426 



NT.I KKI: 



NECTARY 



M i-iiiiiin, IHderot, tin- aged Bnflon. Marmontcl, 

 'rii.ini.-i-, P'.McmlHTt, and the AhhcCaliani. In 1773 

 N K. i ^allied tin- pri/c f the Krench Academy for 

 an tlogt on ColU-rt, and in I77"> In- dUbgVMMd 

 himself still further by his Emui sur If I'tnnmtnt 

 <if* tlmiiu, in answer to tin- frw-tni.li' policy of the 

 (Treat Tnrgot, in which In- claim* for the state the 

 right <>f living the price of grain ami, if necessary, 

 ot prohibiting it* ex|mrtalion. Already also he had 

 lent money to the nif.ly government when in 1776, 

 Protestant as lie was, IIP wax made Mini-mr of the 

 Treasury ami next year Director general of Finance. 

 He devoted live years of haul work to his hopeless 

 tank, ami, if he showed no great state-manlike 

 foresight, he proved him-elf an honest, pnnl.-ni, 

 anil sagaci..u- minister. Indeed, Home of his reme- 

 dial measures were a real lioon to suffering France, 

 as his more equitalile adjustment of taxes, his 

 establishment of state-guaranteed annuities and 

 wont.* ilr jiiftr. Itnt his most ambitious .scheme 

 the establishment of pro\incial assemblies over all 

 France, one of the functions of which should lie 

 the apportionment of taxes, proved a disastrous 

 failure. His retrenchments were hateful to the 

 queen, and the publication in 1781 of his famous 

 Gomptt /.'- //', a plain Htatement of the financial 

 state of France, was promptly made the occasion 

 for his dismissal. He retired to Geneva, carrying 

 with him the respect of all Frenchmen; and here 

 he Imsieil himself with writing, and married his 

 only daughter in 1786 to the Swedish Baron von 

 Stacl llolstrin. In 1787 he ietnrne.1 to Paris, and 

 when M. ile Calonne at the openingof the Assembly 

 of Notables in that year cast a doubt on the truth 

 of the l'iim/>tf Itentlu, he published a justificatory 

 minute, which drew upon him the king's displeas- 

 ure and his banishment to a distance of forty 

 leagues from Paris. 



He was recalled to his former office in September 

 1788, and quickly made himself the popular hero of 

 the hour by recommending the summons of the 

 States-general. But the successful hanker was in- 

 fatuated with his popularity, and quickly proved 

 himself unfit to steer the ship of state amid the 

 storm- of revolution, while his constitutional ine 

 solution in the hour of danger drew the well-meaning 

 king into the fatal error of being forced into recog- 

 ni-ini;the union of the three estates, instead of tak- 

 ing the lead in freely granting what was inevitable, 

 <ln the 1 1 th. I iily. while sitting at dinner, he received 

 the royal command to leave France at once, but 

 the fall of the Bastille three days later frightened 

 the king into recalling him amid the wildest popular 

 enthusiasm. But now his incompetence for greater 

 matters than accounts was at length fully dis- 

 covered, and after with fatal obstinacy spuming the 

 help of Lafayette and Mirabeaii, ami leading tin- 

 king to surrender his suspensive veto ana the 

 Assembly to stultify itself by a self-denying ordin- 

 ance that ministers should not IK- chosen from its 

 mcmliers, which made a really rcsponsilile parlia- 

 mentary government in France impossible, he finally 

 laid down his ollice unnoticed ami without regret, 

 after the carrying of .\ lira I watt's scheme for reliev- 



ing 

 ' 



carrying 

 immediate financial 



_______ liev 



distress by the issue of 

 Septeml>er 1790. He retired to his 

 estate of Coppct near Ceneva, and here his wife 

 died, tith May I7!I4. while he himself, after pub- 

 lishing Ixioks which had no longer any im|H>rtanee. 

 followed her on 9th April IWW. 



Tli.- only other worku that need he named are De FAd- 

 minutration dr* Fituiiu-u il, In fmnee 1 3 volt. 17H4) 

 Sur fAdminulratuiii ,1. M. Nttkrr, ;ir l>n-,,,.'mi ( 171 ), 

 t>u Ptntmir atfeutif dam Irt Vrandi f.lalu (2 voU. 

 171CJI. I" la Ktvolution Franraite (hut ed. 4 voU. 

 I7W), and Drrniiret Vuei de feUUotU < ! Finanrr 

 (1808). A collected edition wu edited br hi grand- 

 cn (IB voK 1N-.1 )_']). Sec alio the MantucriU de 



r, pabliihed by hi daughter in 1804; and 

 f..r hi- life, her work. La Vie prirfe dr M 

 (1H04), and hii grandion'i Noliee tur la Vie tie M. 

 \irtrr. |.rt-Kxccl to the oollectod edition of hu 



volumes of M'liiiiiirn from hi* wife's joumalu and 

 papen were printed (171M 1H02). The rtory of her lift- 

 in charmingly told, fr ..... the puprn preserved at Coppet, 

 in the Comte l/llaussonvilK-'i work, Le Salon de 

 Madame Arnlrr (2 voU. 182; Eng. trans. 18K2). 



\wklarr, l>i. \MOSD. See DIAMOND NECK- 



I. M'l.. 



>-<T(inaiH->. an ancient mode of divination 

 by conjuring un the spirits of the dead to c.he 

 answers about the future. A classical example i- 

 the Old Testament storv of the witoh of Kmlor. 

 The eleventh l>ok of Iiomer's Odyssey liearw th.- 

 title of XekrunuiHteia, and in it the shade of Tiresi.i- 

 is brought up and consulted by I'lysses. In IMOM 

 parts of Creece necromancy WM pnictise.1 by 

 priests or consecrated persons in the temples ; in 

 I'liessiily it was the profession of a distinct class 

 of i>ereons called Psychagogoi. See DIVINATION, 

 and MAGIC. 



a Greek term, meaning 'the city 

 of the dead,' and a]iplied to the cemeteries in the 

 vicinity of ancient cities. It occurs in classical 

 antii|Uity only as applied ton suburb of Alexandria, 

 lying to the west of that city, where the corpses 

 were received and embalmed. Here Cleopatra 

 applied the asp to her breast.* See CEMETEUY. 



<TOsis (Gr. nekros, 'dead') is a term em- 

 jiloved to denote the death or mortification of lione, 

 but often restricted to the cases in which a con- 

 siderable part of the shaft of a lonu lione dies, 

 either directly from injury or from violent inflam- 

 mation, and is enclosed by a layer of new lione; the 

 death of a thin superficial layer which is not en 

 closed in a shell of new lione lieing usually termed 

 exfoliation, and the more gradual destruction of 

 cancellou.s tissue Caries (q.v. ). The hones of the 

 lower extremity- the femur and tibia are those 

 which are most frequently afliected by necrosis, but 

 any Ixme may he the seat of the "process. The 

 jawliones, however, very often sutler from it in 

 persons engaged in making lurifer matches, the 

 disease being induced by the pernicious action of 

 the va|>our of phosphorus. The more general use 

 of red or amorplious phosphorus for this pur|>osc has 

 rendered necrosis of the jaws much I. 1 -- common. 

 The dead bone, known as the sri/iifxtrinii, presents 

 a rough appearance, as if worm-eaten. If the 

 membrane investing the lione (the iieriosteum) 

 remain healthy, it deposits lymph, which speedily 

 ossifies, forming a shell of healthy bone, w hich com- 

 pletely invests the dead |mrtion. The essential 

 point in the treatment is the removal of the seques- 

 trum, which is too purely a surgical operation to be 

 described in these pages. 



Nectar, the name given by Homer, Hesiod, 

 Pindar, and the Creek ]>oets generally, ami by the 

 Romans, to the beverage of the gods, their food 

 lieing called A>iil>mi.<i U|.v.). But Sappho and 

 Airman make nit-tar the food of the ^ods and 

 ambrosia their drink. Homer describes nectar as 

 resembling red wine, and represent/* it* continued 

 ii-e a- causing immortality. My the later iet 

 nectar and ambrosia arc represented as of most 

 delicious odour ; and sprinkling with nectar, or 

 anointing with ambrosia, is spoken of as confer- 

 ring pacptlMd youth, and they are assumed as the 

 symbols of everything most delightful to the taste. 

 Scrtarlnr. See I'KACH. 



Xrolnry. in Motany. an organ in the flowers 

 of many phanerogamous plants, devoted either to 

 the secretion or the reception of honey. Of the 

 former kind are nectariferous glands, scales, and 

 pores ; of the latter, tubes, cavities, &c. 



