Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 1.djvu/160

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wrote a Latin poem, in which he gave the prince the title of king of France and England. This proof of his loyalty involved him in difficulties. The French court was offended, and ordered him to be arrested; and he was confined for six months. He was released only through the intercession of Queen Mary and some of the principal nobility, who interested themselves in his behalf. As soon as he recovered his liberty, he retired with his pupil to Bourges. He was in this city during the massacre at Paris; and the same persecuting spirit prevailing among the Catholics at Bourges as at the metropolis, he lived concealed for seven months in a public-house, the aged master of which, in reward for his charity to heretics, was thrown from the roof, and had his brains dashed out. Whilst Mr Adamson lay thus in his sepulchre, as he called it, he wrote his Latin poetical version of the book of Job, and his tragedy of Herod in the same language. In the year 1573 he returned to Scotland, and, having entered into holy orders, became minister of Paisley. In the year 1575 he was appointed one of the commissioners, by the General Assembly, to settle the jurisdiction and policy of the church; and the following year he was named, with Mr David Lindsay, to report their proceedings to the Earl of Morton, then regent. About this time the earl appointed him one of his chaplains; and, on the death of Archbishop Douglas, promoted him to the archiepiscopal see of St Andrews. This gave rise to a protracted conflict with the Presbyterian party in the Assembly. Soon after his promotion, he published a catechism in Latin verse, dedicated to the king, a work highly approved even by his enemies, who nevertheless still continued to persecute him with great violence. In 1578 he submitted himself to the General Assembly, which procured him peace but for a very little time; for, the year following, fresh accusations were brought against him. A Provincial Synod was held at St Andrews in April 1586; the archbishop was here accused and excommunicated. He appealed to the king and the states, but this availed him little. At the next General Assembly, a paper being produced containing the archbishop's submission, he was absolved from the excommunication. In 1588 fresh accusations were brought against him. The year following he published the Lamentations of the prophet Jeremiah in Latin verse, which he dedicated to the king, complaining of his hard usage. Towards the end of the same year he published a translation of the Apocalypse in Latin verse, and a copy of Latin verses. The king was unmoved by his application, and granted the revenue of his see to the Duke of Lennox, so that the prelate and his family were literally reduced to the want of bread. During the remaining part of his unfortunate life he was supported by charitable contributions, and died in 1592. He had previously made a written recantation of his alleged errors in regard to Episcopacy, though the genuineness of this is doubted by Spottiswoode. (See Cunningham's Church History of Scotland, vol. i.) The character of this prelate has been variously represented, according to the sentiments of religion and politics which prevailed. But there is little doubt that he encouraged and supported, under the authority of the king, oppressive and injurious measures. The panegyric of the editor of his works, Mr Wilson, is extravagant and absurd. He says that "he was a miracle of nature, and rather seemed to be the immediate production of God Almighty than born of a woman."

ADANA, a city of Asia Minor, the capital of the province of the same name, on the right bank of the Sihun, about 30 miles from the sea, in N. lat. 37 1, E. long. 35 1 8 . It is built on the site of the ancient Antiochia ad Sarum. Its position, commanding the passage of the mountains to the north of Syria, rendered it important as a military station in the contest between the Egyptians and the Turks in 1832. After the defeat of the Turkish army at Konieh, it was taken possession of by Ibrahim Pacha, and continued to be held by the Egyptians till the treaty of July 1840 restored it to the Porte. In the streets of the town there are numerous beautiful fountains, supplied with water from the river, which is here spanned by a stately bridge of fifteen arches, said to have been erected by Justinian. In winter the climate is mild and healthy, but in summer the heat is so great that the principal inhabitants betake themselves to various cool retreats in the neighbouring mountains. The adjoining plain of Adana is rich and fertile. The chief productions of the province are cotton, corn, sesame, and wool, which are largely exported. The population of the town is 20,000.

ADANSON, Michel, a celebrated French naturalist, descended from a Scottish family which had at the Revolution attached itself to the fortunes of the house of Stuart, was born the 7th of April 1727, at Aix, in Provence, where his father was in the service of M. de Vintimille, arch bishop of that province. On the translation of this prelate to the archbishopric of Paris, about the year 1730, the elder Adanson repaired thither with his five children, who were all provided for by their father's patron. A small canonry fell to the lot of Michel, the revenue of which defrayed the expenses of his education at the college of Plessis. While there he was distinguished for great quick ness of apprehension, strength of memory, and mental ardour; but his genius took no particular bent, until he received a microscope from the celebrated Tuberville Needham, who was struck with admiration of the talents and acquirements he displayed at a public examination. From that time to the last hour of his life he persevered with a zeal almost unexampled in the observation and study of nature. On leaving college, his youthful ardour was well employed in the cabinets of Reaumur and Bernard de Jussieu, as well as in the Jardin des Plantes. Such was his zeal, that he repeated the instructions of the professors to his less apt fellow-students; and before completing his nineteenth year he had actually described (for his own improvement) 4000 species of the three kingdoms of nature. In this way he soon exhausted the rich stores of accumulated knowledge in Europe; and having obtained a small appointment in the colony of Senegal, he resigned his canonry, and embarked on the 20th of December 1748 for Africa. Senegal, from the unhealthiness of its climate, was a terra incognita to naturalists; and this determined his choice of that country as a field for exploration. His ardour remained unabated during the five years of his residence in Africa. He collected and described, in greater or less detail, an immense number of animals and plants; collected specimens of every object of commerce; delineated maps of the country; made systematic meteorological and astronomical observations; and prepared grammars and dictionaries of the languages spoken on the banks of the Senegal. On his return to Paris in February 1754 he found himself without resources, but fortunately secured the patronage of M. de Bombarde, who encouraged him in the publication of the scientific results of his travels. In his Histoire Naturelle du Senegal (Paris, 1757) he made use of a small portion of the materials at his disposal; and the work has a special interest from the essay on Shells, printed at the end of it, where Adanson proposed his universal method, a system of classification distinct from those of Buffon and Linnaeus. He founded his classification of all organised beings on the consideration of each individual organ. As each organ gave birth to new relations, so he established a corresponding number of arbitrary arrangements. Those beings possessing the greatest number of similar organs were referred to one great division, and the relationship was considered more remote in pro-