alliances, exchanges and claims professing to have a legal basis, and justified at enormous length by arguments both pedantic and hypocritical. The French Revolution had begun to alter all the relations of the Powers before his retirement. He never understood its full meaning. Yet the circular despatch which he addressed to the ambassadors of the emperor on the 17th of July 1794 contains the first outlines of Metternich’s policy of “legitimacy,” and the first proposal for the combined action of the powers, based on the full recognition of one another’s rights, to defend themselves against subversive principles. Kaunitz died at his house, the Garten Palast, near Vienna, on the 27th of June 1794. He married on the 6th of May 1736, Maria Ernestine von Starhemberg, who died on the 6th of September 1754. Four sons were born of the marriage.
See Hormayr, Oesterreichischer Plutarch (Vienna, 1823), for a biographical sketch based on personal knowledge. Also see Brunner, Joseph II.: Correspondance avec Cobenzl et Kaunitz (Mayence, 1871); A. Beer, Joseph II., Leopold II. und Kaunitz (Vienna, 1873).
KAUP, JOHANN JAKOB (1803–1873), German naturalist, was born at Darmstadt on the 10th of April 1803. After studying at Göttingen and Heidelberg he spent two years at Leiden, where his attention was specially devoted to the amphibians and fishes. He then returned to Darmstadt as an assistant in the grand ducal museum, of which in 1840 he became inspector. In 1829 he published Skizze zur Entwickelungsgeschichte der europäischen Thierwelt, in which he regarded the animal world as developed from lower to higher forms, from the amphibians through the birds to the beasts of prey; but subsequently he repudiated this work as a youthful indiscretion, and on the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species he declared himself against its doctrines. The extensive fossil deposits in the neighbourhood of Darmstadt gave him ample opportunities for palaeontological inquiries, and he gained considerable reputation by his Beiträge zur näheren Kenntniss der urweltlichen Säugethiere (1855–1862). He also wrote Classification der Säugethiere und Vögel (1844), and, with H. G. Brown (1800–1862) of Heidelberg, Die Gavial-artigen Reste aus dem Lias (1842–1844). He died at Darmstadt on the 4th of July 1873.
KAURI PINE, in botany, Agathis australis, a conifer native of New Zealand where it is abundant in forests in the North Island between the North Cape and 38° south latitude. The forests are rapidly disappearing owing to use as timber and to destruction by fires. It is a tall resiniferous tree, usually ranging from 80 to 100 ft. in height, with a trunk 4 to 10 ft. in diameter, but reaching 150 ft., with a diameter of 15 to 22 ft.; it has a straight columnar trunk and a rounded bushy head. The thick resiniferous bark falls off in large flat flakes. The leaves, which persist for several years, are very thick and leathery; on young trees they are lance-shaped 2 to 4 in. long and 14 to 12 in. broad, becoming on mature trees linear-oblong or obovate-oblong and 34 to 112 in. long. The ripe cones are almost spherical, erect, and 2 to 3 in. in diameter; the broad, flat, rather thin cone-scales fall from the axis when ripe. Each scale bears a single compressed seed with a membranous wing. The timber is remarkable for its strength, durability and the ease with which it is worked. The resin, kauri-gum, is an amber-like deposit dug in large quantities from the sites of previous forests, in lumps generally varying in size from that of a hen’s egg to that of a man’s head. The colour is of a rich brown or amber yellow, or it may be almost colourless and translucent. It is of value for varnish-making.
KAVA (Cava or Ava), an intoxicating, but non-alcoholic beverage, produced principally in the islands of the South Pacific, from the roots or leaves of a variety of the pepper plant (Piper methysticum). The method of preparation is somewhat peculiar. The roots or leaves are first chewed by young girls or boys, care being taken that only those possessing sound teeth and excellent general health shall take part in this operation. The chewed material is then placed in a bowl, and water or coco-nut milk is poured over it, the whole is well stirred, and subsequently the woody matter is removed by an ingenious but simple mechanical manipulation. The resulting liquid, which has a muddy or café-au-lait appearance, or is of a greenish hue if made from leaves, is now ready for consumption. The taste of the liquid is at first sweet, and then pungent and acrid. The usual dose corresponds to about two mouthfuls of the root. Intoxication (but this apparently only applies to those not inured to the use of the liquor) follows in about twenty minutes. The drunkenness produced by kava is of a melancholy, silent and drowsy character. Excessive drinking is said to lead to skin and other diseases, but per contra many medicinal virtues are ascribed to the preparation. There appears to be little doubt that the active principle in this beverage is a poison of an alkaloidal nature. It seems likely that this substance is not present as such (i.e. as a free alkaloid) in the plant, but that it exists in the form of a glucoside, and that by the process of chewing this glucoside is split up by one of the ferments in the saliva into the free alkaloid and sugar.
See Pharm. Journ. iii. 474; iv. 85; ix. 219; vii. 149; Comptes Rendus, l. 436, 598; lii. 206; Journ. de Pharm. (1860) 20; (1862) 218; Seeman, Flora Vitiensis, 260; Beachy, Voyage of the “Blossom,” ii. 120.
KAVADH (Kabades, Kauades), a Persian name which occurs
first in the mythical history of the old Iranian kingdom as Kai
Kobadh (Kaikobad). It was borne by two kings of the Sassanid
dynasty.
(1) Kavadh I., son of Pērōz, crowned by the nobles in 488 in place of his uncle Balash, who was deposed and blinded. At this time the empire was utterly disorganized by the invasion of the Ephthalites or White Huns from the east. After one of their victories against Pērōz, Kavadh had been a hostage among them during two years, pending the payment of a heavy ransom. In 484 Pērōz had been defeated and slain with his whole army. Balash was not able to restore the royal authority. The hopes of the magnates and high priests that Kavadh would suit their purpose were soon disappointed. Kavadh gave his support to the communistic sect founded by Mazdak, son of Bamdad, who demanded that the rich should divide their wives and their wealth with the poor. His intention evidently was, by adopting the doctrine of the Mazdakites, to break the influence of the magnates. But in 496 he was deposed and incarcerated in the “Castle of Oblivion (Lethe)” in Susiana, and his brother Jamasp (Zamaspes) was raised to the throne. Kavadh, however, escaped and found refuge with the Ephthalites, whose king gave him his daughter in marriage and aided him to return to Persia. In 499 he became king again and punished his opponents. He had to pay a tribute to the Ephthalites and applied for subsidies to Rome, which had before supported the Persians. But now the emperor Anastasius refused subsidies, expecting that the two rival powers of the East would exhaust one another in war. At the same time he intervened in the affairs of the Persian part of Armenia. So Kavadh joined the Ephthalites and began war against the Romans. In 502 he took Theodosiopolis in Armenia, in 503 Amida (Diarbekr) on the Tigris. In 505 an invasion of Armenia by the western Huns from the Caucasus led to an armistice, during which the Romans paid subsidies to the Persians for the maintenance of the fortifications on the Caucasus. When Justin I. (518–527) came to the throne the conflict began anew. The Persian vassal, Mondhir of Hira, laid waste Mesopotamia and slaughtered the monks and nuns. In 531 Belisarius was beaten at Callinicum. Shortly afterwards Kavadh died, at the age of eighty-two, in September 531. During his last years his favourite son Chosroes had had great influence over him and had been proclaimed successor. He also induced Kavadh to break with the Mazdakites, whose doctrine had spread widely and caused great social confusion throughout Persia. In 529 they were refuted in a theological discussion held before the throne of the king by the orthodox Magians, and were slaughtered and persecuted everywhere; Mazdak himself was hanged. Kavadh evidently was, as Procopius (Pers. i. 6) calls him, an unusually clear-sighted and energetic ruler. Although he could not free himself from the yoke of the Ephthalites, he succeeded in restoring order in the interior and fought with success against the Romans. He built some
