Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/152

ADANA. population is about 45,000, including a large number of Armenians and Greeks. Adana was an important place in the time of the Romans. After a period of decline its prosperity revived under the caliph Harun-el-Rashid.

ADANG, a-dang'. A Malay-Negrito people in Ilocos Norte province, Luzon. See.

ADANSON, a'dilN'soN', (1727-1806). A French naturalist and physicist. He was born at Aix, in Provence. He studied the natu- ral and physical sciences under Réaumur and Jussieu in Paris, and journeyed to Senegal in 1749, where, during a period of five years, he engaged in researches in botany, electro-physics, and meteorology, and made collections of plants and animals. He was one of the first to recognize the electrical nature of the lightning stroke, and he demonstrated also the similarity of the shock from the electric eel (Gymnotus electricus) to the discharge from the Leyden jar. He was also one of the earliest to describe the mode of transportation and deposit of beach sands along oceanic coasts. On his return to Paris from Senegal he was elected a member of the Academy of Sciences. His most important work, however, was in botany, and he published many important monographs on various groups of plants and devised several schemes of classification, none of which latter has, however, received any considerable amount of recognition. Among his more important works are: Histoire naturelle du Sénégal (Paris, 1857; German edition, Leipzig, 1773); Familles des plantes (2 volumes, Paris, 1763); Histoire de la botanique et plan des familles naturelles des plantes, a posthumous work edited by his son, A. Adanson, and by Payer (2 volumes, Paris, 1864). For further particulars concerning his life and works consult Cuvier, Eloge historique (Paris, 1819).

AD'ANSCNIA. A genus of the natural or- der Malvaceæ, named by Linnæus in honor of the botanist Adanson (q.v"). The best known spe- cies, Adansonia digitata, the Baobab, also called the Monkey-bread tree, is a native of the tropi- cal parts of western Africa, but now introduced into the East and West Indies. It is one of the largest known trees — not, indeed, rising to a very great height, but exceeding most other trees in the thickness of its trunk (20 to 30 feet). Even its branches (60 to 70 feet long) are often as thick as the stems of large trees, and they form a hemispherical head of 120 to 150 feet in diameter, their outermost boughs drooping to the ground. The leaves are 5- to 7-parted; the flowers are white and extremely large, on droop- ing peduncles of a yard in length. The fruit, Monkey-bread, is of the size of citron. The bruised leaves (Lalo) are mixed with the food of the inhabitants of tropical Africa, and Euro- peans in that country employ them as a remedy for diarrhoea, fevers, and diseases of the urinary organs. The pulp of the fruit, which is slightly acid and pleasant to the taste, is eaten with or without sugar; and the expressed juice mixed with sugar is much esteemed as a beverage, being very refreshing, effectual in quenching thirst, and regarded as a specific in putrid and pestilential fevers. The bark is said to be power- fully febrifugal. A second, Australian, species, Adansonia Gregorii, is recognized by some bota- nists as distinct from Adansonia digitata. A third species is found in Madagascar and a fourth in East Africa.

AD'APTA'TION (Lat. ad, to + aptare, to fit). In plants, the adjustment of an organ or an organism to its environment or surroundings, as shown in its structural form, e.g., a thick-skinned leaf is an adaptation to a dry environment. The state of a perfectly adapted plant is sometimes called "epharmony," but this condition is rarely found, and the adaptations of most plants may be regarded as more or less imperfect. See ;.

A'DAR. The twelfth month of the ecclesiastical, and the sixth month of the civil, Jewish year, coinciding with February-March of the common year. The 7th of Adar became a fast for the death of Moses; the 9th another on account of the dissension of Hillel and Shammai; but more important is the 13th, which is called the fast of Esther, in memory of the fasting of Mordecai, Esther, and the Jews, whose destruction was threatened by Haman (Esther iv: 15-16). The fast is followed by the feast of Purim, celebrated on the 14th and 15th, in commemoration of the escape of the Jews of Persia from the fate designed for them by Haman, the cruel counselor of Ahasuerus. See.

ADDA, Jid'da (Lat. Adua). A tributary of the Po (q.v.), rising in the Rhætian Alps, on the northern borders of Italy above Bormio (Map: Italy, D 2). After traversing the Val- tellina, it flows, or rather expands, into the Lake of Como. Below Lecco it traverses the plain of Lombardy in a direction south-southeast, passing Lodi and Pizzighetone, and falls into the Po about 8 miles above Cremona. Total length, about 180 miles; navigable for 75 miles.

AD'DAMS, (1860—). A social settlement worker. She was born at Cedarville, Ill., September 6, 1860. She graduated at Rockford Female Seminary in 1881, and, together with Miss Ellen G. Starr, established (in 1889, at Chicago) the Hull House, the leading social settlement in the United States, of which she became the head worker and guiding spirit. Miss Addams has less sympathy with theoretical studies of the social problem than with everyday experience with all sorts and conditions of people. Her practical common sense, great executive ability, and fine, unselfish spirit have made her the natural leader of the settlement movement in this country. She has been a frequent contributor to current periodical literature on the nature of the social settlements, their relation to the labor movement, and to philanthropy, and various other topics suggested by her work in this field. See ;.

AD'DAX, or AD'DAS (Lat., of African origin). A hippotragine antelope (Addax nasomaculatus) of northeastern African deserts, related to the oryx. It is about three feet in height at the shoulders, robust in form, nearly white in color, tinged with reddish brown forward, and having a white blaze upon the nose, and black hoofs, large and rounded for treading upon the desert sands. It has long ears, a long, tufted tail, shaggy forehead and throat, and both sexes have high, spirally twisted horns, alluded to by Pliny when be described the antelope under the name strepsiceros. Its habits are similar to those of the oryx, and it is hunted by the Arabs