ADO 



SO 



ADO 



ects. Name, from iJoXof and xtfnf, 

 in reference to the form of the antennae. 

 Belongs to the elaterides of Latreille. 



ADON'AI, a Hebrew, Chaldean, and Sy- 

 rian name of the Supreme Being, meaning 

 Lord or Sustainer. 



ADO'NIA ancient festivals kept in 

 honour of Adonis, by females, who spent 

 two days in lamentations and the most 

 infamous pleasures. These Adonia were 

 celebrated by the Greeks, Egyptians, 

 Syrians, Sicilians, &c. 



ADO'JJIC, ) pertaining to Adonis, the 



ADONT./AN, j favourite of Venus. Adonic 

 is applied to a kind of short verse, consist- 

 ing of a dactyl, and a spondee or trochee, 

 e. g. rard jA-stnt&s. It was originally used 

 in bewailing the fate of Adonis. 



ADO'NIS, pheasant's-eye, or bird's-eye 

 A genus of plants of the class polyandria 

 order polygynia.\ There are eight species 

 resembling the anemone in appearance 

 but smaller. The A. autwnnalis, an an 

 nual common in our gardens, is the only 

 British specimen. Name, etttuiif, the my- 

 thological youth, from whose blood it is 

 fabled to have sprung. 



ADO'NISTS, among critics, a party who 

 maintained that the Hebrew points ordi- 

 narily annexed to the consonants of the 

 word" Jehoi-ah are not the natural points 

 belonging to that word, and that they do 

 not express the true pronunciation of it. 



ADOPT'ER, a two-necked chemical ves- 

 sel, placed between a retort and receiver, 

 to lengthen the neck of the retort, and 

 thereby give more space to elastic vapours. 



ADOPTIANS, a sect which held that, with 

 regard to his human nature , Christ was not 

 the natural, but the adoptive son of God. 



ADOPTION, Lat. adoptio, from ad and 

 opto, to choose. 1. The act whereby one 

 man makes another his heir, giving him 

 all the rights of a son. Adoption was 

 common among the Greeks and Romans, 

 who had many regulations concerning it. 

 The Lacedemonian law required that it 

 should be confirmed before their kings ; 

 at Athens, slaves, madmen, and persons 

 under age were incapable of adopting ; 

 and at Rome, adoptions were confirmed 

 before the praetor in an assembly of the 

 people, or by a rescript from the emperor. 

 The adopter, besides, was required to be 

 at least eighteen years the senior of the 

 adopted, and the natural father required 

 to renounce all authority over his son, 

 and consent to his translation into the 

 family of the adopter. The various cere- 

 monies of adoption have given rise to 

 many kinds of it : e. g. adoption by testa- 

 metit, the appointment of a person to be 

 heir by will, on condition of his taking 

 the name, &c. of the adopter: adoption 

 by matrimony, the taking the children by 

 * former marriage into the condition of i 



children of the second marriage : adop- 

 tion by baptism, the spiritual affinity con- 

 tracted by godfathers was supposed to 

 entitle the godchild to a share of the god 

 father's estate : adoption by hair was per- 

 formed by cutting off the hair of a person, 

 and giving it to the adoptive father: 

 adoption b<j arms, an ancient ceremony of 

 presenting a suit of armour to one for hi* 

 merit or valour, which laid the person 

 under an obligation to defend the giver 

 Among the Turks, the ceremony of adop 

 tion is performed by obliging the person 

 adopted to pass through the shirt of the 

 adopter. In France, the adopter must 

 have neither children nor other legiti- 

 mate descendants. 



ADOPTION is also used for many kinds 

 of admission to a more intimate relation, 

 as the admission into hospitals, particu- 

 larly that of Lyons, and is, therefore, very 

 nearly equivalent to reception. 



ADORA'TIOJJ, Lat. adoratio. The act of 

 worshipping; the worship paid to the 

 Supreme Being. Among the Jews, adora- 

 tion was performed by bowing, kneeling, 

 and prostration. Among the Romans, the 

 devotee, with his head veiled or covered, 

 applied the right hand to his lips, the 

 forefinger resting on the thumb, which 

 was erect, and then bowing he turned 

 round from left to right. The Gauls 

 thought it more religious to turn from 

 right to left : the Greeks to worship with 

 their heads uncovered. The Christians 

 copied the Grecian rather than the Ro- 

 man mode, and universally uncover when 

 they perform any act of adoration. In. 

 modern times adoration is paid to the 

 pope by kissing his foot, and to a prince 

 by kneeling and kissing his hand. The 

 word has been sometimes used in the 

 sense of acclamation, e. g. a pope is said 

 to be elected by adoration, when he is 

 elected by sudden acclamation, without 

 scrutiny. 



ADORirst, a genus of coleopterous in- 

 sects ; the species are foreign. The ado- 

 rium is included among the isopodes of 

 Latreille. 



ADOSCCLA'TION, Lat. adosculatio, from 

 ad and osculum, a kiss. A term used by 

 naturalists to denote impregnation by 

 mere external contact: this takes place 

 in many birds and fishes. It is also used 

 in botany for the impregnation of the 

 plant by the falling of the farina on the 

 pistils ; and also for the insertion of one 

 part of a plant into another. 



ADOS'SED, English of ctdosste, part, of 

 adosser, to place back to hack ; dos, the 

 back. A heraldic term denoting two 

 figures or bearings placed back to back. 



ADO'XA, \ Moschatel: a genus of a 



ADO'XIA, ) hardy perennial plant, pe 

 culiar to Britain ; class octandria, order 

 Name, , without, and 2|x, 



