NEBRASKA CITY 



NECKER 



425 



uplands, and hogs in the east. The live-stock 

 traile has its headquarters in Omaha, which in this 

 respect ranks after Chicago and Kansas City. 



Mining and manufacturing are much less import- 

 ant than is agriculture. Limestone, sandstone, and 

 coal are found ; the latter has been mined for local 

 use. In the eastern and northern parts are numerous 

 factories. The articles produced include agricult- 

 ural implements, vitrified brick for paving, woollen 

 clothing, soap, and the beet-sugar already referred 

 to; while in a dozen towns canning factories are 

 in operation. The ever-changing current and dan- 

 gerous sand-bars >f the Missouri do not encourage 

 commercial intercourse by river ; but the trade 

 by rail (5542 miles open in 1808) is very heavy. 

 Omaha and Lincoln are ports of entry. 



Nebraska has forty universities, colleges, and 

 academies ; and the public schools (6234 in 1891-92, 

 with 253,909 pupils in attendance, and 9085 

 teachers) are liberally provided for. The state 

 and private charitable institutions also are numer- 

 ous. The total expenditure for educational \\nrk 

 in 1891-92 was $4,434,228. The assessed valuation 

 of tin- state was 8167,810,764.79 in 1898, being over 

 $27,000,000 less than in 1892. Pop. ( I860) 28,841 ; 

 ( 1880) 452,402 ; ( 1890) 1,058,910 ; ( 1900) 1,066,300. 

 Three cities have population of over 25,000, 

 Omali;i i IO2,.V>5 in 1900), Lincoln, the capital 

 (40.169), and South Omaha ciK.m] ,. 



History. Nebraska was included in the Louis- 

 iana Purchase, and was for many years a part of 

 the North-west Territory. The way was prepared 

 for settlers by the overland emigration to California 

 in 1849. Nebraska territory was organised in Ix.M. 

 with an area of 351,558 sql in. ; it, extended north 

 to British America, and west to the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. But of this vast area great portions were 

 afterwards carved out for Colorado, Dakota, and 

 Idaho. Nebraska became a state in 1867. 



Nebraska i'lty, capital of Otoe county, Ne 

 hra-ka,, is on the west bank of the Missouri 

 River, 74 miles llow -Omaha (44 by rail). It con- 

 tains the Nebraska College (Episcopal, 1H63), the 

 Academy of the Annunciation, an elevator, and a 



ilHT of mills and factories. Pop. ( 190O) 7380. 



\ebraska River. See PLATTK. 



Nebuchadnezzar. See BABYLONIA, I. 634. 



Neb'ulH' are cloudy patches of light in the 

 heavens. Some, as those in Andromeda and Orion, 

 are visible to the naked eye, but the greater num- 

 l>er can only be seen in telescopes of considerable 

 power. Before the invention of the Spectroscope 

 (q.v.) they were for a time all considered to be star- 

 clusters. This instrument has shown that these 

 clusters, which appear as nebul.-e in small telescopes, 

 are totally different in constitution from nebulae 

 proper (see STARS). Halley in 1716 gave a small 

 list of 6 nebuli-e, but the chief workers in this field 

 are Messier, who in 1784 catalogued 103: Sir \V. 

 Herschel, who alone discovered more than 2500 ; and 

 Sir J. Herschel, who added to them more than 2000. 

 These lists, however, include many star-clusters. 

 Nebula- proper have been classified as ( 1 ) annular, 

 (2) elliptic, (3) spiral, (4) planetary, and (5) nebu- 

 lous stars. These various forms do not indicate 

 specific differences, but rather result from ( 1 ) the 

 various presentation of their edges and surfaces to 

 the s]>ectator, and (2) their differently condensed 

 material. For example, the elliptic nebula in 

 Andromeda has been shown by photography to 

 consist of a spiral, or a congeries of rings, exhibit- 

 ing thus in itself the marks of the tirst three classes. 

 Planetary nebulie show faint discs, often bluish in 

 colour, whose structureless appearance is probably 

 only doe to our imperfect telescopes. The spectrum 

 of nebtihe consists usually of a few bright lines 

 indicating their gaseous structure. To what gases 



these lines belong is still uncertain, although they 

 have been attributed to nitrogen, hydrogen, and 

 magnesium vapour. In a few cases, as in a small 

 nebula in Taurus and the great one in Orion, their 

 light certainly varies in intensity, and they are 

 sometimes associate*! with variable or temporary 

 stars. They form, according to the theory of La- 

 place and Sir W. Herschel, the earliest stage in the 

 formation of stars and planets. Though certainly 

 not yet proved, this nebular theory is very generally 

 accepted, and has been greatly strengthened by 

 Lockyer's recent spectroscopic researches. 



Necessaries. See INFANT. 



Necessity may be natural, according to the 

 laws of nature ; logical or mathematical, according 

 to the laws of human intelligence; moral, accord- 

 ing to moral law. See CAUSALITY, LOGIC, ETHICS, 

 KANT, EMPIRICISM. Necessity, Necessitarianism, 

 or Necessarianism, is also a name for the view that 

 denies the freedom of the will. See WILL. 



Neches River rises in eastern Texas, and 

 flows about 350 miles SSE. to Sabine Lake, its 

 waters passing thence by Sabine Pass into the 

 Gulf of Mexico. 



Neck. See SPINAL COLUMN, THROAT. Of 

 diseases of the neck, STIFF-NECK is the term com- 

 monly applied to a condition of the neck in which 

 lateral movement of the head causes great pain, 

 and which is due to rheumatism of the muscles 

 lying on the side of the neck, especially the sterno- 

 mastoid. In the great majority of cases only one 

 side of the neck is affected, the head being drawn 

 more or less obliquely towards that side; but 

 occasionally both sides are equally attacked, in 

 which case the head is kept stittly erect anil look- 

 ing straight forwards. As long as the head is 

 allowed to remain at rest there is merely a feeling 

 of discomfort; but every movement is extremely 

 painful. This affection is usually caused either by 

 exposure of the part affected to a current of cold 

 air, or by wearing wet or damp clothes round the 

 neck (see RHEUMATISM). Derbyshire Neck is a 

 synonym for Goitre (q.v.). For Necks in geology, 

 see IGNEOUS ROCKS. 



Neckar. one of the largest tributaries of the 

 Rhine, and the principal river of \Viirteml>erg, rises 

 on the eastern declivity of the Black Forest, near 

 the village of BdnreBningm, It has a winding 

 course of 250 miles, and joins the Rhine at Mann- 

 heim the other towns on its banks being Tubin- 

 gen, Heilhronn, and Heidelt>erg. From Cannstadt, 

 about midway in its course, the Neckar is navi- 

 gable. Fair wines are grown on its banks. 



Neekcr, JACQUES, a famous financier and 

 minister of France, was born 30th September 1732, 

 at Geneva, where his father, a native of Kiistrin in 

 Pomerania, hail become professor of Public Law. 

 At fifteen he went to Paris as a clerk to the banker 

 Yernet, and in 1762 established the famous London 

 and Paris bank of Thellusson and Necker. His 

 public career commenced with his l>ecoming a syndic 

 of the French East India Company, as well as minis- 

 ter for the republic of Geneva at Paris, and with 

 his marriage ( 1764) to the charming, accomplished, 

 and ambitious Suzanne Curchod, who was born in 

 1737, the daughter of a pastor near Lausanne, and 

 had loved Gibbon for five years with a constancy 

 of which his colder temper was not worthy. The 

 rich banker hail first wooed Madame de Vermeneux, 

 a wealthy young widow, who scrupled at her suitor's 

 lack of nobility, but he easily transferred his affec- 

 tions to her young protegee, and he proved till 

 death an affectionate and faithful husband. She w;is 

 religious and above reproach in character, yet her 

 salon became a centre of all the intellect of Paris, 

 and her Fridays drew together such celebrities* 



