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KER in 1797, leaving accounts of his voyages, not only in the South Seas, but also on the coasts of Iceland, Greenland, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and Norway.—G. BL.  KERI,, was born in Hungary early in the last century, became a Jesuit, and professor of philosophy and mathematical sciences. He introduced improvements in the construction of telescopes, and wrote some philosophical treatises. His chief works, however, are a "Compendious history of the Emperors of the East," and the "Ottoman Emperors from the fall of Constantinople." He died in 1769.—B. H. C.  KERL,, a distinguished organist and composer, was born in Saxony in 1625. Having during his youth shown a great taste for music he was sent to Vienna, and at the expense of the Archduke Leopold placed under the tuition of Giovanni Valentini, chapel-master at the imperial court. His patron afterwards ordered him to be sent to Rome in order to complete his musical studies under Carissimi. At his return he had a highly advantageous offer from the elector palatine; but he refused it and settled in Bavaria, where he became chapel-master to the Elector Ferdinando Maria. Kerl wrote a number of works for voices and instruments; but the work by which he is most remembered is his "Modulatio organica super Magnificat octo tonis ecclesiasticis respondens," printed at Munich in 1686. He is justly esteemed one of the most celebrated organists of his time. The date of his death is unknown.—E. F. R.  KERN,, a German painter, was born at Tetschen in 1710; studied under Pittoni at Dresden; and after practising in that city for some time, was sent by the king to Rome. Here he made rapid progress, and a picture which he painted of the "Massacre of the Innocents" was so much admired, that he was recalled to Dresden and appointed court painter. He painted several historical pictures and a few portraits, and had commenced the decoration of the new church, when he died in 1747 at the early age of thirty-seven. Kern has been much praised for his design and colour, but his works belong to the eclectic academic class, then everywhere in the ascendant. Some of his pictures have been engraved.—J. T—e.  KERN,, a celebrated German surgeon and physician, was born at Grätz in 1760. He was a wild youth, but became a hard student, and gradually reached the higher honours of his profession, being ultimately appointed to the professorship of surgery and clinical medicine at Vienna. In this position he acquired great reputation as an operative surgeon, and he has the merit of having introduced great reforms into the practice of surgery in Germany. These, along with his peculiar disposition, made him many enemies amongst his medical brethren. Kern was amongst the first to bring into notice the method of curing wounds and ulcers by cold water dressings, and he was remarkably dexterous as a lithotomist. Died at Vienna, 1829.—W. B—d.  KER PORTER,, K.C.H., was born at Durham in 1780, but at the death of his father, who was an officer in the army, was taken by his mother to Edinburgh. Anna Maria and Jane Porter were his sisters. His taste for art was led by the celebrated Flora Macdonald into the province of battle-painting, and when still quite a boy, his mother brought him to London in order that he might have the benefit of the instruction of the Royal Academy, into which he was readily admitted by the president, West, who is said to have greatly admired the spirit of the young painter's sketches. In 1793 he had already made such progress as to receive a commission to paint an altar-piece for Shoreditch church. Other altar-pieces followed this; and in the year 1800, when not yet twenty-one, he exhibited an immense picture of the storming of Seringapatam, one hundred and twenty feet long, well planned and boldly executed in every part. It created a great sensation at the time, but was unfortunately burnt with the warehouse in which it was deposited, when Ker Porter left England for Russia in 1804. This was followed by two other great battle-pieces, the "Siege of Acre" and the "Battle of Agincourt." The latter was presented by the painter to the city of London, and is still in the possession of the corporation; it was exhibited in the Guildhall about twenty years ago, and is a work of great merit of its class. In Russia, Ker Porter was appointed historical painter to the emperor; but he returned home in 1806, and published a work entitled "Travelling Sketches in Russia and Sweden." In 1808 he accompanied Sir John Moore's expedition, and attended the campaign to the closing catastrophe of the battle of Corunna; and he published some anonymous letters on Spain and Portugal after his return. He now made a second journey to Russia, and in 1811 was married there to the daughter of the Prince Theodore de Sherbatoff, who survived him, and after his return from this visit he published in 1813 "An account of the Russian Campaign;" and he was knighted by the prince regent in that year. The years 1817-20 inclusive were occupied by Sir Robert in his extensive travels in Asia, of which he published a valuable and interesting account in 1821-22—"Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia," &c., with numerous engravings, including many excellent representations of the interesting sculptures of Nakshi Roustam, Nakshi Rajab, Shiraz, and Persepolis, which had been disgracefully represented in the previous books of travel of Le Brun, Niebuhr, and Chardin. In 1832 Sir Robert was made a K.C.H. by William IV. He had been appointed British consul at Venezuela, and he resided there at Caracas until 1841, when he paid another visit to St. Petersburg, where on the 4th of May, 1842, he died of apoplexy. The intense cold of a Russian winter appears to have been too much for him after his long residence at Venezuela. Sir Robert continued his painting until the last; at Venezuela he painted some religious pictures, and also a portrait of General Bolivar. His effects were publicly sold in London in March, 1843.—R. N. W.  * KERNER,, a distinguished German lyric poet, was born at Ludwigsburg, Wurtemberg, 18th September, 1786, and studied medicine at Tübingen, where he was honoured with the friendship of the poets Conz and Uhland. In 1818 he was appointed oberamtsarzt at Weinsberg, and settled at the foot of the celebrated castle of Weibertreue, the ruins of which he restored, and surrounding them with pleasant gardens. This romantic residence, no less than his fame as a poet, soon attracted a number of distinguished visitors, and became as it were one of the central points of the Suabian school of poetry. Like Uhland and Schwab, Kerner sees, to borrow the beautiful words of Mr. Butler, "much beauty where most men see naught, delighting in his own calm fancies, looking at nature with familiar glances, and weaving garlands in the groves of thought." At the same time he distinguished himself as a physician, and published several works on scientific subjects. Among these the most remarkable is his "Seherin von Prevorst," 2 vols., 1829—the history of a poor woman, Friederike Hauffe, in the little village of Prevorst, near Löwenstein, who in her state of utter nervousness was haunted with visions and second-sight. Kerner himself, who for some time acted as her physician, was fondled into a belief in supernatural agencies, visions, and magnetism. His work gave rise to a fierce controversy, and has been most happily ridiculed by Immermann in his Münchhausen. In 1851, when threatened with blindness, Kerner was obliged to retire from his office, and received pensions from the kings of Wurtemberg and Bavaria.—K. E.  KERR,, a Scottish physician and miscellaneous writer, was the son of James Kerr, Esq. of Boughtridge, M.P. for the city of Edinburgh, and was born in 1755. After completing his education in the high school and university of Edinburgh, he was admitted a member of the College of Surgeons. He was subsequently made a member of the Royal Society, and was appointed surgeon of the orphan hospital, Edinburgh. A great part of his useful life was devoted to literary pursuits. He was the author of a "History of Scotland during the reign of Robert Bruce," 2 vols. 8vo; "Memoirs of Mr. Smellie," 2 vols. 8vo; "General View of the Agriculture of Berwickshire," 1 vol. 8vo, &c. He also translated Lavoisier's Elements of Chemistry; Berthollet's Essay on the new method of bleaching; two volumes of Linnæus' Zoological System; Buffon's Oviparous Quadrupeds and Serpents, 4 vols.; and Cuvier's Essay on the Theory of the Earth, published after his death, with an introduction and notes by Professor Jameson. Mr. Kerr died in 1814.—J. T. <section end="40H" /> <section begin="40Zcontin" />KERRY,, sixteenth Earl of, was born in Ireland in 1502. He was sent when young to Milan, and entered the German service. On the death of his elder brother, the inheritance was seized by the next heir failing him; but a faithful nurse made her way to Italy, apprized the young lord, who returned immediately; and after two years' contention, his right and title were established in 1550. The reputation of Fitzmaurice as a soldier obtained him the favour and confidence of Philip and Mary, and for many years he aided the lord-deputy in rectifying the disorders then prevalent in Ireland; and he sat for a time as premier baron in the Irish parliament. But the earl was ultimately drawn from his allegiance in the succeeding <section end="40Zcontin" />