K A S 
■inftruments and telefcopes. He therefore did what has 
been fince practifed by Herfchel; he conftruCted fome 
himfelf, according to the directions given by Iierte! and 
Leutmann. Baumann’s filler, whom Kaltner afterwards 
married, recommended herfelf to his notice by her attach¬ 
ment to thefe purfuits. Having obtained from Baumann 
a teiefcope, the objeft-glal's of which had a focus ot fix 
feet, and which magnified twenty-three times, he employed 
it for obferving the comet of 1744, much better than the 
one he had borrowed in 174-2. He had no time-keeper; 
but he purchafed at a fide a brafs quadrant of half a Rhin- 
land foot radius, with fixed fights, and divided into 
quarters of a degree. 
In the year 1737 he had begun to learn algebra with 
Heinfius. Next year, Heinfius, having finilhed his courfe, 
made a tour to Peterfburgli; and on his return in 174-5 
Kaltner requelted leave to be prefent at the obfervatory 
while he made his obfervations ; but lie could not get his 
willies gratified. In this point Heinfius was exceedingly 
referved ; but in other refpeCts Kaltner kept up a very 
friendly intercourfe with Heinfius. After the year 1746, 
Kaltner enjoyed a fialary of one hundred rix-dollars as ex¬ 
traordinary profefl'or; what was further neceflary for main¬ 
taining himfelf and family, he procured by his leClures 
and by labouring for the bookfellers. By tranflating the 
Swedilh Tranfaftions, contributing towards the Ham¬ 
burgh Magazine, publilhing an edition of Smith’s Optics, 
and tranflating Lulolf’s Knowledge of the Terrell rial 
Globe, he had a further opportunity of improving himfelf 
in aftronomical knowledge ; but he was not able to em¬ 
ploy fo much time in the purfuit of this fcience as he 
wiflied ; and he wanted inllruments, as well as a proper 
place, for making aftronomical obfervations. Kaltner had 
hopes of obtaining the firlt philofophical chair that Ihould 
become vacant at Leipfic; but, as he could not wait till 
Heinfius and Winkler fliould make room for him, he left 
that city, and in the year 1756, after Segner’s departure 
from Gottingen, was invited thither to be profefl'or of ma¬ 
thematics and natural philofophy. 
At that period Gottingen afforded many excellent op¬ 
portunities for improvement in the mathematical, altrono- 
mical, and phyfieai, fciences. Tobias Mayer had been in¬ 
vited thither after Penther’s death ; and Lowitz, Wehper, 
Muller, Meilter, Eberhard, and Hollmann, taught every 
branch of the mathematical and phylical fciences. Mayer, 
in particular, Ihowed great friendlhip to Kaltner ; but he 
gave him no opportunity of participating in his labours 
at the obfervatory. At length, in the year 1765, Lowitz 
made known his refolution of leaving Gottingen, and re- 
figned the obfervatory to Kaltner, with every thing it con¬ 
tained. Though Kaltner had before nothing to do with 
the obfervatory, he gladly affumed this new occupation ; 
but it was an exprefs condition, on entering upon it, that 
he fliould require no increafe of his falary ; a facrifice 
which he readily made. The confidence repofed in him 
on this occafion he employed to the benefit of altronomy 
and the honour of Gottingen, by caufing the manufcripts 
left by Meyer, and his drawings of the moon, to be pur- 
chafed for the ufe of the univerfity. Thefe he preferved 
at the univerfity till they were delivered into the hands of 
Lichtenberg for publication; and tbofe not publifhed 
were after his death depofited in the public library. The 
obfervatory had now obtained an excellent inltrument for 
correfponding altitudes of the fun; but, as obfervations, 
on account of the nature of the building, could be taken 
in the morning only on the fouth-eaft fide, and in the af¬ 
ternoon on the fouth-weft, it was neceflary to remove the 
quadrant each time, and afterwards toadjuft it. This la¬ 
bour was undertaken by H. Opperman ; I. T. Mayer, fon 
of the altronomer, a counfell or of ftate to his Britilh raa- 
jelty, and now profefl'or at Gottingen in the room of Lich¬ 
tenberg; and Midler, captain of the Elbe frigate at Stade : 
but, on a reprefentation made by Kaltner, a building was 
eonftructed in the year 5782, under the direction of Op- 
K A S 639 
perman, on the fouth fide of the obfervatory, where Sif- 
i'on’s quadrant is now erected, and when ul'ed it needs 
only to be turned. A like building has been conltrufted 
on the north fide, for correfponding altitudes of the north¬ 
ern liars. Notwithllanding Kaftner’s fervice to aftrono- 
my and geography, the fervice he rendered to the mathe¬ 
matical fciences in general was much greater ; and his 
name will be mentioned by polterity among the molt emi¬ 
nent profdfors. He exerted himfelf with the molt cele¬ 
brated geometers of Germany, Segner and Karlten, to re- 
Itore to geometry its ancient rights, and to introduce 
more precilion and accuracy of demonftration into the 
whole of mathematical analyfis. The doftrine of bino¬ 
mials; that of the higher equations ; the laws of the equi¬ 
librium of two forces on the lever, and their compofition ; 
are fome of the moft important points in the do&rine of 
mathematical analyfis and mathematics, which Kaltner 
illultrated and explained in fuch a manner as to excel all 
his predeceflors. Germany is in particular indebted to 
him for his claflical works on every part of the pure and 
praftical_ mathematics. They unite that l'olidity peculiar 
to the old Grecian geometry with great brevity and clear- 
nei's, and a fund of erudition, by which Kaltner has greatly 
contributed to promote the ftudy and knowledge of the 
mathematics. Kaftner’s talents, however, were not con¬ 
fined to mathematics; his poetical and humourous works, 
as well as his epigrams, are a proof of the extent of his 
genius; efpecially as thefe talents feldom fall to the lot 
of a mathematician. How Kaltner acquired a talte for 
thefe purfuits, we are told by himfelf in one of his letters. 
In the early part of his life he refided at Leipfic, among 
friends who were neither mathematicians nor acquainted 
with the fciences ; he then, as lie ttlls us himfelf, con¬ 
tracted “the bad habit of laughing at others.” Kaltner 
died at Gottingen on the 20th of June, 1800, at the age of 
eighty-one. A few months before his death, he was af¬ 
flicted with a paralytic ftroke in his right hand ; but fo al- 
fiduous and indefatigable was he in the profecution of his 
ltudies, that he began to write with his left. Previous to 
the misfortune above related, he had finilhed the fourth 
volume of his excellent Hiftory of the Mathematics, which 
maybe confidered as a defcriptive catalogue of his own li¬ 
brary ; for he poflefled a precious collection of all the molt 
rare and valuable works in the mathematical department". 
His manners were fomewhat Angular. During the lat¬ 
ter years of his life, he never went abroad except on Sun¬ 
days, (when he regularly attended the fermons at his pa- 
rilh-church,) and on the days when the Royal Literary 
Society of Gottingen held their fittings. The catalogue 
of his different works fills above nine pages in the laft edi¬ 
tion of Meufel’s German Literature. Among the num¬ 
ber are tranflations of feveral important works from the 
French, the Englifn, and the Low-Dutch. Several inte- 
refting diflertations, fome printed l'eparately, others in- 
ferted in various periodical publications. He compofed 
many eulogies, among others thofe of Leibnitz, of T. 
Mayer, of j. G. Roederer, of J. P. Murray, of J. C. P. Erx- 
leben, and of Meilter. From his pen we have feveral ele¬ 
mentary works on different branches of the mathematics, 
which have all met with very great luccefs. His Elements 
of Arithmetic, of Plane and Spherical Trigonometry, and 
of Perfpeftive, palled through five editions between the 
years 1758 and 1794. 
KAS'TOLATZ, a town of European Turkey, in the 
province of Servia : five miles north of Paflarovitz. 
KAS'TRIL, f. A kind of baftard hawk, more com¬ 
monly called ktjird. See Falco. —What a calt of kajlrits 
are thefe, to hawk after ladies thus ? B. Jonfon's F.picane. 
KASY'A, in Hindoo mythology, was the Guru, or 
fpiritual preceptor, of Krifhna, of whofe wife the follow¬ 
ing legend occurs in the Pedma Purana, and in the Sri 
Bhagavat, among the ftrange miracles recorded of this in¬ 
carnate deity. She complained to Krilhna that the ocean 
had fwailowed up her children on the coalt of Gurjura, 
3 ®r- 
