Phrenology Research Environment

ALLEN, Matthew (1783-1845)

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Metadata

Born: 1783

Died: 1845

Postnominals: MD

Editorial Description

Aberdeen 1821; youngest of ten children of a dissenting preacher of York; a spendthrift, inveterate liar, and persuasive personality; apothecary of York Lunatic Asylum, 1819-24, having previously run a shop in Edin and been imprisoned for debt; established what came to be regarded as a model asylum in Epping Forest in 1825, which his third wife continued to run after his death; friend of TENNYSON and EPPS; elected a corresp M EDIN PHREN SOC, Nov 1821 and of the LONDON PHREN SOC, Nov 1824; lectured and wrote on Christian religion, 1820; took to lecturing on phrenology for pecuniary reasons in 1816, being the first in Britain after SPURZHEIM to establish himself as an itinerant lecturer on phrenology; his lectures in the Leeds Lit & Phil Soc in 1825 were reported as the best attended to date; lectured less frequently on phrenology in the 1830s, during which time he was also a member of the ANTHROP (PHREN) SOC of London. (Barnet A9.)

Works as Listed by Roger Cooter (1989)

• 22.1 — 22.1 Cases of Insanity with Medical, Moral, and Philosophical Observations and Essays Upon Them. Part I vol 1. London: George Swire, 1831. Pp. 212. (No more published.)
• 22.2 — 22.2 Essay on the Classification of the Insane. London: John Taylor, [1837]. Pp. 212. (Reviewed, BR & FOR MED REV, 7 [Jan 1839]: 47: "We are bound to confess [having otherwise slammed the book] that the heads represented in the plates furnish very respectable phrenological testimony.")
• 22.3 — 22.3 "An Address delivered on the opening of the Literary and Scientific Institution of Luton, Bedfordshire, on the 16th of May, 1837," CHRIST PHYS & ANTHROP MAG, 3 (Nov 1837): 89-93.
• 22.4 — 22.4 "What is Truth? Or the true view of the nature of the power, and its mode of operation, which will explain all the Mental and Physical Phenomena in Creation. First, as it regards Medicine, and more especially Insanity. Read before the Anthropological Society, September 20, 1838," CHRIST PHYS & ANTHROP MAG, 4 (Oct 1838): 49-59; (Dec 1838): 109-14.

Editorial Information

22. ALLEN, Matthew (1783-1845), MD Aberdeen 1821; youngest of
ten children of a dissenting preacher of York; a spendthrift, inveterate


liar, and persuasive personality; apothecary of York Lunatic Asylum,
1819-24, having previously run a shop in Edin and been imprisoned
for debt; established what came to be regarded as a model asylum
in Epping Forest in 1825, which his third wife continued to run after
his death; friend of TENNYSON and EPPS; elected a corresp M EDIN
PHREN SOC, Nov 1821 and of the LONDON PHREN SOC, Nov 1824;
lectured and wrote on Christian religion, 1820; took to lecturing on
phrenology for pecuniary reasons in 1816, being the first in Britain
after SPURZHEIM to establish himself as an itinerant lecturer on
phrenology; his lectures in the Leeds Lit & Phil Soc in 1825 were
reported as the best attended to date; lectured less frequently on
phrenology in the 1830s, during which time he was also a member
of the ANTHROP (PHREN) SOC of London. (Barnet A9.)