Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/157

K T K O V 145 who demanded free institutions, and became an object of such general dislike that he was obliged to leave Weimar for Mannheim. He was especially detested by young enthusiasts for liberty ; and one of them, Karl Ludwig Sand, a theological student, formed a deliberate resolution to kill him. On the 23d of March 1819 Sand called at Kotzebue s house in Mannheim, and stabbed him to the heart, crying, "Here, thou betrayer of the Fatherland!" The assassin was executed, and the Government of Germany made his crime an excuse for placing the universities under strict supervision. Besides his plays and the other works already mentioned, Kotzebue wrote a history of the German empire and a book on the ancient history of Prussia, neither of which has solid merit. He was also the author of Erinnerungen aus Paris (1804), and Erinnerungen von einer Reise aus Livland nach Rom und Neapd (1805). He wrote more than one hundred plays, the majority of which are now forgotten. Although destitute of poetic insight, he had remarkable facility in the invention of effective situations ; and a respectable place in German literature is secured for some of his comedies by the liveliness with which their characters are portrayed, and by the sprightliness of their dialogue. There is a complete edition of his dramatic works in 28 volumes (1797-1823), another in 44 volumes (1827-29), and a third in 40 volumes (1840-41). KOTZEBUE, OTTO VON (1787-1846), Russian navi gator, son of the subject of last notice, was born at Revel on December 19, 1787. After being educated at the St Petersburg school of cadets, he accompanied Krusenstern on his voyage of 1803-6. After his promotion to lieu tenant, Kotzebue was placed in command of an expedition fitted out at the expense of the imperial chancellor, Count Rumantsoff, in the brig Rurick. In this vessel, with only twenty-seven men, Kotzebue set out on July 30, 1815, to find a passage across the Arctic Ocean, and explore the less known parts of Oceania. Proceeding by Cape Horn, he reached on April 16, 1816, Schouten and Lemaire s Isle of Dogs. After cruising about the Pacific for some time, and discovering various islands and groups, as the Krusenstern group, and the Kutusoff and Suwaroff Islands in the east of the Caroline archipelago, Kotzebue made for Kamchatka, and on June 29 reached New Archangel. In the middle of July he proceeded northwards, coasting along the north-west coast of America, discovering and naming Kotzebue Gulf or Sound and Krusenstern Cape. Returning by the coast of Asia, he again sailed to the south, sojqurned for three weeks at the Sandwich Islands, and on January 1, 1817, dis covered New Year Island. After some further cruising in the Pacific he again proceeded north, but, a severe attack of illness compelling him to return to Europe, he reached the Neva on August 3, 1818, bringing home with him a large collection of previously unknown plants and much new ethnological information. In 1823 Kotzebue, now a captain, was entrusted with the command of a new ex pedition, in two ships of war, the main object of which was to take reinforcements to Kamchatka. There was, however, a staff of scientific men on board, who collected much valuable information and material in geography, ethnography, and natural history. The expedition left Cronstadt on August 23, and, proceeding by Cape Horn, visited the Radak and (Society Islands, reaching Petro- pavlovsk in July 1824. Many positions along the coast were rectified, the Navigator Islands visited, and several discoveries made. The expedition returned by the Mariannes, Philippines, New California, and Sandwich Islands, reaching Cronstadt on July 10, 1826. There are English translations of both Kotzebue s narratives : ^l Voyage for the Purpose of Exploring a North-East Passage, undertaken in the years 1815-18, 3 vols. (1821) ; and A Neiv Voyage Round the World in the years 1823-26 (1830). The narrative of the second voyage is generally considered to be rather highly coloured, while in the first Kotzebue animadverts in strong terms on the conduct of the English missionaries in the Society and Sandwich Islands, who, however, were defended both by Ellis and Mr Charles Darwin. Three years after his return from his second voyage, Kotzebue retired to his estate in Esthonia, where he died February 15, 1846. KOUSSO, Kosso, or Cusso, a drug recently introduced into English medicine as a remedy for tapeworm. It consists of the flowers of llayenia abyssinica, Willd. (Brayera anthelminthica, Kunth.), a handsome rosaceous tree 60 feet high, growing throughout the table-land of Abyssinia, at an elevation of 3000 to 8000 feet above the sea-level. The drug as imported is in the form of cylin drical rolls, about 18 inches in length and 2 inches in diameter, and comprises the entire inflorescence or panicle kept in form by a band wound transversely round it. The flowers have a light brown hue, or in the case of the female flower a reddish tinge, for which reason the latter is some times distinguished as red kousso. The active principle of kousso is stated by Fliickiger to be kosin, C 31 H 38 O ]0 ; it is supposed to be a compound ether of isobutyric acid, since it gives off the odour of this substance when its solution in concentrated sulphuric acid is diluted with water. Kosin appears to have been first obtained as a definite crystalline substance by Merck, who prepared it in the form of tasteless yellowish rhombic needles or prisms, soluble in chloroform, ether, benzol, and bisulphide of carbon, very soluble in boiling but only sparingly so in cold alcohol. It is not decomposed by boiling dilute acids. The koussin of Bedall appears to be an impure substance con taining variable quantities of crystalline kosin. Kousso yields on distillation a stearoptene-like oil having the odour of the drug, also traces of valerianic and acetic acids. The medicinal properties of kousso were first investigated in 1822 by Brayer, a French physician of Constantinople, but the drug did not come into use in Europe until 1850 ; in 1864 it was introduced into the British pharmacopoeia. In medicine it is used in the form of an unstrained in fusion of to i oz. of the coarsely powdered flowers, which are swallowed with the liquid. Administered in this form it sometimes causes vomiting; hence an extract of the flowers, prepared by percolating them with castor oil to dissolve out the active principle, has been introduced. Kousso is con sidered to be an effectual vermifuge for both T&nia solium and Bothriocephalus latus. In its anthelminthic action it is nearly allied to male fern. See Bruce, Travels, v. p. 73, 1790 ; Brayer, Notice sur tine nouvcllc plante dc lafamille des Eosacees employee contrc h Twnia, 1822; Pharmaceutical Journal, x. p. 15; Pharmacoyraphia, 2ded. , p. 256-259 ; Bulletin dc Therapcutiquc, 1876, p. 556. KOVNO, a north-western province of European Russia, is bounded on the N.E. and S.E. by the provinces of Cour- land and Vilna, and on the S. and S.W. by Russian Poland and by Prussia, a narrow strip touching the Baltic near Memel. It has an estimated area of 23,680 square miles. The level uniformity of its surface is broken only by two low ridges which nowhere rise above 800 feet. The geological character is varied, the Silurian, the Devonian, the Jurassic, and the Tertiary systems being all represented ; the Devonian is that which occurs most frequently, and all are covered with Quaternary boulder-clays. The soil is either a sandy clay or a more fertile kind of Wack earth. The government is well watered by the Niemen, the Windau, the Courland Aa, and the Duna, which have navigable tributaries. In the flat depressions covered with boulder-clays there are many lakes and marshes, whilst XIV. 19