NORWICH NOSOLOGY. 



265 



who presided here in 1284. The church originally 

 consisted of a choir, a tower, and transept, with north 

 and south aisles ; the nave and its aisles were erected 

 by bishop Eberhard : and the building having been 

 damaged by an accidental fire in 1171, it was re- 

 paired, fitted up, and ornamented by bishop John of 

 Oxford about 1197. The chapel of the Virgin Mary 

 was added by Walter de Suffield, the tenth prelate. 

 It is a cruciform edifice, chiefly of Norman architec- 

 ture, though the later portions display some of the 

 characteristics of the Gothic style. From the centre 

 rises a noble tower, crowned with battlements and 

 angular pinnacles, and surmounted by a lofty spire, 

 the upper part of which having been blown down in 

 1629, it was rebuilt in 1633. The entire length of 

 the cathedral, from west to east, is 411 feet; from 

 the western door to the entrance of the choir 230 

 feet; length of the choir 165 feet; thence to the 

 entrance of St Mary's chapel thirty-six feet ; length 

 of the transept 191 feet, and breadth seventy-one 

 feet ; height of the tower and spire 315 feet. At the 

 east end of the choir are four windows ornamented 

 with stained glass, displaying the transfiguration of 

 Christ, and figures of the prophets, apostles, and 

 evangelists. The choir was formerly surrounded by 

 chantry chapels, of which there are several still 

 remaining. On the southern side of the choir are 

 the cloisters, forming the largest quadrangle of the 

 kind in England, extending 170 feet on each side. 

 They were erected by Robert of Walpole, bishop of 

 Norwich, in 1297; and they have a fine stone roof 

 ornamented with sculpture representing scenes from 

 Scripture history. Northward of the cathedral stands 

 the episcopal palace, built about 1320, by bishop 

 Salmon. 



Norwich was early famed for its woollen manufac- 

 tures, introduced by a colony of Flemings, who 

 settled in the neighbouring town of Worsted (a name 

 familiar from the useful article first produced in it), 

 in the reign of Henry I. Other settlers from the 

 same country joined their brethren in the reigns of 

 Henry VI. and of Elizabeth ; and numerous articles, 

 framed from mixed silk and woollen, became mar- 

 ketable from Norwich throughout Europe. The 

 staple articles are bombasines, worsted damasks, 

 flowered satins, and fine camlets. To these articles 

 have been recently added the manufacture of cottons, 

 shawls, and other fancy goods, both for furniture and 

 dress. The manufacture of cotton thread lace has 

 also been introduced ; and the trade in linen, called 

 Suffolk hempen, is in a flourishing state. In 1810, 

 mills for throwing silk on an extensive scale were 

 erected, and this manufacture employs 1000 persons. 

 The commerce of the city is chiefly transacted at the 

 port of Yarmouth, thirty-two miles distant. Popula- 

 tion, in 1811, 37,256; in 1821, 50,288; in 1831, 

 61,110. 



NORWICH ; a city of the United States of 

 America, in New London county, Connecticut, on 

 the Thames, at the head of navigation, thirteen 

 miles north from New London ; lat. 41 33' north ; 

 Ion. 72 7' west ; population in 1831, including the 

 township, 5109. The falls of the river at this place 

 afford extensive water power, and there are consider- 

 able manufactures. 



NOSAIRIANS, NASSARIANS, or ANSAR- 

 IANS ; a Mohammedan sect of the Shiite party, 

 which was formed in the 270th year of the Hegira, 

 and received its name from Nasar, in the environs 

 of Koufa, the birthplace of its founder. At the time 

 of the crusades the Nassarians had spread widely in 

 Syria and Mesopotamia, aud rivalled the Ishmaelites 

 in power. They were afterwards confined, by the 

 victories of the Turks, to a strip of mount Lebanon, 

 in Syria, on the Semmack, which they now occupy 



as tributary to the Turks, though in other respects 

 as an independent nation. Their chief town, Sasita, 

 eight leagues from Tripoli (Tarablus), is an old 

 fortress, with a village of 250 houses, and the resi- 

 dence of their lay scheik, who governs them as here- 

 ditary prince and vassal of the Porte. The district 

 of 800 villages, in which the principal part of their 

 population resides, under the governments of Tripoli, 

 Damascus, and Hamah, is not very fertile, but pro- 

 duces grain, garden fruits, figs, mulberry-trees, 

 oranges, and wine, which they allow themselves to 

 drink. They also raise cotton, silk, gall-nuts, mad- 

 der, and other drugs, in which they carry on a 

 profitable trade. Their manners are rude, and cor- 

 rupted by remains of heathenish customs, which 

 remind us of the Lingam worship. Although poly 

 gamy is not allowed, yet on certain festival days they 

 permit the promiscuous intercourse of the sexes, and 

 are divided, after the manner of the Hindoos, into 

 numerous castes, which oppress one another. The 

 Turks, to whom they make a firm opposition, and the 

 Ishmaelites, their nearest neighbours, detest them, 

 although they differ slightly from the latter in their 

 religious views. They are, like them, worshippers 

 of Ali, believe in the transmigration of souls, but not 

 in a heaven or hell. They are friendly to Chris- 

 tians, and observe Christian festivals and ceremonies, 

 but without understanding their meaning. They, 

 moreover, exhibit, in their worship of God, many 

 traces of the worship of nature of some of the old 

 Asiatic nations. Certain animals and plants are 

 sacred with them, and the secret parts of females, as 

 an emblem of the principle of generation, is an object 

 of their worship. They have many places of pilgrim- 

 age and chapels in common with the Turks, in 

 which their worship is exercised with great formality. 

 A spiritual head, Scheik Khalil, directs their reli- 

 gious concerns, and wanders around among them as 

 a prophet. The formerly current opinion, that the 

 Nassarians were Syrian Sabians, or Christians of St 

 John, has been completely exploded by Niebuhr, 

 and the accounts of Rousseau, the French consul at 

 Aleppo. 



NOSE (naese, nosa, Saxon) ; that prominence on 

 the face, which is the organ of scent and the emunc- 

 tory of the brain. The ancients seem to have had 

 an aversion to small noses, and the Romans esteemed 

 above all the aquiline nose, which Pliny termed, by 

 way of distinction, royal. It is thus that ^Eliun has 

 described thaj; of Aspasia, and Philostratus those of 

 Achilles and of Paris. According to Plutarch, Cyrus 

 had the same ; and on this account the Persians are 

 said to have admired noses of this shape. But aqui- 

 line noses were reckoned beautiful only when the 

 curve was gentle and almost insensible, in contradis- 

 tinction to such as are decidedly crooked, resembling 

 the beak of a parrot. The Grecians, indeed, gene- 

 rally speaking, seem to have held a straight line from 

 the forehead, or rather slightly inclined, to be the 

 beau ideal with respect to this feature ; and accord- 

 ingly we find it in their best statues, &c. They, 

 however, participated in the dislike to small and 

 unobtrusive noses ; and probably one cause for this 

 is to be found in the fact of their making the expres- 

 sion of indignation and anger lie chiefly in the nose 

 and nostrils. It may be remarked, in confirmation 

 of the above observations, that the short nose is 

 never to be found in Roman sculpture earlier than 

 the times of Caracalla, when the art evidently 

 declined, as is obvious, among other proofs, from 

 the introduction of so bad a taste as working in 

 variegated marbles. 



NOSOLOGY (from the Geeek, turn, disease, and 

 Xoyaf), in medicine ; that science which treats of the 

 systematic arrangement and classification of diseases. 



