NOSOLOGY 



NOTABLES 



537 



morbid growths in the nasal cavity. According to 

 Sir Morell Mackenzie, ' constitutional causes are of 

 four kinds : ( 1 ) the blood itself may l)e diseased ; 

 (2) the vessels may be diseased ; (3) there may l>e 

 obstruction to the circulation through the lungs, 

 liver, kidneys, or other organs, causing a sudden 

 tension or strain of the whole system, which gives 

 way at a weak part viz. the nose . . . ; (4) the 

 blood-flow may be a vicarious discharge' (Diseases 

 of the Throat and Nose). It is most common in 

 children and young adults, least so in the prime 

 of life. It is much more often met with in the 

 male sex than the female. The bleeding usually 

 occurs drop by drop, but may be very profuse. 

 Sir Thomas Watson wisely savs : ' Sometimes it 

 is a remedy ; sometimes a warning ; sometimes in 

 itself a disease.' The first question to l>e con- 

 sidered therefore in any particular case is whether 

 the hemorrhage ought" to !>e arrested. Generally 

 speaking, in plethoric children and young people, 

 in cases of venous olwtruction, and in vicarious 

 hemorrhage, it should not be stopped unless the 

 loss of blood prove excessive. 



When it is desirable to arrest the hemorrhage the 

 patient should le placed in the sitting posture at 

 an open window, with the head erect or slightly 

 inclined backwards ; and amongst the simpler 

 means to be first tried are compression of the 

 nostrils by the lingers, maintained for five or ten 

 minutes, the application of a key or other piece of 

 cold metal to tne back of the neck, and the bathing 

 of the face or whole head with cold water, especi- 

 ally if accompanied by a drawing-up of the water 

 into the nostrils ; should these means fail, recourse 

 must be had to astringent injections (for example, 

 twenty grains of alum dissolved in an ounce of 

 water) thrown up the nostrils by a syringe, or to 

 astringent powders (as finely-powdered galls, kino, 

 matico, alum, &c. ) blown up the nostrils by means 

 of a quill or other tube, or snuffed up by the 

 patient. As a final resource the nostrils must be 

 plugged with strips of lint, absorl>ent wick, or a 

 piece of sponge. Cases occasionally occur in which 

 it is necessary also to plug the posterior orifices of 

 the nostrils l>y an operation, into the details of 

 which it is not necessary to enter. 



Post-nasal Catarrh is a chronic and very trouble- 

 some disease, most common in America, especially 

 the United States ; so much so that it is there 

 usually called simply catarrh, and elsewhere is 

 sometimes spoken of as American catarrh. The 

 symptoms are discomfort at the back of the nose, 

 leading to frequent 'hawking' to clear away the 

 tenacious mucus which is formed there, and some- 

 times indistinctness in articulation. The causes 

 are not well understood : Sir Morell Mackenzie l>e- 

 lieves that the chief is the inhalation of irritating 

 dust. Treatment must be chiefly directed to the 

 local condition ; alkaline sprays or washes should 

 be used to remove the adherent secretion, and then 

 an astringent powder or a thin ointment snuffed 

 up the nostrils: catechu, red (Eucalyptus) gum, 

 or sulphate of iron, diluted with starch, and soft 

 vaseline, either alone or with one-eighth of finely- 

 powdered Imracic acid, are among the most useful 

 applications. Health otherwise defective may in- 

 dicate the importance of constitutional treatment ; 

 and change of climate is sometimes useful. 



When the nose or a portion of it has been 

 destroyed by disease or accident, the defect may 

 be partly made good by the Kliinoplastic (q.v.) 

 operation. 



See 8ir Morell Mackenzie, T>i>ease of Throat and Noil 

 (1884) ; Crcmwell Baber, Guide to Examination of Now. 

 (1886); Oreville Macdonald, tiutOK* of the Note (1890). 



XosoloRy (9 r- ""*** ' disease ') is that branch 

 of medicine which treats of the distribution and 

 arrangement of diseases into classes. See DISEASE. 



NoSsi-B, or N6siBE, a volcanic mountainous 

 island on the north-west coast of Madagascar (q.v.), 

 belonging to the French. It has an area of 115 

 sq. in. and a pop. of 11,299. 



Nostalgia ( Gr. nostos, ' the return home ;' algos, 

 ' pain ' ), a technical term for home-sickness which, 

 when as sometimes it takes the form of acute 

 melancholia, becomes ruinous to health, and even 

 fatal. It is said that inhabitants of mountainous 

 countries suffer more keenly than others ; but it 

 seems to have less to do with affection for the 

 physical features of home than with inability to 

 break with old habits and modes of life. In armies 

 it has been found necessary to adopt measures to 

 prevent desertion on this ground. In Canada the 

 playing of Lochaber no More by the pipers of 

 Highland regiments had to be interdicted; and so 

 in France it was forbidden under pain of death to 

 sing or play the Ranz des Vaches in the hearing of 

 Swiss mercenaries. 



NostOC, a genus of plants of the natural order 

 Alga>, sub-order Confervaceoe, found upon moist 

 ground, rocks near streams, &c., and consisting 

 of a somewhat gelatinous hollow tumid frond, 

 tilled with simple filaments resembling strings of 

 beads. JV. commune is frequent in Britain, spring- 

 ing up suddenly on gravel-walks and pasture- 

 grounds after rain. It is a trembling, gelatinous 

 mass, often called Star Jelly, and vulgarly 

 regarded, owing to the suddenness with which it 

 makes its appearance, as having fallen from the 

 skies, and as possessed of important medicinal 

 virtues. N. eilule is employed in China as an 

 article of food. 



\os(rjl<ljlllllis, the assumed name of Michel de 

 Notredame, an astrologer of Jewish descent, who 

 was born at St Itemi in Provence, 14th Deceml>er 

 1503. He studied at Avignon, anil next medicine 

 at Montpellier, took the degree of doctor of medi- 

 cine in 1529, and practised the profession at Agen, 

 afterwards at Salon near Aix. Next year when the 

 plague was raging at Lyons he was conspicuous for 

 his skill and devotion. He first fell upon his 

 prophetic vein about the year 1547, but in what 

 light he himself regarded his pretensions it is now 

 impossible to say. The first collection of famous 

 Centuries appeared at Lyons in 1555. These were 

 predictions in rhymed quatrains, divided into 

 centuries, of which there were seven ; the second 

 edition, published in 1558, contained ten. Astro- 

 logy was then the fashion, and these quatrains, 

 expressed generally in olwcure and enigmatical 

 terms, brought their author a great reputation. 

 Catharine de' Medici invited him to visit her at 

 Blois ; the Duke and Duchess of Savoy went to Salon 

 expressly to see him ; Charles IX. on his accession 

 appointed Mm his physician-in-ordinary. Nostra- 

 damus died at Salonj 2d July 1566. His predic- 

 tions have given rise to a vast illustrative or con- 

 troversial literature. The Centuries were formally 

 condemned by the papal court in 1781. 



See Jaubert's Vie de M. Nostradamus, Apotngie el 

 Hittoire (Amat. 1056); Haitze's Vie de Michel Nostra- 

 damus (Aix, 1712); Astruc's Mhnoiret pour tervir a 

 (Histoire de la Fneulti de Montptllicr (Paris, 1767); 

 Apoloyie pour Its Grands Homines Soupfonnc* de Magie 

 (Paris, 1825); and E. Bari-ste's Nostradamus (Paris, 1842). 



Notables, the name formerly given in France 

 to persons of distinction and political importance. 

 As the States-general were inconvenient to the 

 despotism of the monarchy, the kings of the House 

 of Valois adopted the expedient of calling in their 

 stead Assemblies of the Notables, the time of calling 

 them and the composition of them being entirely 

 dependent on the pleasure of the crown. For more 

 than a century and a half even this poor acknow- 

 ledgment of any other mind or will in the nation 



