Jane Marcet

Conversations on Chemistry Jane Marcet

Conversations centers on the maternal Mrs. Bryant (referred to in the text as "Mrs. B") and her two students, Caroline and Emily. This is the backdrop providing a snapshot of the general understanding of chemistry in the early 1800s. The sharing of scientific content through such dialogue was important to Marcet's readers; indeed, she came to write not only Conversations on Chemistry but also Conversations on Political Economics as well as Conversations on Natural Philosophy. As she stated in her preface to Conversations on Chemistry, she took on the question of whether such material was suitable for women and knew there would be objections, but she also knew public opinion was on her side. She published the first edition of Conversations anonymously in 1805. Her Conversations was intended for the "Female Sex" and became her most popular and famous work. It was one of the first elementary science textbooks and contained Jane's own drawings of chemical apparatuses. Throughout the text she emphasized the importance of both demonstration by experiment and theoretical rigor.