WOMEN SCIENTISTS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 61, 18 April 1914, Page 6

WOMEN SCIENTISTS.

SIB WILLIAM RAMSAY'S VIEWS. Famous people are plentiful. Famous women are not few, but women famed as scientists are very few indeed. There is a scarcity of eminent women scientists, and one wonders if women are allowed a fair chance in that direction, or if by reason of education and temperament they are unfitted for such work? The other day Sir William Bfemsay gave his personal views and the benefit of a very wide experience on this subject: "I am afraid that there is little room for lady scientists; there is little hope that women will ever compete with men in scientific research. ''The highest positions and undoubted fame are 'open to women whose ability as scientists is sufficient 'to claim both. A handful of women have claimed and |won the reward of genius. But they are few; there are

not more than two or three. A cluster of others have done good work. A small company of women are employed as teachers of science, but after that science land women appear to be divorced from each other. i- ■ I When Women Work Best. j "You ask why? It is easier for me to tell you why lit is not than why it is'—women have no lack of the |analytical powers essential to the successful scientists. jWhat splendid novels women write! Novels need a mind that can analyse, reason, and deduce from facts relating to personal characters. No, women do not lack the analytical faculty. "Moreover, those women engaged in science at the |present time are equal to men in conscientious work, painstaking labour, concentration, and the care put into their work. "It is a noticeable fact, moreover, that all eminent women scientists have achieved their best work when collaborating with a male colleague. M. and Mme. !Curie, Mrs Sidgwick, and Lord Raleigh, Professor and IMrs Ayrton, are examples; and other examples are also