KOSHER, or Kasher (Hebrew clean, right, or fit), the Jewish term for any food or vessels for food made ritually fit for use, in contradistinction to those pasul, unfit, and terefah, forbidden. Thus the vessels used at the Passover are “kosher,” as are also new metal vessels bought from a Gentile after they have been washed in a ritual bath. But the term is specially used of meat slaughtered in accordance with the law of Moses. The schochat or butcher must be a devout Jew and of high moral character, and be duly licensed by the chief rabbi. The slaughtering—the object of which is to insure the complete bleeding of the body, the Jews being forbidden to eat blood—is done by severing the windpipe with a long and razor-sharp knife by one continuous stroke backwards and forwards. No unnecessary force is permitted, and no stoppage must occur during the operation. The knife is then carefully examined, and if there be the slightest flaw in its blade the meat cannot be eaten, as the cut would not have been clean, the uneven blade causing a thrill to pass through the beast and thus driving the blood again through the arteries. After this every portion of the animal is thoroughly examined, for if there is any organic disease the devout Jew cannot taste the meat. In order to soften meat before it is salted, so as to allow the salt to extract the blood more freely, the meat is soaked in water for about half an hour. It is then covered with salt for about an hour and afterwards washed three times. Kosher meat is labelled with the name of the slaughterer and the date of killing.
KÖSLIN, or Cöslin, a town of Germany, in the Prussian
province of Pomerania, at the foot of the Gollenberg (450 ft.),
5 m. from the Baltic, and 105 m. N.E. of Stettin by rail. Pop.
(1905), 21,474. The town has two Evangelical and a Roman
Catholic church, a gymnasium, a cadet academy and a deaf and
dumb asylum. In the large market place is the statue of the
Prussian king Frederick William I., erected in 1824, and there is
a war memorial on the Friedrich Wilhelm Platz. The industries
include the manufacture of soap, tobacco, machinery, paper,
bricks and tiles, beer and other goods. Köslin was built about
1188 by the Saxons, and raised to the rank of a town in 1266.
In 1532 it accepted the doctrines of the Reformation. It was
severely tried in the Thirty Years’ War and in the Seven Years’
War, and in 1720 it was burned down. On the Gollenberg
stands a monument to the memory of the Pomeranians who fell
in the war of 1813–15.
KOSSOVO, or Kosovo, a vilayet of European Turkey, comprising the sanjak of Uskub in Macedonia, and the sanjaks of
Prizren and Novibazar (q.v.) in northern Albania. Pop. (1905),
about 1,100,000; area, 12,700 sq. m. For an account of the
physical features of Kossovo, see Albania and Macedonia.
The inhabitants are chiefly Albanians and Slavs, with smaller
communities of Greeks, Turks, Vlachs and gipsies. A few good
roads traverse the vilayet (see Usküb), and the railway from
Salonica northward bifurcates at Usküb, the capital, one branch
going to Mitrovitza in Albania, the other to Nish in Servia.
Despite the undoubted mineral wealth of the vilayet, the only
mines working in 1907 were two chrome mines, at Orasha and
Verbeshtitza. In the volume of its agricultural trade, however,
Kossovo is unsurpassed by any Turkish province. The exports,
worth about £950,000, include livestock, large quantities of
grain and fruit, tobacco, vegetables, opium, hemp and skins.
Rice is cultivated for local consumption, and sericulture is a
growing industry, encouraged by the Administration of the
Ottoman Debt. The yearly value of the imports is approximately
£1,200,000; these include machinery and other manufactured
goods, metals, groceries, chemical products and petroleum, which
is used in the flour-mills and factories on account of the prohibitive
price of coal. There is practically no trade with
Adriatic ports; two-thirds of both exports and imports pass
through Salonica, the remainder going by rail into Servia. The
chief towns, Usküb (32,000), Prizren (30,000), Koprülü (22,000),
Ishtib [Slav. Stip] (21,000), Novibazar (12,000) and Prishtina
(11,000) are described in separate articles.
In the middle ages the vilayet formed part of the Servian Empire, its northern districts are still known to the Serbs as Old Servia (Stara Srbiya). The plain of Kossovo (Kossovopolje, “Field of Blackbirds”), a long valley lying west of Prishtina and watered by the Sibnitza, a tributary of the Servian Ibar, is famous in Balkan history and legend as the scene of the battle of Kossovo (1389), in which the power of Servia was destroyed by the Turks. (See Servia: History.)
KOSSUTH, FERENCZ LAJOS AKOS (1841– ), Hungarian
statesman, the son of Lajos Kossuth, was born on the 16th of
November 1841, and educated at the Paris Polytechnic and the
London University, where in 1859 he won a prize for political
economy. After working as a civil engineer on the Dean Forest
railway he went (1861) to Italy, where he resided for the next
thirty-three years, taking a considerable part in the railway construction
of the peninsula, and at the same time keeping alive
the Hungarian independence question by a whole series of
pamphlets and newspaper articles. At Cesena in 1876 he married
Emily Hoggins. In 1885 he was decorated for his services by the
Italian government. His last great engineering work was the
construction of the steel bridges for the Nile. In 1894 he escorted
his father’s remains to Hungary, and the following year resolved
to settle in his native land and took the oath of allegiance. As
early as 1867 he had been twice elected a member of the Hungarian
diet, but on both occasions refused to accept the mandate.
On the 10th of April 1895 he was returned for Tapolca and in 1896
for Cegléd, and from that time took an active part in Hungarian
politics. In the autumn of 1898 he became the leader of the
obstructionists or “Independence Party,” against the successive
Szell, Khuen-Haderváry, Szápáry and Stephen Tisza administrations
(1898–1904), exercising great influence not only in
parliament but upon the public at large through his articles in
the Egyetértés. The elections of 1905 having sent his party back
with a large majority, he was received in audience by the king
and helped to construct the Wekerle ministry, of which he was
one of the most distinguished members.
See Sturm, The Almanack of the Hungarian Diet (1905–1910), art. “Kossuth” (Hung.) (Budapest, 1905).
KOSSUTH, LAJOS [Louis] (1802–1894), Hungarian patriot,
was born at Monok, a small town in the county of Zemplin, on
the 19th of September 1802. His father, who was descended
from an old untitled noble family and possessed a small estate,
was by profession an advocate. Louis, who was the eldest of
four children, received from his mother a strict religious training.
His education was completed at the Calvinist college of Sárospatak
and at the university of Budapest. At the age of nineteen he
returned home and began practice with his father. His talents
and amiability soon won him great popularity, especially among
the peasants. He was also appointed steward to the countess
Szápáry, a widow with large estates, and as her representative
had a seat in the county assembly. This position he lost owing
to a quarrel with his patroness, and he was accused of appropriating
money to pay a gambling debt. His fault cannot have
been very serious, for he was shortly afterwards (he had in the
meantime settled in Pesth) appointed by Count Hunyady to be his
deputy at the National Diet in Pressburg (1825–1827, and again
in 1832). It was a time when, under able leaders, a great
national party was beginning the struggle for reform against the
stagnant Austrian government. As deputy he had no vote, and
he naturally took little share in the debates, but it was part of
his duty to send written reports of the proceedings to his patron,
since the government, with a well-grounded fear of all that might
stir popular feeling, refused to allow any published reports.
Kossuth’s letters were so excellent that they were circulated in
MS. among the Liberal magnates, and soon developed into an
organized parliamentary gazette (Orszagyulesi tudositasok), of
which he was editor. At once his name and influence spread.
In order to increase the circulation, he ventured on lithographing
the letters. This brought them under the official censure, and
was forbidden. He continued the paper in MS., and when the
government refused to allow it to be circulated through the post
sent it out by hand. In 1836 the Diet was dissolved. Kossuth
continued the agitation by reporting in letter form the debates
of the county assemblies, to which he thereby gave a political
