NICOBAR ISLANDS 



4232 



NIELSEN 



source of supply for the world. Nickel forms 

 a number of alloys, the most important being 

 German silver (whi 



NICOBAR, nik'obahr, ISLANDS, a British 

 group of nineteen islands in the Bay of Bengal, 

 between the Andaman Islands and Sumatra. 

 The total area of the islands, of which only 

 twelve are inhabited, is about 635 square miles, 

 Great Nicobar. the largest, having about 333 

 re miles. The climate is very unhcalthful 

 for Europt 



Most of the natives, who are of a low order 

 of civilization, are supported by the trade in 

 cocoanuts and copra. Piracy and wrecking 

 formed their chief occupation prior to the 

 British occupation in 1869, but since then they 

 have been peaceful. The Danes unsuccessfully 

 tried to colonize the Nicobars, but failed and 

 abandoned them in 1848. The Nicobar Islands 

 are under the government of India, adminis- 

 tered from the Andaman Islands. 



NICOLET, nekoleh', the county town of 

 Nicolet County, Quebec. It is at the mouth 

 of the Nicolet River, which empties into the 

 Saint Lawrence River at the eastern end of the 

 expansion known as Lake Saint Peter. Nicolet 

 is on the Intercolonial Railway and the Quebec, 

 Montreal & Southern railways, eighty-two miles 

 northeast of Montreal. By the shortest rail 

 route it is ninety-four miles southwest of Que- 

 bec. Nicolet is the seat of a Roman Catholic 

 bishop, and has a cathedral, college, normal 

 school and two monasteries. The college has 

 about 300 students. The town's principal in- 

 dustrial establishments are sash-and-door fac- 

 tories and a tannery. Population in 1911, 

 2,593 ; in 1916, estimated, 3,000. 



NICOTINE, nik'otin, or nik' o teen, a color- 

 less, oily, transparent vegetable alkaloid, with 

 a hot and bitter taste, found in small quantities 

 in the leaves, roots and seeds of the tobacco 

 plant, of which it is the most active principle. 

 The quantity of nicotine in nearly all tobacco 

 ranges from two per cent to seven per cent of 

 its composition. It is practically absent from 

 Turkish tobacco; in the Western hemisphere it 

 is found least in good Havana tobacco and is 

 most abundant in cheaper and "domestic" va- 

 rieties. The analysis below shows the percent- 

 age of the drug in the leaves of the most im- 

 portant grades, although the amount varies 

 somewhat in different plants in the same lo- 

 cality : 



Havana 02 Pennsylvania ... .034 



Florida 024 Connecticut 035 



Maryland 03 Wisconsin.. .038 



Tennessee Ofi: Kentucky 



Mexican 056 Virginia 



.061 

 .068 



Nicotine it ngly poisonous, and in a 



pure state even a very small quantity will cause 

 vomiting, great weakness, rapid but weak pulse, 

 and possibly collapse. Death has been known 

 to follow within a few minutes after a little of 

 the purr- drug has been taken. In smoking, a 

 good portion cff the nicotine present in the to- 

 bacco passes off in smoke; otherwise smoking 

 would be fatal to those who indulge the habit 

 to excess; what remains after burning may 

 prove a discomfort to the smoker, but is not 

 considered dangerous. It is the nicotine which 

 makes the young man so deathly sick when he 

 smokes his first pipe or cigar, for his system is 

 a stranger to the active drug. A condition of 

 tolerance follows repeated efforts, and eventu- 

 ally the ill-effects largely disappear. Of the 

 effects of nicotine upon a smoker an English 

 physician, Dr. Richardson, says: 



It is innocent as compared with alcohol ; it 

 does infinitely less harm than opium ; it is in no 

 sense worse than tea, and by the side of hi^li 

 living it contrasts most favorably. 



Even regarding this comparison as scientifi- 

 cally accurate, the fact of the virulence of the 

 poison is not obscured. The knowledge that 

 only about one per cent remains in tobacco in 

 the process of smoking to affect the user is all 

 that renders the medical world in the least de- 

 gree tolerant of the practice. 



NIELLO, niel'o, a method of ornamenting 

 silver and gold plates, by filling up the lines of 

 the design cut into the metal with a black com- 

 position to make the design stand out more 

 clearly. The surface of the engraving is. then 

 smoothed down and burnished. Traces of this 

 art are found in ancient Roman work, and it 

 was popular under the Byzantine Empire from 

 the sixteenth century on, when altar plates and 

 Hiuilar decorative objects belonging to the 

 Christian ritual were ornamented by this proc- 

 ess. In modern work the black pattern stands 

 out in relief; the art is still practiced success- 

 fully by the goldsmiths of Russia and metal 

 workers of India. 



NIELSEN, neel'sen, ALICE (1876- ); an 

 American operatic soprano, who gave up her 

 career as a prima donna in light opera to de- 

 vote years of study to qualify herself as a grand 

 opera singer. She was born at Nashville, Tenn., 

 and made her first public appearance in her 

 early teens, singing the part of Yum Yum in 

 the Mikado at the old Tivoli Opera House, in 

 San Francisco. Then she became the leading 



