Editorial note — BENEFIT OF A WIFE TO AN AUTHOR.

It is highly honourable to the sex, that the only exposition of Laplace's work that has (1848) appeared in England, is from the pen of a female—the accomplished Mary Somerville, wife of Dr. Somerville, of Chelsea Hospital. This was published under the title of the Mechanism of the Heavens, of which, it is observed, in the Edinburgh Review, "this, unquestionably, is one of the most remarkable works that female intellect ever produced in any age or country; and with respect to the present day, we hazard little in saying that Mrs. Somerville is the only individual of her sex in the world who could have written it." For this signal service to science, there was conferred upon the lady a pension of 300l. per annum, at the recommendation of Sir Robert Peel.