SKETCH OF MARY SOMERVILLE. 



117 



tise," has passed through nine editions in English, and was translated 

 into Italian and published in Florence in 1861. In the next year she 

 was awarded by the Government a literary pension of £200, which 

 was afterward increased to £300 ; and was made an honorary mem- 

 ber of the Royal Astronomical Society, the second woman — Caroline 

 Herschel being the first — on whom this honor was conferred. Her 

 bust, by Chantrey, was placed, by a subscription of the Fellows, in the 

 great hall of the Royal Society. 



Mrs. Somerville's best-known work is her "Physical Geography," 

 one of the earliest systematic treatises on that important subject, on 

 which so much attention has since been bestowed, which was pub- 

 lished in 1848. It has passed through several editions in England and 

 the United States, has been translated into several foreign languages, 

 and still holds a place as a first authority, even with experts, among 

 the numerous learned works that have since been published on the 

 subject. Of the publication of this book, Mrs. Somerville says : " I 

 was preparing to jirint my ' Physical Geography ' when ' Cosmos ' 

 aj^peared. I at once determined to put my manuscript in the fire, 

 when Somerville said : ' Do not be rash ; consult some of our friends — 

 Herschel, for instance.' So I sent the MS. to Sir John Herschel, who 

 advised me by all means to publish it." She afterward sent a copy of 

 a later edition to Baron Humboldt, who wrote her a very kind letter 

 in return, in which he spoke of the book as " that fine work, that has 

 charmed and instructed me since it appeared for the first time. To 

 the great superiority you possess, and which has so nobly illustrated 

 your name in the high regions of mathematical analysis, you add, 

 madame, a variety of information in all parts of physics and descrip- 

 tive natural history. After the 'Mechanism of the Heavens,' the 

 philosophical * Connection of the Physical Sciences ' has been the ob- 

 ject of my profound admiration. . . . The author of the rash ' Cosmos ' 

 should, more than any other one, salute the ' Physical Geography ' of 

 Mary Somerville. ... I do not know of a work on physical geography 

 in any language that can compare with yours." 



Her last work, " On Molecular and Microscopic Science," contain- 

 ing a summary of the most recent and abstruse investigations in that 

 department, was published in 1869, when she was close upon her nine- 

 tieth year. This book was begun, she tells us in her " Recollections," 

 about eight years before, when she was unoccupied, and felt the neces- 

 sity of having something to do, desultory reading being insufficient to 

 interest her ; " and as I had always considered the section on chemis- 

 try the weakest part of the ' Connection of the Physical Sciences,' I 

 resolved to write it anew. My daughters strongly opposed tliis, say- 

 ing, ' Why not write a new book ? ' They were right ; it would have 

 been lost time ; so I followed their advice, though it was a formidable 

 undertaking at my age, considering that the general character of sci- 

 ence had greatly changed." Instead of being discouraged by the mag- 



