FUTURE OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE 391 



claring that the successful pursuit of science is entirely 

 beyond the mental powers of womankind. 



The preceding pages, likewise, afford an answer to those 

 who insist on woman's incapacity for scientific pursuits, 

 and point to the small number of those that have attained 

 eminence in any of the branches of science ; who continue 

 to assert that the women named are but exceptions to the 

 rule of the hopeless inferiority of their sex, and that no 

 conclusions can be deduced from the paucity of women 

 who have risen above the intellectual level of their less 

 fortunate or less highly dowered sisters. They further 

 show that, until the last few decades, woman 's environment 

 was rarely if ever favorable to her pursuit of science. 

 From the days of Aspasia until the latter half of the nine- 

 teenth century she was discriminated against by law, cus- 

 tom and public opinion. Save only in Italy, she was ex- 

 cluded from the universities and from learned societies in 

 which she might have had an opportunity of developing 

 her intellect. In other countries her social ostracism in 

 all that pertained to mental development was so complete 

 and universal that she rarely had an opportunity of mak- 

 ing a trial of her powers or exhibiting her innate capacity. 

 The consequence was that her mind remained in a con- 

 dition of comparative atrophy a condition that gave rise 

 to that long prevalent belief in woman's intellectual in- 

 feriority to man and her natural incapacity for everything 

 that is not light or frivolous. 



Practically all that women have achieved in science, until 

 very recent years, has been accomplished in defiance of 

 that conventional code which compelled them to confine 

 their activities to the ordinary duties of the household. 

 The lives and achievements of the eminent mathematicians, 

 Sophie Germain and Mary Somerville, are good illustra- 

 tions of the truth of this assertion. It was only their per- 

 sistence in the study of their favorite branch of science, in 

 spite of the opposition of their family and friends, and in 



