NERTCHINSK 



3081 



NERVOUS SYSTEM 





years of hia minority the empire 

 was well administered. Then Nero 

 threw arnde hia tutors and mini- 

 tors, and for nine yoare indulged in 

 that orgy of tyranny whii-h li;i- 

 made his name a byword for all 

 time. His tutor Seneca, his 

 mother Agrippina, his wife Octa- 

 . ii. were all done to death ; any- 

 one who offended him, or whom 

 he distrusted, was murdered with 

 or without the form of law. 



He plunged into licentious dissi- 

 pations, and shocked all Roman 

 conventions by posing publicly as 

 a musician and an artist. In 64 

 fires broke out in Rome by which 

 half the city was consumed ; men 

 whispered that the destruction had 

 been planned by the emperor him- 

 self. But Nero announced that 

 the thing had been done by the 

 obscene sect of the Christians, 

 upon whom a frightful persecution 

 was let loose. Life in Rome be- 

 came a nightmare ; the horror 

 grew till Galba, one of the provin- 

 cial generals, led his troops upon 

 Rome. In the face of danger the 

 coward emperor fled, and when he 

 heard the tramp of the approaching 

 troops, died by his own hand, 08. 

 Theatrical to the end, his last 

 words were " What an artist is lost 

 in me ! " See Agrippina ; consult 

 also Life, B. W. Henderson, 1903. 

 Nertchinsk. Town of E. 

 Siberia. It is in the prov. of 

 Transbaikalia, on the Nertcha, and 

 a station on the Siberian railway, 

 530 m. E. of Irkutsk. The inhabit- 

 ants of the district are chiefly occu- 

 pied in agriculture, cattle-rearing, 

 tobacco cultivation, and the hunt- 

 ing of furred animals, especially the 

 sable. There are lead and silver 

 mines near by. Pop. 7,000. 



Nerva, MARCUS COCCEIUS (32- 

 98). Roman emperor. A man of 

 eminent respectability, though not 

 of great capa- 

 city, he was 

 chosen e m- 

 peror on the 

 assassina t i o n 

 of Domitian in 

 96, after whose 

 tyranny his 

 mild rule was 



a welcome re- 

 Marcus Nerva, Hef. He took 

 Roman emperor an oath that 

 he would put no senator to death, 

 suppressed the worst of the in- 

 formers who had disgraced the 

 latter part of Domitian's reign, 

 and interested himself in public 

 charity. He adopted Trajan and 

 died .fan. 27, 98. 



Nerval, GERARD DE. Adopted 

 name of the French writer, Gerard 

 I^abrunie ( 1 808-55 ). Born in Paris, 

 May 21, 1808, he was the son of a 

 doctor. His father taught him 



Gerard de Nerval, 

 French author 



several languages and, of a studious 



iiiul tvcrntiH' niitiirr In- -01,11 !_ in 

 to write. In 1828 ho trannlated 

 Faust, and 

 volumes of 

 verse and prose 

 appeared from 

 then until, 

 following a n 

 attack of in- 

 sanity, he com- 

 mitted suicide, 

 Jan. 25, 1855. 

 Nerval's best 

 work is in his 

 fantastic stories, Contes et Fact-ties, 

 1852, and Les Filles du Feu, 1854, 

 though his Aurelie has special inter- 

 est as a record of his own madness. 

 His Sylvie, 1848-50, is also note- 

 worthy. He also wrote comedies, a 

 drama, and articles for periodicals. 

 Among his friends were Gautier 

 and Dumas. His 

 complete works, 

 with a notice l.y 

 Gautier, appeared 

 in 1876. See Ger- 

 ard de Nerval, G 

 Ferrieres, 1906. 



Nerve. Cord-like 

 structure composed 

 of nerve fibres, i.e. 

 long branches of 

 nerve cells which 

 convey impulses 

 from one part of 

 the body to an- 

 other. Nerves 

 which convey im- 

 pulses from nerve 

 centres, such as the 

 brain, are called 

 efferent nerves, and 

 those which carry 

 impulses from the 

 periphery to nerve 

 centres are known 

 as afferent nerves. 

 If, for example, a 

 painful stimulus is 

 applied to the hand, 

 the impression is 

 conveyed to the 

 brain, which then 

 sends out an im- 

 pulse through the 

 efferent nerves, which withdraws 

 the hand from the source of pain. 

 See Brain ; Ganglion ; Neuron. 



Nervous System. System of 

 nerve cells and nerve fibres which 

 control or regulate the actions 

 and functions of every part of the 

 body. The nervous system con- 

 sists of two main divisions, the 

 cerebro-spinal system, comprising 

 the brain and spinal cord, and 

 the vegetative or autonomic, con- 

 sisting of the sympathetic nervous 

 system, and certain other ganglia, 

 i.e. aggregations of nerve cells and 

 fibres. The cerebro-spinal system 

 controls the movements of muscles 



and carries out actions consciously 

 directed by the individual The 

 autonomic system regulates func- 

 tions and actions which are not 

 iiinl'T voluntary control, as, for ex- 

 ample, the peristaltic movements 

 of the intestine and the processes of 

 digestion. The two systems are, 

 however, not entirely independent. 

 Diseases of the nervous system 

 may be divided into two main 

 classes : ( 1 ) Functional nervous 

 diseases (or more properly dis- 

 orders), in which no pathological 

 changes in the system can be detec- 

 ted. (2) Organic diseases associated 

 with degeneration in the nerves or 

 nerve cells following injury for 

 example, a blow on the bead, or 

 rupture of an artery in the brain, 

 as in apoplexy ; chronic poisoning, 

 as in alcoholic neuritis ; effects of 

 micro-organisms, as in diseases of 



Nervous System. Diagram o! the network of nerves in 

 the human body seen from the back 



the nervous system due to syphilis ; 

 and other causes yet unknown. 



Nerves also exercise a nutritive 

 action upon the parts they supply. 

 Thus, when the nerves directly 

 supplying a group of muscles are 

 severed, as for instance by a gun- 

 shot wound, the muscles cease to 

 respond to stimuli, and show 

 marked wasting. When the in- 

 jury or degenerative process is 

 not in the nerve immediately 

 supplying the part, but is situated 

 in a higher nerve centre, such as 

 the brain, which controls the lower 

 nerves, then the condition known 

 as spastic paralysis is produced, in 



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