232 



NICOT NIEBUIIR. 



Moesia and Dacia. One of the most celebrated is 

 that iu Epirus, built by Augustus, in commemoration 

 of his victory over Anthony, at Actium, which made 

 him master of the Roman empire. Ruins of this city 

 are still to be seen near Prevesa. 



Nicopolis, in Bulgaria, the chief place of a Turkish 

 taiigiacat, 164 miles west of Adrianople, 276 north- 

 west of Constantinople, with 10,000 inhabitants, was 

 built by Trajan. It lies on the right bank of the 

 Danube, and is a place of considerable strength. 

 Bajazet, the Turkish emperor, gained a victory here 

 over Sigismund, king of Hungary, in 13U6. Lat. 

 43 45' N. ; Ion. 24" 8' E. 



NICOT, JOHN ; born in 1530, appointed, by Fran, 

 cis II., French ambassador at the court of Portugal, 

 where he was presented with some seeds of the 

 tobacco plant, which he introduced into France. 

 The botanical term for tobacco (nicotiana) is derived 

 from his name. 



NICOTINE ; a peculiar principle obtained from 

 tobacco. The following process is adopted for ob- 

 taining it in a state of purity. Boil twelve pounds 

 of dry tobacco leaves in water acidulated with sul- 

 phuric acid ; evaporate and treat the extract with 

 alcohol diluted with a ninth part of water; add a 

 little water to the solution, and distil ; add hydrate 

 of lijne to the aqueous residuum, and redistil. 1'he 

 product being mixed and agitated with ether, the 

 latter is to be poured off, and a fresh portion added. 

 All the ethereous solutions are to be united, and put 

 in contact with muriate of lime, which will take 

 away the water ; and the concentrated ethereous 

 solution, being evaporated or distilled, will leave 100 

 grains of reddish nicotine. It is liquid at 21 Fah- 

 renheit ; its odour resembles that of dry tobacco ; its 

 taste is very acrid, burning, and durable. It is 

 denser than water, volatilizes in the air, and boils at 

 417 Fahrenheit. It dissolves in water in all pro- 

 portions, and the solution has an alkaline reaction. 

 When dissolved in alcohol or ether, and exposed to 

 heat, it does not distil with their vapours. Acids 

 take the nicotine from the ethereoos solution, and 

 form salts insoluble in ether. It is eminently pois- 

 onous. 



NICTITATING MEMBRANE, in comparative 

 anatomy ; a thin membrane, chiefly found in the bird 

 and fish kinds, which covers the eyes of these animals, 

 sheltering them from the dust, or from too much light, 

 yet is so thin and pellucid, that they can see pretty 

 well through it. 



NIEBELUNGENLIED. See Nibelungenlied. 



NIEBUIIR CAKSTENS, born at Liidengworth, in 

 the province of Hadeln (Hanover), in 1733, was the 

 son of a peasant, and his youth was passed in the usual 

 manner of a person of his condition in life. A law- 

 suit having arisen in his native province concerning 

 the superficial area of a farm, no surveyor was to be 

 found in Hadeln, and Niebuhr immediately resolved 

 to apply himself to the art. At the age of twenty- 

 two, he went to Hamburg, for the purpose of 

 studying geometry, and the most indefatigable 

 exertion was hardly sufficient to enable him to 

 follow the lessons of the gymnasium. He then 

 devoted several years to the study of the mathe- 

 matics at Gottingen. Count Bernstorff, Danish mi- 

 nister, having determined to send a scientific expedi- 

 tion to Arabia, Kastner, professor at Gottingen, re- 

 commended Niebuhr as a member of it. A year and 

 a half of preparation were allowed him, and, in 1760, 

 he received the place of lieutenant of engineers in the 

 Danish service. Niebuhr was geographer to the ex- 

 pedition, which sailed .in March, 1761, and, after 

 touching at Constantinople, proceeded to Egypt. 

 Here they remained a year, and reached Yemen, 

 their point of destination, in 1762. Both iu Egypt and 



on the journey, Niebuhr made many important astro- 

 nomical, geographical, and geodesical observations. 

 Within a year, all his companions died (Von Hagen 

 and Forskal in Arabia, Bauernfeind on the passage to 

 India, and Cramer in Bombay), and Niebuhr himself 

 was saved only by his extreme abstemiousness. The 

 whole object of the expedition would have been frus- 

 trated, had not Niebuhr, with extraordinary firmness, 

 continued his journey, and taken upon himself the 

 whole duty of the company. In September, 1763, he 

 sailed for Bombay, where he spent fourteen months 

 in arranging his journal, and, in December, 1764, set 

 out on his return over land, through Persia and Tur- 

 key. He arrived in Copenhagen in November, 1767, 

 and laid the fruits of his researches before the world 

 in his Description of Arabia (Copenhagen, 1772), and 

 his Travels in Arabia (2 vols., 17741778), both of 

 which were published in Danish, and have been trans- 

 lated into English and other languages. He also 

 edited, from ForskaPs papers, the Descriptiones Ani- 

 malium, &c. (1775), and the Flora JEgyptiaco-Arabica 

 (1776). Great accuracy of observation, and strict 

 veracity give to his accounts a high value, and render 

 them the most trustworthy source of information 

 concerning the countries visited by him. In 1768, 

 he was made captain of engineers ; in 1778, secretary 

 of the district of South Ditmarsh, and, in 1809 knight 

 of the order of the Danebrog. In 1802, he was 

 chosen foreign member of the French national insti- 

 tute. He died in 1815 Niebuhr was remarkably 

 frugal ; his moral character was spotless ; his man- 

 ners pure and severe ; and he ever appeared disinter- 

 ested and modest. Nobility, which was offered him, 

 he declined. His celebrated son wrote his life, the 

 substance of which forms the forty-eighth number of 

 the Library of Useful Knowledge. 



NIEBUHR, BERTHOLD GEORGE, the celebrated 

 historian of Rome, was the son of the preceding. He 

 was born in Copenhagen, Aug. 27, 1776 ; but, before 

 he had reached his second year, his father (a German) 

 received an appointment in Germany, in South Dit- 

 marsh, whither he took his son. An account of his 

 early education is given in his biography of his father. 

 Intercourse with several distinguished scholars, par- 

 ticularly J. H. Voss, the celebrated translator of 

 Homer, early inspired him with a peculiar love for 

 the classics. His father was intimately acquainted 

 with the famous Biisch, which was the cause of 

 Niebuhr's residence for some time in Hamburg, 

 where he acquainted himself with commercial affairs. 

 Here, also, he was in constant intercourse with Klop- 

 stock, who had a great friendship for the youth. 

 From 1793 to 1794, he studied law in the university 

 of Kiel ; but his inclination for the classics continued. 

 When nineteen years old, he went to the university 

 of Edinburgh, in order to study the natural sciences 

 under the professors of that institution, then so fa- 

 mous. He remained one year and a half in Edin- 

 burgh, and then travelled over England for six 

 months, and obtained an extensive knowledge of the 

 institutions of the country, assisted as he was by a 

 memory of whose power the writer of this article, * in 

 a long residence with Mr Niebuhr, has seen most 

 surprising proofs. When he returned from England, 

 he was appointed private secretary to the Danish mi- 

 nister of finance, in which situation he had an oppor- 

 tunity to examine closely the administration of count 



* FRANCIS LIEBF.R, the editor of the American edition of the 

 ' Conversations Lexicon,- who, when reduced to great distress, 

 on his return from Greece, whither lie had gone to support the 

 Greek revolutionary cause, was, though a stranger, generously 

 taken under Niebuhr's roof, at Rome, and treated, during a 

 long residence there, with undeviating- kindness. Mr Lieber 

 has recently published a volume containing Reminiscences of 

 Niebuhr, in which the character of the historian and the grati- 

 tude of his biographer are both pleasingly aiid creditably dis- 

 played. 



