NITROGEN, a gaseous element which const.i.tutes one-fourth in volume of the atmosphere, is the basis of nitric acid, and is an essential const.i.tuent of proteids, alkaloids, and alb.u.minoids.

NITZSCH, KARL LUDWIG, German theologian, born at Borna; became professor at Bonn, Saxony, in 1822, whence in 1847 he was removed to succeed Marheineke at Berlin; was of the Schleiermacher school of theologians, and author, among other works, of a "System der Christlichen Lehre" and "Practische Theologie," the former an able work, but most vilely translated into English, and the latter in evidence of the importance the author attached to the ethical element in the Christian religion (1787-1860).

NIXIE, in German folk-lore a water-sprite of a mischievous disposition, believed to have been suggested to the imagination by the reflection of the stars in the water.

NIZAM, the name given to a viceroy or administrator of justice in the Mogul Empire of India.

NIZAM'S DOMINIONS, THE, or HYDERABAD (11,537), in the heart of the Deccan, situated between the Central Provinces and the Presidency of Madras; it is highly fertile, and the largest of the native States in India. See HYDERABAD.

NOAH, the patriarch of Scripture antiquity who, by the command of G.o.d, constructed an ark for the preservation of the human race and the dry-land animals during the prevalence of the deluge that would otherwise have swept all these forms of life away.

NOAILLES, the name of an old French family, several members of which distinguished themselves in the service of both Church and State: ANNE JULES N., marshal of France, celebrated for his cruelties against the Huguenots (1650-1708); LOUIS ANTOINE DE, his brother, archbishop of Paris, who was made cardinal (1651-1729); LOUIS MARIE, VICOMTE DE, deputy to the States-General, who took part for a time in the Revolution (1756-1804).

NOAKES, JOHN O', a fict.i.tious name for a litigious person, used by lawyers in actions of ejectment.

n.o.bLE, a gold coin first minted by Edward III., formerly current in the country; worth 6s. 8d., and ultimately 10s., when the value of the gold increased.

NOCTURNE, picture of a night scene; also a musical piece appropriate to the night.

NODES, name given to the two points in the orbit of a planet where it crosses or intersects the ecliptic, called ascending when it goes N., and descending when it goes S.

NODIER, CHARLES, able French litterateur, born at Besancon; a man of great literary activity and some considerable literary influence; author of charming stories and fairy tales; "did everything well," says Professor Saintsbury, "but perhaps nothing supremely well" (1780-1844).

NOLLEKENS, JOSEPH, sculptor, born in London, son of an Antwerp painter; studied in Rome; his _forte_ lay in busts, of which he modelled a great many, including busts of Garrick, Sterne, Dr. Johnson, Pitt, and Fox, and realised thereby a large fortune; he was a man of no education; his princ.i.p.al work is "Venus with the Sandal" (1737-1813).

NOMINALISM, the name given to the theory of those among the Scholastics who maintained that general notions, which we denote by general terms, are only names, empty conceptions without reality, that there was no such thing as pure thought, only conception and sensuous perception, whereas realists, after Plato, held by the objective reality of universals. And, indeed, it is not as modern philosophy affirms, in the particular or the individual, in which alone, according to the Nominalists, reality resides, but in the universal, in regard to which the particular is nothing if it does not refer.

NONCONFORMISTS, a name originally applied to the clergy of the Established Church of England, some two thousand, who in 1662 resigned their livings rather than submit to the terms of the Act of Uniformity pa.s.sed on the 24th of August that year, and now applied to the whole Dissenting body in England.

NONES, in the Roman calendar the ninth day before the IDES (q. v.), being the 7th of March, May, July, and October, and the 5th of the rest.

NONJURORS, a name given to that section of the Episcopal party in England who, having sworn fealty to James II., refused to take the oath of allegiance to William III., six of whom among the bishops for their obstinacy were deprived of their sees.

NO-POPERY RIOTS, name given princ.i.p.ally to riots in London in June 1780, due to the zeal of LORD GEORGE GORDON (q. v.), ending in the death of near 300 persons.

NORDENSKIoLD, ERIK, a Swedish naturalist, born in Helsingfors; after several successive voyages and explorations in the Arctic Sea, in which he paid frequent visits to Spitzbergen, where he measured an arc of the meridian, in 1878-79 discovered the North-East Pa.s.sage by traversing, along the N. sh.o.r.es of Europe and Asia, the whole Arctic Sea from the Atlantic to the Pacific; has written accounts of his expeditions; _b_.

1832.

NORDKYN (i. e. north chin), the most northerly point in Norway, and of the continent of Europe generally.

NORE, MUTINY AT THE, a mutiny in the fleet stationed at the Nore, an anchorage off Sheerness, in the Thames, which broke out on May 20, 1797, and was not suppressed till June 15, for which the ringleaders were tried and hanged.

NORFOLK (455), an eastern maritime county of England, lies N. of Suffolk, and presents a long eastern and northern foresh.o.r.e (90 m.) to the German Ocean; the Wash lies on the NW. border; light fertile soils, and an undulating, well-watered surface favour an extensive and highly developed agriculture, of which fruit-growing and market-gardening are special features; rabbits and game abound in the great woods and sand-dunes; the chief rivers are the Ouse, Bure, and Yare, and these and other streams form in their courses a remarkable series of inland lakes known as the BROADS (q. v.); its antiquities of Roman and Saxon times are many and peculiarly interesting.

NORFOLK ISLAND, a small precipitous island in the Western Pacific, midway between New Caledonia and New Zealand, 400 m. NW. of the latter; its inhabitants, many of whom came from Pitcairn Island, and now less than 1000, govern themselves under the superintendence of New South Wales.

NORMAN, HENRY, journalist and traveller, born at Leicester; travelled extensively in the East; has written on "The Peoples and Politics of the Far East," and "Round the Near East"; has since 1892 been on the staff of the _Daily Chronicle_.

NORMAN ARCHITECTURE, a ma.s.sive architecture introduced into England, particularly in the construction of churches, abbeys, &c., by the Normans even before the Conquest, which was in vogue in the country till the end of Henry II.'s reign, and which is characterised by the prevalence of the rounded arch.

NORMANDY, an ancient province of France, fronting the English Channel, NE. of Brittany; received its name from the Northmen who, under Rollo, established themselves there in the 10th century; was for a long time an appanage of the English crown after the Norman Conquest; after being taken and retaken, was finally lost to England in 1450; it became practically a part of France when it was taken by Philip Augustus in 1204; it is now represented by the five departments Seine-Inferieure, Eure, Orne, Calvados, and Manche.

NORNAS, in the Norse mythology the three Fates--the Past, the Present, and the Future; maidens or dames who water the roots of IGGDRASIL (q. v.), the ash-tree of existence, and determine the destinies of both G.o.ds and men.

NORRKoPING (36) (north market), a town in Sweden, called the "Scandinavian Manchester," 113 m. SW. of Stockholm, with cotton and woollen factories worked by the water-power of the river Motala, that in falls and rapids rushes through the town.

NORROY KING OF ARMS, a name given to the third king-of-arms, whose province is on the N. side of the Trent, the one on the S. side being called Clarencieux.

NORTH, CHRISTOPHER, a pseudonym of Prof. John Wilson in the "Noctes Ambrosianae" in _Blackwood's Magazine_.

NORTH, FREDERICK, LORD, English statesman; entered Parliament in 1754, became Tory leader in the House of Commons in 1767, and Prime Minister in 1770; was entirely subservient to the will of the king, George III., and was responsible in that relation for the loss of the American colonies; a coalition was effected in 1783 between him and Fox, to the disgrace of the latter, but it terminated in a few months; he died, Earl of Guildford, blind (1732-1792).

NORTH BERWICK. See BERWICK, NORTH.

NORTH CAPE, the most northerly point in Europe, in the island of Magero, in 71 N. lat.i.tude.