Read Ebook: Woman in Science With an Introductory Chapter on Woman's Long Struggle for Things of the Mind by Zahm J A John Augustine

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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."

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 ?cole 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 R?ntgen 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 co?peration 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.

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 co?rdinate 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.

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."

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 ?clat. She has the ?lite 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.

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 amp?re, 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.

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:

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."

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."

"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 pre?minently 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 pre?minent scientific achievement has earned for her."

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.

WOMEN IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES

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.

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.

One reason why St. Hildegard's writings on botany, zo?logy 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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