Mary Somerville and the Cultivation of Science, 1815-1840

Among the myriad of changes that took place in Great Britain in the first half of the nineteenth century, many of particular significance to the historian of science and to the social historian are discernible in that small segment of British society drawn together by a shared interest in natural phenomena and with sufficient leisure or opportunity to investigate and ponder them. This group, which never numbered more than a mere handful in comparison to the whole population, may rightly be characterized as 'scientific'. They and their successors came to occupy an increasingly important place in the intellectual, educational, and developing economic life of the nation. Well before the arrival of mid-century, natural philosophers and inventors were generally hailed as a source of national pride and of national prestige. Scientific society is a feature of nineteenth-century British life, the best being found in London, in the universities, in Edinburgh and Glasgow, and in a few scattered provincial centres.

1. Scottish Beginnings.- 2. London Beginnings.- 3. The First Trip Abroad.- 1. Paris and its Scientific Society, 1817.- 2. Switzerland.- 3. Italy.- 4. The Return.- 4. In the Mainstream of London Science.- 1. Scientific Training in the 1820s.- 2. Mary Somerville's Apprenticeship.- 3. The First Experimental Paper.- 4. Brougham's Commission.- 5. The Mechanism of the Heavens.- 1. The Atmosphere of 1830.- 2. Creation and Publication.- 3. Reception.- 6. The Second Stay Abroad.- 1. Paris, 1832.- 2. Mary Somerville and French Science, 1832-33.- 3. Foreign Visitors, English Correspondence.- 7. On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences.- 1. The Physical Sciences, 1830-33.- 2. The Final Revision.- 3. Publication and Review.- 4. New Honours and a New Edition.- 5. Mary Somerville and a Few Scientific Women.- 8. The Civil List and Mary Somerville.- 9. 'The Comet', an Experiment and a Third Edition.- 10. The Last London Years.- 1. A New Pattern of Existence, 1836.- 2. The Fourth Edition of the Connexion of the Sciences.- 3. A Scientific Intermediary.- 11. Outside the Mainstream of Science.- 1. Italy, 1838-40.- 2. And After . . ..- A Guide to Notes and Citations.- Notes.