The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-14
M M F. CURIE,
DISCOVER or RADJUM.

the wonderful rays. Because of her na- | tive land-Poland-she named is polonfum. And still the slag or byproduct of pitch | tive land-Poiand-she named 1t poionfum. had been extracted. gave on other chem
 ical rays. There must be still some other substance, Mime. Curie concluded in her female mind which Is incapable of reas- oning. Yet other experiments. and ra-
 dium itself, that marvellous thing-the God of the universe knows what 1t ts!- was discovered by Mme. Curie. The fame of 1t rang through the world and--Mme. Curie's husband got the credit of 1t!
 Mime. Curie must have smiled to her self when she read the reports of papers written by learned scientists and produced
 before learned societies. narrating how Professor Curie had succeeded in extract
 ing the wonderful new element radium,
 when she herself had sent to Bohemia
 for tons of pitchblende slag and experi- mented till she found radium. She did
 not say much, 1t seems. but took the pre-
 caution to make contract for the pur- chase of all the pitchblende byproduct
 from the place where the mineral ts ob-
 tained. Thus Professor and Mime. Curte
 have q monopoly at present of radium production. The woman who brides her
 self on her good household management proved herself also financier.
 By and by 1t began to be said that Pro- lessor Curie's wife had assisted in the expe periments resulting in the discovery of the new substance. Then the scientists and newspaper men mentioned Professor Curie and his wife in writing of radfum. Now they say Mime. Curie and her hus- band" although she investigated quite independently.
 All the world has read of the marvel ous. mysterious properties of radium and all the world Is more interested in the personality of the lady who discovered | 1t than in any other woman living. Not much is noised abroad of her. Like all really great scientific persons. she is ex- tremely quiet and modest. this woman who, 1t has been said, Is ''so great you can only stand and contemplate her in silence You have no word to speak" She lives in a cottage near Paris with her husband and little daughter. have seen a picture of her. It is of a woman clear eyed, gentle and. sincere-with Q
 head that looks as if it might hold ont of the superbest brains of the ages. with its noble size. harmonious conhguratior and dome-hire brow. It is a face and head before which a man would instinc- lively take off his hat. Let her sex re. joice that the twentieth century has pro- duced a woman who will rank as one of the era makers in chemistry.
 "She is the greatest woman living one of the greatest that ever lived.'
 heard Q gentleman say yesterday. But with their feeling of exultation American women may regret a little
 that the first great woman chemist was not an American. that with all our ad- vantages and opportunity. there is mol
 a woman scientist of the first rank in the whole United States.
 In the picture of Mime. Curie that
 have seen. her little daughter sits upon
 her knee, a child a few years old. with a large head and full brow and thought full, earnest face. like her mother. Mime, Curie's head is very fully developed in the upper part of the forehead. high and square. the kind phrenoiogists call the logical head.
 Sir William Crookes said in an address recently that the Investigations of twen-
 tieth century physicists might reach the point where matter Is receivable into pure energy. Mime. Curie's discovery ia
 the longest leap yet made toward that
 goal. LILLIAN GRAY.