Nobilis hic Arete dormit, lux Helladis, ore Tyndaris at tibi par, Icarioti, fide. Patris Aristippi calamumque animamque dederunt, Socratis huic linguam Maeonidaeque Dii." --Boccaccio, _De Laudibus Mulierum_, Lib. II. Cf. Wolf's _Mulierum Graecarum quae Oratione Prosa Usae Sunt Fragmenta et Elogia_, pp. 283 et seq., London, 1739. [152] "Mulier quaedam fuit Alexandriae, nomine Hypatia, Theonis filia. Haec ad tantam eruditionem pervenerat ut omnes sui temporis philosophos longo intervallo superaret, et in Platonicam scholam a Plotino deductam succederet, cunctasque philosophiae disciplinas auditoribus exponeret. Quocirca omnes philosophiae studiosi ad illam undique confluebant." _Socrates, Historiae Ecclesiasticae_, Lib. VII, Cap. 15. [153] For extracts from the ancient authors regarding Hypatia, as well as for the extant letters to her from her friend and pupil, Synesius, the reader is referred to Wolf's erudite _Mulierum Graecarum quae Oratione Prosa Usae sunt Fragmenta et Elogia_, pp. 72-91, ut sup. [154] Ernesto Masi, _Studi e Ritratti_, p. 166 et seq., Bologna, 1881. [155] Two of her Latin dissertations on certain physical problems were published in the _Commentaries of the Bologna Institute_. One of them is entitled _De Problemate quodam Mechanico_; the other _De Problemate quodam Hydrometrico_. Many of her lectures on physics still exist in manuscript, and it is to be hoped that at least the titles of them may be given in a biography of the learned author which has been long desired and long promised. [156] _Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien_, Vol. I, p. 363, 1869. [157] As no satisfactory biography of Laura Bassi has yet been written, most of our knowledge respecting her is limited to that found in Fantuzzi's _Notizie degli Scrittori Bolognesi_, Tom. I, pp. 384-391, and Mazzuchelli's _Gli Scrittori d'Italia_, Vol. II, Part I, pp. 527-529, Brescia, 1758. CHAPTER VI WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY The first woman deserving special mention in the history of chemistry is the wife of the immortal Lavoisier, the most famous of the founders of modern chemical science. While yet in her teens, this remarkable woman gave evidence of exceptional intelligence and will power. She was thoroughly devoted to her husband, and had the greatest admiration for his genius. Her highest ambition was to prove herself worthy of him and to render herself competent to assist him in those investigations that have given him such imperishable renown. With this end in view, she learned Latin and English, and she thus became an accomplished translator from these languages of any chemical works which might aid her spouse in his epoch-making researches. It was she who translated for him the chemical memoirs of Cavendish, Henry, Kirwan, Priestly and other noted English scientific investigators.