there on surgery for some years. He was three times elected president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, and in 1861 was appointed surgeon to the queen in Ireland and regius professor of surgery in the university of Dublin. Adams had a high reputation as a surgeon and pathological anatomist. His fame chiefly rests on his ‘Treatise on Rheumatic Gout, or Chronic Rheumatic Arthritis of all the Joints’ (8vo, London, 1857, with an Atlas of Illustrations in 4to; 2nd edition, 1873). This work, though describing a disease more or less known for centuries, contains so much novel and important research as to have become the classical work on the subject. Dr. Adams also wrote an essay on ‘Disease of the Heart’ in the Dublin Hospital Reports, and contributed to Todd's ‘Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology’ some articles on ‘Abnormal Conditions of the Joints,’ besides other papers in medical journals. He died on 13 Jan. 1875.
[Medical Times and Gazette, 1875, i. 133.]
ADAMS, SARAH FLOWER (1805–1848), poetess, wife of William Bridges Adams, and daughter of Benjamin and sister of Eliza Flower [see Adams, William Bridges, and Flower, Benjamin], was born at Great Harlow, Essex, 22 Feb. 1805. After the death of her father in 1827 she lived with the family of Mr. W. J. Fox, and became a contributor to the ‘Monthly Repository,’ then conducted by him. In 1834 she married Mr. W. B. Adams, and died of decline in August 1848. Her principal work, ‘Vivia Perpetua, a Dramatic Poem,’ was published in 1841. She is likewise authoress of numerous contributions to the ‘Monthly Repository,’ chiefly in the years 1834 and 1835, and of a long poem in ballad metre, entitled ‘The Royal Progress,’ on the surrender of the sovereignty of the Isle of Wight to Edward I by Isabella, Countess of Albemarle, which appeared in the ‘Illuminated Magazine’ for 1845. She also composed several hymns, set to music by her sister, and used in the services at Finsbury Chapel; numerous unpublished poems on social and political subjects, principally written for the Anti-Corn Law League, specimens of which will be found in the fourth volume of Fox's ‘Lectures to the Working Classes;’ and a little religious catechism entitled ‘The Flock at the Fountain.’ Although Mrs. Adams was endowed with so much dramatic talent as to have meditated adopting the stage as a profession, the bent of her literary genius was rather lyrical than dramatic. ‘Vivia Perpetua,’ but moderately interesting as a play, is couched throughout in a fine strain of impassioned emotion, symbolising, in the guise of Vivia's conversion to christianity, the authoress's own devotion to the high ideals which inspired her life. This truth of feeling redeems Mrs. Adams's eloquence from the imputation of rhetoric, and, notwithstanding the artlessness of the construction and the conventionality of the stage accessories, renders her work genuinely impressive. Vivia's monologue on forswearing the altar of Jupiter is especially eloquent. The authoress, however, was more happily inspired in her hymns, which, as simple expressions of devotional feeling at once pure and passionate, can hardly be surpassed. ‘Nearer to Thee’—often erroneously attributed to Mrs. Beecher Stowe—is known wherever the English language is spoken; and the lines beginning ‘He sendeth sun, He sendeth shower,’ are even more exquisite in their blended spirit of fervour and resignation. All who knew Mrs. Adams personally speak of her with enthusiasm; she is described as a woman of singular beauty and attractiveness, delicate and truly feminine, high-minded, and in her days of health playful and high-spirited. She left no descendants.
[W. J. Fox, Lectures addressed chiefly to the Working Classes, vol. iv. lect. 9; Westminster Review, vol. 1. pp. 540–42; private information from Mrs. Bridell Fox and Mr. W. J. Linton.]
ADAMS, THOMAS (d. 1620?), printer, son of Thomas Adams, yeoman, of Neen Savage, Shropshire, was first apprenticed to Oliver Wilkes, stationer, on 29 Sept. 1582, for seven years, and turned over to George Bishop on 14 Oct. 1583, for the same period. He was admitted a freeman of the Stationers' Company on 15 Oct. 1590, and came upon the livery 1 July 1598. He appears to have commenced business by having the books, ballads, &c., printed by Robert Walley, assigned to him 12 Oct. 1591, and from that time to 1614 a considerable number of entries may be found to his name in the registers (Arber's Transcript, vols. iii. and iv.). They include books in all classes; some were issued jointly with John Oxenbridge, Peter Short, and John Newbury, &c. He also printed music books; among others, pieces by John Dowland, the lutenist, and Thomas Ravenscroft. On 14 March 1611, he is described as younger warden, and as the purchaser of the entire stock of Bishop, his former master, including the remainders of sixty important works (ib. iii. 453–5). He became warden in 1614, and died about 1620. In
