LITTLE QThe science of medicine in Aristotle's boyhood was 

 JOURNEYS the science of simples. In surgery the world has pro- 

 gressed, but in medicine, doctors have progressed 

 most, by consigning to the grave, that tells no tales, 

 the deadly materia medica. 



In Aristotle's childhood, when his father was both guide 

 and physician to the king, on hunting trips through 

 the mountains, the good doctor taught the boys to 

 recognize hemlock, hellebore, sarsaparilla, sassafras, 

 mandrake and stramoniurn. Then Aristotle made a 

 list of all the plants he knew and wrote down the sup- 

 posed properties of each. 



Before Aristotle was half grown both his father and 

 mother died, and he was cared for by a Mr. and Mrs. 

 Proxenis Jt> Jt> 



This worthy couple would never have been known to 

 the world were it not for the fact that they ministered 

 to this orphan boy. Long years afterward he wrote a 

 poem to their memory, and paid them such a tender, 

 human compliment that their names have been woven 

 into the very fabric of letters. "They loved each other, 

 and still had love enough left for me," he says. And 

 we can only guess whether this man and his wife with 

 hearts illumined by divine passion, the only thing that 

 yet gladdens the world, ever imagined that they were 

 supplying an atmosphere in which would bud and 

 blossom one of the greatest intellects the world has 

 ever known. 



It was through the help of Proxenis that Aristotle was 

 26 



