Adour (a˙-dör), a river of France, rising in the Hautes Pyrenees, and falling into the sea a little below Bayonne; length about 200 miles; partly navigable.
Ado′wa, a town of Abyssinia, in Tigré, at an elevation of 6270 feet; the chief commercial depot on the caravan route from Massawa to Gondar. Pop. about 4000. Here the Italians suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Abyssinians, 1st March, 1896.
Adra (ä′dra˙), a seaport of Southern Spain, in Andalusia, near the mouth of the Adra, on the Mediterranean; with marble quarries and lead works. Pop. 9000.
Adramit′ti (ancient Adramyttium; Turk. Edremid), a town of Turkey in Asia, near the head of the gulf of the same name, 80 miles north of Smyrna. Pop. about 5000.
Adrar′, a district in the Western Sahara, peopled by Berbers possessing camels, sheep, and oxen, and cultivating dates, wheat, barley, and melons. Chief towns, Wadan and Shingit, which has inexhaustible beds of rock-salt.
Adren′alin, or Suprarenin, a crystalline substance obtained from the adrenals or suprarenal capsules of cattle and sheep, which possesses the property of checking bleeding by its styptic or contractive powers, and is used in medical practice, more especially in the case of bleeding at the nose and nervous catarrh.
Adria (ä′dri-a˙), a cathedral city of Northern Italy, province of Rovigo, between the Po and the Adige, on the site of the ancient town of same name, whence the Adriatic derives its appellation. Owing to alluvial deposits the sea is now 17 miles distant. Pop. 11,878.
A′drian, the name of six Popes. The first, a Roman, ruled from 772-795; a contemporary and friend of Charlemagne. He expended vast sums in rebuilding the walls and restoring the aqueducts of Rome.—Adrian II, a Roman, was elected Pope in 867, at the age of seventy-five years. He died in 872, in the midst of conflicts with the Greek Church.—Adrian III, a Roman, elected 884, was Pope for one year and four months only. He was the first Pope who changed his name on the occasion of his exaltation.—Adrian IV, originally named Nicolas Breakspear, the only Englishman who ever occupied the papal chair, was born about 1100, and died 1159. He is said to have been a native of Hertfordshire, studied in France, and became abbot of St. Rufus in Provence, cardinal and legate to Norway. Chosen Pope in 1154, his reign is chiefly remarkable for his almost constant struggle for supremacy with Frederick Barbarossa, who on one occasion had been forced to hold his stirrup, and had been crowned by him at Rome (1155). He issued the famous bull (1158) granting the sovereignty of Ireland, on condition of the payment of Peter's pence, to Henry II.—Adrian V, previously called Ottobuono Fieschi, of Genoa, settled, as legate of the Pope, the dispute between King Henry III of England and his nobles, in favour of the former; but died a month after his election to the papal chair (1276).—Adrian VI (the last pontifice barbaro), born at Utrecht in 1459, was elected to the papal chair, 9th Jan., 1522. He tried to reform abuses in the Church, but opposed the zeal of Luther with reproaches and threats, and even attempted to excite Erasmus and Zuinglius against him. Died 1523, after a reign of one year and a half.
A′drian, a town of the United States, in Michigan, 70 miles W.S.W. of Detroit. Its extensive water-power is employed in works of various kinds. Pop. 9654.
A′drian, Publius Ælius Hadrianus. See Hadrian.