island home provided the means of recreation as well as a place for
work. He was surrounded by his family, troops of friends were not
wanting, and a pet dwarf seems to have been an inmate of his curious
residence. By way of change from his astronomical labours he used
frequently to work with his students in his chemical laboratory. It
is not indeed known what particular problems in chemistry occupied
his attention. We are told, however, that he engaged largely in the
production of medicines, and as these appear to have been dispensed
gratuitously there was no lack of patients.

Tycho's imperious and grasping character frequently brought him into
difficulties, which seem to have increased with his advancing years.
He had ill-treated one of his tenants on Hven, and an adverse
decision by the courts seems to have greatly exasperated the
astronomer. Serious changes also took place in his relations to the
court at Copenhagen. When the young king was crowned in 1596, he
reversed the policy of his predecessor with reference to Hven. The
liberal allowances to Tycho were one after another withdrawn, and
finally even his pension was stopped. Tycho accordingly abandoned
Hven in a tumult of rage and mortification. A few years later we
find him in Bohemia a prematurely aged man, and he died on the 24th
October, 1601.




GALILEO.