• CHEMIST who may have written the FIRST book on food preservation
• Born into a wealthy family, she dedicated her life to scholarship at age 22 after her face was scarred by small-pox
• Because of her family's social status, she enjoyed access to the King's library
• Created a laboratory in her home, where she conducted experiments and hosted scholars, including Voltaire
• Published more than fifty essays and books -- all anonymously, to prevent her work from being dismissed because she was a woman
• Translated both Peter Shaw's Chemical Lectures and Alexander Monro's Anatomy of the Human Bones, adding substantial commentary, illustrations, and even correcting perceived errors
• Fluent in three languages, she also translated several English and Italian novels, including those of eminent female author Aphra Behn, and a biography of Queen Marie de Medici
• In 1754 -- forty years before Nicolas Appert started his experiments that would lead to the innovation of canning food -- d'Arconville began a series of more than 300 experiments on decay and food preservation, a subject that remained her focus for ten years and culminated in her nearly 600-page book Essai Pour Servir a l'Histoire de la Putrefaction
• Putrefaction, which may be the first book ever written on the topic, was published with the author listed simply as the anonymous translator of Shaw's chemistry book
• Also established a hospice near her country estate

Painting of scientist and historian Mme d’Arconville by A. Roslin [Public domain via Wikimedia Commons]

Bibliography: ​Rose, Paulette and Ronald K. Smeltzer. "Marie-Genevieve-Charlotte Thiroux D'Arconville." Extraordinary Women in Science & Medicine: Four Centuries of Achievement, The Grolier Club, 2013, 97-100.

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