WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



courage the stoutest heart. Few believed in their theories, 

 while the majority of those who had some intimation of 

 the character of their work were persuaded that they were 

 pursuing a phantom. But the indefatigable pair toiled on 

 day and night and continued their experiments through 

 long years of poverty and deferred hopes. 



Considering the herculean task in which they were en- 

 gaged for so many years, we scarcely know which to ad- 

 mire most, their clearness of vision, which made them di- 

 vine success ; their profound knowledge, which guided them 

 in the choice of reagents; or the indomitable perseverance 

 which characterized them in their laborious task and in 

 the countless sacrifices which they were obliged to make 

 before their efforts were crowned with success. 



During this long search into the inner heart of nature, 

 Pierre Curie was often so discouraged and depressed that, 

 had he not been sustained by his more sanguine wife, he 

 would time and again have given up his investigations in 

 despair. But Marie Curie never faltered. She never lost 

 faith in their theories or confidence in the outcome of their 

 great undertaking. Before her deft hands and fertile brain 

 difficulties vanished as if under the magic wand of Pros- 

 pero. 



At length, after countless experiments of the most deli- 

 cate character, after bringing to bear on the solution of the 

 problem before them the most refined methods of chemical 

 analysis, they were rewarded by one of the most extraordi- 

 nary discoveries recorded in the annals of science. With 

 the announcement of the discovery of radium, the Curies 

 sprang into world-wide fame, and the name of the wonder- 

 ful woman who had been the prime mover in the supreme 

 achievement was on every lip. Pierre Curie himself de- 

 clared that more than half of the epochal discovery be- 

 longed to his wife. It was she who began the work. It was 

 she who, after her marriage, enlisted in it the cooperation 

 of her husband. It was she whose invincible patience and 



