Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Jane Marcet was a successful writer of popular introductory science books. She was born in London, one of twelve children of the merchant and banker Anthony Francis Haldimand and his wife Jane, and was tutored at home with her brothers. Her brother William Haldimand became a director of the Bank of England and a member of Parliament. She took over the running of the family after her mother's death. She paid a visit to Italy with her father in 1796. After her marriage in 1799 to Alexander John Gaspard Marcet, a Swiss exile and physician, she continued to live in London where, through her husband, she had contact with many leading scientists. Of their four children, François Marcet became a well-known physicist. She died in the house of a daughter in Piccadilly, London in 1858. After helping to read the proofs of one of her husband's books, Marcet decided to write her own, and produced expository books on chemistry, botany, religion and economics under the general title "Conversations"