152 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



Among her teachers in mathematics were Clairaut, Koe- 

 nig, Maupertuis, Pere Jaquier and Jean Bernouilli, the 

 immediate predecessors of such distinguished mathemati- 

 cians as Monge, Lagrange, d'Alembert and Laplace. At 

 her Chateau of Cirey, where she and Voltaire spent many 

 years together, she was visited by learned men from various 

 parts of Europe. Among these was the Italian scholar, 

 Francisco Algarotti, who was the author of a work entitled 

 Newtonism for Women. And as Mme. du Chatelet was an 

 ardent admirer of Newton, the author of the Principia soon 

 became a strong bond of union between her and the bril- 

 liant Italian. She called the savants who frequented her 

 chateau at Cirey the Emiliens and purposed writing me- 

 moirs to be entitled Emiliana a design, however, which 

 she was never able to execute. 



The first work of importance from the pen of the Mar- 

 quise was entitled Institutions de Physique. In it she gave 

 an exposition of the philosophy of Leibnitz and disserta- 

 tions on space, time and force. In the discussion of the 

 last topic she seems to have anticipated some of the later 

 conclusions of science respecting the nature of energy. 



Her most noted achievement, however, was her transla- 

 tion of Newton's Principia, the first translation into French 

 of this epoch-making work. To translate this masterpiece 

 from its original Latin, it was necessary that the Marquise, 

 in order to make it intelligible to others, should have a 

 thorough understanding of it herself. To the translation 

 she added a commentary, which shows that Mme. du Cha- 

 telet had a mathematical mind of undoubted power. She 

 labored assiduously on this great undertaking for many 

 years and completed it only shortly before her death; but 

 it was not published until ten years after her demise. 



In his Elogie Historique on the Marquise 's translation of 

 the Principia, Voltaire, in his usual flamboyant style, de- 

 clares ' l Two wonders have been performed : one that New- 

 ton was able to write this work, the other that a woman 



