Upon her return, she was able to get two articles, "Brigandage in Sicily" and "Copernicus in Italy", written while she had been in Italy, published in the "Edinburgh Review" of October 1877. This led to her being asked by Adam and Charles Black, publishers of the "Review", who also published the "Encyclopædia Britannica", to write biographies of a number of famous scientists for the ninth edition of the encyclopedia. This work let to a number of other commissions, including the publication of the article on astronomy for the "Catholic Encyclopedia". During her career she wrote reviews of many books, including some written in French, German, Greek, or Italian.