222 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



Her first home in the gay French metropolis was a 

 poorly furnished garret in an obscure part of the city, and 

 her diet was for so long a time restricted to black bread 

 and skimmed milk that she afterward avowed that she had 

 to cultivate a taste for wine and meat. And so intensely 

 cold was her cheerless room in winter that the little bottle 

 of milk which was daily left at her door was speedily 

 congealed. At this time the poor girl was living on less 

 than ten cents a day, but still cherishing all the while the 

 fond hope that she might eventually secure a position as a 

 student assistant in some good chemical laboratory. 



After a long struggle with poverty and after countless 

 disappointments in quest of a position where she could 

 gratify her ambition as a student of chemistry, she finally 

 found occupation as a poorly paid assistant in the labora- 

 tory conducted by Professor Lipmann. She was not, how- 

 ever, at work a week before this distinguished investigator 

 recognized in the young woman one whose knowledge of 

 chemistry and faculty for original research were far above 

 the average. She was accordingly transferred without de- 

 lay from the menial employment in which she had been en- 

 gaged and given every possible facility for prosecuting 

 work as an original investigator. 



It was shortly after this event that Marie Klodowska met 

 the noted savant, Pierre Curie. He was not long in dis- 

 covering in her a kindred spirit one who, besides having 

 exceptional talent in experimental chemistry, was actuated 

 by an ardent love of science. It was then that he deter- 

 mined to make her his wife. A single sentence in a letter 

 he wrote at this time to the object of his admiration and 

 affection reveals, better than anything else, the devotion 

 of this matchless pair in the cause of science. "What a 

 great thing it would be/' he exclaims, "to unite our lives 

 and work together for the sake of science and humanity. ' ' 

 These simple words were the keynote to the ideal life led 

 by this incomparable couple during the eleven years they 



