pulsations of light. "If even one-half of these marvelous statements are found in Hildegarde's writings as early as the 12th Century," says Davis, "then this woman may well be classed with the great forerunners of modern astronomy, with Copernicus, Galileo and Newton, for she was three centuries earlier than the first of them."
The first female astronomer of whom we have more intimate information, was Marie Cunitz, born in 1610 as the eldest daughter of a physician in Silesia. Commanding an extraordinary general culture, her principal study was mathematics and astronomy. Her tables, published under the title "Urania Propitia, sive Tabulæ Astronomicæ," gained for her a great reputation, and the by-name "the Silesian Pallas." Dedicated to the Emperor Ferdinand III. the book was published in Latin and in German in 1650 and 1651.
Another noted astronomer was Caroline Lucretia Herschel, born in 1750 at Hanover, Germany. In 1772 she accompanied her brother William to England, and when he accepted the office of astronomer-royal, she became his constant assistant in his observations. In this capacity she succeeded in discovering independently eight comets, five of which had not been observed before. Also she discovered many of the small stellar nebulæ which were included in her brother's catalogue. For her many contributions to astronomy in 1835 she was presented by the Astronomical Society with their gold medal, and was also elected an honorary member.
When the memoirs of Miss Herschel were published, the editor, in describing her character, said: "Great men and great causes have always some helper of whom the outside world knows but little. These helpers and sustainers have the same quality in common—absolute devotion and unwavering faith in the individual or the cause. Seeking nothing for themselves, thinking nothing of themselves, they have all the intense power of sympathy, a noble love of giving themselves for the service of others. Of this noble company of unknown helpers Caroline Herschel was one."—
This capacity of self-denial distinguished likewise a number of other women, whose names are known in the history of astronomy, as for instance Theresa and Madeline Manfredi, the daughters of Eustachio Manfredi, from 1674 to 1739 director of the observatory of Bologna. Further, Marie Margarethe Kirch, who assisted her husband, the astronomer Kirch, in the upper Lausatia; Madame Lepante, the wife of the famous clock-maker Jean Andre Lepante; and nearer our own time, there is Maria Mitchell, born 1818 at Nantucket, Mass., who at an early age became the assistant of her father. Carrying on a series of independent observations, she was in 1865 appointed professor of astronomy in Vassar College.
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