Alice Bodington

Alice Bodington (, formerly Bell; 22 May 1840 – 15 February 1897) was a British Canadian writer of scientific literature and populariser of science.

Early life and family Bodington was born Alice Brooke on 22 May 1840 in Rome, During the marriage, Bell lived as an army wife in Malta, Gibraltar and Montreal. Brooke married her second husband George Fowler Bodington, a physician who specialised in mental disorders, on 5 May 1873.

Career The family lived at Ashwood House, a private asylum run by George Fowler Bodington, in Kingswinford. Her articles where printed in publications such as The American Naturalist, Popular Science Monthly, The Journal of Microscopy and Natural Science, and The Westminster Review.

Her book Studies in Evolution and Biology, received a positive review in The American Naturalist. Bodington was an advocate of neo-Lamarckism. She was an avid supporter of the dissemination of scientific literature, believing that scientific knowledge needed to be accessible to the people if it were to be of any real use to society. Bodington believed that many scientists lacked the ability to express their findings in a way clear and understandable to non-professionals. She viewed herself as a promoter of science and played a role similar to that of a modern pundit. In her writings for The Westminster Review, she discussed the development of the brain and argued the inferiority of Africans. “The Hidden Self”, The Open Court, a Quarterly Magazine Dec 4, 1890 “A Modern View of Ghosts”, The Open Court, a Quarterly Magazine Jan 14, 1892 “Mental Evolution in Man and the Lower Animals” The American Naturalist, Vol. 26, No. 306 (Jun., 1892), pp. 482–494 “Mental Evolution in Man and the Lower Animals (Continued)” The American Naturalist, Vol. 26, No. 307 (Jul., 1892), pp. 593–606 “The Survival of the Unfit”, The Open Court, a Quarterly Magazine Aug 4, 1892 “Legends of the Sumiro-Accadians of Chaldea” The American Naturalist, Vol. 27, No. 313 (Jan., 1893), pp. 14–19 “Legends of the Sumiro-Accadians of Chaldea (Continued)” The American Naturalist, Vol. 27, No. 314 (Feb., 1893), pp. 105–112 “The Parasitic Protozoa Found in Cancerous Diseases” The American Naturalist, Vol. 28, No. 328 (Apr., 1894), pp. 307–315 “Insanity in Royal Families. A Study in Heredity” The American Naturalist, Vol. 29, No. 338 (Feb., 1895), pp. 118–129