The Biographical Dictionary of America/Allen, Nathan

ALLEN, Nathan, physician, was born in Princeton, Mass., April 25, 1813, son of Moses and Mehitable (Oliver) Allen, and a lineal descendant of Walter Allen, one of the original proprietors of Old Newbury, who died in Charlestown, Mass., in 1673. His boyhood was spent on a farm, and after acquiring an academical education he was graduated at Amherst college in 1836. He then devoted four years to the study of medicine at the Pennsylvania medical school, and was graduated in 1841, removing to Lowell, Mass. Aside from establishing a large practice, Dr. Allen devoted considerable time to physiological research, and his published papers attracted attention among physicians in both the old world and the new. In 1856 he was chosen by the legislature a trustee of Amherst college, and established in that institution the department of physical culture. Governor Andrew appointed him a member of the Massachusetts state board of charities in 1864, and he served in that body throughout its existence, a period of fifteen years. In 1872 he was sent by Governor Washburn as a delegate to the international congress which met in London to discuss prison and other reforms. In 1873 Amherst college conferred upon him the degree of LL.D. He was a member of the American medical association, the American academy of medicine, the American public health association, and the Massachusetts medical society. His published writings include: "An Essay on the Condition of Mental Philosophy with Medicine" (1841); "The Opium Trade" (1850); "The Law of Human Increase; or Population Based on Physiology and Psychology" (1868); "Physical Culture in Amherst College" (1869); "The Inter-marriage of Relations" (1869); "Physical Degeneracy" (1870); "The Physiological Laws of Human Increase" (1870); "Lessons on Population Suggested by Grecian and Roman History" (1871 ); "Important Medical Problems" (1874); "State Medicine, in Its Relation to Insanity" (1875); "Normal Standard of Women for Propagation" (1876); "Claims of the Sick Poor" (1877); "The New England Family" (1882); and "Physical Development" (1888). He died in Lowell, Mass., Jan. 1, 1889.