Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 94, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 April 1910 — GREATEST WOMAN SCIENTIST. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GREATEST WOMAN SCIENTIST.

Wnffc. Carle Share* with Moat Savant* Faculty of A batraction. In a quiet little house in Paris, screened from the outer world by a high wall, lives Mme. Curie, co-diseov-erer with her late husband of radium. Other women who might be inclined to envy this most wonderful of feminine scientists are disarmed by her extreme modesty. When an admirer belabors her with compliments upon her achievements v she smiles almost in astonishment and shrugs her shoulders as if she had done little to make a fuss about. When, upon the death of her husband, she was appointed to a chair at the Sorbonne, the great seat of learning in Paris, it was decided by sevefal women to present her with a testimonial. The occasion demanded it (so it was thought), for was not Mme. Curie the first' woman who had ever achieved such an honor? The scientist’s reply, however, spoiled everything. She said quietly: “It would be contrary to my husband’s ideas and certainly to my own.” So her feminine ad»mirer3 departed without leaving their testimonial behind them. Yet, despite her modesty, it is known that she was more than a mere assistant to her husband. It is, indeed, claimed that she herself was the origi-

nator of the radium discoveries. The best testimonial to her abilities came from Prof. Curie himself when he was offered the decoration of the Cross of the Legion of Honor and refused it because the same decoration was not offered to his wife. She shares with most savants that faculty of abstraction that is so valuable to those engaged in scientific work. When she is employed upon a difficult piece of research she hears nothing, sees nothing and is unmoved by anything that is not directly concerned with her investigations. It Is said that once when in the middle of an absorbing experiment a servant ran into the laboratory, screaming loudly: “Madame, madame, I have swallowed a pin!” “There, there, don’t cry,” said Mme. Curie, soothingly, “there is another that you may have.” Mme. Curie has a sister who is a notable doctor of medicine in Austria, and as an instance of heredity it may be said that the famous scientist believes that her little daughter shows promise of even more brilliant scientific powers than herself. She is training the child with the intention of developing these talents to the utmost.

MADAME CURIE AND HER DISCOVERIES.