Johannes Kepler, upon whom I am writing my history term paper, had numerous health problems throughout his life. In one of his many personal notes, he describes his troubles as such:
I have investigated the matter of my conception, which took place in the year 1571, May 16, at 4:37 a.m. [he knew this because he practiced astrology and wanted to know the exact position of the heavens at the time of his birth]... My weakness at birth removes the suspicion that my mother was already pregnant at the marriage, which was the 15th of May... Thus I was born premature, at thirty-two weeks, after 224 days, [9 hours, and 53 minutes of pregnancy]...
1575 [aged four] I almost died of small pox, was in very ill health, and my hands were badly crippled...
1577 [six] On my birthday I lost a tooth, breaking it off with a string which I pulled with my hands...
1585-86 [fourteen-fifteen] During these two years, I suffered continually from skin ailments, often severe sores, often from the scabs of chronic putrid wounds in my feet which healed badly and kept breaking out again. On the middle finger of my right hand I had a worm, on the left a huge sore...
1587 [sixteen] On April 4 I was attacked by a fever...
1598 [nineteen] I began to suffer terribly from headaches and a disturbance of my limbs. The mange took hold of me... Then there was a dry disease...
1591 [twenty] The cold brought on a prolonged mange... A disturbance of body and mind had set in because of the excitement of the Carnival play in which I was playing Mariamne [At the time, male actors filled the female parts in plays, and Kepler was chosen in this case because of his small frame]...
1592 [twenty-one] I went down to Weil [the city where he was born] and lost a quarter florin at gambling... At Cupinga's I was offered union with a virgin; on New Year's Eve I achieved this with the greatest possible difficulty, experiencing the most acute pains of the bladder... (, 231)
In addition to poor health, he had few friends at school. He often wrote about his peers, many of whom he saw as enemies:
Kolinus did not hate me, rather I hated him. He started a friendship with me, but continually opposed me... My love of pleasure and other habits turned Baunbaum from being a friend into an equally great enemy... I willingly incurred the hatred of Seiffer because the rest hated him too, and I provoked him although he had not harmed me. Ortholphus hated me as I hated Kolinus, although I on the contrary liked Ortholphus, but the rivalry between us was manysided... I have often incensed everyone against me through my own fault: at Adelberg [a protestant seminary analogous to middle school] it was my treachery [in denouncing his schoolmates]; at Maulbronn, my defense of Graeter; at Tübingen [his undergraduate university], my violent request for silence. Lendlinus I alienated by foolish writings, Spangenberg, by my temerity in correcting him when he was my teacher; Kleberus hated me as a rival... The reputation of my talent annoyed Rebstock and also my frivolousness... Husalinus opposed my progress... With Dauber there was a secret rivalry and jealousy... My friend Jaeger betrayed my trust: he lied to me and squandered much of my money. I turned to hatred and exercised it in angry letter during the course of two years... Lorhard never communicated with me. I admired him, but he never knew this, nor did anyone else. (, 235-6)
Someone get that man a !