280 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



ment of learning. The age-old prejudice against women 

 who devote themselves to the study of science, or who con- 

 tribute to the progress of knowledge, was still as dominant 

 as it was in the days of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, a century 

 and a half before. Mme. Curie, like her famous sister in 

 Italy, might win the plaudits of the world for her achieve- 

 ments ; but she could have no recognition from the one in- 

 stitution, above all others, that was specially founded to 

 foster the development of science and literature, and to 

 crown the efforts of those who had proven themselves 

 worthy of the Academy's highest honor. The attitude of 

 the French institution toward Mme. Curie was exactly like 

 that of the Royal Society of Great Britain when Mrs. Ayr- 

 ton 's name was up for membership. The answer to both 

 applicants was in effect, if not in words, "No woman need 



apply." 



When one reads of the sad experiences of Mme. Curie 

 and Mrs. Ayrton with the learned societies of Paris and 

 London, one instinctively asks, "When will the day come 

 when women, in every part of the civilized world, shall 

 enjoy all the rights and privileges in every field of intel- 

 lectual effort which have so long been theirs in the favored 

 land of Dante and Beatrice the motherland of learned 

 societies and universities ? " For not until the advent of 

 the day when such exclusive organizations as the Royal So- 

 ciety and the French Academy of Sciences, such ultra-con- 

 servative universities as Oxford and Cambridge shall admit 

 women on the same footing as men, will these institutions 

 be more than half serving the best interests of humanity. 1 



Women, it is true, are now eligible to many literary and 

 scientific associations from which they were formerly de- 



iA few days before Mme. Curie's name was to come before the 

 Academy of Sciences as a candidate for membership, the French 

 Institute in its quarterly plenary meeting of the five academies, of 

 which the Institute is composed, decided by a vote of ninety to 

 fifty-two against the eligibility of women to membership, and put 



