156 DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE.
After this, Allen seems to have made no further communica-
tions to the Royal Society for some twenty years ; but, in the
same year (1699), he published his first scientific work entitled :
The / Natural History / of the / Chalybeat and Purging Waters / of / England, /
with their particular / Essays and Uses ; / among which are treated at large /
the / Apoplexy and Hypochondriacism : / To which are added / Some Observa-
tions on the Bath / Waters in Somersetshire. / Dedicated to ths Right
Honourable the / Earl of Manchester. / By Benjamin Allen, Med. Bac. /
London : / Printed and Sold by S. Smith and B. Walford, at the Prince's Arms
in St. Paul's Churchyard, 1699.
The book appeared under good auspices, for it was issued by
Messrs. Smith and Walford, "printers" (that is, publishers) to
the Royal Society. The Earl of Manchester,1 to whom it
was dedicated, seems to have been Allen's patron and employer
in some way, as will be seen hereafter. Allen's book was
practically the earliest systematic treatise on the medicinal
waters of England, and is of special local interest, inasmuch as
it describes no fewer than eight Essex springs. Though as
valuable as any work of the kind and period could well be, it was
a very poor production from the literary point of view. The
punctuation is extremely bad and the diction often so confused
as to be incomprehensible. This was due, no doubt, to the fact
(of which Allen tells us in his preface) that it was written largely
whilst he was a young undergraduate at Cambridge. That
Allen himself was well aware of its imperfection is clear from
his apologetic explanation2 that he was
obliged to excuse the whole discoursive part of the book, and particularly the
impertinences and imperfections of it, being only casual and written raptim ; and
much of it [was] never read over by me till printed and [my remarks] were
designed but as hints . . . ; sa that the great precipitation, with the impediments,
made much or all of it so far from being exact as to be thoughtless almost.
Elsewhere he says3:—
My account of the reason of the operation of the waters is so wild and imperfect
as to be nauseous to myself and [to] afford me no other satisfaction than that I
have hinted what ought to be done [in the way of investigation].
Explaining "why I publish anything so loose and inaccurate,"
he continues4:—
I can only say that the discourses (which were written off hand) had not the
leisure for thought that the experimental part had (which was, in good measure,
1 Charles [Montagu), 4th Earl and first Duke of Manchester, an eminent diplomatist,
was born in 1662 ; succeeded to the earldom in 1683 ; was created a duke in 1719 ; and
died in 1722.
2 Op. cit., Preface, p. [b.7, obv.]
3 Op. cit., Preface, p. [a. 2, obv.]
4 Op. cit., Preface, p. [b. 7, rev.]