Andrew Leith Adams
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Andrew Leith Adams
FRSE Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...
, FRS (21 March 1827 – 29 July 1882) was a
Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
army
physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...
,
naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...
and
geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...
. He collected and described specimens of birds and mammals, writing also about his travels in Asia and the middle east where he served at various times. He was married to the novelist
Bertha Jane Grundy Bertha Jane Grundy (24 August 1837 – 5 September 1912) was an English novelist born in Moss-side, Lancashire. She also wrote as Mrs. Leith-Adams and Mrs. R. S. de Courcey Laffan. Later in life she wrote poetry and drama, and gave practical lec ...
and was the father of the writer Francis Adams.


Life and career

Adams was the son of surgeon Francis Adams (1796–1861) and Espeth Shaw. After the early death of his mother, he was raised by his father in Banchory-Ternan. Along with their father the sons explored natural history along the banks of the Dee and in the Grampian mountains. They collected bird specimens for their family cabinet of curiosities. He studied medicine at Marischal College, University of Aberdeen in 1846 where he was influenced by
William MacGillivray William MacGillivray FRSE (25 January 1796 – 4 September 1852) was a Scottish naturalist and ornithologist. Life and work MacGillivray was born in Old Aberdeen and brought up on Harris. He returned to Aberdeen where he studied Medicine a ...
. Adams joined as an army physician in 1848, initially with the 94th foot but transferring to the 22nd Infantry Regiment in
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. Between 1849–1854 he was posted in Dagshai, Rawalpindi and Peshawar (the last under Sir
Sydney Cotton Lieutenant-General Sir Sydney John Cotton (2 December 1792 – 19 February 1874) was a British Army officer. He was the commandment of the Moreton Bay penal colony in Australia. Military career Born the second son of Henry Calveley Cotton of ...
). He also served in
Kashmir Kashmir ( or ) is the Northwestern Indian subcontinent, northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term ''Kashmir'' denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir P ...
,
Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
,
Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
(1861–1868),
Gibraltar Gibraltar ( , ) is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory and British overseas cities, city located at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Bay of Gibraltar, near the exit of the Mediterranean Sea into the A ...
and
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
. He married
Bertha Jane Grundy Bertha Jane Grundy (24 August 1837 – 5 September 1912) was an English novelist born in Moss-side, Lancashire. She also wrote as Mrs. Leith-Adams and Mrs. R. S. de Courcey Laffan. Later in life she wrote poetry and drama, and gave practical lec ...
on 26 October 1859, who later became famous as a novelist. He spent his spare time studying the natural history of these countries. He was among the first to study the interior of
Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...
and wrote about it in "The Birds of Cashmere and Ladakh". The orange bullfinch (''Pyrrhula aurantiaca'') was discovered by him as also the first breeding site of
brown-headed gull The brown-headed gull (''Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus'') is a small gull which breeds in the high plateaus of central Asia from Tajikistan to Ordos in Inner Mongolia. It is migratory, wintering on the coasts and large inland lakes of the India ...
s (''Larus brunnicephalus'') in the lakes of the Tibetan plateau. In 1868, following twenty years of service in the army, he was promoted to surgeon-major. After his retirement from the army in 1873, Adams was professor of natural history at
Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...
and
Queen's College, Cork University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC) () is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland, and located in Cork (city), Cork. The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Universit ...
. He was elected a fellow of the Geographical Society in 1870, fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...
in 1872, and
Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...
in 1873. He died of a pulmonary haemorrhage on 29 July 1883 at Rushbrook Villa (Cork). Adams sent most of his specimens to the Fort Pitt Museum of Natural History at Chatham founded by Sir James MacGrigor. These were examined by other zoologists and he is commemorated in the
black-winged snowfinch The black-winged snowfinch or Adams's snowfinch (''Montifringilla adamsi''), is a species of bird in the sparrow family. It is found in China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry shrubland Shrub ...
''Montifringilla adamsi'' and in the genus of the Pleistocene giant
dormouse A dormouse is a rodent of the family Gliridae (this family is also variously called Myoxidae or Muscardinidae by different taxonomists). Dormice are nocturnal animals found in Africa, Asia, and Europe. They are named for their long, dormant hibe ...
of
Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...
and
Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
'' Leithia melitensis'' and '' Leithia cartei''. In 1868 Leith Adams described the very large form of giant dormouse from the Maqhlaq cave as ''Myoxus melitensis'' and the smaller form as ''Myoxus cartei''. Later, Richard Lydekker assigned the two species to a new genus, named ''Leithia'' in honour of Leith Adams in 1895.


Publications

Adams wrote three books ''Wanderings of a Naturalist in India, the Western Himalayas and Cashmere'' (1867), ''Notes of a Naturalist in the Nile Valley and Malta'' (1871) and ''Field and Forest Rambles'' (1873) and contributed numerous notes to scholarly societies. His publications included: * * * 2 plates, July 1862-Jan. 1863. * 4 figures. * * with a plate. * Adams, A.L. (1870). '' Notes of a naturalist in the Nile Valley and Malta''. 195pp. Edinburgh (Edmonton and Douglas). * * * plates I–XXII. * Adams, A.L. (1874). Concluding Report on the Maltese Fossil Elephants. ''Report of the British Association for 1873'', 185–187. * * First published in four chapters in '' The Field'' (October 1875 - January 1876). Also published in three parts in ''
Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it, with more than 150 Nobel Pri ...
,'' supplements of 19 May–2 June 1877.


References

;Attribution *


Other sources

* Anon (19 August 1882
Obituary: Andrew Leith Adams, M.B., F.R.S
The British Medical Journal 2(1129):338 {{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Andrew Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh Naturalists from British India Irish naturalists Academics of Queens College Cork Fellows of Trinity College Dublin 1827 births 1882 deaths British ornithologists Indian ornithologists Natural history collectors