NORDAU 



4246 



NORFOLK 



the Xon-Intercourse Act are explained in those 

 volumes in the article KMHVIU;O. In 1811 the 

 act so far as it related to France was repealed, 

 but the breach with England continued, and in 

 1812 that country and the United States began 

 open warfare. See WAR OF 1812. 



NORDAU, nor'dou, MAX SIMON (1849- ), 

 an Hungarian physician and writer, born in 

 Budapest, of Jewish parents. He traveled ex- 

 tensively and afterward wrote a number of 

 books that have created a wide interest and 

 have been translated into English. The best 

 known of these is Degeneration, a work erratic 

 in style, in which he attempts to prove that the 

 intense mental excitement of the present day 

 has worked toward the breaking down of the 

 morality of the race. 



NORDENSKIOLD, now ren shut ' , NILS ADOLF 

 ERIC, Baron (1832-1901), a famous Swedish ex- 

 plorer, the discoverer of the Northeast Pas- 

 sage, which had been diligently sought for four 

 centuries. He was born at Helsingfors, in Fin- 

 land, but in 1857 removed to Stockholm and 

 became a citizen of Sweden. In 1858 and again 

 in 1861 he accompanied Torrell on voyages to 

 icebound Spitzbergen, making important geo- 

 logical discoveries, and in 1864 and 1867 led 

 expeditions to that region. On the second of 

 these he reached latitude 81 42', the farthest 

 northern point attained up to that time. An 

 investigation of the ice fields of Greenland oc- 

 cupied him during much of 1870, and in 1872 

 he led another and comparatively unsuccessful 

 expedition to Spitzbergen. 



It was in 1878-1879 that he discovered the 

 Northwest Passage and cruised through it on 

 the Vega. His account of his experiences is 

 contained in The Voyage oj the Vega. For 

 this service to the world King Oscar of Sweden 

 created him a baron in 1879. On his last voy- 

 age to Greenland, in 1883, he performed the 

 unprecedented feat of forcing his ship through 

 the ice barrier. His works include two impor- 

 tant books on geography, Facsimile Atlas and 

 Periplus. 



NORDICA, nawr'dika, LILLIAN (1859-1914), 

 one of the foremost dramatic sopranos of her 

 time. She was born in Farmington, Me., her 

 family name being Norton. She studied in 

 Boston, Italy, London and Milan and made 

 her debut in grand opera in Paris, in 1881, in 

 La Traviata. In 1883 she made her first ap- 

 pearance in grand opera in America as Mar- 

 guerite in Faust. Madame Nordica appeared at 

 the Bayreuth festival, in 1894, singing the part 

 of Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin. Her success 



\va< sensational and she returned to America 

 the same year and achieved the crowning suc- 

 cess of her career in Tristan and Isolde, with 

 Jean and Edouard de Reszke, at the Metro- 

 politan Opera House, New York. Subsequently 

 she appeared al- 

 most exclusively 

 in Wagnerian op- 

 era. Her last 

 tours were de- 

 voted mainly to 

 concert work un- 

 der her own man- 

 agement; on her 

 final tour, begun 

 in 1913, she was 

 shipwrecked off 

 the coast of 

 Thursday Island. 

 Australia, As a LILLIAN NORDICA 

 result of exposure she died May 10, 1914, at 

 Batavia, Java. 



NORFOLK, nawr'fawk, VA., the largest pea- 

 nut market and one of the most important 

 coaling stations in the world, and one of the 

 principal naval stations of the United States. 

 It is situated in the southeastern part of the 

 state, on the Elizabeth River, opposite Ports- 

 mouth. Richmond, the state capital, is about 

 100 miles northwest by rail and 116 miles by 

 water. Railway transportation is provided by 

 the Chesapeake & Ohio; Norfolk & Western; 

 Norfolk Southern; Virginian; Southern; New 

 York, Philadelphia & Norfolk; Atlantic Coast 

 Line, and Seaboard Air Line. The port is the 

 terminus for transatlantic and coastwise steam- 

 ship lines, and water communication with inland 

 towns is made through the Dismal Swamp and 

 Albemarle and Chesapeake canals. Ferries 

 connect with Portsmouth, Newport News and 

 Old Point Comfort, and electric lines extend to 

 Virginia Beach, Cape Henry, Ocean View and 

 Willoughby Beach, along the coast. The popu- 

 lation increased from 67,462 in 1910 to 89,612 

 in 1916 (Federal estimate) ; in size the city 

 ranks next to Richmond among the cities of 

 the state. Its area exceeds seven square miles. 



Commerce and Industry. Norfolk has a 

 beautiful harbor of such ample proportions 

 that it could shelter the combined navies of the 

 world. It is defended by Fort Monroe and 

 Fort Wool. The navy yards are at Portsmouth, 

 and these two cities together constitute a Fed- 

 eral customs district. More than 2,500,000 tons 

 of coal are annually handled by the immense 

 coaling station here. The principal commerce 



