AUTHOR OF "UP THE ORINOCO AND DOWN THE MAGDALENA," "ALONG THE ANDES AND DOWN THE AMAZON," ETC. 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....

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 thre

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 a

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

"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 childre

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 d

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, an

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

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 a

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 ev

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 neph

"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

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,

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

Agassiz, Mrs. L. Louis Agassiz, His Life and Correspondence. Boston, 1893. Agnesi, Maria Gaetana. Instituzioni Analitiche. Milan, 1748. ----. Propositiones Philosophicæ. Milan, 1738. Anzoletti, Luisa. Maria Gaetana Agnesi. Milan, 1900. Arrighi, G. L. Storia del Feminismo. Florence, 1911. Asse, Eugène. Lettres de la Marquise du Châtelet. Paris, 1882. Athenæus. The Deipnosophists; or the Banquet of the Learned, Bohn Edition. London, 1907. Becq de Fouquières, L. Aspasie de Milet. Paris, 1872. Bede,