Harrison Allen

For the Union Army brevet brigadier general, see Harrison Allen (general).

Harrison Allen (April 17, 1841 – November 14, 1897) was an American physician and anatomist. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on April 17, 1841. He graduated from the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1861,^[1] and in 1862 became a surgeon in the United States Army and served until the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865.

In 1865 he was made professor of comparative anatomy and medical zoölogy at the University of Pennsylvania. He was transferred in 1878 to the chair of physiology, which he occupied until 1895.

In 1867, he was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.^[2]

In 1891, he elected as the second president of the Association of American Anatomists.

He died on November 14, 1897,^[1] and was buried at West Laurel Hill Cemetery, Lansdowne Section, Lot 205, in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania.^[3] After his death, his brain was donated to the American Anthropometric Society. In 1907, Edward Anthony Spitzka published a paper of his analysis of six brains at the American Anthropometric Society, including Allen's.^[4]

Publications

In addition to many papers contributed to medical journals, he authored a number of books:^[5]

• Outlines of Comparative Anatomy and Medical Zoölogy (1867)
• Studies in the Facial Region (1874)
• An Analysis of the Life Form in Art (1875)
• System of Human Anatomy (1880)