316 



KIRCIIE KIRWAN. 



In 1767. he received Hit- degree of doctor of divinity 

 from the university of Edinburgh, and, in J778 and 

 Iwcame a fellow of the society of antiquaries 

 nnd of tin- royal society. He died in 1795. Doctor 

 Ki|-|>is laid the foundation of the New A 111111:1 1 

 Register. He devoted his principal attention during 

 the later years of his life, to an improved edition of 

 the Biographia Uritannica. This work was conducted 

 on a plan so elaborate, that no termination of it on 

 me scale is likely to be attempted. The labours 

 of doctor Kippis extended only to five folio volumes, 

 forming a small part of the plan. 



KIRCHE ; a German word for church, which 

 appears in a great number of geographical words. 



KIRCHER, ATHANASIUS ; a learned German 

 Jesuit, born at Fulda, in 1602. He was profes- 

 sor of mathematics, philosophy, and the Oriental 

 languages, at WurUburg, when the arms of the 

 lea disturbed his repose, and he repaired to 

 Avignon, where he continued several years. He 

 wished to return to Germany, but the pope called 

 him to Rome, where he at first taught mathematics 

 in the collegium Romanum, and afterwards occu- 

 pied himself in the study of the Egyptian hierogly- 

 phics. Father Kircher was a good Orientalist, 

 as well as an excellent mathematician ; but the 

 fanciful nature of some of his studies has caused most 

 of his productions to be considered rather curious 

 than useful. In his attempts to unravel the hierogly- 

 phics, he occasionally fell into some singular absurdi- 

 ties. His industry as a writer was unwearied, the 

 whole of his works occupying no fewer than twenty 

 volumes in folio, eleven in quarto, and three in octavo. 

 Among these are his (Edipus JEgyptiacus (4 vols., 

 fol., 1652 55), which contains fanciful explanations 

 of a great number of hieroglyphics. In this work, 

 and in his Prodromus Coptus (Rome, 1636, 4to), 

 and his Lingua ASgyptiaca restituta (Rome, 1644, 

 4to), he made investigations respecting the Coptic 

 language. He wrote also Obeliscus SEgyptiacus ; 

 Phonurgia Nova ; Ars magna sciendi sen Combina- 

 toria ; Preelusiones Magneticee (folio); Itinerarium 

 ertaticum (4to) ; Mundus subterraneus (2 vols.) ; 

 Afusurgia universalis (2 vols., folio); Turris Babel; 

 China illuslrata ; Primitiee Gnomonicee catoptrics 

 (4to) ; Area Noe ; Polygraphia (folio); Organum 

 Muthematicum ; Ars magna Lucis et Umbree (folio), 

 c , &c. In his Musurgia, he lays claim to the 

 invention of the ^Eolian harp ; and in his Phonurgia 

 Nova, to that of ihe speaking-trumpet. He was 

 afterwards professor of Hebrew and mathematics at 

 Rome, where he died in 1680. His writings embrace 

 the departments of philosophy, mathematics, physics, 

 mechanics, cosmography, natural history, philology, 

 history, and antiquity. They exhibit great learning, 

 but are disfigured by many extravagances. 



KIRGHISES, orKIRGUIS,orKIRGESE,orKIR- 

 GUSES, or, as they call themselves, SARA-KAI- 

 SAKI (Cossacks of the steppes); a widely extended 

 people of Independent Tartary, occupying a great 

 1 art of the southern frontier of Asiatic Russia. They 

 are generally considered as the descendants of the 

 most ancient Mongols, who formerly dwelt in the 

 neighbourhood of the Chinese wall. When they 

 were first discovered, at the time of the Russian 

 conquest of Siberia, they were dwelling on the upper 

 Yenesey. Since that time, they have been known as 

 a restless and dangerous people. They now inhabit 

 the wastes between the Ural and the Irtisch, called, 

 by the Russians, the Kirghite steppes. These wastes 

 are bounded west by the Caspian sea and the province 

 of Caucasia, north by the governments of Ufa and 

 Tobolsk, and east by that of Kolivan. They have 

 been long divided into the Great, the Middle, and 

 toe Little Hordes. The first, on account of their 



valour and the inaccessible mountains in which they 

 dwell, long remained independent, until their sultan, 

 in 1819, acknowledged the sovereignty of Russia. 

 The Middle and Little Hordes have recognised the 

 dominion of the Russians since 1731, but have always 

 shown themselves faithless, and disposed to pillage; 

 on which account, lines of small fortresses have been 

 ereeied along the streams on their frontiers. The 

 Little Horde occupy the westermost position, and 

 wander over the plains south and east of the Ural, 

 and between the Caspian and Aral. The Middle 

 Horde live farther east, on the vast plains north of 

 lake Aral. These two hordes subsist entirely on their 

 flocks, and have no agriculture. The Great Horde 

 live farther to the east and south, beyond the Aral, 

 and on the Sirr : some of them are pastoral, but a 

 considerable proportion cultivate the land, and in- 

 habit fertile, mild, and well watered countries. In 

 the lofcy ranees between Cashgar and Siberia, there 

 is a race called JVild or Mountain Kerghises, free, 

 fierce, and warlike, amounting to about 50,000. 

 There is another detachment south of Cashgar, an 

 agricultural people, and more civilized than the rest. 

 The Little and Middle Hordes are said to consist 

 each of about 30,000 tents or families, each of about 

 ten persons ; total, about 000,000. Their constitu- 

 tion is entirely free and independent. The khan of 

 the Little Horde is indeed appointed by Russia, but 

 he has scarcely any influence. The Russian govern- 

 ment, instead of exacting any tribute, pay regular 

 pensions to all the principal chiefs, in consideration 

 that these turbulent warriors shall not exercise upon 

 the Russian empire those predatory habits for which 

 they have always been famous. The Kirghises pro- 

 fess the Mohammedan religion, practise polygamy, 

 and live in tents of felt. Their articles of trade are 

 cattle, furs, leather, and coverlets of felt. 



KIRK. See Kerke. 



KIRK-SESSION ; a subordinate ecclesiastical court 

 in Scotland. See Assembly, General. 



KIRWAN, RICHARD, a distinguished modern writer 

 on chemistry, geology, and the kindred sciences. He 

 was a native of the county of Galway, in Ireland, and 

 was educated at the university of Dublin, where he 

 took the degree of LL.D. He devoted himself with 

 great ardour to chemical and mineralogical re- 

 searches, and became a member of the royal Irish 

 academy, and also a fellow of the royal society. He 

 published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1781, 

 1782, and 1783, Experiments and Observations on the 

 Specific Gravities and Attractive Powers of various 

 Saline Substances ; which important subject he 

 farther prosecuted in the Philosophical Transactions 

 for 1785. In 1784 appeared his Elements of Miner- 

 alogy (2 vols., 8vo), which was translated into Ger- 

 man by Crell, and subsequently republished, with ad- 

 ditions and improvements. In 1787, he published an 

 Essay on Phlogiston and the Constitution of Acids, 

 designed as a defence of the theory of chemistry ad- 

 vanced by doctor Priestley. This very ingenious pro- 

 duction was translated into French by the advocates 

 for the anti-phlogistic hypothesis, and published, 

 with animadversions on the rival system, which 

 made a convert of doctor Kirwan, whose rejection of 

 the principles he had so ably supported, had a con- 

 siderable influence in producing the revolution which 

 took place in chemical science. He produced, be- 

 sides the foregoing works, an Estimate of the Tem- 

 perature of different Latitudes (1787, 8vo); a treatise 

 on the Analysis of Mineral Waters (8vo), and 

 another on Logic (2 vols., 8vo), to which may be 

 added various communications to the learned societies 

 to which he belonged. At Dublin, he founded an 

 association for the express purpose of cultivating 

 mineralogy ; and, as a geologist, he advocated what 



