MEMOIR 



OP 



MARIA SIBILLA MEEIAN. 



IN the earlier annals of the physical sciences, we find 

 very few female names included in the lists of those 

 who successfully devoted themselves to such pursuits. 

 The mode in which they were usually studied, the 

 learned languages in which it was thought necessary 

 that every thing relating to them should be written, 

 together with an unnecessary profusion of techni- 

 calities, and a most barbarous nomenclature, were 

 ill fitted to recommend them to notice in any case, 

 and must have made them unattainable, if not al- 

 together repulsive, to most of the gentler sex. The - 

 branches relative to natural history, in particular, 

 laboured greatly under these disadvantages ; and a 

 prejudice likewise existed against the study of some 

 departments, which long continued to operate un- 

 favourably. To this general neglect of these pur- 

 suits by her sex, at the period in question, the lady 

 to whom the following notices refer, forms a signaV 

 exception. Not that she can lay claim to high dis- 



