ts 



KRAMERIA. 



KYNURENIC ACID. 



' Teutamen Florae Abyssinicie,' pi. 48. Dr. Beke says that the tree 

 in the Amharic language is called kosso, and in that of Tigre hhdbbe ; 

 and these same names are respectively applied to the tape-worm, against 

 which this drug is esteemed a remedy. It flourishes best on the table- 

 land in the north-eastern part of Abyssinia, at the height of six or 

 seven thousand feet above the level of the sea. It is a rosaceous plant, 

 though by Theodor d'Abbadie ascribed to the Mahacete. The flowers 

 and flower-stalks are collected before the seeds are quite ripe, whilst 

 still a number of florets remain unchanged. They are suspended in 

 the sun to dry, and if not required for immediate use, are deposited in 

 a jar. The dried portions are sent first to Egypt, thence to Constanti- 

 nople, and Europe ; perhaps some come to Aden. 



The chemical analysis yields a fatty oil, wax, bitter aorid resin, 

 tasteless resin, two kinds of tannin, ashes, gum-sugar (WittsteinV 

 Martin gives also a crystalline substance termed kwoseine ; there is 

 also a little volatile oil. Owing to the high price adulteration is much 

 practised, chiefly with pomegranate bark. To avoid this the kouso 

 should be purchased in the entire, not powdered, state. About half 

 an ounce is the dose for an adult. This is to be infused in half a pint 

 of tepid water for a quarter of an hour, a little lemon-juice may be 

 added, and about a third swallowed ; then after an hour another third, 

 finally the remainder, with lemon-juice. This seems to check the 

 disposition to vomiting caused by the nauseous taste and odour. At 

 the end of four hours, a dose of castor-oil or infusion of senna may be 

 given. By the action of this last tape-worms, either entire or in part, 

 mostly dead, are brought away. The chief recommendation of kousso 

 over other anthelmintics seems to be that under its influence the head 

 as well as the joints of the parasite are brought away. Without this 

 be effected any amendment can only be temporary. The fullest ac- 

 count of kousso, in English, is by Dr. Pereira, in ' Journal of Pharm. 

 Society," voL x. p. 15, now incorporated in Pereira's ' Mat. Med.' 

 [ANTIIKI.MTNTICS.] 



KRAME'RIA TRIANDRA, or RHATANY, is a small low-lying 

 undershrub, growing on the dry projecting parts of the mountains of 

 Peru, near Huanaco, &c. The native name is Rhatanhia. The root, 

 which is the officinal part, is from four to eight inches long, and from 

 the size of a writing quill to two inches thick, with knotty but not 

 strong ramifications, and is very variable in shape. The bark is thin, 

 uneven, and easily separates from the woody part. The bark bears a 

 larger proportion to the woody part in the young than in the old rami- 

 fications, and contains more astringent matter. The young ones are to 

 be preferred. The root is heavy, and devoid of odour ; but the taste, 

 especially of the bark, is strongly astringent and bitter, yet not dis- 

 agreeable. Iodine turns it black. According to the analysis of Gmelin, 

 it contains much tannin, with saccharine and mucilaginous matter, 

 woody fibre, and salts. According to Peschier, it contains krameric 

 acid. This root, from which, in Peru, an extract is formed, is a mild, 

 easily assimilated, astringent medicine, possessed of great power in 

 passive bloody or mucous discharges ; and also in weakness of the 

 digestive organs, muscular debility, and even in intermittent and putrid 

 fevers. The powder forms, along with charcoal, an excellent tooth- 

 powder ; and an infusion is used as a gargle and wash. The chief use 

 of the extract imported from South America, is said to be the adultera- 

 tion of port wine. 



KRAMERIC ACID. A peculiar acid of unknown composition, said 

 to exist in the extract of Rhatany (Krameria triandria). It is a non- 

 volatile, difficultly crystallisable solid. 



KREASOTE. [CREOSOTE.] 



KRKATINE. Synonymous with creatine. [CREATIVE.] 



KREATININE. [CREATININE.] 



KRESYLIC ACID. Synonymous with hydrate ofcrayl. [CEESYL.] 



KRISHNA. [VigHxc.] 



KRONOS, one of the most ancient of the Greek gods, the youngest 

 of the Titans, and father of Zeus. Kronos was the son of Uranus and 

 Gaea. Uranus, who was ruler of the world, out of fear or hatred of 

 his children, especially of the Cyclopes, cast them into Tartarus and 

 kept them imprisoned there. In revenge Gaea incited the Titans to 

 rebel against their father, and gave to Kronos a sickle (fyinj) of 

 adamant, with which he deprived his father of virility. Uranus being 

 deposed, Kronos was raised to his throne, and the Cyclopes liberated ; 

 but they were again cast by Kronos into Tartarus. Kronos now married 

 his sister Rhea, and had by her Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, Poseidon, 

 ;!i-l /ens; but it having been foretold him by Uranus that he should 

 be deposed by one of his children, he swallowed all of them but Zeus 

 as noon as they were born. On the birth of Zeus, Rhea gave Kronos a 

 xtone wrapped in a cloth, which he swallowed, believing it to be his 

 newly born child. Rhea concealed her son in a cave in Crete, where he 

 passed the first years of his life. When Zeus grew up, Kronos, in order 

 to secure his throne, called the Titans to his aid ; but Zeus, by the 

 counsel of Thetis, administered a potion to Kronos, which caused him 

 to bring up the children he had swallowed. Zeus, with his brothers 

 anil sisters, now attacked the Titans, who, after a contest which lasted 



ten years, and which was known to the Greeks as the Titanomachia, 

 were eventually conquered, and Kronos was dethroned. 



In Greek art Kronos is often represented with a veil covering the 

 back of his head ; and almost always with the harpe, or sickle, in his 

 hand. Sometimes he is figured enthroned, with Rhea offering him the 

 stone ; sometimes he is naked, at others wrapped in voluminous 

 drapery. 



Greek and Roman writers regarded the Greek Kronos and the Roman 

 Saturnus as the same deity. By recent writers their identity has been 

 doubted. Their identity has been maintained with strong arguments 

 by Buttmann, ' Mythologus,' ii. 28, &c. ; but as strenuously opposed by 

 Hartung, ' Die Relig. der Rom.' ii. 123, &e., who considers the two 

 divinities as quite distinct, and Saturnus as an ancient national divinity 

 of the Italians. Certain it is that there are few if any points of resem- 

 blance between their attributes : the chief coincidence is that each was 

 regarded as the most ancient deity of his country. Both the deities 

 are figured in ancient works of art with a sickle in their hand ; but the 

 sickle of Kronos had reference to the harpe given him by his mother 

 Gsea, while that of Saturnus was typical of his protection of hus- 

 bandry. 



SaturnM was one of the principal divinities of the ancient Italians. 

 He was considered to be the protector of agriculture, and of all civili- 

 sation arising from it. His name probably contains the same element 

 as the verb sero (sa), whence he was considered as the protecting 

 divinity of all that was sown and planted, and as the giver of plenty. 

 The Italian legends represented him as having come from abroad to 

 the shores of Italy, in the reign of Janus, by whom he was hospitably 

 received. Notwithstanding this, Saturnus was always considered as 

 the first king of the Aborigines, probably because agriculture and 

 civilisation in Italy dated from his reign. (Virg., ' Aen.,' viii. 319 ; 

 Aurel. Viet., 'De Orig. Gent. Rom.,' c. 1,' &c.) He was said to have 

 established a settlement on the Capitoline Hill, which from this cir- 

 cumstance was called the Saturnian Hill, and the settlement itself 

 Saturnia. He now began to teach the Italians the art of cultivating 

 the fields, and led them from their savage state to the peaceful occu- 

 pations of civilised life, so that the whole land of Italy was called, 

 after him, Saturnia, or the land of fruit. In agriculture he is said to 

 have taught his subjects the use of manure (stercui), from which he 

 derived the surnames of Stercutus, Stercilinus, and Stercenius. 

 (Macrob., ' Sat.,' i. ".) His rule was so just and mild, that the age in 

 which he reigned was afterwards described as the golden age of Italy. 

 His wife, called Ops, was in aftertimes worshipped as the goddess of 

 plenty. After the death of Saturnus, or rather after his disappearance 

 from the world, he was raised to the rank of a god, an altar was erected 

 to him on the spot which was afterwards called the Forum, and a 

 temple near the foot of the Capitoline. Concerning his worship at 

 Rome, gee SATURNALIA. 



KUMISS. [KOUMISS.] 



KUTEERA, or KATI'RA, a kind of gum, considered in India by 

 the native practitioners of medicine to be a good substitute for 

 Tragacanth. Indeed, they consider it to be the true Tragacanth, which 

 is described by Avicenna under the name tuieera in the original 

 Arabic, while the plant which yields it is named Ketad, and its gum 

 Dragacanthum. The Kuteera gum a good deal resembles Tragacanth 

 in appearance, but does not in other respects correspond with that 

 gum according to the experiments which have been made on it in 

 Europe. It has been described by Martins under the name Kuteera 

 (' Pharmakognosie,' p. 338), which Guibourt says is the same as his 

 G'/mme de Bamora ; it is intermediate between tragacanth and bassorin 

 when pure, it is almost entirely bassorin. Like the latter, it swells 

 very much in water, and has a faint vinegar-like odour. Dr. Rox- 

 burgh states that Stercuiia urens " yields a gum not unlike Tragacanth, 

 and has been sent to London as such ; but the artists, who use that 

 gum, did not find it answer." He however mentions that the water 

 in which he kept the green branches for examination became thick, 

 like a clear glutinous jelly, while the bark was exceedingly astringent. 

 (' Fl. Ind.,' p. 111.) Dr. Royle, on the contrary, states that the gum 

 called Kuteera, and used as a substitute for Tragacanth in north-western 

 India, is yielded by Cochloxptrmum Gossypium, and he possesses some 

 of the same kind of gum collected by Mr. Malcolmson in Central India, 

 accompanied with specimens of the tree which yielded it. This is 

 identically the above-named species, which is so highly ornamental on 

 the lower mountains of India, with its large and rich-coloured yellow 

 flowers. Martius considers that it may be the produce of Acacia 

 leucophlcea, Willd. or of a Simaruba, the latter conjecture a very im- 

 probable source. This gum is used in dyeing. Mr. Simmonds says that 

 Kuteera and Kutira are two distinct gums ; the former from Stercu- 

 lia wem, the latter from Cochlospermum Go&ypi'um. (Simmonds' 

 ' Dictionary of Trade Products.') 



KYANOL. [ANILINE.] 



KYNURENIC ACID. [CYNURENIC ACID. Improperly inserted as 

 CYANCRENIC ACID. 



ARTS AND SCI. DIV, VOL. V. 



