shortly before his death, he issued "mithridates, oder allgemeine sprachenkunde" (1806). the hint of this work appears to have been taken from a publication with a similar title, published by konrad von gesner in 1555, but the plan of adelung was much more extensive. unfortunately, he did not live to finish what he had undertaken. the first volume, which contains the asiatic languages, was published immediately after his death; the other two were issued under the superintendence of johann severin vater (1771–1826). of the very numerous works by adelung, the following may be noted: "directorium diplomaticum" (meissen, 1802); "deutsche sprachlehre für schulen" (berlin, 1781), and the periodical, "magazin für die deutsche sprache" (1782–1784).