Part 322 (1/2)

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.