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.