Page:American Medical Biographies - Kelly, Burrage.djvu/40

ALLEN lectures on chemistry at Middlebury College in 1820 and 1826. He was a member of the corporation of the Castleton institution from 1822 to 1832. This school was first known as the Castleton Medical Academy, then as the Vermont Academy of Medicine, and finally after 1841 as the Castleton Medical College.

Dr. Allen was a prominent member of the Vermont Medical Society and was made a curator of that Society, when it was reorganized in October, 1841. The Addison County Medical Society, which, like the state society, had had a lapse of several years, was reorganized in December, 1835, mainly through the influence of Dr. Allen, who became president at that time. Again in 1842, after another lapse of six years, this society was reorganized and Dr. Allen was again made president. From that time until his death he was an active and valuable member of this county organization and president half of this time. Aside from his membership in the local medical societies, he was a member of the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, of the Geological Society, and the Physico-Medical Society of New York. He was also a member of the Linnaean Society of New England and at one time Secretary of the Abolitionist Society.

Dr. Allen was widely known in his profession; his services as surgeon and physician were frequently sought even beyond the limits of the State of Vermont.

His special studies seem to have been materia medica and pharmacy, branches, which he taught at Castleton. He was a practical student of natural history, especially botany. His herbarium, originally in twelve volumes, and probably in duplicate, was divided between his two sons, Charles L. and Jonathan A. The set, which came to the former, is now in the Museum of Middlebury College. The first date in this herbarium is August 11, 1821, but most of the dates are between 1832 and 1842. It has contributions by Philander Keyes (1822) Orpha Landon (South Carolina, 1842); Dr. Branch of South Carolina; and Dr. J. M. Bigelow of Lancaster, Ohio, a native of Peru, Vermont. Specimens from Indiana and Michigan were evidently collected in 1837 by Dr. Allen. He made a handsome and valuable collection of minerals, afterwards purchased by Middlebury College, and wrote various scientific articles, which were published in Silliman's Journal of Science.

Dr. Allen died at Middlebury, Vt., Feb. 2, 1848. The cause of his death was an accidental fall from a horse.

Dr. Allen's chief characteristics seem to have been studious devotion to scientific study, especially those branches dealing with natural history. He was an amiable, unassuming man, prompt and conscientious in his attention to his patients and a good citizen, zealous in the promotion of every good cause.



Allen, Jonathan Adams (1825–1890)

Jonathan Adams Allen, son of (q.v.), was born in Middlebury, Vermont, January 16, 1825. Jonathan graduated from Middlebury College, Vt„ from which he received his A. B. and A. M. In 1846 he graduated from Castleton (Vt.) Medical College and removed to Kalamazoo, Michigan, the same year, where, January 1, 1847, he married Miss Mary Marsh, and visited his first western patient the next afternoon. In February, 1848, he was appointed to the chair of therapeutics, materia-medica and medical jurisprudence in the Indiana Medical College at Laporte. On the organization of the medical department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor in 1850, he accepted the chair of physiology and pathology which he held until 1855. In 1858 he was elected president of the Michigan State Medical Society and in 1859 he was appointed to the chair of principles and practice of medicine in Rush Medical College, and in September of the same year removed to Chicago. Here he soon became the most popular medical teacher in the college faculty, holding this professorship for thirty-one years, until his death, August 15, 1890, during the last thirteen years being president of the college. He was editor and proprietor of the Chicago Medical Journal which he conducted until its sale in 1875, when it was consolidated with the Chicago Medical Examiner. Besides his articles on medical subjects in the journal, he was the author of several published works and frequent papers read before medical societies. He left a fund of knowledge in a series of journals, only some of which have found their way into print.

For twenty-four years he was surgeon in chief of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railway. He stood high in the Masonic fraternity both in Michigan and Illinois and his portrait has a place in their temple at Detroit among the grand masters of Michigan. At Chicago he was grand commander of Knight Templars, an honorary member of the 33° of Scottish Rite, Northern Jurisdiction. On days