after receiving a copy of "mechanism" joanna baillie wrote to somerville, "i feel myself greatly honoured by receiving such a mark of regard from one who has done more to remove the light estimation in which the capacity of women is too often held than all that has been accomplished by the whole sisterhood of poetical damsels & novel-writing authors." the book was praised by george peacock, professor of the university of cambridge, thus many of the 750 copies printed were bought in cambridge. reviews were favourable and somerville received letters of congratulation from "many men of science". she was elected honorary member of the royal irish academy, of the bristol philosophical institution and the société de physique et d'histoire naturelle de genève in 1834. the british crown granted her a civil pension of £200 a year in recognition of her eminence in science and literature.