Hide Article Text (OCR)
40Hook Reviews,When slit* was seventeen years old she went with her parents to St* Petersburg. The movement which about this time, the year 1867, was beginning to make itself felt, affected Sonya. It was not a nihilistic, scarcely a political movement* It was an eager striving after knowledge and mental development ; and it had spread so far and wide that hundreds of young girls belonging to the best families abandoned their homes and betook themselves to foreign universities in order to study science.0 To escape parental authority which did not favor such proceedings, many of these young girls entered into a fictitious marriage with young men devoted to the same intellectual pursuit, who left them free at the Universities to pursue their studies. Into one of these marriages Sonya Kovalevsky entered, She had shown such extraordinary keenness and quickness of perception and such fidelity of origination v that her scientific gifts were not to be mistaken. After staying six months at Petersburg Sonya and her husband, Vladmir Kovalevsky went to Heidelberg, After her matriculation she went to Berlin to continue her studies as a private pupil under Professor Weierstrauss, The University of Berlin was not, nor is it yet, open to women. For four years she studied with Professor Weierstrauss and in 1874 received her doctor's degree from the University of Gottingen. Her treatise “ Zur Theorie des parti-ellen Differentialgleichungen is considered one of the most remarkable works she ever published.From this point on the story of Sonya Kovalevsky is most unhappy. Troubles, not only external, but subjective in nature, harassed her. At times she lost herself completely in her work and astonished even those who knew her by the evidences of her genius* And again, she gave herself up completely to melancholy, to craving for sympathy and love too idealistic for realization. At the solemn Session of the French Academy of Science she received in person the Prix Bor din, “ the greatest scientific honor which any woman has ever gained ; one of the greatest honors to which anyone can aspire. The prize was doubled on account of the “quite extraordinary service rendered to mathematical physics by her work. Through the influence of Professor Mittag-Lefher Mme. Kovalevsky went to Stockholm as prival-docent and was made professor at the University. She was the first woman in Europe admitted to that honor.The work done by Sonya Kovalevsky gives her an eminent place among men. In her pursuit of knowledge she was greatly hamperedby the restrictions which the laws and sentiments of her countrylaid upon her sex. That she was unhappy was not the fault of her “ masculine learning but was due to her intense, demanding nature. From this no learning or lack of learning could have saved her.
Newspaper Details
Poughkeepsie Vassar Miscellany
Poughkeepsie, New York, US
Tue, Oct 01, 1895
Page 40
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 13 Oct 2022
Other Publications Near Poughkeepsie, New York
Poughkeepsie Vassar Alumnae Quarterly
Poughkeepsie Vassar Chronicle
Poughkeepsie Unscrewed
Poughkeepsie Vassar Miscellany
Poughkeepsie Miscellany News
