202 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



Sciences had offered a prize for the best memoir on the 

 subject. Among the contestants for the coveted honor 

 were the chatelaine of Cirey and the celebrated Swiss 

 mathematician, Leonard Euler. The Marquise was unsuc- 

 cessful in the contest, but her paper was of such value that 

 the eminent physicist and astronomer, Arago, was able to 

 characterize it as an "elegant piece of work, embracing all 

 the facts relating to the subject then known to science and 

 containing among the experiments suggested one which 

 proved so fecund in the hands of Herschel." In this re- 

 markable Memoire sur le Feu, which is printed in the 

 Collections of the Academy, the Marquise anticipates the 

 results of subsequent researches of others by maintaining 

 that both heat and light have the same cause, or, as we 

 should now say, are both modes of motion. 



The second book written by this remarkable woman is 

 entitled Institutions de Physique, and was dedicated to her 

 son, for whose benefit it was primarily written. It deals 

 specially with the philosophy of Leibnitz and discusses 

 such questions, as force, time and space. Her views respect- 

 ing the nature of the force called vis viva, which was much 

 discussed in her time, are of particular interest, as they 

 are not only opposed to those which were held by Descartes 

 and Newton, but also because they are in essential accord 

 with those now accepted in the world of science. 



All things considered, the Marquise du Chatelet deserv- 

 edly takes high rank in the history of mathematical 

 physics. In this department of science she has had few, 

 if any, superiors among her own sex. And, when we recol- 

 lect that she labored while the foundations of dynamics 

 were still being laid, we shall more readily appreciate the 

 difficulties she had to contend with and the distinct service 

 which her researches and writings rendered to the cause 

 of natural philosophy among her contemporaries. 



The first woman to occupy a chair of physics in a uni- 

 versity was the famous daughter of Italy, Laura Maria 



