784 K N I 
for money, betray fuch marks of hafte and careleffnefs, that 
they are unworthy of an artift of any reputation. As 
wealth was his great object, he attained it in a de¬ 
gree beyond moft of the profeffion. He was, however, no 
hoarder; but lived magnificently, and indulged a volup¬ 
tuous tafte. He had a country houfe at Whitton, near 
Hampton-court, and acted in the commiffion for the peace, 
but with more attention to the dictates of humanity than 
the letter of the law. He poffefied a fund of humour and 
quicknefs of repartee ; but his converfation was licentious, 
efpecially upon religious topics. He was extremely vain, 
and fond of compliment; and indeed few painters have 
received more incenfe from the filter art. Dryden, Pope, 
Addifon, Prior, Tickell, and Steele, all wrote poems in 
his prail'e. That of Addifon, on his feries of Englilh l'o- 
vereigns, does peculiar honour both to the poet and the 
painter. He continued to praftife his art to an advanced 
age, and had reached his feventy-fifth year at his death, 
in October 1723. He was interred in Weftminlter-abbey, 
under a fplendid monument executed by Rylbrach, which 
bears an infcription by Pope, certainly not one of the hap- 
piell efforts of his genius. The principal works of Knel- 
ler are his Hampton-court pieces, his admirals, his kit- 
cat-club, and many of his illuftrious portraits. He is faid 
himfelf to have given the preference to his Converted 
Chinefe at Windfor. About feventy-five of his heads 
have been engraved. Walpole. 
KNE'MA, f. [from Gr. the fpoke of a wheel; 
bn account of the anther® being difpofed into a ltar-like 
or wheel-lhaped form.] In botany, a genus of the clafs 
dioecia, order monadelphia. The generic characters are— 
Male. Calyx : none. Corolla : of one petal, flefhy ; tube 
thick, Ihort; limb in three acute fegments, wyoolly on 
the outfide. Stamina: a fingle filament, Ihort, turbinated ; 
antherse ten or twelve, ovate, two-celled, expanded hori¬ 
zontally about the top of the filament. Female, (flowers 
on a diltinft plant.) Calyx: perianthium inferior, very 
Ihort, fomewhat truncated, permanent. Corolla : as in the 
male. Piltillum : germen luperior, roundifli, hairy ; ftigma 
none ; ftyle laciniated, ereCt. Pericarpium : berry ovate, 
fucculent. Seed : folitary, ovate, tunicated.— EJfential 
CharaEler. Male. Calyx none ; corolla three-cleft; an¬ 
thers formed into a ftar, about the filament. Female. 
Calyx rather truncated; corolla three-cleft, ftigma one; 
berry fuperior, fingle-feeded. 
Knema corticofa, a fingle fpecies; native of the woods 
of Cochin-china. This is a large tree, with a thick brown 
or feddifh bark. Branches afcending. Leaves lanceo¬ 
late, entire, fmooth, alternate, on footllalks. Both male 
and female flowers nearly terminal, on many-flowered 
ftalks. Corolla brown on the outfide, yellowilh red w ith¬ 
in. Berry fmall, pulpy, red. Lcureiro. 
KNES'SELART, or Knaslaer, a town of France, in 
the department of the Lys : eleven miles ealt-fouth-eaft 
of Bruges. 
KNET'TLE, f. A knot with tw'o ends of rope for faf- 
tening a block ; a lea-term. 
KNEW, the preterite of know. 
KNEZ'DO, or Sokolovo, a mountain of Croatia : 
thirty-two miles ealt of Bihacs. 
KNEZRIOS'TS, a town of Bohemia, in Boleflaw : eight 
miles north-eaft of Jung Buntzel. 
KNIAG'ININ, a town of Ruflia, in the government of 
Nizegorod : forty miles eaft-north-eaft of Niznei Novgo¬ 
rod. 
KNIA'SE, a town of Poland, in Volhynia : fifty miles 
fouth-weft of Lucko. 
KNICK'-KNACK, f. A plaything; a gewgaw'. 
KNIE'BIS, a mountain of Germany, in the Brilgaw, 
weft of Friburg. 
KNI'FA, J. in botany, one of Adanfon’s whimfical 
names, of whofe origin or meaning no account is given. 
He ufes it to defignate a genus of his own, compoled of 
the Linnsean Hypericum inutilum and fetofum, wdiofe 
flowers have but two ftyles, and their capfules two cells. 
Bee vol. x. p. 64.5. Let us proteft, once for all, againlt 
K *N I 
the rage for forming new genera in the various depart¬ 
ments of natural hiftory, and efpecially in botany. Every 
flight deviation, even in the generic character, is not fuf- 
ficierit to conftitute a new genus ; for no artificial iyftem 
can fupport an examination on this ground. The genera 
would be multiplied without end ; and the burthen laid 
on the memory would outweigh the profit to be gained 
from fuch polilhed nicety. 
KNIFE, f. plur .knives \ [cnip, Sax. hniff, Danifts.] An 
inftrument edged and pointed, wherewith meat is cut, and 
animals killed.—Pain is not in the knife that cuts us -. but 
we call it cutting in the knife, and pain only in ourfelves. 
Watts. 
The facred priefts with ready knives bereave 
The healt of life, and in full bowls receive 
The ftesaming blood. Dryden'f jEtt, 
A fword : 
Forthy flie oft him counfel’d to forbeare 
The bloody batteil and to ftirre up ftrife; 
But after all his warre to reft his wearie knife. Spenfer. 
Knives are faid to have been firft made in England in 
1563, by one Matthews, on Fleet Bridge, London. The 
importation of all forts of knives is prohibited. From 
fiome old plays, it appears that knives were formerly part 
of the accoutrements of a bride ; and the practice of wear¬ 
ing knives and puries was pretty general among Euro¬ 
pean women at the end of the fixteenth century; wed¬ 
ding-knives were prefented among other articles of a do- 
meltic nature. Knives found their way from Italy to 
England about the time above-mentioned, but forks not 
till a confiderable time afterward, though laid to have 
been known in Italy fome years before. 
At the manufactory of Meifrs. Noel and Kippax, in 
Sheffield, upwards of ninety perfons are employed in form¬ 
ing thole ufeful inftruments called knives, in every branch 
of the manufaClure, from the rude iron bar to the beau¬ 
tiful and complicated articles which coll feven or eight 
guineas, and which contain twenty-eight different pieces 
within the handle. Some, indeed, are not of fo high a 
value; for, having paffed through at leaft fixty different 
hands, from the rough ore to the laft polilhing, they are 
fold afterwards at the rate of two-pence halfpenny each. 
Five hundred different patterns of knives are made at this 
manufactory. Almoft all the people employed work by 
the piece, and commonly earn, if induftrious, 4.S. a-day. 
Knife-eater. The following very Angular cafe is 
attefted by Mr. Afliley Cooper. A fiiilor, named Wil¬ 
liam Cummings, died in Guy’s hofpital, in May 1809. 
Several years before, this man, according to his own ac¬ 
count, lwallowed fix of his meliorates’ knives in a drunken 
frolic ; and, feeling no immediate bad conlequences, he 
on two fubfequent occafions fwallowed twelve or thirteen 
more. For two years pall he had applied, at frequent in¬ 
tervals, for admiffion into various hofpitals ; but W'as uni¬ 
formly difmiffed as an impoltor, upon telling his ftrange 
Itory. He was received into Guy’s only a few weeks pre¬ 
vious to his death, after having been ftripped and minute¬ 
ly examined by Dr. Babington and Mr. Aflrley Cooper. 
On opening the body, a portion of iron, four inches long, 
was found loole in the abdomen ; and another was mak¬ 
ing its way through the ifchiatic notch. In the ftonrach 
were feveral portions of iron ; one lining of a fmall poc¬ 
ket-knife; two fmall ornaments of a knife-handle, appa¬ 
rently of iilver; and a naval captain’s uniform button ! 
Of the pieces of iron, twelve are diftinClly the remains of 
blades, and two others may poffibly be confidered fo. The 
remaining fragments are portions of the fprings and li¬ 
nings of "the knife-handles, fome of them tapering to a 
point, and as lharp as a pin. The blades are all corroded 
longitudinally, giving the appearance of feveral parallel 
grooves running lengthways. The filver appears to be 
uninjured. He"lwallowed the knives in 1805, and voided 
fome of them in 1807. When the faCt was publicly made 
known, it did not obtain general belief, though moft re- 
fpeCtabJy 
