Margarete Traube

Margarete Traube (also known as Margherita Traube Mengarini) (4 June 1856 – 11 December 1912) was a German-born chemist, salon holder, and early feminist who lived in Italy much of her adult life.

Biography Traube was born in Berlin, Germany into a Jewish family with a scientific tradition. Her father was Ludwig Traube (1818–1876), a famous doctor; her uncle was the chemical physiologist Moritz Traube (1826–1894); while her brother was a well known Middle-Latin philologist Ludwig Traube (1861–1907). She was the maternal aunt of Anna Fraentzel Celli, nurse and malarial researcher (1877–1958), wife of Professor Angelo Celli (3/14/1858–11/8/1915).

In 1876 both of her parents died. The following year, at age 21, she arrived in Rome, Italy, on a pleasure trip accompanied by the German writer and emancipationist Fanny Lewald.

In 1878 Traube decided to settle permanently in Italy, and enrolled at the University of Rome (later graduating with honors in natural sciences

At the end of her life, from 1911 on, she was working in Emanuele Paternò's chemistry laboratory.

In addition to her scientific production, Traube was also a multifaceted author, contributing numerous essays on many topics of philosophy, society and geography, but no printed copies are known to exist today.

Final years In 1912, sick with cancer, Traube traveled to Milan for a few months of experimental treatment by the Italian pathologist and hygienist Francesco Sanfelice. Even though she was ill, while in Milan, Traube continued her research using the laboratory of Ettore Molinari.

Returning to her home in Anzio, apparently cured, she contracted a severe case of the flu and suddenly died there on 11 December 1912 at age 56.

Selected publications Experimentelle Beiträge zur Physiologie des Fischgehirns, in "Archiv für Anatomie und Physiologie," 1884. Research on the gases contained in the swim bladder of fish, in " Accademia dei Lincei," 1888. The education of our children, in "New Anthology," 1898. On the conjugation of amoebas, in "Rendiconti della R. Accademia dei Lincei," 1903. Ludwig Traube, in "Nomina Sacra." (1907). Print. (with Alberto Scala), Ueber die chemische Durchlässigkeit lebender Algen- und Protozoenzellen für anorganische Salze und die spezifische Wirkung letzterer, in " Biochemische Zeitschrift," 1909. (with Alberto Scala), Solution of metals in the colloidal state obtained by the action of boiling distilled water, in "Proceedings of the Italian Society for the Progress of Sciences," 1910.