158 DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE.
Allen (now in or about his sixtieth year) began to write his
"Common-Place Book," already alluded to many times.
Allen's Common-Place Book is a large post-folio volume
(15ins. by 91/2ins. trimmed), substantially bound in contemporary
vellum and containing [5] + 362 pages, nearly all closely written
upon, though a few are blank. The title-page is inscribed :—
Conclusions in several Subjects (as Anatomy, Medicin, Nature, Problems
of the State, and Accidents of the World), containing the Discoverys in Summ
upon the Prosecutions and Inquirys made ; By Benjamin Allen,
Batchellour of Physick or Medicin, formerly of Queen's Colledge, in Cambridge :
Anno 1723.
Below are some moral reflections on the value of industry. On
the back of the title-page is an index to the subjects discussed.
Among the subjects dealt with in Allen's notes, that of
medicine naturally takes the leading place and occupies most
space. I deal with it first, though admitting my incompetence
to treat it anything like adequately. I suggest that Allen's
book is worth the serious attention of some student of the history
of medicine in this country.
At the very commencement, we meet with nearly fifty
closely-written pages (1-47) filled with very detailed notes on
various diseases, the remedies he had tried for the cure of them,
and the results he secured thereby, together with a special index.
Closely following this come more than fifty pages (51-102)
devoted to "An Idaea of a Rational Anatomy." In it, Allen
takes the various parts of the body—the lungs, the heart, the
brain, the liver, the kidneys, the eye, the generative organs, &c.—
and discusses each in great detail. The treatise looks much as
though it were the first draft of an elaborate original work on the
subject, intended ultimately for publication. Possibly, however,
it is no more than a compilation from works previously
published. In any case, it appears to be unfinished. Later, we
have over sixty pages (113-174) devoted to "More Rare and
Notable Medicinal Observations," detailing the results of his
treatment of a great many particular cases. These notes and
the earlier ones of the same kind make it perfectly clear that
Allen was an exceedingly careful and observant physician—far
more so, probably, than the average country practitioner of his
day. Yet some of the remedies he used seem to us now to be
exceedingly childish. Thus, he tells us (p. 114) how "Mr.