WOMEN IN THE NATURAL SCIENCES
It is reasonable to suppose that women, who are such lovers of nature,
have always had a greater or less interest in the natural sciences,
especially in botany and zoology; but the fact remains that the first
one of their sex to write at any length on the various kingdoms of
nature was that extraordinary nun of the Middle Ages, St. Hildegard, the
learned abbess of the Benedictine convent of St. Rupert, at Bingen on
the Rhine. Of an exceptionally versatile and inquiring mind, her range
of study and acquirement was truly encyclopaedic. In this respect she was
the worthy forerunner of Albert the Great, the famous _Doctor
Universalis_ of Scholasticism.
Although St. Hildegard has much to say about nature in several of her
works, the one of chiefest interest to us as an exposition of the
natural history of her time is her treatise entitled _Liber Subtilitatum
Diversarum Naturarum Creaturarum_. It is usually known by its more
abbreviated name, _Physica_, and, considering the circumstances under
which it was written, is, in many ways, a most remarkable production. It
consists of nine books treating of minerals, plants, fishes, birds,
insects and quadrupeds. The book on plants is composed of no fewer than
two hundred and thirty chapters, while that on birds contains
seventy-two chapters.
In reading Hildegard's descriptions of animated nature we are often
reminded of Pliny's great work on natural history; but, so far as known,
there is no positive evidence that the learned religieuse had any
acquaintance whatever with the writings of the old Roman naturalist. Had
she had, the general tenor of her work would have been quite different
from what it actually is.
The mystery, then, is, what were the sources of _Physica_? Some have
fancied that Hildegard in preparing this made use of the writings not
only of Pliny and Virgil, but also of those of Macer, Constantinus
Africanus, Walafrid Strabo, Isodore of Seville, and other writers who
were in great vogue during the Middle Ages. The general consensus of
opinion, however, of those who have carefully studied this interesting
problem is that the gentle nun was not acquainted with any of the
authors named, except, possibly, Isodore of Seville, whose works were
all held in high esteem, especially during the period of Hildegard's
greatest literary activity.
Hildegard's _Physica_ has a special value for philologists, as well as
for students of natural history, for it contains the German names of
plants still used by the people of the Fatherland seven hundred years
after they were penned by the painstaking abbess of St. Rupert's.[164]
Referring to the Saint's work entitled _De Natura Hominis, Elementorum,
Diversarumque Creaturarum_--a treatise on the nature of man, the
elements and divers created things--no less an authority than Dr.
Charles Daremberg declares that it will always hold an important place
in the history of medical art and of inanimate and animate
nature--_insignis semper locus debetitur in artis medicae rerumque
naturalium historia_.[165]
He even goes further and affirms that Hildegard was familiar with
numerous facts of science regarding which other mediaeval writers were
entirely ignorant. More than this. She was acquainted with many of
nature's secrets which were unknown to men of science until recent
times, and which, on being disclosed by modern researches, have been
proclaimed to the world as new discoveries.[166]
One reason why St. Hildegard's writings on botany, zoology and
mineralogy are not better known is that few students care to make the
effort to master her voluminous works. They require long and assiduous
study and a knowledge of her peculiarities of style and expression which
is acquired only after patient and persistent labor. But the labor is
not in vain, as is evidenced by the numerous monographs which have
appeared in recent years, especially in Germany, on the scientific works
of this marvelous nun of the twelfth century. All things considered, the
Abbess of Bingen may be said to hold the same position in the natural
sciences of her time as was held in the physical and mathematical
sciences seven hundred years earlier by the illustrious Hypatia of
Alexandria.
After the death of St. Hildegard, full six centuries elapsed before any
one of her sex again achieved distinction in the domain of natural
science. And then, strange to relate, the first woman who won fame by
her knowledge of science and by her contributions to it, did so in the
field where a woman would, one would think, be least disposed to
exercise her talent and least likely to find congenial work. It was in
the then comparatively new science of human anatomy--a science which had
been inaugurated in the famous medical schools of Salerno and which was
subsequently so highly developed in the great University of Bologna.
The name of this remarkable woman was Anna Morandi Manzolini. She was
born in 1716 in Bologna, where, after a brilliant career in her favorite
branch of science, she died at the age of fifty-eight. She held the
chair of anatomy in the University of Bologna for many years, and is
noted for a number of important discoveries made as the result of her
dissections of cadavers.
But she won a still greater title to fame by the marvelous skill which
she exhibited in making anatomical models out of indurated wax. They
were so carefully fashioned that some of them could scarcely be
distinguished from the parts of the body from which they were modeled.
As aids in the study of anatomy they were most highly valued and eagerly
sought for on all sides. The collection which she made for her own use
was, after her death, acquired by the Medical Institute of Bologna and
prized as one of its most precious possessions.
Three years after her demise, Luigi Galvani, professor of anatomy in the
same university in which Anna had achieved such fame, made use of these
wax models for a course of lectures on the organs and structure of the
human body.
These famous models, first perfected by Anna Manzolini, were the
archetypes of the exquisite wax models of Vassourie as well as of the
unrivaled _papier-mache_ creations of Dr. Auzoux and of all similar
productions now so extensively used in our schools and colleges.
Even during the lifetime of the gifted modeler there were demands for
specimens of her work from all parts of Italy. From many cities in
Europe, even from London and St. Petersburg, she received the most
flattering offers for her services. So eager was Milan to have her
accept a position which had been offered her that the city authorities
sent her a blank contract and begged her to name her own conditions. But
she could never be induced to leave the home of her childhood and the
city which had witnessed and applauded her triumphs of maturer years.
Men of learning and eminence, on passing through Bologna, invariably
made it a point to call on the learned _professora_ in order to make her
acquaintance and to see her wonderful anatomical collection, which was
celebrated throughout Europe as _Supellex Manzoliniana_. Among these
visitors was Joseph II of Austria. So greatly was His Majesty impressed
by Anna's rare intellectual attainments and by her marvelous skill in
reproducing the various parts of the "human form divine" that he could
not take leave of her without showing his appreciation of them by
loading her with gifts worthy of a sovereign.[167]
A contemporary of Anna Manzolini, who also distinguished herself in the
preparation of anatomical models, was the French woman, Mlle. Biheron.
Her facsimiles of parts of the human body were, according to Mme. de
Genlis, so true to nature that they could not be distinguished from the
originals. This led the facetious Chevalier Ringle, after examining a
specimen of her handiwork, to declare, "Verily, it is so perfect that it
lacks only the odor of the natural object."
While yet prince royal, Gustavus of Sweden visited the French Academy of
Sciences in Paris. Here he was entertained by a number of experiments in
anatomy. The demonstrator was Mlle. Biheron, who is said to have had a
veritable passion for both anatomy and surgery. So impressed was
Gustavus with the extraordinary skill and knowledge of this gifted
daughter of France that he offered her the position of demonstrator of
anatomy in the royal University of Sweden.
Other branches of science, apparently quite as alien as anatomy to
women's taste and talent, are mineralogy and metallurgy. Yet as early as
the first half of the seventeenth century, the Baroness de Beausoleil
had achieved a great reputation by her investigations into the mineral
treasures of France. Indeed, she may, strange as it may appear, be
regarded as the first mining engineer of her native land. She details
the qualifications of a mining engineer and tells us he must, among
other things, be well versed in chemistry, mineralogy, geometry,
mechanics and hydraulics. As for herself, she assures us that she
devoted thirty years of unremitting study to these divers branches.
To Mme. de Beausoleil is also attributed the glory of awakening her
countrymen's interest in the mineral resources of France, and of showing
them how their proper exploitation would inure not only to the credit of
the nation abroad but also to its prosperity at home.
She was the author of two works which prove that she was a woman of rare
attainments combined with exceptional breadth of view and political
acumen. She was deeply concerned in the development of the mineral
resources of her country and foresaw how greatly they could be made to
contribute to the augmentation of the nation's finances.
Her work entitled _La Restitution de Pluton_ is a report on the mines
and ore deposits of France, and is a document as precious as it is
curious. It was addressed to Cardinal Richelieu, and shows how the
French monarch could, if the subterranean treasures of the country were
properly developed, become the greatest ruler in Christendom and his
subjects the happiest of all peoples.
Another report by this energetic and enthusiastic woman is in the same
strain. In it she proves how the King of France, by utilizing the
underground riches of his country, could make himself and his people
independent of all other nations.[168]
In these two productions Mme. de Beausoleil treats of the science of
mining, the different kinds of mines, the assaying of ores and the
divers methods of smelting them, as well as of the general principles of
metallurgy, as then understood. But, unlike the majority of her
contemporaries, this enlightened woman had no patience with those who
believed that the earth's hidden treasures could not be discovered
without recourse to magic or to the aid of demons. She was unsparing in
her ridicule of those who had faith in the existence of gnomes and
kobolds, or thought that ore deposits could be located only by
divining-rods or similar foolish contrivances which were relics of an
ignorant and superstitious age.
The same century that witnessed the exploring activity of the Baroness
de Beausoleil saw the beginnings of the notable achievements of a
daughter of Germany, well known in the annals of science as Maria
Sibylla Merian. Born in Frankfort in 1647, she died in Amsterdam in
1717, after a somewhat checkered career, most of which was devoted to
the pursuit of natural history. So fond was she of flowers and insects
that it is said they told her all their secrets.
After having familiarized herself with the fauna and flora of her native
land, she proceeded to investigate the collections of the principal
European cabinets of natural history. This only fired her ambition to
see more of the world and study Nature where she is seen in her greatest
splendor and luxuriance.
She accordingly resolved to undertake a journey to the equatorial
regions of South America. Such a voyage can now be made with comparative
ease, but in her days it was fraught with discomforts and dangers of all
kinds, and one that no woman thought to venture on unless obliged to do
so by stern necessity.
But she was set on investigating animals and plants in their own
habitats in the glorious and exuberant flora of the tropics and,
accompanied by her two daughters, Helena and Dorothea, she embarked for
Surinam. Here, assisted by her daughters, who, like their mother, were
both skillful artists, the intrepid naturalist spent two years in
studying the wonders of plant and animal life that everywhere greeted
her delighted vision. All the time not occupied in research work was
devoted to sketching and painting those superb insects that are so
abundant in tropical fields and forests.[169]
Returning to Holland with her precious scientific treasures, she began
the preparation of a work that will long endure as a monument to her
knowledge and industry. It was a magnificent volume in folio on the
insects of Surinam. It appeared simultaneously in Dutch and Latin, and
was subsequently translated into French.
In illustrating this sumptuous work, Frau Merian was greatly assisted by
her younger daughter, Dorothea. The etchings and hand-colored
reproductions of the gorgeous butterflies and flowers of Surinam
commanded universal admiration, and marked a new epoch in book-making.
Even to-day this noble volume is eagerly sought by both book-lovers and
men of science, for it is not only a work of rare conception and beauty
but also one of exceptional accuracy in illustration and statement of
fact.[170]
Besides etchings of multiform insects, lizards and batrachians
indigenous to Dutch Guiana, there were in this unique volume carefully
executed illustrations of plants and trees peculiar to tropical America,
such as vanilla, cacao, and the species of manihot which constitutes the
staff of life of so large a portion of the population in the basins of
the Amazon and the Orinoco.
A new and enlarged edition of this work was published after Frau
Merian's death by her daughter Dorothea. The same gifted daughter showed
her interest in her parent's work and her devotion to her memory by
bringing out a beautifully illustrated edition of her mother's earliest
work which treated of the wonderful life-history of silkworms.[171]
The century following that which had celebrated the scientific triumphs
of Maria Merian found in Josephine Kablick, born in 1787 in Hohenelbe,
Bohemia, a woman who was destined to prove a worthy successor, as a
nature-student, of the noted daughter of Frankfort-on-the-Main.
From her tenderest years she exhibited a passionate love for every form
of plant life. In addition to this, she had, while yet young, the good
fortune of studying under the best botanists of her time.
Soon she became an enthusiastic collector and was in a short time the
happy possessor of a herbarium which contained many new species of
plants which she had discovered during her frequent botanical
excursions. From making collections for her private herbarium, she was
gradually led to make collections for the schools and colleges of her
native country, as well as for the museums and learned societies of
various parts of Europe. Many public institutions owed to her cordial
cooperation some of the choicest treasures in their herbaria, and not a
few botanical writers of her day found in her an intelligent and
sympathetic collaborator.
But Frau Kablick's interest in nature was not confined to plants. She
was an assiduous student of paleontology as well as of botany, and the
many fossil animals and plants named in her honor testify to her success
in the pursuit of her favorite branches of science.
There was nothing of the conventional blue-stocking about this ardent
votary of nature. Strong and healthy, neither wind nor rain interfered
with her fieldwork in botany or paleontology. It was her greatest
pleasure to roam through dark forests and scale high mountains in search
of new species of plants and fossils. And the success which rewarded her
efforts was such that the old and trained naturalists among her male
friends had reason to envy her good fortune as an explorer.
But Frau Kablick never permitted her frequent excursions, or her
devotion to science, to cause her to neglect the duties of her
household. Fortunately, her husband was also an ardent student of
nature, and while his wife was devoting her attention to botany and
paleontology, he was making investigations in zoology and mineralogy.
They spent fifty happy years together in the pursuit of science and
their joint efforts contributed not a little toward the advancement of
the branches of science to which they had devoted their lives with such
well-directed effort and enthusiasm.
As the fruitful life of Josephine Kablick who had shed such luster on
her sex in Bohemia was drawing to a close, a young woman in Germany,
Amalie Dietrich by name, was preparing herself to fill the void which
would be occasioned by her predecessor's death. Her first love, as a
young girl, was plant life, and this was subsequently accentuated by her
husband, who was not only a botanist himself but also one who belonged
to a distinguished family of botanists.
A keen observer and an indefatigable collector, Frau Dietrich soon
became known throughout Europe as a botanist of marked ability and
daring. She was wont, unaccompanied, to climb the highest peaks of the
Salzburg Alps, and spend entire weeks there seeking new species of
Alpine flora. During the day she explored the deep ravines and clambered
along the brambly ledges of beetling precipices, and during the night
she sought shelter and repose in the humble hut of some hospitable
herdsman.
Valuable, however, as was Amalie Dietrich's work in the Austrian Alps,
it was but a preparation for that which some years later she was to
enter upon in far-off Australia. Here she devoted twelve of the best
years of her life to the cultivation of botany in the virgin soil of
Queensland. Here, too, she surprised everyone by her venturesome spirit
no less than by her irrepressible zeal in making collections. Heedless
of danger, she plunged quite alone into the wilderness and spent days
and weeks at a time with the wild aborigines.
But she secured what she went in quest of,--a large and valuable
collection of plants, containing many new and interesting species.
Besides these, she was able to bring back with her to Europe a large
mass of zoological specimens as well as countless domestic utensils and
implements of warfare and husbandry employed by the savages among whom
she so frequently journeyed and with whose manners and customs she
eventually became so familiar.
Modest and trustworthy, Frau Dietrich had a host of friends in the
scientific world, and the number of plants which bear her name are not
only a tribute to her worth, but a striking evidence of the extent of
her activity in the pursuit of the science which became the absorbing
passion of her life.[172]
Of Russian women who have become specially noted for their contributions
to natural science, a very prominent place must be assigned to Sophia
Pereyaslawzewa. After receiving the doctorate of science in the
University of Zurich, she became director of the biological station at
Sebastopol, a position she held with great eclat during twelve years.
Here she made numerous important researches on manifold forms of marine
life and prepared many works for the press in German and French, as well
as in her native Russian. Her _Monographie de Turbellaries de la Mer
Noire_, a large and beautifully illustrated volume published at Odessa
in 1892, placed her at once among biologists of the first rank. Indeed,
so meritorious was this production of the talented daughter of Holy
Russia that the Congress of Naturalists in 1893 did not hesitate to
recognize its exceptional value by conferring on the fair authoress a
special prize.
This gifted biologist has since rendered distinct service in the cause
of science by her explorations of the Gulf of Naples and the coasts of
France. Her activity is prodigious, and the long list of books and
monographs which she has published on the lower forms of marine life in
the Black and Mediterranean seas shows that she has a capacity for work
that is truly extraordinary.
Here is, probably, the place to make mention of a woman of encyclopaedic
mind, Clemence Augustine Royer, who was born in 1830 in Nantes, France.
She wrote on such a variety of subjects that it is difficult to classify
her. She was in no sense of the word a specialist, and she seems by
temperament to have been averse to confining herself to any one branch
of knowledge.
Her first work to attract particular attention was one on a topic
connected with political economy. A prize had been offered for the
discussion of this subject, and the little French woman acquitted
herself so well that she had the honor of sharing the prize with the
noted Proudhon. She has also written many works on philosophy and
physics. Among these are two which attracted considerable notice at the
time of their publication. In one of them she attacks the positivism of
Comte; in the other she assails Laplace's hypothesis regarding the
origin of the material universe.
But the work which made her famous, particularly in France, was her
translation into French in 1862 of Darwin's _Origin of Species_. It is
safe to say that this version created as much of a sensation in France
as the original had caused in Great Britain and America. Her preface to
the work of the English naturalist, in which she indicates the results
which flow from an acceptance of the transformist theory, created a
veritable storm in both religious and scientific circles.
So gratified was Madame Royer by the impression made by this preface and
so pleased was she with the controversy which she had started, that she
expanded her summary of the theory of evolution as therein given and
published it in 1870 under the title of _Origine de l'Homme et de
Societes_. This production was so revolutionary in character and so
subversive of teachings long held sacred that it provoked an indignant
protest from all quarters, and the author was at once ranked with such
radical exponents of the new science as Voght, Buechner and Haeckel.
After the appearance of this production, she wrote numerous other works,
several of them on subjects relating to natural science, especially in
its connection with anthropology and prehistoric archaeology. And so
great was her breadth of view and so exceptional was her grasp of all
subjects discussed by her that Renan declared of her, _Elle est presque
un homme de genie_--She is almost a man of genius.
Mme. Royer was frequently spoken of as a candidate for the French
Institute, but she was so well aware of the prejudices against the
admission of women to membership in this learned body that she never
allowed herself to consider the proposal seriously. She was certainly a
brainy woman, and in her own department of intellectual effort she
exhibited as much talent as did George Sand and Mme. de Stael in
literature and history.
An entirely different type of woman from the radical and disputatious
Mme. Royer was the charming and cultured lady, Miss Eleanor Ormerod, her
contemporary, who, in her chosen department of science, won both fame
and the lasting gratitude of her fellowmen.
Miss Ormerod, unlike Mme. Royer, was preeminently a specialist, and the
branch of science in which she achieved distinction was entomology, or
rather that branch of it known as economic entomology. From her
childhood she manifested an unusual interest in all forms of insects,
but particularly in those which are serviceable to mankind or are
destructive to farms and gardens, orchards and forests.
Fortunately for the gratification of her peculiar bent of mind, nearly
half of Miss Ormerod's life was spent in a locality which was specially
favorable to the study of insects which are obnoxious to the gardener,
the farmer and the forester. This was at the confluence of the Wye and
the Severn, where her father owned a large landed estate, part of which
was under cultivation and part wood and park land.
Here the young girl made her first collection of insects, and here she
began her studies on the cause and nature of the parasitic attacks upon
crops. Here she first realized the frightful ravages that were
occasioned by the manifold insect pests that infest not only trees,
shrubs, cereals and vegetables, but also flocks and herds as well. And
here, too, she resolved to devote her life to devising preventive and
remedial treatment for the evils which were robbing the husbandman of so
great a part of the fruits of his toil.
After taking this generous resolution, the life of our young heroine
was, like that of Liebig and Pasteur, devoted to the welfare of her
fellowmen. And like these noble benefactors of their race, her thought
was always how she might prevent the losses and increase the products of
the tillers of the soil. Entomology with her was not mere
nomenclature--a knowledge of strange and fantastic names, which, with
the ignorant, constitutes a distinction--but one of the most practical
and useful of the sciences.
Miss Ormerod might, had she so elected, have won fame as a systematic
entomologist and as a distinguished contributor to the already long list
of genera and species of insects. She might have devoted herself to
theoretical work, or bent her energies towards the general advancement
of the science, like Fabricius, Swammerdam, Westwood and Burnmeister;
but she preferred to forego all the glory that might accrue from
pursuing such a course, and to direct her efforts in such wise as to be
of most service to humanity.
Like the great Pasteur, after his long and laborious experimental
researches on silkworm diseases, Miss Ormerod could, at the end of her
illustrious career, declare with truth: "The results which I have
obtained are, perhaps, less brilliant than those which I might have
anticipated from researches pursued in the field of pure science, but I
have the satisfaction of having served my country in endeavoring, to the
best of my ability, to discover the remedy for great misery. It is to
the honor of a scientific man that he values discoveries which at their
birth can only obtain the esteem of his equals, far above those which at
once conquer the favor of the crowd by the immediate utility of their
application; but, in the presence of misfortune, it is equally an honor
to sacrifice everything in the endeavor to relieve it."[173]
Miss Ormerod's labors were not, it is true, instrumental in rescuing
from destruction a nation's chief industries, as were Pasteur's in the
case of his famous researches on the phyloxera of the grape vine or the
pebrine of the silkworm. Nor had they to do with such frightful
industrial disturbances as have frequently been occasioned by rinderpest
or by the potato blight in Ireland in 1845.
This is true in so far as any one pest is concerned. But when one
reflects on the scope of Miss Ormerod's investigations and considers how
far-reaching were her researches and how many and diverse industries
were embraced by the remedial and prophylactic measures which she
proposed, one cannot but realize the immense importance of her
life-work.
The fact that her activities were confined chiefly to old and well-known
pests--insects from which the farmer and the gardener and the forester
had suffered for centuries, and which they had come to regard as
necessary and inevitable evils--does not detract from the merit and the
value of her labors. That she should have taken up a work which affected
so many people and have been so successful in abating, or in entirely
removing evils which had so long afflicted agriculturists and
stock-growers, shows that she was a woman of rare courage and
determination as well as one of invincible persistence and of
intellectual resources of a very high order.
During more than a quarter of a century Miss Ormerod devoted practically
the whole of her time to the study of economic entomology and to
spreading a knowledge of it among her countrymen. From 1877 to 1898 she
published annual reports on injurious insects and sent them broadcast
throughout Great Britain and her colonies. In addition to this she wrote
a number of manuals and textbooks on insects injurious to food crops,
forest trees, orchards and bush fruits.
Nor was this all. She also prepared for gratuitous distribution a large
number of four-page leaflets on the most common farm pests. Of the
leaflet, for instance, on the warble-fly, its life-history, methods of
prevention and remedy, no less than a hundred and seventy thousand
copies were printed. And so great was the demand for her leaflet on the
gooseberry red spider that a single mail brought her an order for three
thousand copies.
Miss Ormerod, it is proper to state here, received no remuneration
whatever for her great services to the public. On the contrary, she gave
not only all her time gratuitously, but bore a great part of the expense
of printing and distributing her publications. The amount of good she
thus did unaided and alone cannot be estimated.
In her leaflet on the warble-fly, also known as bot-fly, she estimates
the annual damage to the stock-growers of the United Kingdom from this
pest at from L3,000,000 to L4,000,000. The losses due to fruit, grain
and vegetable insects of various kinds, before she began her insect
crusade, were much greater. In Great Britain and her colonies they
amounted to very many millions of pounds sterling every year.[174]
And most of these losses, as she demonstrated, were preventable by
simple precautions which she eventually succeeded in inducing the people
to adopt. How much she was instrumental in saving annually to the
farmers and gardeners of England by her writings and lectures can only
be imagined, but the sum must have been immense.
When we recollect that Miss Ormerod accomplished all her work before it
occurred to the English Board of Agriculture to appoint a government
entomologist, we shall realize what a pioneer she was in the career in
which she achieved such distinction and through which she conferred such
inestimable benefits upon her fellows.
Miss Ormerod's entomological publications, especially her annual
reports, brought her into relations with people of all classes
throughout the whole world. Her correspondence, in consequence, was
enormous, and not infrequently amounted to from fifty to a hundred
letters a day. The great entomologists of Europe and America held her in
the highest esteem, and had implicit faith in her judgment in all
matters pertaining to her specialty.
One day she would receive a letter from an English gardener begging for
a remedy against the strawberry beetle. The next day she would have a
similar letter regarding mite-galls on black currants, or pea-weevil
larvae or clover-eel worms. Again there would be a communication from
Norway requesting advice about the Hessian fly, or from Argentina asking
information concerning a certain kind of destructive grass beetle, or
from India appealing for help against a pernicious species of forest
fly, or from South Africa seeking a relief from the boot-beetle. And
still again, she was consulted by her foreign correspondents about
termites, which were causing havoc among the young cocoa trees of
Ceylon, or about certain peculiar species of Australian larvae, or about
the devastating action of the pine beetle in the Scotch forests, or
about the wheat midge and antler moth in Finland.
One day she had a communication from the Austrian Embassy regarding a
beetle that was eating the oats about Constantinople, and not long
afterwards she received a letter from the Chinese Minister in London
begging for information as to how to prevent the ravages of certain
noxious bugs in the lee-chee orchards of China.
In view of all these facts it is not surprising that Miss Ormerod became
an active and valued colleague of some of England's most noted
scientific men. Professor Huxley said of her in connection with certain
work performed by her as a member of one of the committees to which he
belonged that "she knew more about the business" than all the rest put
together.
Miss Ormerod's services and attainments, it is gratifying to note, were
not without recognition in high quarters. Besides being in constant
correspondence with the most eminent entomologists of the world,
consulting entomologist to the Royal Agricultural Society of England and
examiner in agricultural entomology in the University of Edinburgh, she
was a member of many learned societies in both the Old and the New
World. She was also the recipient of many medals, two of which came from
Russia.
The honor, however, which gave her the most pleasure was the degree of
Doctor of Laws, which was conferred on her by the University of
Edinburgh. It was the first time this old and conservative institution
thus honored a woman, but in honoring Miss Ormerod it honored itself as
well.[175]
But when one considers the magnitude of Miss Ormerod's services to her
country and to the world, when one reflects on the tens of millions of
pounds sterling which she saved to the British Empire by her researches
and writings, these honors seem trivial and unworthy of the great nation
which she so signally benefited. If any of her countrymen had labored so
long and so successfully and made so many sacrifices for the welfare of
the nation as she had, he would have been knighted or ennobled. But
age-long prejudices and traditions will not yet permit England to bestow
the same honors on women as on men, no matter how brilliant their
attainments or how distinguished their services to the crown and to
humanity. Recognition of this kind may possibly come as one of the
desirable innovations of the twentieth century. No lover of fair play
can deny "'tis a consummation devoutly to be wished."[176]
The names of the women in the United States who have become prominent by
their researches and writings in the various branches of the natural
sciences would make a long list. And when one recalls the fact that it
was only in the latter part of the nineteenth century that American
women were afforded an opportunity to study science, it is a matter of
surprise that the list is so extended. For practically no provision was
made for the serious pursuit by them of the natural sciences until the
opening of Vassar College in 1865, and it was not until the closing
years of the century that the portals of many men's colleges were
unlocked and thrown open to the hitherto proscribed sex. Considering all
the obstacles they had to overcome, the ignorance, the prejudice, the
opposition of all kinds they had to combat in the United States, women
have already accomplished wonders and bid fair to achieve much more in
the near future.
Now almost every educational institution in the land, private or state,
has one or more women professors or associate professors. They teach all
the branches of the natural sciences that are taught by their male
colleagues,--botany, geology, mineralogy, zoology, anatomy, bacteriology
and all the numerous subdivisions of these sciences,--and they teach
them with success and eclat.
They also occupy responsible scientific positions in various state and
federal institutions. Thus one woman has been the principal of the
Denver School of Mines, while another has been the state entomologist
for Missouri. Women are also found doing important work in the National
Museum, in the Smithsonian Institution, and in the Agricultural
Department in Washington, as well as in the various museums, botanical
gardens and public laboratories of the country from the Atlantic to the
Pacific.
Among those who have deserved well of science in the United States by
their investigations and writings are Olive Thorne Miller and Florence
Merriam in ornithology; Susanna Phelps Gage, Dr. Ida H. Hyde, Mary H.
Hinckley, Cornelia M. Clapp, Edith J. and Agnes M. Claypole in biology;
Rose S. Eigenman in icthyology; Edith M. Patch, Elizabeth W. Peckham,
Emily A. Smith, Cora H. Clarke, J. M. Arms Sheldon, Mary Treat, Mary E.
Murfeldt, Annie T. Slosson in entomology; Elizabeth G. Britton and Clara
E. Cummings in cryptogamic botany; Sarah A. Plummer Lemmon, Katherine E.
Golden, Alice Eastman and Almira Lincoln Phelps in general botany; Ada
D. Davidson, Ella F. Boyd and Florence Bascom in geology. Besides these,
special mention should also be made of Dr. Julia W. Snow for her work on
the microscopical forms of fresh-water algae; Anna Botsford Comstock for
her contributions to our knowledge of microscopic insects; Katherine J.
Bush for her monographs on shallow and deep-water molusca; Harriet
Randolph and Fannie E. Langdon for their studies on worms, and Katherine
Foot for her papers on cellular morphology. Particularly notable, too,
is the work that has been done on marine invertebrates by Mary J.
Rathbun in the United States National Museum and by Florence Wambaugh
Patterson in vegetable physiology and pathology in the Department of
Agriculture in Washington.
But much as the women just named deserve recognition for their
achievements in the various branches of science to which they have
severally devoted themselves, the one who will always be specially
remembered, not only for her valuable contributions to divers branches
of natural science, but also for her labors in behalf of higher female
education--particularly as president of Radcliffe College--is Mrs.
Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, the wife of the celebrated Swiss-American
naturalist, who gave such an impetus to the study of natural science in
the United States, and whose influence on the general advancement of
science in all its departments has proved so enduring and so
far-reaching. As an inspirer of and collaborator with her gifted
husband, Mrs. Agassiz deserves a large page in the annals of science,
while as an enthusiastic student of nature and as one who communicated
her enthusiasm to her students, and at the same time held up before them
the highest ideals of womanhood, she is sure of a portion of that
immortality which has been decreed to her illustrious life-partner, Jean
Louis Agassiz.
This chapter would not be complete without some reference to that large
class of women travelers who, directly or indirectly, have contributed
so much to the advancement of the natural sciences. The gifted Roumanian
writer and traveler, Princess Helena Kolzoff Massalsky,--better known
under her pseudonym, Doria d'Istria,--somewhere expresses the opinion
that a woman traveler admirably supplements the scientific work of the
male explorer by bringing to it aptitudes that the latter does not
possess. For she notes many things in nature, as well as in the national
life and popular customs of the countries which she traverses, which
escape the more hebetudinous perceptions of men, and thus a vast field,
that would otherwise remain unknown, is opened to observation and
critical study.
One of the most noted travelers of her sex in the nineteenth century was
the famous Ida Pfeiffer, of Austria. During the years intervening
between 1842 and 1858, the date of her death, she traveled nearly two
hundred thousand miles and, in so doing, visited nearly every quarter of
the globe. When one recalls the difficulties and discomforts of
transportation in the early part of the last century, as compared with
our present facilities and conveniences, and bears in mind the fact that
her traveling expenses for an entire year were less than those of a
Lamartine or a Chateaubriand for a single week, we must admit that her
achievements were, indeed, extraordinary.
Besides being the author of numerous books which had for many years a
great vogue--books which, by reason of the keen observations and the
absolutely truthful narratives of their author, are still of special
value to the student of geography and ethnology--she made collections
illustrative of botany, mineralogy and entomology which were
subsequently secured for the British Museum and other similar
institutions in Europe.
No one more highly appreciated Frau Pfeiffer's efforts in behalf of
science than did the illustrious Alexander von Humboldt, whose
friendship was one of the greatest joys of this remarkable woman's life.
Through his recommendation and that of the noted geographer, Karl
Ritter, she was made an honorary member of the Geographical Society of
Berlin. Besides this, the King of Prussia conferred on her the gold
medal for arts and sciences.
Three other women, all representatives of Great Britain, likewise
deserve notice for their extensive travels and the interesting and
instructive accounts which they published of them. These are Constance
Gordon Cumming, Isabella Bird Bishop and Amelia B. Edwards.
More notable in many respects than these three distinguished women were
Miss Mary H. Kingsley and Madame Octavie Coudreau. For their
contributions to science and for their daring adventures in savage
lands, they have won for themselves an unique position among women
explorers.
Miss Kingsley--the niece of the well-known writer and naturalist,
Charles Kingsley--exhibited much of her uncle's literary ability and
love of nature. So complete was her intellectual grasp of the most
difficult problems, and so rare was her overflowing sympathy for all of
God's creatures, that she was well described as possessing "the brain of
a man and the heart of a woman."
In order to get at first-hand information that was necessary to complete
a work which her father, George Kingsley, had, owing to his premature
death, left unfinished, she determined to visit that part of West Africa
"where all authorities agreed that the Africans were at their wildest
and worst." Accompanied only by the natives, she travelled among
cannibals, pushed her way through mangrove swamps and pestilential
morasses. She spent months in a canoe exploring the territory watered by
the Calabar and Ogowe rivers, often in imminent peril of death from wild
animals or wilder men.
When not studying the manners and customs of the native tribes, she was
hunting fishes and reptiles in streams and quagmires and collecting
insects in the weird, grim twilight of the equatorial forest with its
inextricable tangle of creepers, its great hanging tapestries of vines
and flowers, its myriads of bush-ropes, suspended from the summits of
tall buttressed trees, "some as straight as plumb lines, others coiled
round and intertwined among each other until one could fancy one was
looking on some mighty battle between armies of gigantic serpents that
had been arrested at its height by some mighty spell."
The results of Miss Kingsley's wanderings in this dark and uncanny
wilderness and among the savage tribes visited by her were her two
instructive volumes entitled _Travels in West Africa_ and _West African
Studies_. In addition to these two works from her pen there are
deposited in the British Museum an interesting collection of insects,
fishes and reptiles--many of them new species and some of them named in
her honor--which testifies to her activity as a collector and her
enthusiasm as a naturalist.
Her brilliant and useful career was cut short in Cape Colony, whither
she had gone as an army nurse during the Boer war. In view of her
achievements one is not surprised to learn that her countrymen regarded
her premature taking-off as a national misfortune. The noblest monument
to her memory is "The Mary Kingsley Society of West Africa," whose
object is to carry on, as far as may be, the beneficent work she began
on the West African coast and to accomplish for English rule in this
part of the world what the "Royal Asiatic Society" has achieved for
British administration in India.
Madame Coudreau is designated in _Qui Etes-Vous_--the French Who's
Who--as an _exploratrice_. This well characterizes her; for, if not the
first woman explorer by profession, she is certainly the most energetic
and successful.
Her first work was in French Guiana, under instructions from the
colonial minister of France. This was in 1894. The following year she
began the scientific exploration of the province of Para in northern
Brazil, in collaboration with her husband, Henri Coudreau, who had
previously distinguished himself by his achievements as a writer and as
an explorer in French Guiana. The fruit of their joint work from 1895 to
1899 was six quarto volumes profusely illustrated by photographs which
they had taken and by carefully executed charts of the various rivers
which they had explored.
While engaged in the exploration of the Trombetas, a tributary of the
Amazon, Henri Coudreau was taken seriously ill, and, after a few days'
struggle against the disease with which he was stricken, he expired in
the depths of the forest primeval, where he was buried by his desolate
and disconsolate widow. After such a calamity any other woman would
have left the tropics at once and returned to her home and friends. Not
so Mme. Coudreau. With matchless courage and determination she buried
her grief in the work in which her husband had been so interested, and,
after completing the unfinished survey, published the results of this
expedition under the title _Voyage au Trombetas_.
Having completed this work, she was engaged by the states of Para and
Amazonas to explore a number of other rivers in the vast territory known
as Amazonia. This commission involved the most arduous and dangerous
kind of labor and was a task which few men would have been willing to
undertake. It is doubtful if any other woman would have ventured on such
an expedition, and it is quite certain that no other one could have been
found that was so well equipped for this herculean undertaking or who
would have carried it to a more successful issue.
Mme. Coudreau was in the service of Amazonia, in the capacity of
official explorer, from 1899 to 1906. Most of this time she spent in a
canoe on the affluents of the Amazon, or in her tent in the dense
forests under the equator. Her only companions were negroes, or Indians,
or Brazilian halfbreeds who served her as porters, cooks and boatmen.
Frequently they were in the forest wilds for many months at a time and
far away from every vestige of civilized life. As it was impossible to
take sufficient provisions with them to last them during the whole of
their journey, they had to depend on wild fruits and such fish and game
as they were able to secure. Often they were forced to live for weeks at
a time on an unchanging diet of manioc and tapir meat.
But their sufferings were not confined to hunger and disagreeable--often
indigestible--food. There were the heavy steaming atmosphere and the
broiling rays of a superheated sun, especially when reflected from the
mirror-like surface of lake or river, which were so debilitating and
exhausting that physical exertion of any kind was at times almost
impossible. There were also the torrential and incessant rains--making
it impossible for them to cook their food or dry their clothing--which
added to their miseries whether in camp or in their canoe.
Great, however, as were their trials on the river, they were trifling in
comparison with those in the woods. Here locomotion was impeded by
tangled undergrowth which was bound together by strands of lianas and
thorny vines which constituted an impenetrable barrier until a passage
was hewn through it with a machete. Under foot was a yielding morass
which threatened to absorb them. Overhead were countless chigoes,
garapatas and fire-ants which infested the body or buried themselves in
the flesh. Or there were clouds of mosquitoes which gave no rest day or
night. And worst of all was the ever-present danger of fever and
dysentery, not to speak of the dread diseases so common in certain
sections of the equatorial regions. It was then that Mme. Coudreau had
to act the part of a physician, as well as of a leader, even though she
was at the time such a sufferer herself that she was barely able to
stand.
To make matters still more difficult for Mme. Coudreau, her employees at
times, especially when under the influence of liquor which they
contrived to obtain some way or other, became mutinous and refused to
accompany her to the end of her journey. At other times the expedition
was halted by their fear of wild beasts or savage Indians, or by
imaginary evils of many kinds, suggested to them by their superstitious
minds. On such occasions Mme. Coudreau never failed to show herself a
born leader of men, for she invariably--alone as she was with a crew who
were often half savages--was successful in suppressing incipient
rebellion and in restoring obedience and order.[177]
Continually confronted, as she was, by such trials and difficulties,
privations and dangers, one would imagine that the delicately reared
Frenchwoman would have sought immediate release from an engagement that
necessitated so much exposure and suffering and sought surcease of
sorrow in the distractions and gaieties of pleasure-loving Paris.
Nothing, however, was farther from her thoughts. Intrepid and
resourceful, she feared no danger and hesitated before no difficulty,
however great. As an explorer she was as venturesome as Crevaux and as
conscientious as La Condamine. Like them, who were both her countrymen,
she spent many years of her life in the equinoctial regions, and, like
them, she contributed immensely to our knowledge of the Land of the
Southern Cross.
Never did the tropics have a greater fascination for anyone than for
Mme. Coudreau. During the twelve years she spent there, exploring its
rivers and traversing its interminable forests, the spell of Amazonia
was ever upon her and was never broken, even for a moment.
"I have," she writes, "loved everything in Amazonia, the great majestic
woodland and the mysterious virgin forest, the beautiful rivers with
their traitorous waters and thundering cataracts, the suffocating air
and the perfumed breeze, the burning sun and the sweet freshness of
night, the impressive voice of the wind among the trees and the
torrential rain. And, contrary to the usual custom of man of bringing
everything under his domination, it is I who have become a captive of
this savage life which I love, and have permitted it to take possession
of all my soul and all my will."[178]
Elsewhere she declares: "In the solitude of the virgin forest I am calm,
tranquil, experience no ennui and am almost merry. When I am obliged to
leave the great woodland the power to struggle grows less in me. I
become of an excessive sensibility. I feel more keenly life's blows. I
am not armed for elbowing my way and making a place for myself in the
sunshine. I neither love nor understand anything except my virgin
forest. There, indeed, I suffer from the inclemency of the weather, from
hunger, from sickness; but these are only physical sufferings and are
soon forgotten, while moral and interior pains, on the contrary, are
ineradicable."[179]
And still again she tells us: "The solitude of the virgin forest has
become a necessity for me; it attracts me by its mysterious silence, and
only in the great woods have I the impression of being at home."[180]
Can we wonder that such an ardent lover of Nature and such a strenuous
votary of science was able to forget herself in her work and was able,
notwithstanding her toils and her sufferings, to produce six quarto
volumes of reports, in as many years, on the unexplored regions which
she had so carefully surveyed and charted? Can we be surprised that her
labors received due recognition from learned societies in both the New
and the Old World, and that she was acclaimed as an explorer who had
rendered distinct service to the cause of natural science, as well as to
geography?[181]
When we recall the labors of this lone daughter of France in the wilds
of the tropics, with no one to communicate with except her
half-civilized servants and boatmen, we instinctively hark back to days
not long past and estimate the enormous progress women have made in
social and intellectual freedom within but a few decades.
Owing to the policy of repression which so long prevailed regarding the
intellectual efforts of women, and the social obstacles which prevented
them from publicly acknowledging the offspring of their genius, women
like the Bronte sisters, George Sand and George Eliot were compelled to
conceal their identity under male designations. Because it was
considered immodest for a woman to appear before the public as an
author, Lady Nairne, after Burns, the most popular song writer in
Scotland, felt obliged to keep secret the authorship of her beautiful
poems.
Similarly, family honor made it incumbent on Fanny Mendelssohn to
refrain from publishing her musical compositions under her own name.
Accordingly, they appeared along with those of her brother Felix, and so
similar are they in color and sentiment to his own productions that they
are indistinguishable from them, unless the author's signature be
attached. To satisfy an inane public opinion, they long contributed "to
swell the volume of her brother's fame," and there is reason to believe
that some of them still appear under his name at the present day.
Yes, truly, when one recalls these and similar facts, one cannot help
exclaiming: "What a marvelous change in the attitude of the world toward
women within the memories of those still living!" Women like Miss
Ormerod, Miss Kingsley and Mme. Coudreau would have been ostracized if
they had dared to attempt, in the days of Lady Nairne, the Bronte
sisters and Fanny Mendelssohn, what they may now do not only without
censure but without exciting more than passing comment. The ban has been
lifted from what was for ages tabu for women, and the sphere of their
intellectual activities is now almost coextensive with that of the
sterner sex. Not only does society no longer point the finger of scorn
at the woman naturalist or the woman explorer, but it showers honors on
her while living and erects monuments to her memory when dead. A great
change, indeed, and one long and ardently desired. Verily, _tempora
mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis_.
FOOTNOTES:
[164] In his erudite work, _Geschichte der Botanik_, Vol. III, p. 517,
Koenigsberg, 1856, Ernest H. F. Meyer gives in a few words his estimate
of the excellence of Hildegard's _Physica_: "Aber als ehrwuerdiges
Denkmal des Alterthums und einer zu jener Zeit nicht gemeinen
Naturkentniss empfehlen sich zumal deutschen Naturforschern ihre vier
Buecher der _Physica_.... Denn nicht nur der deutsche Botaniker und
Zoologe finden in ihrer Physik fast die ersten rohen Anfaenge
vaterlaendische Naturforshung, auch dem Artzt bietet sic fuer jene Zeit
ueberraschende Erscheinung dar, eine nicht von Dioskorides abgeleitete,
sondern unverkennbar aus der Volksueberlieferung geschoepfte
Heilmittellehre; und der Sprachforscher stoesst im lateinischen Text
beinahe Zeile um Zeile auf deutsche Ausdruecke seltener Sprachformen."
[165] Hildegardis _Opera Omnia_, p. 1122, Migne's Edition, Paris, 1882.
[166] "Constat permulta S. Hildegardi nota jam fuisse, quae caeteri medii
aevi scriptores nescierunt, quaeque sagaces demum recentiorum temporum
indagatores reperierunt ac tamquam nova ventitarunt." Ibid. Dr. Karl
Jessen, in his thoughtful _Botanik der Gegenwart und Vorzeit in
Culturhistorischer Entwickelung_, p. 123, Leipzig, 1864, expresses
himself on the extraordinary medical knowledge of the abbess of Bingen
as follows: "Wer deutsche Volkarznei studieren will, der studiere
Hildegard und er wird Respect davor bekommen."
[167] _Compendio Storico della Scuola Anatomica di Bologna_, p. 358, by
Michele Medici, Bologna, 1857, and _Notizie degli Scrittori Bolognesi_,
Tom. VI, p. 113, by Giovanni Fantuzzi, Bologna, 1788.
Certain writers tell us of another woman who distinguished herself in
anatomy in the early part of the fourteenth century. Her name was
Alessandra Giliani, who is said to have been a pupil and an assistant of
the celebrated Mondino, father of modern anatomy. In addition to
possessing great skill in dissection, she is reputed to have devised a
means of drawing the blood from the veins and arteries--even the most
minute--and then filling them with variously colored liquids which
quickly solidified. By this means, we are told, she was able to exhibit
the circulatory system in all its details and complexity, and to have
always on hand, for purposes of instruction, a model that was absolutely
true to nature.
How much truth there may be in these statements regarding a young girl,
who was only nineteen when she died, is difficult to determine. Medici,
in concluding his account of her and referring to the inscription on her
tomb, which seems to authenticate all the claims made for her, expresses
himself as follows: "In quoting this document, I do not intend that my
readers shall accord to it a credence that I myself abstain from giving
it, but only that they may know of it, if for no other reason than to
satisfy their curiosity." Op. cit., pp. 30 and 362, note I. Should the
traditions regarding this precocious girl be verified, it would be most
gratifying to the people of Bologna, for it would add one more to the
long list of her illustrious women.
[168] The titles of the two works of this remarkable woman are of
sufficient interest to be given in full. They are as follows:
1. _Veritable Declaration de la Decouverte des Mines et Minieres par le
Moyen desquelles Sa Majeste et Sujets se peuvent passer des Pays
Etrangers_, Paris, 1632.
2. _La Restitution de Pluton a Mgr. l'Eminent Card. de Richelieu, des
Mines et Minieres de France, cachees jusqu'a present au Ventre de la
Terre, par la Moyen desquelles les Finances de sa Majeste seront
beaucoup plus Grandes que celles de tous les Princes Chrestiens et ses
Sujets plus Heureux de tous les Peuples._ Paris, 1640.
[169] _Die Verdienste der Frauen um Naturwissenschaft and Heilkunde_, p.
169, von Dr. C. F. Harless, Goettingen, 1830.
[170] The Latin title of this interesting work is _De Generatione et
Metamorphose Insectorum Surinamensium_, Amsterdam, 1705.
[171] The Latin edition of this work is entitled _Erucarum Ortus,
Alimenta et Paradoxa Metamorphosis_, Amsterdam, 1718. It was afterwards
translated into French and published under the title _Histoire des
Insectes de l'Europe_.
[172] _Die Leistungen der deutschen Frau in den letzen vierhundert
Jahren auf wissenschaftlichem Gebiebte_, p. 85, von Elise Oelsner,
Guhrau, 1894.
[173] In his preface to _Les Maladies des Vers a Soie_.
[174] It is estimated that the loss to the United States from cattle
ticks alone is $100,000,000 a year. According to the year-book of the
Agricultural Department for 1904, the annual losses to agriculture from
destructive insects reach the enormous sum of $420,000,000.
[175] The dean of the law faculty in presenting Miss Ormerod to the
vice-chancellor on this occasion and speaking before an audience of
three thousand people said, among other things: "The preeminent position
which Miss Ormerod holds in the world of science is the reward of
patient study and unwearying observation. Her investigations have been
chiefly directed towards the discovery of methods for the prevention of
the ravages of those insects which are injurious to orchard, field and
forest. Her labors have been crowned with such success, that she is
entitled to be hailed as the protectress of agriculture and the fruits
of the earth--a beneficent Demeter of the nineteenth century." _Eleanor
Ormerod, Economic Entomologist, Autobiography and Correspondence_,
Edited by Robert Wallace, p. 96, London, 1904.
[176] _The Canadian Entomologist_, September, 1901, in an obituary
notice of Miss Ormerod, well voiced the high appreciation in which she
was held throughout the civilized world in the following paragraph:
"Miss Ormerod was one of the most remarkable women of the latter half of
the nineteenth century and did more than any one else in the British
Isles to further the interests of farmers, fruit-growers and gardeners
by making known to them methods for controlling and subduing their
multiform insect pests. Her labors were unwearied and unselfish; she
received no remuneration for her services, but cheerfully expended her
private means in carrying out her investigations and publishing their
results. We know not now by whom in England this work can be continued;
it is not likely that anyone can follow in the unique path laid out by
Miss Ormerod; we may, therefore, cherish the hope that the Government of
the day will hold out a helping hand and establish an entomological
bureau for the lasting benefit of the great agricultural interests of
the country." Professor J. Ritzema Bos, the distinguished entomologist
of Holland, had no hesitation in proclaiming Miss Ormerod the first
economic entomologist in England and one of the most famous economic
entomologists in the world.
[177] The following dialogue between Mme. Coudreau and one of her
boatmen, Joas-Felix, who was the spokesman of his companions,
illustrates not only the bravery of the daring explorer, but also the
pusillanimity of her half-breed personnel when in the depths of the
forest at night:
"'Madam has no fear?'
"'Fear of what?'
"'Of tigers.'
"'No, it is not of tigers that I have fear.'
"'Of Indians?'
"'Neither have I fear of Indians.'
"'Then, madam, it is something which is in the woods, which we do not
know, that can harm us.'
"'You know very well what frightens me. I am afraid that the bats will
attack my chickens during the night. If you hear them making a noise you
must get up.'
"I laugh heartily in observing their astonished look and ask myself how
men whose consciences are stained with many bloody crimes can have fear
here. Joas-Felix gives me the explanation:
"'Madam makes game of us. None the less, madam, I am a man in the city
and in the savanna. With my poignard and machete I fear nothing, neither
man nor beast. But here, madam, where everything is dark, even in the
daytime; where an enemy may be lying in wait for us behind every tree;
it is not the same thing. It would be impossible for me to live in the
forest. One cannot see far enough in it.'
"Now I understand better their terror. The mysterious depth of the
virgin forest impresses them. The opaque obscurity of the night in the
underwood contrasts too strongly with the moonlit savanna where they
have been reared. The low and sombre vault of the woods oppresses them
and they imagine they are going to be crushed. They lose their heads and
see in every tree a phantom enemy. To reason with them is useless, for
when fear takes possession of them, there is nothing to be done."
_Voyage au Maycuru_, p. 127.
[178] _Voyage au Maycuru_, p. 1, Paris, 1903.
[179] _Voyage au Rio Curua_, p. 85, Paris, 1903.
[180] Ibid., p. 1.
[181] In order that the reader may realize the immense extent of
territory that was covered by this strenuous woman's explorations,
during the twelve years she spent in Amazonia, it suffices to give the
titles of her books, all of which are profusely illustrated by
photographs taken by herself and by accurate charts of rivers, whose
courses were previously almost unknown.
The books written in collaboration with her husband are _Voyage au
Tapajos_, _Voyage au Xingu_, _Voyage au Tocantins-Araguaya_, _Voyage au
Itaboca et a l'Etacayuna_, _Voyage entre Tocantins et Xingu_, _et Voyage
au Yamunda_.
The books written by Mme. Coudreau after her husband's death are _Voyage
au Trombetas_, _Voyage au Cumina_, _Voyage au Rio Curua_, _Voyage a la
Mapuera_ and _Voyage au Maycuru_.
When one remembers that many of the watercourses here named would be
considered large rivers outside of South America; that, notwithstanding
their countless rapids and waterfalls, necessitating numberless
portages, Mme. Coudreau explored all these rivers from their embouchures
to as near their sources as the water would carry her rude dugouts, we
can form some idea of the miles she traveled and of the stupendous labor
that was involved in making these long journeys in the sweltering and
debilitating and insect-laden atmosphere of the Amazon basin.