526 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1897. 



pies are marked by an absence of correlation, or, to use bis own ex- 

 pression, " The bones themselves appear to become individualized." 



This presents a curious analogy to the sociological results of civil- 

 ization, for it is generally acknowledged that the highest product of 

 culture is the development of the individual life, and the specializa- 

 tion of mental activities. 



Dr. Burt J. Wilder, in commenting on this address, remarked 

 that the fundamental thesis of the author appeared to be that 

 structure is a record of function. Though Dr. Allen did not directly 

 accept this rendition of his philosophy, my own impression is that 

 it is in full accord with his teachings. 



The study of morphology from its artistic or pictorial side led 

 Dr. Allen, in 1875, to the publication, in the Transactions of the 

 American Philosophical Society, of his suggestive treatise entitled 

 An Analysis of the Life Form in Art. It covers 71 quarto pages, 

 and the text is illustrated by 185 figures. The chief aim of the 

 author was to analyze those art forms of early or savage peoples 

 which have originated in models found in nature; to point out those 

 peculiar traits in animals and plants which caught the eye of the 

 primitive artist; and to set forth the passage from the realistic to 

 the conventional in early design. 



Such models as the palm-tree, the serpent, the man, the lion, etc., 

 are selected as examples, and traced with minuteness in their repre- 

 sentations in ancient and uncultivated art. 



This was a delicate and difficult task, and it must be said that it 

 would not be safe to follow all of Dr. Allen's identifications. The- 

 study of primitive decorative art has made rapid progress in the 

 last score of years, and the principles it now accepts were scarcely 

 known that long ago. Still, this work may be studied with profit, 

 and the accurate and philosophic conception of life form which 

 everywhere guides the author, leads him to many suggestions of per- 

 manent value. 



A portion of it is devoted especially to subjects from aboriginal 

 American design and pictography, which is an added claim to ita 

 consideration by the archaeologist. 



In the last few years of his life Dr. Allen devoted much time to 

 researches in craniology proper, endeavoring to place that vacillat- 

 ing branch of anthropology on a secure footing. 



In 1894 he proposed in the Proceedings of this Academy a new 

 method of determining the plane of the skull, and in 1896 advo- 



