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8 In the Meantime in Groningen
Fig. 8.4 Henriette Hertzsprung–Kapteyn with her father. This picture has been taken
from her biography [1]
Kapteyn suffered a lot from nervous pains in his eyes, for which he could not
find any cure, but the defect healed spontaneously. He was forced to give up
reading at night. This was a great sacrifice, but good friends helped him to cope
with it and came to read to him regularly in the evening. Heymans did this for
many years and both enjoyed these get-togethers. Initially they read articles from
Kapteyn’s research area, later on also other things, which interested both of them,
mainly articles or brochures about the current problems in the scientific world.
They discussed the problems, and since they were very different in disposition
and temperament, there was a lot of ground for discussion, which always brought
up new points of view and new questions. Both of them had the greatest respect
for science and a firm beliefs in her sovereignty. [...]
Heymans and Kapteyn also studied other works. They took up Bacon’s famous
Novum Organum and even Boswell’s Life of Johnson, that voluminous book that
everyone knew by name, but which hardly anyone had read. Furthermore, they