140 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



been preserved and has engaged the attention of several of 

 the most illustrious of modern mathematicians among 

 them Borelli, Viviani, Fermat, Barrow and others. The 

 famous English astronomer, Halley, regarded this produc- 

 tion of Apollonius of such importance that he learned 

 Arabic for the express purpose of translating it from the 

 version that had been made into this language. 



A woman who could achieve distinction by her commen- 

 taries on such works as the Arithmetical of Diophantus, of 

 the Conic Sections of Apollonius, and occupy an honored 

 place among such mathematicians as Fermat, Borelli, and 

 Halley, must have had a genius for mathematics, and we 

 can well believe that the glowing tributes paid by her con- 

 temporaries to her extraordinary powers of intellect were 

 fully deserved. If, with Pascal, we see in mathematics "the 

 highest exercise of the intelligence, ' ' and agree with him in 

 placing geometers in the first rank of intellectual princes 

 princes de I' esprit we must admit that Hypatia was in- 

 deed exceptionally dowered by Him whom Plato calls ' ' The 

 Great Geometer. " 



There is still a third work of this ill-fated woman that 

 deserves notice namely, her Astronomical Canon, which 

 dealt with the movements of the heavenly bodies. It is 

 the general opinion that this was but a commentary on the 

 tables of Ptolemy, in which event it is still possible that it 

 may be found incorporated in the work of her father, 

 Theon, on the same subject. 



In addition to her works on astronomy and mathematics, 

 Hypatia is credited with several inventions of importance, 

 some of which are still in daily use. Among these are an 

 apparatus for distilling water, another for measuring the 

 level of water, and a third an instrument for determining 

 the specific gravity of liquids what we should now call an 

 areometer. Besides these apparatus, she was likewise the 

 inventor of an astrolabe and a planisphere. 



One of her most distinguished pupils was the eminent 



