FUTURE OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE 393 



chief test of one's eminence in science is the number of 

 learned societies to which one belongs. For De Candoile, 

 membership in one or more such bodies is prima facie evi- 

 dence of special distinction in some branch of science. But 

 "We," he declares, "do not see the name of any woman 

 on the lists of learned men connected with the principal 

 academies. This is not due entirely to the fact that the 

 customs and regulations have made no provision for 

 their admission, for it is easy to assure one's self that no 

 person of the feminine sex has ever produced an original 

 scientific work which has made its mark in any science 

 and commanded the attention of specialists in science. I 

 do not think it has ever been considered desirable to elect 

 a woman a member of any of the great scientific academies 

 with restricted membership. J ' 1 



When De Candoile insisted on membership in learned 

 societies as a necessary indication of scientific eminence, 

 he must have known, what everybody knew, that such 

 exclusive societies as the French Academy of Sciences and 

 the Royal Society of Great Britain have always been dead 

 set against the admission of women members. It is diffi- 

 cult to imagine that the learned author of the History of 

 Science and Scientists was entirely ignorant of the exclu- 

 sion from the French Academy of Maria Gaetana Agnesi 

 solely because she was a woman. And he must have been 

 aware that, had it not been for her sex, Sophie Germain 

 would have been accorded a fauteuil in the same society 

 for her remarkable investigations in one of the difficult 

 departments of mathematical physics. He must likewise 

 have been cognizant of the attitude of such organizations 

 as the Royal Society toward women, no matter how meri- 

 torious their achievements in science. 



According to De Candoile 's criterion, such women as 

 Mme. Curie, Sonya Kovalevsky, Eleanor Ormerod, Agnes 

 S. Lewis, Margaret Dunlop Gibson have accomplished noth- 

 i Ibid., p. 270. 



