NOL 
C(1 to all the branches of natural philosophy, 
tlie arts, agriculture, &c. On his return to 
France, through Turin, the King of Sardi- 
nia made him an ofl'er of the order of St. 
Maurice, which he thought it his duty to 
decline, not having the permission of his 
own sovereign for accepting it. In the 
year 1753, the King established a profes- 
sorship of experimental philosophy at the 
Royal College of Navarre, and nominated 
the Abb6 Nollet to fill that post. In the 
year 1757, the King bestowed on him the 
brevet of master of natural philosophy and 
natural history to the younger branches of 
the royal family of France ; and in the same 
year appointed him professor of natural 
philosophy to the schools of artillery and 
engineers. Soon after this last preferment, 
he was received a pensionary of the Royal 
Academy of Sciences. This celebrated and 
laborious natural philosopher died in 1770, 
in the seventieth year of his age, regretted 
by the enlightened public, as well as the 
numerous friends whose attachment he had 
secured by the amiableness of his manners 
and the goodness of his heart; and more 
especially regretted by his poor relations, 
to whose relief and comfort lie always paid 
the most affectionate attention. Besides 
the Royal Society of London, and the Royal 
Academy of Sciences at Paris, he was a 
member of the Institute of Bologna, the 
Academy of Sciences at Erfurt, and other 
philosophical societies and academies. 
In addition to a multitude of papers in- 
serted in the different volumes of the “ Me- 
moirs of the Academy of Sciences,” from 
the year 1740 to the year 1767, both inclu- 
sive, the Abb6 Nollet was the author of 
“ Lessons on Experimental Philosophy,” in 
six volumes, 12ino. “ A Collection of Let- 
ters on Electricity,” 1753, in three volumes, 
ISino. “ Enquiries into the particular 
Causes of Electric Phenomena,” 12mo. : 
and “ The Art of making Philosophical 
Experiments,” in three, volumes, 12mo. 
From the articles just enumerated, as well 
as an anecdote already related in his life, it 
appears that Abbe Nollet paid particular 
attention to the study of electricity; and it 
must be acknovviedged, notwithstanding the 
mistakes which he fell into upon the subject, 
that his indefatigable industry and curious 
experiments contributed materially to the 
improvement of that science. The theory 
of Affluences and Effluence of tliis philoso- 
pher, which gained considerable attention 
in Itis time, may be seen in Priestley’s 
Electricity. 
NON 
NO-man’s-land, a space in midships, be* 
tween the after part of the belfry and the 
fore part of a boat, when she is stowed up- 
on the booms, as in a deep waisted vessel. 
These booms are laid upon the forecastle 
nearly to the quarter-deck, where their 
after-ends are usually sustained by a frame, 
called the gallows, which consists of two 
strong posts, abotit six feet high, with a cross 
piece reaching from one to the other 
athwart ships, and serving to support the 
ends of those booms, masts, and yards, 
which lie in reserve to supply the place of 
others carried away, &c. The above-named 
space is used to contain any blocks, ropes, 
tackles, &c. which may be necessary on the 
forecastle, and probably derives the name 
of no-man’s-land from its situation, as being 
neither on the starboard nor larboard side 
of the ship, nor on the waist nor forecastle; 
but being situated in the middle, partakes 
equally of all those places. 
NOMENCLATURE, a catalogue of se- 
veral of the more usual words in any lan- 
guage, with their significations, compiled in 
order to facilitate the use of such words, to 
those who are to learn the tongue ; such are 
our Latin, Greek, French, &c. nomencla- 
tures. 
NOMINATIVE, in grammar, the first 
case of nouns whicli are declinable. The 
simple position or laying down of a noun, 
or name, is called the nominative case ; yet 
it is not so properly a case as the matter or 
ground whence the other cases are to be 
formed, by the several changes and inflec- 
tions given to this first termination. Its 
chief use is to be placed in discourse before 
all verbs, as the subject of the proposition 
or affirmation. 
NONAGISMAL, in astronomy, the 90th 
degree of the ecliptic, reckoned from the 
eastern term, or point. The altitude of the 
nonagesimal is equal to the angle of the east, 
and, if continued, passes through the poles 
of the ecliptic ; whence the altitude of the 
nonagesimal at a given time, under a given 
elevation of the pole, is easily found. If 
the altitude of the nonagesimal be sub- 
stracted from 90°, the remainder is the dis- 
tance of the nonagesimal from the vertex. 
NONAGON, in mathematics, a figure 
having nine sides and angles. In a regular 
nonagon, or t: at the sides and angles of 
which are equal, if each side be 1, its area 
4 
will be 6.182 nearly = - of the tangent of 
70° to the radius. 
NGN claim, in law, where a person lias a 
