The Nuttall Encyclopaedia Part 322

NEPTUNE, the remotest planet of the solar system at present known; it is twice as far distant from the sun as URa.n.u.s (q. v.) is, deemed before its discovery the remotest; its diameter is four times greater than that of the earth, and it takes 60,126 days to revolve round the sun, accompanied by a solitary satellite; it was discovered in 1846 by ADAMS (q. v.) and LEVERRIER (q. v.), who were guided to the spot where they found it from the effect of its neighbourhood on the movements of Ura.n.u.s.

NERBUDDA, or NARBADA, a sacred river of India; has its source in the Amarkantak plateau of the Deccan, and flows westward, a rapid body of greenish-blue water, through the great valley between the Vindhya and Satpura Mountains, reaching the Gulf of Cambay after a course of 800 m., the last 30 of which are navigable.

NEREIDES, nymphs of the Mediterranean Sea, daughters of Nereus, 60 in number, and attendant on Poseidon.

NEREUS, the G.o.d of the Mediterranean Sea, the son of Pontus and Gaia, the husband of Doris, and father of the Nereides, represented as a sage, venerable old man.

NERI, ST. PHILIPPO DI, Italian priest, born at Florence, of n.o.ble family; founder of the Congregation of the Oratory; was known from his boyhood as the Good Pippo, and he spent his life in acts of devotion and charity (1515-1592). Festival, May 26.

NERO, Roman emperor from A.D. 54 to 68, born at Antium, son of Cn.

Domitius Ahen.o.barbus and of Agrippina, daughter of Germanicus; after the murder of Claudius, instigated by Agrippina, who 4 years previously had become the emperor's wife, Nero seized the throne, excluding Britannicus, the rightful heir; during the first 5 years of his reign his old tutors, Seneca and Burrus, were his advisers in a wise and temperate policy, but gradually his innate tendency to vice broke through all restraint, and hurried him into a course of profligacy and crime; Britannicus was put to death, his mother and wife, Octavia, were subsequent victims, and in 64 numbers of Christians suffered death, with every refinement of torture, on a trumped-up charge of having caused the great burning of Rome, suspicion of which rested on Nero himself; a year later Seneca and the poet Lucan were executed as conspirators, and, having kicked to death his wife Poppaea, then far advanced in pregnancy, he offered his hand to Octavia, daughter of Claudius, and because she declined his suit ordered her death; these and many other similar crimes brought on inevitable rebellion; Spain and Gaul declared in favour of Galba; the Praetorian Guards followed suit; Nero fled from Rome, and sought refuge in suicide (37-68).

NERVA, Roman emperor from 96 to 98, elected by the Senate; ruled with moderation and justice; resigned in favour of Trajan, as from age unable to cope with the turbulence of the Praetorian Guards.

NESS, LOCH, the second largest loch in Scotland, stretches along the valley of Glenmore, in Inverness-s.h.i.+re, is 22 m. long, and has an average breadth of 1 m. and an extreme depth of 280 ft.: its main feeders are the Morriston, Oich, and Foyers; the Ness is its chief outlet.

NESSELRODE, COUNT VON, celebrated Russian diplomatist, born at Lisbon, where his father was Russian amba.s.sador; represented Russia at a succession of congresses, played a prominent part at them, and directed the foreign policy of the empire under Alexander I. and Nicholas I., from 1816 to 1856, though he strove to avoid the war which broke out in 1853 (1780-1862).

NESSUS, a Centaur who, for attempting to carry off Dejanira, Hercules' wife, was shot by Hercules with an arrow dipped in the blood of the HYDRA (q. v.), and who in dying handed to Dejanira his mantle, dipped in his poisoned blood, as a charm to regain her husband's affections should he at any time prove unfaithful. See HERCULES.

NESSUS' s.h.i.+RT, the poisoned robe which Nessus gave Dejanira, and which in a moment of distrust she gave to Hercules. See NESSUS.

NESTOR, king of Pylos, a protege and wors.h.i.+pper of Poseidon, the oldest, most experienced, and wisest of the Greek heroes at the siege of Troy; belonged to the generation of the grandfathers of the rest of them.

NESTORIUS, a celebrated heresiarch, born in Syria; was made patriarch of Constantinople in 428, deposed for heresy by the Council of Ephesus 431, and banished to the Lybian Desert, where he died; the heresy he taught, called after him Nestorianism, was that the two natures, the divine and the human, coexist in Christ, but are not united, and he would not allow to the Virgin Mary the t.i.tle that had been given to her as the "Mother of G.o.d"; the orthodoxy of the Church as against the doctrine was championed by Cyril of Alexandria.

NETHERLANDS, a term formerly applied to the whole NW. corner of Europe, occupied by BELGIUM (q. v.) and Holland, but now an official designation only of HOLLAND (q. v.).

NETLEY, the site of the handsome Royal Victoria Hospital, on the sh.o.r.e of Southampton Water, 3 m. SE. of Southampton, and connected by a direct line with Portsmouth; founded in 1856 as an asylum for invalided soldiers, also the head-quarters of the female nurses of the army; in the vicinity also are interesting remains of a Cistercian abbey.

NETTLERASH or URTICARIA, an irritating eruption in the skin causing a sensation like the stinging of nettles. It may be acute or chronic, frequently caused by errors of diet.

NEUCHaTEL (109), a western canton of Switzerland, lying between Lake Neuchatel and France; the surface is diversified by the Jura Mountains, and plentifully supplied with small streams; the greater part of the inhabitants are French Protestants; coal and iron are found, stock-raising and agriculture are engaged in, but the great specialty of the canton is watchmaking, which is chiefly carried on at La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle; Neuchatel was incorporated in the Swiss Confederation in 1815. NEUCHaTEL (17), capital of the canton, has a fine situation on the NW. sh.o.r.e of the lake, 86 m. NE. of Geneva; has many educational, art, and charitable inst.i.tutions, and is chiefly engaged in the manufacture of watches, jewellery, &c. LAKE OF NEUCHaTEL is a beautiful sheet of water, 25 m. in length, and from 3 to 6 in breadth.

NEUSTRIA, western portion of the kingdom of the Franks in the time of the Merovingian and Carlovingian dynasties, and in constant rivalry with AUSTRASIA (q. v.), the kingdom of the East; it extended from the Scheldt to the Loire and Soissons; Paris, Orleans, and Tours were the chief towns.

NEUVILLE, ALPHONSE DE, French painter of battle-scenes, born at St.

Omer; he was an ill.u.s.trator of books, among others Guizot's "Histoire de France" (1836-1885).

NEVA, a river of Russia issuing from the SW. corner of Lake Ladoga, flows westward in a broad rapid current past St. Petersburg, and discharges its great volume of water into the Bay of Cronstadt, in the Gulf of Finland, after a winding course of 40 miles.

NEVADA (46), one of the western States of the American Union, occupying a wide stretch of territory on the Great Plateau or Basin, between the Rocky Mountains on the E. and the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada on the W., has Oregon and Idaho on the N., and California on the S. and W.; elevated, cold, dry, and barren, it offers little inducement to settlers, and is in consequence the least in population of the American States; the great silver discoveries of 1859 brought it first into notice, and mining still remains the chief industry; Virginia City and Carson (capital) are the chief towns; was admitted to the Union in 1864.

NEVILLE'S CROSS, BATTLE OF, battle fought near Durham between the Scots and English in 1346, in which the former were defeated and King David taken prisoner.

NEVIS, BEN. See BEN NEVIS.

NEW BRITAIN or NEU-POMMERN, a large island in the German Bismarck Archipelago, West Pacific, lying off the NE. coast of New Guinea, from which it is separated by Dampier Strait; is 300 m. long, with an average breadth of 40 m.; is mountainous and volcanic in the interior, and thickly clad with forest trees; fruits of various kinds are the chief product; is inhabited by Melanesian savages.

NEW BRUNSWICK (321), a SE. province of Canada, presents a long foresh.o.r.e to the Gulf of St. Lawrence on the NE. and to the Bay of Fundy on the SE., while directly E. lies Nova Scotia, to which it is joined by the isthmus of Chignecto; the surface is diversified by numerous lakes, magnificent forests of pine and other woods, and the fertile valleys of the Rivers St. John, Restigouche, and Miramichi; timber is the chief export, but only less valuable are its fisheries, while s.h.i.+pbuilding is also an important and growing industry; coal is mined in good quant.i.ties, and the chief towns, St. John, Portland, and Fredericton (capital) are busy centres of iron, textile, and other factories; the climate is subject to extremes of heat and cold, but is healthy; many of the inhabitants are of French origin, for New Brunswick formed part of the old French colony of Acadia.

NEW CALEDONIA (63), an island of the South Pacific belonging to France, the most southerly of the Melanesian group, lying about 800 m. E.

of Australia and nearly 1000 m. N. of New Zealand; is mountainous, produces the usual tropical fruits, and exports some nickel, cobalt, coffee, &c.; is used by the French as a convict station; discovered by Captain Cook in 1774 and annexed by France in 1853; Noumea (5), on the SW., is the capital.

NEW ENGLAND, a name given in 1704 by Captain John Smith to the eastern and most densely populated portion of the United States, which now comprises Maine, New Hamps.h.i.+re, Vermont, Ma.s.sachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut; was first colonised under the name of North Virginia by the Plymouth Company in 1606; the inhabitants, known distinctively as Yankees, are mostly of Puritan and Scotch descent, and are noted for their shrewdness and industry.

NEW FOREST, a district in the SW. of Hamps.h.i.+re, 14 m. from N. to S.

and 16 m. wide, and consisting of 92,000 acres, of which 62,000 belong to the crown demesnes; one-fourth of the area consists of enclosed plantations, chiefly of oak and beech, the rest being open woodland, bog, and heath; Lyndhurst is the princ.i.p.al town.

NEW GUINEA, the largest island in the world (excluding the island continents of Australia and Greenland), lies N. of Australia, from which it is divided by Torres Strait (90 m. wide); is an irregular, mountainous, well-rivered territory, 10 times the size of Scotland, and is held by three European powers--the Dutch (200) in the western and least developed half; the German (100); in the NE., Kaiser Wilhelm's Land, administered by the German New Guinea Company, who export tobacco, areca, bamboo, ebony, &c.; and the British (135), in the SE., administered by the Commonwealth of Australia. Successful encouragement has been given to colonisation, and good exports of gold pearl-sh.e.l.ls, copra, &c., are made. Much of the interior is still to explore, and is inhabited by Papuans, Negritoes, and other Melanesian tribes, many of which are still in the cannibal stage, although others are peaceful and industrious. A hot moist climate gives rise to much endemic fever, but encourages a wonderful profusion of tropical growth, giving place in the highlands to the hardier oak and pine, and still higher to a purely alpine flora; as in Australia, the animals are chiefly marsupials; the mountain ranges, which stretch in a more or less continuous line throughout the island, have peaks that touch an alt.i.tude of 20,000 ft.

and send down many navigable streams. Port Moresby is the capital of the British portion.

NEW HAMPs.h.i.+RE (377), the second most northerly of the NEW ENGLAND STATES (q. v.), and from the beauty of its lake and mountain scenery called the "Switzerland of America," lies N. and S. between Quebec province and Ma.s.sachusetts, while the Atlantic washes part of its eastern borders; is more engaged in manufactures than in agriculture, and obtains valuable water-power and waterway from its rivers, the Piscataqua, Merrimac, and Connecticut; Manchester, on the Merrimac, is the largest city.

NEW HAVEN (108), capital of New Haven county, Connecticut, and chief city and seaport of the State, at the head of New Haven Bay, 4 m. from Long Island Sound, and 73 m. NE. of New York; is a finely built city, and, since 1718, has been the seat of Yale College; is an important manufacturing centre, producing rifles, iron-ware of all kinds, carriages, clocks, &c., was up till 1873 joint capital of the State with Harford.

NEW HEBRIDES (70), a group of some 30 volcanic Islands (20 inhabited) in the Western Pacific, lying W. of the Fiji Islands and NE.