Woman in Science — Women in Astronomy, Part 1

WOMEN IN ASTRONOMY

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 discoveries respecting the laws and movements of the heavenly bodies.

According to Plutarch, Aganice, the daughter of Sesostris, King of Egypt, tried to predict future events by the aid of celestial globes and by the study of the constellations.

Her observations, however, were in the interests of astrology rather than of astronomy, as we now understand the science.

The first woman whose name has come down to us, who deserved to be regarded as an astronomer, was most probably Aglaonice, the daughter of Hegetoris of Thessaly.

By means of the lunar cycle known as the Saros, a period discovered by the Chaldean astronomers and embracing a little more than eighteen years, during which the eclipses of the moon and sun recur in nearly the same order as during the preceding period, this Greek woman was able to predict eclipses.

The people among whom she lived regarded her as a sorceress; but she flouted them all, and declared that she was able to make the sun and moon disappear at will.

The first woman, however, to attain eminence as an astronomer was undoubtedly Hypatia, that universal genius of the ancient world, who seemed equally at home in literature, philosophy and mathematics, and who may justly be regarded as one of the most highly gifted women that has ever lived.

In Alexandria, where she was born and lived, this accomplished daughter of Theon taught not only philosophy, but also algebra, geometry and astronomy.

One of her pupils, Synesius, who became Bishop of Ptolemais, informs us that she was the inventor of two important astronomical instruments: an astrolabe and a planisphere.

In addition to two mathematical works, a _Treatise on the Conics of Apollonius_ and a _Commentary on the Arithmetic of Diophantus_, which was in reality a treatise on algebra, she was the author of an _Astronomical Canon_, which contained tables regarding the movements of the heavenly bodies.

It is generally supposed that this was an original work; but there are some who think it was but a commentary on the tables of Ptolemy.

In this latter case Hypatia's work may still exist in connection with that of her father, Theon, on the same subject.

[134] If the works of Hypatia had not been destroyed by the ravages of time, they would undoubtedly prove that she fully merited all the encomiums bestowed on her by antiquity for her genius; and they would also prove, we may well believe, that she deserved to be ranked not only with the eminent mathematicians upon whose works she commented, but also with such masters of astronomic science as Ptolemy, Eratosthenes and Aristarchus.

After the tragic death of Hypatia many centuries elapsed before any other woman attracted attention for her work in astronomy.

Indeed, so neglected was the study of the heavens between the time of Hypatia and the Arab prince and astronomer, Albategni, who flourished during the latter part of the ninth century and the early part of the tenth, that only eight observations, it is asserted, were recorded during this long period.

The works and observations of Albategni, it may be remarked, have a particular interest from the fact that they form a connecting link between those of the Alexandrine astronomers and those of modern Europe.

Antoine Hamilton, in his _Gaufrey_--a parody on _The Thousand and One Nights_--tells of a Saracen princess, _Fleur d'Epine_, who, before she was fifteen years of age, was able not only to speak Latin and Romance, but who was also "better acquainted than any woman in the world with the movements of the stars and the moon."

"Et du cours des etoiles et de la lune luisant Savoit moult plus que fame de chest siecle vivant."

If any woman between the time of Hypatia and Galileo deserved such high praise for her astronomical knowledge it was certainly Saint Hildegard, the famous Benedictine abbess of Bingen on the Rhine.

She has well been called "the marvel of the twelfth century," not only on account of her sanctity, but also on account of her extraordinary attainments in every branch of knowledge then cultivated.

When treating of the sun, Hildegard tells us that it is in the center of the firmament and holds in place the stars that gravitate around it, as the earth attracts the creatures which inhabit it.

This view of a twelfth century nun is indeed remarkable.

For, in her time, the earth was by everyone considered as the center of the firmament, while universal gravitation--the sublime discovery of Newton--had not as yet entered into the scientific theories of that epoch.

Hildegard likewise anticipates subsequent discoveries regarding the alternation of the seasons.

"If," she writes, "it is cold in the winter time on the part of the earth which we inhabit, the other part must be warm, in order that the temperature of the earth may always be in equilibrium."

That she should have arrived at this conclusion before navigators had visited the southern hemisphere is truly astonishing.

[135] "The stars," she continues, "have neither the same brightness nor the same size.

They are kept in their course by a superior body."

Here again is her idea of universal gravitation.

These stars, she further declares, are not immovable, but they traverse the firmament in its entirety.

And to make clearer her conception of the motion of the stars, she compares this motion to that of the blood in the veins.

To hear one of this early period speaking of blood coursing through the veins and thus traversing the whole body of man seems to presage, in a remarkable manner, the beautiful discoveries of Cesalpino and Harvey regarding the circulation of the blood.

The most celebrated astronomer of the early Renaissance was John Mueller, of Koenigsburg, better known as Regiomontanus.

In his observatory in Nuremberg he was ably assisted by his wife who exhibited a special interest in astronomy.

At the end of the sixteenth century, Sophia Brahe, the youngest sister of Tycho Brahe, following in the footsteps of her illustrious brother, attained great celebrity as an astronomer.

More distinguished for her astronomical work than either of these two women was Maria Cunitz, a Silesian, who, from her tenderest years, displayed extraordinary zeal for study and who eventually became mistress of seven languages, among which were Latin, Greek and Hebrew.

She also cultivated poetry, music and painting; but her favorite studies were mathematics and astronomy.

At the solicitation of her husband, she undertook the preparation of an abridgment of the _Rudolphine Tables_.

Her work, under the name of _Urania Propitia_, was published after her death by her husband, and gained for the talented authoress the name of "The second Hypatia."

[136] Shortly after the completion of _Urania Propitia_, a French woman, Jeanne Dumee, distinguished herself by writing a work on the theory of Copernicus entitled _Entretiens sur l'Opinion de Copernic Touchant la Mobilite de la Terre_.

So far as known, this work was never published, but the original manuscript is still preserved in the National Library of Paris.

The authoress deems it necessary it apologize for writing on a subject that is usually considered foreign to her sex and to explain why she was ambitious to discuss questions to which the women of her time never gave any thought.

It was that she might "prove to them that they are not incapable of study, if they wish to make the effort, because between the brain of a woman and that of a man there is no difference."

[137] How often before had not women endeavored to prove the equality of brain power of the two sexes, and how often since have they bent their efforts in this direction!

And yet the majority of men still remain skeptical about such equality.

Among the contemporaries of Jeanne Dumee were two other women who gained more than ordinary distinction by their attainments in astronomy.

These were Mme.

de la Sabliere, in France, and Maria Margaret Kirch, of Germany.

Mme.

de la Sabliere evinced from an early age a special aptitude for science, especially for physics and astronomy.

She studied mathematics under the eminent mathematician, Roberval, and at the age of thirty was famous.

Her home became the resort of learned and eminent men, including some of the most noted characters of the age.

Among these was Sobieski, King of Poland.

But it is as the friend and protectress of La Fontaine and as the object of Boileau's satire that she is best known.

For a woman to devote herself to the study of science so soon after the appearance of Moliere's _Les Femmes Savantes_ argued more than ordinary courage.

But for her to become distinguished for her scientific acquirements was almost tantamount to defying public opinion.

The great majority of men had come to regard learned women in the same light as those who were so mercilessly derided in the _Precieuses Ridicules_; and they had, accordingly, no hesitation in treating them as unbearable pedants.

No one could have made less parade of her learning than Mme.

de la Sabliere, or striven more successfully to conceal her admirable gifts.

But this was not sufficient.

She was known to have devoted special study to science, particularly to astronomy, and this was sufficient to make her the target of the satirists of her time.

By an act that wounded the self-love of Boileau this Venus Urania, as she has been called, soon found herself the victim of the satirist's well-directed shafts.

The poet does not name her, but refers to her as "Cette savante Qu'estime Roberval et que Sauveur frequente----" this learned woman whom Roberval esteems and whom Sauveur frequents.

And with the view of pricking the object of his spleen in her most sensitive part, he tells, in his _Satire contre les Femmes_, how she, with astrolabe in hand, spends her nights in making observations of the planet Jupiter and how this occupation has had the effect of weakening her sight and ruining her complexion.

[138] Mme.

de la Sabliere does not, however, seem to have been greatly perturbed by the ungracious effusions of the satirist, for she continued her cultivation of astronomy as before the poet's ill-natured outburst.

She probably found ample compensation in the writings of La Fontaine, who addressed her as his muse and proclaimed her as one in whom were combined manly beauty and feminine grace--_beaute d'homme avec grace de femme_.

Maria Kirch, born at Panitch, near Leipsic, in 1670, was the wife of a Berlin astronomer, Gottfried Kirch.

After her marriage she, like her three sisters-in-law, became her husband's pupil in astronomy.

In 1702, as his assistant in observations and calculations, she was fortunate enough to discover a comet.

She was the friend of Leibnitz, and was by him presented to the court of Prussia.

It is a matter of regret to those of her own sex that this comet was not, as it should have been, named after its discoverer.

The death of Herr Kirch, which took place in 1710, caused no interruption in Frau Kirch's astronomical occupations.

Among the evidences of her activity is a work which she wrote in 1713 on the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the year following.

In our day the conjunction of planets is for the laity a mere matter of curiosity, while for professional astronomers it is quite devoid of particular interest.

But it was not so in the time of Maria Kirch, for then astronomy was so intimately associated with astrology that mankind attributed to such special positions of the planets a certain occult and capricious influence on the destiny of the earth and its inhabitants.

As theoretical astronomy progressed, such erroneous notions were abandoned, because it was then recognized that the conjunction of the superior planets was not something fortuitous, but something that was reproduced at fixed periods by the known movements of these bodies.

Writers on the subject made it a point to warn the public that they had nothing in common with astrologers.

Among these was Christopher Thurm, who published a work on the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in 1681. Similarly, the book of Maria Kirch contains only astronomical calculations and nothing more--a fact that redounds to the honor of the author and to the age in which she lived.

The daughters of Maria Kirch, even long after their mother's death, continued to occupy themselves with astronomy.

They calculated for the Berlin Academy of Sciences its _Almanac_ and _Ephemeris_, which were among the sources of revenue of this learned body.

During the same period a number of French and Italian astronomers had female collaborators in their own families.

Celsus, the celebrated professor of Upsala, and a pupil of the son of Gottfried Kirch, had been accorded a most cordial reception, while passing through Paris on his way to Bologna, by De L'Isle who had a sister who was devoted to astronomy.

On his arrival in Italy he found that his new master, the director of the observatory at Bologna, had two sisters, Teresa and Maddalena, both of great learning, who, like their brother, were engaged in the study of the heavens and collaborated with him in the preparation of the _Ephemeris_ of Bologna.

This caused Celsus, in a letter to Kirch, to declare "I begin to believe that it is the destiny of all the astronomers whom I have had the honor of becoming acquainted with during my journey to have learned sisters.

I have also a sister, although not a very learned one.

To preserve the harmony, we must make an astronomer of her."

[139] The Polish astronomer, Hevilius, who had an observatory at Dantzig, is noted for having made the most accurate observations that had been known before the adaptation of the telescope to astronomical instruments.

He is also noted for his _Prodromus Astronomiae_, a catalogue of 1,888 stars; for his _Selenographia_, containing accurate descriptions and drawings of the moon in her different phases and librations, and for his _Machina Coelestis_, which contained the results of forty years of observations and labor.

Much of his success and eminence, however, was due to his intelligent and devoted wife, Elizabeth, who, during twenty-seven years, was a zealous collaborator and should share the credit usually given to her husband.

It was she who, after his death, edited and published their joint work, the _Prodromus Astronomiae_.

Among the women most distinguished in the eighteenth century for astronomical pursuits was the Marquise du Chatelet, who was likewise famous for her knowledge of mathematics.

It was she who accomplished the difficult task of translating Newton's _Principia_ into French.

"This translation," writes Voltaire, "which the most learned men of France should have made and which the others should study, was undertaken by a woman and completed to the astonishment and glory of her country."

[140] France was at this time devoted to the doctrines of Descartes and to his theory of elementary vortices; and Voltaire, who had been deeply impressed by the admirable simplicity of Newton's theory of universal attraction as a means of explaining the seemingly complex motions of the heavenly bodies, resolved to make his countrymen acquainted with the teachings of the great English geometer and, at the same time, dethrone Descartes in the French Academy.

It was, indeed, a huge undertaking;

but, thanks to the ability which Mme.

du Chatelet displayed in translating and elucidating Newton's immortal masterpiece, he lived to see his dream realized.

How proud Mme.

du Chatelet's countrywomen must have been of her!

How they must have rejoiced in her success and acclaimed her as the intellectual glory of her sex!

How they must have pointed to her work as a triumphant refutation of the age-old belief in woman's incapacity for mathematics and all abstract science!

How they must have been elated to find one of their number successfully executing a task which would have taxed the powers of the most eminent mathematicians of France!

How they must have associated her truly notable performance with similar achievements of Hypatia and Maria Gaetana Agnesi and discerned in it concrete evidence of the falsity of all those imputations of mental inferiority which had been fostered by "man's huge egotism and woman's carefully coddled superstition."

How they must have been encouraged by her achievement and spurred on to emulate her by similar contributions to the advancement of science!

That is what we think now; but the light and frivolous women who constituted the leaders of society in Mme.

du Chatelet's day, and who were devoured by envy and jealousy of one who was so much their superior in intellect were not so minded.

Far from sympathizing with her work, they proved to be her most virulent critics and most pronounced enemies.

Neither Moliere nor Boileau could have heaped more ridicule on the pedantic women of their time than was meted out to the translator of the _Principia_ by certain noble dames of provincial chateaux or by distinguished habituees of prominent Parisian salons.

Thus the petulant _ennuyee_, Mme.

de Stael, in a letter to her friend, Mme.

du Deffand, writing of Mme.

du Chatelet, who was then her guest at Sceaux, tells us that "she is now passing in review her principles.

This is a task she performs every year, else they might, perhaps, make their escape and run to such a distance that she would never be able to recover any of them.

I verily believe that they are in durance vile while in her possession, as they were certainly not born with her.

She does well to keep a strict watch over them."

[141] And, in her turn, Mme.

du Deffand, who was wont to pose as the intimate friend of Mme.

du Chatelet, did not hesitate to write and circulate a pen portrait of this friend--and that after the unhappy woman was in her grave--which for bitter reviling and brutal villification has probably never been equalled.

A witty Frenchman observed of this portrait that it reminded him of an observation once made by a medical acquaintance of his concerning one of his patients: "'My friend fell ill; I attended him.

He died; I dissected him.'

"[142] Among other women astronomers of the eighteenth century who deserve mention are Mme.

du Pierry, the Duchesse Louise of Saxe-Gotha, and Mme.

Hortense Lepaute.

According to Lalande, Mme.

du Pierry was the first woman professor of astronomy in Paris.

He dedicated to her his _Astronomie des Dames_, and incorporated in his own works many of her memoirs on astronomical subjects.

She devoted much time to calculating eclipses with a view to accurately determining the motion of the moon, and was, besides, the author of numerous astronomical tables which exhibit patient research and unquestioned skill.

The Duchesse Louise had a great reputation as a rapid and accurate computer, and was celebrated for the number and variety of her computations.

Her modesty, however, prevented her from publishing anything or even having her work quoted.

Considering, however, the amount and character of her work, the most eminent woman astronomer that France has yet produced was, without doubt, Mme.

Hortense Lepaute, the wife of the royal clockmaker of France.

She first distinguished herself by her investigations on the oscillations of pendulums of different lengths, an account of which is to be found in her husband's valuable work, _Traite d'Horlogerie_, published in 1755. In 1759 Lalande, who was then the Director of the Paris Observatory, engaged Mme.

Lepaute and the celebrated mathematician, Clairaut, to determine the amount of the attraction of Jupiter and Saturn on Halley's comet, whose return was expected in that year.

So difficult was this problem, and so numerous were the complications involved, that Lalande frankly confesses that he would not have dared to undertake its solution without Mme.

Lepaute's assistance.

For it necessitated calculating for every degree, and for one hundred and fifty years the distances and forces of each of the planets with reference to the comet.

"It would be difficult," declares Lalande, "to realize the courage which this enterprise required, if one did not know that for more than six months we calculated from morning until night, sometimes even at meals, and that at the end of this enforced labor I was stricken by a malady which affected me during the rest of my life."

Clairaut was so impressed by Mme.

Lepaute's energy and skill during this time that he declared "her ardor was surprising," and he did not hesitate to call her _La savante calculatrice_--the learned computer.

[143] The eclipse of 1762 also engaged Mme.

Lepaute's attention, as did also the annular eclipse of 1764. The latter was a curious phenomenon for France, as it had never before been observed.

Mme.

Lepaute calculated it for the whole of Europe and published a chart showing its path for every quarter of an hour.

She also published another chart for Paris, in which were exhibited the different phases of the eclipse.

On the occasion of the different eclipses which she had calculated, Mme.

Lepaute recognized the advantage of having a table of parallactic angles.

She accordingly prepared a very extended table of this kind which was published by the French government.

Besides this table, she was the author of numerous memoirs on astronomical subjects.

Among them was one embracing calculations based on all the observations which had been made on the transit of Venus in 1761. "In 1759," again writes Lalande, "I was given charge of the _Connaissance des Temps_, a work which the Academy of Sciences published every year for the use of astronomers and navigators, the calculations for which gave occupation to several persons.

I had the good fortune to find in Mme.

Lepaute a co-worker without whom I should not have been able to undertake the labor required.

She continued in this occupation until 1774, when another Academician assumed this laborious task.

But she thereupon began work on the _Ephemeris_, of which the seventh volume in quarto, which appeared in 1774, goes to 1784, and of which the eighth, published in 1783, extends to the year 1792. In this latter volume she made, unaided, all the computations for the sun, the moon and all the planets.

"This long series of calculations finally enfeebled her eyesight, which had been excellent, and she was in the last years of her life obliged to discontinue them."

[144] In view of her extraordinary and long-continued work in her chosen specialty, M. Lalande was quite warranted in stating that "Mme.

Lepaute is the only woman in France who has acquired veritable knowledge in astronomy; and she is now replaced only by Mme.

du Pierry, who has published divers astronomical calculations, and who has deserved to have dedicated to her _L'Astronomie des Dames_, which appeared in 1786." It is gratifying to know that the beautiful Japan Rose--originally called _Pautia_, but changed to _Hortensia_ by Jussieu--was named after this distinguished woman.

It is also gratifying to be assured that her engrossing work in astronomy in no wise caused her to neglect her home duties or to lose that sweetness of character and delicacy of refinement for which she was noted before she entered upon the absorbing and taxing career of astronomical computer.

The wife of Lalande's nephew, Mme.

Lefrancais de Lalande, proved herself in many respects a worthy successor of Mme.

Lepaute.

"My niece," writes her uncle, Jerome Lalande, "aids her husband in his observations and draws conclusions from them by calculation.

She has reduced the observations of ten thousand stars, and prepared a work of three hundred pages of horary tables--an immense work for her age and sex.

They are incorporated in my _Abrege de Navigation_.

"She is one of the rare women who have written scientific books.

She has published tables for finding the time at sea by the altitude of the sun and stars.

These tables were printed in 1791 by the order of the National Assembly....

In 1799 she published a catalogue of ten thousand stars, reduced and calculated."

This distinguished observer and computer had a daughter in whom her grand-uncle was particularly interested.

"This daughter of astronomy," he tells us, "was born the twentieth of January, 1790, the day on which we at Paris saw for the first time the comet which Miss Caroline Herschel had just discovered.

The child was accordingly named Caroline;

her godfather was Delambre."

The discoverer of the comet referred to was, in many ways, a most remarkable woman.

She was the sister of Sir William Herschel, the illustrious pioneer of modern physical astronomy and the virtual founder of sidereal science, as we know it to-day.

She was also the aunt of Sir John Herschel, who was the only rival of his uncle, Sir William, as an explorer of the heavens.

But she was far more than a mere relative of these immortal leaders in astronomic science.

She herself was an astronomer of distinction, and is known, in the annals of astronomy, as the discoverer of no fewer than eight comets.

Great, however, as was her skill as an observer and computer, it was as her brother's assistant that she is entitled to the most distinction.

Her affection for him was as unbounded as her devotion to his life work was abiding and productive of great results.

For fifty years, after joining him in England--they both had been born and bred in Hanover--she was ever at his side, to assist him in his labors and to cheer him by her words of counsel and encouragement.

She helped him to grind and polish the mirrors that were used in his epoch-making reflectors.

This was a most arduous task; for, at that time, there was no machinery sufficiently exact for grinding specula, and, as a consequence, the work had all to be done by hand.

So interested was the great astronomer in his work, when polishing his larger specula, that he forgot all about the passage of time, and on these occasions his sister was constantly obliged, as she herself informs us, "to feed him by putting the victuals by bits into his mouth by way of keeping him alive."

When finishing his seven-foot reflector he was on one occasion found so intent on his work that "he had not taken his hands from it for sixteen hours together."