and followed him in the next year on the abortive crusade in Tunis in which Louis IX. lost his life. The expedition returned by way of Sicily and Italy, and Adenès has left in his poems some very exact descriptions of the places through which he passed. The purity of his French and the absence of provincialisms point to a long residence in France, and it has been suggested that Adenès may have followed Mary of Brabant thither on her marriage with Philip the Bold. He seems, however, to have remained in the service of Count Guy, although he made frequent visits to Paris to consult the annals preserved in the abbey of St Denis. The poems written by Adenès are four: the Enfances Ogier, an enfeebled version of the Chevalerie Ogier de Danemarche written by Raimbert de Paris at the beginning of the century; Berte aus granspiés, the history of the mother of Charlemagne, founded on well-known traditions which are also preserved in the anonymous Chronique de France, and in the Chronique rimée of Philippe Mousket; Bueves de Comarchis, belonging to the cycle of romance gathered round the history of Aimeri de Narbonne; and a long roman d’aventures, Cléomadès, borrowed from Spanish and Moorish traditions brought into France by Blanche, daughter of Louis IX., who after the death of her Spanish husband returned to the French court. Adenès probably died before the end of the 13th century.
The romances of Adenès were edited for the Académie Impériale et Royale of Brussels by A. Scheler and A. van Hasselt in 1874; Berte was rendered into modern French by G. Hecq (1897) and by R. Périé (1900); Cléomadès, by Le Chevalier de Chatelain (1859). See also the edition of Berte by Paulin Paris (1832); an article by the same writer in the Hist. litt. de la France, vol. xx. pp. 679-718; Léon Gautier, Les épopées françaises, vol. iii., &c.
ADENINE, or 6-Amino-purin, C5H5N5, in chemistry, a basic substance which has been obtained as a decomposition product of nuclein, and also from the pancreatic glands of oxen. It has been synthesized by E. Fischer (Berichte, 1897, 30, p. 2238) by heating 2.6.8-trichlorpurin with 10 times its weight of ammonia for six hours at 100° C.; by this means 6-amino-2.8-dichlorpurin is obtained, which on reduction by means of hydriodic acid and phosphonium iodide is converted into adenine. In 1898 E. Fischer also obtained it from 8-oxy-2.6-dichlorpurin (Berichte, 1898, 31, p. 104). It crystallizes in long needles; forms salts C5H5N5·2HI and (C5H5N5)2·H2SO4·2H2O, and is converted by nitrous acid into hypoxanthine or 6-oxypurin. On heating with hydrochloric acid at 180–200° C. it is decomposed; the products of the reaction being glycocoll, ammonia, formic acid and carbon dioxide. Various methyl derivatives of adenine have been described by E. Fischer (Berichte, 1898, 31, p. 104) and by M. Kruger (Zeit. für physiol. Chemie, 1894, 18, p. 434). For the constitution of adenine see Purin.
ADENOIDS, or Adenoid growths (from Gr. άδενοειδή , glandular), masses of soft, spongy tissue between the back of the nose and throat, occurring mostly in young children; blocking the air-way, they prevent the due inflation of the lungs and the proper development of the chest. The growths are apt to keep up a constant catarrh near the orifice of the ventilating tubes which pass from the throat to the ear, and so render the child dull of hearing or even deaf. They also give rise to asthma, and like enlarged tonsils—with which they are often associated— they impart to the child a vacant, stupid expression, and hinder his physical and intellectual development. They cause his voice to be “stuffy,” thick, and unmusical. Though, except in the case of a cleft palate, they cannot be seen with the naked eye, they are often accompanied by a visible and suggestive granular condition of the wall at the back of the throat. Their presence may easily be determined by the medical attendant gently hooking the end of the index-finger round the back of the soft palate. If the tonsils are enlarged it is kinder to postpone this digital examination of the throat until the child is under the influence of an anaesthetic for operation upon the tonsils, and if adenoids are present they can be removed at the same time that the tonsils are dealt with. Though the disease is a comparatively recent discovery, the pioneer in its treatment being Meyer of Copenhagen, it has probably existed as long as tuberculosis itself, with which affection it is somewhat distantly connected. In the unenlightened days many children must have got well of adenoids without operation, and even at the present time it by no means follows that because a child has these postnasal vegetations he must forthwith be operated on. The condition is very similar to that of enlarged tonsils, where with time, patience and attention to general measures, operation is often rendered unnecessary. But if the child continues to breathe with his mouth open and to snore at night, if he remains deaf and dull, and is troubled with a chronic “cold in his head,” the question of thorough exploration of the naso-pharynx and of a surgical operation should most certainly be considered. In recent years the comparatively simple operation for their removal has been very frequently performed, and, as a rule, with marked benefit, but this treatment should always be followed by a course of instruction in respiratory exercises; the child must be taught regularly to fill his lungs and make the tidal air pass through the nostrils. These respiratory exercises may be resorted to before operation is proposed, and in some cases they may render operative treatment unnecessary. Operations should not be performed in cold weather or in piercing east winds, and it is advisable to keep the child indoors for a day or two subsequent to its performance. To expose a child just after operating on his throat to the risks of a journey by train or omnibus is highly inadvisable. Although the operation is not a very painful one, it ought not to be performed upon a child except under the influence of chloroform or some other general anaesthetic.
(E. O.*)
ADEPT (if used as a substantive pronounced adept, if as an adjective adept; from Lat. adeptus, one who has attained), completely and fully acquainted with one’s subject, an expert. The word implies more than acquired proficiency, a natural inborn aptitude. In olden times an adept was one who was versed in magic, an alchemist, one who had attained the great secrets of the unknown.
ADERNÒ, a town of the province of Catania, Sicily, 22 m. N.W. of the town of that name. Pop. (1901) 25,859. It occupies the site of the ancient Adranon, which took its name from Adranos, a god probably of Phoenician origin, in Roman times identified with Vulcan, whose chief temple was situated here, and was guarded by a thousand huge gods; there are perhaps some substructures of this building still extant outside the town. The latter was founded about 400 B.C. by Dionysius I.; very fine remains of its walls are preserved. For a time it was the headquarters of Timoleon, and it was the first town taken by the Romans in the First Punic War (263 B.C.) In the centre of the modern town rises the castle, built by Roger I.; in the chapel are frescoes representing his granddaughter, Adelasia, who founded the convent of St Lucia in 1157, taking the veil. The columns in the principal church are of black lava.
See P. Russo, Illustrazione storica di Adernò (Adernò, 1897).
ADEVISM, a term introduced by Max Müller to imply the denial of gods (Sans. deva), on the analogy of Atheism, the denial of God. Max Müller used it particularly in connexion with the Vedanta philosophy for the correlative of ignorance or nescience (Gifford lectures, 1892, c. ix.).
ADHÉMAR DE CHABANNES (c. 988–c. 1030), medieval historian, was born about 988 at Chabannes, a village in the French department of Haute-Vienne. Educated at the monastery of St Martial at Limoges, he passed his life as a monk, either at this place or at the monastery of St Cybard at Angoulême. He died about 1030, most probably at Jerusalem, whither he had gone on a pilgrimage. Adhémar’s life was mainly spent in writing and transcribing chronicles, and his principal work is a history entitled Chronicon Aquitanicum et Francicum or Historia Francorum. This is in three books and deals with Frankish history from the fabulous reign of Pharamond, king of the Franks, to A.D. 1028. The two earlier books are scarcely more than a copy of the Gesta regum Francorum, but the third book, which deals with the period from 814 to 1028, is of considerable historical importance. This is published in the Monumenta Germaniae historica. Scriptores. Band iv. (Hanover and Berlin, 1826–1892). He also wrote Commemoratio abbatum Lemovicensium
