Über die Magnetisirungskraft Leicht zu Brechender Lichtstrahlen. Bon Mad. Maria Somerville [caption title]. [In]

Weimar: Landes-Industrie-Comptoir, May, 1826, 1826. Fine copy.. 4to, recent wrappers, [16] pages, printed in double columns numbered [49]-64. An example of the influence and spread of the news of Mary Somerville's first scientific publication, "On the Magnetizing Power of the More Refrangible Solar Rays" - i.e., the magnetizing power of sunlight - that had been published in the February, 1826, issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society. Her husband, William Somerville, had "communicated" her observations to the Society because as a woman Mary had no access to such outlets of communication. Nonetheless, the scientific observations were clearly credited as hers, and news about them quickly spread to Europe, as evidenced by this report in a German scientific periodical within months of their first publication in London. The notice is the lead article in this issue of Notizen aus dem Gebiete der Natur- und Heilkunde and takes up three columns. The accomplishments and career of Mary Somerville (1780-1872) have been well documented in the DNB online and elsewhere.