r was one
among Adam's posterity ... busy discovering the system of the
world--grandest conquest ever made, or to be made," adds Carlyle, "by the
sons of Adam"; he was long occupied in studying the "'motions of the
star' Mars, with calculations repeated seventy times, and with the
discovery of the planetary laws of the Universe"; these last are called
from his discovery of them Kepler's Laws; the first, that the planets
move on elliptic orbits, the sun in one of the foci; the second, that, in
describing its orbit, the radius vector of a planet traverses equal areas
in equal times; and the third, that the square of the time of the
revolution of a planet is proportional to the cube of its mean distance
from the sun; poverty pursued Kepler all his days, and he died of fever
at Ratisbon (1571-1630).

KEPLER'S LAWS. See KEPLER, JOHN.

KEPPEL, AUGUSTUS, VISCOUNT, son of the Earl of Albemarle; entered
the navy, and was in several engagements between 1757 and 1778; when
encountering the French off Ushant he quarrelled with his
second-in-command and let them escape; was court-martialled, but
acquitted; he was afterwards First Lord of the Admiralty (1725-1786).

KER, DR. JOHN, minister and professor, was horn in Peeblesshire,
brought up in Edinburgh; studied there and in Halle, was chosen to fill
the chair of Practical Training in the U.P. Theological College in 1876;
published some "Sermons," and "The Psalms in History and Biography"
(1819-1886).

KERATIN, a substance forming the chief constituent in the hair,
nails, and horn of animals.

KERGUELEN'S LAND, an island with rugged coasts, 85 m. long by 70
wide, of volcanic origin, in the Antarctic Ocean; so called after its
discoverer in 1772, changed to Desolation Island in 1776 by Captain Cook;
belongs to France.

KERMAN (300), an eastern province of Persia, the N. and the NE. of
it a desolate salt waste, and with a chief town (30) of the name in the
middle of it, once a great emporium of trade; manufactures carpets.

KERNER, ANDREAS, a lyric poet of the Swabian school, born in
Wuertemberg; studied and wrote on animal magnetism and spiritualism
(1786-1862).

KEROSENE, a refined petroleum used as oil for lamps.

KERRY (179), maritime county in the SW. of Ireland, between the
Shannon and Kenmare Rivers, with Limerick and Cork on the E.; has a
rugged, indented coast, Dingle Bay running far inland; is mountainous,
having Mount Brandon, the Macgillicuddy,