MADAME CURIE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 79, 5 April 1910, Page 9

MADAME CURIE.

A middle-nged woman, fuhly tall, and with a palo face. Her * ieatincs regular, clear-cut, and of the PoliMi typo. Her lips thin and slightly haishlooking, suggesting p;i*t piivation«. Her forehead remarkably high and ciowned with waves of golden hair. Her eyes> aflame with enthusiasm. Such in Mine. Curie, whom her admirers call "the greatest woman in the world," and who in conjunction with another French scientis-t has made Mich, wonderful discoveries regarding Ihe element polonium, which is 5000 times rarer than, radium. Of coum.*, it was Mme. Curie who, with her 'ate husband, discovered radinm. LABORATORY TOYS. She is one of those very raio women with a passion for science. Most women lack the nicety of observation, the attention to minute detail, the patience, the physical utienglh, lcquiied for laboratory work. With her, howeier, it is different. Her love of lesearch is an inheritance. Her nursery was a laboratory. Forty years ago (Mine. Curie is now in her forty-fifth year) she gave up her dolls to play with retorts, crucibles, and test tubes in the Pcientific workshop of her father, M. Sklodovbki, Professor of Phj-fiics at a college in Varsova. Like moat professors, he was not over gifted with pecuniary wealth, but he nevertheless contrived to spend a considerable portion of his income on scientific experiments. His little daughter, as 6oon as she could toddle almost, spent her playtime with him. When she was a little older nho constituted herself his "washer, cleaning the instruments and apparatus after he had done with it. Quietly ehe would don an old apron over her t-hort frock and busy herself with washing and drying flasks, beakera, moitars, buu'ttes, pipettes. These were her tos'», and she handled them leverently. When pho grew older she began to I learn tho various places in the labora- I tory of every instrument and every bottle and something of their meaning. A STRUGGLE WITH ADVERSITY. Poverty is usually recognised as pinching a woman harder than a man. It needed all the girl scientist's pluck and enthusiasm to sustain her during her early student days in Paris. The palefaced, high-browed girl who was afterwards to divide with her husband and M. Besqnerel the Nobel Science Award of £4000, und who was destined to be the first woman to be appointed to a chair at the Paris Sorbonne, was &o poor when she fir^t arrived in tho lity thai she had to go to study at a municipal working-das*! technical school. MME. CURIE IN HER LABORATORY. It was in the laboratory here that her wonderful capabilities attracted the attention of Professor Curie, whom she subsequently married. Mme. Curio lives frugally in a quiet houso in Paris, cci-eened from the outer world by v high wall. When she is not in her laboratory or indulging in hei favourite recreation, cycling, she is to be found teaching her little daughter lieno, of whom she is passionately fond. For the mother is never lost hight of in the (scientist. She is an devoted to her home as though she h^<l never even heard of pitch-blende. Other women who might be inclined to envy her are disarmed by her modes-ty. When -an admirer belabours her with compliments upon her achievements she smiles almost in astonishment and shrugs her shoulders as though the 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 several women to present hey with a testimonial. The occasion demanded it (so it was thought), for was not Mme. Curio the flint woman who had ever achieved such an honour? Tho scientist's reply, however, spoilt everything. She said 'quietly : "It would bo contrary to my husband's ideas and certainly to my own." So her feminine admirers departed without leaving their testimonial behind them. Yet, despite hor modesty, it is known that ehe was more than a mere assistant to her husband. It i* indeed claimed thaufhe herself was tho originator of the radium discoveries. Tho beat testimonial to her abilities came from Professor Curie himself when ho was offered the decoration of the Cross of the Legion of Honour, and refused it because the enrne decoration was not offered to his wife. THE SCIENTIST'S ABSTRACTION IN THE HOME. 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 aecivant ran into the laboratory, screaming loudly, "Madame, liuidame, [ have swallowed a pin!" '"There, there, don t cry," said Mme. Curie soothingly, "here is another that you may have." Mme. Curio has a sister who is a notable doctor of medicine in Austria, and as an instance of heredity it may bo slated 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. — Daily Mail.

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