NEBULA 



5668 



NECROMANCY 



Nebule. In heraldry, a line of 

 division, or outline of a charge, 

 forming a series of rounded projec- 

 tions, pointing 

 alternately to 

 each side, to 

 represen t 

 clouds. 



Nebulium. 

 Gas, unknown 

 on the earth, 

 but which has 



Nebule in heraldry COV (1 S vec 

 troscopically in nebulae. It is the 

 characteristic sign of all gaseous 

 nebulae which glow with a greenish 

 light and show in the spectroscope 

 two bright green lines. The gas has 

 also been discovered in certain new 

 stars, and it is often associated with 

 hydrogen and helium. 



Necessity. Constraint or com- 

 pulsion regarded as a law which 

 makes anything what it is and 

 excludes its being anything else. 

 Logical necessity is the impossi- 

 bility of conceiving a thing differ- 

 ent from what, according to the 

 laws of thought, we conceive it to 

 be ; here belongs the principle of 

 identity, A=A. Physical necessity 

 is the certainty that a particular 

 cause in similar conditions will 

 always be followed by a particular 

 effect. See Determinism ; Kant. 



Necho OR NECOH. King of Egypt 

 (610-594 B.C.). The Egyptian 

 Nekau, he succeeded his father 

 Psammetichus I, founder of the 

 XXVIth dynasty. The Assyrian 

 power having fallen, he recon- 

 quered Syria, defeating and slaying 

 Josiah of Judah at Megiddo, 609 

 B.C. He reached the Euphrates and 

 on his return march deposed Jehoa- 

 haz, son of Josiah, replaced him by 

 his brother Eliakim whom he called 

 Jehoiakim, and exacted a heavy 

 tribute from Judah. Nabopolassar, 

 king of Babylon, sent his son Nebu- 

 chadrezzar to Syria, with the result 

 that Necho was defeated at Car- 

 chemish 605 B.C. and lost the whole 

 of his conquests in Syria and Pales- 

 tine (2 Kings 23 ; 2 Chron. 35, 36 ; 

 Jer. 46). Phoenician seamen sent 

 by Necho are said to have circum- 

 navigated Africa. See Egypt. 



Neck. Part of the body which 

 unites the head with the trunk. 

 The neck supports the head by 

 means of the cervical vertebrae. 

 In front of the bony pillar lies the 

 oesophagus, terminating above in 

 the pharynx, and in front of these 

 are the trachea and larynx. The 

 thyroid gland is situated in the 

 lower part of the neck, a lobe being 

 on each side of the trachea with an 

 isthmus connecting them across the 

 middle line. The carotid arteries 

 pass up from the thorax to the 

 head at the side of the neck, and 



Sternum 



Neck. Sectional view from the side, 

 showing principal veins and nerves 



can be felt pulsating close to the 

 anterior margin of the sterno- 

 mastoid muscle. The jugular veins 

 pass downwards close to the 

 carotid arteries. Close to these 

 structures are the vagus and other 

 nerves passing between the head 

 and the trunk. 



The most prominent muscles of 

 the neck are the sterno-cleido- 

 mastoids, one on each side, which 

 run from the breast- bone and 

 inner end of the collar-bone to the 

 mastoid process, a bony promin- 

 ence just behind the ear; and the 

 trapezii, which pass up from the 

 back and are inserted into the 

 occipital bone at the lower part of 

 the back of the head. See Anatomy ; 

 Fibrositis; Hanging; Man; Stran- 

 gulation j Trachea. 



Neckar. River of S. Germany, 

 a tributary of the Rhine on the 

 right bank. Rising near the 

 Danube, between the Black Forest 

 and the Swabian Jura, it flows 

 N.E. and N. through Wurttemberg 

 and Baden, turning W. at Eber- 

 bach to join the Rhine at Mann- 

 heim. Its length is about 250 m., 

 and its chief tributaries on the right 

 bank are the Fils, Rems, Kocher, 

 and Jagst, and on the left the Ens. 

 The chief towns on the Neckar are 

 Tubingen, Cannstatt (a suburb of 

 Stuttgart), Heilbronn, Heidelberg, 

 and Mannheim. Though very 

 rapid, the river is navigable for 

 small vessels as far as Cannstatt. 

 See Mannheim. 



Necker, JACQUES (1732-1804). 

 French financier and statesman. 

 Born at Geneva, of Pomeranian 

 ex traction, 

 Sept. 30, 1732, 

 he entered the 

 Vernet Bank 

 at Paris about 

 1747, and in 

 1762 founded a 

 successful 

 bank of his 

 own. Director 



Jacques Necker, of the treasury, 

 French financier 1776, he was 



Suzanne Necker, 

 French writer 



made director-general of finance in 

 1777. He published his Compte 

 Rendu, 1781, and then retired, his 

 treatise on French financial ad- 

 ministration following in 1784. 

 Exiled from Paris, 1787, he was 

 recalled as director-general in 1788, 

 and was responsible for summon- 

 ing the states-general and doubling 

 the representation of the third 

 estate. Dismissed on July 11, 1789, 

 he was recalled a few days after the 

 fall of the Bastille. He held office 

 until Sept., 1790, when he retired 

 to Coppet, Switzerland, where he 

 died on April 9, 1804. See Vie 

 privee de M. Necker, Madame de 

 Stael, 1804. 



Necker, SUZANNE CURCHOD (1739 

 -94). French writer. Born at 

 Grassier, canton of Vaud, Switzer- 

 land, daughter 

 of a Protestant 

 pastor, she was 

 for some time 

 in love with 

 Edward Gib- 

 bon before 

 marrying 

 Jacques Necker 

 in 1764. Her 

 salon was one 

 of the most 

 celebrated in Paris, frequented by 

 such men as Diderot, Buffon, 

 Andre Morellet, and Marmontel. 

 Famed also for her charities, she 

 founded, 1778, and for some years 

 administered, the Hopital Necker 

 in Paris. She died at Coppet, 

 Switzerland, in May, 1794. Her 

 daughter, Anne Louise Germaine, 

 became Madame de Stael (q.v. ). 

 See Le Salon de Mme. Necker, G. 

 d'Haussonville, Eng. trans. 1882. 



Necklace. Ornament for the 

 neck worn by most races from the 

 remotest times. They are usually 

 collars of metal in the form of 

 solid rings, gorgets, open work 

 or filigree, textiles, or of chains, 

 often ornamented with pendants 

 and decorated with enamels, 

 glass, and precious stones. The 

 torque, worn by prominent men 

 among the Gauls, Persians, and 

 other ancient nations, was a rigid 

 necklace or collar of spirally 

 twisted gold. See Anglo-Saxon 

 Antiquities ; Assyria ; Celt, colour 

 plate ; Jewelry. 



Necromancy (Greek, nekros, 

 corpse ; manteia, divination). Di- 

 vination by pretended communica- 

 tion with the dead. The art is 

 usually exercised by professional 

 sorcerers, as in the familiar ex- 

 ample of the witch of Endor, in 

 1 Sam. 28, who professed to evoke 

 the spirit of the prophet Samuel at 

 the behest of Saul. In Homer's 

 Odyssey, bk. 11, the conversation 

 of Ulysses with Tiresias in Hades 

 differs from regular necromancy in 



