Leipsic and Vienna. Upon his return to America he was appointed attending surgeon to Bellevue Hospital and in 1887 became professor of genito-urinary surgery in Bellevue Hospital Medical College. In 1898 he was made professor of clinical surgery in the department of genito-urinary diseases in Cornell University Medical College. He died in New York City November 29, 1910, of acute gangrenous appendicitis. He was unmarried.
Dr. Alexander was an indefatigable worker and an enthusiastic and successful teacher. He began his professional life as a partner of Dr. E. L. Keyes and devoted himself to genito-urinary diseases in which he became one of the foremost authorities in America. He gave particular attention to the relief of enlarged prostate and developed an admirable operation based on exhaustive and scientific work in anatomy and pathology.
Among his writings are: "Syllabus of introductory lectures to the clinical courses on the surgical diseases of the genito-urinary system." Booklet in two parts, 1905–1908; "The technique of median prostatectomy." Tr. Phila. Acad. of Surgery, 1911.
Allen, Charles Linnaeus (1820–1890)
Scholar, sanitarian, lecturer at Middlebury College and the University of Vermont, Dr. Charles L. Allen practised medicine and surgery in Middlebury and Rutland, Vt., for more than forty years. He was born in Brattleboro, June 21, 1820, the son of Dr. Jonathan Adams and Betsy Cheney Allen. His boyhood was spent on a farm in Jamaica, Vt., his mother's home. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a printer in Burlington. Not satisfied with his treatment, he ran away, enlisting at Boston in the United States Navy as a "powder monkey." On account of his penmanship, he was employed by the captain as clerk. After several months, he deserted at New York, tramped to Middlebury, where his father was then practising, and in 1837 began a college course, working his way by doing farm work and teaching. During his college course he was suspended for a year for leaving town to attend a Tippecanoe meeting at Brandon, so that he graduated in 1842.
His health failed him after graduation and he was considered hopelessly sick with consumption. He went south to North Carolina, where he spent two years regaining his health; meantime tutoring. Returning to Vermont he entered the Castleton Medical College, where he received his degree in 1846 and at once took up the practice of his profession in Middlebury.
Dr. Allen married June 14, 1854, Harriet W. W. Garfield, widow of Dr. F. A. Garfield, by whom he had two daughters. Mrs. Harriet Allen died April 25, 1858, and he married, May 31, 1865, Margaret Gertrude Lyon. By her he had three sons, Edwin Lyon, Charles William and Harris Campbell.
Dr. Allen lectured on chemistry at Middlebury College, although he never received a formal appointment. He divided his practice between Middlebury and Rutland for several years, at the same time lecturing at the Castleton Medical College. In 1855 he was appointed professor of chemistry and later, in 1860, of the practice of medicine, at this institution. In the spring of 1862 he delivered lectures in the Medical Department of the University of Vermont on civil and military hygiene, the first lectures on that subject ever delivered in this country. In 1861 he was a member of the State Board for examining candidates for regimental surgeons. Later he was appointed a surgeon of the United States Volunteers, Ninth Vermont Infantry, but learning from Senator Foote that there was a vacancy in the Brigade Corps of Surgeons, U.S.V., he resigned, hastened to Washington, and in June, 1862, took the examination for the Brigade Corps of Surgeons and passed the best examination, with one exception, during the war. He was at once appointed on the examining Board with Doctors Clymer and Brinton with the rank of major. Later he was transferred to the department of the south and in 1864 he was made medical purveyor. He resigned in August of that year "because he went into the army to serve as a surgeon, not as a druggist."
After the war he was appointed a pension examining surgeon and held the position until his death with the exception of four years of Cleveland's first administration. He was secretary of the Vermont State Board of Health from the first organization of the board in 1886 until his death. This position was one for which he was admirably qualified. Boards of health were comparatively unknown at this time. The science of preventive medicine was in its beginning and it had not then made for itself a place in the popular mind. Dr. Allen did much valuable educational work for the newly appointed board in Vermont. He prepared circulars in popular language, dealing with infectious diseases, school houses, water supplies, and other details
