WOMEN IN ASTRONOMY 181 



pared a very extended table of this kind which was pub- 

 lished by the French government. Besides this table, she 

 was the author of numerous memoirs on astronomical sub- 

 jects. Among them was one embracing calculations based 

 on all the observations which had been made on the transit 

 of Venus in 1761. 



' ' In 1759, ' ' again writes Lalande, i ' I was given charge of 

 the Connaissance des Temps, a work which the Academy of 

 Sciences published every year for the use of astronomers 

 and navigators, the calculations for which gave occupation 

 to several persons. I had the good fortune to find in Mme. 

 Lepaute a co-worker without whom I should not have been 

 able to undertake the labor required. She continued in this 

 occupation until 1774, when another Academician assumed 

 this laborious task. But she thereupon began work on the 

 Ephemeris, of which the seventh volume in quarto, which 

 appeared in 1774, goes to 1784, and of which the eighth, 

 published in 1783, extends to the year 1792. In this latter 

 volume she made, unaided, all the computations for the 

 sun, the moon and all the planets. 



"This long series of calculations finally enfeebled her 

 eyesight, which had been excellent, and she was in the last 

 years of her life obliged to discontinue them. ' n 



In view of her extraordinary and long-continued work in 

 her chosen specialty, M. Lalande was quite warranted in 

 stating that "Mme. Lepaute is the only woman in France 

 who has acquired veritable knowledge in astronomy; and 

 she is now replaced only by Mme. du Pierry, who has pub- 

 lished divers astronomical calculations, and who has de- 

 served to have dedicated to her L'Astronomie des Dames, 

 which appeared in 1786. " 



It is gratifying to know that the beautiful Japan Rose- 

 originally called Pautia, but changed to Hortensia by Jus- 

 sieu was named after this distinguished woman. It is 



i Bibliographic Astronoimque, pp. 676-687, par Jerome de la Lande, 

 Paris, 1803, 



