NATIVITY NATURAL HISTORY. 



neutral, found on board of an enemy's ship, is deemed 

 neutral. The reason for the difference is, that upon 

 land the neutral sovereign has exclusive jurisdiction, 

 within his own territory, over all persons and pro- 

 perty within it. But all nations have a common 

 jurisdiction on the high seas to enforce their rights, 

 and the right of search carries with it an incidental 

 jurisdiction over all enemy's property found therein, 

 in the ships of a neutral. This right of search, how- 

 ever, is strictly confined to merchant ships, and is 

 never extended to ships of war, belonging to the 

 nation itself; for in such ships the national sove- 

 reignty is exclusive. In general, too, the character 

 of neutral, or enemy, is decided by the fact of 

 domicil. A native born subject of one belligerent, 

 who resides in a neutral country, is treated, at least 

 for tlie purposes of trade, as a neutral ; and, on the 

 other hand, a neutral subject, domiciled in an enemy's 

 country, is treated, for the like purposes, as an enemy. 

 In cases of civil war, the rights and duties of neutrals 

 are not essentially different. Every neutral is bound 

 to abstain from all active interference in the contest, 

 on one side or the other. If the contest gives rise to 

 the establishment of independent governments, form- 

 ed out of the severance of the old empire, it is not 

 deemed an act of hostility to recognise each as hav- 

 ing a sovereign existence as a nation. But while the 

 contest is dubious, and the affair wears the appear- 

 ance of a mere private rebellion, such a recognition 

 would be deemed an active interference to promote 

 the civil war, and therefore would, or at least might, 

 be resented as a departure from the neutral char- 

 acter. 



Such is a very general outline of some of the more 

 important principles which are recognised in the law 

 of nations. To go into the details would require an 

 entire treatise upon the law of prize, and another 

 upon many complicated questions, growing out of 

 international rights and duties in times ot peace. 



NATIVITY, in astrology; the theme or figure of 

 the heavens, and particularly of the twelve houses, at 

 the moment when a person was born ; called, also, 

 the horoscope. See Horoscope, and Astrology. 



NATOLIA,or ANATOLIA, or ANADOLI ; a 

 province of Asiatic Turkey, bounded N. by the Black 

 sea, E. by Armenia and Syria, S. by the Mediter- 

 ranean, and W. by the Archipelago and the sea of 

 Marmora ; about 650 miles long, from E. to W., and 

 400 broad, from N. to S. ; square miles, 270,000 ; 

 population, 6,000,000. Within these limits are in- 

 cluded not only Natolia Proper, but also Caramania, 

 Roum, and Aladulia. The whole is divided, by 

 tlie Turks, into six pachalics, viz. Natolia, Sivas, 

 Trebisond, Konieh or Cogni, Marasch, and Adana. 

 The capital of Natolia Proper is Kiutajah ; the 

 principal seaport, Smyrna ; the other principal towns 

 are Bursa, Angora, Sinob, Guzel-Hisar Aphiom- 

 Karahisar, and Ismid. It is divided into seventeen 

 sangiacats. Natolia was anciently called Asia Minor, 

 which comprised ancient Bithynia, Paphlagonia, 

 Galatia, Phrygia, Mysia, ^Eolia, Ionia, Lydia, Caria, 

 Doris, Pysidia, Licia, and Pamphylia. (See the arti- 

 cles ) The soil is in general fertile, producing corn, 

 tobacco, and fruits of various kinds, cotton and silk ; 

 and, notwithstanding the indolence of the Turks, the 

 commerce is considerable, particularly in carpets, 

 leather, drugs, cotton, silk, and other articles of 

 manufacture and produce. The greater part of the 

 inhabitants are Mohammedans ; but there are many 

 Christians, principally of the Greek church, governed 

 by patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops, who are 

 tolerated by the Porte. There are, likewise, many 

 Armenians, and some Roman Catholics. See Otto- 

 man Empire. 



NATROLITE. See Zeolite. 



NATRON ; a salt which is found in the ashes of 

 marine plants ; in some lakes, as in the Natron 

 lakes of Egypt ; and in some mineral springs, &c. 

 See Soda. 



NATURAL BRIDGE, in Rockbridge county, 

 Virginia. This bridge, which is over Cedar creek, 

 is a great curiosity. Its dimensions are vast ; its 

 appearance lofty, grand, ami even awful. It stands 

 on the ascent of a hill, which, according to the opinion 

 of some persons, has been cloven by some great 

 convulsion; but according to the opinion of others 

 the chasm has been worn by the action of the water. 

 The fissure, at the bridge, is 250 feet deep, forty-five 

 wide at the bottom, and ninety at the top. The rock, 

 which forms the bridge, is sixty feet broad in the 

 middle, and is covered with earth and trees. Here 

 is a post-office ; fourteen miles S. W. of Lexington, 

 and 180 W. of Richmond. 



NATURAL HISTORY is the description of all 

 bodies belonging to nature, in one of the narrow 

 senses of the word nature, in which it is confined to 

 the visible objects of this earth, including, of course, 

 the phenomena of their growth and formation. The 

 systems of the different kingdoms of nature will be 

 found under their respective heads ; and our limits do 

 not permit us to give here an account of the general 

 systems which have attempted to classify all the phe- 

 nomena of created objects. Generally speaking, only 

 the external description of the objects of nature is 

 comprised in natural history, and chemistry and 

 natural philosophy are excluded, leaving only four 

 chief divisions : 1. geology, or mineralogy in its most 

 extensive sense; 2. phytology, or botany (the natural 

 history of plants) ; 3. zoology (description of animals); 

 and, 4. anthropology (the natural history of man). 

 Another division has been made, by German natu- 

 ralists, with reference to the form of bodies, their 

 composition, and their functions (if they are endowed 

 with life), which gives rise to the three departments 

 of morphology, chemistry, and biology or physiology. 

 Aristotle is to be regarded as the founder of natural 

 history. (See Aristotle.) Ot the Romans, Pliny tlie 

 Elder deserves to be particularly mentioned. He 

 left a collection of notices respecting natural history, 

 though deformed by a mass of incorrect observations 

 and fabulous reports. In the darkness which the 

 middle ages spread over the West, the natural sciences 

 suffered severely; nature was dealt with in a most bar- 

 barous and absurd manner by the schoolmen. With 

 the revival of learning a new day dawned on natural 

 history ; Bacon led the way to closer observation, 

 and much was done, in the last century, by Conrad 

 Gesner in Zurich, Aldrovandi at Bologna, Ray in 

 England, Tournefort in France, and others ; but Lin- 

 naeus first collected and systematized the treasures of 

 natural science. He gave us the first system of 

 nature ; and though it is an artificial system, and not 

 founded in nature itself, he has done more for natura I 

 history than almost any man for any other branch of 

 knowledge. Since his time, natural history has been 

 cultivated with the greatest zeal in Germany, Britain, 

 France, Sweden, Russia, and of late in the United 

 States. Buffon did much for this science, -by the 

 splendid style in which he taught it. The desire to 

 treat natural history according to a natural system, not 

 only in single branches, like botany, but, if possible, in 

 its whole range, became more and more general. Oken 

 has occupied himself with the latter task particularly, 

 and given to the public several results of his labour. 

 The number of works, in the various departments of 

 natural history, is very great. Bohmer's Bibliotheca 

 Scriptorum Hist, natural. (Leipsic, 1785 et seq.. in 

 5 parts, 10 vols.). gives those which appeared before 

 the beginning of this century, when a very interest- 

 ing period commences. A complete view of the pre- 



