NIOBIUM. 



NITRIC ACID. 



ventured on this deviation from truth. The Brat wu the necessity 

 which he felt of giving a niperior height and volume to the apex and 

 key, as it were, of his oompositiuu ; and next perhaps the desire he had 

 to cooccntrate the interest in his chief figure by forcing it thus upon 

 the attention. But although we should hesitate before taking any 

 exception to the practice of the great leaden and marten of art, yet, 

 generally speaking, any departure from the truth of nature < 

 canon of excellence when rightly studied is so far from being com- 

 mendable or admirable, that, where it has been indulged in by the 

 ancients with the view of gaining greater effect and energy, it may 

 UMially be considered rather aa evidence of their inability to work out 

 tli.it idea with the authorised means, than aa a practice to be admired 

 or imitated ; and it may always be argued that they would have been 

 so much the more entitled to our admiration if they had produced 

 their works within those limitations which nature dictates. The pro- 

 m which exhibit these faults, for they must be accounted so, 

 will be found to l>e worthy of the high estimation in which they are 

 held fur other properties, and rather in tjiitt of than Ucaiue of the 

 licence which their authors hare allowed themselves. 



The execution of this interesting monument of Greek art is 

 attributed by some to Scopae, a native of 1'aroe, who lived about 300 

 years before the Christian era ; while others think it is the production 

 of Praxiteles. Pliny says it was a question which of the two was the 

 author nf it. The group was in the temple of Apollo Sosianus at 

 Rome. (Plin., ' Hist Nat.,' xxxvi. ; Sillig., ' CatoL Artificum,' in verb.) 



Flaminio Yocca says the group of Niobe and her children was found 

 at Home, but outside the walls, near S. Giovanni ; but the learned 

 antiquary Fea denies this, and says it was found near the Villa Altieri. 

 The well known statues of the " Boxen " were discovered at the same 

 place, and it has been supposed by some that they formed part of the 

 group ; the fable being that some of the children of Niobe were slain 

 while thus exercising. (Winckelman, ' Sur 1'Allegorie,' pref.) 



All the above statues are in marble, and are now at Florence in the 

 gallery of the grand-duke of Tuscany ; but many of them are thought 

 to be copies only, from originals now lost. There is in England a 

 head of Niobe, which is engraved in the ' Select Specimen! of Sculpture,' 

 published by the Society of Dilletanti (vol. i., pi. 35) similar in action 

 and expression, but preferable, for its style and execution, to that of 

 the Florence statue ; and as there are known repetitions of some of the 

 other figures, it is not improbable that the principal and most 

 interesting of the series may also have been frequently copied, and 

 that the figure hi the grand-ducal collection, though an ancient work, 

 may come under this class. 



The subject of Niobe and her children was a favourite one also with 

 the poets of antiquity. Besides the beautiful story in Ovid (' Mctam.,' 

 vi. 14(i), there are numerous epigrams in the Greek Anthology, several 

 of which have great merit, and appear to be descriptive either of the 

 group of figures which still exists, or of some similar group. See 

 particularly that beginning 



TwroAi <u Nio'/Ja, x\u ipiv ipd-riv fryycAov STUS. 



(For further information and references as to the group of Niobe, 

 see Thiench, I'tber die Eixlim der Bildenden Kuntt, &c. pp. 368, &c.; 

 mod Mr. Cockerell's restoration of them as they probably appeared in 

 the pediment of the temple of Apollo, in the 1,'alliria tli firenze, ii., 

 tav. 7 



Nl'il'.irM i XI,), a metal lately discovered in the tantalate of Bavaria 

 Uosr. When p.Tfhloridc of niobium is submitted to the action 

 of dry ammonia it becomes yellow, with considerable evolution of heat, 

 and when this it heated it becomes black, with the disengagement 

 of hydrocbloratc of ammonia. On washing it with water, to free it 

 entirely from this salt, the water pauses clear as long as it contains any 

 <>f it ; but when the metal is nearly pure the water becomes turbid. 

 When niobium is heated in the an* it burns with the evolution of 

 light, and becomes white niobic acid. Nitric acid and aqua regia, even 

 when boiling, do not net upon niobium ; but it is acted upon by a 

 mixture of nitric and hydrofluoric acids, and a red vapour is formed 

 during the action. 



ic acid readily combines with the alkalies ; and when fused with 

 alkaline carbonate*, carbonic acid is expelled. These compounds ore 

 soluble in water. Acids precipitate niobic acid from these salts. 



Infusion of galls, added to a solution of niobate of soda, produces a 

 deep orange-yellow precipitate. Ferrocyanide of potassium produces a 

 similar effect, and the red ferrocyauide gives a deep yellow precipitate. 

 AVhi n a plate of zinc is put into a solution of niobatc of soda, a blue 

 precipitate is formed, which in course of time becomes brown. 



.VN (79*3) is the seventh month of the Jewish civil year. It 

 wan and- ntly the llrst month of the year, as appears from the Book of 

 Esther, iii. 1. The name occurs twice in the Bible, once in Esther, as 

 just mentioned, and again in Nehem. ii. 1. It is also found twice in the 

 Apocrypha ; in K*dras v. 0, and in Esther xi. '2 : in the last case it is 

 written Niwm. In the inscription of Palmyra the month is written 

 exactly as in the licbrew Bible, ami JiMCphus also writes Micro?. In 

 the manuscripts containing the Calendar of lleliopolis, the name is 

 read variously Nurv, Nixrvor, or Nuturar, and even Nipa; but the 

 manuscript containing the last two forms is said to be damaged. 

 Keufey derives the name from /' ud word., ..! nii\ in>; " new day ; " but. 

 these words do not actually occur in Zend, as Hvuicy admits, though 



they are very probable forms. We would rather derive it from the 

 Zend Nora tarvla, new year ; a name almost certainly in use among 

 the Persians, for we find the Armenians, who adopted the Persian 

 calendar, using to this day the name of Navasardi for their first 

 month ; the Zend rd, as shown by Opperk, becomes I in I Vrxian, and 

 id sarda has now become actually sol. [See also Ei.i i.. | The 

 final / often becomes in Semitic dialects, and the few Samaritans 

 who are now remaining say Israeli for Israel, and gaman for 

 Nisan varies with the lunar calendar from March b> April : . 

 year (1860) it begins on the 24th of March and ends on the -'. 

 April. The feast of the Passover begins on the 15th day of the month. 

 A fast is set down by some authorities for the loth of the month, in 

 memory of the death of Miriam, and another on the '.Mtu for the death 

 of Joshua ; but they do not appear to be generally observed. 



There are thirty days in Nisan, and the mouth must not begin on 

 either Monday, W ednesday, or Friday. 



NISI. [lU-uc IN LAW.] 



MSI rail's. This phrase in English law is derived from an 

 ancient writ in which the words occur. Previously to the t. 

 Edward I., trials by assizes or juries could only take place in th 

 regit, wherever the king happened to be resident, or before the justices 

 in eyre on then- septennial circuits through the several counties of 

 England. But by the stat. 13 Edw. I., cap. 30 (forming a part of that 

 series of laws commonly called the Statute of Westminster Ji. the 

 judges were directed to take certain assizes, and also to try 

 inquests, by juries in every county not oftciier than three times in 

 every year ; but the statute required that the day and place in the 

 county in which an issue was to be tried by the judges should )> 

 mentioned in the judicial writ which assembled the jury. Accoi 



lire facias, IT writ for summoning the jury (commanding the 

 sheriff to bring them to Westminster to try the particular cause in 

 which issue had been joined), contained a proviso, thus :- " V, 

 maud you that you cause to come before our justices at V 

 on the morrow of All Souls, twelve lawful men, who, &c., KW/<,V 

 (nisi prius) that day, A.B. and C.D., our justices assigned fur that pur- 

 pose, shall come to your county to take the assizes there." It was, in 

 practice, always arranged that the day for the return of the jury at 

 Westminster should be more distant than the day for taking the 

 assizes in the county; and consequently the exception in ti 

 invariably took effect by the justices of assize coming into the county 

 and trying the cause before the sheriff was called upon to obey it by 

 returning the jury to Westminster. [AssiZK.] From this clause in 

 the Venire facial, the phrase Nisi Prius came to be adopted as a 

 general term descriptive of the large class of judicial business which is 

 transacted before judges of the superior courts at the assizes. Thus 

 the judges of a.-ni/e are, when sitting alone to try causes, said to bo 

 sitting at Nisi Prius; and the law relating to the various i 

 which arise before them is, somewhat indefinitely, called the J 

 Nisi Prius. It is erroneously stated in our text-books that the judges 

 on circuit act under a commission of Nisi Prius. This is a cm 

 error, derived however from high authority, aa it is so stated by Bacon 

 in his ' Essay on the use of the Law.' There is in truth no such com- 

 mission known to our law, the authority of the justices at Nisi Priiis 

 being incidentally annexed to the commissions of aasize. In MM 

 the judges sit at Nisi Prius by statute 18 Eliz., c. 12; in London by 

 vrtue of immemorial usage. 



NITUATE. [NITROUS ACID.] 



MTUATES. [NlTKOGEN.] 



NITRIC ACID. [NiTiiouo.] 



NITRIC ACID, M&liful J'ru t ri;,i i,f. This acid in a concentrated 

 form acts as a violent corrosive poison, and is therefore never n 

 on undiluted state for internal administration, but is sometimes applied 

 externally, when the object is to effect the speedy destruction of any 

 part. Nitric acid however, from its frequent employment in the arts, 

 it often the cause < -.1, rarely of intentional, poisoning, ami it 



surpasses all the other mineral acids in the rapidity of its actio 

 in the consequent necessity for prompt and judicious treatment. It 

 may bo determined to have been the poisoning agent by its causing 

 the parts which it has touched to be at first white, hut soon after of a 

 yellowish colour, which cannot be removed, like the stain of iodine, by 

 adding caustic potass, but on the contrary becomes orange on the 

 addition of an alkali or soap. (Pereira.) When it has been taken 

 internally, the lining membrane of the mouth also peels off in a state 

 resembling parchment. The most appropriate antidotes are such sub- 

 stances as combine with and neutralise the acid: chalk or magnesia, 

 mode into paste with water or, if these are not at hand, the pla 

 the apartment, bruised down and drank will answer best. " While 

 these arc preparing, the acid should be diluted by the free use of any 

 mild Iluid, milk or oleaginous matter being prefern d. Th' 

 of the alkalies are by no means eligible antidotes, as the resulting 

 compounds themselves possess corrosive properties." (Christison.) A 

 i" ilntimi of . , ap may be administered, though some object to it fiom 

 the presence of the alkali in it, but apparently without sufficient ground, 

 .rry should take place, the individual long suffers from indiges- 

 tion, and is almost alw -a. ted. 



In an undiluted form, nitric acid is a most valuable application to 

 sloughing phagedenie ulcers; also for destroying wartn; for the de- 

 struction of Ucmorrhoidal tumours (soe observations on this subject 



