WOMEN IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 



the tropics and, accompanied by her two daughters, Helena 

 and Dorothea, she embarked for Surinam. Here, assisted 

 by her daughters, who, like their mother, were both skillful 

 artists, the intrepid naturalist spent two years in studying 

 the wonders of plant and animal life that everywhere 

 greeted her delighted vision. All the time not occupied in 

 research work was devoted to sketching and painting those 

 superb insects that are so abundant in tropical fields and 

 forests. 1 



Returning to Holland with her precious scientific treas- 

 ures, she began the preparation of a work that will long 

 endure as a monument to her knowledge and industry. It 

 was a magnificent volume in folio on the insects of Surinam. 

 It appeared simultaneously in Dutch and Latin, and was 

 subsequently translated into French. 



In illustrating this sumptuous work, Prau Merian was 

 greatly assisted by her younger daughter, Dorothea. The 

 etchings and hand-colored reproductions of the gorgeous 

 butterflies and flowers of Surinam commanded universal 

 admiration, and marked a new epoch in book-making. Even 

 to-day this noble volume is eagerly sought by both book- 

 lovers and men of science, for it is not only a work of rare 

 conception and beauty but also one of exceptional accuracy 

 in illustration and statement of fact. 2 



Besides etchings of multiform insects, lizards and ba- 

 trachians indigenous to Dutch Guiana, there were in this 

 unique volume carefully executed illustrations of plants 

 and trees peculiar to tropical America, such as vanilla, 

 cacao, and the species of manihot which constitutes the 

 staff of life of so large a portion of the population in the 

 basins of the Amazon and the Orinoco. 



A new and enlarged edition of this work was published 



1 Die Verdienste der Frauen um Naturwissenschaft und HeilTcunde, 

 p. 169, von Dr. C. F. Harless, Gottingen, 1830. 



2 The Latin title of this interesting work is De Generatione et 

 Metamorphose Insectorum Surinamensium, Amsterdam, 1705. 



