Duties and occupations innumerable have retarded the progress of the work. But not the least cause of delay has been the difficulty of locating the material essential to the production of a volume that would do even partial justice to the numerous topics requiring treatment. My experience, _parva componere magnis_, was not unlike that of Dr. Johnson, who tells us in the preface to his _Dictionary of the English Language_, "I saw that one inquiry only gave occasion to another, that book referred to book, that to search was not always to find, and that thus to pursue perfection was, like the first inhabitants of Arcadia, to chase the sun, which, when they reached the hill where he seemed to rest, was still beheld at the same distance from them." Although I have endeavored to give a place in this work to all women who have achieved special distinction in science, it is not unlikely that I may have inadvertently overlooked some, particularly among those of recent years, who were deserving of mention. Should this be the case, I shall be grateful for information which will enable me to correct such oversights and render the volume, should there be a demand for more than one edition, more complete and serviceable. And, although I have striven to be as accurate as possible in all my statements, I can scarcely hope, in traversing so broad a field, to have been wholly successful. For all shortcomings, whether through omission or commission, "Quas aut incuria fudit, Aut humana parum cavit natura," I crave the reader's indulgence, and trust that the present volume will have at least the merit of stimulating some ambitious young Whewell to explore more thoroughly the interesting field that I have but partially reconnoitred, and give us ere long an adequate and comprehensive history of the achievements of woman, not only in the inductive but in all the sciences. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. WOMAN'S LONG STRUGGLE FOR THINGS OF THE MIND 1 II. WOMAN'S CAPACITY FOR SCIENTIFIC PURSUITS 106 III. WOMEN IN MATHEMATICS 136 IV. WOMEN IN ASTRONOMY 167 V. WOMEN IN PHYSICS 197 VI. WOMEN IN CHEMISTRY 214 VII. WOMEN IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES 233 VIII. WOMEN IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY 266 IX. WOMEN IN ARCHAEOLOGY 309 X. WOMEN AS INVENTORS 334 XI. WOMEN AS INSPIRERS AND COLLABORATORS IN SCIENCE 356 XII. THE FUTURE OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE: SUMMARY AND EPILOGUE 390 BIBLIOGRAPHY 419 INDEX 427