Born in New Broad Street on Sept 23rd, 1844, the second son of John Adams,FRCS Eng (q.v.) and his wife Mary Ann. Educated at Merchant Taylors’ School, then in Suffolk Lane, which he entered in December, 1854, and at the London Hospital, where his father was a member of the surgical staff. There he made a reputation as an athlete, and in 1865 gained the Gold Medal for Medicine. In the same year he was appointed Medical Registrar to the Hospital, becoming House Surgeon and Demonstrator of Anatomy in 1867, and Assistant Surgeon in 1868. He then devoted himself to the practice of ophthalmic surgery, filling in succession the offices of Clinical Assistant, Assistant Surgeon, and Surgeon at the Moorfields Hospital; Ophthalmic Surgeon and Lecturer on Ophthalmic Surgery at the London Hospital. He may be regarded as one of the founders of the Ophthalmological Society of Great Britain, for a small group of active ophthalmic surgeons used to meet him for discussion in the evening at Moorfields. In 1879 he was appointed full Surgeon to the London Hospital, and at this period was Honorary Consulting Surgeon to the Eastern Dispensary and to the Merchant Seamen’s Orphan Asylum at Wanstead, and was practising at 17 Finsbury Circus. In 1881 he succeeded John Couper (q.v.) as Lecturer on Surgery at the London Hospital. In the autumn of 1883 he rapidly became blind, owing to atrophy of the optic nerve, one eye failing first, and the other becoming affected within a few months. He resigned his appointments, and spent the rest of his life either at Grateley near Andover, Hants, or at a little cottage at St Margaret’s, Dover. He bore his affliction bravely, learnt Braille, walked, drove, and maintained his interest in the medical world and in his hospitals. His general health failed for about a year, and he died on Jan 26th, 1890, after an attack of coma. He married in 1880 Ellen Holgate Binns, who had been Sister in charge of the Ophthalmic Ward at the London Hospital. He left no children. Adams was essentially a sound clinical surgeon, and as an operator equally good in capital operations and in the minute delicacy of an iridectomy or cataract. His well-developed figure, his military bearing, his scrupulous neatness, and his genial kindly face made him a favourite alike with students and his colleagues. It is related of him that in 1876 he amputated the thigh at the hip-joint of a lad emaciated by disease and suffering with lardaceous disease. The amputation was performed easily and dexterously, but the boy showed signs of collapse whilst the vessels were being tied. Adams decided to transfuse his own blood into the veins of the patient. Advantage was taken of the presence of Dr Roussel and his apparatus. Adams exposed his left arm, the apparatus was adjusted, and in a few minutes blood flowed from the arm of the surgeon into a vein in the stump of the patient. Adams then had his arm bound up and finished the operation. The patient died.