Rosina Zornlin

Rosina Zornlin (6 December 1795 – 22 May 1859) was a British author who wrote science popularizations and works on religion.

Life and works

Rosina Zornlin was born on 6 December 1795 in Walthamstow, Essex, England to a literary family. Her father was John Jacob Zornlin, a London merchant of Swiss background. Her mother, Elizabeth Alsager, was the sister of Thomas Massa Alsager and had published some poetry Her sister, Georgiana Zornlin, was an author and an artist. An invalid, Rosina spent most of her life living with her family in Clapham, Surrey. She was involved with the Clapham Microscopical Society.^[1] An amateur astronomer, she published two articles in The Philosophical Magazine on meteor showers in 1839 and 1841 and was interested enough in physics to have a paper read to the British Association for the Advancement of Science entitled On Heat and on the Indestructibility of Elementary Bodies in 1858. Zornlin also published two non-fiction books on the Bible narrative and an anti-Catholic novel entitled, The Roman Catholic Chapel, or, Lindenhurst Parish in 1837.^[2]

Zornlin's earliest scientific books were written to take advantage of astronomical phenomena like the 1835 approach of Halley's Comet and the 1836 solar eclipse visible in England. They were written in the dialog format popular at the time and she returned to that format for her book on voltaic batteries published in 1842,^[3] although one reviewer criticized Zornlin because she "unconsciously takes for granted that the pupil is [already] familiar with the phenomena which she undertakes to explain."^[4] Zornlin's other scientific books used a clear, textbook style of prose.^[5]

Her first book on geology, Recreations in Geology, was published in 1839 and was heavily influenced by the Natural Theology of William Paley.^[5]

Notes

References

• Larsen, Kristine (2017). The Women Who Popularized Geology in the 19th Century. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-64951-1.