C IVILIZATION may be called a progressive endless chain of the achievements and contributions of the individual. It is the organized group which makes progress possible, it is true, but the originators, the idea givers, the innovators, are the real factors in the upward trend of life. A man makes his contribution, the chain is lengthened more or less, and he passes on to make room for another. What shall be said of the man, Greene Vardiman Black, who by the sincere, self-devoted, unselfish work of half a century has forged in the chain of modern civilization a link so perfectly executed, so unrivalled in workmanship that the hand which takes up what he laid down must have a cunning and strength not yet perceived in any of his contemporaries; and that link so beautifully fashioned -if we may continue our figure is so long that it stretches far into the future and it is so well made that many years may elapse before the All-wise sends another to extend the work of this, His "good and faithful servant." Much has been said and written of Dr. Black since his passing away at Walnut Lodge, his boyhood home, on August 31st. The note of love for the man has been as pronounced as is the admiration and deep respect for the teacher and scholar. To an unusual extent Dr. Black was well beloved. He was great in achievements, and great, also, in his simplicity and sincerity. For this men love him. He climbed the heights, but he took his fellows with him every step of the way. For this the gratitude of men will follow him for many days. On a quiet little farm in Illinois, Dr. Black was born in 1836. The Old home where the Black family lived after 1844. The house was built by William Black and his sons, among them G. V. Black. The clay was dug, the bricks made and burned near the house, and the lumber was sawed out of trees from the timber near the edge of which the house was built. It is still in a perfect state of preservation. The picture shows the west front. The farm was purchased by Dr. G. V. Black about ten years ago. life and filled him with love which ended only with his death-for his last low whispered words were, "Trees, Flowers, Sky." When Dr. Black was but seventeen years of age, he began the study of medicine, and pursued this work with his usual thoroness for three years. Meanwhile he developed a decided skill for mechanics, a trait possibly inherited. manual labor, the extraction of teeth; he left it one of the world's greatest sciences to which pathology, materia medica, bacteriology and surgery are necessary equipments, and no one man was more potent than he in starting the profession on its upward trend. Dr. Black is widely known for his scientific books and papers. Always a prolific writer, his works |