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QUEEN OF SCIENCE
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
OF
MARY SOMERVILLE
Edited and Introduced by Dorothy McMillan
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Editorial Practice
ONE
Introduction – Parentage – Life in Scotland in the Last Century – Early Education – School
TWO
Freedom – Religious Education – Jedburgh
THREE
Edinburgh – Youthful Studies and Amusements – Politics – the Theatres of the Time
FOUR
Edinburgh Supper Parties – Tour in the Highlands – Mutiny in the Fleet – Battle of Camperdown
FIVE
First Marriage (1804) – Widowhood – Studies – Second Marriage
SIX
Somerville Family – Dr Somerville’s Character – Letters – Journey to the Lakes – Death of Sir William Fairfax – Reminiscences of Sir Walter Scott
SEVEN
Life in Hanover Square – Visit to France – Arago – Cuvier – Rome
EIGHT
Education of Daughters – Dr Wollaston – Dr Young – The Herschels
NINE
Society in London – Coronation of George IV – Letter to Dr Somerville
TEN
Death of Margaret Somerville – Letter from Mrs Somerville to the Rev. Dr Somerville – Life at Chelsea – The Napiers – Maria Edgeworth – Tour in Germany
ELEVEN
Letter from Lord Brougham – Writes ‘Mechanism of the Heavens’ – Anecdote of the Roman Improvisatrice – Letters from Sir John Herschel and Professor Whewell – Elected Hon. Member of the Royal Astronomical Society – Notice in the Académie des Sciences, and Letter from M. Biot – Pension – Letter from Sir Robert Peel – Begins to Write on the Connexion of the Physical Sciences – Visit to Cambridge – Letters from Professor Sedgwick and Laplace
TWELVE
Paris – Arago, Lafayette, MM. Bouvard, Poisson, Lacroix, &c., Marquise de Laplace, Dupin, F. Cooper – Legitimiste Society – Majendie – Visit Baron Louis – Letter from Lafayette
THIRTEEN
Return to England – Letter from Hallam – Treatise on the form and Rotation of the Earth and Planets – Second Edition of The ‘Connexion of the Physical Sciences’ – Letters from Maria Edgeworth, Miss Berry, Lord Brougham, Mrs Marcet, Admiral Smyth – Double Stars – Eclipse of Double Stars – Letter from Admiral Smyth – Sir William Herschel – Nebulæ – Letter from Lord Rosse – Letter from Sir John Herschel – Sir James South’s Observatory – Mr John Murray – Miss Berry – Lord Dudley – Mr Bowditch and Other Distinguished Americans – Mrs Browning Washington – Letter from the Rev. Dr Tuckerman – Sir William Fairfax Attacked by Highwaymen
FOURTEEN
Rome, Naples, and Como – Baden – Winter at Florence – Siena – Letter from Lord Brougham – Mr Mountstuart Elphinstone – Life at Rome – Campagna Cattle
FIFTEEN
Albano – Popular Singing – Letters from Mrs Somerville – Gibson – Perugia – Comet of 1843 – Summer at Venice – Letters from Mrs Somerville and Miss Joanna Baillie – Elected Associate of the College of Resurgenti and R. I. Academy of Science at Arezzo
SIXTEEN
Publishes ‘Physical Geography’ – Letter from Humboldt – Christmas at Collingwood – Letter from Mrs Somerville – Faraday – Letter from Faraday – Keith Johnston’s Maps – Winter at Munich – Salzburg – Lake of Garda – Miniscalchi – Poem by Caterina Brenzoni – Letter from Brenzoni – Letter from Mrs Somerville – Éloge by Miniscalchi – Winter at Turin – Baron Plana – Camillo Cavour – Colline near Turin – Genoa – Teresa Doria – Florence – Miss F. P. Cobbe – Vivisection – Excursions in the Neighbourhood – Cholera – Misericordia – Pio Nono in Tuscany – Comet – Tuscan Revolution – War in Lombardy – Entry of Victor Emmanuel into Florence – Letters from Mrs Somerville – My Father’s Death – Letter from Miss Cobbe
SEVENTEEN
Spezia – Genoa – Begins Molecular and Microscopic Science – Turin – Spezia – British Fleet – Letters from Mrs Somerville – Garibaldi – Severe Illness – Florence – My Brother’s Death – Naples – Eruption of Vesuvius – J. S. Mill – Change in Public Opinion on Women’s Education – Eighty-Ninth Year – Describes her Own Character – Thoughts on a Future Life – Progress in Knowledge of Geography – Victoria Medal – Medal from Royal Italian Geographical Society – Letter from Menebrea – Rome, Capital of Italy – Aurora Borealis
EIGHTEEN
Eclipse – Visits of Scientific Men – Life at Naples – Darwin’s Books – Remarks on Civilisation – Fine Aurora Borealis – Death of Herschel – Summer at Sorrento – Bill for Protection of Animals – Ninety-Second Year – Letter from Professor Sedgwick – Grand Eruption of Vesuvius – Last Summer at Sorrento, Plants Found There – Conclusion
Brief Biographies
Translations of Letters
Notes
Bibliography
Cheerful though wise, though learned, popular,
Liked by the many, valued by the few,
Instructs the world, yet dubbed by none a Blue.
Mary Somerville was one of the most remarkable women of her time, or indeed of any time. During her long life she moved from obscure private life in the little town of Burntisland in Fife, to the celebrity of being an internationally acclaimed mathematician, astronomer, physical scientist and geographer. When she died in her 92nd year, obituaries appeared in newspapers and journals all over Europe and in America: the Morning Post obituary called her, with complete confidence, ‘the Queen of science’ (Mon. 2 Dec. 1872). Throughout her long life she was a respected presence in body or in correspondence on various British, European and American scientific scenes. The work for which she is probably still best remembered is her translation of Laplace’s Mécanique céleste as The Mechanism of the Heavens in 1831; her most ambitious work was probably On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences (1834), which ran to nine British editions in her lifetime; but there is also Physical Geography, two vols. (1848), which, as she points out in her Recollections, ‘went through nine editions, has been translated into German and Italian […] and went through various editions in the United States’ (p. 162); and On Molecular and Microscopic Science, which she published when she was in her 89th year, and which The Morning Post suggests was her magnum opus.
Mary Somerville was born on 26 December 1780 in the manse at Jedburgh, the home of her mother’s sister, who was married to the local minister, the Rev. Dr Thomas Somerville. She was the fifth child of Lieutenant (later Vice-Admiral) William George Fairfax and his second wife, Margaret Charters. Fairfax had just embarked on a long period of sea duty and his pregnant wife was living at her sister’s home when the child was born. Mrs Fairfax