NINETY YEARS OF AGE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 1, 2 January 1932, Page 6

NINETY YEARS OF AGE

England's oldest woman scientist, Miss Grace Stebbing, attended tho meetings of the British Association. She is in her 91st year, and has been regularly present at meetings of the association for nearly 55 years.

Miss Stebbing gave ;t "Morning Post" representative some of her impressions of the British Association during the last half-century of its existence. "Fifty years ago the meetings \rere much'more intimate, and, in mj opinion, much more agreeable," she said. "There were seldom, more than two or three hundred members present, and those who came then were more in earnest than they are now. In tho bustle of tho association's meeting this yoar it is impossible to reflect in peace." Ono of Miss Stebbiug's most cherished memories is an encounter she had with Faraday. "I shall never forgot the occasion," she said. "I was introduced to him by my father, who was the first editor of the 'Athenaeum.' Taking my two hands in his, ho held them and said: 'Thank God that you have :i father like yours; and never let people believe that because wo are scientists we lose our faith in tho Author of All.' ATTACK ON GLADSTONE. 'During my life I have written 72 books; all have been published, and I have been paid for all of them. My earliest. books concerned the Prayer Book. All my life I have modelled my style ou the language of tho Bible, because I- believe that it is tho purest English which has ever been written. "I am very scientific now," Miss Stcbbiug added, "and am deeply interested in all the new theories advanced at the meetings of the British Association; but my chief interest in life is children. I thoroughly disapprove, however, of the way fhat most modern children aro brought up, and they aro so badly dressed —or undressed —that they look horrid little vulgar wretches. I also deplore the ascendar cy of women in public life, and I think that the abuses of the dole are at the root of many of England's present troubles."

During the past 50 odd years, Miss Stebbing has come into contact with innumerable famous scientists and public mon. When quite a young woman she taxed Gladstone with having changed his views on the Disestablishment of the Church. In reply to a letter in which sh<3 warned him of her intention of bringing his inconsistency before the attention of the public, he wrote: "Do what you like; my back's broad enough to bear it."