122 N O h 
botany as well as agriculture” Mich. Boreal-Amer. i. 207.] 
In botany, a genus of the clafs hexandria, order trigynia, 
natural order coronariae, Linn, (junci, Juff.) Generic 
characters—Calyx: none. Corolla: of one petal, infix 
deep fpreading nearl'y-equal oval fegments. Stamina : 
filaments fix, awl-fliaped, (horter than the corolla 5 an- 
therte oblong, fomewhat heart-lhaped, flightly notched at 
the top. Piftillum: germen fuperior, triangular ; ftyle 
very fliort; ftigmas three, obtufe, recurved. Pericarpium : 
capfule roundilh, with three angles, membranous, of 
three cells, the partitions from the inflexed margins of 
the valves. Seeds : folitary, obovate, fmaller than the 
cell and attached to its bafe, feldom more than one per¬ 
fected in each capfule. 
Nolina Georgiana, the only fpecies quoted ; a native 
of Georgia in North America. Bulb tunicated, perennial. 
Leaves feveral, radical, fpreading in every direction, from 
five to nine inches long, a line broad, graffy, thick and 
rigid, rough at the edges. Stalk clothed below with a 
few fcattered awl-lhaped leaves, two feet high or more, 
diftantly and loofely branched above; its branches race- 
mofe; flower-ftalks aggregate. Flowers minute, whitifh. 
NOLIN'SK, a town of Ruffia, in the government of 
Viatka : forty miles fouth of Viatka. Lat. 57. 44. N. 
Ion. 50. 14. E. 
NOLI'TION, f. [nolitin, Lat.] Unwillingnefs; oppofed 
to volition ■ —Proper aCts of the will are, volition, nolition, 
choice, refolution, and command, in relation to fubordi- 
nate faculties. Hale. 
NOLL,/ [hnol, Sax.] Ahead; a noddle.—An afs’s 
noil I fixed on his head. Shakefpeare. 
NOL'LE, a town of Italy, in the department of the 
Po : eight miles north of Turin, and two north-weft of 
Cirie. 
NOL'LE PROSE'QUI, a term ufed in law, where a 
plaintiff in any aCtion will not proceed any further ; and 
may be before or after verdiCt, though it is ufually before ; 
and it is then ftronger againft the plaintiff than a nonfuit, 
which is only a default in appearance, but this is a volun¬ 
tary acknowledgment that he hath no caufe of aftion. 
2 Lil. 218. 
The king may, by his attorney-general, enter a nolle 
profequi on an information; but it lhall not ftop the pro¬ 
ceedings of the informer. But the clerk of the crown 
cannot enter a nolle profequi on an indictment, without 
leave of the attorney-general. And, if an informer caufe 
a nolle profequi to be entered, the defendent (hall have 
cofts, &c. by flat. 4 & 5 W. & M. c. 18. 
NOL'LEN, a town of the Middle Mark of Branden¬ 
burg: three miles fouth-fouth-weft ofZoflen. 
NOL'LET (John Anthony), a French ecclefiaftic and 
celebrated natural philofopher, was born at Pitnpre, in 
the diocefe of Noyon, in the year 1700. He was educated 
at the college of Clermont in the Beauvoifin, and after¬ 
wards went to Beauvais, where he laid fuch a foundation 
in claflical learning, that his parents were encouraged to 
fend him to Paris, to go through a courfe of philolophy 
at the univerfity. Their wi(h was that he Ihould embrace 
the ecclefialtical profeftion, and he readily acceded to it. 
From a very early age he had fhown a talle for the pur- 
luits of natural fcience, in which he afterwards fo highly 
.diftinguilhed himfelf; for the prefent,however, he checked 
his ruling paffion, as being likely to interfere with the 
ftudies more appropriate to his deftined character, and 
gave himfelf up entirely to the ftudy of fcholaftic theo¬ 
logy. In 1728 he was admitted to deacon’s orders, and 
foon became a licenfed preacher. He had not followed 
this profeftion very long before he felt an inclination for 
the fciences, which was, in a Ihort time, irrefiftible ; and 
he now devoted his fine talents almoft wholly to the ftudy 
of natural phiiofophy. He became known and attached 
to M. du Fay and Reaumur, and with their aftiftance he 
made a rapid progrels in the branches of knowledge for 
which thofe philofophers were diftinguilhed. By the 
former he was received as an affociate in his eleCtrical re- 
N O L 
fearches, and the latter refigned to him his laboratory. 
In 1734 he accompanied his friends du Fay, du Hamel, 
and Juftieu, on a vifit to England, where he was admitted 
a foreign member of the Royal Society. Two years after¬ 
wards he made a tour into Holland, where he formed an 
intimate connection with Gravelande and Muffchenbroek. 
Upon his return to Paris he relumed a courfe of experi¬ 
mental phiiofophy, which he commenced 101735, and which 
he continued during the long fpace of twenty-five years. 
The courfes delivered by Nollet gave rife to the adoption 
of fimilar plans in other branches of fcience, fuch as che- 
miftry, anatomy, natural hiftory, &c. In 1738 a public 
profefforlhip of experimental phiiofophy was eftablilhed 
at Paris under the patronage of cardinal Fleury, and the 
abbe Nollet was the firft perfon who received that appoint¬ 
ment. During the following year, the Royal Academy of 
Sciences appointed him adjunCf mechanician to that body; 
and in 1742 he was admitted an affociate. In 1739, the 
king of Sardinia, being defirous of eftablilhing a pro¬ 
fefforlhip of phyfics at Turin, invited the abbe Nollet 
to perform a courle of experimental phiiofophy before the 
royal family, with which he complied. From Turin he 
made a tour in Italy, where he made many obfervations, 
and collected fome excellent faCts refpeCting the natural 
hiftory of the country. In the year 1744116 was called to 
Verfailles to give le&ures to the dauphin in natural phi¬ 
iofophy, at which the king and royal family were fre¬ 
quently prefent. In the year 1749, the abbe Nollet took 
a fecond journey into Italy, whence many wonderful ac¬ 
counts had been circulated throughout Europe, of the 
communication of the medicinal virtues by electricity, 
which feemed, at that time, to be fupported by numerous 
well-attefted faCts. To examine into thefe eleClrical mi¬ 
racles, as they were then thought, and to be affured of 
their truth or fallacy, was a grand motive with our author 
in parting the Alps at this time, and in vifiting the phi¬ 
lofophers who had publilhed accounts of thofe experi¬ 
ments. But, though he engaged them to repeat their ex¬ 
periments in his prefence, and upon himfelf, he was foon 
convinced that the pretended faCls were deceptions or 
great exaggerations; and that no method had been dis¬ 
covered, by means of which the power of medicine could 
by eleClricity be made to infinuate itfelf into the human 
body. The abbe did not confine his enquiries to thefe 
faCls only, but extended them alfo to all the branches of 
natural phiiofophy, the arts, and agriculture. After his 
return to France, the king, in 1753, eftablilhed aprofeffor- 
Ihip of experimental phiiofophy at the college of Navarre, 
and nominated the abbe Nollet to fill that port. In the 
year 1757 the king bellowed upon him the brevet of mailer 
of natural philolophy and natural hiftory to the younger 
branches of the royal family of France, and in the fame 
year appointed him profelforof natural phiiofophy to the 
fchools of artillery and engineers. Soon after this laft 
inftance of preferment, he was received a penfionary of 
the Royal Academy of Sciences. This celebrated natu- 
ralift and experimental philofopher died in 1770, deeply 
regretted by that part of the public, of all countries, who 
were capable of appreciating his worth, as well as by the 
numerous friends whofe attachment he had fecured by 
the amiablenefs of his manners and the goodnefs of his 
heart. Independently of a vail number of papers pub- 
lilhed by the abbe in the different volumes of the Me- 
moires of the Academy of Sciences, from the year 1740 
to 1767, he was author of, 1. Recherches fur les Caufes 
particulieres des Phenomenes eleCtriques, 1749, i*mo. 
2. Lettres fur 1 ’EleClricite, 3 tom. izmo. 1749, 1760, and 
1767. 3. Legons de Phyfique, 6 tom. 121110. 1764. 4. 
Effai fur 1 ’EleClricite des Corps, 12U10. 5. L’Art des 
Experiences, 3 tom. nmo. 
NOL'LIN (Dennis), a French biblical critic who flou- 
rilhed in the early part of the eighteenth century, was 
originally educated to the bar, and acquired reputation 
in the character of an advocate of the parliament of Paris. 
However, he loon relinquilhed the legal profeftion, and 
direCled 
