200 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



was a distinguished professor, she, as Suidas informs us, 

 devoted herself to the study of philosophy with such success 

 that she was soon regarded as the ablest living exponent of 

 the doctrines of Plato and Aristotle. "Her knowledge," 

 writes the historian, Socrates, "was so great that she far 

 surpassed all the philosophers of her time. And succeed- 

 ing Plotinus, in the Platonic school which he had founded 

 in the city of Alexandria, she taught all the branches of 

 philosophy with such signal success that students flocked 

 to her in crowds from all parts." 1 Her home, as well as 

 her lecture room, was the resort of the most noted scholars 

 of the day, and was, with the exception of the Library and 

 the Museum, the most frequented intellectual center of the 

 great city of learning and culture. Small wonder, then, 

 that her contemporaries lauded her as an oracle and as 

 the most brilliant luminary in Alexandria's splendid gal- 

 axy of thinkers and scholars sapientis artis sidus integer- 

 rimum. 



Among the many inventions attributed to Hypatia, be- 

 sides the planisphere and astrolabe which she designed for 

 the use of astronomers, are several employed in the study 

 of natural philosophy. Probably the most useful of these 

 is an areometer mentioned by her pupil Synesius. He calls 

 it a hydroscope and describes it as having the form and 

 size of a flute, and graduated in such wise that it can be 

 used for determining the density of liquids. That Hypatia 

 was thoroughly familiar with the science of natural philos- 

 ophy, as then known, there can be no doubt. That she also 

 contributed materially to its advancement, as well as to 



i ' ' Mulier qusedam f uit Alexandria^ nomine Hypatia, Theonis 

 filia. Hsec ad tantam eruditionem pervenerat ut omnes sui tem- 

 poris philosophos longo intervallo superaret, et in Platonicam scholam 

 a Plotino deductam succederet, cunctasque philosophise disciplinas 

 auditoribus exponeret. Quocirca omnes philosophies studiosi ad illam 

 undique confluebant. ' ' Socrates, Historic Ecclesiastics, Lib. VII, 

 Cap. 15. 



