EDGAR ALLEN 



1892-1943 



Soon after his untimely death, February 

 3, 1943, many of the important details of 

 Edgar Allen's life were recorded by col- 

 leagues who were close to him. Separated 

 from these memorials, however, was Sex 

 and Internal Secretions, understandably the 

 most permanent and tangible memorial. 

 It is appropriate, therefore, that in this 

 long-delayed third edition, much of the 

 material in those records of his life should 

 be combined with the review of the field 

 in which his substantive contributions and 

 directive thought were so important. With 

 the permission of Doctors George W. Corner 

 and William U. Gardner, portions of their 

 biographical sketches have been used here. 

 A few minor errors have been corrected 

 and supplementary information has been 

 added when it was felt that the picture of 

 Edgar Allen would thereby be enlarged and 

 sharpened. For much of the latter, in- 

 debtedness is expressed to Doctor Charles 

 H. Danforth, a long-time friend and senior 

 colleague at Washington University, and 

 to Doctor J. Walter Wilson, with Allen as 

 a graduate student at Brown University. 



Doctor Allen ("Ed" to his many friends, 

 and "The Skipper" in his department at 

 Yale) was born at Canyon City, Colorado, 

 May 2, 1892. He was the son of a physician 

 about whom little seems to be known. The 

 Allen family moved to Providence when 

 he was very young. His early training was 

 obtained in the public schools of Providence 

 and at Brown University. Immediately after 

 his graduation in 1915 he started graduate 

 study in biology. This was interrupted 

 two years later by World War I, but was 

 sufficient to fulfill the not too rigorous 

 requirements for a master of arts degree. 

 His record during this period does not seem 

 to have been impressive and nothing that 

 has been learned about it foreshadowed his 

 later distinguished accomplishments. How- 

 ever, one hitherto unrecorded experience. 



mentioned on one occasion to the present 

 biographer, may have had unusual sig- 

 nificance in the years that followed. Doctor 

 Albert Davis Mead, to whom editions 1 

 and 2 were inscribed, was Professor of 

 Biology and instructor in the course in 

 vertebrate embryology. At that time and 

 for many years later the uteri, tubes, and 

 ovaries of pregnant sows were collected 

 from the local slaughterhouse and dissected 

 by the class. Allen, probably as an assistant 

 in the course, visited the slaughterhouse 

 where his attention was attracted by the 

 numerous large follicles in most of the 

 ovaries. The curiosity thus engendered seems 

 to have been the extent of his interest in 

 reproductive physiology while he was at 

 Brown, but it could have been instrumental 

 in directing his attention to the ovary a 

 few years later in St. Louis, and it could 

 have prepared him to seek the sow's ovaries 

 as a source of follicular fluid when he was 

 desirous of obtaining large quantities of it 

 for his first tests on spayed mice. 



In May, 1917, he volunteered for service 

 in the Brown University Ambulance Unit. 

 Later he transferred to a mobile unit of the 

 Sanitary Corps with which he served in 

 France. When he was discharged in Feb- 

 ruary, 1919, he held a commission as second 

 lieutenant. 



Before leaving for France in 1918 he 

 married Marian Pfeiffer, a fellow student 

 enrolled in Pembroke College, the Women's 

 College in Brown University. Throughout 

 the balance of his life she was his devoted 

 companion. She too died as a relatively 

 young woman and did not long survive him. • 

 There are two daughters. For a man in his 

 position, he lived modestly. It is easy to 

 imagine that he valued the warmth and 

 affection of his family and friends and his 

 boat abo\T other luxuries he might have 

 had. 



When he returned to civilian life he had 



