NEPHTHYS 



vapour baths, or by the admin- 

 istration of pilocarpine. The 

 bowels should be kept open by 

 saline purges. Pain in the back 

 may be relieved by the application 

 of hot fomentations. Dropsy of 

 the abdomen or of the chest may 

 necessitate removal of some of the 

 fluid by aspiration. See Bright's 

 Disease. 



Nephthys. Egyptian goddess. 

 The name is the Grecised form of 

 Nebt-het, lady of the house. Per- 

 haps personifying the dusk, she 

 was the wife of Set and sister of 

 Isis, whose lament over the bier of 

 Osiris she shared. Portrayed as 

 a woman crowned by her hiero- 

 glyphic symbol perhaps a house 

 and basket she was worshipped 

 at Edfu, Dendera, and elsewhere. 

 See Egypt. 



Nepos, CORNELIUS. Roman 

 writer of the first century B.O. A 

 friend of Cicero, he wrote volu- 

 minously on many subjects, but 

 everything has been lost, except 

 a section of a work entitled Illus- 

 trious Men. This is of no value as 

 a contribution to history, but the 

 simplicity of its style has made it a 

 favourite text-book for beginners 

 in Latin. 



Nepotism (Lat. nepos, grand- 

 son). Term applied to the practice 

 of showing undue favour to rela- 

 tives, especially by ministers of 

 state or others exercising patron- 

 age. In Church history the term 

 is applied to the abuse of eccles. 

 patronage by popes and bishops. 



Neptune. In Roman myth- 

 ology, the god of the sea, identified 

 with the Greek Poseidon (q.v. ). 



Neptune. In astronomy, the 

 outermost known planet. Its dis- 

 covery is remarkable for the fact 

 that its orbit was calculated by 

 Leverrier and Adams before the 

 planet had itself been seen. It was 

 first actually seen by Galle, of 

 Berlin, who found it from particu- 

 lars supplied by Leverrier on 

 Sept. 23, 1846. It can only be seen 

 by the telescope. On Oct. 10, 

 1846, Lassell discovered a satellite, 

 which was not, however, photo- 

 graphed till 1899 at Pulkova. The 

 existence of a second satellite is 

 suspected, but it has not yet been 

 photographed. 



The distance of the planet 

 from the sun is 2,794,000,000 m., 

 and its period of revolution about 

 the sun is 165 years. Its satellite 

 revolves about the planet in a 

 retrograde direction, or E. to W., 

 n five days and twenty-one hours. 

 Wirtz, of Strasbourg, in 1903, cal- 

 ulated its diameter at about 

 31,225 m., and its mean density at 

 L'54. There is spectroscopic evi- 

 dence of an enveloping atmo- 

 sphere of unknown gases and also 



5680 



free hydrogen. That Neptune may 

 not be the most remote planet of 

 the .solar system has been sug- 

 gested many times since the dis- 

 covery of the planet. In 1879 

 Flammarion suggested a means of 

 search, by observations of comets. 

 There are two groups of comets 

 which appear to pass round some 

 point far beyond Neptune. Pro- 

 fessor George Forbes, of Edin- 

 burgh, has maintained that this 

 distant point or points indicates 

 the orbit of a planet, or of two 

 planets, and has computed posi- 

 tions for the nearer of these planets. 

 Professor Todd, of Amherst, has 

 calculated the position of an extra 

 Neptunian planet by examining 

 the perturbation of Uranus. His' 

 calculations assign the same posi- 

 tion as Forbes to the unknown 

 planet. See Planet ; Sun. 



Nerac. Town of France. In the 

 dept. of Lot-et-Garonne, it is on 

 the river Baise, 15 m. W.S.W. of 

 Agen Here are remains of a castle 

 of Henry of Navarre. Immense 

 forests to the W. provide the raw 

 material of its principal industry 

 of cork-making. Pop. 6,400. 



Nerchinski Zavod. Town o. 

 Siberia. It is in the prov. of Trans- 

 baikalia, on the Altacha, 260 m. 

 S.E. of Chita. The important 

 mines in the district, gold, silver, 

 mercury, tin, iron, coal, salt, are 

 worked by convict labour. Pop. 

 dist., 67,000 ; town, 3,000. 



Nereis. Genus of polychaete 

 (many-bristled) sea worms. The 

 body consists of a long series of 

 segments, each bearing numerous 

 chaetae or bristles. Most have a 

 definite head, which may be pro- 

 vided with tentacles, and some 

 have gills. They live in burrows 

 in the mud and rock crevices. 



Nereus. In Greek mythology, 

 an ocean deity with the gift of pro- 

 phecy. He was represented as an 

 old man with the tail of a fish or 

 serpent. He had 50 daughters, the 

 Nereids, one of whom was Thetis, 

 the mother of Achilles. 



Nergal. God of war, pestilence, 

 and hunting, worshipped by the 

 city of Cuthah, near Babylon. He 

 is represented with the body of a 

 winged lion and a man's head. 



Neri (Ital., Blacks). Name given 

 about 1300 to a faction in Florence. 

 During a quarrel about the way in 

 which the city should be governed, 

 the nobles were split up into two 

 parties, the Neri headed by the 

 Donati family, and the Bianchi or 

 Whites by the Cerchi. This feud 

 disturbed the peace of Florence 

 during the early 14th century. 

 Charles of Valois intervened on be- 

 half of the Neri, and the exile o 

 Dante was due to their hostility. 

 See Florence. 



Neri, PHILIP (1515-95). Italian 

 priest and saint, founder of the 

 Oratorians. Born at Florence, 

 July 21, 1515, 

 he refused to 

 become heir to 

 his uncle, a 

 wealthy m e r- 

 chant. In 1533 

 he went to 

 Rome and 

 studied theolo- 

 gy. He visited 

 the sick, found- S. Philip Neri, 

 ed a hospital, Italian priest 

 established a Confraternity of the 

 Holy Trinity, and delivered daily 

 addresses which attracted even 

 princes and cardinals. Ordained 

 priest in 1551, in 1558 he formed a 

 number of young men into the Con- 

 gregation of the Oratory, an order of 

 priests and laymen observing a 

 common rule, but not under vows, 

 their aim being to teach the ignorant 

 and convert the worldly. He died 

 May 25, 1595, and was canonised 

 in 1622. See Oratorians ; consult 

 also Lives, P. J. Bacci, 1622, 

 Eng. trans, ed. F. I. Antrobus, 

 1902 ; Mrs. Hope, 1859. 



Nernst, WALTER (b. 1864). Ger- 

 man physicist. Born June 25, 1864, 

 he was educated at Graudenz, 

 and at the universities of Zurich, 

 Berlin, and Wurzburg. In 1887 he 

 became assistant in the chemical 

 laboratory of Ostwald, at Leipzig, 

 and 1891-94 was professor of 

 chemistry at Gottingen. In 1905, 

 after having been for ten years the 

 head of an institute for physics, he 

 was chosen professor of chemistry 

 at Berlin,, where he became also 

 director of the institute for 

 physics. Nernst is known by his 

 writings on chemistry, and by his 

 invention of the Nernst incandes- j 

 cent electric lamp. He was awarded 

 the Nobel prize for chemistry, 1920. 



Nero. Mountain of Italy, a peak 

 of the Julian Alps, formerly in the 

 Austro-Hungarian crownland of 

 Gorz. It is 7,370 ft. in height, and 

 7 m. N.E. of Caporetto. The moun- 

 tain and region were prominent 

 in the battles of the Isonzo 

 fought between the Austrians and 

 Italians, 1915-17. 



Nero (37-68). Roman emperor. 

 Originally named Lucius Domitius 

 Ahenobarbus, he was the stepson 

 of the emperor 

 Claudius, by 

 whom he was 

 adopted in 50, 

 thenceforth 

 bearing the 

 name of Nero. 

 On the death of 

 Clau dius in 

 54, Nero was 

 Nero made emperor. 



Roman emperor For the five 



