WOMEN IN ASTRONOMY 173 



Jupiter and how this occupation has had the effect of 

 weakening her sight and ruining her complexion. 1 



Mme. de la Sabliere does not, however, seem to have been 

 greatly perturbed by the ungracious effusions of the satir- 

 ist, for she continued her cultivation of astronomy as be- 

 fore 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 

 beaut e 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 Prau Kirch's astronomical occu- 

 pations. 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 $o 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 aban- 



iD'ou vient qu'elle a 1'oeil trouble et le teint si ternil 

 C'est que sur le caleul, dit-on, de Cassini, 

 Un astrolabe & la main, elle a, dans la gouttiere, 

 A suivre Jupiter passe la nuit entiere. 



