NICOLAS 



NIEBUHR 



497 



to for protection against robbers, the terra ' Clerks 

 of St Nicolas' came, oddly enough, to be a cant 

 name for robbers. 



Nicolas, SIR NICHOLAS HARRIS, antiquary, 

 was born 10th March 1799, of a Cornish family of 

 Breton origin. He entered the navy, and had 

 reached the rank of lieutenant by 1815, but at the 

 close of the war left the service to study law, and was 

 called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1825. He 

 devoted himself chiefly to genealogical and historical 

 studies, and his great work, the History of the 

 Orders of Knighthood of the British Empire (4 vols. 

 1841-42), remains a solid monument of learning. 

 Harris was made K.H. in 1831, and K.C.M.G. in 

 1840, and died at Cape Cure, near Boulogne, 

 August 3, 1848. He devoted the energies of his 

 later years to works on the naval history of Eng- 

 land :' Dispatches and Letters of Admiral Lord 

 Viscount Nelson ( 7 vols. 1844^46 ), and the unfinished 

 History of the British Nary (2 vols. 1847), as 

 well as the papers of Sir Hudson Lowe. Harris 

 wrote biographical notices of many of the poets in 

 Pickering s Aldine edition, as well as many useful 

 lii-torical handbooks, as a Synopsis of the Peerage 

 of England ( 1825 ), Tcstamenta Vetusta ( 1826), the 

 Chronology of llixtory (1835). Other works are 

 Proceedings ami Ordinances of the Privy Council 

 of England (7 vols. 1833-37); a Life of William 

 Davison, Queen Elizalieth's secretary and scape- 

 coat in the execution of Mary, and an ancestor of 

 Ms wife's ( 1823) ; Memoirs of Kilson ( 1833) ; and a 

 host of books and papers and all of value-^on 

 heraldic, genealogical, antiquarian, and historical 

 questions. A list of these is given in the Gentle- 

 man's Mfiyaziae for October 1848. 



Nicole, PIERRE (1625-95), one of the most 

 distinguished of the Port Royalists (see PORT 

 KOYAL DES CHAMPS), the friend of Aruauld and 

 Pascal. See also JANSEN. 



Niroll. ROBERT, minor Scottish poet, was bom 

 the son of a small struggling farmer at Little 

 Tullybeltane, in the Perthshire parish of Auchtcr- 

 gaven, 7th January 1814. He was four vears a 

 grocer's apprentice at Perth, next opene<l a cir- 

 culating library in Dundee, and here took to 

 writing for the newspapers, and published a volume 

 of Songs and Lyrics (1835). In 1836 he became 

 editor at a salary of 100 of an ultra-radical 

 weekly, the Leeds Times, but worked too zealously 

 for liis health, and gave himself his death-blow 

 by his exertions in the victorious contest of Sir 

 WilUam Molesworth with Sir John Beckett in the 

 gummer of 1837. He went north for rest, only to 

 die of consumption at Trinity, near Edinburgh, 

 7th December 1837. He was buried in North 

 Leith Churchyard. Beyond a doubt Nicoll was a 

 genuine poet, and moreover it must ever lie 

 remembered that he rlied at twenty-three. But it 

 is far more from their intrinsic value than the mere 

 pathos of his story that his countrymen rememlier 

 such poems as ' \\'<- are Brethren a',' ' Thoughts of 

 Heaven,' and ' The Dew is on the Summer's 

 Greenest Grass." 



See the Life by Mrs Johnstone, first prefixed to the 

 1842 edition of the poems ; that prefixed to the Paisley 

 edition ( H77 ) ; and the somewhat uncritical life, by P. 

 11. Drummond (published posthumously, 1884). 



Niromciiia, the capital of ancient Bithynia, 

 situated at the north-eastern angle of an inlet of 

 the Propontis, was built in 264 B.c. by Nicomedes 

 I. It soon became one of the most magnificent and 

 flourishing cities in the world, and some of the 

 later Roman emperors, such as Diocletian and 

 < 'instantine the Great, selected it for their tem- 

 porary residence. It suffered greatly from earth- 

 quakes. Hannibal committed suicide in a castle 

 close by, and Constantino died near the city, which 

 344 



was the birthplace of the historian Arrian. The 

 small town of Ismid now occupies its site. See 

 BITHYNIA for Nicomedes. 



Nlcopolis, a town of Bulgaria, with 5031 

 inhabitants, is on the Danube, 56 miles \V. of 

 Rustchuk. The Berlin Congress of 1878 provided 

 for the demolition of the fortifications. Here the 

 Hungarians were defeated by the Sultan Bajazet 

 in 1396 ; and the place has been more than once 

 taken by the Russians ( 1810, 1827, 1877). 



Nicosia, ( 1 ) called also LEVKOSIA, the capital of 

 Cyprus, situated near the middle of the northern 

 half of the island, is surrounded with old Venetian 

 walls, and is the residence of the British High 

 Commissioner, and the see of a Greek archbishop. 

 There are numerous mosques and churches, and 

 some manufactures of silk, leather, and cotton. 

 I '..p. (1891) 12,515. (2) A city of Sicily, 40 miles 

 NW. of Catania. Pop. 15,276. 



Nicot. JEAN, born at Ntmesin 1530, died at Paris 

 in 1600, French ambassador at Lislxin, introduced 

 into France the tobacco-plant, which was called 

 after him Nii-'itimin (see TOBACCO). He also com- 

 piled one of the lirst French dictionaries, Trtsor de 

 l</ I.'iinjue Franyoise ( 1606). 



Nicotine, C,,,H U N 5 , is a volatile liquid alka- 

 loid, and constitutes the active principle of the 

 tobacco- pi ant, in all parts of which it occurs in 

 combination with malic and citric acids. It is 

 likewise contained in minute amount in the smoke 

 of the burning leaves. When pure and freshly 

 prepared it is a colourless, intensely poisonous 

 liquid, which evolves a very irritating odour of 

 tobacco, but on exposure to the air it rapidly 

 oxidises and becomes brown in colour. It is 

 moderately soluble in water, and dissolves readily 

 in alcohol and ether. The quantity of nicotine 

 in tobacco varies from 2 to 8 per cent. ; the coarser 

 kinds contain the larger quantity, while the best 

 Havana cigars seldom have more than 2 per cent., 

 and often less. Locally, nicotine is very irritating. 

 Taken internally, it is one of the most powerful 

 poisons known ; j'j grain taken by the mouth has 

 caused in man distinct symptoms of poisoning, there 

 being first seen a short stage of excitement, followed 

 by headache, vertigo, great weakness, and general 

 depression. Larger doses (^ grain) caused in 

 addition trembling, vomiting, collapse, and great 

 depression of the heart and respiration. A single 

 drop is sufficient to kill a rabbit or eat in a few 

 minutes. It has been used rarely for homicidal 

 and suicidal purposes, but the minimum lethal 

 dose in man is not accurately known. 



Nictitating Membrane, or THIRD EYELID. 

 See BIRD, and EYE. 



Niddcnlalc, the valley of the river Nidd, 

 which rises ut tin! foot of Whernside, in Yorkshire, 

 and flows south-east and east, and joins the Onse 

 a few miles above York. The upper portion of the 

 stream flows through picturesque scenery, and 

 past Ramsgill, the birthplace of Eugene Aram. 

 Al>ove Lofthouse it disappears underground for 

 alxmt two miles. See Joseph Lucas's Studies in 

 .\,,l,l,r,l,ile (1882). 



Nlebelungen. See NIBELUNGENLIED. 



Niebiihr, BARTHOLD GEORO, one of the most 

 distinguished of modern historians, was born 

 August 27, 1776, at Co|>enhagen, the son of the 

 famous traveller, Karsten Niebuhr. From his 

 infancy he showed unusual promise, and he was 

 carefully educated under his father's eye. After 

 his studies at Kiel he liecame private secretary to 

 Count Schimmelmann in Copenhagen, and devoted 

 himself to the study of the natural sciences at 

 London and Edinburgh (1798-99). In 1800 he 

 married and entered the Danish state-service, and 



