[SOMERVILLE, MARY (1780-1872)]. On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences. London: John Murray, 1835.
Hardcover. Second edition. Leather-bound. Small octavo (165 x 100 mm.), pp. [xvi], 493. Finely rebound in half calf, marbled boards, red speckled page edges, coloured endpapers, frontispiece with tissue-guard, diagrams, plates and index to rear. Printed by A. Spottiswoode. Condition: NEAR FINE. Binding tight and secure, the hinges perfect, some light rubbing to extremities. Contents near immaculate with faintest touch of browning to endpapers. Without previous ownership markings. Scarce.
Note: Second edition of one of the most popular and influential works of science of the 19th century, and now considered a scarce work to obtain. On The Connexion Of The Physical Sciences was originally published in 1834 by Scottish polymath, and science writer Mary Somerville (1780-1872). Alongside her contemporary Caroline Herschel, she was jointly nominated as Honorary Member of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1835. "Perhaps no woman of science until Marie Curie was as widely recognized in her own time. Not only did [Somerville's works] bring scientific knowledge in a broad range of fields to a wide audience, but thanks to her exceptional talents for analysis, organization, and presentation, they provided definition and shape for an impressive spread of scientific work" (ODNB). In 1835, she became one of the first two female members of the Royal Astronomical Society - On the Connexion of the Sciences preceded that accolade by a year. In it, Somerville urges an interdisciplinary approach to science, arguing that new discoveries can be made when research "unites detached branches by general principles." To truly advance human understandings of the world, a researcher must consider how astronomy, physics, meteorology and geology tackle overlapping problems to create a fully three-dimensional picture of the universe. "In all there exists such a bond and a union that proficiency cannot be attained in any one without a knowledge of the others." Incorporating the most up to date research of the time, in consultation with leading scientists such as Faraday, Lyell, and Ampere, it was "soon established as a scientific classic and bestseller, functioning for a time as an annual progress report for physical sciences" as updated editions were released in 1835, 1836, and 1837 (ODNB). While Somerville's work was addressed to the professional scientific community as opposed to focusing on the education of women or children in the sciences; and in this sense she broke through a glass ceiling to be taken seriously by mathematicians including Laplace. And the philosopher John Stuart Mill so highly valued her work that he requested hers to be the first signature on his Parliamentary petition advocating for women's suffrage. The Morning Post upon her death proclaimed her the undisputed "Queen of Science". Ogilvie 245. Feminist Companion 1006.
