The Second Stay Abroad

Abstract

In the summer of 1832 when cholera was at its height in London,¹ Mary Somerville suffered ‘two severe bilious . . . attacks at Chelsea’² from which her recovery was slow and that left her thin and weak. Her husband insisted that she have a complete change of air and scene and they fixed upon a jaunt to Paris. Mrs. Somerville would have opportunity there for rest and diversion in surroundings she already knew. She, whose Laplace rendition had won the approval of Parisian savants, could expect a cordial reception, interesting invitations, and helpful conversations. Their daughters, now 15 and 17, had never been abroad and would profit from exposure to the culture and style of the French capital. Both girls spoke and wrote French and German well enough to serve on occasion as translators for their mother’s scientific friends³ and were, for their years, remarkably easy in intellectual society. They had no flair for mathematics or science, but could converse about literature and art. Neither girl was pretty — Martha resembled her father, Mary was more like her mother — but they were fun-loving and musical, interested in dress, parties and entertainments.