange, mystic +symbolism of the early mosaics was a familiar language to her," and why +she should experience special delight when she found herself "on the +polished marble of the Lateran floor or under the gorgeously somber +tribune of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, reading off the quaint +emblems or expounding the pious thoughts of more than a thousand years +ago."[219] + +It is gratifying to know that Queen Victoria recognized the surpassing +merits of this noble woman by placing her on the civil list, and that +our own Longfellow was able to say of her masterpiece, _Sacred and +Legendary Art_, "It most amply supplies the cravings of the religious +sentiment of the spiritual nature within." + +A countrywoman of Mrs. Jameson and her contemporary, who also deserves +an honorable place in the literature of archaeology, is Louise Twining. +Although inferior in intellectual attainments and literary activity to +the accomplished author of _Sacred and Legendary Art_, her two works on +_Types and Figures of the Bible Illustrated by Art_ and _Symbols and +Emblems of Early Mediaeval Christian Art_ have given her a well-deserved +reputation on the Continent as well as in the British Isles. The latter +volume Mrs. Jameson herself declares in her _Legends of the Madonna_ to +be "certainly the most complete and useful book of the kind which I know +of." + +A third woman who has won fame for her sex in the island kingdom in the +domain of archeology is Miss Margaret Stotes. Her activities, however, +have been chiefly confined to the antiquities of Ireland, on which she +is a recognized authority. + +The notable part she took in editing Lord Dunraven's great work, _Notes +on Irish Architecture_, established her reputation on a firm basis. +Among her other important works are _Early Christian Art in Ireland_ and +_Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language_, chiefly collected and +drawn by George Petrie, one of the annual volumes of the Royal +Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland. This work has +justly been described as an epoch-making contribution to Christian +epigraphy and to our rapidly developing knowledge of Keltic language +and literature. The learned Dr. Krauss, than whom there is no more +competent judge, in referring to this splendid performance, does not +hesitate to affirm, "No man could have done better than this brave +college girl, whom I would wish to greet across the Channel with a +cordial _Macte virtute_." + +The women archaeologists so far mentioned, with the exception of Queen +Caroline Murat, were conspicuous as writers rather than active +investigators in the field. There have been, however, quite a number who +have won distinction as "archaeologists of the spade"--women who, either +alone or with their husbands, have superintended excavations in +different lands, which have yielded results of untold scientific value. +Among the most conspicuous of these are Mme. Sophia Schliemann, Mme. +Dieulafoy and the enterprising Yankee girl, Miss Harriet A. Boyd. + +Of these the first named is the wife of the late Dr. Henry Schliemann, +who immortalized himself by his famous excavations at Troy, Tiryns and +Mycenae--enterprises which solved for us the great problem of nearly +thirty centuries and demonstrated in the most startling manner "the +truth of the foundations on which was framed the poetical conception +that has for thousands of years called forth the enchanted delight of +the educated world." During his meteoric career as an archaeologist, +Schliemann was able to realize the dreams of his youth, and succeeded in +unveiling the mystery that had so long hung over Sacred Ilios, and to +give the heroes of the Iliad a local habitation on the rediscovered +Plain of Troy. And his glorious achievements we must credit largely to +that brave and devoted woman--his wife--who was ever at his side to +share in his trials and labors and to raise his drooping spirits in +hours of depression, or when hostile criticism treated him as a +visionary in the pursuit of a chimera. + +Mrs. Schliemann is a Greek lady who was born and bred under the shadow +of the Acropolis and a worthy descendant of those proud Athenian women +who wore the golden grasshopper in their hair as a sign that they were +natives of the City of the Violet Crown. She was not only dowered with +intellectual gifts of a high order, but she was also her husband's most +congenial companion and sympathetic friend in all his literary work, +while she was his very right hand in those glorious enterprises at +Hissarlik and Mycenae, which secured for both of them undying fame. + +Dr. Schliemann was the first to attest the never-failing assistance +which he received from this noble woman who, as he informs us, was "a +warm admirer of Homer" and "with glad enthusiasm" joined her husband in +executing the great work which he had conceived in his early boyhood. +Usually they worked together, but at times Mrs. Schliemann superintended +a gang of laborers at one spot while the Doctor was occupied at another +in the immediate vicinity. Thus it was she who excavated the heroic +tumulus of Batieia in the Troad--that Batieia who, according to Homer, +was a queen of the Amazons and undertook a campaign against Troy.[220] + +Mme. Jane Dieulafoy is noted as the collaborator of her husband, Marcel +Dieulafoy, in the important archaeological mission to Persia that was +entrusted to him by the French government. The results of this mission, +in which Mme. Dieulafoy had a conspicuous part, were published in Paris +in 1884 in five octavo volumes. + +It was during this expedition to the ancient empire of Cyrus and +Artaxerxes that this indefatigable couple became interested in the ruins +of Susa, the ancient capital of the Persian kings. On their return to +France they succeeded in securing money and supplies for conducting +excavations among these ruins which, in the end, yielded results which +were, in some respects, as important as those which rewarded the labors +of the Schliemanns in Greece and Asia Minor. + +So completely had Susa--the City of the Lilies--been buried and +forgotten for nearly two thousand years that even its site was almost as +much a matter of dispute as was that of ancient Troy. And yet it was one +of the greatest and richest cities of antiquity--the city of Esther and +Daniel, the city of the mighty Assuerus who reigned from India even unto +Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces--the city where the +great Alexander celebrated his nuptials with Statira, the daughter of +Darius, with a magnificent festival at which, according to Plutarch, +"there were no fewer than nine thousand guests, to each of which he gave +a golden cup for the libations." + +In December, 1884, the two brave and venturesome explorers were on their +way to Susa with high hopes, but not without a full knowledge of the +difficulties and dangers that they would have to confront among the +fanatical nomads of Arabistan, where the very name of Christian inspires +rage and horror. It meant, as Mme. Dieulafoy herself tells us, "to +cross the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf +and the deserts of Elam three times in less than a year; to pass whole +weeks without undressing; to sleep on the bare ground; to struggle +nights and days against robbers and thieves; to cross rivers without a +bridge; to suffer heat, rain, cold, mists, fever, fatigue, hunger, +thirst, the stings of divers insects; to lead this hard and perilous +existence without being guided by any interest other than the glory of +one's country."[221] + +In spite, however, of all the opposition which they encountered among +the fanatical Mussulmans of Arabistan and of the dreadful sufferings +incident to living in a desert where it was at times impossible to +secure the necessaries of life, their mission was successful, and their +account of their finds in the ancient capital of Elam was as thrilling +in its way as anything reported of the excavations at Troy or Pompeii. +Their splendid collection of specimens of ancient Persian art and +architecture, now on exhibition in the Museum of the Louvre, testifies +to the successful issue of their expedition and to their indomitable +energy in conducting researches under the most untoward +conditions.[222] So highly did the French government value the part +Mme. Dieulafoy had taken in this arduous enterprise that it conferred on +her a distinction rarely awarded to a woman for scientific work--that of +Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. + +As an archaeologist, the gifted and energetic American woman, Miss +Harriet Boyd--now Mrs. C. H. Hawes--has achieved an international +reputation for her remarkable excavations in the island of Crete. She is +a frequent contributor to archaeological journals; but it is upon her +splendid work in the field that her fame will ultimately rest. + +Her first work of importance was undertaken as Fellow of the American +School of Classical Studies at Athens. This was in 1900, and the field +of her investigations was the Isthmus of Hierapetra in Crete. Here she +excavated numerous tombs and houses of the early Geometric Period, +_circa_ 900 B.C., and paved the way for those brilliant discoveries +which rewarded her labors during the following three years. + +The investigations conducted during these three years under Miss Boyd's +directions yielded results of transcendent value. Assisted by three +young American women--the Misses B. E. Wheeler, Blanche E. Williams, and +Edith H. Hall--she superintended the work of more than a hundred native +employees whom she had on her payroll. By good fortune in the choice of +a site for excavation and by well-directed efforts she was soon able to +unearth one of the oldest of Cretan cities and to expose to view the +ruins of what was probably one of the ninety cities which Homer tells us +in his Odyssey graced the land of Crete--"a fair land and a rich, in the +midst of a wine-dark sea." + +So remarkable were the finds in this long-buried Minoan town and so well +preserved are its general features that it has justly been called the +Cretan Pompeii. It antedates by long centuries the oldest cities of +Greece and was a flourishing center of commerce ages before the heroes +of the Iliad battled on the plains of Troy. + +It is not too much to say that the extraordinary discoveries made by +this enterprising Yankee girl at Gournia, no less than those made by +British and Italian archaeologists at Knossos and Phaestos, have +completely revolutionized our ideas respecting the state of culture of +the inhabitants of Crete during the second and third millenia before the +Christian era. They have thrown a flood of light on the origins of +Mediterranean culture, and have, at the same time, supplied material for +a study of European civilization that was before entirely wanting. + +An enduring monument to Miss Boyd's ability as an archaeologist is her +notable volume containing an account of her excavations at Gournia, +Vasilike and other prehistoric sites on the Isthmus of Hierapetra. It +will bear comparison with any similar productions by the Schliemanns or +the Dieulafoys. A later work on _Crete, the Forerunner of Greece_, which +she wrote in collaboration with her husband, Mr. C. H. Hawes, is also a +production of recognized merit. As a study on the origin of Greek +civilization it opens up many new vistas in pre-history and illumines +many questions that were before involved in mystery. + +Besides Mrs. Hawes, three other American women have achieved marked +distinction by their archaeological researches. These are Mrs. Sarah +Yorke Stevenson, Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mrs. Zelia Nuttall. + +Mrs. Stevenson has long been identified with the progress of +archaeological research, especially with that in Egypt and the +Mediterranean. A prominent member of many learned societies, she is +likewise a writer and lecturer of note. She enjoys the distinction of +being the first woman whose name appears as a lecturer on the calendar +of the University of Harvard. In acknowledgment of her scholarly ability +and eminent services in the development of its Department of Archaeology, +the University of Pennsylvania has conferred upon her the honorary +degree of Doctor of Science. + +That American women have not been behind their sisters in Europe in +their enthusiasm for archaeological investigation is evinced by the +researches and writings of Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mrs. Zelia +Nuttall, both of whom enjoy an international reputation in the learned +world. + +Miss Fletcher's chosen field of labor has been in ethnology and +anthropology. Her studies of the folk lore and the manners and customs +of various tribes of North American Indians have a distinct and +permanent value, while those of her contributions which have been +published by the Smithsonian Institution and the Bureau of +Ethnology--contributions based on personal knowledge of a long residence +among the tribes she writes about--show that she has exceptional talent +for the branches of archaeology to which she has devoted many years of +earnest and successful study. + +Mrs. Nuttall is the daughter of an American mother and an English +father. Thanks to the care that was bestowed on her education by her +parents and to her long residence in the different countries of Europe, +she is proficient in seven languages. This knowledge of tongues has been +of inestimable advantage to her in her researches in European libraries +and in those historical and archaeological investigations which have +rendered her famous. She has devoted special attention to the early +history, languages, religions and calendar systems of the primitive +inhabitants of Mexico and Central America, in all of which she is a +recognized authority. + +When, some years ago, the mysterious ruins of Mexico began to attract +the special attention of archaeologists, Mrs. Nuttall was selected by the +University of California as the field director of the commission which +it sent to pursue archaeological researches in this Egypt of the New +World. A more competent or a more enthusiastic director could not have +been chosen. Her finds in the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon at +Teotihuacan and elsewhere in our sister republic were especially +important. In recognition of her achievements President Porfirio Diaz +nominated Mrs. Nuttall honorary professor in the Mexican National +Museum. She was also offered the position of curator of the +archaeological Museum of Mexico; but this office she declined. She holds +membership in a large number of learned societies in America and Europe +and is a frequent contributor to numerous magazines on historical and +archaeological subjects. She has had the good fortune to discover a +number of important manuscripts illustrating the early history of +Mexico. Chief among these are a Hispano-American manuscript which she +dug out of one of the libraries of Madrid and another which was found in +a private collection in England and reproduced in facsimile in this +country. In honor of its fair discoverer it is now known as the Codex +Nuttall, and is regarded by experts as one of the most precious records +of ancient Mexico. + +What is probably Mrs. Nuttall's most valuable contribution to +archaeological science is her erudite work entitled _The Fundamental +Principles of Old and New World Civilizations_. It is a comparative +research based on a study of the ancient Mexican, religious, +sociological and calendar systems, and represents thirteen years of +assiduous labor. It is a worthy monument to the scientific ability of +this gifted Americanist, and one which brilliantly illumines some of the +most controverted points of comparative archaeology. + +The Nestor of women archaeologists is Donna Ersilia +Caetani-Bovatelli--the daughter of the famous Dante scholar, the late +Duke Don Michel Angelo Caetani-Sermonetta. Since the days of Boniface +VIII, whom Dante scornfully denounced as _lo principe de' Pharisei_, the +family of the Caetani has been one of the most illustrious of the Roman +nobility, and is to-day ranked with those of the Colonna and Orsini. + +Besides his thorough knowledge of Dante, whose _Divina Commedia_ he +regarded as the great artistic production of the human mind--a work +which he knew by heart--the Duke of Sermonetta was deeply versed in +philology and archaeology. No one was more familiar with the history and +antiquities of Rome than he was, nor a greater friend and patron of +scholars of every nationality. The Palazzo Caetani was the resort of not +only the savants of Rome, but also and especially of those who gathered +from all quarters of the world to study the rich collections of +antiquities for which the Eternal City is so famous. Here the ablest +authorities in history and archaeology discussed the latest discoveries +among the ruins of Greece and Asia Minor, and the most recent finds in +the Forum or amidst the crumbling ruins of the palaces of the Caesars. + +Having such a father and brought up in such an environment it is not +surprising that Donna Ersilia acquired at an early age that taste for +archaeology which was, as events proved, to constitute the chief +occupation of her long and busy life. Having enjoyed and studied +literature and the languages under the best masters in Rome, she was +thoroughly prepared for the work of deciphering Greek and Latin +inscriptions and for an intelligent study of the ancient monuments of +Italy and Hellas. + +Her learned countryman, A. de Gubernatis, assures us that she has such a +thorough knowledge of Latin and Greek that she writes both with ease and +elegance, and that she is endowed with an admirable memory for philology +and archaeology. Besides being a mistress of several modern languages, +she is also familiar with Sanscrit. + +Since the death of her husband, in 1879, she has devoted all her time, +outside of that given to the care and education of her children, to the +pursuit of classical archaeology, in which she has long been regarded as +an authority of the first order. Her salon, unlike those of the +frivolous leaders of high life, has for many years been the favorite +rendezvous in Rome of learned men and women from every clime. Here were +seen the noted historians Gregorovius, Theodore Mommsen, and Giovanni +Battista de Rossi, the illustrious founder of Christian archaeology. Here +the representatives of the French, German and American schools of +archaeology meet to exchange views on their favorite science and to find +inspiration in the knowledge and enthusiasm of their gifted hostess, who +always takes an active part in their recondite discussions, and never +fails to contribute her share to these meetings, which have contributed +so much toward the advancement of science and the history of antiquity. +Whether the discussion turn on the deciphering of an ancient text, the +inscription of a monument or a recently excavated sarcophagus, Donna +Ersilia's opinion is eagerly sought, and her judgment is generally +unerring. + +This cultured and erudite daughter of sunny Italy has been a prolific +writer on her favorite branch of research. Besides contributing to such +publications as the _Nuova Antologia_ and the bulletins of the +archaeological commissions in Rome, she has found time to prepare for the +press a number of volumes of the highest value on divers questions of +Roman and Greek archaeology. + +It is interesting, in this connection, to note the fact that, after Mme. +Curie had been refused admittance into the French Academy, one of the +members of this institution, who had voted against her on the ground +that she was a woman, had occasion to attend a meeting of the Academy of +the Lincei in Rome, an association which plays the same role in Italy as +does the French Academy in France, and found, to his astonishment, that +the dean of the department of archaeology, as well as the presiding +officer of some of the most important meetings of the academy, was a +woman. She was no other than Donna Ersilia Caetani-Bovatelli, the +learned and gracious scion of an honored race. So taken aback was the +Gallic opponent of _feminisme_ that he could but exclaim: "_Diable!_ +they order things differently in Italy from what we do in _la belle +France_." + +Considering their attainments and achievements, the two women who occupy +the highest place as archaeologists in the English-speaking world are +Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson. They are the twin +daughters of the Rev. John Smith, an English clergyman, and have long +enjoyed an enviable reputation among Scriptural scholars and +Orientalists. + +During their youth they had the advantage of instruction under the best +masters, and, among other things, acquired a wide knowledge of the +modern and classical languages. Subsequent study and frequent visits to +Greece and the Orient made them proficient in modern Greek, Arabic, +Hebrew and Syriac. Becoming interested in the search for ancient +manuscripts, they resolved to make the long and arduous journey to the +Greek convent of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai. + +In the latter part of January, 1892, these two brave and enterprising +women left Suez for their destination in the heart of the Arabian +desert. They were accompanied only by their dragoman and Bedouin +servants. Eleven camels carried the two travelers, their baggage, tents +and provisions for fifty days. They had laid in supplies not only for +the two or three weeks they were to spend on the way to and from Sinai, +but also for the month they expected to remain at the Convent of St. +Catherine. + +Arriving at the end of their journey, they were most cordially received +by the monks, who afforded them every facility for examining the +treasures of their unique and venerable library. They immediately set to +work, and before they left the room in which the manuscripts were +preserved they had made one of the most remarkable finds of the century. +For, in closely inspecting a dirty, forbidding old manuscript whose +leaves had probably not been turned for centuries, they discovered a +palimpsest, of which the upper writing contained the biographies of +women saints, while that beneath proved to be one of the earliest copies +of the Syriac Gospels, if not the very earliest in existence. + +No find since the celebrated discovery by Tischendorf of the Sinaitic +Codex, in the same convent nearly fifty years before, ever excited such +interest among Scriptural scholars or was hailed with greater +rejoicings. It was by all Biblical students regarded as an invaluable +contribution to Scriptural literature, and as a find which "has doubled +our sources of knowledge of the darkest corner of New Testament +criticism." To distinguish it from the _Codex Sinaiticus_, the precious +manuscript brought to light by Mrs. Lewis has been very appropriately +named after the fortunate discoverer, and will hereafter be known as the +Codex Ludovicus.[223] + +Another find of rare importance made by the gifted twin sisters was a +Palestinian Syriac lectionary similar to the hitherto unique copy in the +Library of the Vatican. A special interest attaches to this lectionary +from the fact that it is written in the language that was most probably +spoken by our Lord. + +Among other notable discoveries of Mrs. Lewis and her sister during the +four visits[224] which they made to Mt. Sinai and Palestine between the +years 1892 and 1897 were a number of manuscripts in Arabic and a portion +of the original Hebrew manuscript of Ecclesiastes which was written +about 200 B.C. Previously the oldest copies of this book of the Old +Testament were the Greek and Syriac versions. + +What is specially remarkable about the discoveries made by Mrs. Lewis +and Mrs. Gibson is that they were able to make so many valuable finds +after the convent library at Mt. Sinai had been so frequently examined +by previous scholars. The indefatigable Tischendorf made three visits to +this library and had but one phenomenal success. But neither "he nor any +of the other wandering scholars who have visited the convent attained," +as has been well said, "to a tithe of the acquaintance with its +treasures which these energetic ladies possess." + +But more remarkable than the mere discovery of so many invaluable +manuscripts, which was, of course, an extraordinary achievement, is the +fact that these manuscripts, whether in Syriac, Arabic or Hebrew, have +been translated, annotated and edited by these same scholarly women. +Already more than a score of volumes have come from their prolific pens, +all evincing the keenest critical acumen and the highest order of +Biblical and archaeological scholarship. The reader who desires a popular +account of their famous discoveries should by all means read Mrs. +Gibson's entertaining volume, _How the Codex Was Found_, and Mrs. Lewis' +charming little work entitled, _In the Shadow of Sinai_. As to those +men--and the species is yet far from extinct--who still doubt the +capacity of women for the higher kinds of intellectual effort, let them +glance at the pages of the numerous volumes given to the press by these +richly dowered women under the captions of _Studia Sinaitica_ and _Horae +Semiticae_; and, if they are able to comprehend the evidence before them, +they will be forced to admit that the long-imagined difference between +the intellectual powers of men and women is one of fancy and not one of +reality.[225] + +And yet, strange to relate, while Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson were +electrifying the learned world by their achievements in the highest +form of scholarship, the slow-moving University of Cambridge was gravely +debating "whether it was a proper thing to confer degrees upon women," +and preparing to answer the question in the negative. The fact that +there were "representatives of the unenfranchised sex at their gates who +had gathered more laurels in the field of scholarship than most of those +who belong to the privileged sex" did not appeal to the university dons +or prevent them from putting themselves on record as favoring a +condition of things which, at this late age of the world, should be +expected only among the women-enslaving followers of Mohammed. + +The saying that "a prophet hath no honor in his own country" was +fulfilled to the letter in the case of the two women who had shed such +luster on the land of their birth. While foreign institutions were vying +with one another in showering honors on the two brilliant Englishwomen, +with whose praises the whole world was resounding, the University of +Cambridge was silent. The University of St. Andrews conferred on them +the degree of LL.D., while conservative old Heidelberg, casting aside +its age-old traditions, made haste to honor them with the degree of +Doctor of Divinity. In addition to this, Halle made Mrs. Lewis a Doctor +of Philosophy. One would have thought that sheer shame, if not patriotic +spirit, would have compelled the university in whose shadows the two +women had their home, and in which Mrs. Lewis' husband had held for +years an official appointment, to show itself equally appreciative of +superlative merit and equally ready to reward rare scholarship, +regardless of the sex of the beneficiaries. But no. The illustrious +archaeologists and Biblical scholars were women, and this fact alone was +in the estimation of the Cambridge authorities enough to withhold from +them that recognition which was so spontaneously accorded them by the +great universities of the Continent. + +Nor was this the only instance of the kind. While the celebrated twin +sisters just referred to were so materially contributing to our +knowledge of Biblical lore, another Englishwoman, Jane E. Harrison, who +lived within hearing of the church bells of Cambridge, was lecturing to +delighted audiences in Newnham College on the history, mythology and +monuments of ancient Athens, and writing those learned works on the +religion and antiquities of Greece which have given her so conspicuous a +place among modern archaeologists.[226] But, as in the case of her +distinguished neighbors, the discoverers of the _Codex Ludovicus_, the +degrees she was honored with came not from Cambridge, with which, +through her fellowship in Newnham, she was so closely connected. + +And while this gifted lady was deserving so well of science and +literature, the undergraduate students of Cambridge, following the cue +given by the twenty-four hundred graduates who had just rejected the +proposal to give honorary degrees to women who could pass the required +examinations, were giving an exhibition of rowdyism which far surpassed +that which, a few years before, had so disgraced the University of +Edinburgh, when the same question of degrees for women was under +consideration. + +According to the report of an eye witness of the turbulent scene at +Cambridge, "The undergraduate students appeared to be, as a body, +viciously opposed to the proposal to give degrees to women, and became +fairly riotous. They hooted those who supported the reform and fired +crackers even in the Senate House and made the night lurid with bonfires +and powder. They put up insulting effigies of girl students, and such +mottoes as 'Get you to Girton, Beatrice. Get you to Newnham. Here is no +place for maids!'" + +Verily, when such scenes are possible in one of the world's great +intellectual centers--a place where, above all others, women should +receive due recognition for their contributions toward the progress of +knowledge--one is constrained to declare that what we call civilization +is still far from the ideal. And, when one witnesses the total +indifference of institutions like Cambridge and the French Academy to +the splendid achievements of women like Mrs. Lewis, Mrs. Gibson and Mme. +Curie, one cannot but exclaim in words Apocalyptic: "How long, O Lord, +holy and true," is this iniquitous discrimination against one-half of +our race to endure? O Lord, how long? + +FOOTNOTES: + +[215] A. Michaelis, _A Century of Archaeological Discoveries_, p. 6, New +York, 1908. + +[216] _The Most Illustrious Ladies of the Renaissance_, p. 152, by +Christopher Hare, London, 1904. + +[217] Michaelis, Op. cit., p. 20, Cf. also Fiorelli's _Pompeinarum +Antiquitatum Historia_, Vol. I, Pars. III, Naples, 1860. Arditi +characterized Queen Caroline's interest in the excavations as +"_entusiasmo veramente ammirabile_." + +[218] _Frauenarbeit in der Archaeologie in Deutsche Rundschau_, March, +1890, page 396. + +[219] _Memoirs of the Life of Anna Jameson_, pp. 296-297, by her niece, +Geraldine Macpherson, London, 1878. + +[220] _Ilios, the City and Country of the Trojans_, pp. 657-658, by Dr. +Henry Schliemann, New York, 1881. + +As an illustration of Mrs. Schliemann's devotion to the work which has +rendered her, as well as her husband, immortal, a single passage from +the volume just quoted, p. 261, is pertinent. Referring to the +sufferings and privations which they endured during their third year's +work at Hissarlik, Dr. Schliemann writes as follows: + +"My poor wife and myself, therefore, suffered very much since the icy +north wind, which recalls Homer's frequent mention of the blasts of +Boreas, blew with such violence through the chinks of our house-walls, +which were made of planks, that we were not even able to light our lamps +in the evening, while the water which stood near the hearth froze into +solid masses. During the day we could, to some degree, bear the cold by +working in the excavations; but, in the evenings, we had nothing to keep +us warm except our enthusiasm for the great work of discovering Troy." + +So high was Dr. Schliemann's opinion of his wife's ability as an +archaeologist that he entrusted to her--as well as to their daughter, +Andromache, and son, Agamemnon--the continuation of the work which death +prevented him from completing. + +[221] See Mme. Dieulafoy's graphic account of the expedition in a work +which has been translated into English under the title, _At Susa, the +Ancient Capital of the Kings of Persia, Narrative of Travel Through +Western Persia and Excavations Made at the Site of the Lost City of the +Lilies, 1884-1886_, Philadelphia, 1890. + +See also her other related work--crowned by the French +Academy--entitled, _La Perse, La Chaldee et la Susiane_, Paris, 1887. + +[222] Among the specimens secured were two of extraordinary beauty and +interest. One of them is a beautiful enameled frieze of a lion and the +other, likewise a work in enamel, represents a number of polychrome +figures of the Immortals--the name given to the guards of the Great +Kings of Persia. Both are truly magnificent specimens of ceramic art, +and compare favorably with anything of the kind which antiquity has +bequeathed to us. Commenting on the pictures of the Persian guards, Mme. +Dieulafoy writes: "Whatever their race may be, our Immortals appear fine +in line, fine in form, fine in color and constitute a ceramic work +infinitely superior to the bas-reliefs, so justly celebrated, of Lucca +della Robbia." Op. cit., p. 222. + +[223] One passage in this codex bears so strongly on a leading argument +of this work that I cannot resist the temptation to give it with Mrs. +Lewis' own comment: + +"The piece of my work," she writes, _In the Shadow of Sinai_, p. 98 et +seq., "which has given me the greatest satisfaction, consists in the +decipherment of two words in John IV, 27. They were well worth all our +visits to Sinai, for they illustrate an action of our Lord which seems +to be recorded nowhere else, and which has some degree of inherent +probability from what we know of His character. The passage is 'His +disciples came and wondered that with the women he was _standing and +talking_'.... + +"Why was our Lord standing? He had been sitting on the wall when the +disciples left Him; and, we know that He was tired. Moreover, sitting is +the proper attitude for an Easterner when engaged in teaching. And an +ordinary Oriental would never rise of his own natural free will out of +politeness to a woman. It may be that He rose in His enthusiasm for the +great truths He was uttering; but, I like to think that His great heart, +which embraced the lowest of humanity, lifted Him above the restrictions +of His race and age, and made Him show that courtesy to our sex, even in +the person of a degraded specimen, which is considered among all really +progressive peoples to be a mark of true and noble manhood. To shed even +a faint light upon that wondrous story of His tabernacling amongst us is +an inestimable privilege and worthy of all the trouble we can possibly +take." + +[224] Mrs. Gibson, unaccompanied by her sister, has since made two more +visits to Mt. Sinai in order to complete the work so auspiciously begun. + +[225] The following partial list of the works of these erudite twins on +subjects connected with Scripture and Oriental literature gives some +idea of their extraordinary attainments and of their prodigious activity +in researches that are usually considered entirely foreign to the tastes +and aptitudes of women. + +_Some Pages of the Four Gospels Retranscribed From the Sinaitic +Palimpsest_, with a translation of the whole text by Agnes Smith Lewis. + +_An Arabic Version of St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, +Galatians and part of Ephesians._ Edited from a ninth century MS. by +Margaret Dunlop Gibson. + +_Apocrypha Sinaitica._ Containing the Anaphora Pilati in Syriac and +Arabic: the Syriac transcribed by J. Rendel Harris, and the Arabic by +Margaret Dunlop Gibson; also two recensions of the _Recognitions of +Clement_, in Arabic, transcribed and translated by Margaret Dunlop +Gibson. + +_An Arabic Version of the Acts of the Apostles and the Seven Catholic +Epistles_, from an eighth or ninth century MS., with a treatise on the +Triune Nature of God and translation. Edited by Margaret Dunlop Gibson. + +Apocrypha Arabica, Edited by Margaret D. Gibson, containing 1, _Kitab al +Magall_ or the _Book of the Rolls_; 2, _The Story of the Aphikia Wife of +Jesus Ben Sira_ (Carshuni); 3, _Cyprian and Justa_, in Arabic and Greek. + +_Select Narratives of Holy Women_, from the Syro-Antiochene or Sinai +Palimpsest, as written above the Old Syriac Gospels in A. D. 778. +Translation by Agnes Smith Lewis. + +_Apocrypha Syriaca Sinaitica_, being the _Protevangelium Jacobi_ and +_Transitus Mariae_, from a Palimpsest of the fifth or sixth century. +Edited by Agnes Smith Lewis. + +_Forty-One Facsimiles of Dated Christian Arabic Manuscripts_, with Text +and English Translation, arranged by Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret +Dunlop Gibson, with introductory observations in Arabic calligraphy by +the Rev. David S. Margoliouth. + +_The Didascalia Apostolorum in Syriac_, edited from a Mesopotamian MS, +with various readings and collations of other MS, by Margaret Dunlop +Gibson. + +_The Arabic Version of the Acta Apocrypha Apostolorum_, edited and +translated by Agnes Smith Lewis, with fifth century fragments of the +Acta Thomae, in Syriac. + +_The Gospel of Isbodad in Syriac and English_, by Margaret D. Gibson. + +_Acta Mythologica Apostolorum in Arabic_, with translation by Agnes +Smith Lewis. + +For an elaborate and sympathetic account of the labors and discoveries +of Mrs. Lewis and her sister, the reader is referred to an article from +the pen of the learned Professor V. Ryssel, in the _Schweizerische +Theologische Zeitschrift_, XVI, Jahrgang, 1899. + +[226] For an evidence of this learned lady's competency to deal with the +most recondite stores of history and archaeology, the reader is referred +to two of her later works, viz., _Primitive Athens as Described by +Thucydides_, Cambridge, 1906, and _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek +Religion_, Cambridge University Press, 1903. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WOMEN AS INVENTORS + + +"There have been very learned women as there have been women warriors, +but there have never been women inventors."[227] Thus wrote Voltaire +with that flippancy and cocksureness which was so characteristic of the +author of the _Dictionnaire Philosophique_--a man who was ever ready to +give, offhand, a categorical answer to any question that came before him +for discussion. His countryman, Proudhon, expressed the same opinion in +other words when he wrote, _Les femmes n'ont rien invente, pas meme leur +quenouille_--women have invented nothing, not even their distaff. + +Had these two writers thoroughly sifted the evidence available, even in +their day, for a proper consideration of this interesting subject, they +would, both of them, have reached a very different conclusion from that +which is expressed in the sentences just quoted. Had they consulted the +records of antiquity, they would have learned that most of the earliest +and most important inventions were attributed to women; and, had they +studied the reports of explorers among the savage tribes of the modern +world, they would have found that these early legends and traditions +regarding the inventions of women were fully confirmed by what was being +done in their own time. Man's first needs were food, shelter and +clothing; and tradition in all parts of the world is unanimous in +ascribing to woman the invention, in essentially their present forms, of +all the arts most conducive to the preservation and well-being of our +race. + +In Egypt, as Diodorus Siculus informs us, the inventors of specially +useful things were, as a reward of their deserts, enrolled among the +gods, as were certain heroes among the ancient Greeks and Romans. +Foremost among these was Isis, who laid the foundation of agriculture by +the introduction of the culture of wheat and other cereals. Before her +time the Egyptians lived on roots and herbs. In lieu of these crude +articles of food, Isis gave them bread and other more wholesome +aliments. She invented the process of making linen and was the first to +apply a sail to the propulsion of a boat. To her also was attributed the +art of embalming, the discovery of many medicines and the beginnings of +Egyptian literature. + +Even more prominent was Pallas Athene, one of the greatest divinities of +the Greeks. Virgil, in his _Georgics_, invokes her as + + "Inventor, Pallas, of the fatt'ning oil, + Thou founder of the plow and the plowman's toil." + +But not only was she regarded as the _oleae inventrix_-inventress of the +olive--as Virgil phrases it, but also as the inventor of all +handicrafts, whether of women or men. Like Isis, she was deemed the +originator of agriculture and many of the mechanic arts. But, above all, +she was the inventor of musical instruments and those plastic and +graphic arts which have for ages placed Greece in the forefront of +civilization and culture. + +From the beginning it was woman who first made use of wool and flax for +textile fabrics; and of this prehistoric woman one can affirm what +Solomon, in his _Book of Proverbs_, said of the virtuous woman of his +day: + + "She seeketh wool and flax and worketh diligently with her hands; + She layeth her hands to the spindle and her hands hold the distaff." + +She was also the first one to weave cotton and silk. It was Mama Oclo, +the wife of Manco Capac, as the Inca historian, Garcilasso de la Vega, +tells us, who taught the women of ancient Peru "to sew and weave cotton +and wool and to make clothes for themselves, their husbands and +children." + +And it was a woman, Se-ling-she, the wife of the emperor, Hwang-te, who +lived nearly three thousand years before Christ, to whom the most +ancient Chinese writers assign the discovery of silk. Her name is +perpetuated in the name China, the goddess of silkworms, and under this +appellation she still receives divine honors. + +The preparation and weaving of silk were introduced into Japan by four +Chinese girls, and the new industry soon became there, as in China, one +of the chief sources, as it is to-day, of the country's wealth. To +perpetuate the memory of these four pioneer silk weavers the grateful +Japanese erected a temple in their honor in the province of Setsu. + +According to tradition, the eggs of the silk moth and the seed of the +mulberry tree were conveyed to India, concealed in the lining of her +headdress, by a Chinese princess. She was thus instrumental in +establishing in the region watered by the Indus and the Ganges the same +industry which her countrywomen had introduced into the Land of the +Rising Sun. + +Cashmere shawls and attar of roses, the costliest of perfumes, are +attributed to an Indian empress, Nur Mahal, whom her husband, in view of +her achievements, as well as on account of his passionate love for her, +called "The Light of the World."[228] + +And what shall we say of those exquisite creations of woman's brain and +hand--needle-point and pillow lace? These two inventions, like the +manufacture of silk, have given employment to tens of thousands of women +throughout the world; and, in such countries as Italy, Belgium and +France, where lace-making has received special attention, they have for +centuries been most prolific sources of revenue. Silk fabrics in ancient +Rome were worth their weight in gold. The finest specimens of point lace +are, even to-day, as highly prized as precious stones, and, like the +great masterpieces of plastic art, are handed down as heirlooms from +generation to generation. In no other instance, except possibly in the +hairspring of a watch, is there such an extraordinary difference in +value between the raw material and the finished product as there is in +the case of the finest thread lace. + +A great sensation was caused in Italy a few decades ago when a humble +workwoman, Signora Bassani, succeeded in rediscovering the peculiar +stitch of the celebrated Venetian point, which had been lost for +centuries. She was at once granted a patent for her invention, which was +by her countrymen regarded as an event of national importance. + +After painting and sculpture, probably no art has contributed more to +the development of the esthetic sense among the nations of the world +than has the art whose chief tools are the needle and the bobbin in the +deft hands of a beauty-loving woman. If the name of the first lace-maker +had not been lost in the mists of antiquity, it is reasonable to suppose +that she, too, would long since have had a monument erected to her +memory, as well as the weavers of silk and makers of attar of roses and +cashmere shawls. She was surely as deserving of such an honor. + +More conclusive information respecting woman as an inventor is, strange +as it may appear, afforded by a systematic study of the various races of +mankind which are still in a state of savagery. Such a study discloses +the interesting fact that woman, contrary to the declaration of +Proudhon, has not only been the inventor of the distaff, but that she +has furthermore--pace Voltaire--been the inventor of all the peaceful +arts of life, and the inventor, too, of the earliest forms of nearly all +the mechanical devices now in use in the world of industry. + +Architecture, as well as many other things, was credited by the ancient +Greeks to Minerva. This was a poetical way of stating the fact--now +generally accepted by men of science--that women were the first +homemakers. But the first home was a very simple and a very humble +structure. When not a cave, it was a simple shelter made of bark or +skins, sufficient to afford protection to the mother and her child. +Subsequently it was a lodge made of earth, of stone or wattle work or +adobe. + +Women were, in the light of anthropology, as well as in that of +mythology and tradition, the first to discover the nutritive and +medicinal values of fruits, seeds, nuts, roots and vegetables. They were +consequently the first gardeners and agriculturists and the first to +build up a materia medica. While men were engaged in the chase or in +warfare, women were gradually perfecting those divers domestic arts +which, in the course of time, became their recognized specialties. They +soon found that it was better to cultivate certain food plants and +trees than to depend on them for nourishment in the wild state. This was +particularly true in the case of such useful and widely distributed +species as wheat, rice, maize, the yam, potato, banana and cassava. + +At first most of these food products were used in the raw state, but +woman's quick inventive genius was not long in making one of the most +important and far-reaching discoveries--a method for producing fire. In +a certain sense this was the greatest discovery ever made, and the +Greeks showed their appreciation of the value of it by asserting that +fire was stolen from heaven. Considering its multifarious uses in +heating and cooking, thereby immensely adding to the comfort and +well-being of primitive man, we are not surprised that in certain parts +of the world fire has always been considered something sacred, and that +the old Romans instituted Vestal Virgins, and the ancient Peruvians +Virgins of the Sun, to preserve this precious element and have it ever +ready when required for sacrifice or for any of their various liturgical +functions. If any one ever deserved a "monument more durable than +bronze," it was the woman who, "on the edge of time," first drew the +Promethean spark from a piece of pyrites by striking it with flint or +produced it by the friction of two pieces of wood. + +After building a home and establishing in it a fireplace for the +preparation of food, woman's next concern was to secure more raiment +than was afforded by the traditional fig leaf. This she found in the +bark of certain trees, in the fiber of hemp and cotton and in the wool +of sheep and goats. With these and her distaff she spun thread, and from +the thread thus obtained she was by means of her primitive +loom--likewise her invention--able to provide all kinds of textile +fabrics for clothing for herself and family. + +But there was much more to invent before the home of primitive man, or +rather primitive woman, could be considered as fairly equipped. +Furniture and culinary utensils were required, and these, too, were +provided by the deft and cunning fingers of woman. She was the first +potter and the first basketmaker; and anyone who has lived among the +savages of any land, especially among the aborigines in the interior of +South America, knows what an important part is played in domestic +economy by native basketry and ceramic ware. Both of these articles were +at first of the simplest character, but woman's innate esthetic sense +soon enabled her to produce those highly ornate specimens of pottery and +basketry that are so highly prized in the public and private collections +of this country and Europe. + +The first device for converting grain into flour was, like the many +other articles already named, the invention of woman. Whether the simple +mortar and pestle of the North American Indian, or the Mexican metate +and muller, or the Irish quern, it was, in every case, the product of +woman's brain and handiwork, as it was also the basal prototype of our +most improved types of flouring mills. And so was the soapstone pot--the +predecessor of the iron or brass kettle--a woman's invention, as well as +many similar contrivances for preparing food. + +But what is probably the most remarkable culinary invention of woman in +the state of savagery is her unique contrivance for converting the +poisonous root of the _manihot utilissima_--the staple food of tropical +America--into a wholesome and nutritious aliment. It is a bag, called +_matapi_, which serves both as a press and as a sieve. For the +inhabitants of the vast basins of the Amazon and the Orinoco, where the +chief articles of diet are derived from the manihot and the plantain, +this invention of woman is the most important ever made and ranks in +importance with the discovery by the same skilled food purveyor of the +dietetic value of manihot itself. + +The first knife was a woman's invention, as the arrow-head and the spear +point were the inventions of her hunter husband. It was in the beginning +a most primitive implement; but, whether in the form of a simple flake +of flint of obsidian, or in that of an Eskimo ulu--the woman's knife--it +was the archetype of all the forms of cutlery now in use. With this rude +knife the primitive housewife skinned and carved the game brought to her +by her male companion. With it she scraped the interior of the hide and +cut it up into articles of clothing. She was thus the first furrier and +tailor. With it she made the first sandals and moccasins, and, in doing +so, became the first shoemaker and the original St. Crispin. + +To woman, the originator of the first home, is due also the invention of +the oven and the chimney. She was also the first maker of salt--that +all-important condiment and sanitary agent--and the first to obtain +nitre from wood ashes. She was the first engineer, as is evinced in her +invention of the parbuckle and in the bamboo conduit, which was the +predecessor of the great canals of Babylonia[229] and the imposing +aqueducts of ancient Rome. + +Important, however, as are all the foregoing inventions, we must not +forget what was an equally important contribution by woman to the +welfare and progress of our race--the domestication of animals. No +discovery after that of artificially producing fire has contributed more +toward the development of our race than the taming of milk- and +fleece-bearing animals, like the cow, the sheep, the goat and the llama, +or of burden-bearing animals, like the horse, the ass, the camel and the +reindeer, or of hunting and watching animals like the faithful, +ubiquitous dog. For, in the first place, the domestication of these +supremely useful animals diminished man's labor as burden bearers. It +likewise supplemented the fecundity of women and facilitated the +multiplication of the race, because it supplied to the child a +nourishment that previously could be obtained only from the mother, who +had been obliged to suckle her young several years longer than was +necessary after the friendly goat and cow came to her aid. Still another +consequence of the domestication of animals was that it immensely +diminished the amount of woman's care and labor, afforded her the +necessary leisure to develop the arts of refinement, and stimulated +intellectual growth in a way that otherwise would have been impossible. + +It is often stated by certain writers who love to indulge in fanciful +speculations that women inventors got their ideas as home builders and +weavers and potters from nest-building birds, from web-weaving spiders, +and from clay workers like termites and mud wasps. Be this as it may, +the fact remains in all its inspiring truth that, in the matter of +industrialism, as opposed to the militancy of man, we can unhesitatingly +declare, with Virgil, _Dux femina facti_--woman was the leader in all +the arts of peace--arts which have been slowly perfected through the +ages until they present the extraordinary development which we now +witness. + +When we contemplate the splendid porcelain wares of Meissen and Sevres, +or the countless varieties of cutlery produced in the factories of +Sheffield, or the beautiful textile fabrics from the looms of Lowell and +Manchester, or the delicate silks woven in the famous establishments of +Lombardy and Southern France, or the countless forms of footwear made in +Lynn and Chicago, or the exquisite furs brought from Siberia and the +Pribyloff Islands, and dyed in Leipsic and London, or the astonishing +output of food products from the factories of Pittsburgh and the immense +roller mills of Minneapolis, we little think that the colossal wheels +of these vast and varied industries were set in motion by the inventive +genius of woman in the dim and distant prehistoric past. + +And yet such is the case. Her handiwork from the earliest pottery may be +traced through its manifold stages from its first rude beginnings to the +most gorgeous creations of ceramic art. The primeval knife of flint or +obsidian has become the keen tool of tempered steel; the simple distaff +has issued in the intricate Jacquard loom; the metate and pestle +actuated by a woman's arm have, by a long process of evolution, +developed into our mammoth roller mills impelled by water power, steam +or electricity.[230] + +But these extraordinary changes from the rude implements of prehistoric +time to the complicated machinery of the present is but a change of +kind, not one of principle. It is a change due to specialization of work +which became possible only when men, liberated from the avocations of +hunting and warfare, were able to take up the occupations of women, and +develop them in the manner with which we are now familiar. + +Why men, rather than women, should have achieved this work of +specialization; whether it was due to social causes or to woman's +physical and mental organization, or to these various factors combined, +we need not inquire; but such is the fact. Whereas in primitive times +every woman having a home was a cook, a butcher, a baker, a potter, a +weaver, a cutler, a miller, a tanner, a furrier, an engineer, man, in +assuming the work which was originally exclusively feminine and +performed by one and the same person, has subdivided and specialized by +improved forms of machinery and otherwise, so that what is now done is +accomplished more rapidly and to better purpose, and with +correspondingly greater results in the development of industry and in +the progress of civilization. + +And the remarkable fact is that many of the most important of these +improvements due to specialization have been made within the memory of +those yet living, while still others have been originated in quite +recent years. Nevertheless, great as has been the work of specialization +and coordination in every department of human industry during the last +few decades, it is, to judge by the reports of the Patent Office, as yet +in little more than its initial stage. + +We are now prepared for the consideration of the part woman has taken in +this specializing movement and for a discussion of her share in modern +inventions and in the improvements of those manifold inventions which +were due to her genius and industry untold ages ago. Considering the +short time during which her inventive mind has been specially active, +and the many handicaps which have been imposed on her, the wonder is not +that she has achieved so little in comparison with man, but rather that +she has accomplished so much. + +The first woman to receive a patent in the United States was Mary Kies. +It was issued May 5, 1809, for a process of straw-weaving with silk or +thread. Six years later Mary Brush was granted a patent for a corset. It +seems to have been quite satisfactory, for no other patent for this +article of feminine attire was issued to a woman until 1841, when one +was granted to Elizabeth Adams. During the thirty-two years which +elapsed between the issuing of a patent to Mary Kies and Elizabeth +Adams, but twenty other patents were granted to women. The chief of +these were for weaving hats from grass, manufacturing moccasins, +whitening leghorn straw, for a sheet-iron shovel, a cook stove and a +machine for cutting straw and fodder. + +During the decade following 1841, fourteen patents were issued to as +many different women. Among the articles patented by them were an +ice-cream freezer, a weighing scale and a fan attachment for a rocking +chair. It was not recorded, however, that this last invention, valuable +as it was apparently, ever became particularly popular. But by far the +most remarkable of woman's inventions during this period was a submarine +telescope and lamp, for which a patent was awarded in 1845 to Sarah +Mather. + +From 1851 to 1861, twenty-eight patents were issued to women--just twice +the number awarded them during the preceding decade. Most of these +patents were for articles of domestic use or feminine apparel. Four of +them, however, comprised a scale for instrumental music, for mounting +fluid lenses, a fountain pen and an improvement in reaping and mowing +machines. + +The following decade is remarkable for the wonderful increase in the +number of inventions due to women, for there was a sudden jump from +twenty-eight to four hundred and forty-one patents awarded them between +the years 1861 and 1871. Women now began to have confidence in their +inventive faculties, and, no longer content with exercising their genius +on articles of clothing and culinary utensils, sewing, washing and +churning machines, they began to devote their attention to objects that +were entirely foreign to their ordinary home activities. This is clearly +evinced by the patents they obtained for such inventions as improvements +in locomotive wheels, devices for reducing straw and other fibrous +substances for the manufacture of paper pulp, improvements in corn +huskers, low-water indicators, steam and other whistles, corn plows, a +method of constructing screw propellers, improvements in materials for +packing journals and bearings, in fire alarms, thermometers, railroad +car heaters, improvements in lubricating railway journals, in conveyors +of smoke and cinders for locomotives, in pyrotechnic night signals, +burglar alarms, railway car safety apparatus, in apparatus for punching +corrugated metals, desulphurizing ores and other similar inventions in +the domain of mechanical engineering, inventions that, at first blush, +would seem to be quite alien to the genius and capacity of woman. + +From now on women's inventions in the United States increased at an +extraordinary rate, for from 1871 until July 1, 1888, when the first +government report was made on the patents issued to women inventors, she +had to her credit nearly two thousand inventions, many of which were of +prime importance.[231] + +During the seven years following 1888 she was awarded twenty-five +hundred and twenty-six patents--more than the total number that had been +granted her during the preceding seventy-nine years. Between 1895 and +1910, three thousand six hundred and fifteen more patents were placed to +her credit, making a grand total for her first century of inventive +achievement of eight thousand five hundred and ninety-six patents. No +Patent Office reports are available since 1910, but the number of +inventions for which women have received patents since Mary Kies was +awarded hers on May 5, 1809, for "straw-weaving with silk or thread," +cannot be far from ten thousand. This fact will, doubtless, be a +revelation to that large class of men who still seem to share the views +of Voltaire and Proudhon that women are incapable of inventing even the +simplest article of domestic use. + +The following story well illustrates the prevailing ignorance regarding +the part women have taken in the invention of certain articles that are +so common that most people think they were never patented. + +"I was out driving once with an old farmer in Vermont," writes Mrs. Ada +C. Bowles, "and he told me, 'You women may talk about your rights, but +why don't you invent something?' I answered, 'Your horse's feed bag and +the shade over his head were both of them invented by women.' The old +fellow was so taken aback that he was barely able to gasp, 'Do tell!'" + +Had he investigated further he would have found that the flynet on his +horse's back, the tugs and other harness trimmings, the shoes on his +horse's feet[232] and the buggy seat he then occupied were all the +inventions of women. He would, doubtless, also have discovered that the +currycomb he had used before starting out on his drive, as well as the +snap hook of the halter and the checkrein and the stall unhitching +device were likewise the inventions of members of that sex whose +capacity he was so disposed to depreciate; for women have been awarded +patents--in some instances several of them--for all the articles that +have been mentioned. He might furthermore have learned that the fellies +in his buggy wheels and his daughter's side saddle had been made under +women's patents; and that, to complete his surprise and confusion, the +leather used in his harness had been sewn by a machine patented by a +woman who was not only an inventor but who was also for many years the +manager and proprietor of a large harness factory in New York City. + +What particularly arrests one's attention in reading the Patent Office +reports is not only the large number of inventions by women, but also +the very wide range of the devices which they embrace. It is not +surprising to find them inventing and improving culinary utensils, house +furniture and furnishings, toilet articles, wearing apparel and +stationery, trunks and bags, toys and games, designs for printed and +textile fabrics, for boxes and baskets, screens, awnings, baby carriers, +musical instruments, appliances for washing and cleaning, attachments +for bicycles and type-writing machines, art, educational and medical +appliances; for these things are in keeping with their proper _metier_; +but it is surprising for those who are not familiar with the history of +modern inventions to learn of the share women have had in inventing and +improving agricultural implements, building appurtenances, motors of +various kinds, plumbing apparatus, theatrical stage mechanisms, and, +above all, countless railway appliances from a coupling or fender to an +apparatus for sanding railroad tracks, or a device for unloading +boxcars. + +Those who are still of the opinion of Voltaire and Proudhon--and their +name is legion--respecting woman's inventive powers, might be willing to +accord to her the capacity to design a new form of clothes pin, or hair +crimper, or rouge pad, or complexion mask, or powder puff, or baby +jumper; but they would limit her ability to contrivances of this +character. But what would these same people say if they were told that +over and above the things just mentioned for which many women have +actually received patents, the much depreciated female sex had been +granted patents for locomotive wheels, stuffing boxes, railway car +safety apparatus, life rafts, cut-offs for hydraulic and other engines, +street cars, mining machines, furnaces for smelting ores, +sound-deadening attachments for railway cars, feed pumps and transfer +apparatus for traction cars, machines for driving hoops on to barrels, +apparatus for destroying vegetation on and removing snow from railroads, +coke crushers, artificial stone compositions, elevated railways, new +forms of cattle cars, dams and reservoirs, welding seams of pipes and +hardening iron, alloys for bell metal and alloys to resemble silver, +methods of refining and hardening copper, processes for concentrating +ores, improvement in elevators and designs for raising sunken vessels? +And yet, incredible as it may appear to these scoffers at woman's +genius, patents for all these inventions, methods and processes--many +of them of exceeding value--and for hundreds of others of a similar +nature, have been issued to women during recent years. And the activity +of the fair inventors, far from abating, is becoming daily more +pronounced, and promises to reward their efforts with far greater +triumphs. Indeed, women are becoming so active in the numerous fields of +invention--even in such unlikely ones as metallurgy and civil, +mechanical and electrical engineering--that they bid fair to rival men +in what they have long regarded as their peculiar specialty. + +In 1892 a woman in New York was granted two patents, one for a process +of malting beer and the other for hooping malt liquors. These +inventions, however, are not so foreign to the avocation of woman as +they at first appear. For, if we may believe the teachings of ethnology +and prehistoric archaeology in this matter, women were the first brewers. +The one, therefore, who two decades ago secured the two patents just +mentioned was but taking up anew an occupation in which her sex +furnished the first invention many thousand years ago. + +An instructive fact touching woman's inventive achievements is that her +fullest success is coincident with her enlarged opportunities for +education, and began with the breaking down of the prejudices which so +long existed against her having anything to do with the development of +the mechanical or industrial arts. When one recollects that the public +schools of Boston, established in 1642, were not open to girls until a +century and a half later, and then only for the most elementary branches +and for but one-half the year; and that girls did not have the benefit +of a high school education in the center of New England culture until +1852; and when one furthermore recalls the attitude of the general +public toward women and girls extending their activities beyond the +nursery and the kitchen, it is easy to understand that there was not +much encouragement for them to exercise their inventive talent, even if +they had felt an inclination to do so. + +The experience of Miss Margaret Knight, of Boston, who in 1871 was +awarded a valuable patent for making a paper-bag machine is a case in +point and well illustrates some of the difficulties that women inventors +had to contend with only a few decades ago. + +"As a child," she writes to a friend, "I never cared for the things that +girls usually do; dolls never had any charms for me. I couldn't see the +sense of coddling bits of porcelain with senseless faces; the only +things I wanted were a jackknife, a gimlet and pieces of wood. My +friends were horrified. I was called a tomboy, but that made very little +impression on me. I sighed sometimes because I was not like other girls, +but wisely concluded that I couldn't help it, and sought further +consolation from my tools. I was always making things for my brothers. +Did they want anything in the line of playthings, they always said, +'Mattie will make them for us.' I was famous for my kites, and my sleds +were the envy and admiration of all the boys in town. I'm not surprised +at what I've done; I'm only sorry I couldn't have had as good a chance +as a boy, and have been put to my trade regularly." + +Even after she had demonstrated her skill as an inventor, Miss Knight +had to encounter the skepticism of the workmen to whom she entrusted the +manufacture of her machines. They questioned her ability to superintend +her own work, and it was only her persistency and remarkable competency +that ultimately converted their incredulity into respect and admiration. + +Since women have come into the possession of greater freedom than they +formerly enjoyed, and have been afforded better opportunities of +developing their inventive faculties, many of them have taken to +invention as an occupation, and with marked success. They find it the +easiest and most congenial way of earning a livelihood, and not a few +of them have been able thereby to accumulate comfortable fortunes, +besides developing industries that have given employment to thousands of +both sexes. + +Thus the straw industry in the United States is due to Miss Betsy +Metcalf, who, more than a century ago, produced the first straw bonnet +ever manufactured in this country. Since then the industry which this +woman originated has assumed immense proportions. The number of straw +hats now made in Massachusetts alone, not to speak of those annually +manufactured elsewhere, runs into the millions. + +Scarcely less wonderful is the industry developed by Miss Knight, +already mentioned, through her marvelous invention for manufacturing +satchel-bottom paper bags. Many men had previously essayed to solve the +problem which she attacked with such signal success, but all to no +purpose. So valuable was her invention considered by experts that she +refused fifty thousand dollars for it shortly after taking out her +patent. + +Often what are apparently the most trivial inventions prove the most +lucrative. Thus, a Chicago woman receives a handsome income for her +invention of a paper pail. A woman in San Francisco invented a baby +carriage, and received fourteen thousand dollars for her patent. The +gimlet-pointed screw, which was the idea of a little girl, has realized +to its patentee an independent fortune. Still more remarkable is the +Burden horseshoe machine, the invention of a woman, which turns out a +complete horseshoe every three seconds and which is said to have +effected a saving to the public of tens of millions of dollars. + +The cotton gin, one of the most useful and important of American +inventions--a machine that effected a complete revolution in the cotton +industry throughout the world--is due to a woman, Catherine L. Greene, +the wife of General Nathaniel Greene, of Revolutionary fame. After she +had fully developed in her own mind a method for separating the cotton +from its seed, which was after her husband's death, she intrusted the +making of the machine to Eli Whitney, who was then boarding with her, +and who had a Yankee's skill in the use of tools. Whitney was several +times on the point of abandoning as impossible the task which had been +assigned to him, but Mrs. Greene's faith in ultimate success never +wavered, and, thanks to her persistence in the work and the putting into +execution of her ideas, her great undertaking was finally crowned with +success. She did not apply for a patent for her invention in her own +name, because so opposed was public opinion to woman's having part in +mechanical occupation that she would have exposed herself to general +ridicule and to a loss of position in society. The consequence was that +Whitney--her employee--got credit for an invention which, in reality, +belonged to her. She was, however, subsequently able to retain a +subordinate interest in it through her second husband, Mr. Miller. + +This is only one of many instances in which patents, taken out in the +name of some man, are really due to women. The earliest development of +the mower and reaper, as well as the clover cleaner, belongs to Mrs. A. +H. Manning, of Plainfield, New Jersey. The patent on the clover cleaner +was issued in the name of her husband; but, as he failed to apply for a +patent for the mower and reaper, his wife was, after his death, robbed +of the fruit of her brain by a neighbor, whose name appears on the list +of patentees of an invention which originated with Mrs. Manning. + +A few years ago men of science awoke to the startling fact that the +earth's supply of nitrates was being rapidly exhausted. It was then +realized that, unless some new store of this essential fertilizer could +be found, it would soon be impossible to provide the food requisite for +the world's teeming millions. What was to be done? Never was a more +important problem presented to science for solution, and never did +science more quickly and efficaciously respond. It was soon recognized +that the earth's atmosphere was the only available storehouse for the +much-needed nitrogen. Forthwith scientists and inventors the world over +proceeded to tap this source of supply and to convert its vast stores of +nitrogen into the nitrates which are so indispensable to vegetable life. + +To form some idea of the importance of the problem and the urgency of +its solution, it may be stated that the amount of fertilizer required +for the cotton crop alone in the Southern States in 1911 was no less +than three million tons. What, then, must have been the total amount +used through the world for cereals and other crops that need constant +fertilizing? The famous nitrate deposits of Chili could supply only a +small fraction of the stupendous amount required, and they, according to +recent calculations, cannot continue to meet the present demands on them +for more than a hundred years longer, at most. + +The process involved, when once conceived, was simple enough, for it +merely required the conversion of the nitrogen of the air into nitric +acid, which in turn was employed in the production of nitrate of lime. +But, simple as it was, mankind had to wait a long time for its +origination, and action was taken only when necessity compelled. At +present there are numerous nitrate factories in France, Germany, +Austria, Sweden, Norway and the United States, and the output is already +enormous and constantly increasing. Electricity, that mysterious force +which has so frequently come to man's assistance during the last few +decades, is the agent employed. + +But who was the originator of the idea of utilizing the atmosphere for +the production of nitrates? Who took out the first patent for a process +for making nitrates by using the nitrogen of the air? It was a +Frenchwoman--Mme. Lefebre, of Paris--long since forgotten. As early as +1859 she obtained a patent in England for her invention, but, as the +need of fertilizers was not so urgent then as it is now, it was allowed +to drop into oblivion, and the matter was not again taken up until a +half-century later, when others secured the credit for an idea which was +first conceived by a woman who happened to have the misfortune to live +fifty years in advance of her time. + +It were easy to extend the list of important inventions due to women and +of patents which were issued in the name of their husbands or other men; +to tell of inventions, too, of whose fruits, because they happened to be +helpless or inexperienced women, the real patentees were often robbed; +but the foregoing instances are quite sufficient to show what woman's +keen inventive genius is capable of achieving in spite of all the +restrictions put on her sex, and in spite of her lack of training in the +mechanic arts. + +Had women, since the organization of our Patent Office, enjoyed all the +educational opportunities possessed by men; had they received the same +encouragement as the lordly sex to develop their inventive faculties; +had the laws of the country accorded them the rewards to which their +labor and genius entitled them, they would now have far more inventions +to their credit than those indicated in our government reports; and they +would, furthermore, be able to point to far more brilliant achievements +than have heretofore, under the unfavorable conditions under which they +were obliged to work, been possible. But when we recall all the +obstacles they have had to overcome and remember also the fact that most +of the patents referred to in the preceding pages have been secured by +women living in the United States--little being said of the modern +inventions of women in foreign countries--we can see that their record +is indeed a splendid one, that their achievements are not only worthy of +all praise, but also a happy augury for the future. When they shall have +the same freedom of action as men in all departments of activity in +which they exhibit special aptitude, when they shall have the same +advantages of training and equipment and the prospect of the same +emoluments as the sterner sex for the products of their brainwork and +craftsmanship, then may we expect them to achieve the same distinction +in the mechanic arts as has rewarded their efforts in science and +literature; and then, too, may we hope to see them once more regain +something of that supremacy in invention which was theirs in the early +history of our race. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[227] "On a vu des femmes tres savantes, comme en fut des guerrieres, +mais il n'y en eut jamais d'inventrices." _Dictionnaire Philosophique, +sub voce Femmes._ Condorcet, in commenting on this statement, remarks +that "if men capable of invention were alone to have a place in the +world, there would be many a vacant one, even in the academies." + +[228] That marvelous structure known as the Taj Mahal--India's noblest +tribute to the grace and goodness of Indian womanhood--is sometimes said +to be a monument to the memory of Nur Mahal. This is not the case. This +matchless gem of architecture-- + + " ... The proud passion of an emperor's love + Wrought into living stone, which gleams and soars + With body of beauty shrining soul and thought." + +is a monument to Nur Mahal's niece and successor as empress, +Mumtaz-Mahal--The Crown of the Palace--who, like her aunt, was a woman +of rare beauty and talent and endeared herself to her people by her +splendid qualities of mind and heart. + +[229] The inventor of canals as well as of bridges over rivers and +causeways over morasses was, according to Greek historians, the famous +Assyrian queen, Semiramis, the builder of Babylon with its wonderful +hanging gardens. + +[230] Among the works which treat of the subject-matter of the foregoing +pages the reader may consult with profit, _Woman's Share in Primitive +Culture_, by O. T. Mason, London, 1895; _Man and Woman_, the +introductory chapter, by Havelock Ellis, London, 1898; and _Histoire +Nouvelle des Arts et des Sciences_, by A. Renaud, Paris, 1878. + +[231] Cf. _Women Inventors to whom patents have been granted by the +United States Government, Compiled under the Direction of the +Commissioner of Patents_, Washington, 1888. See also subsequent reports +of the Patent Office. + +[232] To one woman, Mary E. Poupard, of London, England, were granted in +a single year no less than three patents for horse-shoes--two of the +patents being for sectional and segmental horse-shoes. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +WOMEN AS INSPIRERS AND COLLABORATORS IN SCIENCE + + +One of the most interesting literary figures of the fifth century was +Caius Apollinaris Sidonius, who, after holding a number of important +civil offices, became the bishop of Clermont. The most valuable of his +extant works are his nine books of letters which are a mine of +information respecting the history of his age and the manners, customs +and ideals of his contemporaries. + +In one of these letters, addressed to Hesperius, a young friend of his +who exhibited special talent in polite literature, he expresses a +sentiment which applies as well to the votary of science as to the man +of letters. Referring to the assistance which women had given to their +husbands and friends in their studies, he conjures him to remember that +in days of old it was the wont of Martia, Terentia, Calpurnia, +Pudentilla and Rusticana to hold the lamp while their husbands, +Hortensius, Cicero, Pliny, Apuleius and Symmachus, were reading and +meditating.[233] + +This picture of women as light-bearers to the great orators and +philosophers just named is symbolic of them as the helpmates and +inspirers of men in every field of human activity and in every age of +the world's history. Always and everywhere, when permitted to occupy the +same social plane as men, women have been not only as lamps unto the +feet and as lights unto the paths of their male compeers in the ordinary +affairs of life, but have also been their guiding stars and ministering +angels in the highest spheres of intellectual effort. + +For nearly fifteen centuries St. Jerome has had the gratitude of the +church for his masterly translation, known as the Vulgate, of the Hebrew +Scriptures. But, had it not been for his two noble friends, Paula and +Eustochium, who were as eminent for their intellectual attainments as +they were for their descent from the most distinguished families of Rome +and Greece, there would have been no Vulgate. For they were not only his +inspirers in this colossal undertaking, but they were his active and +zealous collaborators as well. + +Dante and Petrarch are acclaimed as the morning stars of modern +literature, but both of them owed their immortality to the inspiration +of two pure-minded and noble-hearted women. + +In the concluding paragraph of his Vita Nuova--the most beautiful love +story ever written--Dante records his purpose to say of his inspirer, +the gentle, gracious Beatrice Portinari, "what was never said of any +woman." The outcome of this exalted purpose was the Divina Commedia, the +world's greatest literary masterpiece. + +Petrarch, the father of humanism, is the first to give Laura de Noves +credit for his attainments as a poet. In one of his poems he sings: + + "Blest be the year, the month, the hour, the day, + The season and the time, and point of space, + And blest the beauteous country and the place + Where first of two eyes I felt the sway." + +Elsewhere in one of his prose dialogues with St. Augustine he declares, +"Whatever you see in me, be it little or much, is due to her; nor would +I ever have attained to this measure of name and fame unless she had +cherished by those most noble influences that my feeble implanting of +virtues which nature had placed in this breast."[234] + +A no less remarkable inspirer, but in an entirely different sphere of +activity, was the devout and spotless Italian maiden, Chiara Schiffi, +better known as St. Clara. She was, as is well known, the ardent +cooperator of St. Francis Assisi in his great work of social and +religious reform which has contributed so much toward the welfare of +humanity. But it is not generally known what an important part she had +in this great undertaking, and how she sustained the Poverello during +long hours of trial and hardship. It was during these periods of care +and struggle that we see how courageous and intrepid was "this woman who +has always been represented as frail, emaciated, blanched like a flower +of the cloister." + +"She defended Francis not only against others but also against himself. +In those hours of dark discouragement which so often and so profoundly +disturb the noblest souls and sterilize the grandest efforts, she was +beside him to show the way. When he doubted his mission and thought of +fleeing to the heights of repose and solitary prayer, it was she who +showed him the ripening harvest with no reapers to gather it in, men +going astray with no shepherd to herd them, and drew him once again into +the train of the Galilean, into the number of those who give their +lives as a ransom for many."[235] + +It is under the shade of the olive trees of St. Damian, with his +sister-friend Clara caring for him, "that he composes his finest work, +that which Ernest Renan called the most perfect utterance of modern +religions sentiment, _The Canticle of the Sun_."[236] + +This canticle, however, beautiful as it is, lacks, as has well been +remarked, one strophe. "If it was not upon Francis' lips, it was surely +in his heart:" + + "Be praised, Lord, for Sister Clara; + Thou hast made her silent, active, and sagacious, + And, by her, thy light shines in our hearts."[237] + +It was through the inspiration and influence of Theodora that the famous +Church of St. Sophia, that matchless poem in marble and gold, that +imperishable monument to the glory of the true God, came into existence. +It was through her that Justinian conceived the idea of those _Pandects_ +and _Institutes_ which constitute the greatest glory of his reign, and +which are the basis of the _Code Napoleon_ and of all modern +jurisprudence. + +It was to Vittoria Colonna that Michaelangelo dedicated many of the most +exquisite productions of his peerless genius. "He saw," as has been +said, "with her eyes and acted by her inspiration." + +Almost every one of Chopin's compositions was inspired by women, and a +large proportion of them are dedicated to them. The same may be said of +Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Beethoven, Weber, Schumann and other +illustrious composers. All these sons of genius believed with +Castiglione that "all inspiration must come from woman;" that she had +been expressly created and sent into the world to inspire them with +intelligence and creative power. + +M. Claviere declares that "There is hardly a philosopher or a poet of +the sixteenth century whose pages are not illuminated or gladdened by +the smile of some high-born lady."[238] + +What the brilliant Frenchman says of the influence of woman on the poets +and philosophers of a single century could with equal truth be said of +the poets and philosophers of every century from Anacreon and Plato to +the present day. And, still more, it can be predicated of woman's +inspiration and influence in every department of intellectual effort, in +art and architecture, in music and literature, in science in all its +departments, whether deductive or inductive. + +It has been well said, "Were history to be rewritten, with due regard to +women's share in it, many small causes, heretofore disregarded, would be +found fully to explain great and unlooked-for results.... For it is not +in outward facts, nor great names, nor noisy deeds, nor genealogies of +crowned heads, nor in tragic loves, nor ambitious or striking heroism, +nor crime, that we find proofs of the constant and secret working +whereby woman most effectually asserts herself. Certainly she has played +her part in the outward and visible history of the world, but in that +history which is told and written, which is buried in archives and +revivified in books, woman's part is always small when set beside that +of her companion, man. She contributes but little, and at this she may +surely rejoice, to the tales of battles and treaties of successions and +alliances, of violence, fraud, suspicions and hatreds. But if the inward +history of human affairs could be described as fully as the outward +facts; if the story of the family could be told together with the story +of the nation; if human thoughts could with certainty be divined from +human deeds, then the chief figure in this history of sentiment and +morals would certainly be that of Woman the Inspirer."[239] + +This same statement would hold equally good if applied to the part taken +by women in the history of science. Their achievements have, in most +cases, been so overshadowed by those of men that their work has been +usually regarded as a negligible quantity. But when one considers the +mainsprings of actions, and examines the silent undercurrents which +escape the notice of the superficial observer, one finds, as in social +and political history, that the most important scientific investigations +are often conducted, and the most momentous discoveries are made, in +consequence of the promptings of some devoted woman friend, or in virtue +of the still, small voice of a cherished wife, or sister, who prefers to +remain in the background in order that all the glory of achievement may +redound to the man. + +There have been, it may safely be asserted, few really eminent men in +science, as there have been few really eminent men in art or letters, or +in the great reform and religious movements of the world, who have not +been assisted by some woman light-bearer, as were Hortensius by Martia, +Tully by Terentia and Pliny by Calpurnia. There have been few that have +not, during hours of doubt and discouragement, been sustained and +stimulated as was Francis by Clara, and Jerome by Paula and Eustochium. +And there have been still fewer who have not had, like Petrarch and +Dante, their Laura or their Beatrice of whom each could say: + + "This is the beacon guides to deeds of worth, + And urges me to see the glorious goal: + This bids me leave behind the vulgar throng." + +In the preceding chapters we have had notable examples of women whose +beneficent influence and cooperation have enabled distinguished men of +science to achieve results that would otherwise have been impossible. +Among these--to mention only a few--were Mme. Lavoisier and Mme. Curie +in chemistry, Mme. Lapaute and Miss Herschel in astronomy, Mrs. Agassiz +and Mme. Coudreau in natural science and exploration, Mme. Schliemann +and Mme. Dieulafoy in archaeology. + +One of the most illustrious women inspirers of France was Catherine de +Parthenay, who, after attaining womanhood, became the brilliant Princess +de Rohan, and was recognized as one of the most learned and most +remarkable women of the sixteenth century. As a young girl she exhibited +rare intelligence and displayed special aptitude for the exact sciences. +For this reason her mother saw to it that her child had the benefit of +instruction under the ablest masters that could be secured. + +The most noted of these was Francois Viete, the learned French +mathematician, who is justly regarded as the father of modern algebra. +In his day, especially in the higher classes of society, the education +given to women was often more thorough than that afforded to men. For +this reason, too, women not infrequently became distinguished in +astronomy, which was then usually known under the name of astrology. + +Viete, in initiating his gifted pupil into the principles of this +science, became himself so enthusiastic a student of astronomy that he +determined to prepare an elaborate work on the subject--something on the +plan of the _Almagest_ of Ptolemy--a work which he designated +_Harmonicum Celeste_. + +In order that the instruction given his pupil might not be lacking in +precision, Viete wrote out, with the most scrupulous care, the lessons +designed for her benefit. The manuscripts containing these lessons were +long preserved among the family archives, but nearly all of them were +unfortunately consigned to the flames during the French Revolution in +1793. + +No one was more interested in Viete's mathematical researches--those +researches which have rendered him so famous in the history of +science--than was the Princess de Rohan. The former pupil was the first +to receive notice of her distinguished master's discoveries and the +first to congratulate him on his success. + +It was to this cherished pupil, who always remained his friend and +benefactress, that Viete dedicated his important work on mathematical +analysis entitled _In Artem Analyticam Isagoge_. The words of the +dedication are a tribute to the learning and the genius of the pupil as +well as an expression of the gratitude of the teacher. It reads as +follows: + +"It is to you especially, august daughter of Melusine, that I am +indebted for my proficiency in mathematics, to attain which I was +encouraged by your love for this science, as well as your great +knowledge of it, and by your mastery of all other sciences, which one +cannot too much admire in a person of your noble lineage."[240] + +More interesting, and at the same time more pathetic, were the relations +of an Italian nun, Sister Maria Celeste, and the man whom Byron so +happily designates as + + "The starry Galileo, with his woes." + +Sister Celeste, who was a Franciscan nun in the convent of St. Matthew, +in Arcetri, was the great astronomer's eldest and favorite daughter. +They were greatly attached to each other, and the gentle religieuse was +not only her father's confidante and consoler in the hours of trial and +affliction, but was also his inspirer and ever-vigilant guardian angel. +She watched over him, not as a daughter over a father, but as a mother +watches over an only son.[241] + +All this is beautifully exhibited in her one hundred and twenty-four +letters which were published in 1891 for the first time. A few of these +letters, it is true, were published as early as 1852 by Alberi, in his +edition of the complete works of Galileo, and others were given to the +press at subsequent dates; but the world had to wait more than two and a +half centuries for a complete collection of all the known letters of +this remarkable daughter of an illustrious sire. + +These documents are precious for the insight they give into the sterling +character of a noble woman, but they are beyond price as sources of +information respecting the tenderly affectionate relations which existed +between her and one of the foremost men of science, not only of his own +age, but of all time. They show how he made her his confidante in all +his undertakings, and how she was his amanuensis, his counselor, his +inspirer; how her love was an incentive to the work that won for him +undying fame; how she was his support and comfort when suffering from +the jealousy of rivals or the enmity of those who were opposed to his +teachings. + +These letters cover a period of nearly eleven years--the most momentous +years of her father's busy and troubled life. Now playful, quaint, +elfish, then serious, vivid, confidential, they show that the writer's +intelligence was as rare as her nature was loyal and affectionate. At +times she half-apologizes for the length of a letter, "but you must +remember," she adds in excuse, "that I must put into this paper +everything that I should chatter to you in a week." + +No daughter was ever prouder of her father or loved him with a more +abounding love. "I pride myself," she says, "that I love and revere my +dearest father more, by far, than others love their fathers, and I +clearly perceive that, in return, he far surpasses the greater part of +other fathers in the love which he has for me, his loved daughter." + +When he was ill she prepared dishes and confections that she knew would +tempt his appetite. But she was not satisfied with looking after the +welfare of his body, for she took occasion to send with the cakes and +preserved fruits a sermonette for the benefit of his soul. + +An extract from one of her letters gives an insight into the character +of this devoted daughter, who, Galileo says in a letter to his friend, +Elia Diodati, "was a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness and most +tenderly attached to me." + +"Of the preserved citron you ordered," she writes him on the nineteenth +of December, 1625, "I have only been able to do a small quantity. I +feared the citrons were too shriveled for preserving, and so they +proved. I send two baked pears for these days of vigil. But the greatest +treat of all I send you is a rose, which ought to please you extremely, +seeing what a rarity it is at this season. And with the rose you must +accept its thorns, which represent the bitter passion of Our Lord, while +the green leaves represent the hope we may entertain that, through the +same sacred passion, we, having passed through the darkness of this +short winter of our mortal life, may attain to the brightness and +felicity of an eternal spring in heaven, which may our gracious God +grant us through His mercy."[242] + +She always insists upon his keeping her fully informed about his studies +and discoveries. She is particular, also, about receiving without delay +copies of his latest publications. "I beg you," she writes in one of her +letters, "to be so kind as to send me that book of yours which has just +been published, _Il Saggiatore_, so that I may read it; for I have a +great desire to see it." + +On another occasion, after his difficulties with the Holy Office, when +she fancies her father is not keeping her fully informed about the +subject matter of his writings, she implores him to tell her on what +topic he is engaged, "if," she archly adds, "it be something I can +understand and you are not afraid that I will blab." + +And on still another occasion Sister Celeste reminds her father of a +promise of his to send her a small telescope. From this we should infer +that she desired to repeat the observations on the heavenly bodies that +had created such a sensation in the learned world, and which had given +occasion for such acrimonious controversy. + +In one of her earlier letters Sister Celeste calls her father's +attention to a promise of his to spend an afternoon with her and her +sister Arcangela, also a nun in the same convent. And, referring to one +of the regulations of the Franciscan cloister, she playfully observes: +"You will be able to sup in the parlor, since the excommunication is for +the table cloth"--O Sister Celeste!--"and not for the meats thereon." + +What would one not give for a stenographic report of the conversations +held that afternoon in the convent garden of Arcetri, as father and +daughters leisurely strolled through the peaceful enclosure, all quite +oblivious of the fleeting hours? How interesting would be a faithful +record of the confidences exchanged at the frugal meal in the evening in +the humble parlor of S. Matteo! We would willingly exchange many of the +famous _Dialoghi di Galileo Galilei_ for a verbatim report of what +passed between Sister Celeste and the father whom she so idolized.[243] + +Judging from her letters, she had many questions to ask him about his +studies, his experiments, his discoveries, his books, as well as about +more personal and domestic matters. + +Although there is no documentary proof of the fact, yet there is every +reason to believe that Galileo had taken personal charge of the +education of this, his favorite daughter. She shared his taste for +science and inherited not a little of his genius. Such being the case, +we may well believe that a faithful account of their conversations of +that day would be not only of surpassing interest, but would also throw +a flood of light on many questions now ill understood. They would +certainly tend to fill up the numerous lacunae caused by the +disappearance of the letters of Galileo, which he wrote in answer to +those of his ever-cherished daughter.[244] + +They would also show more clearly than any facts now available what an +unbounded influence the gentle nun had over the greatest intellect of +his time, and would, more clearly than anything in her correspondence, +exhibit Sister Celeste as the efficient co-worker and the abiding +inspirer of the father of modern physics and astronomy. + +But, although we have no record of this soul-communion between father +and daughter on the occasion in question; although we are deprived of +the invaluable letters which he wrote in reply to hers, we are, +nevertheless, from the evidence at hand, justified in regarding this +unique pair as being ever one in heart, aspirations and ideals, and +comparable in their mutual influence on each other with any of those +famous men and women who, through achievement on the one side and +inspiration and collaboration on the other, have ever been recognized as +the greatest benefactors of their race. + +One of Galileo's countrymen, G. B. Clemente de Nelli, was right when he +declared that, had it not been for the assistance and consolation which +he received from Sister Celeste, Galileo would have succumbed to the +blows that were showered upon him during the most trying part of his +career. An indication of this is given in one of the letters written by +Sister Celeste in the last year of her life. + +While in a fit of despondency and imagining his friends had forgotten +him, Galileo, in a moment of bitterness, wrote in a letter to his +daughter: "My name is erased from the book of the living." "Nay," came +at once Sister Celeste's cheering reply, "say not that your name is +struck _de libro viventium_, for it is not so; neither in the greater +part of the world nor in your own country. Indeed, it seems to me that, +if for a brief moment your name and fame were clouded, they are now +restored to greater brightness, at which I am much astonished, for I +know that generally _Nemo propheta acceptus est in patria sua_. I am +afraid, however, if I begin quoting Latin, I shall fall into some +barbarism. But, of a truth, you are loved and esteemed here more than +ever."[245] + +How much Sister Celeste was to her father in every way was not known +until after her premature death in her thirty-fourth year. He was never +the same man afterward. Disconsolate and broken, he fancied he heard the +voice of the daughter he so fondly loved resounding through the house. +Brooding over his great loss, the heart-broken old man writes to a +friend in words of infinite pathos, "_Mi sento continuamente chiamare +della mia diletta figlioula_--I continually hear myself called by my +dearly beloved daughter." The eighth of January, 1642, he answered her +call and went to join her in a better world. + +Two other noted investigators, one of them a contemporary of Galileo, +owed much to the inspiration and encouragement which they received from +women. These were Descartes and Leibnitz. And the women that had the +most influence on them were representatives of royal families, who were +famous in their day for their love and knowledge and the extent of their +intellectual attainments. + +One of the most noted of these was Elizabeth of Bohemia, Princess +Palatine. She was the favorite pupil of Descartes, and it was to her +that he dedicated his great work, _Principia Philosophiae_. She, he +declared, understood him better than any one else he had ever met, for +"in her alone were united those generally separated talents for +metaphysics and for mathematics which are so characteristically +operative in the Cartesian system."[246] + +To this earnest student who was always absorbed in the mysteries of +metaphysics and the problems of geometry, Descartes could refuse +nothing. When distance separated them he continued his instructions by +correspondence. One of the results of this correspondence was his +treatise on _Passions de l'Ame_, in which he develops certain ethical +views suggested by the _Vita Beata_ of Seneca. + +Another distinguished pupil of Descartes who exercised a marked +influence over him was the celebrated daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, +Queen Christine of Sweden. A mistress of many languages and an ardent +votary of science, she was a munificent patron of scientific men, a +great number of whom she had attracted to her court. The most +distinguished of these was Descartes, to whom she was deeply attached, +and with whom she had planned great things for science in Sweden, when +his career was cut short by a premature death. + +Not the least influence on the intellectual life of Leibnitz was Sophia +Charlotte, Queen of Prussia and mother of Frederick the Great. She was +the niece of Descartes' illustrious friend, Elizabeth of Bohemia, and, +as the pupil of Leibnitz, quite as gloriously associated as had been her +aunt with the father of Cartesianism. + +Leibnitz was as distinguished by genius as his royal pupil was by birth. +Besides being eminent as a philosopher and a statesman, he shared with +Newton the honor of discovering the calculus. Huxley pronounced him "a +man of science, in the modern sense, of the first rank," while the King +of Prussia declared of him, "He represents in himself a whole academy." +Through the cooperation of Sophia Charlotte he founded the Berlin +Academy of Sciences. For her he wrote one of the most notable of his +productions--his famed _Theodicy_. + +It would be difficult to estimate the influence of this learned queen on +Leibnitz, but it was undoubtedly greater than any other single influence +whatever. Her death was the greatest loss he ever suffered, and when she +was no more, the beautiful Berlin suburb, Charlottenburg--named after +her--where he had been so happy in reading and philosophizing with his +illustrious pupil, lost all attraction for him. + +A more striking illustration of woman's helpfulness is afforded in the +case of Francois Huber, the celebrated Swiss naturalist. Although blind +from his seventeenth year, he was able to carry on researches requiring +the keenest eyesight and the closest observation. This he was able to do +through the affectionate cooperation of his devoted wife, Marie Aimee. + +When her friends tried to dissuade her from marrying Huber, to whom she +had been engaged for some time, saying he had become blind, her reply +was worthy of her generous and noble nature: "He then needs me more than +ever." + +During the forty years of their married life her tenderness and devotion +to her husband were as unfailing as they were inspiring. He worked +through the eyes and hands of his wife as if they were his own. She was +his reader, his observer, his secretary, his enthusiastic collaborator +in all those investigations that have rendered him so famous. The blind +man devised the experiments to be made, and the quick-witted wife +executed them and recorded the observations which supplied the material +for his epoch-making work on bees, entitled _Nouvelles Observations sur +les Abeilles_. So accurate are his descriptions of the habits of the +winged creatures, to the study of which he devoted the best years of his +life, that one would think his great work was the production, not of a +man who had been blind for a quarter of a century, when he wrote it, but +of one who was gifted with exceptional keenness of vision and powers of +observation. + +"As long as she lived," exclaimed the great naturalist after his trusty +Aimee's death, "I was not sensible of the misfortune of being blind." +Nay, more. During her lifetime, when, though sightless, he was always so +happy in his work, he went so far as to aver that he would be miserable +were he to recover his eyesight. "I should not know," he declared, "to +what an extent a person in my condition could be beloved. Besides, to +me, my wife is always young, fresh and pretty, which is no light +matter." He could truly say of her, as Wordsworth said of his sister +Dorothy, + + "She gave me eyes, she gave me ears, + + ...*...*...*...* + + And love and thought and joy." + +We hear much of the achievements of Galvani and Faraday in the domain of +electricity and electromagnetism, but little is said of the women to +whom they were so greatly indebted for their success and fame. + +It was Galvani's wife who first directed his attention to the +convulsions of a frog's leg when placed near an electrical machine. This +induced him to make those celebrated investigations which led to the +foundation of a new science which has ever since been identified with +his name. + +It was Mrs. Marcet's works on science--especially her _Conversations on +Chemistry_--that inspired Faraday with a love of science and blazed for +him that road in chemical and physical experimentation which led to +such marvelous results. He was always proud to call her his first +teacher, and never hesitated to attribute to her that taste for +scientific research for which he became so preeminent. And it was his +devoted wife who was not only a helpmate but a soulmate as well for +nearly half a century, that had very much to do with the splendid +development of the germ which had been placed in his youthful mind by +Mrs. Marcet. + +The same may likewise be asserted of the wives of two distinguished +geologists--Charles Lyell and Xavier Hommaire de Hell. Mrs. Lyell was +intimately associated with her husband in all his scientific +undertakings, and her ready intellect contributed immensely toward +securing for him that enviable position which he attained of being the +premier geologist of his century. Mme. Hommaire de Hell deserves special +mention in the history of geology for the invaluable assistance which +she gave her husband in the scientific exploration of the basin of the +Caspian Sea. Not only did she share his labors and perils in this then +wild part of the world, and collaborate with him in the preparation of +the report for which the French government conferred on him the Cross of +the Legion of Honor, but she also wrote unaided the two descriptive +volumes of their great work, _Steppes de la Mer Caspienne_. Her part of +this great undertaking received the special commendation of M. +Villemain, who was the minister of public instruction, and had she not +belonged to the disenfranchized sex, she, too, would have been decorated +with the Cross of the Legion of Honor. + +All the world has heard of the daring explorations of Baker and +Livingstone in the Dark Continent, but how few are aware of the +important part taken in their great enterprises by their devoted and +heroic wives? Sir Samuel Baker immortalized himself by discovering Lake +Albert Nyanza, one of the main sources of the Nile, but in attaining +this goal, which other explorers had in vain essayed to reach, he was +not alone. The companion of his triumph, as of his trials and hardships, +was Lady Baker, a woman who, although delicately reared, was as brave in +presence of danger as she was resourceful in trials and difficulties. +More than once her husband owed his life to her intrepidity and presence +of mind, when confronted by the treacherous savages of equatorial +Africa; and, if he achieved success where others failed, it was in no +slight measure due to her tact, her energy and perseverance in what +seemed at times a forlorn hope. "She had learned Arabic with him in a +year of necessary but wearisome delay; her mind traveled with his mind +as her feet had followed his footsteps." And, when after preliminary +toils without number, after braving dangers from climate, disease and +ruthless savages, they finally stood on the shore of that unknown sea +which was then first beheld by English eyes, she could, in contemplating +their achievements of which Albert Nyanza was the crowning glory, +exclaim with exaltation and truth, "_Quorum pars magna fui._" + +When Livingstone lost, in the unexplored valley of the Zambesi, the +faithful wife who had been his inspiring companion in his wanderings in +darkest Africa, he lost completely that enthusiasm for deeds of high +emprise that before had been one of his leading characteristics. Writing +to his distinguished friend, Sir Roderick Murchison, he mournfully +declares: "I must confess this heavy stroke quite takes the heart out of +me. Everything that has happened only made me more determined to +overcome all difficulties; but after this sad stroke I feel crushed and +void of strength.... I shall do my duty still, but it is with a darkened +horizon that I again set about it." + +The noted English naturalist, Frank Buckland, in speaking of the aid +afforded by his gifted mother to her distinguished husband, Dr. +Buckland, writes as follows: "During the long period that Dr. Buckland +was engaged in writing the book which I now have the honor of editing, +my mother sat up night after night, for weeks and months consecutively, +writing to my father's dictation; and this often until the sun's rays, +shining through the shutters at early morn, warned the husband to cease +from thinking and the wife to rest her weary hand. + +"Not only with the pen did she render material assistance, but her +natural talent in the use of her pencil enabled her to give accurate +illustrations and finished drawings, many of which are perpetuated in +Dr. Buckland's works. She was also particularly clever and neat in +mending broken fossils. There are many specimens in the Oxford Museum, +now exhibiting their natural forms and beauty, which were restored by +her perseverance to shape from a mass of broken and almost comminuted +fragments. It was her occupation also to label the specimens, which she +did in a particularly neat way; and there is hardly a fossil or a bone +in the Oxford Museum which has not her handwriting upon it. + +"Notwithstanding her devotion to her husband's pursuits, she did not +neglect the education of her children, but occupied her mornings in +superintending their instruction in sound and useful knowledge. The +sterling value of her labors they now, in after life, fully appreciate, +and feel most thankful that they were blessed with so good a +mother."[247] + +What has been said of the influence and cooperation of the women already +named may, with equal truth, be affirmed of numberless others of recent +as well as of earlier date. It is particularly true of the wife of the +naturalist Heller and of the great astronomer, Kepler. It is true of the +wife of the illustrious mathematician, the Marquis de l'Hopital. She not +only shared her husband's talent for mathematics, but was of special +assistance to him in preparing for the press his important _Analyse des +Infiniment Petits_. It is true of the wife of Asaph Hall, the +illustrious discoverer of the satellites of Mars. Often he was on the +point of abandoning the quest of these diminutive moons--which no one +had ever seen but which his calculations led him to believe really +existed--but he was encouraged by Mrs. Hall to continue his +observations, with the result that his labors and vigils were at last +rewarded by the startling discovery of Deimos and Phobos. + +And there is Mme. Pasteur, who, in her way, was quite as important a +factor in the scientific career of her immortal husband as were the +women just mentioned in the lives of their husbands, to whose triumphs +they so materially contributed. + +One of the great Frenchman's biographers has truly declared that "it is +impossible rightly to appreciate Pasteur's life without some +understanding of the immense assistance which he received in his home. +Whether in discussing forms of crystals, watching over experiments, +shielding her husband from all the daily fret of life, or busy at the +customary evening task of writing to his dictation, Madame Pasteur was +at once his most devoted assistant and incomparable companion. His +surroundings at home were entirely subordinated to his scientific life, +and his family shared with him both his trials and his triumphs. At the +time when Pasteur was engrossed with the study of anthrax, and, after +many difficulties and disappointments, had at length succeeded in +preparing a vaccine against it, he at once hurried from the laboratory +to communicate his great discovery first to his wife and daughter."[248] + +It was particularly during his long and arduous researches on the +disease of silkworms that Pasteur found his wife's aid of incalculable +value. For Mme. Pasteur and her daughter then constituted themselves +veritable silkworm rearers. They collected mulberry leaves, sorted +larvae, and were unremitting in their labors during the continuance of +this memorable investigation. And not only in the silk-producing +districts of Southern France were they thus occupied, but also in a +special laboratory in Ecole Normale, after their return to Paris. + +And, when in the midst of these researches, on the successful outcome of +which hinged one of the greatest sources of national wealth, the +indefatigable savant was stricken with paralysis and his life was for a +while despaired of, it was again his devoted helpmate that afforded him +solace in suffering and exercised a supervision over those experiments +which the great man was still conducting almost in the presence of +death. + +That Pasteur's life was prolonged for a quarter of a century after the +terrible attack of hemiplegia in 1868, that he was able to unravel the +deep mysteries of microbian life, that he was able to make discoveries +whose economical value to France was, in the estimation of Professor +Huxley, more than sufficient to liquidate the immense indemnity of five +billion francs exacted from his country by Germany at the termination of +the Franco-Prussian war, that he was able, especially during these +fruitful twenty-five years, to render his "scientific life like a +luminous trail in the great night of the infinitely little in those +ultimate abysses of being where life is born," was, in great measure, +due to the unceasing care, the untiring vigilance and the sympathetic +collaboration of one of the most devoted of wives and most noble and +whole-souled of women. + +What has been said of the influence and helpfulness of Mme. Pasteur can +be asserted with even greater truth of Elizabeth Agassiz and of Caroline +Herschel. For these two women, apart from the assistance they gave to a +loved husband and an idolized brother, in the labors that made them so +famous, both achieved distinction for their contributions to the +sciences which they individually cultivated with such splendid results. +And had they elected to devote all their time to scientific research, +instead of giving the greater part of it to those to whom they were so +devotedly attached, who can tell how much more brilliant would have been +their achievements and how much greater would have been the fame they +would have won for themselves. Both of them were dowered in an eminent +degree with taste and talent for science, and had they chosen to make it +the sole object of their life work, there can be no doubt that their +personal contributions to natural history and astronomy would have been +far greater than they were. As it was, they were so overshadowed by +those for whom they labored with such unselfishness and loyalty that the +real value of their work is too often forgotten when there is question +of the scientific triumphs of Louis Agassiz and Sir William Herschel. + +But they willed it so. They gladly effaced themselves that those whom +they loved with such a deep and abiding love might shine the more +brightly in the firmament of science. They preferred to spend and be +spent in strengthening the great workers and leaders with whose lives +their own were so thoroughly identified--"Inspiring them with courage, +keeping faith in their own ideas alive, in days of darkness + + 'When all the world seems adverse to desert.'" + +Both of these noble women had the same quality in common--absolute +devotion and unswerving faith in those to whose success and happiness +they had dedicated their lives. They sought nothing for themselves, they +thought nothing of themselves. They both had, to borrow the idea of +another, an intense power of sympathy, a generous love of giving +themselves to the service of others, which enabled them to transfuse the +force of their own personality into the objects to which they dedicated +their powers. + +In the preface of the joint work of Mr. and Mrs. Agassiz entitled _A +Journey in Brazil_, that delightful volume which throws such a flood of +light on the fauna and flora of the Amazon valley, occur the following +significant words regarding the share each had in producing the book: +"Our separate contributions have become so closely interwoven that we +should hardly know how to disconnect them." So was it with all their +undertakings. There was the same common interest, the same unity of +purpose, the same unselfish devotion to the cause of science during +those long years of toil which were so prolific in results of supreme +importance. Reading between the lines in _A Journey in Brazil_, and in +_Louis Agassiz, His Life and Correspondence_, written by Mrs. Agassiz, +we can easily fancy that the great naturalist owed as much, if not more, +to his wife's never-failing sympathy and inspiration as to her active +cooperation in his work, and we are ready to apply to her the words of +Longfellow when he sings: + + "And whenever the way seemed long, + Or his heart began to fail, + She would sing a more wonderful song + Or tell a more wonderful tale." + +As to Caroline Herschel as a helper and sustainer of her illustrious +brother, too much cannot be said. "In the days when he gave up a +lucrative career that he might devote himself to astronomy, it was owing +to her thrift and care that he was not harassed by the rankling +vexations of money matters. She had been his helper and assistant when +he was a leading musician; she became his helper and assistant when he +gave himself up to astronomy. By sheer force of will and devoted +affection she learned enough of mathematics and of methods of +calculation, which to those unlearned seem mysteries, to be able to +commit to writing his researches. She became his assistant in the +workshop; she helped him to grind and polish his mirrors; she stood +beside his telescope in the nights of midwinter, to write down his +observations when the very ink was frozen in the bottle. She kept him +alive by her care; thinking nothing of herself, she lived for him. She +loved him and believed in him, and helped him with all her heart and +with all her strength. She might have become a distinguished woman on +her own account, for with the seven-foot Newtonian sweeper given her by +her brother she discovered eight comets first and last. But the pleasure +of seeking and finding for herself was scarcely tested. She 'minded the +heavens' for her brother; she worked for him, not for herself, and the +unconscious self-denial with which she gave up 'her own pleasure in the +use of her sweeper' is not the least beautiful picture in her +life."[249] + +While recounting the achievements of women who directly or indirectly +contributed to our knowledge of the earth and what it contains we cannot +forget what the world owes to the gracious and glorious Isabella of +Castile. For it is to her probably as much as to Columbus that a new +continent was discovered at the close of the fifteenth century. For, +while the doctors of Salamanca--most of whom were what Galileo called +"paper philosophers," men who fancied that a correct knowledge of the +physical universe was to be obtained by a collation of ancient +texts--were denouncing the great navigator as an idle dreamer, and +quoting the ill-founded notions of Pliny and Aristotle to prove the +impossibility of his carrying out his project, Isabella was quietly +revolving in her own mind the reasons which Columbus had adduced in +favor of his great enterprise. Having satisfied herself that his views +were sufficiently probable to justify action, she was prepared to make +any sacrifices to have his plans executed. The result of her decision is +but another illustration of the value of woman's quick intuition, as +against the slow reasoning processes of philosophers and men of science. + +Again, while considering what women have accomplished for the +advancement of science by inspiration and collaboration, we must not +lose sight of what they have done by suggestion. For, as John Stuart +Mill well observes: "It no doubt often happens that a person who has not +widely and accurately studied the thoughts of others on a subject has by +natural sagacity a happy intuition which he can suggest but cannot +prove, which yet, when matured, may be an important addition to +knowledge: but, even then, no justice can be done to it until some other +person, who does possess the previous acquirements, takes it in hand, +tests it, gives it a scientific or practical form, and fits it into its +place among the existing truths of philosophy or science. Is it supposed +that such felicitous thoughts do not occur to women? They occur by +hundreds to every woman of intellect; but they are mostly lost for want +of a husband or friend who has the other knowledge which can enable him +to estimate them properly and bring them before the world; and, even +when they are brought before it, they usually appear as his ideas, not +their real author's. Who can tell how many of the original thoughts put +forth by male writers belong to a woman by suggestion, to themselves +only by verifying and working out? If I may judge by my own case, a very +large proportion indeed."[250] + +Nor should we forget those active and energetic women--and their number +is much greater than is ordinarily supposed--whose husbands, although +often endowed with genius of the highest order, were indolent by +temperament and disorderly and unmethodical by nature. Such men would, +in the majority of cases, have run to seed had not their genius been +given special force and impulse by their vigorous and methodical +helpmates. Sir William Hamilton, the most learned philosopher of the +Scottish school, is a striking instance in point; for it was due almost +entirely to the stimulation he received from his ever active wife that +he was always kept keyed up to his fullest working capacity as a +philosopher and became recognized the world over as one of the +commanding intellects of his age. + +"Lady Hamilton," writes Professor Veitch in his _Memoir of Sir William +Hamilton,_ "had a power of keeping her husband up to what he had to do. +She contended wisely against a sort of energetic indolence which +characterized him, and which, while he was always laboring, made him apt +to put aside the task actually before him, sometimes diverted by +subjects of inquiry suggested in the course of study on the matter in +hand, sometimes discouraged by the difficulty of reducing to order the +immense mass of materials he had accumulated in connection with it. +Then her resolution and cheerful disposition sustained and refreshed +him, and never more so than when, during the last twelve years of his +life, his bodily strength was broken and his spirit, though languid, yet +ceased not from mental toil. The truth is that Sir William's marriage, +his comparatively limited circumstances, and the character of his wife +supplied to a nature that would have been contented to spend its mighty +energies in work that brought no reward but in the doing of it, and that +might never have been made publicly known or available, the practical +force and impulse which enabled him to accomplish what he actually did +in literature and philosophy. It was this influence, without doubt, +which saved him from utter absorption in his world of rare, noble and +elevated but ever-increasingly unattainable ideas. But for it the serene +sea of abstract thought might have held him becalmed for life; and, in +the absence of all utterance of definite knowledge of his conclusions, +the world might have been left to an ignorant and mysterious wonder +about the unprofitable scholar."[251] + +What has been so far said, important as it is, does not tell the whole +story of woman's influence on men of science, and consequently on the +progress of science. We should not have an adequate conception of women +as inspirers and collaborators if we did not advert to certain faculties +which they usually possess in a more eminent degree than the most of +men. It is a well-known fact that in many of the affairs of life women +are more practical, have more tact, and possess keener and quicker +perceptions than men. They are, too, more ideal, more romantic and more +enthusiastic. + +Men of science in their investigations usually proceed by the slow and +laborious process of collecting facts and collating phenomena, either by +observation or experiment, or both, and, from the observed facts and +phenomena, they formulate a law which explains and correlates them. This +is known as induction, a method which proceeds from facts to ideas. + +Women, on the contrary, are rather disposed to proceed from ideas to +facts; to explain phenomena from ideas which already exist in the mind, +without having recourse to the slow process of induction. This is the +deductive method, and is the very reverse of that employed by the +average man of science. It would, however, be a mistake to maintain that +the inductive method is always employed, for such is not the case. More +than a half a century ago the historian, Buckle, in a notable lecture +delivered in the Royal Institution of Great Britain, directed attention +to the fact that some of the greatest scientific discoveries had been +made by the deductive method. + +One of these was Newton's epoch-making discovery of universal +gravitation. While sitting in a garden he saw an apple fall, and this +simple fact caused him to advance from idea to idea, and to be carried, +by what Tyndall loved to call "the scientific use of the imagination," +into the distant realms of space. And, heedless of the operations of +nature, neither observing nor experimenting, the great philosopher, by +pure _a priori_ reasoning, "completed the most sublime and majestic +speculation that it ever entered into the heart of man to conceive." "It +was," as Buckle well observes, "the triumph of an idea. It was the +audacity of genius." It was also the triumph of the deductive method in +the solution of a problem that one not a genius could have worked out +only by the long and toilsome process of induction. + +Similarly, the great law of metamorphosis in plants, "according to which +the stamens, pistils, corollas, bracts, petals and so forth, of every +plant, are simply modified leaves," was discovered not by an inductive +investigator, but by a poet. "Guided by his brilliant imagination, his +passion for beauty and his exquisite conception of form which supplied +him with ideas," Germany's greatest poet, Goethe, by reasoning +deductively, was able to generalize a law which lesser minds could never +have arrived at except through the application of the inductive method. + +So also was it in the science of crystallography. Its foundations were +laid, not by a mineralogist nor a mathematician, as one would suppose, +but by one of strong imagination and marked poetic temperament. Like +Goethe, Hauey was led by his ideas of beauty and symmetry to work +deductively on the problem before him. Descending from ideas to facts, +he finally succeeded, after a long series of subsequent labors, in +reading "the riddle which had baffled his able but unimaginative +predecessors." + +It is the possession of this deductive faculty, so characteristic of men +of genius--their ability to reach conclusions directly, as great +mathematicians perceive inferences which those less gifted reach only +after pages of elaborate calculations--which enable women, "not indeed +to make scientific discoveries, but to exercise the most momentous and +salutary influence over the method by which scientific discoveries are +made." For, as Buckle points out, men of science are too inclined to +employ the inductive method to the exclusion of the deductive.[252] They +have become slaves to the tyranny of facts, and, as such, are +incompetent to further the progress of science as they would by using +both methods instead of one. And their slavery would be still more +complete and ignominious were it not for the great though unconscious +service to science rendered by women who have kept alive the deductive +habit of thought. "Their turn of thought, their habits of mind, their +conversation, their influence, insensibly extending over the whole +surface of society and frequently penetrating its intimate structure, +have, more than all other things put together, tended to raise us up +into an ideal world, lift us from the dust in which we are too prone to +grovel, and develop in us those germs of imagination which even the most +sluggish and apathetic understandings in some degree possess." + +From the foregoing observations it is manifest that the best results to +science are secured when men and women work together--men supplying the +slow, logical reasoning power, women the vivid, far-reaching +imagination; men generalizing from facts, women from ideas; men working +chiefly by induction, women principally by deduction. For thus +collaborating, each with his or her predominant faculties, the two +combined possess in a measure the elements which go to make up a man or +woman of genius and which enable them to achieve far more for the +advancement of science than would otherwise be possible. + +No one has ever given more eloquent expression to this truth than John +Stuart Mill, who was as keen as an observer as he was profound as a +thinker. Writing on the subject under discussion, he does not hesitate +to say: "Hardly anything can be of greater value to a man of theory and +speculation who employs himself, not in collecting materials of +knowledge by observation, but in working them up by processes of thought +into comprehensive truths of science and laws of conduct, than to carry +on his speculations in the companionship and under the criticism of a +really superior woman. There is nothing comparable to it for keeping his +thoughts within the limits of real things and the actual facts of +nature. A woman seldom runs wild after an abstraction.... Women's +thoughts are thus as useful in giving reality to those of thinking men +as men's thoughts in giving width and largeness to those of women. In +depth, as distinguished from breadth, I greatly doubt if even now women, +compared with men, are at any disadvantage."[253] + +We have already learned, from his own avowal, how much Mill was beholden +to his wife for her active cooperation in the production of those works +of his which have exerted so profound an influence on many phases of +modern thought. A more striking illustration of the value of woman's +assistance, but in the domain of biology, is found in the biography of +the late Professor Huxley. By those who know this distinguished man of +science--so remarkable for his intellectual vigor--only from his +writings, the impression would be gleaned that he was one of the most +independent of thinkers, and that his utterances on all subjects were +absolutely personal and entirely unmodified by suggestion or criticism +from any quarter. + +How far this view is from being correct is found in the statement by his +son that his father "invariably submitted his writings to the criticism +of his wife before they were seen by any other eye. To her judgment was +due the toning down of many a passage which erred by excess of vigor, +and the clearing up of phrases which would be obscure to the public. In +fact, if any essay met with her approval, he felt sure it would not fail +of its effect when published."[254] She was not only his "help and stay +for forty years; in his struggles ready to counsel, in adversity to +comfort," but, over and above this, she was "the critic whose judgment +he valued above almost any, and whose praise he cared most to win"--the +other self who made his life work possible.[255] + +An intelligent, sympathetic pair of this kind--and this, as we have +seen, is but one of a multitude which illuminates and beautifies the +history of science--are competent to achieve wonders. They are like "the +two-celled heart beating with one full stroke"-- + + "Two plummets dropt for one to sound the abyss + Of science, and the secrets of the mind." + +The woman is then truly, as De Lamennais in Scriptural phrases has it, +"Man's companion, man's assistant, bone of his bone and flesh of his +flesh," and, in her sublime and endearing character so complete in every +relation of life, she fully answers to the beautiful characterization +which Adam, in _Paradise Lost_, gives of his beloved Eve: + + "So absolute she seems, + And in herself complete, so well to know + Her own, that what she wills to do or say + Seems wisest, virtuosest, discreetest, best. + + ...*...*...*...* + + Authority and reason on her wait, + + ...*...*...*...* + + * * * and, to consummate all, + Greatness of mind and nobleness their seat + Build in her loveliest, and create an awe + About her, as a guard angelic plac'd." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[233] Sis oppido meminens quod olim Martia Hortensio, Terentia Tullio, +Calpurnia Plinio, Pudentilla Apuleio, Rusticana Symmacho legentibus +meditantibusque candelas and candelabra tenuerunt. Lib. II, Epist. 10. + +[234] "Verum hoc--seu gratitudini seu ineptiae ascribendum--non sileo, me +quantulucunque conspicis, per illam esse, nec unquam ad hoc, si quid est +nominis aut gloriae fuisse venturum, nisi virtutum tenuissman sementem, +quasi pectore in hoc natura locaverat, nobilissimis his affectibus +coluisset." Francisci Petrarchae, _Colloquiorum Liber quem Secretum Suum +Inscripsit_, pp. 105-106, Berne, 1603. + +In his canzone beginning with the words _Perche la vita e breve_, +Petrarch declares to his inspirer-- + + "Thus if in me is nurst + Any good fruit, from you the seed came first; + To you, if such appear, the praise is due, + Barren myself till fertilized by you." + +[235] _The Life of St. Francis of Assisi_, by Paul Sabatier, p. 166, New +York, 1894. + +[236] Ibid., p. 167. + +[237] Ibid., p. 307. + +[238] _The Women of the Renaissance_, p. 394, New York, 1901. + +[239] _Women of Florence_, by Isodoro del Lungo, p. xxvii, London, 1907. + +[240] This passage from the dedication is so important that I reproduce +the Latin original: "Omnino vitam, aut, si quid mihi carius est, vobis +autem debeo, tibi autem, o diva Melusinis, omne presertim Mathematicis +studium, ad quod me excitavit tum tuus in earn amor, tum summa artis +illius, quam tenes, peritia, immo vero nunquam satis admiranda in tuo +tamque regii et nobilis generis sexu Encyclopaedia." _Francois Viete, +Inventeur de l'Algebre Moderne_, p. 20, par Frederic Ritter, Paris, +1895. + +[241] "E nell' amore della figlia il grande astronomo trovo non soltanto +un conforto a suoi affanni, ma anche una guida benefica alla quale +sembro egli abandonarsi con cieca tenerezza figliale." _La Storia del +Feminismo_, p. 509, by G. L. Arrighi, Florence, 1911. + +[242] _Galileo Galilei e Suor Celeste_, by Antonio Favaro, p. 256 et +seq., Florence, 1891. + +[243] An English writer, discussing this subject, pertinently observes: +"For, after all, is it not the personal incidents and commonplaces of +life that gather interest as the centuries roll on, while its more +pretentious events often drop into mere literary lumber? How much more +interesting Dr. Johnson's incidental admission, 'I have a strong +inclination, Sir, to do nothing to-day,' is to us now than many of his +more formal utterances. And, in reality, is it the personal element +alone that is in the long run perennial? The wise may prate as they will +about the importance of maintaining the continuity of history and of +handing on the torch of science. The world cares for none of these +things; they interest only some few political economists and laborious +men. What does the crowd and poor little Tom Jones and his nestful, for +instance, care about the fact that Cheops was--at any rate by courteous +tradition--a mighty man of valor of such an era and land? But little Tom +Jones and the rest of us would become mightily interested in this misty +monster of many traditions, could we learn in some magical way all he +thought, hated and loved in his inmost heart of hearts." _The National +Review_, p. 461, June, 1889. + +[244] The Duke of Peiresc, in a letter to Gassendi, regarding Galileo, +refers to certain letters--tres belles epistres--of the great +philosopher, "a une sienne fille religieuse sur le sujet mesme des +matieres traictees en son dernier livre." This shows that Sister Celeste +was kept fully informed by her father respecting the nature and contents +of his various works while he was preparing them for the press. It +implies, likewise, that she was not only interested in them in a general +way, but that she was able to read them intelligently and appreciate +them as well. + +How fondly Galileo treasured the letters written him by this daughter of +predilection is made known to us by Sister Celeste herself, when she +tells him in one of her letters "Resto confusa sentendo ch'ella conservi +le mie lettere, e dubito che il grande affeto que mi porta gliele +dimonstri piu compita di quello che sono." Op. cit., p. 317. + +[245] Op. cit., p. 404. + +[246] In the dedication of his _Principles of Philosophy_ he addresses +his young friend and pupil in the following words: "Je puis dire avec +verite que je ne jamais rencontre que le seul esprit de votre altesse +auquel l'un et l'autre"--metaphysics and mathematics--"fut egalement +facile; ce qui fait quo j'ai une tres juste raison de l'estimer +incomparable." + +[247] _Geology and Mineralogy Considered with Reference to Natural +Theology_, by William Buckland, p. xxxvi, London, 1858. + +[248] _Pasteur_, by Mr. and Mrs. Percy Frankland, p. 26 et seq., London, +1898. A French writer referring to this happy discovery expresses +himself as follows: "Quand Pasteur trouva le vaccin de charbon, il +remonta triomphant de son laboratoire et les larmes lui vinrent aux yeux +en embrassant sa femme et sa fille auxquelles annoncait sa victoire." +_Revue Encyclopedique_, p. 20, Jan. 15, 1895. + +[249] _Memoir and Correspondence of Caroline Herschel_, London, 1879, +pp. vi and vii, by Mrs. John Herschel. Cf. Chap. IV of this Vol. + +[250] _The Subjection of Women_, pp. 98, 99, London, 1909. + +The idea herein expressed is beautifully accentuated in the touching +dedication to the author's work On Liberty, which reads as follows: + +"To the beloved and deplored memory of her who was the inspirer, and in +part the author, of all that is best in my writings--the friend and wife +whose exalted sense of truth and right was my strongest incitement, and +whose approbation was my chief reward--I dedicate this volume. Like all +that I have written for many years, it belongs as much to her as to me; +but the work as it stands has had, in a very insufficient degree, the +inestimable advantage of her revision, some of the most important +portions having been reserved for a more careful re-examination, which +they are now never destined to receive. Were I but capable of +interpreting to the world one-half the great thoughts and noble feelings +which are buried in her grave, I should be the medium of a greater +benefit to it than is ever likely to arise from anything I can write, +unprompted and unassisted by her all but unrivalled wisdom." + +The chivalrous sentiments expressed in this generous tribute by one of +the deepest thinkers of his time, to the memory of his noble and gifted +life-companion, extravagant as they may seem, are but echoes of similar +sentiments often voiced before by the world's greatest leaders of +thought and science. + +[251] _Memoir of Sir William Hamilton_, by John Veitch, p. 136 et seq., +Edinburgh, 1869. + +It is frequently said that women, unlike men, are indifferent to fame. +This may be true so far as they are personally concerned; but it is +certainly not true of them in regard to their husbands, or the men for +whom they have a genuine affection. This is abundantly proved by the +lives of Mme. Huber, Mme. Pasteur, Caroline Herschel and Lady Hamilton, +not to name others who have been mentioned in the foregoing pages. After +Sir William Hamilton, at the age of fifty-six, had been stricken by +hemiplegia on the right side, as the result of over-work, his faithful +wife became for twelve years eyes, hands and even mind for him. She read +and consulted books for him, and helped him to prepare his lectures and +the works which have given him such celebrity. "Everything that was sent +to the press and all the courses of lectures were written by her, either +to dictation or from copy." And when we remember that the lectures and +books were of the most abstruse character and that Lady Hamilton was +associated with her husband in his recondite work throughout his long +and brilliant career, we must confess that her conduct was not only +heroic to a degree, but also that the fame of the one she loved was to +her a matter of the deepest concern. + +[252] "Induction is, indeed, a mighty weapon laid up in the armory of +the human mind, and by its aid great deeds have been accomplished and +noble conquests have been won. But in that armory there is another +weapon, I will not say of stronger make, but certainly of keener edge; +and, if that weapon had been oftener used during the present and +preceding century, our knowledge would be far more advanced than it +actually is. If the imagination had been more cultivated, if there had +been a closer union between the spirit of poetry and the spirit of +science, natural philosophy would have made greater progress, because +natural philosophers would have taken a higher and more successful aim, +and would have enlisted on their side a wider range of human +sympathies." Buckle: _The Influence of Women on the Progress of +Knowledge_. + +[253] _The Subjection of Women_, ut sup., p. 87. + +[254] _Life and Letters of Thomas Henry Huxley_, by his son Leonard +Huxley, Vol. I, p. 324, New York, 1900. + +[255] Ibid., p. 39, Vol. II, p. 458. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE FUTURE OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE: + +SUMMARY AND EPILOGUE + + +Saint-Evremond, the first great master of the genteel style in French +literature, who was equally noted as a brilliant courtier, a graceful +wit, a professed Epicurean, and who exerted so marked an influence on +the writings of Voltaire and the essayists of Queen Anne's time, gives +us in one of his desultory productions an entertaining disquisition on +_La femme qui ne se trouve point et ne se trouvera jamais_--the woman +who is not and never will be found. The caption of this singular essay +admirably expresses the idea that the majority of mankind has, even +until the present day, held respecting woman in science. For them she +was non-existent. Nature, in their view, had disqualified her for +serious and, above all, for abstract science. Never, therefore, in the +opinion of these solemn wiseacres, had been found or could be found a +woman who had achieved distinction in science. + +The foregoing chapters show how ill-founded is such a view regarding +woman in times past. For that half of humanity which has produced such +scientific luminaries as Aspasia, Laura Bassi, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, +Sophie Germain, Mary Somerville, Caroline Herschel, Sonya Kovalevsky, +Agnes S. Lewis, Margaret Dunlop Gibson, Eleanor Ormerod and Mme. +Curie--to mention no others--is far from exhibiting any evidence of +intellectual disqualification and still farther from warranting any one +from declaring that the successful pursuit of science is entirely +beyond the mental powers of womankind. + +The preceding pages, likewise, afford an answer to those who insist on +woman's incapacity for scientific pursuits, and point to the small +number of those that have attained eminence in any of the branches of +science; who continue to assert that the women named are but exceptions +to the rule of the hopeless inferiority of their sex, and that no +conclusions can be deduced from the paucity of women who have risen +above the intellectual level of their less fortunate or less highly +dowered sisters. They further show that, until the last few decades, +woman's environment was rarely if ever favorable to her pursuit of +science. From the days of Aspasia until the latter half of the +nineteenth century she was discriminated against by law, custom and +public opinion. Save only in Italy, she was excluded from the +universities and from learned societies in which she might have had an +opportunity of developing her intellect. In other countries her social +ostracism in all that pertained to mental development was so complete +and universal that she rarely had an opportunity of making a trial of +her powers or exhibiting her innate capacity. The consequence was that +her mind remained in a condition of comparative atrophy--a condition +that gave rise to that long prevalent belief in woman's intellectual +inferiority to man and her natural incapacity for everything that is not +light or frivolous. + +Practically all that women have achieved in science, until very recent +years, has been accomplished in defiance of that conventional code which +compelled them to confine their activities to the ordinary duties of the +household. The lives and achievements of the eminent mathematicians, +Sophie Germain and Mary Somerville, are good illustrations of the truth +of this assertion. It was only their persistence in the study of their +favorite branch of science, in spite of the opposition of their family +and friends, and in spite of what was considered taboo for their sex by +the usages and ordinances of society, that they were able to attain that +eminence in the most abstruse of the sciences which won for them the +plaudits of the world. Both were virtually self-made women. Deprived of +the advantages of a college or university education, and denied the +stimulus afforded by membership in learned scientific associations, they +nevertheless succeeded by their own unaided efforts in winning a place +of highest honor in the Walhalla of men of science. + +M. Alphonse de Candolle, in his great work, _Histoire des Sciences et +des Savants depuis Deux Siecles_, devotes only two pages to the +consideration of woman in science. She is, to him, a negligible +quantity. And, although a professed man of science, he repeats, without +any scientific warrant whatever, all the gratuitous statements of his +predecessors regarding the superficial character of the female mind, "a +mind," he will have it, which "takes pleasure in ideas that are readily +seized by a kind of intuition;" a mind "to which the slow methods of +observation and calculation by which truth is surely arrived at are not +pleasing. Truths themselves," the Swiss savant continues, "independent +of their nature and possible consequences--especially general truths +which have no relation to a particular person--are of small moment to +most women. Add to this a feeble independence of opinion, a reasoning +faculty less intense than in man, and, finally, the horror of doubt, +that is, a state of mind in which all research in the sciences of +observation must begin and often end. These reasons are," according to +de Candolle, "more than sufficient to explain the position of women in +scientific pursuits."[256] + +They certainly are more than sufficient to explain their position if we +choose to accept the author's method of determining one's attainments in +the realm of science. His chief test of one's eminence in science is +the number of learned societies to which one belongs. For De Candolle, +membership in one or more such bodies is _prima facie_ evidence of +special distinction in some branch of science. But "We," he declares, +"do not see the name of any woman on the lists of learned men connected +with the principal academies. This is not due entirely to the fact that +the customs and regulations have made no provision for their admission, +for it is easy to assure one's self that no person of the feminine sex +has ever produced an original scientific work which has made its mark in +any science and commanded the attention of specialists in science. I do +not think it has ever been considered desirable to elect a woman a +member of any of the great scientific academies with restricted +membership."[257] + +When De Candolle insisted on membership in learned societies as a +necessary indication of scientific eminence, he must have known, what +everybody knew, that such exclusive societies as the French Academy of +Sciences and the Royal Society of Great Britain have always been dead +set against the admission of women members. It is difficult to imagine +that the learned author of the _History of Science and Scientists_ was +entirely ignorant of the exclusion from the French Academy of Maria +Gaetana Agnesi solely because she was a woman. And he must have been +aware that, had it not been for her sex, Sophie Germain would have been +accorded a fauteuil in the same society for her remarkable +investigations in one of the difficult departments of mathematical +physics. He must likewise have been cognizant of the attitude of such +organizations as the Royal Society toward women, no matter how +meritorious their achievements in science. + +According to De Candolle's criterion, such women as Mme. Curie, Sonya +Kovalevsky, Eleanor Ormerod, Agnes S. Lewis, Margaret Dunlop Gibson have +accomplished nothing worthy of note because, forsooth, their names are +not found on the rolls of membership of the Royal Society or the French +Academy of Sciences--associations whose constitutions have been +purposely so framed as to exclude women from membership. It would, +indeed, be difficult to instance a more unfair or a more unscientific +test of woman's eminence in science, and that, too, proposed by one who +is supposed to be actuated in his judgments by rigorously scientific +methods. Had any of the women named belonged to the male sex, there +never would have been any question of their fitness to become members of +the societies in question. This is particularly true of Mme. Curie, who, +in the estimation of the world, has done more to enhance the prestige of +French science than any man of the present generation--a statement that +is sufficiently justified by the fact that she is the only one so far +who has twice, in competition with the greatest of the world's men of +science, succeeded in carrying away the great Nobel prize.[258] + +Not only have men, from time immemorial, been wont to point to woman's +incapacity for science as evidenced by the small number of those who +have achieved distinction in any of its branches, but they have also +taken a special pleasure in directing attention to the fact that no +woman has ever given to the world any of the great creations of genius, +or been the prime-mover in any of the far-reaching discoveries which +have so greatly contributed to the weal, the advancement and the +happiness of our race. + +No one, probably, has expressed himself on this subject in a more +positive or characteristic fashion than the noted litterateur and +philosopher, Count Joseph de Maistre. Writing from St. Petersburg to his +daughter, Constance, he says: "Voltaire, according to what you +affirm--for as to me, I know nothing, as I have not read all his works, +and have not read a line of them during the last thirty years--says that +women are capable of doing all that men do, etc. This is merely a +compliment paid to some pretty woman, or, rather, it is one of the +hundred thousand and thousand silly things which he said during his +lifetime. The very contrary is the truth. Women have produced no _chef +d'oeuvre_ of any kind whatsoever. They have been the authors neither +of the _Iliad_, nor the _Aeneid_, nor the _Jerusalem Delivered_, nor +_Phedre_, nor _Athalie_ nor _Rodogune_, nor _The Misanthrope_, nor +_Tartufe_, nor _The Joueur_, nor _The Pantheon_, nor _The Church of St. +Peter's_, nor the _Venus de' Medici_, nor the _Apollo Belvidere_, nor +the _Principia_, nor the _Discourse on Universal History_, nor +_Telemachus_. They have invented neither algebra nor the telescope, nor +achromatic glasses nor the fire engine, nor hose-machines, etc."[259] + +All this is true, but what does it prove? It does not prove, as is so +frequently assumed, woman's lesser brain power or inferior +intelligence. It does not prove--as the learned Frenchman and those who +are similarly minded would have us believe--her incapacity for the +highest flights of genius in every sphere of intellectual effort. Such +assumptions are entirely negatived by woman's past achievements in all +departments of art, literature and science. + +Far from making the inference that De Maistre wished his daughter to +draw from his letter, we should, from what we know of woman's ability as +disclosed in the foregoing chapters, hesitate to set a limit to her +powers, or to declare apodictically that she could not have been the +author of works of as great merit as most of those--if not all of +them--mentioned as among men's supreme achievements. The simple fact +that Mme. Curie and Sonya Kovalevsky were able, in sciences usually +considered beyond female intelligence, to wrest from their male +competitors the most coveted prizes within the gift of the Nobel Prize +Commission and the French Academy of Sciences, demonstrates completely +that woman's assumed incapacity for even the most recondite scientific +pursuits is a mere figment of the masculine imagination. + +What women have done "that at least, if nothing else," as John Stuart +Mill aptly observes, "it is proved they can do. When we consider how +sedulously they are all trained away from, instead of being trained +toward, any of the occupations or objects reserved for men, it is +evident that I am taking very humble ground for them, when I rest their +case on what they have actually achieved. For, in this case, negative +evidence is worth little, while any positive evidence is conclusive. It +cannot be inferred to be impossible that a woman should be a Homer, or +an Aristotle, or a Michaelangelo, or a Beethoven, because no woman has +yet actually produced works comparable to theirs in any of those lines +of excellence. This negative fact at most leaves the question uncertain +and open to psychological discussion. But it is quite certain that a +woman can be a Queen Elizabeth or a Deborah or a Joan of Arc, since this +is not inference but a fact."[260] + +In like manner it is quite certain that, in spite of all kinds of +disabilities and prejudices and adverse legislation, there have been a +large number of women who, in every department of intellectual activity, +have achieved marked distinction and won imperishable renown for their +proscribed sex. It is a fact, which admits of no question, that, +notwithstanding their being debarred from all the educational advantages +so generously lavished upon the dominant sex, women have since the days +of Sappho and Hypatia shown themselves the equals and often the +superiors of men in the highest and noblest spheres of mental +achievement. + +Such being the case, what, we may ask, would have been the result had +women, from that splendid Heroic Period of which Homer sings until the +present, enjoyed all the opportunities of mental development of which +men have systematically claimed the exclusive privilege?[261] What would +now be their condition if, from the days of the Muses--who were but +learned women apotheosized--women had never been deprived of their +intellectual birthright and had been permitted to continue in the path +so auspiciously blazed by Corinna--the victor over Pindar--and Arete, +the splendor of Greece and the possessor of the mind of Socrates and the +tongue of Homer? What would not now be their intellectual +efflorescence, if Plato's dream of twenty-three centuries ago of giving +women equal rights with men in all things of the mind could have been +realized; if those ardent female disciples of his, who so lovingly +followed him through the streets of Athens--"the home of the +intellectual and the beautiful"--and hung on his lips during his +matchless discourses in the groves of the Academy and on the banks of +the Ilyssus, could have continued that race of intellect and genius +which was the admiration and the inspiration of all Hellas during the +most brilliant period of its marvelous history? + +Speculating only on what the gifted daughters of Greece might have +achieved, we may easily believe that they would have kept pace with +their most highly gifted countrymen, and that, following in the +footsteps of Sappho and the other Muses of the "Terrestrial Nine," they +would have been worthy rivals of Homer, Pindar and Aeschylus, and would +have occupied a prominent place in that brilliant galaxy of genius +composed of such luminaries as Anaxagoras, Sophocles, Euclid, +Archimedes, Theophrastus, Polygnotus, Diophantus, Pausanias and +Thucydides. + +To those who base their opinions on what so long has been the absurdly +anomalous condition of women and who, in formulating their theories of +human progress, completely ignore the fundamental laws of heredity, such +conjectures will seem extravagant, if not chimerical. But, when one +bears in mind the universal fact that offspring, whatever the sex, +inherits its characteristics and its powers from both parents alike; +that the soul, unlike the body, has no sex, and that, so far as +legitimate indications from the teachings of biology and psychology can +serve as a guide, there is no valid reason for asserting the mental +superiority of man over woman, one will be obliged to confess that these +surmises are far from being either fanciful or preposterous. + +It is then the veriest sophism to predicate woman's incapacity for +science and for intellectual achievements of the highest order on what +she has not accomplished in the past, or on the comparatively limited +number of her contributions to the advancement of knowledge; for up till +the present she has, for the most part, been but a dwarf of the +gynaeceum, + + "Cramp'd under worse than South-sea isle taboo." + +Had men been compelled to labor under similar conditions, it is doubtful +if they would have accomplished any more than women have now to their +credit. + +Considering woman's past achievements in science, as well as in other +departments of knowledge; considering her present opportunities for +developing her long-hampered faculties, and considering, especially, the +many new social and economic adjustments which have been made within the +last half century, in consequence of the greatly changed conditions of +modern life, it requires no prophetic vision to forecast what share the +gentler sex will have in the future advancement of science. That it will +be far greater than it has been hitherto there can be no reasonable +doubt. That the number of savantes of the type of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, +Sonya Kovalevsky and Mme. Curie will be greatly enlarged there is every +reason to believe. That among these coming votaries of science there +will be more than one woman who, even in the most abstruse sciences, +will stand + + "Upon an even pedestal with man," + +seems to be assured by the achievements of many who are now so +materially adding to the sum of human knowledge. + +Is it probable that the future will bring forth women whose achievements +in science will rank with those of Euler, Faraday, Liebig, Leverrier, +Champollion and Geoffry Saint-Hillaire? It would be a rash man who would +answer in the negative. We cannot, as De Maistre seems to do, reason +from what they have not done--when everything was against them--to what +they may do when conditions shall, in every way, be as favorable to them +as they always have been to the dominant sex. + +Still rasher would be the man who would attempt to prove the negative of +this question. Mere _a priori_ arguments, based on preconceived bias or +on the vague and groundless impression that woman is essentially and +hopelessly the intellectual inferior of man, have no more value than +gratuitous opinions. The unprejudiced seeker after truth will insist on +a demonstration based on incontrovertible facts. He will appeal to +history to learn what the sex has already accomplished, and to science +to inquire if there be anything in the female brain to differentiate it +from that of the male, or to preclude woman from attaining the highest +rank in the activities of the intellect. + +The result of such an investigation will, I think, cause even the most +biased person to suspend judgment, if it does not induce him to align +himself with those who, finding no differences in the mental endowments +of the sexes, have reached the conclusion that the day will come, and, +mayhap, in the near future, when the achievements of women will be on a +par with those of man. The facts stated in the preceding chapters seem, +not unreasonably, to point to such a conclusion, if, indeed, they do not +warrant it as a necessary inference. + +A few considerations germane to this discussion will illustrate the +danger of forming hasty judgments regarding questions like the one under +discussion. + +During the last hundred years no country in the world has done more for +the education of the masses than the United States. Everything that +money could purchase and ingenuity suggest has been adopted to develop +the minds and stimulate the latent talents and genius of our youth. From +the primary schools to the highest and best equipped universities, a +special premium has been put on success in study, and the highest +rewards have awaited those who should make any notable contribution +towards the advancement of knowledge. But, notwithstanding all the +educational advantages our people have enjoyed and all the encouragement +they have received to achieve something of supreme excellence, our great +country with its teeming millions attracted from the most gifted nations +of the Old World has not yet produced a single man who has attained the +highest rank in either literature or art or science. Far from having a +preeminent master of song like Homer or Dante, we have not even a poet +approaching Goethe or Tasso or Camoens. We have no Cervantes, no Milton, +no Racine, no Moliere. America has produced no Raphael or Michaelangelo; +no Mozart or Wagner or Tschaikovsky. Nor has it given us a Descartes, a +Leibnitz, a Newton or a Darwin. Would any one, from this complete +absence in America of representatives of the highest order in +literature, art and science, ever dream of concluding that we shall +never have such favorite sons of genius and such giants of intellect? +Does our comparative intellectual sterility in the past, and in a +country which seemed specially adapted to foster genius and attainments +of the highest order, justify any one in inferring that the days of +great geniuses, like the days of demigods, are gone never to return? + +And yet the number of men in our broad commonwealth who, during the past +hundred years, have enjoyed such signal opportunities for attaining +distinction in every domain of intellectual effort is incomparably +greater than that of all the women so favored since the earliest days of +human history. If, from the first flowering of Greek culture to the +present day, as many millions of women had enjoyed all the transcendent +advantages of education as have been in the United States so lavishly +accorded to the same number of millions of men, who will say that very +many of them would not have attained a much higher rank in science, as +well as in art and literature, than has yet been reached by any man that +America has yet produced? Who even, on the evidence now available, would +be warranted in denying that at least some of these millions of women +might have attained the very highest rank in every department of +intellectual achievement? + +Gray, in his _Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard_, muses on the +potential statesmen and the "mute, inglorious Miltons" of those +countless multitudes who, for lack of opportunity to develop their +inborn gifts, were condemned to pass their lives in obscurity and die, +"to Fortune and to Fame unknown." But how much more truthfully could his +words have been applied to that much larger number of women of rare +mental powers to whose eyes knowledge + + "Her ample page + Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll," + +and whose God-given genius was ruthlessly suppressed from the cradle to +the grave? + +We are still in ignorance as to many of the conditions which are +essential to the development of genius and which contribute to its +loftiest flights. We have yet to learn how far the efflorescence of the +human mind is aided and modified by heredity, environment, atmosphere, +as well as by education, encouragement and other stimuli equally potent. + +But we do know that Germany, in spite of its famed universities and its +feverish intellectual activity in many departments of knowledge, had to +wait many long dreary centuries before it could point to a Goethe, a +Schiller, a Humboldt, a Bach, or a Beethoven. We know that France--so +long the reputed center of culture--has so far produced no great epic +poet, no Cervantes, no Murillo. But shall we affirm that she will never +give to the world imperishable works like _Paradise Lost_, _Don Quixote_ +or the _Immaculate Conception_? We know that Athens, which during the +most brilliant period of its history counted only fifty-four hundred +free-born citizens--less than the population of a small modern town--was +able to produce within a very brief epoch more men of supreme +distinction than all the rest of Europe from the Age of Pericles until +the dawn of the Renaissance. Hers is still the art of the world, the +literature of the world, the philosophy of the world, the culture of the +world. For twenty-five centuries her canons of taste and beauty have +guided poets, orators, artists; and her matchless productions have been +the inspiration, as they have been the despair, of the greatest geniuses +of our modern world. + +Had the women of Greece not been put under constraint just as they were +beginning to exhibit the splendid results of their intellectual +activities; had they been encouraged to develop to the utmost their +richly-dowered minds, as were the men, a far larger number of them, no +doubt, would have been as successful in carrying off coveted prizes in +the intellectual arena as was Corinna in her contests with Pindar. And +they would, likewise, as we may easily conceive, have greatly added to +the number of masterpieces of Greek intellect in science as well as in +art and letters. + +But the opportunity for women to test their powers, which was so +wantonly snatched from their sisters in the Hellenic world, seems again +to be offered to their sex. This opportunity, as has been stated, is due +chiefly to their persistence in claiming the same right as men to +intellectual development as well as to the countless proofs they have +given that their demands are founded on reason and justice. What shall +be the outcome of the new opportunity for woman to prove her capacity as +compared with man's in things of the intellect remains to be seen, but, +from indications she has during recent years given of her powers in +every branch of scientific inquiry, there can be little doubt that it +will be of such character as to place woman on a higher intellectual +plane than she has yet occupied. In physical strength and in the rougher +conflicts with the world she will doubtless always remain "the lesser +man," but, once she feels in full possession of liberty + + "To burgeon out of all + Within her," + +she will duly justify her advocates who throughout the centuries have +been + + "Maintaining that with equal husbandry + The woman were an equal to the man." + +Not the least of the contributing factors to woman's intellectual +growth, and especially to her future achievements in science, are the +recent adjustments for women in social and economical conditions brought +about chiefly by far-reaching changes in the industrial world. Even so +late as the last half of the nineteenth century the energies of women, +when they were not engaged in the kitchen or the nursery, were spent on +the domestic loom, spinning wheel and the knitting needle. All the +various processes from carding the wool to making it into clothing for +all the members of the family were in the hands of the housewife. +Ready-made clothing was far from being as common and inexpensive as it +is now. Canned foods and cereals, which do away with so much of the +drudgery of the kitchen, were unknown. Electricity, which has proved to +be such a remarkable aid in every modern home, was little more than a +mysterious force that was utilized in the electric telegraph. Most of +the domestic labor-saving machines were still in their infancy and +possessed by but few people. Large fortunes were confined to only a +favored few in our great metropolises. The mass of the people was +preoccupied with the struggle for existence. + +But science, the spirit of invention and the advent of the age of +machinery have completely changed the conditions of life which obtained +but a generation ago. They have not only opened up for women countless +occupations that were undreamed of in their mother's time, but have also +given to tens of thousands of them the necessary means and leisure to +indulge their tastes for study and research and enabled an ever +increasing number of them to realize their aspirations for achieving +distinction in the divers departments of scientific research. + +As an instance of this marked change in the intellectual activity of +women, we need only consider what an important part they now take in our +present prodigious literary output, as compared with their share in +similar work but a few decades ago. As authors, as writers and readers +in the editorial rooms of our leading periodicals, as contributors to +learned journals and reviews dealing with every branch of science, even +the most abstruse, they now occupy a conspicuous place and are doing +work that is quite as creditable as that of men. + +And it is no longer necessary, in deference to public sentiment, for +them to write under a pseudonym, for it is no longer considered +unfeminine, as it was in the time of the Bronte sisters, for women to +acknowledge themselves the authors of books or of articles in magazines. +If they elect to devote their lives to literary or scientific work, they +will not be deterred from so doing by what Mrs. Grundy may say, or by +the fear that some feeble imitator of Moliere may dub them as +_Precieuses Ridicules_. The value of their productions, like those of +men, is gauged solely by merit and not by any narrow-minded +considerations of the author's sex. + +So also will it be in all other occupations where women choose to gain +their livelihood by devoting themselves to scientific pursuits rather +than to manual labor or to secretarial work in the counting-room. There +are positions open for them in colleges, universities and the +government service where, as professors or experts in every branch of +science, their talents have full liberty of action and where they have +the same opportunity of achieving distinction in their chosen life-work +as have their male colleagues. + +In Germany there are to-day a million more women than men. It is the +same in England. In France the number of women who are widows or +unmarried or divorcees or mothers with full-grown children aggregates no +less than four and a half millions. A similar condition obtains in other +parts of Europe. A large percentage of this number is without home ties +and, as the old fields of labor are no longer open to women, they are +forced to find new ones. They naturally demand the privilege of +exercising their talents in occupations which are most congenial to +them. Many have no inclination for any of the avocations in the +industrial or commercial world, but have a very decided inclination as +well as talent for scientific pursuits. Hence the ever-increasing number +of women who seek employment in chemical and biological laboratories, in +museums and astronomical observatories, as well as aspire to +professorships of science in schools and colleges. From this large +number of votaries of science some are sure to achieve distinction in +their calling and to contribute materially to the advancement of +knowledge. In the course of time the number of those, like Mme. Curie, +Mme. Coudreau, Mary Kingsley, Sonya Kovalevsky, Eleanor Ormerod, +Caroline Herschel, Zelia Nuttall, Harriet Boyd Hawes, Donna Eersilia +Bovatillo, Sophie Pereyaslawewa--to name only a few--who will become +prominent as chemists, explorers, naturalists, mathematicians, +entomologists, astronomers, archaeologists, biologists will be vastly +increased, for women will find a greater stimulus for such work and more +numerous demands for their service in the constantly expanding sphere of +scientific research. + +Many women will, doubtless, become specialists in some specific branch +of science, particularly if they have a genuine love for it, or be fired +by an ambition to achieve fame as discoverers. But it is not probable +that they will ever specialize to the same extent as men do. For men +scientific work has to a large extent become a _metier_, and success, as +in industry, depends on a division of labor. Hence it is that their +field of investigation is daily becoming more and more circumscribed. +This is observable in all the sciences, but especially in such +all-embracing sciences as chemistry, biology, and archaeology. A man now +does well if he master a single branch of any of these sciences, and is +hailed as exceptionally fortunate if he succeed in making some notable +discovery in his limited field of research. So great, indeed, has been +the activity of scientific men in every department of science during the +last half century, and so thoroughly have they explored the most hidden +recesses of nature, that it, at times, seems as if there were but little +left to discover. A prominent scientist recently well expressed the +difficulty of making any striking additions to our knowledge of nature +by asserting that all great discoveries would hereafter be made in the +sixth place of decimals. This statement is well illustrated by the +delicate experiments that were required to isolate such rare elements as +radium, polonium, helium and neon, which occur only in infinitesimal +quantities. + +While men of science will be forced to continue as specialists as long +as the love of fame, to consider no other motives of research, continues +to be a potent influence in their investigations, it is probable that +women will have less love for the long and tedious processes involved in +the more difficult kinds of specialization. They will, it seems likely, +be more inclined to acquire a general knowledge of the whole circle of +the sciences--a knowledge that will enable them to take a comprehensive +survey of nature. And it will be fortunate for themselves, as well as +for the men who must perforce remain specialists, if they elect to do +so. For nothing gives falser views of nature as a whole, nothing more +unfits the mind for a proper apprehension of higher and more important +truths, nothing more incapacitates one for the enjoyment of the +masterpieces of literature or the sweeter amenities of life, than the +narrow occupation of a specialist who sees nothing in the universe but +electrons, microbes and protozoa. + +But just at the critical moment, when men of science would rather +discover a process than a law, when they are so preoccupied with the +infinitely little that they lose sight of the cosmos as a whole; when +their attention is so riveted on particular phenomena that they will no +longer have aptitude for rising from effects to causes; when they cease +to have any interest in general ideas and stray away from the guidance +of the true philosophic spirit; when, like Plato's cave men, they have +so long groped in darkness that their powers of vision are impaired, +then it is that woman, "The herald of a brighter race," comes to the +rescue and holds up to their astonished gaze the picture of an ideal +world whose existence they had almost forgotten. For women, as a rule, +love science for its own sake, and, unlike the specialists in question, +they are, in its pursuit, rarely actuated by any selfish or mercenary +interests, or by the hope of financial reward. Precise and never-ending +observations with the microscope and spectroscope, which at best give +them but a superficial knowledge of certain details of science, while it +leaves them in ignorance of the greater and better part of it, do not +appeal to them. They prefer general ideas to particular facts, and love +to roam over the whole realm of science rather than confine themselves +to one of its isolated corners. + +"Women," writes M. Etienne Lamy, the distinguished French Academician, +"group themselves at the center of human knowledge, whereas men disperse +themselves towards its outer boundaries. While men are always pushing +analysis to its utmost limits, women are seeking a synthesis. While men +are becoming more technical, women are becoming more intellectual. They +are better placed to observe the correlations of the different sciences, +and to subordinate them to the common and unique source of truth from +which they all descend. We seem, indeed, to be approaching a time when +women will become the conservers of general ideas."[262] + +In the preceding chapter reference was made to the fact that women are +naturally inclined to adopt the deductive method in their search for +truth when men would employ only the inductive method. This disposition +of theirs to arrive at conclusions by a kind of intuition, coupled with +their more pronounced idealism, is sure to react favorably on men, and +prevent them from becoming so involved in mere facts and phenomena as to +cause them to forget that it is as important to reason well as to +observe well--that the fundamental principles of a true philosophy are +quite as necessary for the eminent man of science as they are to the +trustworthy historian or commanding statesman. + +From what has been said, it is clear that man's ideal of the woman of +the future will be quite different from what it was but a little more +than a century ago, when Dr. Johnson could say that "any acquaintance +with books," among women, "was distinguished only to be censured." It +will be quite different from the ideal woman, as portrayed by poets and +novelists, for centuries past. For among the thousands of women painted +by our leading writers of fiction, poets and dramatists there are few, +if any, outside of those sketched by Tennyson in _The Princess_, who are +distinguished for their learning or for their love of intellectual +pursuits. Even Portia, Shakespeare's most learned woman, was, according +to her own confession, but + + "An unlessoned girl, unschooled, unpracticed." + +And the heroines of the novelist, far from being women who had a thirst +for knowledge, or were eager + + "To sound the abyss + Of science and the secrets of the mind," + +were those only whose chief attractions were physical graces and charms, +affectionate natures, brilliant wit together with "sweet laughs for +bird-notes and blue eyes for a heaven." + +Now, however, that women after ages of struggle are beginning to +experience a sense of intellectual freedom before unknown, and to exult +in the fact that + + "Knowledge is now no more a fountain sealed"; + +now that they are, for the first time, beginning, in every civilized +nation, to realize their age-long aspirations for unimpeded opportunity +in all the activities of the intellect; now that they are no longer + + "Dismiss'd in shame to live + No wiser than their mothers, household stuff, + Live chattels, *** + *** laughing-stocks of Time," + +we may expect soon to see a marked change in the character of the ideal +woman as depicted in literature and as desired by the intelligent +portion of mankind. + +What woman's liberation from intellectual bondage and her freedom to +devote herself to scientific pursuits mean for the future of humanity it +is difficult at present adequately to forecast. That it will contribute +immensely to the betterment of social conditions and to the elevation of +the masses of humanity, there can be no doubt. Setting free the +imprisoned energies of one half of our race, means more than doubling +mankind's capacity for advancement. For the failure to utilize woman's +vast energies, pining for an outlet, acted as a drag on man's own +potentialities, and thus retarded to an untold extent the world's +advancement. In times past, as has aptly been said, "an enormous part of +the brain power of mankind has been spent or wasted in smiting the +Philistines hip and thigh, and an enormous part of the brain power of +womankind has been spent in cajoling Sampson." + +It will mean that the women of the future will be more suitable +companions for the rapidly increasing number of highly educated men of +science; that having their intellects developed _pari passu_ with those +of men, they will be able to sympathize with the noblest aims of their +husbands and assist them in their most important undertakings, as did +the wives of Huber, Lavoisier, Pasteur, Huxley, Louis Agassiz and others +scarcely less renowned in the annals of science. It will mean that they +will not only share in the joys and the sorrows of their +life-companions, but that they will also have a part in their thoughts, +their studies, their labors, their achievements. For one should bear in +mind that the first essential to a perfect union of hearts is a perfect +harmony of minds. Where neither husband nor wife is educated, the +virtues may suffice for companionship, but where the man is educated and +the woman ignorant, there are sooner or later estrangements and the wife +becomes little better than an old Japanese conception of her, "a cook +without pay," or a pasha's toy for an idle hour. Chrysalde in Moliere's +_L'Ecole des Femmes_, declares: + + "Qu'il est assez ennuyeux, que je crois, + D'avoir toute sa vie une bete avec soi." + +A briefer and truer statement of the evils of unequal intellectual +mating was never penned.[263] Men of intelligence are no longer, like +Rousseau, satisfied with an ignorant domestic for a wife, and still less +are they disposed with Schopenhauer to regard woman as an incurable +Philistine, and as a mere intermediary between a child and a man. They +have learned by sad experience that it is contrary both to justice and +public policy to impose artificial restrictions on the acquisition of +knowledge by women, or to close to the vigorous and capable +representatives of their sex careers which are open to the weakest and +most incompetent men. History has taught them that the fall of Greece +and Rome was owing to the failure of these nations to make due provision +for the mental development of women. + +And women know that it was because of the inability of the wives of the +Athenians to enter into the thoughts of their highly educated husbands +and to sympathize with their aims and appreciate their achievements that +caused the men to leave them in their solitude and seek in the +companionship of the hetaerae the intellectual atmosphere which was +wanting in their own homes. They know, too, that the lack of knowledge +in the wife and the absence of virtue in the hetaerae, which brought such +disasters on the most learned and most cultured of nations are still +evils to be guarded against, and that one of the means over and above +moral rule and revealed truth of safe-guarding their own interests and +preserving the sanctity of the home is to make themselves by knowledge +and culture the intellectual equals of their consorts. + +They realize also that if they are to attain the highest measure of +success as wives and mothers, a broad and thorough education--a +knowledge of science, as well as familiarity with art and literature and +the teachings of religion--is essential to them for their children's +sake. It is said that + + "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world," + +but how much truer is it that "The domestic hearth is the first of +schools, and the best of lecture-rooms; for here the heart will +cooperate with the mind, the affections with the reasoning power." It is +only when the mothers of this, the woman's century, shall dispute with +men the primacy of erudition--when they shall prove their mastery of +those newer sciences by which our age sets such great store--when they +shall possess + + "Seraphic intellect and force + To seize and throw the doubts of man"; + +that their grown-up sons will have the same confidence in their +intelligence as they now have in their hearts. Then only will mothers be +properly equipped for developing the character of their children; for +inspiring them with a love of the true, the beautiful and the good; for +stimulating their talents and aiding them to attain to all the +sublimities of knowledge; for assisting them in doubt and despondency +and firing them with an ambition to strive for supreme excellence in all +that makes for the nobility of manhood and the glory of womanhood; for +making them, as Beatrice made Dante after he was renewed and purified +in the waters of Eunoe, "fit to mount up to the stars." + + "_Puro e disposto a salire alle stelle._" + +The romantic idea of treating woman as a clinging vine, and thus +eliminating half the energies of humanity, is rapidly disappearing and +giving place to the idea that the strong are for the strong--the +intellectually strong; that the evolution of the race will be complete +only when men and women shall be associated in perfect unity of purpose, +and shall, in fullest sympathy, collaborate for the attainment of the +highest and the best. Then, indeed, will man's helpmate become to him +and to his children + + "More rich than pearls of Ind or gold of Ophir, + And in her sex more wonderful and rare." + +Then will men and women for the first time fully supplement each other +in their aspirations and endeavors and realize somewhat of that oneness +of heart and mind which was so beautifully adumbrated in Plato's +androgyn. Then will the world witness the return of another Golden +Age--the Golden Age of Science--the Golden Age of cultured, noble, +perfect womanhood. Then to all who really think and love will be +manifest the clearness and power of vision of England's great poet +laureate when in matchless numbers he sings: + + "The woman's cause is man's; they rise or sink + Together, dwarfed or godlike, bond or free. + + ...*...*...*...* + + For woman is not undevelopt man + But diverse: could we make her as the man, + Sweet Love were slain; his dearest bond is this, + Not like to like, but like in difference. + Yet in the long years liker must they grow; + The man be more of woman, she of man; + He gain in sweetness and in moral height, + Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world; + She mental breadth, nor fail in childward care, + Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind; + Till at the last she set herself to man, + Like perfect music unto noble words; + And as these twain, upon the skirts of Time, + Sit side by side, full-summ'd in all their powers, + Dispensing harvest, sowing the To-be, + Self-rev'rent each, and reverencing each, + Distinct in individualities, + But like each other ev'n as those who love, + Then comes the statelier Eden back to men; + Then reign the world's great bridals chaste and calm; + Then springs the crowning race of human-kind. + May these things be!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[256] _Histoire des Sciences et des Savants_, p. 271, Geneve-Bale, 1885. + +[257] Ibid., p. 270. + +[258] A writer in the English magazine, _Nature_, under date of January +12, 1911, when the European press was discussing Mme. Curie's claims to +membership in the French Academy of Sciences, makes the following sane +observations on the admission of women to the various academies of the +French Institute: + + "There may be room for difference of opinion as to the + wisdom or expediency of permitting women to embark on the + troubled sea of politics, or of allowing them a determinate + voice in the settlement of questions which may affect the + existence or the destiny of a nation; but surely there ought + to be no question that in the peaceful walks of art, + literature and science, there should be the freest possible + scope extended to them, and that, as human beings, every + avenue to distinction and success should unreservedly be + open to them. + + "All academies tend to be conservative and to move slowly; + they are the homes of privilege and of vested interest. Some + of them incline to be reactionary. They were created by men + for men and for the most part at a time when women played + little or no part in those occupations which such societies + were intended to foster and develop. But the times have + changed. Women have gradually won for themselves their + rightful position as human beings. We have now to recognize + that academies as seats of learning were made for humanity + and that, as members of the human race, women have the right + to look upon their heritage and property no less than men. + This consummation may not at once be reached, but, as it is + based upon reason and justice, it is certain to be attained + eventually." + +A fortnight later the same magazine contained a second article, in which +the matter is treated in an equally manly fashion. + +"As scientific work," the writer pertinently observes, "must ultimately +be judged by its merits, and not by the nationality or sex of its +author, we believe that the opposition to the election of women into +scientific societies will soon be seen to be unjust and detrimental to +the progress of natural knowledge. By no pedantic reasoning can the +rejection of a candidate for membership of a scientific society be +justified, if the work done places the candidate in the leading position +among other competitors. Science knows no nationality and should +recognize no distinction of sex, color or creed among those who are +contributing to its advancement. Believing that this is the conclusion +to which consideration of the question must inevitably lead, we have +confidence that the doors of all scientific societies will eventually be +open to women on equal terms with men." + +[259] _Lettres et Opuscules Inedits du Comte Joseph de Maistre_, Tom. I, +p. 194, Paris, 1851. + +It was this same brusque and original writer who asserted that "science +was a most dangerous thing for women; that no woman should study science +under penalty of becoming ridiculous and unhappy; that a coquette can +more readily get married than a savante." And he it was who declared +that women who attempted to emulate men in the pursuit of science are +monkeys and _donne barbute_--bearded women--and who designated Mme. de +Stael as "_la science en jupons, une impertinente femelette_"--science +in petticoats, a silly, impertinent female. + +He, however, met an opponent worthy of his steel in the person of the +eloquent bishop of Orleans, Mgr. Dupanloup. In a lengthy and brilliant +critique of De Maistre's views he shows them to be untenable, if not +ridiculous. "I by no means," he writes, "agree with M. de Maistre that +'_la science en jupons_,' as he calls it, or talents of any kind +whatsoever, militates in the slightest against a woman being a good wife +or a good mother. Quite the contrary." And considering woman as the +companion and aid of man--_socia et adjutorium_--he expresses a view +which is quite the opposite of that championed by his distinguished +adversary for, in words precise and pregnant, he asserts that the +education of women cannot be too consistent, too serious, and too +solid--"_L'education des femmes ne saurait etre trop suivie, trop +serieuse et trop forte._" _La Femme Studieuse_, p. 160, Paris, 1895. + +[260] _The Subjection of Women_, p. 81, London, 1909. + +[261] The late Mr. Gladstone asserts that "It would be hard to discover +any period of history or country of the world, not being Christian, in +which they"--women--"stood so high as with the Greeks of the Heroic +Age"--when the position of the Greek woman was so remarkable and "so +elevated, both absolutely and in comparison with what it became in the +Historic Ages of Greece and Rome amidst their elaborate civilization." +_Studies on Homer and the Homeric Age_, Vol. II, p. 479 et seq., Oxford, +1858. Cf. also the same author's _Juventus Mundi_, p. 405 et seq., +London, 1869. + +[262] _La Femme de Demain_, pp. 45, 46, Paris, 1912. + +[263] Dr. Johnson expressed the same sentiment when he declared that a +man of sense should meet a suitable companion in a wife. "It was a +miserable thing," he asserted in characteristic fashion, "when the +conversation could only be such as whether the mutton should be boiled +or roasted, and a probable dispute about that." + +Sidney Smith, in a forceful and trenchant essay _On the Education of +Women_, written for the _Edinburgh Review_ a century ago, gives it as +his deliberate opinion that "The instruction of women improves the stock +of natural talents, and employs more minds for the instruction and +amusement of the world; it increases the pleasures of society by +multiplying the topics upon which the two sexes take a common interest; +and makes marriage an intercourse of understanding as well as of +affection by giving dignity and importance to the female character. The +education of women favors public morals; it provides for every season of +life as well as for the brightest and the best; and leaves a woman when +she is stricken by the hand of time, not as she now is, destitute of +everything and neglected by all, but with the full power and the +splendid attractions of knowledge,--diffusing the elegant pleasures of +polite literature, and receiving the just homage of learned and +accomplished men." + +As to the oft repeated commonplace of noodledom that higher education +puts an end to domestic economy and deteriorates the noblest qualities +of womanhood, the same clear-headed writer asks: "Can anything ... be +more perfectly absurd than to suppose that the care and perpetual +solicitude which a mother feels for her children, depends upon her +ignorance of Greek or mathematics; and that she would desert an infant +for a quadratic equation--that Cimmerian ignorance can aid parental +affection, or the circle of the arts and sciences produce its +destruction--that the moment you suffer women to eat of the tree of +knowledge the rest of the family will very soon be reduced to the same +kind of aerial and unsatisfactory diet?" + +Still more insistent on the necessity of the broadest and deepest +education for woman--education in science as well as in art and +literature--is the Most Rev. Archbishop, J. L. Spalding, who by his +writing and lectures has done so much for the cause of the higher +education of both men and women. In an eloquent and pregnant discourse, +pronounced in the Church of the Gesu in Rome, in March, 1900, he told +his vast audience--composed of the elite of the Eternal City--that: + +"If we are to have a race of enlightened, noble, and brave men, we must +give to woman the best education it is possible for her to receive. She +has the same right as man to become all that she may be, to know +whatever may be known, to do whatever is fair and just and good. In +souls there is no sex. If we leave half the race in ignorance, how shall +we hope to lift the other half into the light of truth and love? Let +woman's mental power increase, let her influence grow, and more and more +she will stand by the side of man as a helper in all his struggles to +make the will of God prevail. From the time the Virgin Mother held the +Infant Saviour in her arms, to this hour, woman has been the great lover +of Christ and the unweary helper of His little ones; and the more we +strengthen and illumine her, the more we add to her sublime faith and +devotion the power of knowledge and culture, the more efficaciously +shall she work to purify life, to make justice, temperance, chastity, +and love prevail. She is more unselfish, more capable of enthusiasm for +spiritual ends, she has more sympathy with what is beautiful, noble, and +godlike than man; and the more her knowledge increases, the more shall +she become a heavenly force to help spread God's kingdom on earth." + + + + +BIBLIOGRAPHY + +PARTIAL LIST OF THE WORKS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO IN THE TEXT + + +AGASSIZ, MRS. L. Louis Agassiz, His Life and Correspondence. Boston, +1893. + +AGNESI, MARIA GAETANA. Instituzioni Analitiche. Milan, 1748. + +----. Propositiones Philosophicae. Milan, 1738. + +ANZOLETTI, LUISA. 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C., 1888. + +Histoire Letteraire de la France, Commencee par des Religieux +Benedictins de S. Maur et Continuee par des Membres de l'Institut. +Paris, 1793-1906. + + + + +INDEX + + +Abelard, 141, 142. + +Abella, physician, 286. + +_Abrege de Navigation_, Lalande's, 182. + +Academy of ancient Athens, admission of women to, 10. + +Academy of the Lincei, Donna Caetani-Bovatelli, dean of, 326. + +Academy of Science, French. _See_ French Academy of Science. + +_Acta Mythologica Apostolorum in Arabic_, translated by Agnes Lewis, 331 + _footnote_. + +Adams, (Mrs.) Abigail, quoted, 100. + +Adams, Charles Francis, quoted, 100. + +Adams, Elizabeth, 344. + +Addison, 98. + +Adelheid, 52. + +Aegidius, quoted, 282 _footnote_. + +Aeschines, 13. + +Africa, Mary Kingsley's explorations in, 257, 258. + +Agamede, physician, 267, 268. + +Aganice, daughter of Sesostris, 167. + +Agassiz, (Mrs.) Elizabeth Cary, 255, 377. + +Agassiz, Jean Louis, 255, 378. + +Aglaonice, the first woman astronomer, 167. + +Agnesi, Maria Gaetana, 78, 79, 105, 228, 230; + knowledge of languages of, 143, 144; + achievements of, in mathematics, 144-150; + charitable works of, 148-151; + exclusion of, from French Academy, 393. + +Agnodice, physician, 268, 269, 290. + +Agricola, Rudolph, 62. + +Agriculture, English Board of, 250. + +Agriculturists, women as, 335, 338. + +Agrippina, 24, 25; prose writings of, 28. + +Albategni, 169. + +Albert the Great, 233. + +Alcaeus, in praise of Sappho, 6. + +Alcala, University of, 68. + +Alciphoron, 11. + +Alexandria, Hypatia's work in, 138, 199, 200. + +Algae, Dr. Snow's work on, 254. + +Algarotti, Francisco, 152. + +Algebra, taught by Hypatia, 139. + +Alpine flora, Amalie Dietrich's collection of, 243. + +Amazonia, explorations of Madame Coudreau in, 259-261. + +Ambrosius, Franciscus, 142. + +American Chemical Society, 228. + +American Philosophical Society, 228. + +Amoretti, Maria Pellegrina, 77. + +Ampere, in praise of Emilie du Chatelet, 151. + +_Analyse des Infiniment Petits_, by Marquis l'Hopital, 376. + +Anatomical models, perfected by Anna Manzolini, 236; + perfected by Mlle. Biheron, 238. + +Anatomy, the study of, by women, 236-238. + +Anaxagoras, 12. + +_Ancren Riwle_, 40. + +Andrea, Novella d', 53, 79. + +Andromeda, 6. + +Anguisciola sisters of Cremona, 61. + +Annals of Tacitus, 28. + +Antelmy, Agnesi's _Analytical Institutions_ translated into + French by, 146. + +Antiochis, physician, 270. + +Antipater, epigram of, 6 _footnote_. + +Anytae, 17. + +Apelles, 11. + +_Apocrypha Arabica_, edited by Margaret Gibson, 330 _footnote_. + +_Apocrypha Sinaitica_, 330 _footnote_. + +_Apocrypha Syriaca Sinaitica_, edited by Agnes Lewis, + 331 _footnote_. + +Apollonius, _Conic Sections_ of, Hypatia's commentary on, 168. + +Apollonius of Perga, 139, 140. + +Aquinas, Thomas, quoted, 297 _footnote_. + +_Arabic Version of the Acta Apocrypha Apostolorum_ edited by Agnes Lewis, + 331 _footnote_. + +_Arabic Version of the Acts of the Apostles and the Seven Catholic + Epistles_, edited by Margaret Gibson, 330 _footnote_. + +_Arabic Version of St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, + Galatians and part of Ephesians_, by Margaret Gibson, 330 + _footnote_. + +Arago, 202. + +Archaeology, museums of, 309, 310; + women in, 309-333; + American women in, 321-324. + +Archagatos, 271. + +Archimedes, 197. + +Archlanassa, 10. + +Ardinghelli, Maria Angela, 77, 142. + +Arditi, Michele, 311. + +Areometer, invention of, by Hypatia, 200. + +Arete of Cyrene, teacher of philosophy, 197-199. + +Arezzo, Leonardo d', course of study for women planned by, 84 _footnote_. + +Ariosto, quoted, 6 _footnote_, 57; + in praise of Vittoria Colonna, 61, 63, 66. + +Aristippus, 10, 197. + +Aristotelian theory of difference between intellectual capacity of men and + women, 110. + +Aristotle, in praise of Sappho, 5, 10, 197. + +_Arithmetica_ of Diophantus, Hypatia's commentary on, 139, 168. + +Arrighi, G. L., 364 _footnote_. + +Art, achievements of women in, in Italy during the Renaissance, 60, 61. + +Ascham, Roger, 69 _footnote_. + +Asclepiades, 271. + +Ashley, Mary, 196. + +Aske, Robert, quoted, 41. + +Aspasia, of Miletus, 12-14, 16, 17, 26. + +Aspasia, physician, 199, 270. + +Assisi, St. Francis, 358. + +Astrolabe, invention of, by Hypatia, 140, 200. + +_Astronomical Canon_, Hypatia's, 140, 168. + +Astronomical Society of France, Dorothea Klumpke first woman member of, + 194. + +_Astronomie des Dames_, Lalande's, 178, 181. + +Astronomy, achievements of Hypatia in, 139, 200-201; + women in, 167-196. + +_At Susa_ by Mme. Dieulafoy, 320 _footnote_. + +Athenaeus, 137. + +Athens, position of women in, 3-5, 16, 18, 19, 199, 414, 415; + culture of, 404. + +Attica, 198. + +_Aucassin et Nicolette_, 275. + +Augustus, Emperor, 19, 24. + +Aurelia, mother of Julius Caesar, 22. + +Austen, Jane, 98. + +Auzoux, Dr., 236. + +Ayrton, Mrs. W. E., achievements of, in electricity, 212, 230. + + +Baker, Lady, wife of Sir Samuel Baker, 374. + +Balzac, 88. + +Barbapiccola, Eleonora, of Salerno, 76. + +Bascom, Florence, 254. + +Bassani, Signora, lace-maker, 337. + +Bassi, Laura, 78, 79, 147, 148, 203-209, 210, 211, 212, 298; + birth of, at Bologna, 203; + Doctorate of Physics bestowed upon, 204; + letters of Voltaire to, 207. + +Bazzani, Doctor, 204. + +Beatrice, 357, 361. + +Beausoleil, Baroness de, 238-240. + +Becquerel, M. H., 223, 227, 228. + +Beethoven, 359. + +Bellini, 66. + +Bembo, Cardinal, 61, 63; + in praise of Elizabetta Gonzaga, 67. + +Benedict XIV, 78, 147, 148, 203, 204, 228. + +Berlin Academy of Sciences, 371. + +Bern, University of, 304. + +Bernouilli, Jean, 152. + +Bernstein, Dr. Julius, on intellectual capacity of women, 133. + +Berthollet, 216. + +Besant, Sir Walter, quoted, 102-105. + +Bianchetti, Giovanna, 298. + +Bianchetti, Maddalena, 298. + +Biheron, Mlle., 238. + +Biology, 245, 254; + as a basis for woman's equality with man, 399. + +Biot, 154, 216; + in praise of Sophie Germain, 156. + +Bishop, Isabella Bird, 256. + +Blackwell, Miss Elizabeth, physician, 300-304, 305, 307. + +Bobinski, Countess, 196. + +Boccaccio, 197. + +Bocchi, Dorotea, 298. + +Boileau's satire on Mme. de la Sabliere, 172. + +_Boke of the Cyte of Ladyes_, quoted from, 106, 107, 108. + +Boleyn, Anne, 69. + +Bollandists, on work of St. Hildegard, 47. + +Bologna, Academy of Sciences of, 207. + +Bologna, University of, 203-210, 236, 296-299; + in Middle Ages, 53; + women lecturers and professors in, 57, 78, 79; + Dorotea Bucca of, 62; + degrees conferred upon Maddalena Canedi-Noe and Maria Vittoria Dosi + by, 77; chair of higher mathematics in, given to Maria Gaetana Agnesi, + 78, 148. + +Bonaparte, Caroline, archaeological excavations of, 311, 312, 317. + +Bonaparte, Joseph, 311. + +Borghini, Maria Selvaggia of Pisa, 76. + +Borromeo, Clelia Grillo, of Genoa, 77, 142. + +Bos, J. Ritzema, 253 _footnote_. + +Bossuet, Abbe, 88, 146. + +Boston, public schools of, 99. + +Botany, 256; + Frau Kablick's studies in, 242, 243; + Amalie Dietrich's studies in, 243-244; + cryptoganic, 254. + +Bouchet, Jean, quoted, 74 _footnote_. + +Bovin, Mme. Marie, physician, 293-295. + +Bowles, Ada C., quoted, 346, 347. + +Boyd, Ella F., 254. + +Boyd, Harriet, 317; + archaeological investigations of, 321, 322. + +Boyd, Mary E., of Smith, 195. + +Brahe, Sophia, 170. + +Brahe, Tycho, 170. + +Brain, convolutions of, as an index to intelligence, 122, 123; + frontal lobe of, in man and in woman, 122; + gray matter of, and its relation to intelligence, 123. + +Brain weight, relation of, to mental power, 118-122, 124-126. + +Brenzoni, Laura, 58, 59. + +Brescia, University of, 62. + +British Museum, 256, 258. + +Britton, Elizabeth G., 254. + +Broca, 116, 126. + +Bronte sisters, 98, 114, 115, 264. + +Brosses, M. Charles de, quoted, 144. + +Brougham, Lord, 159. + +Brown, Alice, 196. + +Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 114. + +Bruce, Miss C., 196. + +Brush, Mary, 344. + +Brussels, 229. + +Brutus, 23. + +Bryn Mawr, College of, 166. + +Bucca, Dorotea, 62, 79. + +Buechner, 246. + +Buckland, Mrs. William, 374, 375. + +Buckle, 384, 385, 386. + +Burckhardt, 210. + +Burney, Fanny, 98. + +Burnmeister, 248. + +Bush, Katherine J., 254. + +Butter, Josephine E., 291 _footnote_. + + +Caedmon, influence of St. Hilda on, 37, 38. + +Caesar, Aurelia, mother of, 22. + +Caetani-Bovatelli, Donna Ersilia, archaeologist, 324-327. + +Caetani-Sermonetta, Duke of, 324, 325. + +Caius Musonius Rufus, on education of women, 30, 31. + +Calendrini, Bettina, 298. + +Calendrini, Novella, 298. + +California, University of, 323. + +Calphurnia, letters of, 29. + +Calpurnia, 356, 361. + +Cambridge, University of, funds from suppressed convents devoted to, + 41, 42; exclusion of women from, 80, 100, 230, 330-333. + +Camoens, 57. + +Candolle, Alphonse de, 392, 393. + +Canedi-Noe, Maddalena, 77. + +Cannon, Annie J., 195. + +Canova, in praise of Suor Plantilla Nelli, 60 _footnote_. + +_Canticle of the Sun, The_, by St. Francis Assisi, quoted, 359. + +_Cape Observations_, Herschel's, 186, 189. + +Carlyle, quoted, 79 _footnote_. + +Cassius, wife of, 23. + +Castiglione, 66, 67; + in praise of women, 359. + +_Catalogue of Eight Hundred and Sixty Stars Observed by Flamsteed but Not + Included in the British Catalogue_, by Caroline Herschel, 186. + +Catani, Giuseppina, professor of pathology at Bologna, 296. + +Caterzani, 299. + +Catherine of Aragon, 68, 69. + +Cato, quoted, 27. + +Catullus, 5. + +Celeste, Sister Maria, daughter of Galileo, 363-369. + +Celleor, Mrs., quoted, 268. + +Celsus, 174. + +Ceretta, Laura, 62. + +Cervantes, 57. + +Chantry, bust of Mary Somerville by, 159. + +Charity, Sisters of, 308. + +Charlemagne, 39. + +Chateaubriand, 256. + +Chatelain, 289 _footnote_. + +Chatelet, Emilie du, 87; 151-153; + achievements of, in astronomy, 175-177; + as mathematical physicist, 201, 202. + +Chaucer, quoted, 40 _footnote_. + +Chemistry, women in, 214-232; + sanitary, 218. + +Chesterfield, Lord, quoted, 97. + +Chiavello, Livia, of Fabriano, 59. + +Chinchon, Countess of, 299 _footnote_. + +Chinchona bark, introduction of, into Europe, 299 _footnote_. + +Chopin, 359. + +_Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language_ by Miss Stotes, 316. + +Christine of Sweden, 82, 94, 370. + +Church of the Household, 31-34. + +Cibo, Catarina, of Genoa, 59, 60. + +Cicero, 8; + tribute of, to Laelia, 23; + Tulia's letters to, 29. + +Cirey, 201. + +_Cite des Dames_, 106, 107, 108, 109, 134. + +Clairaut, 152; + work of, with Mme. Lepaute, 179, 180. + +Clapp, Cornelia M., 254. + +Clarke, Cora H., 254. + +Claviere, in praise of women, 360. + +Claypole, Agnes M., 254. + +Claypole, Edith J., 254. + +Cleopatra, physician, 270. + +Clerke, Agnes M. and Ellen M., 196. + +_Codex Ludovicus_, discovery of, 328, 333. + +_Codex Nuttall_, 324. + +_Codex Sinaiticus_, 328. + +Coeducational institutions, comparative standing of men and + women in, 128,129. + +Colonna, Vittoria, 61, 62, 65, 359. + +Colton, Rev. John, Agnesi's _Analytical Institutions_ translated into + French by, 146, 147. + +Columbus, 56, 380. + +Comstock, Anna Botsford, 254. + +Comte, 245. + +Conde, 88. + +Condorcet, 334 _footnote_. + +_Conic Sections_, of Apollonius, Hypatia's commentary on, 139, 140, 168. + +_Connection of the Physical Sciences_ by Mary Somerville, 160, 211. + +_Considerations Generales sur l'Etat des Sciences et des Lettres aux + Differentes Epoques de Leur Culture_ by Sophie Germain, 156. + +Convent of Arles, 36; + of Poitiers, 36; + of St. Hilda, 36; + of Bishopsheim, 39; + of St. Rupert at Bingen, 46; + of Helfta, 49. + +Convent schools, 36, 41. + +Convents, as centers of learning in Middle Ages, 35-53; + suppression of, in England, 41, 42; + advantages of, 51; + influence of, 51-53. + +_Conventus Matronarum_, 27. + +_Conversations on Chemistry_, by Mrs. Marcet, 372. + +Copernicus, 56, 189. + +Corinna, 6, 17. + +Corneille, 88. + +Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, 22, 25, 26. + +Cornelia, wife of Pompey, 22. + +Cotton gin, invention of, 351, 352. + +Coudreau, Henri, 258. + +Coudreau, Mme. Octavie, 256, 258-264; + books by, 263 _footnote_. + +_Courtier_, Castiglione's, 66, 67. + +Cramoisy, Marie, 82. + +Cranial capacity, relation of, to mental energy, 115-117. + +_Crete, the Forerunner of Greece_, by Mrs. Hawes, 322. + +Crevaux, 262. + +Crisculo, Maria Angela, 61. + +Cumming, Constance Gordon, 256. + +Cummings, Clara E., 254 + +Cunitz, Maria, 170, 171. + +Cunningham, Susan, of Swarthmore, 195. + +Curie, Mme. Marie Klodowska, 326, 333, 362, 394, 397, 221-232; + birth and early life of, 221-222; + marriage of, to Pierre Curie, 222; + scientific investigations and discoveries of, 223-226; + honors of, 227-232. + +Curie, Pierre, 222, 224. + +Cushman, Florence, 195. + +Cuvier, weight of brain of, 119, 215, 216. + +Cyrene, school of philosophy at, 197. + + +Dacier, Mme., 82, 83 _footnote_. + +Damien, Father, 274. + +Danophila, 7. + +Dante, 117, 324, 325, 357. + +Darboux, M., in praise of Dorothea Klumpke, 193, 194. + +Daremberg, Dr. Charles, 234, 270, 287 and 288 _footnote_. + +Darmstadt, Medical College of, 292. + +Darwin, on man, 3, 113; + quoted, 124. + +Darwin's _Origin of Species_, the French translation of, by Clemence +Royer, 245. + +Davy gold medal of the Royal Society awarded to the Curies, 227. + +Davidson, Ada B., 254. + +Da Vinci, Leonardo, 66. + +Dawes, 191. + +_Decameron_, The, 197. + +_De Compositione Medicamentorum_, by Trotula, 285. + +Deffand, Mme. du, 11, 89, 92; + Marquise du Chatelet ridiculed by, 177 and _footnote_, 178 + _footnote_. + +_Deipnosophistoe_, of Athenaeus, 137. + +Delambre, 216. + +De Lamennais, on woman's intellectual inferiority, 136. + +_De Morbis Mulierum et Eorum Cura_, by Trotula, 284 _footnote_. + +Demosthenes, quoted, 3 _footnote_; 10. + +Denifle, 79, 289 _footnote_. + +Denver School of Mines, woman principal of, 254. + +_De Orbium Celestium Revolutionibus_, 189. + +_De Problemate quodam Hydrometrico_ by Laura Bassi, 209 _footnote_. + +_De Problemate quodam Mechanico_ by Laura Bassi, 208 _footnote_. + +De Prony, in praise of Sophie Germaine, 154. + +Descartes, 88, 94, 202; + doctrines of, 175, 176; + female pupils of, 369, 370. + +Destouches, 86, 87. + +Diaz, Porfirio, 324. + +_Didascalia Apostolorum in Syriac, The_, edited by Margaret + Gibson, 331 _footnote_. + +Diderot, attitude of, toward women, 93. + +Dietrich, Amalie, botanist, 243-244. + +Dieulafoy, Mme., archaeologist, 317, 362; + archaeological expeditions of, 318-321. + +Dieulafoy, Marcel, 318. + +Diocletian, 272. + +Diogenes, 10. + +Diophantus, _Arithmetica_ of, Hypatia's commentary on, 139, 168. + +Diotima of Mantinea, Socrates' tribute to, 11. + +_Divina Commedia_ by Dante, 357. + +Dock, Lavinia L., 280 _footnote_. + +Doni Gasquet on dissolution of convents, 41. + +Donne, Maria dalle, 79; + as professor of obstetrics, 209; + as surgeon, 299-300. + +Dorat, Jean, quoted, 71 _footnote_. + +Dosi, Maria Vittoria, 77, 298. + +Dramas of Hroswitha, 43, 44. + +Draper, Mrs. Henry, endowment of the Henry Draper Memorial at Harvard + by, 196. + +Dryden, 98. + +Dumee, Jeanne, 171. + +Dunraven's _Notes on Irish Architecture_, edited by Miss Stotes, 316. + +Dupanloup, Mgr., quoted, 396 _footnote_. + +Dupre, Marie, 82. + +Dupuytren, 294. + + +_Early Christian Art in Ireland_, by Miss Stotes, 316. + +Eastman, Alice, 254. + +_Ecclesia Domestica_, 31-34. + +Eckenstein, Lina, quoted, 50 _footnote_; + on influence of convents, 52, 53. + +Ecole de Medecine of Paris, admittance of women to, 290. + +Ecole de Physique et de Chimie in Paris, 223. + +_Ecole des Femmes_, 412. + +Edinburgh, University of, 228, 305; + opposition of, to women, 80; + Miss Ormerod receives degree of Doctor of Laws at, 252. + +Education, during the Renaissance, 71-75; + in England, in the Middle Ages, 36-42; + in France, in the post-Renaissance period, 83-85. + +Education of women in ancient Greece, 1-18; + in ancient Rome, 18-34; + in Greece and Rome compared, 26, 27; + in the Middle Ages, 34-54; + during the Renaissance, 54-75; + in Germany, in post-Renaissance period, 93, 94; + in England, in post-Renaissance period, 96-98; + in the United States, in the post-Renaissance period 99, 100; + changes in, in last three-quarters of a century, 102-105; + in Italy, 210. + +Edwards, Amelia B., 256. + +Eigenman, Rose S., 254. + +Electricity, work of Mrs. Ayrton in, 212. + +Eliot, George, 98, 264. + +Elizabeth of Bohemia, 94, 369, 370, 371. + +Elizabeth, Queen, 69, 70; + failure of, to provide for education of women, 42. + +Elizabeth of Sweden, 82. + +Elizabeth, wife of Hevilius, 175. + +Ellis, Havelock, 117, 343 _footnote_. + +_Elogie Historique_, Voltaire's, 152, 153. + +Emerson, quoted, 105. + +Encyclopedists, attitude of, toward women, 93. + +Engineering, on trans-Siberian railroad in charge of a woman, 102. + +England, education in, in the Middle Ages, 36-42; + prestige of abbesses in, 52; + position of woman in, during the Renaissance, 57, 69; + position of women in, during post-Renaissance period, 95-99; + women physicians in, 304-307; + feminine population of, 407. + +Entomology, 256; + achievements of Missouri woman in, 254. + +Entomology, economic, Eleanor Ormerod's work in, 247-252; + her publications on, 249-250. + +_Entretiens sur l'Opinion de Copernic Touchant la Mobilite de la Terre_, + by Jeanne Dumee, 171. + +_Ephemeris_ of the Academy of Sciences, Mme. Lepaute's work on, 181. + +Epicurus, 8, 10. + +Epinay, Mme. d', 92. + +Erasmus, 57, 68, 69, 73. + +Erinna, 7, 17. + +_Erucarum Ortus, Alimenta et Paradoxa Metamorphosis_, + by Frau Merian, 242. + +Erxleben, Dorothea Christin, physician, 293 _footnote_. + +Espinasse, Mlle. de l', 11. + +Este, Beatriche d', Duchess of Milan, 65, 66. + +Este, Isabella d', Marchioness of Mantua, archaeologist, 65, 66, 310, 311. + +Estienne, Robert, 71. + +Ethnology, 323. + +Euler, Leonard, 202. + +Euripides, 12; + quoted, 3 _footnote_; 12, 13 _footnote_; 268. + +Eustochium, 31-34, 357, 361. + +Everett, Alice, 196. + +Evolution, Clemence Royer's theory of, 246. + +Explorations carried on by women, 257-263. + + +Fabiola, physician, 272-274. + +Fabricius, 248. + +Fairfax, Mary. _See_ Somerville. + +Fairfax, Sir William, 157, 211. + +Fantuzzi, Giovanni, 205, 208, 237 _footnote_. + +Faraday, 372, 373. + +Fawcett, Mrs. Henry, 128. + +Faye, Mme., 196. + +Fedele, Cassandra, 59. + +Feijoo, Benito Jeronimo, 110. + +Felicie, Jacobe, physician, 289-290. + +Feltre, Vittorino da, 58 and 59 _footnote_. + +_Femmes Savantes_ of Moliere, 30, 85-87, 172. + +Ferrara, court of, 65, 66. + +Ferrara, University of, 62, 79. + +Ferreyra, Bernada, 68. + +Fiorelli, 312 _footnote_. + +Flammarion, Mme., 196. + +Flechier, 88. + +Fleming, Mrs. W., achievements of, in astronomy, 195. + +Fletcher, Alice C., archaeologist, 322, 323. + +Fontana, Lavinia, 61. + +Foot, Katherine, 254. + +_Form and Rotation of the Earth, The_, by Mary Somerville, 212. + +Fortunatus, 36. + +_Forty-one Facsimiles of Dated Christian Arabic Manuscripts_ by Agnes + Lewis and Margaret Gibson, 331 _footnote_. + +France, women in, during the Renaissance, 70, 71; + women in, during the post-Renaissance period, 81-93; + mineral resources of, Mme. de Beausoleil's interest in, 239; + feminine population of, 407. + +France, University of, 304. + +Frankland, Percy, 376 _footnote_. + +Frederick the Great, mother of, 370. + +Frei, Frau Teresa, physician, 292. + +French Academy of Sciences, 133, 146, 155, 201, 228, 232 _footnote_, + 238, 326; + exclusion of women from, 78, 229, 230, 333, 393, 394. + +French Institute, 246; + Sophie Germain honored by, 155; + discrimination of, against women, 230-231 _footnote_. + +Frontal lobe of brain in man and in woman, 122. + +Fuller, Thomas, quoted, 75 _footnote_. + +_Fundamental Principles of Old and New World Civilizations, The_, by Mrs. + Nuttall, 324. + + +Gadolinium, discovery of, 219. + +Gage, Susanna Phelps, 254. + +Galfrido, quoted, 298 _footnote_. + +Galileo, 364-369, 380. + +Galindo, Beatrix, 68. + +Galvani, Luigi, 210, 236, 372. + +Galvanic electricity, 210. + +Gambara, Veronica, 61. + +Gambetta, weight of brain of, 120. + +_Garden of Delights._ _See_ _Hortus Deliciarum_. + +Garrett, Elizabeth, physician, 290 _footnote_, 304. + +Gassendi, 94. + +_Gaufrey_, Antoine Hamilton's, 169. + +Gebert, 141. + +Gegner prize from the French Academy of Sciences awarded to Mme. + Curie, 228. + +_General Index of Reference to Every Observation of Every Star in the + Above-mentioned British Catalogue_, by Caroline Herschel, 186. + +Geneva, University of, 228, 304. + +Geneva, New York, College at, 301. + +Genlis, Mme. de, 238. + +Geoffrin, Mme., 89. + +Geographical Society of Berlin, 256. + +Geology, 254. + +Geometry, taught by Hypatia, 139. + +Geraldini brothers, 68. + +Gerberg, Abbess, 43. + +Germain, Sophia, 87, 154-157, 391, 392; + _grand prix_ of French Academy of Science won by, 155; + exclusion of, from French Academy, 393. + +Germanicus, wife of, 24, 25. + +Germany, education in, during Middle Ages, 43-52; + privileges of abbesses in, 52; + position of woman in, during the Renaissance, 57, 70, 74; + women in, in post-Renaissance period, 93-95; + universities of, open to women, 101; + attitude of, toward women to-day, 130-134; + feminine population of, 407. + +Gernez, M. D., 226, _footnote_. + +Gertrude the Great, 46, 49. + +Gibbon, quoted, 19. + +Gibson, Margaret Dunlop, archaeologist, 327-332, 333. + +Giessen, University of, 293. + +Giliani, Alessandra, 237, _footnote_. + +Girton College, 100. + +Gladstone, quoted, 398, _footnote_. + +Glycera, 10. + +Goethe, 385. + +Golden, Katherine E., 254. + +Goldsmith, 98. + +Goncourt, 109. + +Gonzaga, Cecelia, 58 and 59, _footnote_. + +Gonzaga, Elizabetta, 66, 67, 310. + +Gorgo, 6; + quoted, 17. + +_Gospel of Isbodad in Syriac and English_, by Margaret + Gibson, 331, _footnote_. + +Goettingen, University of, 293. + +Gozzadina, Bitisia, 298. + +Gozzadini, Bettina, 53. + +Gracchi, Cornelia, mother of the, 22. + +Granville, Lord, quoted, 97 and 98 _footnote_. + +Grassi, Ippolita, 298. + +Gravitation, discovery of, 384, 385. + +Gray matter in the brain, relation of, to intelligence, 123. + +Gray's _Elegy_, quoted, 403. + +Greece, ancient, woman and education in, 1-18, 398; + position of woman in, compared with Rome, 18, 19, 25-27; + medical women in, 267-271. + +Greene, Catherine L., cotton gin invented by, 351. + +Grey, Lady Jane, 69. + +Grignan, Mme. de, 82. + +Grimaldi, Cardinal, 203. + +Guarna, Rebeca de, physician, 286. + +Gubernatis, A. de, in praise of Donna Bovatelli, 325. + +Gustavus of Sweden, 238. + + +Haeckel, 246. + +Haeser, 278. + +Hall, Mrs. Asaph, 376. + +Hall, Edith H., archaeologist, 321. + +Halle, 332. + +Halley, 140. + +Hamilton, Antoine, 169. + +Hamilton, Lady, 382, 383. + +Hamilton, Sir William, 382, 383. + +Hare, Christopher, 311 _footnote_. + +_Harmony of Women_, by Perictione, 8. + +Harrison, Jane E., archaeologist, 332, 333. + +Harvard Observatory, women on staff of, 195. + +Harvard University, 99, 100; + Henry Draper Memorial at, 196, 322. + +Hauey, 385. + +Hawes, C. H., 322. + +Hawes, Mrs. C. H. _See_ Boyd, Harriet. + +Heidelberg, University of, 62, 332. + +Heine, quoted, 30 _footnote_, 113. + +Hell, Mme. Hommaire de, 373. + +Heller, 375. + +Helmholtz, Hermann von, weight of brain of, 125 _footnote_. + +Heloise, 141, 142. + +Henry VII, 107. + +Henry VIII, suppression of convents by, 41; + law of, in favor of women physicians, 291. + +Henschel, G., 287 and 288 _footnote_. + +_Heptameron_, 70. + +Heredity, as a basis for woman's equality with man, 399. + +Herpyllis, 10. + +Herrad, 45, 48, 49. + +Herschel, Caroline, 159, 182-190, 362, 377, 379, 383 _footnote_; + discoveries of, 183, 185; + astronomical writings of, 186; + honors of, 187-189. + +Herschel, Mrs. John, quoted, 187, 380 _footnote_. + +Herschel, Sir John, 159, 182, 186. + +Herschel, Sir William, 182-185, 185 and 186 _footnote_, 378. + +Hertzen, 272 _footnote_. + +Hetaerae, the, 9-12, 18, 414; + mistresses of French salons compared with, 92. + +Hevilius, 175. + +Hierophilos, 269. + +Hill, Georgiana, _Women in English Life_, 41. + +Hinckley, Mary H., 254. + +Hipparchia, 8. + +_Histoire d'Henriette d'Angleterre_, 91. + +_Histoire des Insects de l'Europe_, by Frau Merian, 242. + +_Histoire des Sciences et des Savants depuis Deux Siecles_, Candolle's, +392. + +_History of the Art of Antiquity_, by Winckelmann, 311. + +Hopital, Marquis de l', 375. + +Horace, 5, 21 _footnote_, 113. + +_Horae Semiticae_, 330. + +Hortensia, 27. + +_Hortus Deliciarum_, by Herrad, 48, 49. + +Hospital, first, founded by Fabiola, 272. + +Hotel de Rambouillet, 88-89. + +Houllerigue, M. L., 226 _footnote_. + +_How the Codex Was Found_, by Mrs. Gibson, 330. + +Howard, John, 281 _footnote_. + +Hroswitha, 43-45. + +Huber, Mme., 371, 383 _footnote_. + +Huber, Francois, 371. + +Hudson, W. H., on the dramas of Hroswitha, 44. + +Huggins, Lady, 196. + +Humboldt, Alexander von, 160, 188, 211, 216, 256. + +Huschke, 122. + +Huxley, 251, 371, 377, 387, 388; + on physical disability of women, 127, 128. + +Huxley, Leonard, 388 _footnote_. + +Hyde, Dr. Ida H., 254. + +Hyghens, Constantine, 94. + +Hypatia, 235; + achievements of, in mathematics, 137-141; + inventions of, 140; + letters of Synesius to, 141; + achievements of, in astronomy, 168; + attainments of, in natural philosophy and astronomy, 199-201. + + +Icthyology, 254. + +_Iliad_, translated by Mme. Dacier, 82; + quotation from, 267. + +Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, 228. + +_In Artem Analyticam Isagoge_, by Francois Viete, 363. + +_In the Shadow of Sinai_, by Mrs. Lewis, 327 _footnote_, 330. + +Incarnata, Maria, physician, 297. + +India, position of woman in, 5. + +Insects, destructive, Eleanor Ormerod's study of, 247; + her famous leaflets on, 249, 250. + +Insects, microscopic, Anna Comstock's work on, 254. + +Institut de Saint Cyr, 83, 85. + +_Institutions de Physique_, by Marquise du Chatelet, 152, 202. + +_Instituzioni Analitiche_, by Maria Gaetana Agnesi, 78, 144-150, 228. + +Inventions of Hypatia, 140. + +Inventors, women as, 334-355. + +Isabella of Castile, 290, 380. + +Isabella of Spain, 59, 68. + +Isis, inventions of, 335. + +Isocrates, 10. + +Isotta of Rimini, 59. + +Italy, women of the Renaissance in, 55, 57-68; + women in, during the post-Renaissance periods, 76-81; + women mathematicians in, 142-151; + education of women in, 210, 295, 296. + + +Jacobi, Dr. Mary Putnam, 128. + +Jameson, Mrs., work of, in Christian iconography, 313-316. + +Jansen, Mme., 196. + +Jaquier, Pere, 152. + +Jeffrey, Lord, 91. + +Jenner, 299 _footnote_. + +_Jerusalem Delivered_, 276. + +Jesus College, Cambridge, nunnery of St. Radegund transformed into, 41. + +Jex-Blake, Sophia, physician, 269 _footnote_, 305-307. + +Johnson, Dr., 98, 113; + quoted, 410, 412 and 413 _footnote_. + +Jonson, Ben, 67. + +Joseph II of Austria, 237. + +_Journey in Brazil_, by Mr. and Mrs. Agassiz, 379. + +Joya, Isabella de, 68. + +Juana, daughter of Isabella the Catholic, 68. + +Julius II, 309. + +Juvenal, quoted, 20 _footnote_, 30. + + +Kablick, Josephine, 242-243. + +Kant, Immanuel, on woman's incapacity for mathematics, 136. + +Kaschewarow, Mme., physician, 304. + +Kelvin, Lord, 227. + +Kepler, 375. + +Kies, Mary, 346; + first United States patent awarded to, 344. + +Kingsley, Charles, 257. + +Kingsley, George, 257. + +Kingsley, Mary H., African explorer, 256-258, 264. + +Kirch, Gottfried, 173. + +Kirch, Maria, 173, 174. + +Kirchhoff, Arthur, investigation of, regarding intellectual + capacity of women, 129-132. + +Kirwan's Essay on _Phlogiston_, 214. + +Klumpke, Anna, 194. + +Klumpke, Augusta, 194 _footnote_, 290 _footnote_. + +Klumpke, Dorothea, 193, 194. + +Klumpke, Julia, 194. + +Knight, Miss, 351. + +Koenig, 152. + +Kovalevsky, Sonya, 133, 161-165, 397; + weight of brain of, 123 and _footnote_; + studies of, in Germany, 162; + appointment of, to chair of higher mathematics, in University + of Stockholm, 162, 163; + _Prix Bordin_ won by, 163. + +Krauss, Dr., 313 quoted, 317 quoted. + +Kronecker, in praise of Sonya Kovalevsky, 164. + + +Labe, Louise, 71. + +La Bruyiere, 108. + +La Caze prize awarded to the Curies, 228. + +La Chappelle, Mme. Marie Louise, physician, 293, 294. + +La Condamine, 262. + +La Cruz, Juana de, 69. + +Laelia, Cicero's tribute to, 23. + +La Fayette, La Comtesse de, 88, 91. + +La Fontaine, 88, 172, 173. + +Lagrange, 154, 216. + +La Harpe, quoted, 90. + +Lais, 10, 11. + +Lalande, 178, 179; + in praise of Mme. Lepaute, 180, 181; + in praise of Mme. Lefrancais, 182. + +Lamartine, 256. + +Lamennais, de, quoted, 388. + +Lamy, M. Etienne, quoted, 409, 410. + +Landi, Rosanna Somaglia, of Milan, 76. + +Langdon, Fannie E., 254. + +Lanzi, in praise of Suor Plantilla Nelli, 60. + +_La Perse, La Chaldee et la Susiane_, by Mme. Dieulafoy, + 320 _footnote_. + +Laplace, 216, 245. + +Laplace's _Mechanique Celeste_, Mary Somerville's + translation of, 159, 211. + +_Lapse and Conversion of Theophilus_, by Hroswitha, 45. + +La Rochefoucauld, 88. + +Lasthenia, 11. + +La Vigne, Anne de, 82. + +Lavoisier, Mme. Antoine Laurent, 214-216, 225, 362. + +_Laws of Plato_, 15, 16. + +Leavitt, Henrietta S., 195. + +Lebrixa, Francisca de, 68. + +Lecky, on dissolution of convents, 41. + +Lefebre, Mme., 353. + +Le Fevre, Tanquil, 82. + +Lefrancais, Mme., 182. + +Legendre, 154. + +_Legends of the Madonna_, by Mrs. Jameson, 316. + +Legion of Honor, decoration of, refused by Pierre Curie, 227; + chevalier of, conferred on Mme. Dieulafoy, 321. + +Legrange, 155. + +Leibnitz, 173, 202, 369, 370. + +Leland, Eva F., 195. + +Lemmon, Sarah A. Plummer, 254. + +Leo X, 59. + +Leontium, 8, 10. + +Leoparda, physician, 271. + +Lepaute, Mme. Hortense, 87, 362; + achievements of, in astronomy, 178-182. + +Lepinska, Melanie, 307 _footnote_. + +Lespinasse, Mlle., 89, 90, 91. + +Lewis, Mrs. Agnes Smith, archaeologist, 327-333. + +_Liber Compositae Medicinae_, by St. Hildegard, 278. + +_Liber Simplicis Medicinae_, by St. Hildegard, 278. + +_Liber Subtilitatum Diversarum Naturarum Creaturarum_, 233. + +Liebig, 217, 247. + +Linnaeus, 300 _footnote_. + +Lipmann, Professor, 222. + +Literature, women in, in ancient Greece, 1-18; + in ancient Rome, 27-30; + achievements of Paula and Eustochium in, 31-34; + achievements of women in, in Italy during the Renaissance, 58-62; + women of to-day in, 406. + +Livia, 24. + +Livingstone, David, 373, 374. + +_Livre des Fais et Bonnes Meurs du sage Roy Charles V_, by Christine de + Pisan, 107. + +_Livre des Faits d'Armes et de Chevalerie_, by Christine de Pisan, 107. + +Lombard, Peter, on equality of woman, 47 _footnote_. + +Lombroso, 109. + +London Chemical Society, 228. + +London, University of, attitude of, toward women, + 54 _footnote_, 207, 288, 305. + +Longfellow, 316; quoted, 379. + +Losa, Isabella, 68. + +Louis XII, 59. + +_Louis Agassiz, His Life and Correspondence_, 379. + +Louise of Saxe-Gotha, Duchesse, 178, 179. + +Lungo, Isidoro del, 361 _footnote_. + +Luther, attitude of, toward women, 75. + +Luynes, Mlle. de, 82. + +Lyceum of ancient Athens, admission of women to, 10. + +Lyell, Mrs. Charles, 373. + + +Mace, Hanna, 195. + +_Machina Coelestis_, of Hevilius, 175. + +Macpherson, Geraldine, 316 _footnote_. + +Maintenon, Mme. de, 83, 84, 85. + +Maistre, Count Joseph de, quoted, 395, 396. + +Malacorona, Rudolfo, 285, 286. + +Malatesta, Battista, 62. + +Malvezzi, Virginia, 298. + +Mangord, daughters of, 54. + +Manning, Mrs. A. H., 352. + +Mantua, Marchioness of, 310, 311. + +Manzolini, Anna Morandi, 236-238, 298. + +Marburg, University of, 294. + +Marcella, 31. + +Marcet, Mrs., 372, 373. + +Marchina, Marta, 78. + +Margaret of Navarre, 70. + +Margarita, physician, 297. + +Maria Theresa, Empress, 147. + +Marine invertebrates, Mary Rathbun's work on, 254. + +Marine life, Sophia Pereyaslawzewa's study of, 244, 245. + +Markham, Clements R., 300 _footnote_. + +Marlow, 67. + +Marmontel, 90. + +Marot, Clement, 66. + +Marriage, intellectual development of women and, 412, 415, 416. + +Martia, 356, 361. + +Martial, quoted, 20 _footnote_, 28, 30. + +"Mary Kingsley Society of West Africa, The," 258. + +Mary Stuart, 69. + +Masi, Ernesto, 208 _footnote_. + +Mason, O. T., 343 _footnote_. + +Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 217, 220. + +Massalsky, Princess Helena Kolzoff (Doria d'Istria), traveler, 255. + +Mastellagri, Maria, 298. + +Matapi, the, woman's invention of, 340. + +Materia medica, 278. + +Mathematics, women in, 136-166. + +Mather, Sarah, 345. + +Matilda, Abbess of Quedlinburg, 46, 52. + +Matildas of Helfta, 49. + +Matteo, Thomasia de, physician, 297. + +Maupertuis, 152. + +Maury, Antonia C., 195. + +Mazois, Fr., 312. + +Mazzuchelli, quoted, 142 _footnote_. + +Meaux, C., 288 _footnote_. + +_Mechanique Celeste_, Laplace's, Mary Somerville's translation of, 159. + +_Mechanism of the Heavens_, Mary Somerville's, 159. + +Medaglia, Diamante, 142. + +Medical women in Greece, 267-271; + in Rome, 271-274; + in England and Germany, 290-295. + +_Medical Women--A Thesis and a History_, by Dr. Sophia Jex-Blake, 307 +_footnote_. + +Medici, Michele, 237 _footnote_. + +Medicine, attitude of Italian and Anglo-Saxon universities toward women + students of, 80; + women in, 266-308. + +Medico-Chirurgical Academy of St. Petersburg, 304. + +Melanchthon, daughter of, 70. + +_Memoire sur le Feu_, by Marquise du Chatelet, 202. + +_Memoirs on Chemistry_, by Lavoisier, 215. + +_Memorial de l'Art des Accouchements_, by Mme. Bovin, 294. + +Menagius, 137. + +Menander, 10. + +Mendelssohn, Fanny, 264. + +Mendelssohn, Felix, 264, 359. + +Mendoza, Dona Maria Pacheco de, 68. + +Mercuriade, physician, 286. + +Merian, Dorothea and Helena, 241. + +Merian, Maria Sibylla, naturalist, 240-242. + +Merriam, Florence, 254. + +Messia Castula, duumvira, 27. + +Metallurgy, 238, 240. + +Metaneira, 10. + +Metcalf, Betsy, 351. + +Meteorologico Ozonometric station at Rome organized by + Caterina Scarpellini, 192. + +Metradora, physician, 270. + +Mexican National Museum, 324. + +Meyer, Ernest H. F., 234 _footnote_. + +Michaelangelo, 359; + Vittoria Colonna and, 62, 65. + +Michaelis, 312 _footnote_. + +_Michelet_, quoted, 70. + +Middle Ages, the education of women during, 34-54. + +Mill, John Stuart, 109; + on intellectual capacity of women, 134; + quoted, 381, 387, 397, 398. + +Miller, Olive Thorne, 254. + +Milton, quoted, 99. + +Mineralogy, 238, 256; + Herr Kablick's study of, 243. + +Minerva, 338. + +Mines, Denver School of, 254. + +Mining, Mme. de Beausoleil's treatment of, 240. + +Mitchell, Maria, achievements of, in astronomy, 191, 192. + +Moliere, 30, 90; plays of, 85-87; + _Femmes Savantes_, and _Precieuses Ridicules_ of, 172; + _L'Ecole des Femmes of_, 412. + +Molluoca, 254. + +Molza, Tarquinia, 60. + +Monasteries, as centers of learning in Middle Ages, 35. + +Mondino, 237 _footnote_. + +_Monographie de Turbellaries de la Mer Noire_, by Sophia + Pereyaslawzewa, 245. + +Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, quoted, 96, 97; 299 _footnote_. + +Montaigne, attitude of, toward women, 75. + +Montalembert, quoted, 37, 38. + +Montespan, Mme. de, 84. + +Montesquieu, attitude of, toward women, 93. + +Montmorency, Charlotte de, 88. + +Montpensier, Duchess of, 84, 87. + +Morandi-Menzolini, Anna, 79. + +Morati, Fulvia Olympia, 62, 70. + +More, Sir Thomas, daughters of, 69. + +Morella, Juana, 68, 69. + +Morphology, cellular, 254. + +Motherhood, intellectual development and, 415, 416. + +Mozart, 359. + +Mueller, John, of Koenigsburg, 170. + +Murat, Joachim, 311. + +Murfeldt, Mary E., 254. + +Murphy, Anna. _See_ Jameson, Mrs. + +Myrtides, 17. + +Myrus, 17. + + +Nairne, Lady, 264. + +Naples, school of medicine at, 297. + +Napoleon, 155, 209, 299, 311, 313; + weight of brain of, 120. + +Natural sciences, women in, 233-264. + +Naturalists, Congress of, in 1893, 245. + +_Nautical Almanac_, Miss Mitchell, compiler for, 191, 192. + +Navarre, Pierre de, quoted, 45 _footnote_. + +Navier, 156. + +Navigation, Janet Taylor's works on, 161. + +Necker, Mme., 281 _footnote_. + +Nelli, Suor Plantilla, 60. + +Newnham College, 100; + Jane E. Harrison's lectures at, 332. + +Newton, 202, 207, 209, 371, 384. + +_Newtonism for Women_, Algarotti's, 152. + +Newton's _Principia_, 206; + Mme. du Chatelet's translation of, 152, 175, 176, 201. + +New York Infirmary, 303. + +Nicarete, 11. + +Nightingale, Florence, 267, 274, 281 _footnote_. + +Ninon de Lenclos, 11, 90, 92. + +Nobel prize, in chemistry awarded to Mme. Curie by King of Sweden, 228; + in physics awarded to the Curies and M. H. Becquerel, 228; + won by Madame Curie, 394. + +Noe-Candedi, Maddelena, 298. + +Nogorola, Ginevra, 58 _footnote_. + +Nogorola, Isotta, 58 _footnote_. + +Nossidis, 17. + +_Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles_, by Francois Huber, 372. + +Noves, Laura de, 357, 362. + +Nuns, Anglo-Saxon, 36-42; + German, 43-50; + accomplishments of, 51; + influence of, 51-53; + medical work of, 274-281. + +Nur Mahal, 336. + +Nuttall, Zelia, archaeologist, 322-324. + +Nutting, M. Adelaide, 280 _footnote_. + + +Oclo, Mama, inventions of, 336. + +Octavia, 24. + +Odyssey, 267; + translated by Mme. Dacier, 82; + quotation from, 267. + +_On Curves and Surfaces of Higher Order_, by Mary Somerville, 160. + +_On Molecular and Microscopic Science_, by Mary Somerville, 160, 212. + +_On the Theory of Differences_, by Mary Somerville, 160. + +_Opuscula_ of Anna Maria von Schurman, 95. + +Ordronaux, J., 283 and 284 _footnote_. + +Origenia, physician, 270. + +_Origin de l'Homme et de Societes_, by Clemence Royer, 246. + +_Orlando Furioso_, 276. + +Ormerod, Eleanor, economic entomologist, 246-252, 264; + entomological publications of, 249-250; + important positions of, 251, 252. + +Ornithology, 254. + +Orr, M. A., 196. + +Ostia, Fabiola's hospital at, 272. + +Otto III, 52. + +Ovid, 5; in praise of Livia, 24. + +Oxford, H. Rashdall, 288 _footnote_. + +Oxford, University of, funds from suppressed convents devoted to, 41, 42; + attitude of, toward women, 65, 80, 100, 230. + +Oxygen, discoveries of, 216; + discovery of, by Lavoisier, 216. + +Ozanam, quoted, 55. + + +Padua, 296. + +Padua, University of, Elena Cornaro Piscopia honored by, 77. + +Palatine, Princess, 82. + +Paleontology, Frau Kablick's study of, 242-243. + +Palgrave, comparison of Milton and Caedmon by, 38. + +Pallas Athene, inventions of, 335. + +Palmer, Mrs. Margaretta, of Yale, 195. + +_Paradise Lost_, quoted from 389. + +Paris, medical work of women in, 288-290, 292; + Faculty of Medicine in, opposition by, to Jacobe Felicie, 289. + +Parthenay, Catherine de, 362. + +Pascal, 82, 113, 140. + +Pascal, Gilberte and Jaqueline, 82. + +_Passions de l'Ame_ of Descartes, 370. + +Pasteur, Louis, 113, 114, 226, 247, 248. + +Pasteur, Mme., 376, 377, 383 _footnote_. + +Patch, Edith M., 254. + +Patents granted to women inventors, 344-355. + +Patterson, Florence Wambaugh, work in, 254. + +Patterson, Florence Wambaugh, 254. + +Paula, 31-34, 357, 361. + +Pavia, 296; + University of, degree conferred on Maria Pellegrina Amoretti by, 78. + +Peckham, Elizabeth W., 254. + +Pennington, Lady, quoted, 98 _footnote_. + +Pennsylvania, University of, 322. + +Pereyaslawzewa, Sophia, biologist, 244-245. + +Perez, Antonio, 68. + +Perez, Gregoria, 68. + +Perez, Luisa, 68. + +Pericles, quoted, 4; + influence of Aspasia on, 12-14. + +Perictione, 8. + +Perugino, 66. + +Petraccini-Terretti, Maria, 79. + +Petrarch, 357, 358 _footnote_. + +Pfeiffer, Ida, traveler, 255, 256. + +Phelps, Almira Lincoln, 254. + +Phidias, 12. + +Philosophy, achievements of women in, in ancient Greece, 8; + Clemence Royer's books on, 245. + +Phryne, 11. + +_Physica_, 233, 234. + +_Physica_, by St. Hildegard, 278. + +_Physical Geography_, by Mary Somerville, 160, 211. + +Physical power, relation of, to mental energy, arguments based + on, 111-115, 127. + +Physicians, women, in Italy, 295-300; + American attitude toward, 300-304; + _See also_ Medical women. + +Physics, women in, 197-213; + Clemence Royer's books on, 245. + +Physiology, vegetable, Florence Patterson's work in, 254. + +Pierry, Mme. du, 178, 179. + +Pindar, defeated by Corinna, 6. + +Pio Albergo Trivulzio, Maria Gaetana Agnesi in charge of, 149. + +_Pioneer Work in Opening the Medical Profession to Women_, by Elizabeth + Blackwell, 302 _footnote_. + +Pisa, Leonardo da, 141. + +Pisan, Christine de, 53, 106-108; + on intellectual capacity of women, 134, 135. + +Piscopia, Elena Cornaro, of Venice, 77, 142, 143. + +Planisphere, invention of, by Hypatia, 140, 200. + +Platearius, John, 284. + +Plato, 10, 11, 137; + in praise of Sappho, 5; + quoted, 11; + influence of Aspasia on, 13, 16; + on education of women, 15, 16; + on the seclusion of Athenian women, 26, 27; + ideal of, of equal rights for women, 399. + +Pliny, 270; + quoted, 28, 29. + +Plotinus, 200. + +Plutarch, 22, 167; + quoted, 4 _footnote_, 95; + in praise of Cornelia, 26. + +Poetry, achievements of women in, in ancient Greece, 5-7; + in ancient Rome, 28; + in the Renaissance, 61, 62. + +Pogson, Miss, in the Observatory of Madras, India, 196. + +Poisson, 154. + +Polignac, Cardinal, 204. + +Politian, 63, 73. + +Political economy, Clemence Royer's work in, 245. + +Polonium, discovery of, by Mme. Curie, 223. + +Polydamna, physician, 267, 268. + +Pompeii, excavations of Queen Caroline at, 311, 312. + +Pope, 98, 113. + +Porcia, 23. + +Portico, the admission of women to, 10. + +Portinari, Beatrice, 357. + +Poupard, Mary E., 347 _footnote_. + +_Pratique des Accouchements_, by Mme. La Chapelle, 294. + +Praxilla, 6, 17. + +Praxiteles, 11. + +_Precieuses Ridicules_, of Moliere, 30, 85-87, 172. + +Priestly, 216. + +_Primitive Athens as Described by Thucydides_, by Jane E. Harrison, + 332 _footnote_. + +_Princesse de Cleves_, 91. + +_Principia_, Newton's, Emilie du Chatelet's translation of, + 152, 175, 176, 201. + +_Principia Philosophiae_ of Descartes, 369, 370. + +Priscianus, Theodorus, 271. + +_Prix Bordin_, won by Sonya Kovalevsky, 163. + +_Problema Practicum_ of Anna Van Schurman, 95 _footnote_. + +Procopius, 277 _footnote_. + +Proctor, Mary, 196. + +Proctor, R. A., 196. + +_Prodromus Astronomiae_, of Hevilius, 175. + +_Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_ by Jane E. Harrison, + 332 _footnote_. + +Prony, 216. + +Proudhon, 111, 245, 334, 338, 346. + +Psalter, Latin, St. Jerome's version of, corrected by Paula + and Eustochium, 32, 33. + +Psychology, as a basis of woman's equality with man, 399. + +Public affairs, woman's influence in, in ancient Rome, 23-25. + +Pudentilla, 356. + +_Punch_, quoted, 302 _footnote_. + +Pusey, E. B., 113. + +Putnam, Mary C., physician, 290 _footnote_; 304. + +Pythagoras, 137, 197, 199. + + +Queensland Amalie Dietrich's botanical work in, 244. + +Quintilian, Hortensia praised by, 27. + +Quintus Maximus, 273. + + +Rabelais, 57; + attitude of, toward women, 75. + +Radcliffe College, 255. + +Radium, discovery of, by the Curies, 224. + +Rambouillet, Marquise de, 88, 89. + +Randolph, Harriet, 254. + +Raphael's _School of Athens_, 141. + +Rashdall, quoted, 55, 56. + +Rasponi, Donna Felice, 60. + +Rathbun, Mary J., 254. + +_Recognitions of Clement_ translated by Margaret Gibson, + 330 _footnote_. + +Red Cross, nurses of, 308. + +_Reduction and Arrangement in the Form of Catalogue, in Zones, of All the + Star-clusters and Nebulae Observed by Sir W. Herschel in His Sweeps_, by + Caroline Herschel, 186. + +_Reflexions sur le Bonheur_, by Emilie du Chatelet, 153. + +_Regimen Santatis Salernitanum_, 282. + +Regiomontanus, 170. + +Reinhardt, Anna Barbara, 154. + +Renaissance, 309, 310; + women poets of, 7; + dates of, 54-56; + women and education during, 54-75; + in Italy, 55; + literary exponents of, 57; + women of, in Italy, 57-68; + women and education following, 76-105. + +Renan, in praise of Mme. Royer, 246. + +Renaud, A., 343 _footnote_. + +Renee, Duchess of Ferrara, 65, 66. + +Reni, Guido, 61. + +Renzi, S. de, 287 and 288, _footnote_. + +_Republic_ of Plato, 15, 16. + +_Rerum Medicarum_, by Theodorus Priscianus, 271. + +_Restitution de Pluton_, by Baroness de Beausoleil, 238. + +Retzius, Prof., 124. + +Reuss, Dr. F. A., quoted on St. Hildegard, 279. + +Ribera, Catherine, 68. + +Richards, Mrs. Ellen H., sanitary chemist, 217-220. + +Richelieu, Cardinal, 88, 94, 239. + +Ringle, Chevalier, 238. + +Ritter, Frederic, 363 _footnote_. + +Ritter, Karl, 256. + +Roberval, 172. + +Roccati, Cristina, 142. + +Rochechouart, Elizabeth de, 82. + +Rochechouart, Gabrielle de, 82. + +Rohan, Anne de, 82. + +Rohan, Marie-Eleanore de, 82. + +Rohan, Princesse de, 362. + +Romana, Francesca de, physician, 286. + +Rome, ancient woman and education in, 18-34; + medical women in, 271-274; + medical faculty of, 297. + +Ronsard, quoted, 70 _footnote_. + +Roentgen, 223. + +Rosales, Isabella, 145. + +Rossi, Giovanni Battista de, 326. + +Rossi, Properzia de, 60, 298. + +Rousseau, 413; + quoted, 30 _footnote_; + attitude of, toward women, 92, 93. + +Royal Agricultural Society of England, 251. + +"Royal Asiatic Society," 258. + +Royal Astronomical Society, Mary Somerville elected to, 159; + gold medal bestowed upon Caroline Herschel by, 186, 187; + Caroline Herschel's books published by, 186; + Caroline Herschel elected to, 188. + +Royal College of Science for Ireland, comparative standing of men and women + in, 128, 129. + +Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland, 316. + +Royal Institution of Great Britain, 228. + +Royal Irish Academy, election of Caroline Herschel to, 189. + +Royal Society of Great Britain, attitude of, toward women, 230, 393, 394. + +Royal Swedish Academy, 228. + +Royer, Clemence Augustine, scientist, 245-246. + +_Rudolphine Tables_, Maria Cunitz's abridgment of, 171. + +Ruemker, Mme., 191. + +Rusticana, 356. + +Ruteboeuf, in praise of Trotula, 285. + +Ryssel, Professor V., 331 _footnote_. + + +Sabatier, Paul, 359 _footnote_. + +Sabbadini, quoted, 59 _footnote_. + +Sabliere, Mme. de la, 171-173. + +_Sacred and Legendary Art_ by Mrs. Jameson, 313, 315, 316. + +St. Andrews, University of, 332. + +St. Augustine, 212. + +St. Boniface, 39. + +St. Clara, 358, 359, 361. + +St. Cyr, Institut de, 83, 84, 85. + +Saint-Evremond, 88, 390. + +St. Hilda, Abbess of Whitby, 36-39. + +St. Hildegard, Abbess of the Convent of St. Rupert, 45-48, 233-235; + knowledge of astronomy of, 169, 170; + as physician, 277-281. + +St. Jerome, 31-33; + quoted, 273. + +St. Jerome's _Vulgate_, 357. + +St. John of Beverly, 37. + +St. John's College, Cambridge, endowment of, by funds from suppressed + convents, 41, 42. + +St. Lioba, Abbess of Bishopsheim, 39, 40. + +St. Nicerata, physician, 272. + +St. Radegund, Abbess of Poitiers, 36. + +St. Theodosia, physician, 272. + +Salerno, 53, 54 _footnotes_, 296. + +Salerno, University of, 281-288; + women as students and professors of medicine in, 80, 281-288. + +Salons, French, 88-92. + +Samarium, discovery of, 219. + +Sand, George, 246, 264. + +Sanitation, study of, by Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, 217-220. + +Sapienza, chair in, offered to Marta Marchina, 78. + +Sappho, 5-8, 17. + +Sarti, 298. + +_Satire contre les Femmes_, Boileau's, 172. + +Saussure, de, 215. + +Savari, Mme. Pauline, 231 _footnote_. + +Saxony, privileges of abbesses in, 52. + +Scala, Alessandra, 59. + +Scarpellini, Caterina, 192. + +Scarpellini, Feliciano, 192. + +Scheele, 216. + +Schiffi, Chiara. _See_ St. Clara. + +Schiller, 113. + +Schliemann, Dr. Henry, 317, 318, 319. + +Schliemann, Mme. Sophia, archaeologist, 317, 318, 319, 362. + +Scholasticism, 233. + +_School of Athens_, Raphael's, 141. + +Schopenhauer, 111, 414. + +Schubert, 359. + +Schumann, 359. + +Scipio Africanus, Cornelia, daughter of, 22. + +Scott, Miss Charlotte Angas, 166. + +Scudery, Madeleine de, 88, 91. + +Scutari, 274. + +Sebastopol, biological station at, 244. + +_Select Narratives of Holy Women_ translated by Agnes Lewis, + 331 _footnote_. + +_Selenographia_ of Hevilius, 175. + +Se-ling-she, invention of silk by, 336. + +Semiramis, 341 _footnote_. + +Serment, Louise, 82. + +Servilia, 23. + +Sevigne, Mme. de, 88. + +Seymour, Anne, Margaret and Jane, 69. + +Shakespeare, 57, 67. + +Sheldon, J. M. Arms, 254. + +Shelley, 67. + +Sidonius, Caius Apollinaris, 356. + +Siebold, Carlotta von, physician, 292. + +Siebold, Regina Joseph von, physician, 292. + +Sigea, Luisa, 69. + +Silkworms, Frau Merian's work on, 242. + +Simms, Dr. Joseph, 120. + +_Sir Isumbras_, 275. + +Sixtus IV, Pope, 297, 309. + +Skull, relation of size of, to mental energy, arguments based on, 115-117. + +Slosson, Annie T., 254. + +Small-pox, prevention of, 299 _footnote_. + +Smith, Emily A., 254. + +Smith, Sydney, quoted, 92, 413 _footnote_. + +Smithsonian Institute, 323. + +Snow, Dr. Julia W., 254. + +Social and economic conditions, intellectual growth of women and, 405, 406. + +Socrates, 199, 200; + tribute of, to Diotima of Mantinea, 11; + influence of Aspasia on, 12, 13, 16; + woman's equality with man asserted by, 15, 16. + +Solomon, quoted, 336. + +Solon, in praise of Sappho, 5. + +_Some Pages of the Four Gospels Retranscribed from the Sinaitic + Palimpsest_, by Agnes Lewis, 330 _footnote_. + +Somerville, Mary, 157-161, 211, 391, 392; + early life of, 157, 158; + translation of Laplace's _Mechanique Celeste_ by, 159; + honors of, 159, 160; + books by, 160, 211, 212; + home life of, 161; + election of, to Royal Astronomical Society, 188, 189; + achievements of, in astronomy, 190, 211, 212; + death of, 212. + +Somerville, Rev. Dr., 158. + +Sophia Charlotte, Queen of Prussia, 370, 371. + +Sophocles, 12. + +Sorbonne, lectures of Mme. Curie at, 227. + +South America, Mme. Coudreau's explorations in, 258-263. + +Spain, women of the Renaissance in, 68, 69. + +Spalding, Most Rev. Archbishop J. L., quoted, 413 and 414 _footnote_. + +Spanheim, 94. + +Specialization in scientific research, 408, 409. + +_Spectator_, 306. + +Spencer, Herbert, 2, 113. + +Spenser, 67. + +Spiegelberg, Moritz von, 62. + +Spilimbergo, Irene di, 61 _footnote_. + +Stael, Mme. de, 89, 91, 246; + Marquise du Chatelet ridiculed by, 177. + +Stampa, Gaspara, 61. + +Steele, 98. + +Stephens, Mabel C., 195. + +_Steppes de la Mer Caspienne_, by Mme. Hommaire de Hell, 373. + +Stevenson, Sarah Yorke, archaeologist, 322, 323. + +Stilpo, 11. + +Stockholm, University of, appointment of Sonya Kovalevsky to chair of + higher mathematics in, 162, 183; + Sonya Kovalevsky's lectures at, 164 _footnote_. + +Stotes, Margaret, archaeologist, 316, 317. + +Strindberg, 163, 165. + +Strozi, Lorenza, 59. + +_Studia Sinaitica_, 330. + +Suetonius, quoted, 19. + +Suidas, 200. + +Sulpicia, 28. + +_Supellex Manzoliniana_, 237. + +Surgery, women in, 266-308. + +Surinam, insects of, Frau Merian's book on, 240-241. + +_Survey of the Heavens_, by Sir William Herschel, 187. + +Suslowa, Nadejda, physician, 304. + +Sviani, Elisabetta, 298. + +Swallow, Ellen. _See_ Richards, Mrs. Ellen H. + +Swammerdam, 248. + +Swetchine, Mme., 89. + +Swift, 98, quoted, 98 _footnote_. + +_Symbols and Emblems of Early Mediaeval Christian Art_ + by Louise Twining, 316. + +Symonds, J. A., 113. + +Synesius, bishop of Ptolemais, 141, 168, 199, 200. + + +Tacitus, 24, 25, 28. + +Taine, comparison of Milton and Caedmon by, 38. + +Taj Mahal, 337 _footnote_. + +Tambroni, Clotilda, professor of Greek, 78, 79, 209, 298. + +Tasso, Torquato, 66. + +Taylor, Janet, 161. + +Telesilla, 6, 17. + +Tencin, Mme., 92. + +Tennyson, quoted, 416, 417. + +Terentia, 356, 361. + +Tertulla, 23. + +Thais, 11. + +Theano, 8, 17, 199, 269. + +Themista, 8. + +_Theodicy_, by Leibnitz, 371. + +Theodora, 359. + +Theon, 137, 168, 199. + +Thucydides, quoted, 4 _footnote_. + +Thurm, Christopher, 174. + +Tiberius, wife of, 24. + +_Tides of the Ocean and Atmosphere, The_, by Mary Somerville, 212. + +Tischendorf, 328, 329. + +Titian, 61, _footnote_, 66. + +_Traite de Chimie_, by Lavoisier, 215. + +_Traite d'Horlogerie_, 179. + +_Traite de Radio-Activite_, by Mme. Curie, 228. + +Travelers, women, 255-264. + +_Travels in West Africa_, by Mary H. Kingsley, 257. + +Treat, Mary, 254. + +Trinity college, Dublin, 100. + +_Tristan und Isolde_, by Godfrey of Strasburg, 276. + +Trombetas, explored by Madame Coudreau, 258. + +Trotula of Salerno, physician, 284-286, 296, 297, 299. + +Tulia, letters of, 29. + +Turgenieff, weight of brain of, 119. + +Twining, Louise, archaeologist, 316. + +Tyndall, 385. + +_Types and Figures of the Bible Illustrated by Art_, + by Louise Twining, 316. + + +United States, women in, in post-Renaissance period, 99, 100; + women mathematicians in, 166; + women astronomers in, 195; + famous women naturalists in, 253-255; + women physicians in, 300-304; + education in, 401, 402. + +United States National Museum, 254. + +Universities, of England, Scotland and Ireland, attitude of, + toward women, 100, 101; + of Germany open to women, 101; + European, women as professors in, 102; + coeducational, comparative standing of men and women in, 128, 129. + +Universities, Italian, attitude of, toward women, 57, 58; + women in, during the Renaissance, 62-65; + women professors in, 78-80; + attitude of, toward women, compared with that of Anglo-Saxons, 80. + +Urania, muse of astronomy, 167. + +_Urania Propitia_, by Maria Cunitz, 171. + +Urbino, court of, 66, 67. + +Urbino, Duchess of, 310, 311. + +Urbino, University of, 62. + + +Vaccination, 299 _footnote_. + +_Valiae_, physician, 272. + +Van Schurman, Anna Maria, 94, 95. + +Vasari, in praise of Suor Plantilla Nelli, 60. + +Vasca de Gama, 56. + +Vasourie, 236. + +Vassar, Matthew, 100. + +Vassar College, 100, 192, 216, 253. + +Vatican, 309. + +Vega, Lopez, 68. + +Veitch, Professor John, quoted, 382, 383 _footnote_. + +Venerable Bede, quoted, 37, 38. + +Verronese, Guarino, 58 and 59 _footnote_. + +Vico, Father de, 191. + +Victoria, physician, 271. + +Victoria, Queen, 316. + +Viete, Francois, 362. + +Vigri, Caterina, 60 _footnote_. + +Virchow, Rudolph, 117, 278. + +Virgil, quoted, 112, 335. + +_Vis viva_, views of Marquise du Chatelet on, 202. + +_Vita Nuova_, by Dante, 357. + +Vitalis, Ordericus, 285. + +Vives, Juan, 68, 69, 73, 75. + +Voet, 94. + +Voght, 246. + +Voiture, 88. + +Voltaire, 89, 117; + attitude of, toward women, 93; + Emilie du Chatelet and, 151, 153, 178 and 179 _footnote_; + quoted 175, 206, 334, 346; + election of, to the Bologna Academy, 207; + letters of, to Laura Bassi, 207. + +_Voyage a la Mapuera_, by Mme. Coudreau, 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage au Cumina_, by Mme. Coudreau, 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage au Itaboca et a l'Etacayuna_, by the Coudreaux, 263 +_footnote_. + +_Voyage au Maycuru_, by Madame Coudreau, 262 and 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage au Rio Curua_, by Madame Coudreau, 262 and 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage au Tapaos_, by the Coudreaux, 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage au Tocantins-Araguaya_, by the Coudreaux, 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage au Trombetas_, by Madame Coudreau, 258, 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage au Xingu_, by the Coudreaux, 263 _footnote_. + +_Voyage entre Tocantins et Xingu, et Voyage au Yamunda_, by the +Coudreaux, 263 _footnote_. + +Vulgate, 357; + assistance of Paula and Eustochium in preparation of, 32. + + +Wagner, Rudolph, 120. + +Wallace, Robert, 252 _footnote_. + +Walpole, Horace, 89; + quoted, 97 _footnote_. + +_Waltharius_, by Ekkehard, 276. + +Warsaw, 221. + +Watson, Sir William, quoted, 184. + +Weber, 359. + +Wells, Louisa D., 195. + +_West African Studies_, by Mary H. Kingsley, 257. + +Westwood, 248. + +Wheeler, Miss B. E., archaeologist, 321. + +Whewell, Dr., 160. + +Whiting, Sarah F., of Wellesley, 195. + +Whitney, Eli, 352. + +Whitney, Mary W., of Vassar, 195. + +Wilhelm II, attitude of, toward women, 94. + +William of Auxerre, in praise of St. Hildegard, 47, 48. + +Williams, Blanche E., archaeologist, 321. + +Winckelmann, 311. + +Winlock, Anna, 195. + +_Wisdom_, by Perictione, 8. + +_Woman Under Monasticism_, Eckenstein's, 52. + +_Women in English Life_, by Georgiana Hill, 41. + +Wordsworth, quoted, 372. + +Wordsworth, Dorothy, 372. + +Worms, Fannie Langdon's study of, 254. + +Wuerzburg, University of, 279. + + +Xenophon, quoted, 4; 25. + + +Young, Annie S., of Mt. Holyoke, 195. + +Young, Arthur, 214. + + +Zoology, Herr Kablick's study of, 243. + +Zoyosa, Casa, 59 _footnote_. + +Zurich, University of, 244, 304. + + * * * * * + +FOLLOWING THE CONQUISTADORES + + +Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena + +By H. J. MOZANS, A. M., Ph. D. Illustrated. 8vo, cloth, gilt top, uncut +edges. Price $3.00 net. By mail $3.20. + + "His pages breathe the poetry of travel, the romance of Sir + John Mandeville, tempered by the moderation of scientific + research. This is a very model of a travel book, and the + author is to be congratulated on a result that will insure a + wide public for the promised sequel."--_The World_, London, + England. + + "The book is beyond question the most valuable of all the + books on South America which has appeared. It is as + interesting as a novel, full of entertaining anecdote and of + real value to the student. It contains some maps and + excellent illustrations from photographs."--_The Call_, San + Francisco, Cal. + + "This is a remarkably interesting book, leading us through a + region little known to the majority of English travelers, + and possessing, in consequence, that charm of novelty in + which works of the same description are occasionally + deficient."--_The Standard_, London, England. + + "The reader will find this trip with the author, "Up the + Orinoco and Down the Magdalena," as agreeable and + instructive as a personally conducted visit to the heart of + the Andes."--_Evening Transcript_, Boston, Mass. + + "This volume, remarkable alike for its instructive qualities + and the excellent composition, will open a vista of delight + to the reader who relishes travel."--_The News_, Charleston, + S. C. + + "Dr. Mozans sees the country with the trained and + experienced eye of a world traveler and with the well + stocked mind of the lover of literature. The past is linked + with the present, the unknown with the known, and poetically + appreciated in a way that is most delightful."--_The + Tribune_, Chicago, Ill. + + "The author, a traveler of many years of experience, who has + explored strange corners of the globe in every zone, + combines with accurate observation and a facile power of + description a knowledge of history that enables him to + illuminate his work with something of the romance that + attaches to the tales of the conquistadores in whose trail + he followed on this journey. The resulting book is one that + gives the reader a complete new set of impressions and ideas + concerning Venezuela and Columbia and the great rivers that + water these still unsettled lands."--The _Times Star_, + Cincinnati, Ohio. + + "Not since the appearance of Humboldt's "_Personal Narrative + of Travels in the Equinoctial Regions of America_" has the + fertile and romantic region of _Tierra Firma_--the scene of + the exploits of some of this most illustrious of the + _Conquistadores_--been so fully and so vividly described as + by Doctor Mozans in his instructive and fascinating volume + "_Up the Orinoco and Down the Magdalena_.""--_Bulletin of + the Pan-American Union._ + + +Along the Andes and Down the Amazon + +By H. J. MOZANS, A. M., Ph. D. With an Introduction by THEODORE +ROOSEVELT. Illustrated. 8vo, cloth, gilt top, uncut edges. Price $3.50 +net. By mail $3.70 + + "It was a great project and a grand journey, but we do not + recall any writer who could describe it so delightfully as + Dr. Mozans. He has not only an irresistible literary charm, + but he is so saturated with knowledge of what he writes + about that all he writes has an irresistible + interest."--_The Herald_, Glasgow, Scotland. + + "Readers of Dr. Mozans' book have been impressed by the + remarkable, almost amazing, erudition shown in it. It has + also a modernity that is unusual in scholarly persons. Dr. + Mozans seems to have been everywhere and studied everything. + His especial interest in life has been thoroughly to + acquaint himself with the history, antiquities and people, + past and present, of northern South America."--_The Literary + Digest_, New York City. + + "Dr. Mozans writes English after our own style, and has a + point of view half philosophical and half poetic. He is + highly sensitive to the mystery of the dead civilizations of + the Andean plateaux, as well as to the abounding life of the + modern States, and the book generally is the pleasantest + account of South America we have encountered for a + considerable time."--_The Standard_, London, England. + + "To read his book is not only to travel with him to strange + places but also to be steeped in good literature."--_The + Record-Herald_, Chicago, Ill. + + "Great learning is often allied with great simplicity. It is + so in the case of Dr. Mozans. He is bubbling over with + information about the achievements of the Spanish + conquistadores and the subsequent history of the lands over + which they established their sway."--_The Field_, London, + England. + + "Whether Dr. Mozans' volume is resorted to for solid + information or mere entertainment it will well repay the + reading."--The _New York Times_. + + "A book which every traveler to South America, especially + every traveler to the west coast of the continent, will wish + to have in his handbag."--_Bulletin of the Pan-American + Union._ + + "This is a delightful book from every + standpoint."--Ex-President Roosevelt, in the Introduction to + Dr. Mozans' book. + + "Like the well-known works of Waterton and Humboldt on South + America, the two books by Dr. Mozans are sure to have a + permanent value and to be recognized as soon as known, as + authorities on the countless subjects discussed in their + illuminating pages with such fairness and + scholarship."--_The Freeman's Journal_, New York City. + + +D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, NEW YORK + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMAN IN SCIENCE*** + + +******* This file should be named 34912.txt or 34912.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/4/9/1/34912 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. 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