The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7245 p556
19 April 2003

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First woman mathematician [more]
Poisoned heirlooms [more]
Troubled country [more]
Dodging the issue [more]

First woman mathematician

In New Scientist for 8 March there is a note regarding one of the most remarkable women in history. She was Hypatia, daughter of the Alexandria mathematician, philosopher and librarian Theon, and was born about AD375 in that city, which was a cultural centre of its time.

From her father, who ensured that she enjoyed a wide and intensive education, Hypatia inherited a genius for the mathematical sciences and an active interest in philosophy. She wrote commentaries on the work of Apollonius and Diophantus, undertaking a revision of Diophantus's publications on arithmetic and algebra. She became celebrated for her eloquence and learning, and attracted students from all over the Greek world, notably Synesius of Cyrene, who recorded that she invented a brass hydrometer for determining the specific gravity of liquids, an astrolabe for astronomical observations, a system of distillation, and other devices.

Hypatia was a keen teacher of the Neoplatonist philosophy and a rationalist, and this, together with the envy that some Alexandrians felt for her intellectual achievements, marked her down as a victim of Christian fanatics in the city. One night she was attacked by a mob of extreme Christian fundamentalists, torn to pieces and burnt. The attackers are generally assumed to be followers of Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, who resented Hypatia's influence and was a believer in draconian policies towards those with whom he disagreed. This was in the year 415. Hypatia's reputation as the first woman mathematician in history, however, has survived to this day.

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Poisoned heirlooms

Curators of museums have a long established habit of taking precautions against the deterioration of their exhibits. This has occasionally provoked criticism from those concerned with the possible threat to health posed by some of the measures taken.

One of the earliest examples was the inclusion of potent arsenical and mercurial preservatives in the materials used to stuff animal specimens. So long as the specimen remained in the display cabinet there was no cause for anxiety, but if it were removed for research purposes or for study, there was a chance of toxic compounds being swallowed, inhaled, or even absorbed through the skin. For insects and botanical specimens there were volatile preservatives such as paradichloro-benzene, penta-chlorophenol and naphthalene to consider.

In the distant past, museum curators were rather careless — or ignorant — over their choice of preservative but, today, we have developed acute distrust of some of these compounds and their possible ill-effects on students exposed to traces of them. We may have gone too far in our fear and taken excessive precautions, but preservatives in museum specimens remain something a potential hazard.

A new aspect has recently arisen concerning those museum treasures whose return has been demanded by native tribes whose sacred ancestral tokens were stolen from them by invaders from the imperialistic powers in order to adorn museum showcases in the developed world. In New Scientist for 1 March, Ian Sample reports how curators are issuing warnings that the ceremonial objects being restored on demand to their rightful owners may be dangerous to handle because of their poison content. Clothing and jewellery reclaimed by native American tribes and worn for traditional ceremonies and dances may have a high residue of arsenic or mercury derived from their museum treatment. Samples taken from some fabrics have revealed up to 5 per cent by weight of mercury, while five other residues, including DDT, have also been found in significant concentrations.

It is feared that if such garments were again to be worn during ceremonies the toxic preservatives might be absorbed through skin contact, reach the eyes or be inhaled by bystanders. Unfortunately there are no accepted techniques enabling the preservatives to be removed from the garments and jewellery, so that their restoration presents a serious problem. Moreover, no one knows how extensive that problem is.

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Troubled country

We hear a great deal about the enormous difficulties that the restoration of some degree of civilisation presents in Iraq, and the problems that face humanitarian efforts to bring relief into the area. Yet there is another difficulty that has presented itself to historians and archaeologists for generations, not as urgent or as humanitarian in its appeal, and that has been greatly intensified since the Gulf war erupted.

It concerns the destruction and looting of irreplaceable cultural relics associated with a region that was the cradle of science and politics for thousands of years, since humans first set foot in the enchanted land which surrounds the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.

In Science for 21 March the professor of Mesopotamian archaeology in the University of Chicago, McGuire Gibson, states that, from the founding of the modern state of Iraq until 1990, that country was envied its record of protecting its antiquities and cultural heritage. Its department of antiquities controlled all archaeological sites and artefacts from the early 1920s, and had a staff so well trained that there were no illegal excavations and no illegal trade in antiquities. Then, at the close of the Gulf war, nine of the 13 regional museums were raided by mobs who smashed exhibits, stole valuable antiquities and set fires to buildings. Of some 3,000 objects known to have been lost, almost none has been recovered.

Then the embargo imposed by the United Nations produced loss of staff and funding, which was followed by increased looting and smuggling of artefacts. Government in the alluvial desert between the two great rivers, the heartland of ancient Sumer, was weak, and in attempts to find a means of feeding their families local residents took to excavating. Especially, they sought cylinder seals, statues and clay tablets engraved with cuneiform inscriptions.

Some measures were taken to correct the situation, but the current war has placed at hazard many sites in the western desert. Archaeologists, rightly, have been particularly worried for the welfare of the Iraq National Museum in Baghdad and the museum in Mosul. Although the National Museum has escaped the physical damage of bombing, it has been looted and priceless artefacts have been lost or destroyed.

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Dodging the issue

Arguments among democratic politicians are stultified by the tradition of scoring points off each other, by the refusal of either side to admit it could ever be wrong, by constant shifting of ground, evasion of issues and laying of conditions.
— Gerald Priestland: 'The future of violence' (1974).

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