ED(;AR ALLEN 



paragraph. It would be quite unjust 

 and misleading for you to put Doisy's 

 and my names in any sense coordinate 

 with yours. . . . And to put our names 

 in any Vnit the most subordinate posi- 

 tion would he to give credit that is not 

 due.' " 



Allen's services were not unrecognized. 

 Three of the universities with which he was 

 associated, Vale, Brown, and Washington 

 University, awarded him honorary degrees. 

 Had he lived a few months longer, he 

 would have received an honorary doctor of 

 law from the University of IVIissouri. In 

 1987 he was awarded the Legion of Honor 

 in l-*aris where he was guest of the Fondation 

 Singer-Polignac at a colloquium on the 

 sexual hormones. In 1941 he was honored 

 by the Royal College of Physicians of 

 London when they conferred upon him the 

 Baly Medal for researches on the female 

 sex hormones. In the last year of his life 

 he was president of the two national societies 

 most closely representative of his field of 

 work, the Association for the Study of 

 Internal Secretions (now the Endocrine So- 

 ciety) and the American Association of 

 Anatomists. 



As Corner, Danforth and Stone wrote 

 in their memorial for the American Associa- 

 tion of Anatomists, "Allen was a striking 

 figure personally, for his broad shoulders, 

 ruddy face and snow-white hair made him 

 conspicuous in any group. He made friends 

 (luickly and was always the first to en- 

 coiu'age and to admire good work by others. 

 His boyish frankness and his good will 

 contributed more perhaps than any other 

 factor to the effective cordiality which has 

 prevailed among the American workers in 

 the physiology of reproduction." The writer 

 of this skc^tch recalls that in any meeting 

 Allen was always one of the first to rise to 

 the floor with a (juestion or lo mak(> a 

 constructive' coniineul . 



The Viest of the spirit of I he man that we 

 can preserve is containe'd in \\\o form of his 

 own words, written inforinall>- to his fri(Mid, 

 ( harles Danfoith, with whom he coi're- 

 sponded so fre(iuentl>' and xoluminously. 

 A numbei- have been selected for the side 

 of him thev will recall, the enthusiasm and 



imagination that enabled him to do the 

 amount and quality of w^ork he did. 



November 6, 1935: "We just had a 

 keen thing happen here. Dr. George AI. 

 Smith returned from Europe with in- 

 formation about a drug which prevents 

 mitotic figures from completing divi- 

 sion. . . . Combining this with theelin 

 stimulation. . . ." Alay 23, year not 

 stated: "Have been working since early 

 morning on the slides from the monkey 

 experiments. They are a corking good 

 lot of evidence and I am in one of those 

 elated, trembly, inspired sort of heavens 

 to which new ideas always bring a 

 fellow. If you were in reach, you would 

 have been dragged over precipitately 

 to my scope, or interrupted to talk 

 things over a dozen times. ... As it is, I 

 must run my ideas through a slow movie 

 instead of talking you to death. . . . 

 Growth in the vaginal wall is almost 

 unbelievable. Growth in the cervical 

 glands is more so. They grow so darned 

 much that the cervix looks like a tumor 

 and the cervical canal becomes a tor- 

 tuous thing like the lower Mississippi." 

 A lot of histological detail, then: "the 

 tubes are a knockout . . . this would 

 seem to make ciliation a growth phase of 

 the nonciliated cells and full ciliation 

 dependent on presence of the hormone. 

 The mammary gland whole moimts are 

 wonders. I am so elated as to be almost 

 damned crazy. Am sure I'd crack one 

 of your ribs if I could get at you." 

 Then, "Yesterday a letter from the 

 National Research Council giving me 

 $800 more for monkeys. . . . Ain't it 

 just too lucky to l)eli(n-e. . . ." And 

 (inallw in closing one of his letters: 

 "Well you darned tool, Allen, it will 

 take him 10 miiuitcs to read your 

 letter now, aren't you e\('i' going to 

 stop writing?" 



About 10 years belore Allen died he 

 sulTered a >r\r]v coi'onaiy attack, whil(> 

 waiting foi' a train in the ,Jackson\ille, 

 I'lorida, Lnion Station, lie lo\-ed swinuning 

 as well as sailing and, after a sti'enuous and 

 fatiguingxisit with Doctoi' IJobei't M. Verkes 



