WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY 



ing their own with men as chemical experts in manufac- 

 turing establishments and government institutions. Many 

 of them have done original work of a high order, and dis- 

 tinguished themselves by their valuable contributions to 

 contemporary chemical literature. Space, however, pre- 

 cludes more than a general reference to their achievements, 

 for the names only of those who have done meritorious 

 work in chemistry would make a very long list. 



Passing over, then, all the lesser feminine lights in chem- 

 istry who, in various fields of activity, have rendered such 

 distinct service during the past generation, we come to 

 one who for nearly two decades has stood in the forefront 

 of the great chemists of the world. This is that renowned 

 daughter of Poland, Mme. Marie Klodowska Curie, whose 

 name will always be identified with some of the most re- 

 markable discoveries which have ever been made in the 

 long-continued study of the material universe. 



Marie Klodowska was born in Warsaw, in 1868. Her 

 father was a professor of chemistry in the university of the 

 former Polish capital ; and it is undoubtedly from him that 

 his brilliantly dowered daughter has inherited her love of 

 chemistry and her extraordinary genius for scientific re- 

 search. Owing to the paltry salary he received, Professor 

 Klodowska was obliged to make little Marie his laboratory 

 assistant while she was quite a young girl. Instead, then, 

 of playing with tops and dolls, her time was occupied in 

 cleaning evaporating dishes and test tubes and in assisting 

 her father to prepare for his lectures and experiments. 

 And it was thus that, at an early age, she acquired a taste 

 for that science in which she was subsequently to achieve 

 such world-wide fame. 



While still a young woman, her love of science drew 

 her to Paris, where she arrived with only fifty francs in 

 her purse. But, possessed of dauntless courage and unfal- 

 tering perseverance, she was prepared to make any sacri- 

 fice in the pursuit of knowledge. 



