184 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



After long years of struggle, during which the devoted 

 brother and sister overcame countless difficulties of every 

 kind, their condition was somewhat ameliorated by finan- 

 cial aid from the government and by William's appoint- 

 ment to the position of astronomer royal with a salary of 

 200 a year. When Sir William Watson heard that this 

 limited sum had been granted by George III to the dis- 

 coverer of Georgium Sidus the planet now known as 

 Uranus he exclaimed, "Never bought monarch honor so 

 cheap." 



Shortly afterwards Caroline was appointed as assistant 

 to her brother at a salary of 50 a year. This we should 

 now consider but a nominal sum, but she managed to live 

 on it. When she received the first quarterly payment of 

 twelve pounds she wrote in her memoirs, "It was the first 

 money I ever in all my lifetime thought myself to be at 

 liberty to spend to my liking. ' ' Her appointment as assist- 

 ant to her brother is notable from the fact that she was the 

 first woman in England, if not in the world, to hold such a 

 position in the government service. 



Miss Herschel held this official appointment until Sir 

 William's death in 1822. When not acting as her brother's 

 assistant or secretary, she devoted her time to what she 

 quaintly called "minding the heavens. " It was during this 

 period that she made her most important discoveries. As 

 assistant, however, to so indefatigable an observer as Sir 

 William Herschel, she had but little time for sweeping 

 the heavens, for, when at home, Sir William "was invari- 

 ably accustomed to carry on his observations until day- 

 break, circumstances permitting, without regard to seasons ; 

 it was the business of his assistant to note the clocks and 

 to write down the observations from his dictations as they 

 were made. Subsequently she assisted in the laborious 

 numerical calculations and reductions, so that it was only 

 during his absence from home or when any other interrup- 

 tion of his regular course of observation occurred that she 



