168 DR. BENJAMIN ALLEN, OF BRAINTREE.
who advised him to verify and extend them.1 Nearly thirty
years elapsed before Allen acted upon this advice. Then, on
10th May 1729, he communicated to Sir Hans Sloane, Baronet,
the great physician, a paper, entitled "A Further Account of
the Generation of Eeles, and the varyety of it in the Worm kind,
particularised in the Worm, Snail, and Oister." It was clearly
intended as a communication to the Royal Society, and the
manuscript of it, extending to ten folios, is still among the manu-
scripts belonging to the Society.2 It is in Allen's handwriting,
and is also illustrated with drawings by him. A note on it shows
that it was read before the Society on the 19th June, but
apparently it was never published. On the same date, there was
also read before the Society another paper by Allen, giving an
account of the dissection by him of a female Beaked or Bottle-
nosed Whale (Hyperoodon rostratus), a fairly-common species
on the British coasts, which was killed at Maldon on 23rd
September 1717.3 The manuscript of it, extending to eight
folios, in Allen's own hand, with drawings by him, is still pre-
served by the Society4 and appears never to have been
published.
Returning now to Allan's Common-Place Book, we find that,
at the end of it, over twenty pages (327-349) are devoted to a
Calendar of Events in the History of the World, from A.D. 69
to 1736, arranged in four columns—(1) Year, (2) Weather and
the like, (3) Astronomical Occurrences (comets, eclipses, &c.),
and (4) Distempers and Diseases. The earlier part is, of course,
a mere compilation and of no value, but the last few pages contain
many notes of local interest and some are worth extracting :—
1 See ante, p. 155.
2 Roy. Soc. MSS., xv. (2), no. 13.
3 The specimen in question (one of the first of its species occurring on the British coasts to
be properly-recorded and described) has become almost historic. Allen says of it, in his
paper above-mentioned, that "it was observ'd to blunder against the supports of the bridge,
so as to make a great sound, and so it did against the vessels ; and, tho' it has lungs as
quadrupeds [have, it], liv'd not above an hour after it was out of the water, tho' it dyd not of
bruises ; and one of those taken three days before at Bradwel (and larger, being 21 foot long),
that was no ways bruised in taking, liv'd not so long. This was 14 foot long from extremes."
Allen adds a full description and drawings of its appearance and internal anatomy, the result
of a careful dissection by himself. He expresses regret that "the head was separated by an ax
a minute or two before I came, [I] not coming exact to my time." Some twelve years later,
Dale published (Hist. Harwich and Dovercourt, pp. 411-412 and pl. xiv. : 1730) a description
and illustration of the specimen, adding. "My neighbour, Mr. Allen, was at the opening of
it, to whom I am beholden for the anatomick" account." Nearly sixty years later, Dale's figure
was reproduced by Dr. John Hunter (Philos. Trans., lxxvii., pl. xix. : 1787), and it was again
reproduced by Bell half a century later (Brit. Quadrupeds, p. 493 : 1837). Dr. Murie also
alludes to the specimen (Sea Fisheries and Fishing Industries of the Thames Estuary, i., p. 31 :
1903).
4 Roy. Soc MSS., xv. (2), no. 14. I am indebted to the Royal Society for kindly per-
mitting access to these documents.