KIT'TO, Jots ( 104-54 ) An English bibli cal scholar, horn at Plymouth, December 4. 1804. In his thirteenth year he lost his power of hear ing in consequence of a fall. Ills father's •ircum st•nees at this time were so 'wretched that young Ditto was soon after sent to the workhonse. Here he learned the trade of shoemaking. In 1824 he went to Exeter to learn dentistry with Anthony Norris Groves, one of the founders of the Plymouth Brethren. and later a devoted inde pendent missionary in tie East. Mr. Groves en couraged Kitto in his literary aspirations, and in 1823 he published Es1/4ays and Letters by John Kitto. In the same year Kitto was sent by the kindness of various friends to the missionary college at Islington, to be trained as a printer on one of the Church Missionary Society's foreign presses. In 1827 he went in that capacity to Malta. but was recalled in 1829 because he neglected his duties in his devotion to literature.
In June. 1829. he accompanied Mr. Groves and family on a tour to the East, visiting in the course of his travels Saint Petersburg. Astrakhan, the Kalmuck Tatars. the Caucasus. Armenia. and Bagdad. Ile returned to England in 1833. The rest of his life was spent in the ser vice of the Ile died at Cannstadt. in Wiirttemberg. November 23.1854. Ills principal works are: The Pictorial /War (1838; new ed. H551; Pictorial History of Pairstine (1539-40) ; History of Palestine (1843); The Lost Senses- Deafness and (1845) ; Journal of ,Sacred Literature (184S-53) ; and Daily Bible Illustrations (8 vols., 1849-53; new ed. by Porter, 1866.67). Ile also edited the Cyclopedia of Bibli cal Litcruture (t! vols.. 1845; 3d ed.. 3 vols., by \\. L. Alexander, 1862-70). Consult his biography by Ryland (London, 1856), and by J. Eadie (Edinburgh, 1857).