KUHN

kuhn, franz felix adalbert (1812-1881), german philologist and folklorist, was born at konigsberg in neumark on the 19th of november 1812. from 1841 he was connected with the kollnisches gymnasium at berlin, of which he was appointed director in 1870. he died at berlin on the 5th of may 1881. kuhn was the founder of a new school of comparative mythology, based upon comparative philology. inspired by grimm's _deutsche mythologie_, he first devoted himself to german stories and legends, and published _markische sagen und marchen_ (1842), _norddeutsche sagen, marchen und gebrauche_ (1848), and _sagen, gebrauche und marchen aus westfalen_ (1859). but it is on his researches into the language and history of the indo-germanic peoples as a whole that his reputation is founded. his chief works in this connexion are: _zur altesten geschichte der indogermanischen volker_ (1845), in which he endeavoured to give an account of the earliest civilization of the indo-germanic peoples before their separation into different families, by comparing and analysing the original meaning of the words and stems common to the different languages; _die herabkunft des feuers und des gottertranks_ (1859; new ed. by e. kuhn, under title of _mythologische studien_, 1886); and _uber entwicklungsstufen der mythenbildung_ (1873), in which he maintained that the origin of myths was to be looked for in the domain of language, and that their most essential factors were polyonymy and homonymy. the _zeitschrift fur vergleichende sprachforschung auf dem gebiete der indogermanischen sprachen_, with which he was intimately connected, is the standard periodical on the subject. see obituary notice by c. bruchmann in bursian's _biographisches jahrbuch_ (1881) and j. schmidt in the above _zeitschrift_, xxvi. n.s. 6. kuhne, willy (1837-1900), german physiologist, was born at hamburg on the 28th of march 1837. after attending the gymnasium at luneburg, he went to gottingen, where his master in chemistry was f. wohler and in physiology r. wagner. having graduated in 1856, he studied under various famous physiologists, including e. du bois-reymond at berlin, claude bernard in paris, and k. f. w. ludwig and e. w. brucke in vienna. at the end of 1863 he was put in charge of the chemical department of the pathological laboratory at berlin, under r. von virchow; in 1868 he was appointed professor of physiology at amsterdam; and in 1871 he was chosen to succeed h. von helmholtz in the same capacity at heidelberg, where he died on the 10th of june 1900. his original work falls into two main groups--the physiology of muscle and nerve, which occupied the earlier years of his life, and the chemistry of digestion, which he began to investigate while at berlin with virchow. he was also known for his researches on vision and the chemical changes occurring in the retina under the influence of light. the visual purple, described by franz boll in 1876, he attempted to make the basis of a photochemical theory of vision, but though he was able to establish its importance in connexion with vision in light of low intensity, its absence from the retinal area of most distinct vision detracted from the completeness of the theory and precluded its general acceptance.