Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/354

 wards the application of creosote for that purpose, proved severe competitors. Doubts began to be expressed as to the real efficiency of kyanising (see Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, 11 Jan. 1853, pp. 206–243), and the process gradually ceased to be employed.

Besides the invention with which his name is associated, Kyan took out patents in 1833 (No. 6534) for propelling ships by a jet of water ejected at the stern, and in 1837 (No. 7460) for a method of obtaining ammoniacal salts from gas liquor. He was also the author of ‘The Elements of Light and their Identity with those of Matter radiant or fixed,’ 1838. He died on 5 Jan. 1850 at New York, where he was engaged on a plan for filtering the water supplied to that city by the Croton aqueduct. 

KYD, ROBERT (d. 1793), founder of the Botanical Gardens, Calcutta, obtained a cadetship in 1764, was appointed ensign in the Bengal infantry 27 Oct. 1764, lieutenant 16 Oct. 1765, captain 3 April 1768, major 4 Sept. 1780, lieutenant-colonel 7 Dec. 1782. On the latter date he was appointed secretary to the military department of inspection in Bengal, which post he seems to have held until his death. He was a man of cultivated tastes, fond of botany and horticulture. About 1786 he laid out the Botanical Garden, near Calcutta, which was taken over by the company, and of which Dr. Roxburgh was appointed superintendent on Kyd's death. Sir Joseph Hooker, describing a visit to these gardens in 1848, has said that ‘they have contributed more useful and ornamental tropical plants to the public and private gardens of the world than any other establishment before or since’ (Himalayan Journals, i. 3–4). Kyd died at Calcutta 26 May 1793.

Derozario (Complete Monumental Register) states that Kyd was buried in the old burial-ground of Fort William, under a flat marble slab level with the ground, on the right of the entrance. A memorial urn, executed by the sculptor, Thomas Banks, was put up in the centre of the gardens, where it still stands. Some of Kyd's letters to Warren Hastings are in the British Museum (Addit. MSS. 29169 f. 311, 29171 f. 327, 29172 ff. 40, 424), and other letters are among Lord Braybrooke's manuscripts (Hist. MSS. Comm. 8th Rep. i. 290 sq.)

Writers on India sometimes confuse Robert Kyd with Lieutenant-general Alexander Kyd, Bengal engineers, who built the government dockyard at Kidderpur, near Calcutta, which village is named after him. Alexander Kyd was the author of some tidal observations on the Hooghly, and died in London 25 Nov. 1826. 

KYD, STEWART (d. 1811), politician and legal writer, a native of Arbroath, Forfarshire, went at the age of fourteen from Arbroath grammar school to King's College, Aberdeen. Abandoning a design of entering the church, he settled in London, and was called to the bar from the Middle Temple. He became a firm friend of [q. v.] and John Horne Tooke, whose political opinions he admired. In November 1792 he joined the Society for Constitutional Information. On 29 May 1794 he was arrested and examined by the privy council, but was soon discharged. On 4 June he was again summoned before the council, and three days later was committed to the Tower on a charge of high treason, with Hardy, Tooke, and ten others. On 25 Oct. all the prisoners were brought up for trial before a special commission at the Old Bailey, but after the acquittal of Hardy, Tooke, and Thelwall, the attorney-general declined offering any evidence against Kyd, and he was discharged. In June 1797 he ably defended Thomas Williams, a bookseller, who was indicted for blasphemy in publishing Paine's ‘Age of Reason.’ His speech was printed during the same year. Kyd died in the Temple on 26 Jan. 1811 (Scots Mag. lxxiii. 159). His portrait has been engraved.

Besides a continuation of Comyn's ‘Digest’ (8vo, London, 1792), Kyd published:  ‘A Treatise on the Law of Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes,’ 8vo, London, 1790; 3rd edit. 1795; 2nd American edit., Albany, New York, 1800.  ‘A Treatise on the Law of Awards,’ 8vo, London, 1791; 2nd edit. 1799.  ‘A Treatise on the Law of Corporations,’ 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1793–4.  ‘The Substance of the Income Act,’ 8vo, London, 1799, two editions.  ‘Arrangement under distinct Titles of all the Pro-