Jane Marcet - an influence on George Elliot?

[kev67]

I was reading about Michael Faraday yesterday in a book called 17 Equations That Changed the World. It said one of the books that inspired him as a boy was Conversations on Chemistry by Jane Marcet. A science book written by a woman in the early 19th century! That is quite interesting. According to Wikiipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Marcet), Jane Marcet wrote several text books, including Conversations on Chemistry, Conversations on Political Economy and Conversations on Natural Philosophy. George Elliot was interested in science. I wonder if she was influenced by Marcet's books as a child.

Another link (http://www.humantouchofchemistry.com/jane-marcet.htm).

[kev67]

Come to think of it, I wonder if she influenced Mary Shelley.

[kev67]

I posted about Jane Marcet on a website for geeks. Someone found the book on-line.

http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn27bl;view=1up;seq=151

First page of the preface is here.
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It looks quite interesting. A female (I think) instructor is talking to two girls who ask her questions on chemistry. Elliot implied the standard of education for girls was not as high as for boys. Dorothea seems to have thought there were big gaps in her schooling. Maybe these conversations were Marcet's attempts to fill in those gaps. I would be surprised if Elliot had not come across these books.