kermes, which is washed and dried at 100° C.; prepared in this way it is a brown-red velvety powder, insoluble in water.
See G. Planchon, Le Kermes du chêne (Montpellier, 1864); Lewis, Materia Medica (1784), pp. 71, 365; Memorias sobre la grana Kermes de España (Madrid, 1788); Adams, Paulus Aegineta, iii. 180; Beckmann, History of Inventions.
KERMESSE (also Kermis and
Kirmess), originally the mass
said on the anniversary of the foundation of a church and in
honour of the patron, the word being equivalent to “Kirkmass.”
Such celebrations were regularly held in the Low Countries and
also in northern France, and were accompanied by feasting,
dancing and sports of all kinds. They still survive, but are now
practically nothing more than country fairs and the old allegorical
representations are uncommon. The Brussels Kermesse
is, however, still marked by a procession in which the effigies of
the Mannikin and medieval heroes are carried. At Mons the
Kermesse occurs annually on Trinity Sunday and is called the
procession of Lumeçon (Walloon for limaçon, a snail): the hero
is Gilles de Chin, who slays a terrible monster, captor of a
princess, in the Grand Place. This is the story of George and
the Dragon. At Hasselt the Kermesse (now only septennial)
not only commemorates the Christian story of the foundation
of the town, but even preserves traces of a pagan festival. The
word Kermesse (generally in the form “Kirmess”) is applied
in the United States to any entertainment, especially one organized
in the interest of charity.
See Demetrius C. Boulger, Belgian Life in Town and Country (1904).
KERN, JAN HENDRIK (1833–), Dutch Orientalist, was
born in Java of Dutch parents on the 6th of April 1833. He
studied at Utrecht, Leiden and Berlin, where he was a pupil of
the Sanskrit scholar, Albrecht Weber. After some years spent
as professor of Greek at Maestricht, he became professor of
Sanskrit at Benares in 1863, and in 1865 at Leiden. His studies
included the Malay languages as well as Sanskrit. His chief
work is Geschiedenis van het Buddhisme in Indië (Haarlem, 2 vols.,
1881–1883); in English he wrote a translation (Oxford, 1884) of
the Saddharma Pundarîka and a Manual of Indian Buddhism
(Strassburg, 1896) for Bühler Kielhorn’s Grundriss der indo-arischen
Philologie.
KERNEL (O.E. cyrnel, a diminutive of “corn,” seed, grain),
the soft and frequently edible part contained within the hard
outer husk of a nut or the stone of a fruit; also used in botany
of the nucleus of a seed, the body within its several integuments
or coats, and generally of the nucleus or core of any structure;
hence, figuratively, the pith or gist of any matter.
KERNER, JUSTINUS ANDREAS CHRISTIAN (1786–1862),
German poet and medical writer, was born on the 18th of September
1786 at Ludwigsburg in Württemberg. After attending
the classical schools of Ludwigsburg and Maulbronn, he was
apprenticed in a cloth factory, but, in 1804, owing to the good
services of Professor Karl Philipp Conz (1762–1827) of Tübingen,
was enabled to enter the university there; he studied medicine
but had also time for literary pursuits in the company of Uhland,
Gustav Schwab and others. He took his doctor’s degree in
1808, spent some time in travel, and then settled as a practising
physician in Wildbad. Here he completed his Reiseschatten von
dem Schattenspieler Luchs (1811), in which his own experiences
are described with caustic humour. He next co-operated with
Uhland and Schwab in producing the Poetischer Almanach für
1812, which was followed by the Deutscher Dichterwald (1813),
and in these some of Kerner’s best poems were published. In
1815 he obtained the official appointment of district medical
officer (Oberamtsarzt) in Gaildorf, and in 1818 was transferred in
a like capacity to Weinsberg, where he spent the rest of his life.
His house, the site of which at the foot of the historical Schloss
Weibertreu was presented by the municipality to their revered
physician, became the Mecca of literary pilgrims. Hospitable
welcome was extended to all, from the journeyman artisan to
crowned heads. Gustavus IV. of Sweden came thither with a
knapsack on his back. The poets Count Christian Friedrich
Alexander von Württemberg (1801–1844) and Lenau (q.v.) were
constant guests, and thither came also in 1826 Friederike Hauffe
(1801–1829), the daughter of a forester in Prevorst, a somnambulist
and clairvoyante, who forms the subject of Kerner’s famous
work Die Seherin von Prevorst, Eröffnungen über das innere
Leben des Menschen und über das Hineinragen einer Geisterwelt
in die unsere (1829; 6th ed., 1892). In 1826 he published a
collection of Gedichte which were later supplemented by Der
letzte Blütenstrauss (1852) and Winterblüten (1859). Among
others of his well-known poems are the charming ballad Der
reichste Fürst; a drinking song, Wohlauf, noch getrunken, and the
pensive Wanderer in der Sägemühle.
In addition to his literary productions, Kerner wrote some popular medical books of great merit, dealing with animal magnetism, a treatise on the influence of sebacic acid on animal organisms, Das Fettgift oder die Fettsäure und ihre Wirkungen auf den tierischen Organismus (1822); a description of Wildbad and its healing waters, Das Wildbad im Königreich Württemberg (1813); while he gave a pretty and vivid account of his youthful years in Bilderbuch aus meiner Knabenzeit (1859); and in Die Bestürmung der württembergischen Stadt Weinsberg im Jahre 1525 (1820), showed considerable skill in historical narrative. In 1851 he was compelled, owing to increasing blindness, to retire from his medical practice, but he lived, carefully tended by his daughters, at Weinsberg until his death on the 21st of February 1862. He was buried beside his wife, who had predeceased him in 1854, in the churchyard of Weinsberg, and the grave is marked by a stone slab with an inscription he himself had chosen: Friederike Kerner und ihr Justinus. Kerner was one of the most inspired poets of the Swabian school. His poems, which largely deal with natural phenomena, are characterized by a deep melancholy and a leaning towards the supernatural, which, however, is balanced by a quaint humour, reminiscent of the Volkslied.
Kerner’s Ausgewählte poetische Werke appeared in 2 vols. (1878); Sämtliche poetische Werke, ed. by J. Gaismaier, 4 vols. (1905); a selection of his poems will also be found in Reclam’s Universalbibliothek (1898). His correspondence was edited by his son in 1897. See also D. F. Strauss, Kleine Schriften (1866); A. Reinhard, J. Kerner und das Kernerhaus zu Weinsberg (1862; 2nd ed., 1886); G. Rümelin, Reden und Aufsätze, vol. iii. (1894); M. Niethammer (Kerner’s daughter), J. Kerners Jugendliebe und mein Vaterhaus (1877); A. Watts, Life and Works of Kerner (London, 1884); T. Kerner, Das Kernerhaus und seine Gäste (1894).
KERRY, a county of Ireland in the province of Munster,
bounded W. by the Atlantic Ocean, N. by the estuary of the
Shannon, which separates it from Clare, E. by Limerick and Cork,
and S.E. by Cork. The area is 1,159,356 acres, or 1811 sq. m.,
the county being the fifth of the Irish counties in extent. Kerry,
with its combination of mountain, sea and plain, possesses
some of the finest scenery of the British Islands. The portion
of the county south of Dingle Bay consists of mountain masses
intersected by narrow valleys. Formerly the mountains were
covered by a great forest of fir, birch and yew, which was nearly
all cut down to be used in smelting iron, and the constant
pasturage of cattle prevents the growth of young trees. In the
north-east towards Killarney the hills rise abruptly into the
ragged range of Macgillicuddy’s Reeks, the highest summit of
which, Carntual (Carrantuohill), has a height of 3414 ft. The
next highest summit is Caper (3200 ft.), and several others are
over 2500 ft. Lying between the precipitous sides of the Tomies,
the Purple Mountains and the Reeks is the famous Gap of Dunloe.
In the Dingle promontory Brandon Mountain attains a height
of 3127 ft. The sea-coast, for the most part wild and mountainous,
is much indented by inlets, the largest of which, Tralee Bay,
Dingle Bay and Kenmare River, lie in synclinal troughs, the
anticlinal folds of the rocks forming extensive promontories.
Between Kenmare River and Dingle Bay the land is separated
by mountain ridges into three valleys. The extremity of the
peninsula between Dingle Bay and Tralee Bay is very precipitous,
and Mount Brandon, rising abruptly from the ocean, is
skirted at its base (in part) by a road from which magnificent
views are obtained. From near the village of Ballybunion to
Kilconey Point near the Shannon there is a remarkable succession
