522 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1897. 



valuable record of observations made on the lines defined by previous 

 writers, especially by Eschricht and Voigt, on the human subject. 

 It forms a valuable summary of previous work, adding much mate- 

 rial for future research, but advancing no hypotheses. In this the 

 author was consistent with the cautious conservatism which charac- 

 terized his life. 



Taking a comprehensive view of the zoological work of Dr. Allen 

 in connection with our knowledge of his personality, we are most im- 

 pressed with its conscientiousness united to an unselfishness only too 

 rare among men of Science. 



In a personal acquaintance with Dr. Allen as a student of zoology, 

 the author was early impressed with his serious and deliberate, 

 almost solemn, consideration of the subject in hand. A more inti- 

 mate acquaintance revealed his geniality and humor and his 

 philosophic interest in created things. 



He never reached conclusions hastily even on subjects of minor im- 

 port. His faculty, may it not be said his genius, for tentative sugges- 

 tion as to the significance of phenomena was exercised in such a con- 

 servative way that it could neither mislead nor be misconstrued as 

 a declaration of belief. His sincerity of purpose, his humility, and 

 his love of nature endeared him to his associates and emphasize 

 their regret for his loss. 



DR. ALLEN'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 



BY DANIEL G. BRINTON, M. D. 



The field of science, strictly so-called, which Dr. Allen cultivated, 

 was that of anatomy, and primarily human anatomy. 



He understood this science, however, in a very different sense from 

 that in which it is usually presented in medical schools. He was 

 not at all in sympathy with the programme which reduces anatomy 

 to the position of a. handmaid to clinical surgery. Such a method 

 he considered not only unworthy the true relations of anatomical 

 study, but ultimately an injury to practical medicine itself; because 

 etiology is the only sure guide to rational practice; and etiology 

 means nothing so much as the investigation of progressive tissue- 

 change, in other words, histological and gross anatomy. 



It was in this spirit that he applied his profound and minute 

 knowledge of human and comparative anatomy to medical and surgi- 

 cal questions, and with the same broad grasp he attacked the problems- 



