Robert McNees
Mary Somerville was born #OTD in 1780. She was a scientist, writer, and artist; the first woman (along with Caroline Herschel) to belong to the Royal Astronomical Society; and the first signature on Mill’s 1868 Women’s Suffrage petition.
Image: self portrait (Somerville College, Oxford)
Robert McNees
The Morning Post called Somerville the “Queen of Nineteenth Century Science.” Her book “Physical Geography” (1848) remained in use as a textbook into the 20th century.
But Somerville was probably better know for her immensely popular 1834 book “On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences.” It summarized, in accessible terms, what was known at the time about astronomy, physics, chemistry, geography and other subjects.
Robert McNees
It was in a review of this last book that William Whewell, lamenting a lack of unity among the physical sciences, first used the term “scientist” (which he had coined the previous year) in publication.
And while it seems that Whewell did not apply the phrase there to Somerville, specifically, there is little doubt that he admired her greatly and thought of her in those terms. His correspondence is full of glowing references to her and her work.
Robert McNees
A very nice blog post bout Mary Somerville, by @rmathematicus:
https://thonyc.wordpress.com/2014/10/14/the-queen-of-science-the-woman-who-tamed-laplace/
Linda
@mcnees we recognise Mary in Scotland. She adorns our Scottish £10 notes
LillyLyle/Count Melancholia
@mcnees Bit too yellow
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