CHAPTER VII 



WOMEN IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



It is reasonable to suppose that women, who are such 

 lovers of nature, have always had a greater or less interest 

 in the natural sciences, especially in botany and zoology; 

 but the fact remains that the first one of their sex to write 

 at any length on the various kingdoms of nature was that 

 extraordinary nun of the Middle Ages, St. Hildegard, the 

 learned abbess of the Benedictine convent of St. Rupert, at 

 Bingen on the Rhine. Of an exceptionally versatile and 

 inquiring mind, her range of study and acquirement was 

 truly encyclopaedic. In this respect she was the worthy 

 forerunner of Albert the Great, the famous Doctor Univer- 

 salis of Scholasticism. 



Although St. Hildegard has much to say about nature in 

 several of her works, the one of chiefest interest to us as 

 an exposition of the natural history of her time is her 

 treatise entitled Liber Subtilitatum Diver sarum Naturarum 

 Creaturarum. It is usually known by its more abbreviated 

 name, Physica, and, considering the circumstances under 

 which it was written, is, in many ways, a most remarkable 

 production. It consists of nine books treating of minerals, 

 plants, fishes, birds, insects and quadrupeds. The book on 

 plants is composed of no fewer than two hundred and 

 thirty chapters, while that on birds contains seventy-two 

 chapters. 



In reading Hildegard 's descriptions of animated nature 

 we are often reminded of Pliny's great work on natural 

 history j but, so far as known, there is no positive evidence 



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