玛丽·费尔法克斯·萨默维尔Mary Somerville

玛丽·费尔法克斯·萨默维尔是威廉·乔治·费尔法克斯和他的第二任妻子玛格丽特·查特斯的女儿。萨默维尔费尔法克斯出生在杰德堡的教堂牧师住宅，那是她母亲的妹妹玛莎·查特斯和玛莎的丈夫Thomas Somerville的家。萨默维尔的父亲是一名海军军官，后来成为海军中将威廉·乔治·费尔法克斯爵士，她出生时他正在海上。萨默维尔的母亲曾访问伦敦，她的丈夫从那里开始了漫长的海上航行。玛格丽特·费尔法克斯在北上途中在杰德堡停留，萨默维尔就在那里出生。家族住宅位于苏格兰法夫郡的伯恩蒂斯兰。

你可以在THIS LINK看到Burntisland那所房子的图片。

萨默维尔是七个孩子中的第五个，但三个孩子很早就夭折了。在剩下的四个孩子中，萨默维尔和她比她大三岁的哥哥一起长大。萨默维尔七岁时一个妹妹出生，十岁时又一个弟弟出生。两个兄弟接受了良好的教育，但按照当时的观念，人们认为女孩几乎不需要受教育，所以萨默维尔的父母认为没有必要为女儿提供教育。她小时候所接受的那一点点教育来自她的母亲，母亲教她读书，但认为没有必要教她写字。萨默维尔十岁时被送到马瑟尔堡的女子寄宿学校（位于爱丁堡以东几英里处，福斯湾畔）。伯恩蒂斯兰和马瑟尔堡位于福斯湾的两岸，伯恩蒂斯兰在北岸，马瑟尔堡在南岸。

穆塞尔堡的学校既没有给萨默维尔带来快乐时光，也没有提供良好的教育。无论如何，她只在那里待了一年，离开时（用她自己的话说）（见[1]或[3]）：-

……像一只逃出笼子的野兽。

此后，萨默维尔回到了伯恩蒂斯兰的家，但她开始通过阅读家中能找到的每一本书来自学。家人非但不鼓励她阅读，她的姑母等家人还批评她把时间花在这种不像淑女的事情上。为了让萨默维尔学会年轻女士应有的技能，她被送到伯恩蒂斯兰的一所学校学习针线活。

然而，萨默维尔的一位家人确实鼓励了她的求学志向。萨默维尔在杰德堡看望叔叔时告诉他，她一直在自学拉丁语。她的叔叔非但没有生气，反而鼓励她，两人会在早餐前读拉丁语，而萨默维尔则待在杰德堡的牧师住宅里。

萨默维尔大约十三岁时，全家在爱丁堡租了一所房子，在那里度过冬季，夏季则在伯恩蒂斯兰度过。萨默维尔在当时的年轻淑女所应有的社交生活和她自己的私人学习之间平衡着自己的生活。她确实学到了许多当时被认为适合年轻淑女的技能。除了上面提到的针线活，她还学会了弹钢琴，并跟随画家亚历山大·纳斯密斯学习绘画。

事实上，正是通过Nasmyth，萨默维尔第一次对数学产生了兴趣。她无意中听到他向另一个学生解释说，欧几里得的Elements构成了理解绘画中透视的基础，但更重要的是，它是理解天文学和其他科学的基础。这一评论足以让萨默维尔开始学习欧几里得的Elements，她是在她弟弟的家庭教师的帮助下完成的。

萨默维尔对学习代数产生兴趣还有一个完全不同的原因。她在朋友的一本女性杂志上读到一篇关于这个主题的文章。她弟弟的家庭教师能够为萨默维尔提供代数教材，并帮助引导她进入这个学科。萨默维尔如此专注于数学，以至于她的父母担心她的健康会因为长时间的学习而受损，她通常是在夜间学习。她的父亲相信（这在当时很普遍）[1]：-

……抽象思维的压力会损害柔弱的女性身体。

然而，爱丁堡的社交生活受到大力鼓励，在那里萨默维尔享受[1]：-

……聚会、拜访、舞会、剧院、音乐会以及无伤大雅的调情……

萨默维尔于1804年与皮埃尔·萨米埃尔 Greig结婚，当时她24岁。她的丈夫是一名海军军官，是她母亲一方的远亲（萨米埃尔 Greig的父亲是萨默维尔外祖父的侄子）。然而萨米埃尔在俄罗斯海军服役，萨默维尔的父母不允许这桩婚事，直到Greig在伦敦获得任命，因为他们不想让萨默维尔去俄罗斯。萨默维尔和萨米埃尔 Greig去了伦敦，但萨默维尔发现她的丈夫不理解她求学的愿望。她后来写道（见[1]或[7]）：-

他对我这个性别的能力评价极低，对任何一门科学既无了解，也无兴趣。

萨米埃尔 Greig在婚后3年去世。此时萨默维尔已生下两个儿子，丈夫去世后她带着他们回到苏格兰。她现在有了一群朋友，他们强烈鼓励她学习数学和科学。特别是约翰·普莱费尔，当时爱丁堡的自然哲学教授，鼓励她，并通过他开始与威廉·华莱士（约翰·普莱费尔以前的学生）通信，后者当时是大马洛皇家军事学院的数学教授。在通信中，他们讨论了Mathematical Repository中提出的数学问题，1811年萨默维尔因解决其中一个问题而获得银牌。此时萨默维尔还阅读了艾萨克·牛顿的Principia，并在威廉·华莱士的建议下，阅读了皮埃尔·西蒙·拉普拉斯的Mécanique Céleste以及许多其他数学和天文学文本。

1812年，萨默维尔 Greig嫁给了William Somerville，他是一名医院检查员。William是她姑姑Martha和她的丈夫Thomas Somerville的儿子，她就是在他们的牧师住宅中出生的。与她的第一任丈夫不同，William对科学感兴趣，也支持妻子学习的愿望。此时William和萨默维尔住在爱丁堡，在威廉·华莱士的建议下，萨默维尔阅读了当时最先进的法国文本。此外，她学习了植物学，并提高了她的希腊语知识。她和丈夫一起学习地质学，他们在一个亲密的朋友圈中活动，其中包括约翰·普莱费尔、约翰·莱斯利、William Scott爵士和物理学家弗洛伦斯·南丁格尔·大卫 Brewster。

1814年，萨默维尔第一次婚姻中的长女在九岁时去世，同年，她第二次婚姻中唯一的儿子在婴儿期去世。

萨默维尔于1816年被任命为陆军医疗委员会督察，全家从爱丁堡搬到伦敦。萨默维尔的丈夫当选为皇家学会，萨默维尔和William进入了当时领先的科学圈子。他们的朋友包括乔治·比德尔·艾里、约翰·赫歇尔、威廉·赫歇尔、乔治·皮科克和查尔斯·巴贝奇。萨默维尔写道[3]：-

查尔斯·巴贝奇先生制造计算机器时，我们常去看他。

此外，他们还结识了访问伦敦的欧洲顶尖科学家和数学家。1817年，威廉和萨默维尔访问了巴黎，并由让-巴蒂斯特·毕奥和弗朗索瓦·阿拉戈（他们在伦敦已相识）介绍给那里的顶尖科学家。萨默维尔会见了皮埃尔·西蒙·拉普拉斯、西莫恩·德尼·泊松、路易·普安索、以米里迂·拉·马丢等许多人。回到伦敦后，萨默维尔和威廉住在伦敦市中心，这使他们能够与众多科学界朋友保持密切联系。1824年，威廉被任命为切尔西皇家医院的医生，全家搬到了当时伦敦边缘的切尔西。

萨默维尔于1826年在Proceedings of the Royal Society上发表了她第一篇论文The magnetic properties of the violet rays of the solar spectrum。这篇论文[13]：

……在原创性思辨中展现了独创性，当时引起了很大兴趣，尽管它所提出的理论后来被否定了……

1827年，布鲁厄姆勋爵代表有用知识传播协会请求萨默维尔翻译皮埃尔·西蒙·拉普拉斯的Mécanique Céleste。然而萨默维尔远远超出了翻译的范围，因为她详细解释了皮埃尔·西蒙·拉普拉斯所使用的数学，这对当时英国大多数数学家来说是不熟悉的。完成后，这部题为The Mechanism of the Heavens的著作篇幅太大，有用知识传播协会无法出版，约翰·赫歇尔向出版商John Murray推荐了它。该书于1831年问世，在销售数量和所获赞誉方面都立即取得了成功。同样在1831年，后来成为圣安德鲁斯大学校长的James David福布斯正在伦敦，他在笔记本中写下了对萨默维尔的印象：-

中等身材以下，肤色白皙，面容并不特别富有表情，但眼睛锐利。近视。举止极为朴素。她的谈话非常朴素而令人愉快。这种朴素并不表现在回避她如此熟知的科学话题上，而表现在她乐于以孩童般的天真谈论所有这些话题，并且对自己所拥有的这种知识的罕见性显得极其不自觉，以至于需要片刻反思才能意识到，自己正从一位女性口中听到非常非凡的东西。

萨默维尔在1832-33年间在国外大约度过了一年。大部分时间是在巴黎度过的，在那里她与当地数学家重叙旧谊，并在那里撰写她的下一部著作The connection of the physical sciences，该书于1834年出版。她在这部著作第六版（1842年）中对一颗假想行星扰动天王星的讨论，促使约翰·柯西·亚当斯进行研究，并随后发现了海王星。萨默维尔写道：-

然而，那些[天王星]星表已经存在缺陷，可能是因为1781年发现该行星距今太近，无法在确定其运动时达到很高精度，或者它可能受到某颗看不见的行星的扰动，该行星绕太阳运行，位于我们太阳系现有边界之外。如果经过若干年，由大量观测组合而成的星表仍不足以表示天王星的运行，那么这些偏差可能揭示出一个永远处于视野范围之外的天体的存在，甚至其质量和轨道。

在第8版中，萨默维尔写道：-

那个预言已经实现……。

这个家庭的另一位朋友是拜伦夫人，此时她已与丈夫拜伦勋爵分居，还有她的女儿阿达·洛夫莱斯。回到伦敦后，萨默维尔帮助阿达学习数学，并给予她大力鼓励。

荣誉现在迅速向萨默维尔涌来。她于1835年当选为皇家天文学会会士（与卡罗琳·赫歇尔同时）。她于1834年当选为日内瓦物理与自然史学会荣誉会员，同年当选为爱尔兰皇家科学院。罗伯特·皮尔爵士在1834至1835年以及1841至1846年任英国首相，在其第一个任期内授予她每年200英镑的民事年金。1837年，第二代墨尔本子爵威廉·兰姆（1835至1841年任英国首相）将年金增至300英镑。

萨默维尔写给弗朗索瓦·阿拉戈的一封信中包含的信息重要到足以让他将信中的一段摘录作为论文于1836年发表在Comptes Rendus上。1838年，William Somerville的健康状况恶化，全家前往意大利。（William在那里又活了22年。）萨默维尔余生的大部分时间都在意大利度过，她在那里写了许多影响詹姆斯·克拉克·麦克斯韦的著作。她后期出版物中最重要的是Physical geography，该书于1848年出版。这是她最成功的教材，直到20世纪初仍在中小学和大学使用。

由于这部出版物，萨默维尔还获得了许多进一步的荣誉。她于1857年当选美国地理与统计学会会员，于1870年当选意大利地理学会会员。同样在1870年，她获得了皇家地理学会的维多利亚金质奖章。

萨默维尔是妇女教育和妇女选举权的坚定支持者。当英国哲学家和经济学家弗瑞兹·约翰Stuart Mill组织一场向议会提交的大规模请愿，要求给予妇女投票权时，他让萨默维尔把她的签名放在请愿书的首位。牛津的萨默维尔学院于1879年以她的名字命名，以表彰她对妇女教育的坚定支持。

许多对萨默维尔的悼念之词总结了她的贡献。摘自[13]：-

她对各知识分支中科学真理的把握，加上非凡的阐述能力，使她成为她那一代最杰出的女性。

Sir David布鲁斯特，万花筒的发明者，在1829年（成为圣安德鲁斯大学校长的九年前）写道，萨默维尔是：-

……无疑是欧洲最非凡的女性——一位最顶尖的数学家，同时兼具女性的全部温柔……她还是一位伟大的自然哲学家和矿物学家。

让我们以萨默维尔晚年所写的话来结束这篇传记[3]：-

有时我觉得[数学问题]很难，但我旧日的倔强依然如故，因为如果今天我未能成功，明天我会再次向它们发起挑战。

Mary Somerville was the daughter of William George Fairfax and his second wife Margaret Charters. Mary Fairfax was born in the church manse in Jedburgh, the home of her mother's sister Martha Charters and Martha's husband Thomas Somerville. Mary's father was a naval officer, later Vice-Admiral Sir William George Fairfax, who was at sea at the time of her birth. Mary's mother had visited London from where her husband embarked on a long sea voyage. Margaret Fairfax broke her journey north at Jedburgh where Mary was born. The family home was in Burntisland in the county of Fife, Scotland.

You can see pictures of the house in Burntisland at THIS LINK.

Mary was the fifth of seven children but three died very young. Of the four remaining children, Mary was brought up with her brother who was three years older than she was. A sister was born when Mary was seven, and a second brother when she was ten. The two brothers were given a good education but, in keeping with the ideas of the time, little need was seen to educate girls so Mary's parents saw no need to provide an education for their daughter. As a young child what little education she did receive was from her mother who taught her to read but it was not considered necessary to teach her to write. When Mary was ten years old she was sent to Miss Primrose's boarding school for girls in Musselburgh (a few miles east of Edinburgh on the Firth of Forth). Burntisland and Musselburgh are on opposite sides of the Firth of Forth, Burntisland on the north, Musselburgh on the south.

The school in Musselburgh neither gave Mary a happy time nor a good education. Anyway she spent only one year there and, on leaving felt (in her own words) (see [1] or [3]):-

... like a wild animal escaped out of a cage.

After this Mary returned to her home in Burntisland but she began to educate herself by reading every book that she could find in her home. Far from being encouraged in reading, members of her family such as her aunt criticised her for spending time on this unladylike occupation. In order that she might learn the correct skills for a young lady, Mary was sent to a school in Burntisland where she was taught needlework.

However, one member of Mary's family did encourage her with her educational ambitions. When visiting her uncle in Jedburgh Mary told him that she had been teaching herself Latin. Far from being cross, her uncle encouraged her and the two would read Latin before breakfast while Mary stayed in the Jedburgh manse.

When Mary was about thirteen, the family rented a house in Edinburgh where they spent the winter months, the summers being spent in Burntisland. Mary balanced her life between the social life expected of a young lady at this time and her own private study. She did learn many skills that were seen appropriate for a young lady. In addition to the needlework mentioned above, she learnt to play the piano and was given lessons in painting from the artist Alexander Nasmyth.

In fact it was through Nasmyth that Mary first became interested in mathematics. She overheard him explaining to another pupil that Euclid's Elements formed the basis for understanding perspective in painting, but much more, it was the basis for understanding astronomy and other sciences. This comment was enough to start Mary on the road to study Euclid's Elements which she did with the help of her younger brother's tutor.

There was another quite different reason why Mary became interested in studying algebra. She read an article on the subject in a woman's magazine belonging to a friend. Her younger brother's tutor was able to provide Mary with algebra texts and help introduce her to the subject. Mary became so engrossed in mathematics that her parents worried that her health would suffer because of the long hours of study that she put in, usually during the night. Her father believed (as was common at the time) that [1]:-

... the strain of abstract thought would injure the tender female frame.

Social life in Edinburgh was strongly encouraged, however, where Mary enjoyed [1]:-

... parties, visits, balls, theatres, concerts, and innocent flirtations ...

Mary married Samuel Greig in 1804 when she was 24 years old. Her husband was a naval officer who was a distant relation on her mother's side of the family (Samuel Greig's father was a nephew of Mary's maternal grandfather). However Samuel was in the Russian navy and Mary's parents did not allow the marriage to take place until Greig received an appointment in London, for they did not want Mary to go to Russia. Mary and Samuel Greig went to London but Mary found that her husband did not understand her desires to learn. She later wrote (see [1] or [7]):-

He had a very low opinion of the capacity of my sex, and had neither knowledge of, nor interest in, science of any kind.

Samuel Greig died 3 years after the marriage. By this time Mary had given birth to two sons and on the death of her husband she returned to Scotland with them. She now had a circle of friends who strongly encouraged her in her studies of mathematics and science. In particular John Playfair, then professor of natural philosophy at Edinburgh, encouraged her and through him she began a correspondence with William Wallace (Playfair's former pupil) who was then professor of mathematics at the Royal Military College at Great Marlow. In this correspondence they discussed the mathematical problems set in the Mathematical Repository and in 1811 Mary received a silver medal for her solution to one of these problems. At this time Mary also read Newton's Principia and, at Wallace's suggestion, Laplace's Mécanique Céleste and many other mathematical and astronomical texts.

In 1812 Mary Greig married William Somerville who was an inspector of hospitals. William was the son of her aunt Martha and her husband Thomas Somerville in whose manse she had been born. Unlike her first husband, William was interested in science and also supportive of his wife's desire to study. At this time William and Mary lived in Edinburgh and, advised by Wallace, Mary read the most advanced French texts of the day. In addition she studied botany and improved her knowledge of Greek. With her husband she studied geology and they moved in a close circle of friends that included Playfair, Leslie, Sir William Scott, and the physicist David Brewster.

In 1814 Mary's oldest daughter from her first marriage died at the age of nine and, in the same year, the only son of her second marriage died as a baby.

When William Somerville was appointed as Inspector to the Army Medical Board in 1816, the family moved from Edinburgh to London. Mary's husband was elected to the Royal Society and Mary and William moved in the leading scientific circles of the day. Their friends included George Airy, John Herschel, William Herschel, George Peacock, and Charles Babbage. Mary wrote [3]:-

We frequently went to see Mr Babbage while he was making his calculating machines.

In addition they met with leading European scientists and mathematicians who visited London. In 1817 William and Mary visited Paris and were introduced to the leading scientists there by Biot and Arago (whom they had met in London). Mary met Laplace, Poisson, Poinsot, Émile Mathieu and many others. Returning to London, Mary and William lived in central London which enabled them to continue close contact with their many scientific friends. In 1824 William was appointed as a physician at the Royal Hospital in Chelsea, and the family moved to Chelsea, then on the edge of London.

Mary Somerville published her first paper The magnetic properties of the violet rays of the solar spectrum in the Proceedings of the Royal Society in 1826. The paper [13]:-

... showed ingenuity in original speculation, and attracted much interest at the time, although the theory it propounded was subsequently negatived ...

In 1827 Lord Brougham made a request on behalf of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge for Mary Somerville to translate Laplace's Mécanique Céleste. However Mary went far beyond a translation, for she explained in detail the mathematics used by Laplace which was unfamiliar to most mathematicians in England at that time. When completed, the work with title The Mechanism of the Heavens was far too large to be published by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge and John Herschel recommended its publication to the publisher John Murray. The book appeared in 1831 and was an immediate success both in terms of the number of copies sold and the praise given to it. Also in 1831 James David Forbes, later to become the Principal of the University of St Andrews, was in London and wrote in his notebook his impressions of Mary:-

Below middle size, fair, countenance not particularly expressive except eyes which are piercing. Short-sighted. Manners the simplest possible. Her conversation very simple and pleasing. Simplicity not showing itself in abstaining from scientific subjects with which she is so well acquainted, but in being ready to talk on them all with the naiveté of a child and the utmost apparent unconsciousness of the rarity of such knowledge as she possesses, so that it requires a moment's reflection to be aware that one is hearing something very extraordinary from the mouth of a woman.

Mary Somerville spent about a year abroad in 1832-33. Most of the time was spent in Paris where she renewed old friendships with the mathematicians there, and where she worked on her next book The connection of the physical sciences which was published in 1834. Her discussion of a hypothetical planet perturbing Uranus in the sixth edition (1842) of this work led Adams to his investigation and subsequent discovery of Neptune. Somerville wrote:-

Those [the tables] of Uranus, however, are already defective, probably because the discovery of that planet in 1781 is too recent to admit of much precision in the determination of its motions, or that possibly it may be subject to disturbances from some unseen planet revolving about the sun beyond the present boundaries of our system. If, after a lapse of years, the tables formed from a combination of numerous observations should be still inadequate to represent the motions of Uranus, the discrepancies may reveal the existence, nay, even the mass and orbit, of a body placed for ever beyond the sphere of vision.

In the 8th edition Somerville wrote:-

That prediction has been fulfilled ... .

Another friend of the family was Lady Byron, by this time estranged from her husband Lord Byron, and her daughter Ada Lovelace. Back in London, Mary helped Ada in her study of mathematics and provided strong encouragement to her.

Honours now come quickly to Mary Somerville. She was elected to the Royal Astronomical Society in 1835 (at the same time as Caroline Herschel). She was elected to honorary membership of the Société de Physique et d'Histoire Naturelle de Genève in 1834 and, in the same year, to the Royal Irish Academy. Sir Robert Peel, British prime minister from 1834-35 and again from 1841-46, awarded her a civil pension of £200 per annum, during his first period of office. This was increased to £300 in 1837 by William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (British prime minister from 1835-41).

A letter which Mary wrote to Arago contained information important enough for him to have an extract from the letter published as a paper in Comptes Rendus in 1836. In 1838 William Somerville's health deteriorated and the family went to Italy. (William survived for 22 further years there.) Most of the rest of Mary's life was spent in Italy where she wrote many works which influenced Maxwell. Most important of her later publications was Physical geography which was published in 1848. It was her most successful text and used until the beginning of the 20th century in schools and universities.

Many further honours were given to Mary as a result of this publication. She was elected to the American Geographical and Statistical Society in 1857 and the Italian Geographical Society in 1870. Also in 1870 she received the Victoria Gold Medal of the Royal Geographical Society.

Mary Somerville was a strong supporter of women's education and women's suffrage. When John Stuart Mill, the British philosopher and economist, organised a massive petition to parliament to give women the right to vote, he had Mary put her signature first on the petition. Somerville College in Oxford was named after her in 1879 because of her strong support for women's education.

Many tributes to Mary Somerville sum up her contribution. From [13]:-

Her grasp of scientific truth in all branches of knowledge, combined with an exceptional power of exposition, made her the most remarkable woman of her generation.

Sir David Brewster, inventor of the kaleidoscope, wrote in 1829 (nine years before becoming Principal of the University of St Andrews) that Mary Somerville was:-

... certainly the most extraordinary woman in Europe - a mathematician of the very first rank with all the gentleness of a woman ... She is also a great natural philosopher and mineralogist.

Let us end this biography with Mary Somerville's own words, written late in her life [3]:-

Sometimes I find [mathematical problems] difficult, but my old obstinacy remains, for if I do not succeed today, I attack them again on the morrow.