Chapter IX: Part 9
The name Knutsford (_Cunetesford_, _Knotesford_) is said to signify Cnut's ford, but there is no evidence of a settlement here previous to Domesday. In 1086 Erthebrand held Knutsford immediately of William FitzNigel, baron of Halton, who was himself a mesne lord of Hugh Lupus earl of Chester. In 1292 William de Tabley, lord of both Over and Nether Knutsford, granted free burgage to his burgesses in both Knutsfords. This charter is the only one which gives Knutsford a claim to the title of borough. It provided that the burgesses might elect a bailiff from amongst themselves every year. The office however carried little real power with it, and soon lapsed. In the same year as the charter to Knutsford the king granted to William de Tabley a market every Saturday at Nether Knutsford, and a three days' fair at the Feast of St Peter and St Paul. When this charter was confirmed by Edward III. another market (Friday) and another three days' fair (Feast of St Simon and St Jude) were added. The Friday market was certainly dropped by 1592, if it was ever held. May-day revels are still kept up here and attract large crowds from the neighbourhood. A silk mill was erected here in 1770, and there was also an attempt to foster the cotton trade, but the lack of means of communication made the undertaking impossible.
See Henry Green, _History of Knutsford_ (1859).
KOALA (_Phascolarctus cinereus_), a stoutly built marsupial, of the family _Phascolmyidae_, which also contains the wombats. This animal, which inhabits the south-eastern parts of the Australian continent, is about 2 ft. in length, and of an ash-grey colour, an excellent climber, residing generally in lofty eucalyptus trees, the buds and tender shoots of which form its principal food, though occasionally it descends to the ground in the night in search of roots. From its shape the koala is called by the colonists the "native bear"; the term "native sloth" being also applied to it, from its arboreal habits and slow deliberate movements. The flesh is highly prized by the natives, and is palatable to Europeans. The skins are largely imported into England, for the manufacture of articles in which a cheap and durable fur is required.
KOBDO, a town of the Chinese Empire, in north-west Mongolia, at the northern foot of the Mongolian Altai, on the right bank of the Buyantu River, 13 m. from its entrance into Lake Khara-usu; 500 m. E.S.E. of Biysk (Russian), and 470 m. W. of Ulyasutai. It is situated amidst a dreary plain, and consists of a fortress, the residence of the governor of the Kobdo district, and a small trading town, chiefly peopled by Chinese and a few Mongols. It is, however, an important centre for trade between the cattle-breeding nomads and Peking. It was founded by the Chinese in 1731, and pillaged by the Mussulmans in 1872. The district of Kobdo occupies the north-western corner of Mongolia, and is peopled chiefly by Mongols, and also by Kirghiz and a few Soyotes, Uryankhes and Khotons. It is governed by a Chinese commissioner, who has under him a special Mongol functionary (Mongol, _dzurgan_). The chief monastery is at Ulangom. Considerable numbers of sheep (about 1,000,000), sheepskins, sheep and camel wool are exported to China, while Chinese cottons, brick tea and various small goods are imported. Leather, velveteen, cotton, iron and copper goods boxes, &c., are imported from Russia in exchange for cattle, furs and wool. The absence of a cart road to Biysk hinders the development of this trade.
KOBELL, WOLFGANG XAVER FRANZ, BARON VON (1803-1882), German mineralogist, was born at Munich on the 19th of July 1803. He studied chemistry and mineralogy at Landshut (1820-1823), and in 1826 became professor of mineralogy in the university of Munich. He introduced some new methods of mineral analyses, and in 1835 invented the stauroscope for the study of the optical properties of crystals. He contributed numerous papers to scientific journals, and described many new minerals. He died at Munich on the 11th of November, 1882.
PUBLICATIONS.--_Charakteristik der Mineralien_ (2 vols. 1830-1831);
_Tafeln zur Bestimmung der Mineralien_ &c. (1833; and later editions,
ed. 12, by K. Oebbeke, 1884); _Grundzüge der Mineralogie_ (1838);
_Geschichte der Mineralogie von 1650-1860_ (1864).
KOCH, ROBERT (1843-1910), German bacteriologist, was born at Klausthal, Hanover, on the 11th of December 1843. He studied medicine at Göttingen, and it was while he was practising as a physician at Wollstein that he began those bacteriological researches that made his name famous. In 1876 he obtained a pure culture of the bacillus of anthrax, announcing a method of preventive inoculation against that disease seven years later. He became a member of the Sanitary Commission at Berlin and a professor at the School of Medicine in 1880, and five years later he was appointed to a chair in Berlin University and director of the Institute of Health. In 1882, largely as the result of the improved methods of bacteriological investigation he was able to elaborate, he discovered the bacillus of tuberculosis; and in the following year, having been sent on an official mission to Egypt and India to study the aetiology of Asiatic cholera, he identified the comma bacillus as the specific organism of that malady. In 1890 great hopes were aroused by the announcement that in tuberculin he had prepared an agent which exercised an inimical influence on the growth of the tubercle bacillus, but the expectations that were formed of it as a remedy for consumption were not fulfilled, though it came into considerable vogue as a means of diagnosing the existence of tuberculosis in animals intended for food. At the Congress on Tuberculosis held in London in 1901 he maintained that tuberculosis in man and in cattle is not the same disease, the practical inference being that the danger to men of infection from milk and meat is less than from other human subjects suffering from the disease. This statement, however, was not regarded as properly proved, and one of its results was the appointment of a British Royal Commission to study the question. Dr Koch also investigated the nature of rinderpest in South Africa in 1896, and found means of combating the disease. In 1897 he went to Bombay at the head of a commission formed to investigate the bubonic plague, and he subsequently undertook extensive travels in pursuit of his studies on the origin and treatment of malaria. He was summoned to South Africa a second time in 1903 to give expert advice on other cattle diseases, and on his return was elected a member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences. In 1906-1907 he spent eighteen months in East Africa, investigating sleeping-sickness. He died at Baden-Baden of heart-disease on the 28th of May 1910. Koch was undoubtedly one of the greatest bacteriologists ever known, and a great benefactor of humanity by his discoveries. Honours were showered upon him, and in 1905 he was awarded the Nobel prize for medicine.
Among his works may be mentioned: _Weitere Mitteilungen über ein
Heilmittel gegen Tuberkulose_ (Leipzig, 1891); and _Reiseberichte über
Rinderpest, Bubonenpest in Indien und Afrika, Tsetse- oder
Surra-Krankheit, Texasfieber, tropische Malaria, Schwarzwasserfieber_
(Berlin, 1898). From 1886 onwards he edited, with Dr Karl Flügge, the
_Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infektionskrankheiten_ (published at
Leipzig). See Loeffler, "Robert Koch, zum 60ten Geburtstage" in _Deut.
Medizin. Wochenschr._ (No. 50, 1903).
KOCH, a tribe of north-eastern India, which has given its name to the state of Kuch Behar (q.v.). They are probably of Mongolian stock, akin to the Mech, Kachari, Garo and Tippera tribes, and originally spoke, like these, a language of the Bodo group. But since one of their chiefs established a powerful kingdom at Kuch Behar in the 16th century they have gradually become Hinduized, and now adopt the name of Rajbansi (= "of royal blood"). In 1901 the number in Eastern Bengal and Assam was returned at nearly 2½ millions.
KOCK, CHARLES PAUL DE (1793-1871), French novelist, was born at Passy on the 21st of May 1793. He was a posthumous child, his father, a banker of Dutch extraction, having been a victim of the Terror. Paul de Kock began life as a banker's clerk. For the most part he resided on the Boulevard St Martin, and was one of the most inveterate of Parisians. He died in Paris on the 27th of April 1871. He began to write for the stage very early, and composed many operatic libretti. His first novel, _L'Enfant de ma femme_ (1811), was published at his own expense. In 1820 he began his long and successful series of novels dealing with Parisian life with _Georgette, ou la mère du Tabellion_. His period of greatest and most successful activity was the Restoration and the early days of Louis Philippe. He was relatively less popular in France itself than abroad, where he was considered as the special painter of life in Paris. Major Pendennis's remark that he had read nothing of the novel kind for thirty years except Paul de Kock, "who certainly made him laugh," is likely to remain one of the most durable of his testimonials, and may be classed with the legendary question of a foreign sovereign to a Frenchman who was paying his respects, "Vous venez de Paris et vous devez savoir des nouvelles. Comment se porte Paul de Kock?" The disappearance of the _grisette_ and of the cheap dissipation described by Henri Murger practically made Paul de Kock obsolete. But to the student of manners his portraiture of low and middle class life in the first half of the 19th century at Paris still has its value.
The works of Paul de Kock are very numerous. With the exception of a few not very felicitous excursions into historical romance and some miscellaneous works of which his share in _La Grande ville, Paris_ (1842), is the chief, they are all stories of middle-class Parisian life, of _guinguettes_ and _cabarets_ and equivocal adventures of one sort or another. The most famous are _André le Savoyard_ (1825) and _Le Barbier de Paris_ (1826).
His _Mémoires_ were published in 1873. See also Th. Trimm, _La Vie de
Charles Paul de Kock_ (1873).
KODAIKANAL, a sanatorium of southern India, in the Madura district of Madras, situated in the Palni hills, about 7000 ft. above sea-level; pop. (1901), 1912, but the number in the hot season would be much larger. It is difficult of access, being 44 m. from a railway station, and the last 11 m. are impracticable for wheeled vehicles. It contains a government observatory, the appliances of which are specially adapted for the study of terrestrial magnetism, seismology and solar physics.
KODAMA, GENTARO, COUNT (1852-1907), Japanese general, was born in Choshu. He studied military science in Germany, and was appointed vice-minister of war in 1892. He became governor-general of Formosa in 1900, holding at the same time the portfolio of war. When the conflict with Russia became imminent in 1903, he gave up his portfolio to become vice-chief of the general staff, a sacrifice which elicited much public applause. Throughout the Russo-Japanese War (1904-5) he served as chief of staff to Field Marshal Oyama, and it was well understood that his genius guided the strategy of the whole campaign, as that of General Kawakami had done in the war with China ten years previously. General Kodama was raised in rapid succession to the ranks of baron, viscount and count, and his death in 1907 was regarded as a national calamity.
KODUNGALUR (or CRANGANUR), a town of southern India, in Cochin state, within the presidency of Madras. Though now a place of little importance, its historical interest is considerable. Tradition assigns to it the double honour of having been the first field of St Thomas's labours (A.D. 52) in India and the seat of Cheraman Perumal's government. The visit of St Thomas is generally considered mythical; but it is certain that the Syrian Church was firmly established here before the 9th century (Burnell), and probably the Jews' settlement was still earlier. The latter, in fact, claim to hold grants dated A.D. 378. The cruelty of the Portuguese drove most of the Jews to Cochin. Up to 1314, when the Vypin harbour was formed, the only opening in the Cochin backwater, and outlet for the Periyar, was at Kodungalur, which must then have been the best harbour on the coast. In 1502 the Syrian Christians invoked the protection of the Portuguese. In 1523 the latter built their first fort there, and in 1565 enlarged it. In 1661 the Dutch took the fort, the possession of which for the next forty years was contested between this nation, the zamorin, and the raja of Kodungalur. In 1776 Tippoo seized the stronghold. The Dutch recaptured it two years later, and, having ceded it to Tippoo in 1784, sold it to the Travancore raja, and again in 1789 to Tippoo, who destroyed it in the following year. The country round Kodungalur now forms an autonomous principality, tributary to the raja of Cochin.
KOENIG, KARL DIETRICH EBERHARD (1774-1851), German palaeontologist, was born at Brunswick in 1774, and was educated at Göttingen. In 1807 he became assistant keeper, and in 1813 he was appointed keeper, of the department of natural history in the British Museum, and afterwards of geology and mineralogy, retaining the post until the close of his life. He described many fossils in the British Museum in a classic work entitled _Icones fossilium sectiles_ (1820-1825). He died in London on the 6th of September 1851.
KOESFELD, a town of Germany, in the Prussian province of Westphalia, on the Berkel, 38 m. by rail N.N.W. of Dortmund. Pop. (1905), 8449. It has three Roman Catholic churches, one of which--the Gymnasial Kirche--is used by the Protestant community. Here are the ruins of the Ludgeri Castle, formerly the residence of the bishops of Münster, and also the castle of Varlar, the residence of the princes of Salm-Horstmar. The leading industries include the making of linen goods and machinery.
KOHAT, a town and district of British India, in the Peshawar division of the North-West Frontier Province. The town is 37 m. south of Peshawar by the Kohat Pass, along which a military road was opened in 1901. The population in 1901 was 30,762, including 12,670 in the cantonment, which is garrisoned by artillery, cavalry and infantry. In the Tirah campaign of 1897-98 Kohat was the starting-point of Sir William Lockhart's expedition against the Orakzais and Afridis. It is the military base for the southern Afridi frontier as Peshawar is for the northern frontier of the same tribe, and it lies in the heart of the Pathan country.
The DISTRICT OF KOHAT has an area of 2973 sq. m. It consists chiefly of a bare and intricate mountain region east of the Indus, deeply scored with river valleys and ravines, but enclosing a few scattered patches of cultivated lowland. The eastern or Khattak country especially comprises a perfect labyrinth of ranges, which fall, however, into two principal groups, to the north and south of the Teri Toi river. The Miranzai valley, in the extreme west, appears by comparison a rich and fertile tract. In its small but carefully tilled glens, the plane, palm, fig and many orchard trees flourish luxuriantly; while a brushwood of wild olive, mimosa and other thorny bushes clothes the rugged ravines upon the upper slopes. Occasional grassy glades upon their sides form favourite pasture grounds for the Waziri tribes. The Teri Toi, rising on the eastern limit of Upper Miranzai, runs due eastward to the Indus, which it joins 12 m. N. of Makhad, dividing the district into two main portions. The drainage from the northern half flows southward into the Teri Toi itself, and northward into the parallel stream of the Kohat Toi. That of the southern tract falls northwards also into the Teri Toi, and southwards towards the Kurram and the Indus. The frontier mountains, continuations of the Safed Koh system, attain in places a considerable elevation, the two principal peaks, Dupa Sir and Mazi Garh, just beyond the British frontier, being 8260 and 7940 ft. above the sea respectively. The Waziri hills, on the south, extend like a wedge between the boundaries of Bannu and Kohat, with a general elevation of less than 4000 ft. The salt-mines are situated in the low line of hills crossing the valley of the Teri Toi, and extending along both banks of that river. The deposit has a width of a quarter of a mile, with a thickness of 1000 ft.; it sometimes forms hills 200 ft. in height, almost entirely composed of solid rock-salt, and may probably rank as one of the largest veins of its kind in the world. The most extensive exposure occurs at Bahadur Khel, on the south bank of the Teri Toi. The annual output is about 16,000 tons, yielding a revenue of £40,000. Petroleum springs exude from a rock at Panoba, 23 m. east of Kohat; and sulphur abounds in the northern range. In 1901 the population was 217,865, showing an increase of 11% in the decade. The frontier tribes on the Kohat border are the Afridis, Orakzais, Zaimukhts and Turis. All these are described under their separate names. A railway runs from Kushalgarh through Kohat to Thal, and the river Indus has been bridged at Kushalgarh.
KOHAT PASS, a mountain pass in the North-West Frontier Province of India, connecting Kohat with Peshawar. From the north side the defile commences at 4½ m. S.W. of Fort Mackeson, whence it is about 12 or 13 m. to the Kohat entrance. The pass varies from 400 yds. to 1¼ m. in width, and its summit is some 600 to 700 ft. above the plain. It is inhabited by the Adam Khel Afridis, and nearly all British relations with that tribe have been concerned with this pass, which is the only connexion between two British districts without crossing and recrossing the Indus (see AFRIDI). It is now traversed by a cart-road.
KOHISTAN, a tract of country on the Peshawar border of the North-West Frontier Province of India. Kohistan means the "country of the hills" and corresponds to the English word highlands; but it is specially applied to a district, which is very little known, to the south and west of Chilas, between the Kagan valley and the river Indus. It comprises an area of over 1000 sq. m., and is bounded on the N.W. by the river Indus, on the N.E. by Chilas, and on the S. by Kagan, the Chor Glen and Allai. It consists roughly of two main valleys running east and west, and separated from each other by a mountain range over 16,000 ft. high. Like the mountains of Chilas, those in Kohistan are snow-bound and rocky wastes from their crests downwards to 12,000 ft. Below this the hills are covered with fine forest and grass to 5000 or 6000 ft., and in the valleys, especially near the Indus, are fertile basins under cultivation. The Kohistanis are Mahommedans, but not of Pathan race, and appear to be closely allied to the Chilasis. They are a well-built, brave but quiet people who carry on a trade with British districts, and have never given the government much trouble. There is little doubt that the Kohistanis are, like the Kafirs of Kafiristan, the remnants of old races driven by Mahommedan invasions from the valleys and plains into the higher mountains. The majority have been converted to Islam within the last 200 years. The total population is about 16,000.
An important district also known as Kohistan lies to the north of Kabul in Afghanistan, extending to the Hindu Kush. The Kohistani Tajiks proved to be the most powerful and the best organized clans that opposed the British occupation of Kabul in 1879-80. Part of their country is highly cultivated, abounding in fruit, and includes many important villages. It is here that the remains of an ancient city have been lately discovered by the amir's officials, which may prove to be the great city of Alexander's founding, known to be to the north of Kabul, but which had hitherto escaped identification.
The name of Kohistan is also applied to a tract of barren and hilly country on the east border of Karachi district, Sind.
KOHL. (1) The name of the cosmetic used from the earliest times in the East by women to darken the eyelids, in order to increase the lustre of the eyes. It is usually composed of finely powdered antimony, but smoke black obtained from burnt almond-shells or frankincense is also used. The Arabic word _kohl_, from which has been derived "alcohol," is derived from _kahala_, to stain. (2) "Kohl" or "kohl-rabi" (cole-rape, from Lat. _caulis_, cabbage) is a kind of cabbage (q.v.), with a turnip-shaped top, cultivated chiefly as food for cattle.
KOHLHASE, HANS, a German historical figure about whose personality some controversy exists. He is chiefly known as the hero of Heinrich von Kleist's novel, _Michael Kohlhaas_. He was a merchant, and not, as some have supposed, a horsedealer, and he lived at Kölln in Brandenburg. In October 1532, so the story runs, whilst proceeding to the fair at Leipzig, he was attacked and his horses were taken from him by the servants of a Saxon nobleman, one Günter von Zaschwitz. In consequence of the delay the merchant suffered some loss of business at the fair and on his return he refused to pay the small sum which Zaschwitz demanded as a condition of returning the horses. Instead Kohlhase asked for a substantial amount of money as compensation for his loss, and failing to secure this he invoked the aid of his sovereign, the elector of Brandenburg. Finding however that it was impossible to recover his horses, he paid Zaschwitz the sum required for them, but reserved to himself the right to take further action. Then unable to obtain redress in the courts of law, the merchant, in a _Fehdebrief_, threw down a challenge, not only to his aggressor, but to the whole of Saxony. Acts of lawlessness were soon attributed to him, and after an attempt to settle the feud had failed, the elector of Saxony, John Frederick I., set a price upon the head of the angry merchant. Kohlhase now sought revenge in earnest. Gathering around him a band of criminals and of desperadoes he spread terror throughout the whole of Saxony; travellers were robbed, villages were burned and towns were plundered. For some time the authorities were practically powerless to stop these outrages, but in March 1540 Kohlhase and his principal associate, Georg Nagelschmidt, were seized, and on the 22nd of the month they were broken on the wheel in Berlin.
The life and fate of Kohlhase are dealt with in several dramas. See
Burkhardt, _Der historische Hans Kohlhase und H. von Kleists Michael
Kohlhaas_ (Leipzig, 1864).
KOKOMO, a city and the county-seat of Howard county, Indiana, U.S.A., on the Wildcat River, about 50 m. N. of Indianapolis. Pop. (1890), 8261; (1900), 10,609 of whom 499 were foreign-born and 359 negroes; (1910 census), 17,010. It is served by the Lake Erie & Western, the Pittsburg Cincinnati Chicago & St Louis, and the Toledo St Louis & Western railways, and by two interurban electric lines. Kokomo is a centre of trade in agricultural products, and has various manufactures, including flint, plate and opalescent glass, &c. The total value of the factory product increased from $2,062,156 in 1900 to $3,651,105 in 1905, or 77.1%; and in 1905 the glass product was valued at $864,567, or 23.7% of the total. Kokomo was settled about 1840 and became a city (under a state law) in 1865.
KOKO-NOR (or KUKU-NOR) (_Tsing-hai_ of the Chinese, and _Tso-ngombo_ of the Tanguts), a lake of Central Asia, situated at an altitude of 9975 ft., in the extreme N.E. of Tibet, 30 m. from the W. frontier of the Chinese province of Kan-suh, in 100° E. and 37° N. It lies amongst the eastern ranges of the Kuen-lun, having the Nan-shan Mountains to the north, and the southern Koko-nor range (10,000 ft.) on the south. It measures 66 m. by 40 m., and contains half a dozen islands, on one of which is a Buddhist (i.e. Lamaist) monastery, to which pilgrims resort. The water is salt, though an abundance of fish live in it, and it often remains frozen for three months together in winter. The surface is at times subject to considerable variations of level. The lake is entered on the west by the river Buhain-gol. The nomads who dwell round its shores are Tanguts.
KOKSHAROV, NIKOLAÍ IVANOVICH VON (1818-1893), Russian mineralogist and major-general in the Russian army, was born at Ust-Kamenogork in Tomsk, on the 5th of December 1818 (O.S.). He was educated at the military school of mines in St Petersburg. At the age of twenty-two he was selected to accompany R. I. Murchison and De Verneuil, and afterwards De Keyserling, in their geological survey of the Russian Empire. Subsequently he devoted his attention mainly to the study of mineralogy and mining, and was appointed director of the Institute of Mines. In 1865 he became director of the Imperial Mineralogical Society of St Petersburg. He contributed numerous papers on euclase, zircon, epidote, orthite, monazite and other mineralogical subjects to the St Petersburg and Vienna academies of science, to Poggendorf's _Annalen_, Leonhard and Brown's _Jahrbuch_, &c. He also issued as separate works _Materialen zur Mineralogie Russlands_ (10 vols., 1853-1891), and _Vorlesungen über Mineralogie_ (1865). He died in St Petersburg on the 3rd of January 1893 (O.S.).
KOKSTAD, a town of South Africa, the capital of Griqualand East, 236 m. by rail S.W. of Durban, 110 m. N. by W. of Port Shepstone, and 150 m. N. of Port St John, Pondoland. Pop. (1904), 2903, of whom a third were Griquas. The town is built on the outer slopes of the Drakensberg and is 4270 ft. above the sea. Behind it Mount Currie rises to a height of 7297 ft. An excellent water supply is derived from the mountains. The town is well laid out, and possesses several handsome public buildings. It is the centre of a thriving agricultural district and has a considerable trade in wool, grain, cattle and horses with Basutoland, Pondoland and the neighbouring regions of Natal. The town is named after the Griqua chief Adam Kok, who founded it in 1869. In 1879 it came into the possession of Cape Colony and was granted municipal government in 1893. It is the residence of the Headman of the Griqua nation. (See KAFFRARIA and GRIQUALAND.)
KOLA, a peninsula of northern Russia, lying between the Arctic Ocean on the N. and the White Sea on the S. It forms part of the region of Lapland and belongs administratively to the government of Archangel. The Arctic coast, known as the Murman coast (Murman being a corruption of Norman), is 260 m. long, and being subject to the influence of the North Atlantic drift, is free from ice all the year round. It is a rocky coast, built of granite, and rising to 650 ft., and is broken by several excellent bays. On one of these, Kola Bay, the Russian government founded in 1895 the naval harbour of Alexandrovsk. From May to August a productive fishery is carried on along this coast. Inland the peninsula rises up to a plateau, 1000 ft. in general elevation, and crossed by several ranges of low mountains, which go up to over 3000 ft. in altitude. The lower slopes of these mountains are clothed with forest up to 1300 ft., and in places thickly studded with lakes, some of them of very considerable extent, e.g. Imandra (330 sq. m.), Ump-jaur, Nuorti-järvi, Guolle-jaur or Kola Lake, and Lu-jaur. From these issue streams of appreciable magnitude, such as the Tuloma, Voronya, Yovkyok or Yokanka, and Ponoi, all flowing into the Arctic, and the Varsuga and Umba, into the White Sea. The area of the peninsula is estimated at 50,000 sq. m.
See A. O. Kihlmann and Palmén, _Die Expedition nach der Halbinsel
Kola_ (1887-1892) (Helsingfors); A. O. Kihlmann, _Bericht einer
naturwissenschaftlichen Reise durch Russisch-Lappland_ (Helsingfors,
1890); and W. Ramsay, _Geologische Beobachtungen auf der Halbinsel
Kola_ (Helsingfors, 1899).
KOLABA (or COLABA), a district of British India, in the southern division of Bombay. Area, 2131 sq. m.; pop. (1901), 605,566, showing an increase of 2% in the decade. The headquarters are at Alibagh. Lying between the Western Ghats and the sea, Kolaba district abounds in hills, some being spurs running at right angles to the main range, while others are isolated peaks or lofty detached ridges. The sea frontage, of about 20 m., is throughout the greater part of its length fringed by a belt of coco-nut and betel-nut palms. Behind this belt lies a stretch of flat country devoted to rice cultivation. In many places along the banks of the salt-water creeks there are extensive tracts of salt marshland, some of them reclaimed, some still subject to tidal inundation, and others set apart for the manufacture of salt. The district is traversed by a few small streams. Tidal inlets, of which the principal are the Nagothna on the north, the Roha or Chaul in the west, and the Bankot creek in the south, run inland for 30 or 40 m., forming highways for a brisk trade in rice, salt, firewood, and dried fish. Near the coast especially, the district is well supplied with reservoirs. The Western Ghats have two remarkable peaks--Raigarh, where Sivaji built his capital, and Miradongar. There are extensive teak and black wood forests, the value of which is increased by their proximity to Bombay. The Great Indian Peninsula railway crosses part of the district, and communication with Bombay is maintained by a steam ferry. Owing to its nearness to that city, the district has suffered severely from plague. Kolaba district takes its name from a little island off Alibagh, which was one of the strongholds of Angria, the Mahratta pirate of the 18th century. The same island has given its name to Kolaba Point, the spur of Bombay Island running south that protects the entrance to the harbour. On Kolaba Point are the terminus of the Bombay & Baroda railway, barracks for a European regiment, lunatic asylum and observatory.
KOLAR, a town and district of India, in the state of Mysore. The town is 43 m. E. of Bangalore. Pop. (1901), 12,210. Although of ancient foundation, it has been almost completely modernized. Industries include the weaving of blankets and the breeding of turkeys for export.
The DISTRICT OF KOLAR has an area of 3180 sq. m. It occupies the portion of the Mysore table-land immediately bordering the Eastern Ghats. The principal watershed lies in the north-west, around the hill of Nandidrug (4810 ft.), from which rivers radiate in all directions; and the whole country is broken by numerous hill ranges. The chief rivers are the Palar, the South Pinakini or Pennar, the North Pinakini, and the Papagani, which are industriously utilized for irrigation by means of anicuts and tanks. The rocks of the district are mostly syenite or granite, with a small admixture of mica and feldspar. The soil in the valleys consists of a fertile loam; and in the higher levels sand and gravel are found. The hills are covered with scrub, jungle and brushwood. In 1901 the population was 723,600, showing an increase of 22% in the decade. The district is traversed by the Bangalore line of the Madras railway, with a branch 10 m. long, known as the Kolar Goldfields railway. Gold prospecting in this region began in 1876, and the industry is now settled on a secure basis. Here are situated the mines of the Mysore, Champion Reef, Ooregum, and Nandidrug companies. To the end of 1904 the total value of gold produced was 21 millions sterling, and there had been paid in dividends 9 millions, and in royalty to the Mysore state one million. The municipality called the Kolar Gold Fields had in 1901 a population of 38,204; it has suffered severely from plague. Electricity from the falls of the Cauvery (93 m. distant) is utilized as the motive power in the mines. Sugar manufacture and silk and cotton weaving are the other principal industries in the district. The chief historical interest of modern times centres round the hill fort of Nandidrug, which was stormed by the British in 1791, after a bombardment of 21 days.
KOLBE, ADOLPHE WILHELM HERMANN (1818-1884), German chemist, was born on the 27th of September 1818 at Elliehausen, near Göttingen, where in 1838 he began to study chemistry under F. Wöhler. In 1842 he became assistant to R. W. von Bunsen at Marburg, and three years later to Lyon Playfair at London. From 1847 to 1851 he was engaged at Brunswick in editing the _Dictionary of Chemistry_ started by Liebig, but in the latter year he went to Marburg as successor to Bunsen in the chair of chemistry. In 1865 he was called to Leipzig in the same capacity, and he died in that city on the 25th of November 1884. Kolbe had an important share in the great development of chemical theory that occurred about the middle of the 19th century, especially in regard to the constitution of organic compounds, which he viewed as derivatives of inorganic ones, formed from the latter--in some cases directly--by simple processes of substitution. Unable to accept Berzelius's doctrine of the unalterability of organic radicals, he also gave a new interpretation to the meaning of copulae under the influence of his fellow-worker Edward Frankland's conception of definite atomic saturation-capacities, and thus contributed in an important degree to the subsequent establishment of the structure theory. Kolbe was a very successful teacher, a ready and vigorous writer, and a brilliant experimentalist whose work revealed the nature of many compounds the composition of which had not previously been understood. He published a _Lehrbuch der organischen Chemie_ in 1854, smaller textbooks of organic and inorganic chemistry in 1877-1883, and _Zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der theoretischen Chemie_ in 1881. From 1870 he was editor of the _Journal für praktische Chemie_, in which many trenchant criticisms of contemporary chemists and their doctrines appeared from his pen.
KOLBERG (or COLBERG), a town of Germany, and seaport of the Prussian province of Pomerania, on the right bank of the Persante, which falls into the Baltic about a mile below the town, and at the junction of the railway lines to Belgard and Gollnow. Pop. (1905), 22,804. It has a handsome market-place with a statue of Frederick William III.; and there are extensive suburbs, of which the most important is Münde. The principal buildings are the huge red-brick church of St Mary, with five aisles, one of the most remarkable churches in Pomerania, dating from the 14th century; the council-house (Rathaus), erected after the plans of Ernst F. Zwirner; and the citadel. Kolberg also possesses four other churches, a theatre, a gymnasium, a school of navigation, and an exchange. Its bathing establishments are largely frequented and attract a considerable number of summer visitors. It has a harbour at the mouth of the Persante, where there is a lighthouse. Woollen cloth, machinery and spirits are manufactured; there is an extensive salt-mine in the neighbouring Zillenberg; the salmon and lamprey fisheries are important; and a fair amount of commercial activity is maintained. In 1903 a monument was erected to the memory of Gneisenau and the patriot, Joachim Christian Nettelbeck (1738-1824), through whose efforts the town was saved from the French in 1806-7.
Originally a Slavonic fort, Kolberg is one of the oldest places of Pomerania. At an early date it became the seat of a bishop, and although it soon lost this distinction it obtained municipal privileges in 1255. From about 1276 it ranked as the most important place in the episcopal principality of Kamin, and from 1284 it was a member of the Hanseatic League. During the Thirty Years' War it was captured by the Swedes in 1631, passing by the treaty of Westphalia to the elector of Brandenburg, Frederick William I., who strengthened its fortifications. The town was a centre of conflict during the Seven Years' War. In 1758 and again in 1760 the Russians besieged Kolberg in vain, but in 1762 they succeeded in capturing it. Soon restored to Brandenburg, it was vigorously attacked by the French in 1806 and 1807, but it was saved by the long resistance of its inhabitants. In 1887 the fortifications of the town were razed, and it has since become a fashionable watering-place, receiving annually nearly 15,000 visitors.
See Riemann, _Geschichte der Stadt Kolberg_ (Kolberg, 1873); Stoewer,
_Geschichte der Stadt Kolberg_ (Kolberg, 1897); Schönlein, _Geschichte
der Belagerungen Kolbergs in den Jahren 1758, 1760, 1761 und 1807_
(Kolberg, 1878); and Kempin, _Führer durch Bad Kolberg_ (Kolberg,
1899).
KÖLCSEY, FERENCZ (1790-1838), Hungarian poet, critic and orator, was born at Szodemeter, in Transylvania, on the 8th of August 1790. In his fifteenth year he made the acquaintance of Kazinczy and zealously adopted his linguistic reforms. In 1809 Kölcsey went to Pest and became a "notary to the royal board." Law proved distasteful, and at Cseke in Szatmár county he devoted his time to aesthetical study, poetry, criticism, and the defence of the theories of Kazinczy. Kölcsey's early metrical pieces contributed to the _Transylvanian Museum_ did not attract much attention, whilst his severe criticisms of Csokonai, Kis, and especially Berzsenyi, published in 1817, rendered him very unpopular. From 1821 to 1826 he published many separate poems of great beauty in the _Aurora_, _Hebe_, _Aspasia_, and other magazines of polite literature. He joined Paul Szemere in a new periodical, styled _Élet és literatura_ ("Life and Literature"), which appeared from 1826 to 1829, in 4 vols., and gained for Kölcsey the highest reputation as a critical writer. From 1832 to 1835 he sat in the Hungarian Diet, where his extreme liberal views and his singular eloquence soon rendered him famous as a parliamentary leader. Elected on the 17th of November 1830 a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, he took part in its first grand meeting; in 1832, he delivered his famous oration on Kazinczy, and in 1836 that on his former opponent Daniel Berzsenyi. When in 1838 Baron Wesselényi was unjustly thrown into prison upon a charge of treason, Kölcsey eloquently though unsuccessfully conducted his defence; and he died about a week afterwards (August 24) from internal inflammation. His collected works, in 6 vols., were published at Pest, 1840-1848, and his journal of the diet of 1832-1836 appeared in 1848. A monument erected to the memory of Kölcsey was unveiled at Szatmár-Németi on the 25th of September 1864.
See G. Steinacker, _Ungarische Lyriker_ (Leipzig, and Pest, 1874); F.
Toldy, _Magyar Költök élete_ (2 vols., Pest, 1871); J. Ferenczy and J.
Danielik, _Magyar Irók_ (2 vols., Pest, 1856-1858).
KOLDING, a town of Denmark in the _amt_ (county) of Vejle, on the east coast of Jutland, on the Koldingfjord, an inlet of the Little Belt, 9 m. N. of the German frontier. Pop. (1901), 12,516. It is on the Eastern railway of Jutland. The harbour throughout has a depth of over 20 ft. A little to the north-west is the splendid remnant of the royal castle Koldinghuus, formerly called Oernsborg or Arensborg. It was begun by Duke Abel in 1248; in 1808 it was burned. The large square tower was built by Christian IV. (1588-1648), and was surmounted by colossal statues, of which one is still standing. It contains an antiquarian and historical museum (1892). The name of Kolding occurs in the 10th century, but its earliest known town-rights date from 1321. In 1644 it was the scene of a Danish victory over the Swedes, and on the 22nd of April 1849 of a Danish defeat by the troops of Schleswig-Holstein. A comprehensive view of the Little Belt with its islands, and over the mainland, is obtained from the Skamlingsbank, a slight elevation 8½ m. S.E., where an obelisk (1863) commemorates the effort made to preserve the Danish language in Schleswig.
KOLGUEV, KOLGUEFF or KALGUYEV, an island off the north-west of Russia in Europe, belonging to the government of Archangel. It lies about 50 m. from the nearest point of the mainland, and is of roughly oval form, 54 m. in length from N.N.E. to S.S.W. and 39 m. in extreme breadth. It lies in a shallow sea, and is quite low, the highest point being 250 ft. above the sea. Peat-bogs and grass lands cover the greater part of the surface; there are several considerable streams and a large number of small lakes. The island is of recent geological formation; it consists almost wholly of disintegrated sandstone or clay (which rises at the north-west into cliffs up to 60 ft. high), with scattered masses of granite. Vegetation is scanty, but bears, foxes and other Arctic animals, geese, swans, &c., provide means of livelihood for a few Samoyed hunters.
KOLHAPUR, a native state of India, within the Deccan division of Bombay. It is the fourth in importance of the Mahratta principalities, the other three being Baroda, Gwalior and Indore; and it is the principal state under the political control of the government of Bombay. Together with its _jagirs_ or feudatories, it covers an area of 3165 sq. m. In 1901 the population was 910,011. The estimated revenue is £300,000. Kolhapur stretches from the heart of the Western Ghats eastwards into the plain of the Deccan. Along the spurs of the main chain of the Ghats lie wild and picturesque hill slopes and valleys, producing little but timber, and till recently covered with rich forests. The centre of the state is crossed by several lines of low hills running at right angles from the main range. In the east the country becomes more open and presents the unpicturesque uniformity of a well-cultivated and treeless plain, broken only by an occasional river. Among the western hills are the ancient Mahratta strongholds of Panhala, Vishalgarh, Bavda and Rungna. The rivers, though navigable during the rains by boats of 2 tons burthen, are all fordable during the hot months. Iron ore is found in the hills, and smelting was formerly carried on to a considerable extent; but now the Kolhapur mineral cannot compete with that imported from Europe. There are several good stone quarries. The principal agricultural products are rice, millets, sugar-cane, tobacco, cotton, safflower and vegetables.
The rajas of Kolhapur trace their descent from Raja Ram, a younger son of Sivaji the Great, the founder of the Mahratta power. The prevalence of piracy caused the British government to send expeditions against Kolhapur in 1765 and 1792; and in the early years of the 19th century the misgovernment of the chief compelled the British to resort to military operations, and ultimately to appoint an officer to manage the state. In recent years the state has been conspicuously well governed, on the pattern of British administration. The raja Shahu Chhatrapati, G.C.S.I. (who is entitled to a salute of 21 guns) was born in 1874, and ten years later succeeded to the throne by adoption. The principal institutions are the Rajaram college, the high school, a technical school, an agricultural school, and training-schools for both masters and mistresses. The state railway from Miraj junction to Kolhapur town is worked by the Southern Mahratta company. In recent years the state has suffered from both famine and plague.
The town of KOLHAPUR, or KARVIR, is the terminus of a branch of the Southern Mahratta railway, 30 m. from the main line. Pop. (1901), 54,373. Besides a number of handsome modern public buildings, the town has many evidences of antiquity. Originally it appears to have been an important religious centre, and numerous Buddhist remains have been discovered in the neighbourhood.
KOLIN, or NEU-KOLIN (also _Kollin_; Czech, _Nový Kolín_), a town of Bohemia, Austria, 40 m. E. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900), 15,025, mostly Czech. It is situated on the Elbe, and amongst its noteworthy buildings may be specially mentioned the beautiful early Gothic church of St Bartholomew, erected during the latter half of the 14th century. The industries of the town include sugar-refining, steam mills, brewing, and the manufacture of starch, syrup, spirits, potash and tin ware. The neighbourhood is known for the excellence of its fruit and vegetables. Kolin is chiefly famous on account of the battle here on the 18th of June 1757, when the Prussians under Frederick the Great were defeated by the Austrians under Daun (see SEVEN YEARS' WAR). The result was the raising of the siege of Prague and the evacuation of Bohemia by the Prussians. Kolin was colonized in the 13th century by German settlers and made a royal city. In 1421 it was captured by the men of Prague, and the German inhabitants who refused to accept "the four articles" were expelled. In 1427 the town declared against Prague, was besieged by Prokop the Great, and surrendered to him upon conditions at the close of the year.
KOLIS, a caste or tribe of Western India, of uncertain origin. Possibly the name is derived from the Turki _kuleh_ a slave; and, according to one theory, this name has been passed on to the familiar word "cooly" for an agricultural labourer. They form the main part of the inferior agricultural population of Gujarat, where they were formerly notorious as robbers; but they also extend into the Konkan and the Deccan. In 1901 the number of Kolis in all India was returned as nearly 3¾ millions; but this total includes a distinct weaving caste of Kolis or Koris in northern India.
KÖLLIKER, RUDOLPH ALBERT VON (1817-1905), Swiss anatomist and physiologist, was born at Zürich on the 6th of July 1817. His father and his mother were both Zürich people, and he in due time married a lady from Aargau, so that Switzerland can claim him as wholly her own, though he lived the greater part of his life in Germany. His early education was carried on in Zürich, and he entered the university there in 1836. After two years, however, he moved to the university of Bonn, and later to that of Berlin, becoming at the latter place the pupil of Johannes Müller and of F. G. J. Henle. He graduated in philosophy at Zürich in 1841, and in medicine at Heidelberg in 1842. The first academic post which he held was that of prosector of anatomy under Henle; but his tenure of this office was brief, for in 1844 his native city called him back to its university to occupy a chair as professor extraordinary of physiology and comparative anatomy. His stay here too, however, was brief, for in 1847 the university of Würzburg, attracted by his rising fame, offered him the post of professor of physiology and of microscopical and comparative anatomy. He accepted the appointment, and at Würzburg he remained thenceforth, refusing all offers tempting him to leave the quiet academic life of the Bavarian town, where he died on the 2nd of November 1905.
Kölliker's name will ever be associated with that of the tool with which during his long life he so assiduously and successfully worked, the microscope. The time at which he began his studies coincided with that of the revival of the microscopic investigation of living beings. Two centuries earlier the great Italian Malpighi had started, and with his own hand had carried far the study by the help of the microscope of the minute structure of animals and plants. After Malpighi this branch of knowledge, though continually progressing, made no remarkable bounds forward until the second quarter of the 19th century, when the improvement of the compound microscope on the one hand, and the promulgation by Theodor Schwann and Matthias Schleiden of the "cell theory" on the other, inaugurated a new era of microscopic investigation. Into this new learning Kölliker threw himself with all the zeal of youth, wisely initiated into it by his great teacher Henle, whose sober and exact mode of inquiry went far at the time to give the new learning a right direction and to counteract the somewhat fantastic views which, under the name of the cell theory, were tending to be prominent. Henle's labours were for the most part limited to the microscopic investigation of the minute structure of the tissues of man and of the higher animals, the latter being studied by him mainly with the view of illustrating the former. But Kölliker had another teacher besides Henle, the even greater Johannes Müller, whose active mind was sweeping over the whole animal kingdom, striving to pierce the secrets of the structure of living creatures of all sorts, and keeping steadily in view the wide biological problems of function and of origin, which the facts of structure might serve to solve. We may probably trace to the influence of these two great teachers, strengthened by the spirit of the times, the threefold character of Kölliker's long-continued and varied labours. In all of them, or in almost all of them, the microscope was the instrument of inquiry, but the problem to be solved by means of the instrument belonged now to one branch of biology, now to another.
At Zürich, and afterwards at Würzburg, the title of the chair which he held laid upon him the duty of teaching comparative anatomy, and very many of the numerous memoirs which he published, including the very first paper which he wrote, and which appeared in 1841 before he graduated, "On the Nature of the so-called Seminal Animalcules," were directed towards elucidating, by help of the microscope, the structure of animals of the most varied kinds--that is to say, were zoological in character. Notable among these were his papers on the Medusae and allied creatures. His activity in this direction led him to make zoological excursions to the Mediterranean Sea and to the coasts of Scotland, as well as to undertake, conjointly with his friend C. T. E. von Siebold, the editorship of the _Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Zoologie_, which, founded in 1848, continued under his hands to be one of the most important zoological periodicals.
At the time when Kölliker was beginning his career the influence of Karl Ernst von Baer's embryological teaching was already being widely felt, men were learning to recognize the importance to morphological and zoological studies of a knowledge of the development of animals; and Kölliker plunged with enthusiasm into the relatively new line of inquiry. His earlier efforts were directed to the invertebrata, and his memoir on the development of cephalopods, which appeared in 1844, is a classical work; but he soon passed on to the vertebrata, and studied not only the amphibian embryo and the chick, but also the mammalian embryo. He was among the first, if not the very first, to introduce into this branch of biological inquiry the newer microscopic technique--the methods of hardening, section-cutting and staining. By doing so, not only was he enabled to make rapid progress himself, but he also placed in the hands of others the means of a like advance. The remarkable strides forward which embryology made during the middle and during the latter half of the 19th century will always be associated with his name. His _Lectures on Development_, published in 1861, at once became a standard work.
But neither zoology nor embryology furnished Kölliker's chief claim to fame. If he did much for these branches of science, he did still more for histology, the knowledge of the minute structure of the animal tissues. This he made emphatically his own. It may indeed be said that there is no fragment of the body of man and of the higher animals on which he did not leave his mark, and in more places than one his mark was a mark of fundamental importance. Among his earlier results may be mentioned the demonstration in 1847 that smooth or unstriated muscle is made up of distinct units, of nucleated muscle-cells. In this work he followed in the footsteps of his master Henle. A few years before this men were doubting whether arteries were muscular, and no solid histological basis as yet existed for those views as to the action of the nervous system on the circulation, which were soon to be put forward, and which had such a great influence on the progress of physiology. By the above discovery Kölliker completed that basis.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Kite-Flying" to "Kyshtym"Chapter IX: Part 9
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