tends from the river to the summit of high bluffs, and has wide streets. Among its features may be mentioned Rand Park, the burial-place of the Indian chief after whom the city was named, the National Cemetery, a public library of 17,000 volumes; and among educational institutions, a college of physicians, established in 1849, and a large dental college. Other noteworthy structures are the United States Government building, the high-school building, the Union railroad station, Young Men's Christian Association building, and opera-house. The railroad and wagon bridge across the Mississippi River here is over 2000 feet long. Keokuk was incorporated first in 1848, and is governed, as are four other cities in Iowa, by special charter. The government is vested in a mayor, elected biennially; a unicameral council; and subordinate municipal officials, of whom the more important are appointed or elected as follows: By the mayor—the police and deputy marshal, light inspector, street supervisor, and calaboose-keeper; by the mayor, with the consent of the council—the library committee, park commissioners, and city weigher; by the council—the mayor pro tem., city attorney, clerk of the Superior Court, city engineer, treasurer, and sidewalk inspector; and by the people—the judge of the Superior Court, city marshal, and assessor. Population, in 1890, 14,101; in 1900, 14,641. Consult “Early Days in Keokuk,” in Annals of Iowa, vol. iii. (Iowa City, 1871).
KEOKUK (c.1780-1848). An Indian chief of the Sac-Fox Confederation, from whom the city of Keokuk, Iowa, was named. He was born near Rock River, Illinois, in a tribe of Sacs whose spokesman he was during the War of 1812. He exerted his great influence to preserve peace between his tribe and the whites. He was one of the party who visited the Eastern States (1837), and he removed (1845) from Iowa to Kansas, where he died from poisoning.
KEPHIR, or KEFIR, kĕf′ẽr (Caucasian, from Turk. kaif, delight). A fermented beverage made from milk, and similar to koumiss (q.v.). It is made in the Caucasus, and has been introduced into Europe and America, where it is prescribed for invalids. In the United States cow's milk alone is commonly used, although a mixture of milk and buttermilk is sometimes employed. The true kephir fermentation is induced by kephir grains, which are hard, yellowish aggregations about the size of a pea, and contain several yeasts and a number of different forms of bacteria. At the proper temperature the fermentation is completed in two or three days. Frequent shaking prevents the rising of the cream and later the formation of lumps of curd. A part of the milk-sugar is broken up into alcohol, carbonic-acid gas, and lactic acid; but the casein is apparently not changed as it is in the case of koumiss. Good kephir should be effervescent. It contains about 0.75 per cent. of alcohol and 1 per cent. of lactic acid, together with the constituents of normal milk in slightly diminished proportions.
KÉPI, kā̇′pē̇′ (Fr.). The ordinary forage cap of the French infantry soldier. It is made of red cloth, with a patent leather visor.
KEP′LER, Johann (1571–1630). One of the world's greatest astronomers. He was born on December 27, 1571, at Weil der Stadt, in Württemberg, Germany. He was sickly in his early childhood, and his constitution remained weak throughout life. In 1584 he was sent to Adelberg, and in 1586 to the cloister school in Maulbronn. On passing a brilliant maturity examination, he was admitted in 1589 to the University of Tübingen. Here he studied chiefly theology and the classics. At the same time he became acquainted with the teachings of Copernicus, which greatly influenced his later career. In 1594 he accepted the chair of astronomy and mathematics at Gratz, which he held until 1600, when he was compelled to leave on account of religious difficulties. Since 1590 Tycho Brahe had been mathematician and astronomer to Emperor Rudolph II., and in 1600 Kepler became his assistant in the observatory near Prague. On October 13, 1601, Tycho Brahe died, and Kepler succeeded him in both of his important posts. His compensation was to be 500 florins a year, but, owing to the desperate condition of the Imperial finances, it was never paid in full. While retaining this position, Kepler, in 1612, accepted the office of mathematician to the States of Upper Austria. In 1626 he moved to Ulm, where he undertook the publication of the Rudolphinian Tables. In July, 1628, he left the service of the Emperor Ferdinand II. and entered that of Wallenstein, who promised to pay the amount of his former salary that still remained unpaid, Wallenstein, however, did not keep his promise. With the intention of presenting his case to the Imperial Diet, Kepler undertook a journey to Ratisbon. But on his way he was attacked by fever, and shortly after reaching Ratisbon died, on November 15, 1630. While in Gratz, in 1597, he married Barbara von Mühleek, who died in 1611. Two years later he married Susanna Reutlinger, who survived him.
Kepler early conceived that there must be some intelligible reason for the actual disposition of the solar system; and it was mainly the development of this idea that gained him a wide reputation and the friendship of Tycho Brahe and Galileo. In the capacity of Imperial mathematician, he completed the Rudolphinian Tables, which had been left unfinished by the death of his former patron, Tycho Brahe. But he was also compelled to discharge the duties of an astrologer, although he limited his astrological work to the vague estimation of tendencies and probabilities. His chief title to fame is his discovery of the three laws of planetary motion, viz. the laws of elliptical orbits, of equal areas, and of the relations between periods and distances. (See Astronomy; Gravitation.) The first two of these laws appeared in his greatest work, Astronomia Nova, etc. (1609). Other important features of this work were discoveries in regard to gravitation, and the explanation of the tides by lunar attraction. In 1616, in Linz, Kepler calculated the first ephemerides based on his laws. In 1619, in his treatise Harmonice Mundi, he published his third law. In September, 1627, he finished the Rudolphinian Tables, the appendix of which contained a catalogue of 1005 stars. In 1629 he called the attention of astronomers to the approaching transits. That of Mercury, which occurred on November 7, 1631, was the first transit of a planet across the sun ever observed.
Kepler was also the founder of a theory of vortices, and did pioneer work in several important scientific subjects. Having in 1604 given an approximation to the law of refraction, at the
