ADONIJAH (Heb. Adoniyyah or Adoniyyahu, "Yah is Lord''), a name borne by several persons in the Old Testament, the most noteworthy of whom was the fourth son of David. He was born to Haggith at Hebron (2 Sam. iii. 4; 1 Ch. iii. 2). The natural heir to the throne, on the death of Absalom, he sought with the help of Joab and Abiathar to seize his birthright, and made arrangements for his coronation (1 Kings i. 5 ff.). Hearing, however, that Solomon, with the help of Nathan the prophet and Bathsheba, and apparently with the consent of David, had ascended the throne, he fled for safety to the horns of the altar. Solomon spared him on this occasion (1 Kings i. 50 ff.), but later commanded Benaiah to slay him (ii. 13 ff.), because with the approval of Bathsheba he wished to marry Abishag, formerly David's concubine, and thus seemed to have designs on the throne.

ADONIS, in classical mythology, a youth of remarkable beauty, the favourite of Aphrodite. According to the story in Apollodorus (iii. 14. 4), he was the son of the Syrian king Theias by his daughter Smyrna (Myrrha), who had been inspired by Aphrodite with unnatural love. When Theias discovered the truth he would have slain his daughter, but the gods in pity changed her into a tree of the same name. After ten months the tree burst asunder and from it came forth Adonis. Aphrodite, charmed by his beauty, hid the infant in a box and handed him over to the care of Persephone, who afterwards refused to give him up. On an appeal being made to Zeus, he decided that Adonis should spend a third of the year with Persephone and a third with Aphrodite, the remaining third being at his own disposal. Adonis was afterwards killed by a boar sent by Artemis. There are many variations in the later forms of the story (notably in Ovid, Metam. x. 298). The name is generally supposed to be of Phoenician origin (from adon—"lord''), Adonis himself being identified with Tammuz (but see F. Dummler in Pauly-Wissowa's Realencyklopadie, who does not admit a Semitic origin for either name or cult). The name Abobas, by which he was known at Perga in Pamphyha, certainly seems connected with abub (a Semitic word for "flute''; cf. "ambubaiarum collegia'' in Horace, Satires, i. 2. 1). (See also ATTIS.) Annual festivals, called Adonia, were held in his honour at Byblus, Alexandria, Athens and other places. Although there were variations in the ceremony itself and in its date, the central idea was the death and resurrection of Adonis. A vivid description of the festival at Alexandria (for which Bion probably wrote his Dirge cf. Adonis) is given by Theocritus in his fifteenth idyll, the Adoniazusae. On the first day, which celebrated the union of Adonis and Aphrodite, their images were placed side by side on a silver couch, around them all the fruits of the season, "Adonis gardens'' in silver baskets, golden boxes of myrrh, cakes of meal, honey and oil, made in the likeness of things that creep and things that fly. On the day following the image of Adonis was carried down to the shore and cast into the sea by women with dishevelled hair and bared breasts. At the same time a song was sung, in which the god was entreated to be propitious in the coming year. This festival, like that at Athens, was held late in summer; at Byblus, where the mourning . ceremony preceded, it took place in spring.

It is now generally agreed that Adonis is a vegetation spirit, whose death and return to life represent the decay of nature in winter and its revival in spring. He is born from the myrrh-tree, the oil of which is used at his festival; he is connected with Aphrodite in her character of vegetation-goddess. A special feature of the Athenian festival was the "Adonis gardens,'' small pots of flowers forced to grow artificially, which rapidly faded (hence the expression was used to denote any transitory pleasure). The dispute between Aphrodite and Persephone for the possession of Adonis, settled by the agreement that he is to spend a third (or half) of the year in the lower-world (the seed at first underground and then reappearing above it), finds a parallel in the story of Tammuz and Ishtar (see APHRODITE) The ceremony of the Adonia was intended as a charm to promote the growth of vegetation, the throwing of the gardens and images into the water being supposed to procure a supply of rain (for European parallels see Mannhardt). It is suggested (Frazer) that Adonis is not a god of vegetation generally, but specially a corn-spirit, and that the lamentation is not for the decay of vegetation in winter, but for the cruel treatment of the corn by the reaper and miller (cf. Robert Burns's John Barleycorn.)

All important element in the story is the connexion of Adonis with the boar, which (according to one version) brings him into the world by splitting with his tusk the bark of the tree into which Smyrna was changed, and finally kills him. It is probable that Adonis himself was looked upon as incarnate in the swine, so that the sacrifice to him by way of expiation on special occasions of an animal which otherwise was specially sacred, and its consumption by its worshippers, was a sacramental act. Other instances of a god being sacrificed to himself as his own enemy are the sacrifice of the goat and bull to Dionysus and of the bear to Artemis. The swine would be sacrificed as having caused the death of Adonis, which explains the dislike of Aphrodite for that animal. It has been observed that whenever swine sacrifices occur in the ritual of Aphrodite there is reference to Adonis. In any vase, the conception of Adonis as a swine-god does not contradict the idea of him as a vegetation or corn spirit, which in many parts of Europe appears in the form of a boar or sow.

AUTHORITIES.—H. Brugsch, Die Adonisklage und das Linoslied (Berlin, 1852); Grove, De Adonide (Leipzig, 1877); W. H. Engel, Kypros, ii. (1841), still valuable; W. Mannhardt, Wald- und Feldkulte, ii. (1905); M. P. Nilsson, Griechische Feste (Leipzig, 1906); articles in Roscher's Lexikon and Pauly-Wissowa's Encyklopadie J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough, ii. (2nd ed.), p. 113, and Adonis, Attis and Osiris (1906); L. R. Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, ii. p. 646; W. Robertson Smith (Religion of the Semites, new ed., 1894, pp. 191, 290, 411), who, regarding Adonis as the swine-god, characterizes the Adonia as an annual piacular sacrifice (of swine), "in which the sacrifice has come to be overshadowed by its popular and dramatic accompaniments, to which the Greek celebration, not forming part of the state religion, was limited.''

ADONIS, a genus of plants belonging to the natural order Ranunculaceae, known commonly by the nomes of pheasant's eye and Flos Adonis. They are annual or perennial herbs with much divided leaves and yellow or red flowers. Adonis autumnalis has become naturalized in some parts of England; the petals are scarlet with a dark spot at the base. An early flowering species, Adonis vernalis, with large bright yellow flowers, is well worthy of cultivation. It prefers a deep light soil. The name is also given to the butterfly, Mazarine or Clifton Blue (Polyomreatus Adonis).

ADOPTIANISM. As the theological doctrine of the Logos which bulks so largely in the writings of the apologists of the 2nd century came to the front, the trinitarian problem became acute. The necessity of a constant protest against polytheism led to a tenacious insistence on the divine unity, and the task was to reconcile this unity with the deity of Jesus Christ. Some thinkers fell back on the "modalistic'' solution which regards "Father'' and "Son'' as two aspects of the same subject, but a simpler and more popular method was the "adoptionist'' or humanitarian. Basing their views on the synoptic Gospels, and tracing descent from the obscure sect of the Alogi, the Adoptianists under Theodotus of Byzantium tried to found a school at Rome c. 185, asserting that Jesus was a man, filled with the Holy Spirit's inspiration from his baptism; and sa attaining such a perfection of holiness that he was adopted by God and exalted to divine dignity. Theodotus was excommunicated by the bishop of Rome, Victor, c. 195, but his followers lived on under a younger teacher of the same name and under Artemon. while in the Fast similar views were expounded by Beryllus of Bostra and Paul of Samosata, who undoubtedly influenced Lucian of Antioch and his school, including Arius and, later, Nestorius. There is thus a traceable historical connexion between the early adoptian controversy and the struggle in Spain at the end of the 8th century, to which that name is usually given. It was indeed only a renewal, under new conditions, of the conflict between two types of thought, the rational and the mystical, the school of Antioch and that of Alexandria. The writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia had become well known in the West, especially since the strife over the "three chapters'' (544-553), and the opposition of Islam also partly determined the form of men's views on the doctrine of Christ's person. We must further remember the dyophysitism which had been sanctioned at the council of Chalcedon. About 780 Ehpandus (b. 718), archbishop of Toledo, revived and vehemently defended the expression Christus Filius Dei adoptivus, and was aided by his much more gifted friend Felix, bishop of Urgella. They held that the duality of natutes implied a distinction between two modes of sonship in Christ—-the natural or proper, and the adoptive. In support of their views they appealed to scripture and to the Western Fathers, who had used the term "adoption'' as synonymous with "assumption'' in the orthodox sense; and especially to Christ's fraternal relation to Christians—the brother of God's adopted sons. Christ, the firstborn among many brethren, had a natural birth at Bethlehem and also a spiritual birth begun at his baptism and consummated at his resurrection. Thus they did not teach a dual personality, nor the old Antiochene view that Christ's divine exaltation was due to his sinless virtue; they were less concerned with old disputes than with the problem as the Chalcedon decision had left it—the relation of Christ's one personality to his two natures.

Felix introduced adoptian views into that part of Spain which belonged to the Franks, and Charlemagne thought it necessary to assemble a synod at Regensburg (Ratisbon), in 792, before which the bishop was summoned to explain and justify the new doctrine. Instead of this he renounced it, and confirmed his renunciation by a solemn oath to Pope Adrian, to whom the synod sent him. The recantation was probably insincere, for on returning to his diocese he taught adoptianism as before. Another synod was held at Frankfort in 794, by which the new doctrine was again formally condemned, though neither Felix nor any of his followers appeared.

In this synod Alcuin of York took part. A friendly letter from Alcuin, and a controversial pamphlet, to which Felix replied, were followed by the sending of several commissions of clergy to Spain to endeavour to put down the heresy. Archbishop Leidrad (d. 816) of Lyons, being on one of these commissions, persuaded Felix to appear before a synod at Aix-la-Chapelle in 799. There, after six days' disputing with Alcuin, he again recanted his heresy. The rest of his life was spent under the supervision of the archbishop at Lyons, where he died in 816. Elipapdus, secure in his see at Toledo, never swerved from the adoptian views, which, however, were almost universally abandoned after the two leaders died. In the scholastic discussions of the 12th century the question came to the front again, for the doctrine as framed by Alcuin was not universally accepted. Thus both Abelard and Peter Lombard, in the interest of the immutability of the divine substance (holding that God could not "become', anything), gravitated towards a Nestorian position. The great opponent of their Christology, which was known as Nihilianism, was the German scholar Gerhoch, who, for his bold assertion of the perfect interpenetration of deity and humanity in Christ, was accused of Eutychianism. The proposition Deus non factus est aliquid secundum quod est homo was condemned by a synod of Tours in 1163 and again by the Lateran synod of 1179, but Adoptianism continued all through the middle ages to be a source of theological dispute.

See A. Harnack, Hist. of Dogma, esp. vol. v. pp. 279-292; R. Ottley, The Doctrine of the Incarnation, vol. i. p. 228 ff, vol. ii. pp. 151-161; Herzog-Hauck, Realenclyk., art. "Adoptianismus.'' (A. J. G.)

ADOPTION (Lat. adoptio, for adoptatio, from adoptare, to choose for oneself), the act by which the relations of paternity and filiation are recognized as legally existing between persons not so related by nature. Cases of adoption were very frequent among the Greeks and Romans, and the custom was accordingly very strictly regulated in their laws. In Athens the power of adoption was allowed to all citizens who were of sound mind, and who possessed no male offspring of their own, and it could be exercised either during lifetime or by testament. The person adopted, who required to be himself a citizen, was enrolled in the family and demus of the adoptive father, whose name, however, he did not necessarily assume. In the interest of the next of kin, whose rights were affected by a case of adoption, it was provided that the registration should be attended with certain formalities, and that it should take place at a fixed time—the festival of the Thargelia. The rights and duties of adopted children were almost identical with those of natural offspring, and could not be renounced except in the case of one who had begotten children to take his place in the family of his adoptive father. Adopted into another family, children ceased to have any claim of kindred or inheritance through their natural father, though any rights they might have through their mother were not similarly affected. Among the Romans the existence of the patria potestas gave a peculiar significance to the custom of adoption. The motive to the act was not so generally childlessness, or the gratification of affection, as the desire to acquire those civil and agnate rights which were founded on the patria potestas. It was necessary, however, that the adopter should have no children of his own, and that he should be of such an age as to preclude reasonable expectation of any being born to him. Another limitation as to age was imposed by the maxim adoptio imitatur naturam, which required the adoptive father to be at least eighteen years older than the adopted children. According to the same maxim eunuchs were not permitted to adopt, as being impotent to beget children for themselves. Adoption was of two kinds according to the state of the person adopted, who might be either still under the patria potestas (alieni juris), or his own master (sui juris). In the former case the act was one of adoption proper, in the latter case it was styled adrogation, though the term adoption was also used in a general sense to describe both species. In adoption proper the natural father publicly sold his child to the adoptive father, and the sale being thrice repeated, the maxim of the Twelve Tables took effect, Si pater filium ter venunduit, filius a patre liber esto. The process was ratified and completed by a fictitious action of recovery brought by the adoptive father against the natural parent, which the latter did not defend, and which was therefore known as the cessio in jure. Adrogation could be accomplished originally only by the authority of the people assembled in the Comitia, but from the time of Diocletian it was effected by an imperial rescript. Females could not be adrogated, and, as they did not possess the patria potestas, they could not exercise the right of adoption in either kind. The whole Roman law on the subject of adoption will be found in Justinian's Institutes, lib. i. tit. II.

In Hindu law, as in nearly every ancient system, wills were formerly unknown, and adoptions took their place. (See INDIAN LAW.) Adoption is not recognized in the laws of England, Scotland or the Netherlands, though there are legal means by which one may be enabled to assume the name and arms and to inherit the property of a stranger. (See NAME.)

In France and Germany, countries which may he said to have embodied the Roman law in their jurisprudence, adoption is regulated according to the principles of Justinian, though with several more or less important modifications, rendered necessary by the usages of these countries respectively. Under French law the rights of adoption can be exercised only by those who are over fifty years of age, and who, at the time of adoption, have neither children nor legitimate descendants. They must also be fifteen years older than the person adopted. In German law the person adopting must either be fifty years of age, or at least eighteen years older than the adopted, unless a special dispensation is obtained. If the person adopted is a legitimate child, the consent of his parents must be obtained; if illegitimate, the consent of the mother. Both in Germany and France the adopted child remains a member of his original family, and acquires no rights in the family of the adopter other than that of succession to the person adopting.

In the United States adoption is regulated by the statutes of the several states. Adoption of minors is permitted by statute in many of the states. These statutes generally require some public notice to be given of the intention to adopt, and an order of approval after a hearing before some public authority. The consequence commonly is that the person adopted becomes, in the eyes of the law, the child of the person adopting, for all purposes. Such an adoption, if consummated according to the law of the domicile, is equally effectual in any other state into which the parties may remove. The relative status thus newly acquired is ubiquitous. (See Whitmore, Laws of Adoption; Ross v. Ross, 129 Massachusetts Reports, 243.) The part played by the legal fiction of adoption in the constitution of primitive society and the civilization of the race is so important, that Sir Henry S. Maine, in his Ancient Law, expresses the opinion that, had it never existed, the primitive groups of mankind could not have coalesced except on terms of absolute superiority on the one side and absolute subjection on the other. With the institution of adoption, however, one people might feign itself as descended from the same stock as the people to whose sacra gentilicia it was admitted; and amicable relations were thus established between stocks which, but for this expedient, must have submitted to the arbitrament of the sword with all its consequences.

ADORATION (Lat. ad, to, and os, mouth; i.e. "carrying to one's mouth''), primarily an act of homage or worship, which, among the Romans, was performed by raising the hand to the mouth, kissing it and then waving it in the direction of the adored object. The devotee had his head covered, and after the act turned himself round from left to right. Sometimes he kissed the feet or knees of the images of the gods themselves, and Saturn and Hercules were adored with the head bare. By a natural transition the homage, at first paid to divine beings alone, came to be paid to monarchs. Thus the Greek and Roman emperors were adored by bowing or kneeling, laying hold of the imperial robe, and presently withdrawing the hand and pressing it to the lips, or by putting the royal robe itself to the lips. In Eastern countries adoration has ever been performed in an attitude still more lowly. The Persian method, introduced by Cyrus, was to bend the knee and fall on the face at the prince's feet, striking the earth with the forehead and kissing the ground. This striking of the earth with the forehead, usually a fixed number of times, is the form of adoration usually paid to Eastern potentates to-day. The Jews kissed in homage. Thus in 1 Kings xix. 18, God is made to say, "Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him.'' And in Psalms ii. 12, "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way.'' (See also Hosea xiii. 2.) In England the ceremony of kissing the sovereign's hand, and some other acts which are performed kneeling, may be described as forms of adoration. Adoration is applied in the Roman Church to the ceremony of kissing the pope's foot, a custom which is said to have been introduced by the popes following the example of the emperor Diocletian. The toe of the famous statue of the apostle in St Peter's, Rome, shows marked wear caused by the kisses of pilgrims. In the Roman Church a distinction is made between Latria, a worship due to God alone, and Dulia or Hyperdulia, the adoration paid to the Virgin, saints, martyrs, crucifixes, &c. (See further HOMAGE.)

ADORF, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of Saxony, 3 m. from the Bohemian frontier, at an elevation of 1400 ft. above the sea, on the Plauen-Eger and Aue-Adorf lines of railway. Pop. 5000. It has lace, dyeing and tanning industries, and manufactures of toys and musical instruments; and there is a convalescent home for the poor of the city of Leipzig.

ADOUR (anc. Aturrus or Adurus, from Celtic dour, water), a river of south-west France, rising in the department of Hautes Pyrenees, and flowing in a wide curve to the Bay of Biscay. It is formed of several streams having their origin in the massif of the Pic d'Arbizon and the Pic du Midi de Bigorre, but during the first half of its course remains an inconsiderable river. In traversing the beautiful valley of Campan it is artificially augmented in summer by the waters of the Lac Bleu, which are drawn off by means of a siphon, and flow down the valley of I esponne. After passing Bagneres de Bigorre the Adour enters the plain of Tarbes, and for the remainder of its course in the department of Hautes Pyrenees is of much less importance as a waterway than as a means of feeding the numerous irrigation canals which cover the plains on each side. Of these the oldest and most important is the Canal d'Alaric, which follows the right bank for 36 m. Entering the department of Gers, the Adour receives the Arros on the right bank and begins to describe the large westward curve which takes it through the department of Landes to the sea. In the last-named department it soon becomes navigable, namely, at St Sever, after passing which it is joined on the left by the Larcis, Gabas, Louts and Luy, and on the right by the Midouze, which is formed by the union of the Douze and the Midour, and is navigable for 27 m.; now taking a south-westerly course it receives on the left the Gave de Pau, which is a more voluminous river than the Adour itself, and flowing past Bayonne enters the sea through a dangerous estuary, in which sandbars are formed, after a total course of 208 m., of which 82 are navigable. The mouth of the Adout has repeatedly shifted. its old bed being represented by the series of etangs and lagoons extending northward as far as the village of Vieux Boucau, 22 1/2 m. north of Bayonne, where it found a new entrance into the sea at the end of the 14th century. Its previous mouth had been 10 m. south of Vieux Boucau. The present channel was constructed by the engineer Louis de Foix in 1579. There is a depth over the bar at the entrance of 10 1/2 to 16 ft. at high tide. The area of the basin of the Adour is 6565 sq. m.

ADOWA (properly ADUA), the capital of Tigre, northern Abyssinia, 145 m. N.E. of Gondar and 17 m. E. by N. of Axum, the ancient capital of Abyssinia. Adowa is built on the slope of a hill at an elevation of 6500 ft., in the midst of a rich agricultural district. Being on the high road from Massawa to central Abyssinia, it is a meeting-place of merchants from Arabia and the Sudan for the exchange of foreign merchandise with the products of the country. During the wars between the Italians and Abyssinia (1887-96) Adowa was on three or four occasions looted and burnt; but the churches escaped destruction. The church of the Holy Trinity, one of the largest in Abyssinia, contains numerous wall-paintings of native art. On a hill about 2 1/2 m. north-west of Adowa are the ruins of Fremona, the headquarters of the Portuguese Jesuits who lived in Abyssinia during the 16th and 17th centuries. On the 1st of March 1896, in the hills north of the town, was fought the battle of Adowa, in which the Abyssinians inflicted a crushing defeat on the Italian forces (see ITALY, History, and ABYSSINIA, History).

ADRA (anc. Abdera), a seaport of southern Spain, in the province of Almeria; at the mouth of the Rio Grande de Adra, and on the Mediterranean Sea. Pop. (1900) 11,188. Adra is the port of shipment for the lead obtained near Berja, 10 m. north-east; but its commercial development is retarded by the lack of a railway. Besides lead, the exports include grapes, sugar and esparto. Fuel is imported, chieffly from the United Kingdom.

ADRAR (Berber for "uplands''), the name of various districts of the Saharan desert, Northern Africa. Adrar Suttuf is a hilly region forming the southern part of the Spanish protectorate of the Rio de Oro (q.v.). Adrar or Adrar el Jebli, otherwise Adghagh, is a plateau north-east of Timbuktu. It is the headquarters of the Awellimiden Tuareg (see TUAREG and SAHARA). Adrar n'Ahnet and Adrar Adhafar are smaller regions in the Ahnet country south of Insalah. Adrar Temur, the country usually referred to when Adrar is spoken of, is in the western Sahara, 300 m. north of the Senegal and separated on the north-west from Adrar Suttuf by wide valleys and sand dunes. Adrar is within the French sphere of influence. In general barren, the country contains several oases, with a total population of about 10,000. In 1900 the oasis of Atar, on the western borders of the territory, was reached by Paul Blanchet, previously known for his researches on ancient Berber remains in Algeria. (Blanchet died in Senegal on the 6th of October 1900, a few days after his return from Adrar.) Atar is inhabited by Yrab and Berber tribes, and is described as a wretched spot. The other centres of population are Shingeti, Wadan and Ujeft, Shingeti being the chief commercial centre, whence caravans take to St Louis gold-dust, ostrich feathers and dates. A considerable trade is also done in salt from the sebkha of Ijil, in the north-west. Adrar occupies the most elevated part of a plateau which ends westwards in a steep escarpment and falls to the east in a succession of steps.

Adrar or Adgar is also the name sometimes given to the chief settlement in the oasis of Tuat in the Algerian Sahara.

ADRASTUS, in Greek legend, was the son of Talaus, king of Argos, and Lysianassa, daughter of Polybus, king of Sicyon. Having been driven from Argos by Amphiaraus, Adrastus fled to Sicyon, where he became king on the death of Polybus. After a time he became reconciled to Amphiaraus, gave him his sister Eriphyle in marriage, and returned to Argos and occupied the throne. In consequence of an oracle which had commanded him to marry his daughters to a lion and a boar, he wedded them to Polyneices and Tydeus, two fugitives, clad in the skins of these animals or carrying shields with their figures on them, who claimed his hospitality. He was the instigator of the famous war against Thebes for the restoration of his son-in-law Polyneices, who had been deprived of his rights by his brother Eteocles. Adrastus, followed by Polyneices and Tydeus, his two sons-inlaw, Amphiaraus, his brother-in-law, Capaneus, Hippomedon and Parthenopaeus, marched against the city of Thebes, and on his way is said to have founded the Nemean games. This is the expedition of the "Seven against Thebes,'' which the poets have made nearly as famous as the siege of Troy. As Amphiaraus had foretold, they all lost their lives in this war except Adrastus, who was saved by the speed of his horse Arion (Iliad, xxiii. 346). Ten years later, at the instigation of Adrastus, the war was renewed by the sons of the chiefs who had fallen. This expedition was called the war of the "Epigoni'' or descendants, and ended in the taking and destruction of Thebes. None of the followers of Adrastus perished except his son Aegialeus, and this affected him so greatly that he died of grief at Megara, as he was leading back his victorious army.

Apollodorus iii. 6, 7; Aeschylus, Septem contra Thebes; Euripides, Phoenissae, Supplices; Statius, Thebais; Herodotus v. 67.

ADRIA (anc. Atria; the form Adria or Hadria is less correct: Hatria was a town in Picenum, the modern Atri), a town and episcopal see of Venetia, Italy, in the province of Rovigo, 15 m. F. by rail from the town of Rovigo. It is situated between the mouths of the Adige and the Po, about 13 1/2 m. from the sea and but 13ft. above it. Pop. (1901) 15,678. The town occupies the site of the ancient Atria, which gave its name to the Adriatic. Its origin is variously ascribed by ancient writers, but it was probably a Venetian, i.e. Illyrian, not an Etruscan, foundation—still less a foundation of Dionysius I. of Syracuse. Imported vases of the second half of the 5th century B.C. prove the existence of trade with Greece at that period; and the town was famous in Aristotle's day for a special breed of fowls. Even at that period, however, the silt brought down by the rivers rendered access to the harbour difficult, and the historian Philistus excavated a canal to give free access to the sea. This was still open in the imperial period, and the town, which was a municipium, possessed its own gild of sailors; but its importance gradually decreased. Its remains lie from 10 to 20 ft. below the modern level. The Museo Civico and the Bocchi collection contain antiquities.

See R. Schone, Le antichita del Museo Bocchi di Adria (Rome, 1878). (T. As.)

ADRIAN, or HADRIAN (Lat. Hadrianus), the name of six popes. ADRIAN I., pope from 772 to 705, was the son of Theodore, a Roman nobleman. Soon after his accession the territory that had been bestowed on the popes by Pippin was invaded by Desiderius, king of the Lombards, and Adrian found it necessary to invoke the aid of Charlemagne, who entered Italy with a large army, besieged Desiderius in his capital of Pavia, took that town, banished the Lombard king to Corbie in France and united the Lombard kingdom with the other Frankish possessions. The pope, whose expectations had been aroused, had to content himself with some additions to the duchy of Rome, and to the Exarchate, and the Pentapolis. In his contest with the Greek empire and the Lombard princes of Benevento, Adrian remained faithful to the Frankish alliance, and the friendly relations between pope and emperor were not disturbed by the difference which arose between them on the question of the worship of images, to which Charlemagne and the Gallican Church were strongly opposed, while Adrian favoured the views of the Eastern Church, and approved the decree of the council of Nicaea (787), confirming the practice and excommunicating the iconoclasts. It was in connexion with this controversy that Charlemagne wrote the so-called Libri Carolini, to which Adrian replied by letter, anathematizing all who refused to worship the images of Christ, or the Virgin, or saints. Notwithstanding this, a synod, held at Frankfort in 794, anew condemned the practice, and the dispute remained unsettled at Adrian's death. An epitaph written by Charlemagne in verse, in which he styles Adrian "father,'' is still to be seen at the door of the Vatican basilica. Adrian restored the ancient aqueducts of Rome, and governed his little state with a firm and skilful hand.

ADRIAN II., pope from 867 to 872, was a member of a noble Roman family, and became pope in 867, at an advanced age. He maintained, but with less energy, the attitude of his predecessor. Rid of the affair of Lothair, king of Lorraine, by the death of that prince (869), he endeavoured in vain to mediate between the Frankish princes with a view to assuring to the emperor, Louis II., the heritage of the king of Lorraine. Photius, shortly after the council in which he had pronounced sentence of deposition against Pope Nicholas, was driven from the patriarchate by a new emperor, Basil the Macedonian, who favoured his rival Ignatius. An oecumenical council (called by the Latins the 8th) was convoked at Constantinople to decide this matter. At this council Adrian was represented by legates, who presided at the condemnation of Photius, but did not succeed in coming to an understanding with Ignatius on the subject of the jurisdiction over the Bulgarian converts. Like his predecessor Nicholas, Adrian II. was forced to submit, at least in temporal affairs, to the tutelage of the emperor, Louis II., who placed him under the surveillance of Arsenius, bishop of Orta, his confidential adviser, and Arsenius's son Anastasius, the librarian. Adrian had married in his youth, and his wife and daughter were still living. They were carried off and assassinated by Anastasius's brother, Eleutherius, whose reputation, however, suffered but a momentary eclipse. Adrian died in 872.

ADRIAN III., pope, was born at Rome. He succeeded Martin II. in 884, and died in 885, on a journey to Worms. (L. D.*)

ADRIAN IV. (Nicholas Breakspear), pope from 1154 to 1159, the only Englishman who has occupied the papal chair, was born before A.D. 1100 at Langley near St Albans in Hertfordshire, His father was Robert, a priest of the diocese of Bath, who entered a monastery and left the boy to his own resources. Nicholas went to Paris and finally became a monk of the cloister of St Rufus near Arles. He rose to be prior and in 1137 was unanimously elected abbot. His reforming zeal led to the lodging of complaints against him at Rome; but these merely attracted to him the favourable attention of Eugenius III., who created him cardinal bishop of Albano. From 1152 to 1154 Nlicholas was in Scandinavia as legate, organizing the affairs of the new Norwegian archbishopric of Trondhjem, and making arrangements which resulted in the recognition of Upsala as seat of the Swedish metropolitan in 1164. As a compensation for territory thus withdrawn the Danish archbishop of Lund was made legate and perpetual vicar and given the title of primate of Denmark and Sweden. On his return Nicholas was received with great honour by Anastasius IV., and on the death of the latter was elected pope on the 4th of December 1154. He at once endeavoured to compass the overthrow of Arnold of Brescia, the leader of anti-papal sentiment in Rome. Disorders ending with the murder of a cardinal led Adrian shortly before Palm Sunday 1155 to take the previously-unheard-of step of putting Rome under the interdict. The senate thereupon exiled Arnold, and the pope, with the impolitic co-operation of Frederick I. Barbarossa, was instrumental in procuring his execution. Adrian crowned the emperor at St Peter's on the 18th of June 1155, a ceremony which so incensed the Romans that the pope had to leave the city promptly, not returning till November 1156. With the aid of dissatisfied barons, Adrian brought William I. of Sicily into dire straits; but a change in the fortunes of war led to a settlement (June 1156) not advantageous to the papacy and displeasing to the emperor. At the diet of Besancon in October 1157, the legates presented to Barbarossa a letter from Adrian which alluded to the beneficia conferred upon the emperor, and the German chancellor translated this beneficia in the feudal sense. In the storm which ensued the legates were glad to escape with their lives, and the incident at length closed with a letter from the pope, declaring that by beneficium he meant merely bonum factum. The breach subsequently became wider, and Adrian was about to excommunicate the emperor when he died at Anagnia on the 1st of September 1159. A controversy exists concerning an embassy sent by Henry II. of England to Adrian in 1155. According to the elaborate investigation of Thatcher, the facts seem to be as follows. Henry asked for permission to invade and subjugate Ireland, in order to gain absolute ownership of that isle. Unwilling to grant a request counter to the papal claim (based on the forged Donation of Constantine) to dominion over the islands of the sea, Adrian made Henry a conciliatory proposal, namely, that the king should become hereditary feudal possessor of Ireland while recognizing the pope as overlord. This compromise did not satisfy Henry, so the matter dropped; Henry's subsequent title to Ireland rested on conquest, not on papal concession, and was therefore absolute. The much-discussed bull Laudabiliter is, however, not genuine. See Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, 3rd ed. (excellent bibliography), and Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexikon, 2nd ed., under "Hadrian IV.''; also Oliver J. Thatcher, Studies concerning Adriani IV'. (The University of Chicago: Decennial Publications, 1st series, vol. iv., Chicago, 1903); R. Raby, Pope Adrian IV.: An Historical Sketch (London, 1849); and A. H.Tarleton, Life of Nicholas Breakspear (London, 1896)

ADRIAN V. (Ottobuono de' Fieschi), pope in 1276, was a Genoese who was created cardinal deacon by his uncle Innocent IV. In 1264 he was sent to England to mediate between Henry III. and his barons. He was elected pope to succeed Innocent V. on the 11th of July 1276, but died at Viterbo on the 18th of August, without having been ordained even to the priesthood.

ADRIAN VI. (Adrian Dedel, not Boyens, probably not Rodenburgh, 1459-1523), pope from 1522 to 1523, was born at Utrecht in March 1459, and studied under the Brethren of the Common Life either at Zwolle or Deventer. At Louvain he pursued philosophy, theology and canon law, becoming a doctor of theology (1491), dean of St Peter's and vice-chancellor of the university. In 1507 he was appointed tutor to the seven-year old Charles V. He was sent to Spain in 1515 on a very important diplomatic errand; Charles secured his succession to the see of Tortosa, and on the 14th of November 1516 commissioned him inquisitor-general of Aragon. During the minority of Charles, Adrian was associated with Cardinal Jimenes in governing Spain. After the death of the latter Adrian was appointed, on the 14th of March 1518, general of the reunited inquisitions of Castile and Aragon, in which capacity he acted till his departure from Tarragona for Rome on the 4th of August 1522: he was, however, too weak and confiding to cope with abuses which Jimenes had been able in some degree to check. When Charles left for the Netherlands in 1520 he made Adrian regent of Spain: as such he had to cope with a very serious revolt. In 1517 Leo X. had created him cardinal priest SS. Ioannis et Pauli; on the 9th of January 1522 he was almost unanimously elected pope. Crowned in St Peter's on the 31st of August at the age of sixty-three, he entered upon the lonely path of the reformer. His programme was to attack notorious abuses one by one; but in his attempt to improve the system of granting indulgences he was hampered by his cardinals; and reducing the number of matrimonial dispensations was impossible, for the income had been farmed out for years in advance by Leo X. The Italians saw in him a pedantic foreign professor, blind to the beauty of classical antiquity, penuriously docking the stipends of great artists. As a peacemaker among Christian princes, whom he hoped to unite in a protective war against the Turk, he was a failure: in August 1523 he was forced openly to ally himself with the Empire, England, Venice, &c., against France; meanwhile in 1522 the sultan Suleiman I. had conquered Rhodes. In dealing with the early stages of the Protestant revolt in Germany Adrian did not fully recognize the gravity of the situation. At the diet which opened in December 1522 at Nuremberg he was represented by Chieregati, whose instructions contain the frank admission that the whole disorder of the church had perchance proceeded from the Curia itself, and that there the reform should begin. However, the former professor and inquisitor-general was stoutly opposed to doctrinal changes, and demanded that Luther be punished for heresy. The statement in one of his works that the pope could err in matters of faith ("haeresim per suam determinationem aut Decretalem assurondo'') has attracted attention; but as it is a private opinion, not an ex cathedra pronouncement, it is held not to prejudice the dogma of papal infallibility. On the 14th of September 1523 he died, after a pontificate too short to be effective.

Most of Adrian VI's official papers disappeared soon after his death. He published Quaestiones in quartum sententiarum praesertim circa sacrementa (Paris, 1512, 1516, 1518, 1537; Rome, 1522), and Quaestiones quodlibeticae XII. (1st ed., Louvain, 1515). See L. Pastor, in Geschichte der Papste, vol. iv. pt. ii.; Adrian VI und Klemens VII. (Freiburg, 1907); also Wetzer and Welte, Kirchenlexikon, 2nd ed., and Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, 3rd ed., under "Hadrian VI.''; H. Hurter, Nomenclator literarius recentioris theologiae catholicae, tom. iv. (Innsbruck. 1899), 1027; The Cambridge Modern History, vol. ii. (1904), 19-21; H. C. Lea, A History of the Inquisition of Spain, vol. i. (1906); Janus, The Pope and the Council, 2nd ed. (London, 1869), 376. Biographies—A. Lepitre, Adrien VI. (Paris, 1880); C. A. C. von Hofler, Papst Adrian VI. (Vienna, 1880); L. Casartelli, "The Dutch Pope,'' in Miscellaneous Essays (London, 1906). (W. W. R.*)

ADRIAN, SAINT, one of the praetorian guards of the emperor Galerius Maximian, who, becoming a convert to Christianity, was martyred at Nicomedia on the 4th of March 303. It is said that while presiding over the torture of a band of Christians he was so amazed at their courage that he publicly confessed his faith. He was imprisoned, and the next day his limbs were struck off on an anvil, and he was then beheaded, dying in his wife's, St Natalia's, arms. St Adrian's festival, with that of his wife, is kept on the 8th of September. He is specially a patron of soldiers, and is much reverenced in Flanders, Germany and the north of France. He is usually represented armed, with an anvil in his hands or at his feet.

ADRIAN, a city and the county-seat of Lenawee county, Michigan, U.S.A., on the S. branch of Raisin river, near the S.E. corner of the state. Pop.(1890) 8736; (1900) 9654, of whom 1186 were foreign-born: (1910 census) 10,763. It is served by five branches of the Lake Shore railway system, and by the Wabash, the Toledo and Western, and the Toledo, Detroit and Ironton railways. Adrian is the seat of Adrian College (1859; co-educational), controlled by the Wesleyan Methodist Church in 1859-1867 and since 1867 by the Methodist Protestant Church, and having departments of literature, theology, music, fine arts, commerce and pedagogy, and a preparatory school; and of St Joseph's Academy (Roman Catholic) for girls; and 1 m. north of the city is the State Industrial Home for Girls (1879), for the reformation of juvenile offenders between the ages of ten and seventeen. Adrian has a public library. The city is situated in a rich farming region; is an important shipping point for livestock, grain and other farm products; and is especially known as a centre for the manufacture of wire-fences. Among the other manufactories are flouring and grist mills, planing mills, foundries, and factories for making agricultural implements, United States mail boxes, furniture, pianos, organs, automobiles, toys and electrical supplies. The value of the city's factory products increased from $2,124,923 in 1900 to $4,897,426 in 1904, or 130.5%; of the total value in 1904, $2,849,648 was the value of wire-work. The place was laid out as a town in 1828, and according to tradition was named in honour of the Roman emperor Hadrian. It was incorporated as a village in 1836, was made the county-seat in 1838 and was chartered as a city in 1853.

ADRIANI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA (1513-1579), Italian historian, was born of a patrician family of Florence, and was secretary to the republic of Florence. He was among the defenders of the city during the siege of 1530, but subsequently joined the Medici party and was appointed professor of rhetoric at the university. At the instance of Cosimo I. he wrote a history of his own times, from 1536 to 1574, in Italian, which is generally, but according to Brunet erroneously, considered a continuation of Guicciardini. De Thou acknowledges himself greatly indebted to this history, praising it especially for its accuracy. Adriani composed funeral orations in Latin on the emperor Charles V. and other noble personages, and was the author of a long letter on ancient painters and sculptors prefixed to the third volume of Vasari. His Istoria dei suoi tempi was published in Florence in 1583; a new edition appeared also in Florence in 1872. See G. M. Mazzucchelli, Gli Scrittori d' Italia, i. p. 151 (Brescia, 1753).

ADRIANOPLE, a vilayet of European Turkey, corresponding with part of the ancient Thrace, and bounded on the N. by Bulgaria (Eastern Rumeha), E. by the Black Sea and the vilayet of Constantinople, S. by the Sea of Marmora and the Aegean Sea and W. by Macedonia. Pop. (1905) about 1,000,000; area, 15,000 sq. m. The surface of the vilayet is generally mountainous, except in the central valley of the Maritza, and along the banks of its tributaries, the Tunja, Arda, Ergene, &c. On the west, the great Rhodope range and its outlying ridges extend as far as the Maritza, and attain an altitude of more than 7000 ft. in the summits of the Kushlar Dagh, Karluk Dagh and the Balkan. Towards the Black Sea, the less elevated Istranja Dagh stretches from north-west to south-east; and the entire south coast, which includes the promontory of Gallipoli and the western shore of the Dardanelles, is everywhere hilly or mountainous, except near the estuaries of the Maritza, and of the Mesta, a western frontier stream. The climate is mild and the soil fertile; but political disturbances and the conservative character of the people tend to thwart the progress of agriculture and other industries. The vilayet suffered severely during the Russian occupation of 1878, when, apart from the natural dislocation of commerce, many of the Moslem cultivators emigrated to Asia Minor, to be free from their alien rulers. Through the resultant scarcity of labour, much land fell out of cultivation. This was partially remedied after the Bulgarian annexation of Eastern Rumella, in 1885, had driven the Moslems of that country to emigrate in like manner to Adrianople; but the advantage was counterbalanced by the establishment of hostile Bulgarian tariffs. The important silk industry, however, began to revive about 1890, and dairy farming is prosperous; but the condition of the vilayet is far less unsettled than that of Macedonia, owing partly to the preponderance of Moslems among the peasantry, and partly to the nearness of Constantinople, with its Western influences. The main railway from Belgrade to Constantinople skirts the Maritza and Ergene valleys, and there is an important branch line down the Maritza valley to Dedeagatch, and thence coastwise to Salonica. After the city of Adrianople (pop. 1905, about 80,000), which is the capital, the principal towns are Rodosto (35,000), Gallipoli (25,000), Kirk-Kilisseh (16,000), Xanthi (14,000), Chorlu (11,500), Demotica (10,000), Enos (8000), Gumuljina (8000) and Dedeagatch (3000).

ADRIANOPLE (anc. Hadrianopolis; Turk. Edirne, or Edreneh; Slav. Odrin), the capital of the vilayet of Adrianople, Turkey in Europe; 137 m. by rail W.N.W. of Constantinople. Pop. (1905) about 80,000, of whom half are Turks, and half Jews, Greeks, Bulgars, Armenians, &c. Adrianople ranks, after Constantinople and Salonica, third in size and importance among the cities of European Turkey. It is the see of a Greek archbishop, and of one Armenian and two Bulgarian bishops. It is the chief fortress near the Bulgarian frontier, being defended by a ring of powerful modern forts. It occupies both banks of the river Tunja, at its confluence with the Maritza, which is navigable to this point in spring and winter. The nearest seaport by rail is Dedeagatch, west of the Maritza; Enos, at the river-mouth, is the nearest by water. Adrianople is on the railway from Belgrade and Sofia to Constantinople and Salonica. In appearance it is thoroughly Oriental—a mass of mean, irregular wooden buildings, threaded by narrow tortuous streets, . with a few better buildings. Of these the most important are the Idadieh school, the school of arts and crafts, the Jewish communal school; the Greek college, Zappeion; the Imperial Ottoman Bank and Tobacco Regie; a fire-tower; a theatre; palaces for the prefect of the city, the administrative staff of the second army corps and the defence works commission; a handsome row of barracks; a military hospital; and a French hospital. Of earlier buildings, the most distinguished are the Eski Serai, an ancient and half-ruined palace of the sultans; the bazaar of Ali Pasha; and the 16th-century mosque of the sultan Selim II., a magnificent specimen of Turkish architecture. Adrianople has five suburbs, of which Kiretchhane and Yilderim are on the left bank of the Maritza, and Kirjikstands on a hill overlooking the city. The two last named are exclusively Greek, but a large proportion of the inhabitants of Kiretchhane are Bulgarian. These three suburbs—-as well as the little hamlet of Demirtash, containing about 300 houses all occupied by Bulgars—-are all built in the native fashion; but the fifth suburb, Karagatch, which is on the right bank of the Maritza, and occupies the region between the railway station and the city, is Western in its design, consisting of detached residences in gardens, many of them handsome villas, and all of modern European type. In all the communities schools have multiplied, but the new seminaries are of the old non-progressive type. The only exception is the Hamidieh school for boys—-a government institution which takes both boarders and day-scholars. Like the Lyceum of Galata Serai in Constantinople, it has two sets of professors, Turkish and French, and a full course of education in each language, the pupils following both courses. The several communities have each their own charitable institutions, the Jews being socially well endowed in this respect, The Greeks have a literary society, and there is a well-organized club to which members of all the native communities, as well as many foreigners, belong.

The economic condition of Adrianople was much impaired by the war of 1877-78, and was just showing signs of recovery when, in 1885, the severance from it of Eastern Rumelia by a Customs cordon rendered the situation more than ever. Adrianople had previously been the commercial headquarters of all Thrace, and of a large portion of the region between the Balkans and the Danube, now Bulgaria. But the separation of Eastern Rumeha isolated Adrianople, and transferred to Philippopolis at least two-thirds of its foreign trade which, as regards sea-borne merchandise, is carried on through the port of Burgas (q.v.). The city manufactures silk, leather, tapestry, woollens, linen and cotton, and has an active general trade. Besides fruits and agricultural produce, its exports include raw silk, cotton, opium, rose-water, attar of roses, wax and the dye known as Turkey red. The surrounding country is extremely fertile, and its wines are the best produced in Turkey. The city is supplied with fresh water by means of an aqueduct carried by arches over an extensive valley. There is also a fine stone bridge over the Tunja.

Adrianople was originally known as Uskadama, Uskudama or Uskodama, but was renamed and enlarged by the Roman emperor Hadrian (117-138). In 378 the Romans were here defeated by the Goths. Adrianople was the residence of the Turkish sultans from 1361, when it was captured by Murad I., until 1453, when Constantinople fell. It was occupied by the Russians in 1829 and 1878 (see RUSSO-TURKISH WARS).

ADRIATIC SEA (ancient Adria or Hadria), an arm of the Mediterranean Sea separating Italy from the Austro-Hungarian, Montenegrin and Albanian littorals, and the system of the Apennine mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. The name, derived from the town of Adria, belonged originally only to the upper portion of the sea (Herodotus vi. 127, vii. 20, ix. 92; Euripides, Hippolytus, 736), but was gradually extended as the Syracusan colonies gained in importance. But even then the Adriatic in the narrower sense only extended as far as the Mons Garganus, the outer portion being called the Ionian Sea: the name was sometimes, however, inaccurately used to include the Gulf of Tarentum, the Sea of Sicily, the Gulf of Corinth and even the sea between Crete and Malta (Acts xxvii. 27). The Adriatic extends N.W. from 40 deg. to 45 deg. 45' N., with an extreme length of nearly 500 m., and a mean breadth of about 110 m., but the Strait of Otranto, through which it connects at the south with the Ionian Sea, is only 45 m. wide. Moreover, the chain of islands which fringes the northern part of the eastern shore reduces the extreme breadth of open sea in this part to 90 m. The Italian shore is generally low, merging, in the north-west, into the marshes and lagoons on either hand of the protruding delta of the river Po, the sediment of which has pushed forward the coast-line for several miles within historic times. On islands within one of the lagoons opening from the Gulf of Venice, the city of that name has its unique situation. The east coast is generally bold and rocky. South of the Istrian peninsula, which separates the Gulfs of Venice and Trieste from the Strait of Quarnero, the island-fringe of the east coast extends as far south as Ragusa. The islands, which are long and narrow (the long axis lying parallel with the coast of the mainland), rise rather abruptly to elevations of a few hundred feet, while on the mainland, notably in the magnificent inlet of the Bocche di Cattaro, lofty mountains often fall directly to the sea. This coast, though beautiful, is somewhat sombre, the prevalent colour of the rocks, a light, dead grey, contrasting harshly with the dark vegetation, which on some of the islands is luxuriant. The north part of the sea is very shallow, and between the southern promontory of Istria and Rimini the depth rarely exceeds 25 fathoms. Between Sebenico and Ortona a well-marked depression occurs, a considerable area of which exceeds 100 fathoms in depth. From a point between Curzola and the north shore of the spur of Monte Gargano there is a ridge giving shallower water, and a broken chain of a few islets extends across the sea. The deepest part of the sea lies east of Monte Gargano, south of Ragusa, and west of Durazzo, where a large basin gives depths of 500 fathoms and upwards, and a small area in the south of this basin falls below 800. The mean depth of the sea is estimated at 133 fathoms. The bora (north-east wind), and the prevalence of sudden squalls from this quarter or the south-east, are dangers to navigation in winter. Tidal movement is slight. (See also MEDITERRANEAN.) For the "Marriage of the Adriatic,'' or more properly "of the sea,'' a ceremony formerly performed by the doges of Venice, see the article BUCENTAUR.

ADSCRIPT (from Lat. ad, on or to, and scribere, to write), something written ajier, as opposed to "subscript,'' which means written under. A labourer was called an "adscript of the soil'' (adscriptus glebae) when he could be sold or transferred with it, as in feudal days, and as in Russia until 1861. Carlyle speaks of the Java blacks as a kind of adscripts.

ADULLAM, a Canaanitish town in the territory of the tribe of Judah, perhaps the modern Aid-el-Ma, 7 m. N.E. of Beit-Jibrin. It was in the stronghold ("cave'' is a scribal error) of this town that David took refuge on two occasions (1 Sam. xxii. 1; 2 Sam. v. 17). The tradition that Adullam is in the great cave of Rhareitun (St Chariton) is probably due to the crusaders. From the description of Adullam as the resort of "every one that was in distress,'' or "in debt,'' or "discontented,'' it has often been humorously alluded to, notably by Sir Walter Scott, who puts the expression into the mouth of the Baron of Bradwardine in Waverley, chap. lvii., and also of Balfour of Burley in Old Mortality. In modern political history the expression "cave of Adullam'' (hence "Adullamites'') came into common use (being first employed in a speech by John Bright on the 13th of March 1866) with regard to the independent attitude of Robert Howe (Lord Sherbrooke), Edward Horsman and their Liberal supporters in opposition to the Reform Bill of 1866. But others had previously used it in a similar connexion, e.g. President Lincoln in his second electoral campaign (1864), and the Tories in allusion to the Whig remnant who joined C. J. Fox in his temporary secession. From the same usage is derived the shorter political term "cave'' for any body of men who secede from their party on some special subject.

ADULTERATION (from Lat. adulterare, to defile or falsify), the act of debasing a commercial commodity with the object of passing it off as or under the name of a pure or genuine commodity for illegitimate profit, or the substitution of an inferior article for a superior one, to the detriment of the purchaser. Although the term is mainly used in connexion with the falsification of articles of food, drink or drugs, and is so dealt with in this article, the practice of adulteration extends to almost all manufactured products and even to unmanufactured natural substances, and (as was once suggested by (John Bright) is an almost inseparable —though none the less reprehensible—-phase of keen trade competition. In its crudest forms as old as commerce itself, it has progressed with the growth of knowledge and of science, and is, in its most modern developments, almost a branch—and that not the least vigorous one—-of applied science. From the mere concealment of a piece of metal or a stone in a loaf of bread or in a lump of butter, a bullet in a musk baa or in a piece of opium, it has developed into the use of aniline dyes, of antiseptic chemicals, of synthetic sweetening agents in foods, the manufacture of butter from cocoa-nuts, of lard from cotton-seed and of pepper from olive stones. Its growth and development has necessitated the employment of multitudes of scientific officers charged with its detection and the passing of numerous laws for its repression and punishment. While for all common forms of fraud the common law is in most cases considered strong enough, special laws against the adulteration of food have been found necessary in all civilized countries. A vigorous branch of chemical literature deals with it; there exist scientific societies specially devoted to its study; laboratories are maintained by governments with staffs of highly trained chemists for its detection; and yet it not only develops and flourishes, but becomes more general, if less virulent and dangerous to health. There are numerous references to adulteration in the classics. The detection of the base metal by Archimedes in Hiero's crown, by the light specific gravity of the latter, is a well-known instance. Vitruvius speaks of the adulteration of minium with lime, Dioscorides of that of opium with other plant juices and with gum, Pliny of that of flour with white clay. Both in Rome and in Athens wine was often adulterated with colours and flavouring agents, and inspectors were charged with looking after it. In England, so far hack as the reign of John (1203), a proclamation was made throughout the kingdom, enforcing the legal obligations of assize as regards bread; and in the following reign the statute (51 Hen. III. Stat. 6) entitled "the pillory and tumbrel'' was framed for the express purpose of protecting the public from the dishonest dealings of bakers, vintners, brewers, butchers and others. This statute is the first in which the adulteration of human food is specially noticed and prohibited; it seems to have been enforced with more or less rigour until the time of Anne, when it was repealed (1709). According to the hiber Albus it was strictly observed in the days of Edward I., for it states that: "If any default shall be found in the bread of a baker in the city, the first time, let him be drawn upon a hurdle from the Guildhall to his own house through the great street where there be most people assembled, and through the great streets which are most dirty, with the faulty loaf hanging from his neck; if a second time he shall be found committing the same offence, let him be drawn from the Guildhall through the great street of Cheepe in the manner aforesaid to the pillory, and let him be put upon the pillory, and remain there at least one hour in the day; and the third time that such default shall be found, he shall be drawn, and the oven shall be pulled down, and the baker made to foreswear the trade in the city for ever.'' The assize of 1634 provides that "if there be any manner of person or persons, which shall by any false wayes or meanes, sell any meale under the kinge's subjects, either by mixing it deceitfully or sell any musty or corrupted meal, which may be to the hurte and infection of man's body, or use any false weight, or any deceitful wayes or meanes, and so deceive the subject, for the first offence he shall be grievously punished, the second he shall loose his meale, for the third offence he shall suffer the judgment of the pillory and the fourth time he shall foreswore the town wherein he dwelleth.'' Vintners, spicers, grocers, butchers, regrators and others were subject to the like punishment for dishonesty in their commercial dealings—it being thought that the pillory, by appealing to the sense of shame, was far more deterrent of such crimes than fine or imprisonment. In the reign of Edward the Confessor a knavish brewer of the city of Chester was taken round the town in the cart in which the refuse of the privies had been collected. Ale-tasters had to look after the ale and test it by spilling some on to a wooden seat, sitting on the wet place in their leathern breeches, the stickiness of the "residue obtained by evaporation'' affording the evidence of purity or otherwise. If sugar had been added the taster adhered to the bench; pure malt beer was not considered to yield an adhesive extract. In 1553, the lord mayor of London ordered a jury of five or six vintners to rack and draw off the suspected wine of another vintner, and to ascertain what drugs or ingredients they found in the said wine or cask to sophisticate the same. At another time eight pipes of wine were ordered to be destroyed because, on racking off, bundles of weeds, pieces of sulphur match, and "a kind of gravel mixture sticking to the casks'' had been found.

Similar records have come down from the continental European countries. In 1390 an Augsburg wine-seller was sentenced to be led out of the city with his hands bound and a rope round his neck; in 1400 two others were branded and otherwise severely punished; in 1435 "were the taverner Christian Corper and his wife put in a cask in which he sold false wine, and then exposed in the pillory. The punishment was adjudged because they had roasted pears and put them into new sour wine, in order to sweeten the wine. Some pears were hung round their necks like unto a Paternoster.'' In Biebrich on the Rhine, in 1482, a wine-falsifier was condemned to drink six quarts of his own wine; from this he died. In Frankfurt, casks in which false wine had been found were placed with a red flag on the knacker's cart, "the jailer marched before, the rabble after; and when they came to the river they broke the casks and tumbled the stuff into the stream.'' In France successive ordonnances from 1330 to 1672 forbade the mixing of two wines together under the penalty of a fine and the confiscation of the wine.

Modern British Legislation.—In modern times the English parliament has dealt frequently with the subject of food adulteration. In 1725 it was provided that "no dealer in tea or manufacturer or dyer thereof, or pretending so to be, shall counterfeit or adulterate tea, or cause or procure the same to be counterfeited or adulterated, or shall alter, fabricate or manufacture tea with terra-japonica, or with any drug or drugs whatsoever; nor shall mix or cause or procure to be mixed with tea any leaves other than the leaves of tea or other ingredients whatsoever, on pain of forfeiting and losing the tea so counterfeited, adulterated, altered, fabricated, manufactured or mixed, and any other thing or things whatsoever added thereto, or mixed or used therewith, and also the sum of L. 100.'' Six years afterwards, in 1730-173i, a further act was passed prescribing a penalty for "sophisticating'' tea; it recites that several iii-disposed persons do frequently dye, fabricate or manufacture very great quantities of sloe leaves, liquorice leaves, and the leaves of tea that have been before used, or the leaves of other trees, shrubs or plants in imitation of tea, and do likewise mix, colour, stain and dye such leaves and likewise tea with terra-japonica, sugar, molasses, clay, logwood, and with other ingredients, and do sell and vend the same as true and real tea, to the prejudice of the health of his majesty's subjects, the diminution of the revenue and to the ruin of the fair trader. This act provides that for every pound of adulterated tea found in possession of any person, a sum of L. 10 shall be forfeited. It was followed by one passed in 1768-1767, which increased the penalty to imprisonment for not less than six nor more than twelve months. As regards coffee, an act of 1718 recited that "divers evil-disposed persons have at the time or soon after the roasting of coffee made use of water, grease, butter or such-like materials, whereby the same is rendered unwholesome and greatly increased in weight,'' and a penalty of L. 20 is enacted. In 1803 an act refers to the addition of burnt, scorched or roasted peas, beans or other grains or vegetable substances prepared in imitation of coffee or cocoa, to coffee or cocoa, and fixes the penalty for the offence at L. 100, but subsequently permission was given to coffee or cocoa dealers also to deal in scorched or roasted corn, peas, beans or parsnips whole and not ground, crushed or powdered, under certain excise restrictions. An act passed in 1816 relating to beer and porter provides that no brewer of or dealer in or retailer of beer "shall receive or have in his possession, or make or mix with any worts or beer, any liquor, extract or other preparation for the purpose of darkening the colour of worts or beer, other than brown malt, ground or unground, or shall have in his possession or use, or mix with any worts or beer any molasses, honey, liquorice, vitriol, quassia, coculus-indiae, grains of paradise, guinea-pepper or opium, or any extracts of these, or any articles or preparation whatsoever for or as a substitute for malt or hops.'' Any person contravening was liable to a penalty of L. 200, and any druggist selling to any brewer or retail dealer any colouring or malt substitute was to be fined L. 500. It was only in 1847 that brewers were allowed to make for their own use, from sugar, a liquor for darkening the colour of worts or beer and to use it in brewing.

All the laws hitherto referred to were mainly passed in the interest of the inland revenue, and their execution was left entirely in the hands of the revenue officers. It was but natural that they should look primarily after the dutiable articles and not after those that brought no revenue to the state. About the middle of the 19th century many articles, however, paid import duty; butter, for instance, paid 5s. per hundredweight; cheese from 1s. 6d. to 2s. 6d.; flour or meal of all kinds, 4 1/2d.; ginger, 10s.; isinglass, 5s.; and so on. Sensational and doubtless largely exaggerated statements were from time to time published concerning the food supply of the nation. F. C. Accum (1769-1838) by his Treatise on Adulterations of Food and Culinary Poisons (1820), and particularly an anonymous writer of a book entitled Deadly Adulteration and Slow Poisoning unmasked, or Disease and Death in the Pot and the Bottle, in which the blood empoisoning and life-destroying adulterations of wines, spirits, beer, bread, flour, tea, sugar, spices, cheesemongery, pastry, confectionery, medicines, etc., etc., are laid open to the public (1830), roused the public attention. In 1850 a physician, Dr. Arthur H. Hassall, had the happy idea of looking at ground coffee through the microscope. Eminent chemists had previously found great difficulty in establishing any satisfactory chemical distinction between coffee, chicory and other adulterants of coffee; the microscope immediately showed the structural difference of the particles, however small. The results of Hassall's examinations were embodied in a paper which was read before the Botanical Society of London and was reported in The Times, 1850. A paper on the microscopic examination of sugar, showing the presence in that article of innumerable living mites, followed and attracted much attention. Hassall was in consequence commissioned by Thomas Wakley (1795—1862), the owner of the Lancet, to extend his examination to other articles of food, and for a period of nearly four years reports of the Lancet Analytical Sanitary Commission were regularly published, the names and addresses of hundreds of manufacturers and tradesmen selling adulterated articles being fearlessly given. The responsibility incurred was immense, but the assertions of the journal were so well founded upon fact that they were universally accepted as accurately representing the appalling state of the food supply. As instances may be cited, that of thirty-four samples of coffee only three were pure, chicory being present in thirty-one, roasted corn in twelve, beans and potato flour each in one; of thirty-four samples of chicory, fourteen were adulterated with corn, beans or acorns; of forty-nine samples of bread, every one contained alum; of fifty-six samples of cocoa, only eight were pure; of twenty-six milks, fourteen were adulterated; of twenty-eight cayenne peppers, only four were genuine, thirteen containing red-lead and one vermilion; of upwards of one hundred samples of coloured sugar-confectionery, fifty-nine contained chromate of lead, eleven gamboge, twelve red-lead, six vermilion, nine arsenite of copper and four white-lead.

Act of 1860.

In consequence of the Lancet's disclosures a parliamentary committee was appointed in 1855, the labours of which resulted in 1860 in the Adulteration of Food and Drink Act, the first act that dealt generally with the adulteration of food. The first section of this enacted "that every person who shall sell any article of food or drink with which, to the knowledge of such person, any ingredient or material injurious to the health of persons eating or drinking such article has been mixed, and every person who shall sell as pure or unadulterated any article of food or drink which is adulterated and not pure, shall for every such offence, on summary conviction, pay a penalty not exceeding L. 5 with costs.'' In the case of a second offence the name, place of abode and offence might be published in the newspapers at the offender's expense.

1872.

As the act, however, left it optional to the district authorities to appoint analysts or not, and did not provide for the appointment of any officer upon whom should rest the duty of obtaining samples or of prosecuting offenders, it virtually remained a dead letter till 1872, when the Adulteration of Food and Drugs Act came into force, prescribing a penalty not exceeding L. 50 for the sale of injurious food and, for a second offence, imprisonment for six months with hard labour. Inspectors were empowered to make purchases of samples to be submitted for analysis, but appointment of analysts was still left optional. The definition of an adulterated article given in that act was essentially that still accepted at the present time, namely, "any article of food or drink or any drug mixed with any other substances, with intent fraudulently to increase its weight or bulk, without declaration of such admixture to any purchaser thereof before delivering the same.'' The adoption of the act was sporadic, and, outside London and a few large towns, the number of proceedings against offenders remained exceedingly small. Nevertheless complaints soon arose that it inflicted considerable injury and imposed heavy and undeserved penalties upon some respectable tradesmen, mainly owing to the "want of a clear understanding of what does and does not constitute adulteration,'' and in some cases to conflicting decisions and the inexperience of analysts.

Again a parliamentary committee was appointed which took a mass of evidence, the outcome of its inquiries being the Sale Of Food and Drugs Act 1875, which is in force at the present day, subject to amendments and additions made at later dates. This act avoided the term "adulteration'' altogether and endeavoured to give a clearer description of punishable offences:—Section 6. "No person shall sell to the purchaser any article of food or any drug which is not of the nature, substance and quality of the article demanded by the purchaser under a penalty not exceeding L. 20; provided that an offence shall not be deemed to be committed under this section in the following cases: (1) where any matter or ingredient not injurious to health has been added to the food or drug because the same is required for the production or preparation thereof as an article of commerce, in a state fit for carriage or consumption, and not fraudulently to increase the bulk, weight or measure of the food or drug, or conceal the inferior quality thereof; (2) where the food or drug is a proprietary medicine, or is the subject of a patent in force and is supplied in the state required by the specification of the patent; (3) where the food or drug is compounded as in the act mentioned; (4) where the food or drug is unavoidably mixed with some extraneous matter in the process of collection or preparation.''

Section 8. "No person shall be guilty of any such offence as aforesaid in respect to the sale of an article of food or a drug mixed with any matter or ingredient not injurious to health, and not intended fraudulently to increase its bulk, weight or measure, or conceal its inferior quality, if at the time of delivering such article or drug he shall supply to the person receiving the same a notice, by a label distinctly and legibly written or printed on or with the article or drug, to the effect that the same is mixed.'' The act made the appointment of analysts compulsory upon the city of London, the vestries, county quarter sessions and town councils or boroughs having a separate police establishment. For the protection of the vendor, samples that had been purchased by the inspectors for analysis were to be offered to be divided into three parts, one to be submitted to the analyst, the second to be given to the vendor to be dealt with by him as he might deem fit, and the third to be retained by the inspector: and, at the discretion of the magistrate hearing any summons, to be submitted, in case of dispute, to the commissioners of inland revenue for analysis by the chemical laboratory at Somerset House. The public analyst had to give a certificate, couched in a prescribed form, to the person submitting any sample for analysis, which certificate was to be taken as evidence of the facts therein stated, in order to render the proceedings as inexpensive as practicable. If the defendant in any prosecution could prove to the satisfaction of the court that he had purchased the article under a warranty of genuineness, and that he sold it in the same state as when he purchased it, he was to be discharged from the prosecution, but no provision was made that in that event the giver of the warranty should be proceeded against.

1879.

Section 6, quoted above, gave rise to an immense amount of litigation, and already in 1879 it was found necessary to pass an amending act, making it clear that if a purchase was effected by an inspector with the intent to get the' purchased article analysed, he was as much "prejudiced'' if obtaining a sophisticated article as a private purchaser who purchased for his own use and consumption. The amending act also dealt in some small measure with a difficulty which immediately after passing the act was found to arise in ascertaining whether any article was "of the nature, substance and quality demanded by the purchaser''—-"in determining whether an offence has been committed under section 6 by selling spirits not adulterated otherwise than by the admixture of water, it shall be a good defence to prove that such admixture has not reduced the spirit more than twenty-five degrees under proof for brandy, whisky or rum, or thirty-five under proof for gin.'' Almost insuperable difficulties as to the meaning of "nature, substance and quality'' subsequently arose as regards every conceivable food material. its it was obviously impossible for parliament to define every article, to lay down limits of composition within which it might vary, to specify the substances or ingredients that might enter into it, to limit the proportions of the unavoidable impurities that might be contained in it, the duty to do all this was left to the individual analysts. An enormous number of substances had to be analysed until sufficient evidence had been accumulated for the giving of correct opinions or certificates. Endless disputes unavoidably arose, friction with manufacturers and traders, unfortunately also with the referees at the inland revenue, who for many years were altogether out of touch with the analysts. Conflicting decisions come to by various benches of magistrates upon similar cases, allowing of the legal sale of an article in one district which in another had been declared illegal, rendered the position of merchants often unsatisfactory. It was not recognized by parliament until almost a quarter of a century had elapsed that it was not enough to compel local authorities to get samples analysed, but that it was also the duty of parliament to lay down specific and clear instructions that might enable the officers to do their work. This has only been very partially done even at the present time.

Difficulties of administration.

A curious condition of things arose out of the definition of "food'' given in the act of 1875: "The term food shall include every article used for food or drink by man, other than drugs or water.'' It had been the practice of bakers to add alum to the flour from which bread was manufactured, in order to whiten the bread, and to permit the use of damaged and discoloured flour. This practice had been strongly condemned by chemists and physicians, because it rendered the bread indigestible and injurious to health. Shortly after the passing of the Food Act this objectionable practice was stamped out by numerous prosecutions, and alumed bread now no longer occurs. A large trade, however, continued to be carried on in baking powders consisting of alum and sodium bicarbonate. It was naturally thought that, as baking powder is sold with the obvious intention that it may enter into food, the vendors could also be proceeded against. The high court, however, held that, baking powder in itself not being an article of food, its sale could not be an offence under the Food Act. This anomaly was removed by a later act. Under section 6 of the act of 1875 a defendant could be convicted, even if he had no guilty knowledge of the fact that the article he had sold was adulterated. In the repealed Adulteration Act of 1872 the words "to the knowledge of'' were inserted, and they were found fatal to obtaining convictions. The general rule of the law is that the master is not criminally responsible for the acts of his servants if they are done without his knowledge or authority, but under the Food Act it was held (Brown v. Foot, 1892, 66 L.T. 649) that a master was liable for the watering of milk by one of his servants, although he had published a warning to them that they would be dismissed if found doing so. Milk might be adulterated during transit on the railway without the knowledge of the owner or receiver, and yet the vendor was liable to conviction.

When it is brought to the knowledge of a purchaser that the article sold to him is not of the nature, substance or quality he demanded, the sale is not to the prejudice of the purchaser. The notice may be given verbally or by a label supplied with the article. A common law notice may also be given. In Sandys v. Small, 1878, 3 Q.B.D. 449, a publican had displayed a placard within the inn to the effect that the spirits sold in his establishment were watered. This was held, as it were, to contract him out of the Food Act. Similarly, in the case of butters that had been adulterated with milk, the vendors, by giving a general notice in the shop, evaded punishment under the act. A notice, is, however, of no avail if given under section 8 of the act, if the admixture has been made for fraudulent purposes. In Liddiart v. Reece, 44 J.P. 233, 1880, an inspector asked for coffee and received a packet with a label describing it as a mixture of coffee and chicory. It was sold at the price of coffee. It turned out to be a mixture containing 40% of chicory. The high court held that this was an excessive quantity, and was added for the purpose of fraudulently increasing the bulk or weight. In another case, however (Otter v. Edgley, 1893, 57 J.P. 457), where an inspector had asked for French coffee and had been supplied with a mixture containing 60% of chicory, the article being labelled as a mixture, the high court held that there was no evidence of fraud, and, in the case of cocoa, a mixture containing as little as 30% of cocoa and 70% of starch and sugar, the label stating it to be a mixture, was held to have been legally sold (Jones v. Jones, 1894, 58 J.P. 653). In this case the label notifying the admixture was hidden by a sheet of opaque white paper, nor had the purchaser's attention been called to it, but the price of the article was much lower than that of pure cocoa. It is seen from these few instances, taken at random out of scores, that this clause of the act was far from clear and was very variously interpreted at the courts. The warranty clause (clause 25) also gave rise to an immense amount of litigation. In the earlier high court decisions a very narrow interpretation was given to the term "written warranty,'' but in later years a wider view prevailed. A general contract to supply a pure article is not a sufficient warranty unless with every delivery there is something to identify the delivery as part of the contract. An invoice containing merely a description of an article as "lard'' or "pepper'' is not a warranty; but if there be added the words "guaranteed pure'' it is a sufficient warranty. A label upon an article is not in itself a warranty, but a label bearing the words "pure'' or "unadulterated,'' coupled with an invoice which could be identified with the label, together were held to form an effective warranty.

As many thousands of samples were annually submitted by inspectors under the act to the analysts who had been appointed in 237 boroughs and districts, a very large number of cases led to disputes of law or fact, about seventy high court cases being decided within eighteen years of the passing of the act. While these cases related to a variety of different articles and conditions, dairy produce, namely milk and butter, led to the greatest amount of litigation. It may seem to be a simple matter to ascertain whether a vendor of milk supplies his customer with milk of the "nature, substance and quality demanded,'' but milk is subject to great variations in composition owing to a large number of circumstances which will be considered below.

Margerine Act.

Not many years after the passing of the Food Act of 1875 the sale of butter substitutes assumed very large proportions, and so seriously prejudiced dairy-farmers that, as regards these, an act was passed which was not exactly an amendment of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act, although it embodied a good many provisions of that act. It was called the Margarine Act 1887. It provided that every package of articles made in imitation of butter should be labelled "margarine'' in letters 1 1/2 inches square. The vendor, however, was protected if he could show a warranty or invoice, whereas in the Sale of Food and Drugs Act he was not protected by invoice merely. Inspectors might take samples of "any butter or substitute purporting to be butter'' without going through the form of purchase. The maximum penalty was raised from L. 20 as provided by the Food Act, to L. 50 in the case of a first and to L. 100 in the case of repeated conviction. The Margarine Act is the first statute that makes reference to and sanctions the use of preservatives, concerning which a good deal will have to be said farther on.

Select committee, 1894.

In the course of twenty years of administration of the Food Acts so many difficulties had arisen in reference to the various points referred to, that in 1894 a select committee was appointed to inquire into the working of the various acts and to report whether any, and if so what, amendments were desirable. During three sessions the committee sat and took voluminous evidence. They reported that where the acts had been well administered they had been most beneficial in diminishing adulteration offences. Forms of adulteration which were common prior to the passing of the 1875 act, such as the introouction of alum into bread and the colouring of confectionery with poisonous material, had almost entirely disappeared. A close connexion had been shown to exist between the extent of adulteration and the number of articles submitted for analysis under the acts, the proportion of adulterated samples being found to diminish as the number of samples taken relatively to the population increased. Thus, in 1890, in Somersetshire one sample had been analysed for every 379 persons, the percentage of adulterated samples in those taken for analysis being as low as 3.6; in Gloucestershire one to 770 persons with 6.2 of adulteration; in Bedfordshire one to 821 with 7.1; in Derbyshire one to 3164 with 17.1%, and in Oxford one sample to 14,963 inhabitants with no less than 41.7% of adulterated samples. The number of samples of articles annually submitted to analysis, according to the returns obtained by the Local Government Board, steadily increased from the commencement onward. Whereas in 1877, 14,706 samples, and in 1883, 19,648 samples were analysed, in 1904-1905 the number was no less than 84,678, or an average of one sample to 384 inhabitants for the whole country. In the five years 1877—1881 the proportion found adulterated was 16.2%; in the following five years ending with 1886, the percentage was 13.9; in the five years ending 1891, the percentage was 11.7; and in the year 1904 the percentage was only 8.5. The select committee found that wide local differences in the administration of the acts existed, and that in many parts of the country the local authorities had failed to exercise their powers. In one metropolitan district, eight members of the local authority had been convicted of offences under the acts, upon evidence obtained by their own inspector. The result was that the duties of the inspector of the acts were afterwards controlled by a committee of that local authority, who decided the cases in which prosecutions should be.undertaken, and the administration of the acts was "little better than a farce.'' No power existed to compel local authorities to carry out the acts. The committee came to the conclusion that in many cases the responsibility for the adulteration of articles of food did not rest with the retailer but with the wholesale dealer or manufacturer; that the law punished petty offences and left great ones untouched; that it fined a small retailer and left the wholesale offender scot free. As regards warranty, they thought that the precedent created by the Margarine Act should be followed generally, and that invoices and equivalent documents should have the force of warranties. They found that a considerable proportion of the food imports were adulterated, out of 890 samples of butter taken by the customs in 1895 no less than 106 being impure, and they recommended that in addition to tea, which by section 30 of the act of 1875 was to be systematically analysed by the customs, prior to being passed for distribution, samples of all food imports should be taken and examined by the customs. The committee further found that the penalties imposed under the acts had for the most part been trifling and quite insufficient to serve as deterrents, the profits derived from the sale of adulterated articles being out of proportion great to the insignificant fines imposed, and they recommended that for the second offence the penalty of L. 5 should be the minimum one, and that in respect to third or subsequent offences imprisonment without the option of a fine might be inflicted. The important question of food standards was considered at great length. The absence of legal standards or definitions of articles of food had occasioned great difficulty in numerous cases, but as no authority was provided by the existing acts that might fix such standards, they recommended the formation of a scientific authority or court of reference composed of representatives of the laboratory of the Inland Revenue, of the Local Government Board, the Board of Agriculture, the General Medical Council, the Institute of Chemistry, the Pharmaceutical Society, of other scientific men and of the trading and manufacturing community, who should have the duty of fixing standards of quality and purity of food to be confirmed by a secretary of state.

The committee's deliberations and recommendations