Abstract
While there were major differences of national style, funding and career paths between the scientific communities of England, France and the other Continental countries, the scientists themselves shared the same broad intellectual concerns. It is true that while some countries had their especial distinctions—France for pure mathematics and physiology, Germany for organic chemistry and manufacturing optics, and England for experimental physics and observational astronomy—all of these scientists acknowledged the same concepts of nature, and recognised parallel standards of excellence. In her writings between 1825 and 1869, Mary Somerville was to explore this world of ideas, showing herself to be an ingenious experimentalist on the one hand, and a brilliant surveyor, interpreter and high-level communicator of contemporary science on the other.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
- 2.
See Ref. [4].
- 3.
Sir John F.W. Herschel to Mary Somerville, 6–11 June 1831, Royal Society, Herschel Papers, HS16 (345). See also John EW. Herschel, Outlines of Astronomy, 2nd edn. (1849), 564–578.
- 4.
See Ref. [5].
- 5.
See Ref. [6].
- 6.
William Henry Smyth, Bedford, to Mary Somerville, 3 October 1835 and 26 March 1836, reproduced in Mary Somerville, Personal Recollections [n. 5], 210–213. W.H. Smyth, A Cycle of Celestial Objects, vol.2, the Bedford Catalogue (London, 1844), 275. W.H. Smyth, Aedes Hartwellianae, or Notices of the Manor and Mansion of Hartwell (London, 1851), 312–342 for ‘The story of γ Virginis’. I am grateful to R.A. Marriott for drawing my attention to Smyth’s observations in the Bedford Catalogue, and for providing me with details concerning the orbit of γ Virginis.
- 7.
See Ref. [7].
- 8.
See Ref. [8].
- 9.
Mary Somerville, Personal Recollections [n. 5], 105, 134.
- 10.
John F.W. Herschel to Mary Somerville, 17 March 1844. Royal Society MS, Herschel Papers HS16 (348).
- 11.
Mary Somerville to John F.W. Herschel, Rome, 12 November 1843, Royal Society MS, Herschel Papers HS16 [347].
- 12.
Mary Somerville to Lord Rosse, Rome, 11 November 1843, Rosse Archives, Birr Castle [Ireland], K. 17:16.
- 13.
Lord Rosse to Mary Somerville, 12 June 1844, Rosse Archives, Birr Castle, K. 17 Additional [Birr, Ireland]. Reproduced in Mary Somerville, Personal Recollections [n. 5], 215.
- 14.
For Lord Rosse’s discoveries, see Patrick Moore, The Astronomy of Birr Castle (Birr 1981). For the twenty-six private observatories, see Mary Somerville, Personal Recollections [n. 5], 270. Indeed, these twenty-six would include only the major private research observatories, for in its census of British private observatories in 1866, the periodical Astronomical Register 4 (1866), 21, 91, lists forty-eight significant observatories. See also A. Chapman, The Victorian Amateur Astronomer [n. 8], 228.
- 15.
Hoskin, Cambridge History of Astronomy [n. 1], 292–293. For a history of astronomical spectroscopy, sec J.B. Hearnshaw, The Analysis of Starlight. One Hundred and Fifty Years of Astronomical Spectroscopy (Cambridge University Press, 1.986), 71.
- 16.
John F.W. Herschel, ‘Observations of Nebulae and Clusters of stars made at Slough, with a Twenty-feet Reflecting Telescope, between 1825 and 1833’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 123 (1833), 501. John Herschel, Outlines of Astronomy [n. 3], 598–600.
- 17.
See Ref. [9].
- 18.
Mary Somerville, On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences [n. 17], 356.
- 19.
John F.W. Herschel to Mary Somerville, 2 March 1851, Royal Society MS, Herschel Papers HS16 [356].
- 20.
John F.W. Herschel to Mary Somerville, 11 April 1865, Royal Society MS, Herschel Papers HS16 [372].
- 21.
Angus Armitage, William Herschel (T. Nelson & Sons, London, 1962), 56–59. Mary Somerville, On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences [n. 17], 226.
- 22.
Owen Gingerich, ‘Unlocking the chemical Secrets of the Cosmos’, in Gingerich, The Great Copernicus Chase (Sky Publishing, Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Cambridge University Press, 1992), 170–176. Hearnshaw, Analysis of Starlight [n. 15], 20–30, 40–52.
- 23.
Mary Somerville, On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences [n. 17], 186–188.
- 24.
Mary Somerville, On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences [n. 17], 225–226.
- 25.
Mary Somerville, ‘On the magnetizing power of the more refrangible solar rays’, communicated by W. Somerville, M.D., F.R.S., Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 116, 2 (1826), 132–139.
- 26.
Sarah Parkin, ‘Mary Somerville (1780–1872): Her Correspondence and Work on Chemistry’, Oxford University Chemistry Part II Thesis, 2001, 54–60. Copy in History Faculty Library, Oxford. A. Chapman was Sarah Parkin’s thesis supervisor.
- 27.
See Ref. [10].
- 28.
Michael Faraday to Mary Somerville, 12 October 1835, in The Correspondence of Michael Faraday, vol. 2, ed. Frank A.J.L. James (Institute of Electrical Engineers, London, 1993), letter 821.
- 29.
Mary Griffiths (New York) to Mary Somerville, 12 December 1838 (year unclear from script; could also be 1836, but Elizabeth Patterson in her ‘Handlist’ to the Somerville Papers in the Bodleian Library reads the date as 1838): Bodleian Library, Somerville Papers, Dep. c. 370, MGS-2/MSE-1. I have not been able to find Mary Griffiths in the standard dictionaries of women scientists, though her Discoveries in Light and Vision, with a Short Memoir containing discoveries of the mental faculties (C. & G. Carvil, New York, 1836), 300 pp. with 3 plates, is listed anonymously by title in the National Union Catalog, Pre-1956 Imprints, vols. 144 and 218 (Mansell 1971), with a named reference ‘Mary Griffith’ to the anonymous title entry. I have not been able to trace a copy of this book in England.
- 30.
Mary Somerville, a notebook with blue covers, bearing the title page ‘Experiments on light Rome 1845’, Bodleian Library Somerville MS MSSW-13 (Dep. 354).
- 31.
Mary Somerville, ‘On the Action of the Rays of the Spectrum on Vegetable Juices. Extract of a letter from Mrs. M. Somerville to Sir J.F.W. Herschel, Bart., dated Rome, September 20, 1845’, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, Part II for 1846 (1846), 111–119: 118.
- 32.
Sir John F.W. Herschel to Mary Somerville, 21 November 1845, Royal Society MS, Herschel Papers HS16 [352], Also Mary Somerville, Personal Recollections [n. 5], 278.
- 33.
Owen Gingerich, ‘Unlocking the chemical secrets of the Cosmos’ [n. 22], 170–176.
- 34.
J.F.W. Herschel to Mary Somerville, 11 April 1865, Royal Society MS, Herschel Papers, HS16 [372].
- 35.
The best scholarly treatment of Herschel’s photographic researches is found in Larry Schaaf, Out of the Shadows. Herschel, Talbot, and the Invention of Photography (Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1992).
- 36.
Mary Somerville, On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences [n. 17], 356.
- 37.
For a clear account of the Michelson-Morley experiment and what it achieved, see Ian Ridpath, ed., Collins Encyclopedia of the Universe (Harper Collins, London, 2001), 86–87.
- 38.
See Ref. [11].
- 39.
For a detailed examination of Hooke’s geological ideas, see Ellen Tan Drake, Restless Genius: Robert Hooke and his Earthly Thoughts (Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York, 1996). For Halley’s geological ideas see A. Chapman, ‘Edmond Halley’s Use of Historical Evidence in the Advancement of Science’ (Royal Society John Wilkins Prize Lecture in the History of Science), Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 48, 2 (1994), 167–191: 180. A good popular (but somewhat dated) history of early geology is Herbert Wendt, Before the Deluge. The Story of Palaeontology, transl. Richard and Clara Wilson (Victor Gollancz, London, 1968).
- 40.
William Buckland, Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 2 vols. (London, 1836). This ‘Bridgewater Treatise’ by Buckland provided an excellent survey of the science of geology and its intellectual assumptions by 1836.
- 41.
William Buckland, Vindicae Geologicae (Oxford University Press, 1820), 31–32. Also, Buckland, Geology and Mineralogy [n. 40], 18–33.
- 42.
William Buckland, Reliquiae Diluvinae (London, 1823). In this influential essay, Buckland interpreted fossil bone caves and other phenomena in terms of the Flood of Noah, and pre-Noachian floods. Also Nicholaas Rupke, The Great Chain of History. William Buckland and the English School of Geology (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1983), esp. 180–266.
- 43.
Galileo Galilei, Letter to Madame Christina of Lorraine Grand Duchess of Tuscany. Concerning the Use of Biblical Quotations in Matters of Science (1615), in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, translated and introduced with notes by Stillman Drake (Doubleday Anchor, New York, 1957), 175–216.
- 44.
Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology, vol. I (London, 1830), for the ‘Uniformitarian’ theory.
- 45.
Robert Chambers, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (London, 1844, Leicester University Press reprint, 1969). See pp. 165–190 for Chambers’ idea of the chemical and electrical origins of the first living things.
- 46.
Mary Somerville to Woronzow Greig (her son), Rome, 3 August 1845, reprinted in Mary Somerville, Personal Recollections [n. 5], 275–276.
- 47.
Mary Somerville, Personal Recollections [n. 5], 129. Dr. Cockburn’s Address to the British Association was not published as a part of the Association’s official proceedings, but under Cockburn’s own imprimatur, as The Bible Defended Against the British Association (London, 1844). Cockburn argued that the complex strata and palaeontological evidences that were part and parcel of academic geology by 1844 did not, in fact, signify pre-Genesis time scales, but were the products of divine miracles taking place within relatively recent history. His position is not dissimilar to that of certain modern-day American Fundamentalist groups. A vivid account of Cockburn’s reception was given in a letter from Richarda Airy, wife of the Astronomer Royal, as passed on to her by her husband George: ‘Mr. Airy found everybody talking about the Dean of York’s attack on the Association on the grounds of infidelity. Mr. Sedgwick it seems had been hammering him down most successfully: and the ladies had gone down in crowds to witness the execution’, Lady Richarda Airy to Lady Margaret Herschel, (Greenwich), 6 October 1844. Letter in private possession of the Airy family, to whom I am indebted for the loan of this and many other family documents.
- 48.
Mary Somerville to Woronzow Greig, Rome, 28 May 1845, in Personal Recollections [n. 5], 278.
- 49.
Mary Somerville to J.F.W. Herschel, Naples, 26[?] September 1868, Royal Society MS, Herschel Papers HS16 [377] for reference to brigands.
- 50.
Mary Somerville, Personal Recollections [n. 5], 106.
- 51.
Mary Somerville, Personal Recollections [n. 5], 125.
Mary Somerville to J.F.W. Herschel, Naples, 12 November 1868, Royal Society MS, Herschel Papers HS16 [375] refers to Vesuvius, which had been in eruption for nearly 4 months. In Physical Geography, 2nd edn. (London, 1849), Chapters 1 and 2, there is extensive discussion about volcanic and related forces.
References
Armitage, A. (1962). William Herschel (pp. 88–94). London: T. Nelson & Sons.
Hoskin, M. (1997). Cambridge Illustrated History of Astronomy (pp. 235–237). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chapman, A. (1989). William Herschel and the Measurement of Space. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society, 30, 399–418.
Grant, R. (1852). History of Physical Astronomy (pp. 561–562). London: Forgotten Books.
Brown, E. (1890, November). Programmes of the directors of the observing sections. Solar section. Journal of the British Astronomical Association, 1(2), 58–60.
Somerville, M. (1873). Personal Recollections (p. 219). London: Forgotten Books.
Somerville, M. (1836). On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences (p. 412). London: Forgotten Books.
Chapman, A. (1998). The Victorian Amateur Astronomer. Independent Astronomical Research in Britain 1820–1920 (pp. 93–95). Chichester and New York: Praxis-Wiley.
Somerville, M. (1836). On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences (3rd ed.) (p. 357). London: Forgotten Books.
Somerville, M. (1836). Extrait d’une lettre de Mme. Sommerville [sic] à M. Arago—Expériences sur la transmission de rayons chimiques du spectre solaire, à travers différents milieux. Comptes Rendus Hebdomaines de sciences de l’Académie des Sciences, 3, 473–476.
Rudwick, M. (1972). The Meaning of Fossils. Episodes in the History of Palaeontology, Chapter 3. London, New York: MacDonald, American Elsevier.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Chapman, A. (2015). The Domain of Nature: Astronomy, Optics and Geology. In: Mary Somerville and the World of Science. SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09399-4_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09399-4_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-09398-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-09399-4
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)