Several meetings organized in my honor by the American women's organizations have particularly interested the American public. I have already mentioned the meeting of the University Women at Carnegie Hall of New York; a similar meeting was held at Chicago, where I was also received by the Association of Polish Women. I was also greeted by women's organizations in the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburgh, and by a delegation of Canadian university women at Buffalo. In all these meetings it was impossible not to recognize the sincerity of the emotion in the women who gave me their best wishes, at the same time expressing their confidence in the future of feminine intelligence and activity. I did not feel any opposition between these feministic aspirations and the masculine opinion. As far as I could notice, the men in America approve of these aspirations and encourage them. This is a very favorable condition for the social activity of the American women which reveals itself in a strong interest in work for education, for hygiene, and for the improvement of conditions of labor. But any other unselfish purpose may rely on their support, as is proved by the success of Mrs. Meloney's plan, and by the sympathy this plan encountered in women of all social conditions.
I could not, to my deep regret, give time enough to the visit to laboratories and scientific institutes. These too brief visits were of great interest to me. I found everywhere the greatest care for developing scientific activity and for improving the facilities. New laboratories are in building, and in older laboratories very modern equipment may be found. The available room never gives that impression of insufficiency from which we suffer too often in France. The means are provided by private initiative expressed in gifts and foundations of various kinds. There exists also a National Council of Research established by private funds for stimulating and improving scientific work, and for assuring its connection with industry.
I have visited with special interest the Bureau of Standards, a very important national institution at Washington for scientific measurements and for study connected with them. The tubes of radium presented to me were at the Bureau, whose officials had kindly offered to make the measurements, and to take care of the packing and delivery to the ship.
new laboratory has been created at Washington for researches on very low temperatures with the use of liquid hydrogen and liquid helium. I had the honor of dedicating this laboratory to its service.
I had the great pleasure of meeting in their laboratories several very important American scientific men. The hours I spent in their company are among the best of my travel.
The United States possesses several hospitals for radiumtherapy. These hospitals are generally provided with laboratories for the extraction of radium emanation which is sealed up in small tubes for medical use. These institutions own important quantities of radium, have a very good equipment, and treat a great number of patients. I have visited some of them, and this made me feel more deeply, if possible, the regret of not having in France even one national institute capable of rendering the same services. I hope that this lack will be filled in the near future.
The industry of radium has been started in France, but it is in America that it has had its greatest development, owing to the presence of a sufficient supply of the ore carnotite. I was very much interested in my visit to the most important of the factories, and I gladly recognize the spirit of initiative in this undertaking. The factory owns a collection of documentary films which enable one to appreciate the effort made each day in collecting the ore scattered in the immense fields of Colorado, in carrying and concentrating this ore originally very poor in radium. On the other hand, the means of extraction of radium are still the same which have been described in earlier chapters.
The greatest courtesy was paid me in my visit to the radium plant and laboratory. I found the same reception at a factory of mesothorium which presented me with some material, and where the officials expressed the desire to help in my scientific work.
To make complete these travel impressions it would be necessary to speak of the nature of the country. I recoil before the task, being incapable of expressing in a few words the immensity and the variety of the spaces which opened before my eyes. The general impression is one of unlimited possibilities for the future. I keep a particularly vivid remembrance of the great falls of Niagara, and of the magnificent colors of the Grand Canyon.
On June th I embarked in New York on the same ship which had brought me to the United States less than two months before. I would not take the liberty, after so short a period of time, of giving an opinion on America and the Americans. I would only say how deeply I have been touched by the warm reception which was tendered everywhere to me and my daughters. Our hosts wanted to make us feel that we were not with strangers; and, on the other hand, many of them assured me that they felt in entirely friendly surroundings when on the soil of France. I got back to France with a feeling of gratitude for the precious gift of the American women, and with a feeling of affection for their great country tied with ours by a mutual sympathy which gives confidence in a peaceful future for humanity.
皮埃尔·居里传
