John**, archbishop of Dublin in the reign of King Henry VIII., was born in 1476, and educated in the university of Oxford. From thence he removed to Cambridge, where he took the degree of bachelor of laws. He was sent by Dr Warham, archbishop of Canterbury, to the pope, on certain business relating to the church. He continued at Rome nine years, and was created doctor of laws, either there or in some other university of Italy. After his return he was appointed chaplain to Cardinal Wolsey, and was commissary or judge of his court as legate *a latere*; in the execution of which office he was suspected of great dishonesty, and even perjury. He assisted the cardinal in visiting, and afterwards suppressing, forty of the smaller monasteries, for the erection of his college at Oxford and that at Ipswich. In 1528 he was consecrated archbishop of Dublin; and about the same time was made chancellor of Ireland. He was cruelly murdered in July 1534, by Thomas Fitzgerald, eldest son of the earl of Kildare.

John**, M.D., was born near Edinburgh in 1770, and educated at the university of that city, where he took the degree of M.D. in 1791. With youthful enthusiasm, Allen joined the Scottish movement of that period for parliamentary reform; and this circumstance, according to the policy of the day, probably being an impediment to professional employment, induced him to become a lecturer on physiology in Edinburgh, where he was distinguished by the precise philosophical views and clearness of his prelections.

Some years afterwards, he took up his abode in Holland House, as the friend and private secretary of the late Lord Holland. In 1811 he was elected warden of Dulwich College; and in 1820 obtained the comfortable sinecure of master of that institution, where he died in 1843.

Allen's detached publications, though well-written, are not very important, if we except his valuable "Inquiry into the growth of the Royal Prerogative," which appeared in 1830; but he was an able contributor to the *Edinburgh Review*, of not less, it is said, than forty articles, chiefly on physiological, metaphysical, and political subjects; and some of his contributions on French and Spanish history are very interesting. To this last department he was probably directed by his intimacy with Lord Holland. Dr Allen was a man of vigorous mind, and extensive information.

Thomas**, a famous English mathematician, was born at Uttoxeter, in Staffordshire, on the 21st of December 1542. He was admitted scholar of Trinity College, Oxford, on the 4th of June 1561; and in 1567 took his degree of master of arts. In 1580 he quitted his college and fellowship, and retired to Gloucester Hall; where he studied very closely, and became famous for his knowledge in antiquity, philosophy, and mathematics. Having received an invitation from Henry, earl of Northumberland, a great friend and patron of mathematicians, he spent some time at the earl's house, where he became acquainted with those celebrated mathematicians, Thomas Harriot, John Dee, Walter Warner, and Nathaniel Torporley. Robert, earl of Leicester, had a particular esteem for Allen, and would have conferred a bishopric upon him; but his love of solitude and retirement made him decline the offer. His great skill in the mathematics earned him, as was usual in those times, the credit of being a magician; and the sagacious author of a book entitled *Leicester's Commonwealth*, accuses him of employing the art of "figuring" to further the earl of Leicester's unlawful designs, and of endeavouring by the black art to bring about a match between him and Queen Elizabeth. Allen was indefatigable in collecting scattered manuscripts relating to history, antiquity, astronomy, philosophy, and mathematics. A considerable part of his collection was bestowed on the Bodleian Library by Sir Kenelm Digby. He published in Latin the second and third books of Claudius Ptolemy of Pelusium, *Concerning the Judgment of the Stars*, or, as it is commonly called, of the *Quadrivertite Construction*, with an exposition. He wrote also notes on many of Lilly's books, and some on John Bale's work *De Scriptoribus M. Britanniae*. He died at Gloucester Hall on the 30th September 1632, at the great age of 90.

William**, an eminent pharmaceutical chemist, and chemical lecturer in London, was born in 1770. He early showed a predilection for experimental investigations, and was placed in a respectable pharmaco-chemical establishment in Plough Court, in which he afterwards became a partner with Luke Howard. While successfully pursuing his business Allen engaged in various important experimental investigations. In 1804, he was appointed lecturer on chemistry at Guy's Hospital, an office from which he did not finally retire till 1827. He became a fellow of the Royal Society in 1807; and several of his communications appear in the *Philosophical Transactions*, especially the important experimental researches by him and Mr Pepys on *Respiration*. He was a zealous member and a president of the pharmaceutical society. But along with his scientific occupations, he was an active promoter of various schemes of benevolence. He had purchased an estate near Lindfield in Sussex, to which he retired several years before his death. There he devoted himself to the establishment of schools, to which workshops for the children, a library, and experimental laboratory were attached, and where he himself gave occasional instruction to the young experimentalists. He was highly esteemed in private life, and died, much regretted, at his house near Lindfield, in 1843.