the Medical College at La Porte, Indiana, whence he was called to the University of Michigan. According to Dr. W. F. Breakey, he had a striking personality and was a popular lecturer (Breakey, p. 274; Lombard, pp. 240-43). While at the University of Michigan he gave the introductory addresses to the classes of 1852 and 1853, addresses which were published by the classes. Besides the many addresses he delivered, he published a book on Medical Examinations for Life Insurance, which ran through no fewer than five editions. He had a keen sense of humor and could be decidedly sarcastic when he chose. For example, referring to epidemics, he said:
We need a careful chronicle of their visits and peculiarities from every part of the state. Isolated reports are comparatively valueless. What Doctor So-and-So saw or thought he saw; what wonder-working charms he carried in his dilapidated saddlebags; how many he cured or dismissed to the Superior or nether regions, although facts very interesting to Doctor So-and-So and his committee of old ladies, are, in a scientific point of view, hardly worth the paper on which he communicates them to the popular medical or secular paper, according as he believes or disbelieves in the code of ethics.
"President's Address,"
Allen was in many respects ahead of his time. He urged the accurate registration of births, deaths, and the causes of deaths, and the collection of statistics and observations upon epidemics and endemics. He pointed out the apathy of the public and the need for physicians who would educate the public to demand better trained doctors; and he called attention to the desirability of a high grade of preliminary attainment before matriculation in a medical school.
He argued in favor of a state hospital, and said:
By rendering this hospital subservient to the clinical department of the State Medical College, the patients would while helpless themselves, be made to contribute to the general welfare, proving that "there is a soul of goodness even in things evil," and "from the nettle, danger, can be plucked the flower, safety."
"President's Address,"
He had been trained as a physician and probably taught physiology from the point of view of the clinician. Although he is not known to have made any original contributions to the subject, he had a good knowledge of physiological literature. Dr. Huber, in his article on the history of this school, wrote:
… The whole subject of reflex nervous influence, of which excito-motor and excitosecretory action are but constituent parts, was taught as early as 1850 in the University of Michigan [by J. Adams Allen], and in his teachings and writings are to be found the only explicit and comprehensive exposition of the whole subject of reflex nervous action that has ever fallen under my observation.
"Historical Sketch,"
Something of the man is revealed in the following extracts from an address:
Here is the standpoint of view. Medicine is to be looked upon and studied, precisely as all other arts and sciences are to be looked upon and studied. The truths upon which it is assumed to be based, are to be tested as all other truths are tested; and when they cannot abide the same, let them be mercilessly discarded.
"Observations on the Medical Platform,"
Condemning books which are merely compilations of old dogmatic teachings, he said: "We want a living, breathing, productive literature, not a barren, dead, marshalling of old errors" (ibid., p. 27).
Unfortunately, Allen became involved in some difficulty, and in 1854 was asked to resign. The Proceedings of the Regents contain merely a resolution, signed by twelve of Allen's colleagues, headed by Tappan, asserting that "the prosperity
