EDGAR ALLEN 



quota of ova when she is born, he demon- 

 strated that new ova arise after birth and 

 even after sexual maturity. 



As Doctor WilHam U. Gardner, a former 

 student and his successor at Yale, has 

 written, his early conviction that the ovum 

 is "the dynamic center of the folHcle" 

 persisted throughout his life; he left two 

 partially completed manuscripts dealing in 

 part with the subject. Less than a year 

 before he died he wrote to Danforth, "I 

 still think of the ovum as a dynamic center 

 for mitosis and there is no reason why the 

 fertilized ovum shouldn't be." Gardner is 

 of the opinion that Allen's interest in ova 

 prompted the collaboration with Doctors 

 J. P. Pratt, Q. J. Newell and L. J. Bland 

 that resulted in securing in 1930 the first 

 human ova from the oviduct, and in pro- 

 viding evidence bearing on the time of 

 ovulation in the human female. 



Overshadowing these studies of the ova 

 were, of course, Allen's many investigations 

 on the relationship of the ovarian estrogenic 

 hormones to the growth of tissues. His 

 demonstration that removal of the ovaries 

 of the rhesus monkey under appropriate 

 circumstances is followed by a uterine bleed- 

 ing, indistinguishable from that of normal 

 menstruation, led to the formulation of his 

 estrogen-deprivation theory of menstrua- 

 tion. Although challenged and shown to be 

 in need of modification, his statement of 

 this theory stimulated many studies of 

 that phenomenon which is still not under- 

 stood. 



After moving to Yale, he became in- 

 creasingly involved in investigations of the 

 influence of steroid hormones on carcino- 

 genesis, especially the relationship of es- 

 trogens to malignant transformation of the 

 uterine cervix. His interest in the growth- 

 stimulating capacity of the ovarian hor- 

 mones was fiu'ther indicated by his use of 

 the mitosis-stimulating and mitosis-arrest- 

 ing drug, colchicine, in studies on the 

 genital tissues. 



During the relatively short span of his 

 professional life, he and his collaborators 

 published more than 140 original investiga- 

 tions. Of these, most were under joint 

 authorship. This is explained by the fact 



that he rarely worked alonc^ on a scientific 

 problem. This may have been just as well, 

 for his excitement and enthusiasm reached 

 their peak in team work. In all such re- 

 lationships, but especially when younger 

 colleagues were involved, he gave full sup- 

 port and generous credit. He would have 

 been proud of the large number of th(^ latter 

 who have since worked their way to im- 

 portant posts in anatomy. Were he alive, 

 he probably would still be prodding them 

 to look into this or that problem. 



Although the number of articles and 

 reviews of which Allen was author or co- 

 author was relatively large, it was small 

 compared with the many which can be 

 attributed to the encouragement and en- 

 thusiasm he inspired among his students 

 and associates, and to the many more which 

 his work inspired in other laboratories 

 throughout the world. In this sense, rather 

 than in the strictest sense of the word, he 

 was a foremost anatomist. 



At the height of his career, he undertook 

 the editing of the first edition of Sex and 

 Internal Secretions. The editorship of the 

 second edition was shared with Doctors 

 Danforth and Doisy. The former was un- 

 doubtedly over-modest in recalling the parts 

 of the co-editors in the undertaking, but his 

 statement is ciuoted for the information 

 it contains. 



"I had helped a little with the first 

 edition, especially with Bridges' chapter 

 (Bridges being in Russia at the time), 

 and in the second edition took I'e- 

 sponsibility for Section A, as Doisy did 

 for his group of chapters. I read the 

 entire book in manuscript or in proof 

 (mostly both) as I think Doisy did also, 

 but neither of us, I feel sure, thought 

 of ourselves as co-editors. On Jan. 4, 

 1939 Allen wrote, T have asked the 

 publishers to make the book, Allen, 

 Danforth and Doisy; as it has been 

 team work all through.' My own reac- 

 tion, and probably Doisy's is expressed 

 in my reply of January 9, 'Instead of 

 writing a long personal letter in reply 

 to yours of January 4 I am going to send 

 a short note by air mail protesting 

 against your suggestion in the last 



