NEU 
cleft, superior ; berry two-celled ; seeds so- 
litary. There is but one species, w. N. 
depressa, found in New Granada. 
NERVES, are cylindrical whitish parts, 
usually fibrose in their structure ; or com- 
posed of clusters of filaments, arising from 
the brain, or rather from its medulla ob- 
longata within the skull, and from the spi- 
nal marrow, and running from thence to 
every part of the body. See Anatomy. 
NET, a device for catching fish and 
fowl. The taking fowls by nets is the 
readiest and most advantageous of all 
others where numbers are to be taken. 
The making the nets is very easy, and what 
every true sportsman ought to be able to 
do for himself. All the necessary tools are 
wooden needles, of which there should be 
several of different sizes, some round and 
others flat: a pair of round-pointed and flat 
scissars, and a wheel to wind off the thread. 
The packthread is to be of different strength 
and thickness, according to the sort of birds 
to be taken ; and the general size of the 
meshes, if not for very small birds, is two 
inches from point to point. The nets should 
neither be made too deep nor too long, for 
they are then difficult to manage; and they 
must be verged on each side with twisted 
thread. The natural colour of the thread 
is too bright and pale, and is therefore in 
many cases to be altered. The most usual 
colour is the russet, which is to be obtained 
by plunging the net after it is made into a 
tanner’s pit, and letting it lie there till it be 
sufiiciently tinged : this is of a double ser- 
vice to the net, since it preserves the thread 
as well as alters the colour. The green 
colour is given by chopping some green 
wheat and boiling it in water, and then 
soaking the net in this green tincture. The 
yellow colour is given in the same manner 
with the decoction of celandine, which gives 
a'pale straw-colour, which is the colour of 
stubble in the harvest time. The brown 
nets are to be used on ploughed lands, the 
green on grass grounds, and the yellow on 
stubble lands. 
NETTINGS, in a ship, a sort of grates 
made of small ropes, seized together with 
rope-yarn or twine, and fixed on the quar- 
ters and in the tops; they are sometimes 
stretched upon the ledges from the waste- 
trees to the roof-trees, from the top of the 
forecastle to the poop; and sometimes are 
laid in the waste of a ship to serve instead 
of gratings. 
NETTLE. See Urtica. 
NEUMANN (Gaspar, M. D.) in bio- 
VOL. IV. 
NEU 
graphy, an eminent chemist, was bom in 
1683, at Zullichau, in the duchy of Crossen, 
m Brandenburg, of which place his father 
was a burgher and apothecary. He was 
brought up to his father’s profession, and in 
1705 went to Berlin, where he engaged in 
the service of the King of Prussia. After* 
having accompanied him in his journeys for 
some years, he was allowed to study at the 
university of Halle, and was then sent at the 
King’s expence to travel for improvement 
m chemical knowledge. In 1711 he visited 
the German mines, and thence passed into 
Holland, where he attended the lectures of 
the illustrious Boerhaave. Thence he went 
to England, where the news of the death of 
his sovereign, in 1713, somewhat deranged 
his plans. He again visited Holland, and 
in 1716 accompanied George I. King of 
England, to Hanover. On repairing to 
Berlin, he obtained the friendship of Stahl, 
physician to Frederick- William, who pro- 
cured an order for him to resume his travels 
at the expence of the court. He visited 
Prance and Italy, every where increasing 
his stock of scientific knowledge, and form- 
ing connections with men of eminence. 
Upon his return to Berlin he was appointed 
court-apothecary; and when the king, in 
1723, established a college of medicine and 
surgery in his capital, Neumann was nomi- 
nated to the chair of chemistry. He re- 
ceived the degree of M. D. from Halle in 
1727, and in that year travelled through 
Silesia and Moravia to Vienna, returning by 
Bohemia and the mining country of Saxony. 
His reputation now extended to the dif- 
ferent countries of Europe, and he was 
elected a member of the Royal Society of 
London, of the Imperial Academy Naturae 
Cnriosorum,and of the Institute of Bologna. 
In 1734 he made a tour to the New Marche 
and Pomerania, where he discovered the 
true origin of Ostescolla. He became dean 
of the college of Berlin in 1736, and died 
in that city in 1737. The works published 
by Dr. Neumann in his life-time, consist 
chiefly of dissertations in the Latin lan- 
guage, inserted in the “ Philosophial Trans- 
actions of London,” the “ Ephemerides 
Acad. Naturae Curiosorum,” and the “ Mis- 
cellanea Berolinensia, and of others in the 
German language published separately. 
After his death two different copies of his 
“ Chemical Lectures” were given to the 
public ; one, in two editions, at Berlin and 
Dresden, from notes taken by one of his 
pupils, intermixed with compilations from 
different authors ; the other by the book- 
Ss- 
