Woman in Science / With an Introductory Chapter on Woman's Long Struggle for Things of the Mind

by J. A. Zahm

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]