Born at Plaistow, in Essex, Oct 16th, 1805, the son of James Adams, who owned and farmed many acres at Beamerside, Plaistow. Educated at Reading Grammar School, Dr Richard Valpy, the well-known classic, being then headmaster. Entered the London Hospital as a student and was articled to John Goldwyer Andrews (qv), Surgeon to the Hospital, and President of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1835 and again in 1843. In 1828 he was appointed Demonstrator of Anatomy, being subsequently Lecturer on Anatomy and later Lecturer on Surgery. He was Assistant Surgeon for the long period of nineteen years, before he became full Surgeon, a post he resigned in 1868, when he was appointed Consulting Surgeon. He also acted as Consulting Surgeon to the Royal Hospital for Diseases of the Chest, to the Tower Hamlets Dispensary, and to the South-Eastern Railway. He was a member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons from 1862-1869, and of the Court of Examiners from 1868-1872. For many years he was Secretary of the London Hospital Medical Club and acted as President of the Hunterian Society. In 1830 he lived in Mount Street, close to the Hospital; in 1831 he moved to Mark Lane, and in 1835 to New Broad Street. In 1850 he took the house in St Helen's Place which had been built by Sir William Blizard and occupied by his old master, John Goldwyer Andrews. In 1865 he went to live at 10 Finsbury Circus, and two years later returned to Blackheath, where he died on Jan 18th, 1877, being buried in the cemetery at Charlton. The list of his removals is interesting because it marks the gradual movement of the staff of the London Hospital from east to west until they settled in Finsbury Square, where they remained for many years. John Adams married, at Poplar Parish Church, Mary Ann Frost, daughter of Robert Frost, who was in the service of the Honourable East India Company, and by her had two sons and two daughters. Francis Mantell, BA, of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, a barrister and member of the Inner Temple, died young; the second son was James Edward (qv). Mr William Adams Frost, FRCS, is a nephew. Portraits of John Adams remain in the possession of the family. He is said to have been very popular both with the staff and with the students, and his colleagues presented him with a handsome clock when he retired from office in the London Hospital Club. He was firm but genial with the students, and when, as was usual, a disturbance arose in his class, he used suddenly to bring down his fist like a sledge-hammer upon the table and shout, “If you don't stop this bloody row I will close the lecture.” Publications:- *The Anatomy and Diseases of the Prostate Gland*, London, 1851; 2nd ed., 1858. An article in Cooper's *Surgical Dictionary* on “Injuries of the Head,” and another on the Urethra in the *Cyclopedia of Anatomy and Physiology*.