338 Lightman
science.” Feelings of admiration would arise in his readers, he believed,
when they discovered that “the work of which we have thus to speak is
that of a woman.” Though there was a “sex in minds,” Whewell believed
that women could acquire learning in science. In the rare case of women
like Somerville who became philosophers, they actually had an advan-
tage since “one of the characteristics of the female intellect is a clearness
of perception.” Strikingly, Whewell looked to Somerville’s book to help
counteract the growing fragmentation of the physical sciences. “If we ap-
prehend her purpose rightly,” Whewell declared, “this is to be done by
showing how detached branches have, in the history of science, united
by the discovery of general principles.” Whewell therefore recommended
the book to his colleagues in the British Association, notwithstanding
Somerville’s claim that the book was addressed to her countrywomen.
“We believe,” Whewell remarked, “that there are few individuals of that
gender which plumes itself upon the exclusive possession of exact science,
who may not learn much that is both novel and curious in the recent
progress of physics from this little volume.”^2
As a commentary on the state of science, Whewell’s review is telling.
The failure of Whewell and his British Association colleagues to reach a
consensus on a fi xed term for those who sought knowledge of the natural
world is some indication of the instability of the meaning of science in
the shifting geography of early nineteenth- century culture. But Whewell’s
new term eventually “stuck,” which tells us how important the nine-
teenth century has been in shaping the modern conception of science.
The coining of the term “scientist,” with its overtones of specialism and
professionalism, has been interpreted as marking the transition of the
cultivation of science from the hands of the amateur to those of the pro-
fessional.^3 However, it is remarkable that the fi rst use of the term is in an
article singing the praises of a female popularizer of science whose book is
presented as the solution to the most pressing problem confronting scien-
tists. It would be unthinkable for a professional scientist in the latter half
of the century to look to a work of popular science, let alone a book by a
woman, for answers to any of the big questions in science. The meaning
of the term “scientist,” at least in the mind of the individual who coined
it, was not identical to “professional scientist” as we understand it today.
Though Whewell worried about the increasing fragmentation of sci-
ence, at least during this period he could take some comfort in knowing
that his powerful brethren in the Anglican clergy guaranteed that a strong
religious framework unifi ed science. But by the middle of the nineteenth
century, when the scientifi c naturalists led by Thomas Henry Huxley ar-
rived on the scene to challenge the cultural authority of the Anglican