always been the ubiquitous coco-nut, of which it is computed that 15 million are produced annually, 10 million being taken by the people, and 5 million exported about equally from Car Nicobar and the rest of the islands. The usual cheap European goods are imported, the foreign trade being carried on with the native traders of the neighbouring Asiatic countries. There is an old-established internal trade, chiefly between the older islands and Chowra, for pots (which are only made there) and racing and other canoes. History. The situation of the Nicobars along the line of a very ancient trade route has caused them to be reported by traders and seafarers through all historical times. In the 17th century the islands began to attract the attention of missionaries. At various times France, Denmark, Austria and Great Britain all supplementing the information obtained from the Andamans regard | introduced by the missionaries. The staple article of trade has ing cyclones in the Bay of Bengal. From 1869 to 1888 an observatory was properly maintained in Nancowry harbour, but after the latter year observations were recorded only in a more or less desultory way until 1897, when the station was removed to Mus in Car Nicobar. The climate is unhealthy for Europeans. The islands are exposed to both monsoons, and smooth weather is only experienced from February to April, and in October. Rain falls throughout the year, generally in sharp, heavy showers. During the five years ending 1888 the annual rainfall varied from 91 in. to 133 in., and the number of wet days per annum from 148 to 222. The highest temperature in the shade was 98.2° F., and the lowest 64° F. Flora and Fauna.-Although the vegetation of the Nicobars has received much desultory attention from scientific observers, it has not been subjected to a systematic examination by the Indian Forest Department like that of the Andamans, and indeed the forests are quite inferior in economic value to those of the more northerly group; besides fruit trees-such as the coco-nut (Cocos nucifera), the betel-nut (Areca catechu), and the mellori (Pandanus leeram)-a thatching palm (Nipa fruticans) and various timber trees have some commercial value, but only one timber tree (Myristica irya )would be considered first-class in the Andamans. The palms of the Nicobars are, however, exceedingly graceful. Instances of the introduction of foreign economic plants are frequently mentioned in the old missionary records, and nowadays a number of familiar Asiatic fruit-trees are carefully and successfully cultivated. As with the geology and the flora, certain phases of the fauna of the islands have been extensively reported. The mammals are not numerous. In the southernmost islands are a small monkey, rats and mice, treeshrews (Cladobates nic.), bats, and flying foxes, but it is doubtful if the "wild" pig is indigenous; cattle, when introduced and left, have speedily become wild." There are many kinds of birds, notably the megapod (Megapodius nic.), the edible-nest-building swift (Collocalia nidifica), the hackled and pied pigeons (Calaenas nic. and Carpophaga bicolor), a paroquet (Palacornis caniceps) and an oriole (Oriolus macrourus). Fowls, snipe and teal thrive after importation or migration. Reptiles-snakes, lizards and chameleons, crocodiles, turtles and an enormous variant of the edible Indian crab-are numerous; butterflies and insects, the latter very troublesome, have not yet been systematically collected. The freshwater fish are reported to be of the types found in Sumatra. had more or less shadowy rights to the islands, the Danes being AUTHORITIES.-E. H. Man, Dictionary of the Central Nicobarese Language (London, 1889); F. Maurer, Die Nikobaren (Berlin, 1867); Dr Svoboda, Die Bewohner des Nikobaren-Archipels (Leiden, 1893); F. A. De Roepstorff, Dictionary of the Nancowry Dialect (Calcutta, 1884); Vocabulary of Dialects in the Nicobar and Andaman Islands (2nd ed., Calcutta, 1875); Prevost and Heing, Report on Preliminary Tour through the Nicobar Islands (Government, Rangoon, 1897); B. Kloss, In the Andamans and Nicobars (London, 1902); A. Alcock, A Naturalist in the Indian Seas (London, 1902). (R. C. T.) NICOL, JAMES (1810-1879), Scottish geologist, was born at Traquair, near Innerleithen, in Peeblesshire, on the 12th of August 1810. His father, the Rev. James Nicol (1769-1819), was minister of Traquair, and acquired some celebrity as a poet. Educated at Edinburgh University (1825), James Nicol attended the lectures of Jameson, and thereby gained a keen interest in geology and mineralogy; and he pursued their study in the universities of Bonn and Berlin. After returning home he worked zealously at the local geology and obtained prizes from the Highland Society for essays on the geology of Peeblesshire and Roxburghshire; he subsequently extended his researches over various parts of Scotland, and in 1844 published his able Guide to the Geology of Scotland. In 1847 he was appointed assistant secretary to the Geological Society of London, in 1849 professor of geology in Queen's College, Cork, and in 1853 professor of natural history in the University of Aberdeen, a post which he retained until a few months before he died, on the 8th of April 1879. During these years he carried out important researches on the southern uplands of Scotland and on the structure of the Highlands. In the former region he gave the first clear account of the succession of the fossiliferous Lower Palaeozoic rocks (1848-1852); and when he came to deal with the still older Highland rocks he made out the position of the Torridon sandstone and Durness limestone and their relations to the schists and gneisses. His matured views, although contested by Murchison, have subsequently been substantiated by Professor C. Lapworth and others. Natives. The Nicobarese may be best described as a Far Eastern race, having generally the characteristics of the less civilized tribes of the Malay Peninsula and the south-eastern. portion of the Asiatic continent, and speaking varieties of the Mon-Annam group of languages, though the several dialects that prevail are mutually unintelligible. Their figure is not graceful, and, owing to their habit of dilating the lips by betelchewing, the adults of both sexes are often repulsive in appearance. Though short according to the standard of whites (average height, man, 5 ft. 3 in.; woman, 5 ft.), the Nicobarese are a fine, well-developed race, and live to seventy or eighty years of age. Their mental capacity is considerable, though there is a great difference between the sluggish inhabitant of Great Nicobar and the keen trader of Car Nicobar. The religion is an undisguised animism, and all their frequent and elaborate ceremonies and festivals are aimed at exorcising and scaring spirits. Though for a long time they were callous wreckers and pirates, and cruel, and though they show great want of feeling in the "devil murders"-ceremonial murders of one of themselves for grave offences against the community, which are now being gradually put down-still on the whole the Nicobarese are a quiet, inoffensive people, friendly to each other, and not quarrelsome, and by inclination friendly and not dangerous to foreigners. The old charge of cannibalism may be generally said to be quite untrue. Tribes can hardly be distinguished, but there are distinctions, chiefly territorial. All the differences observed in the several kinds of Nicobarese may with some confidence be referred to habitat and the physical difficulties of communication. Such government as there is, is by the village; but the village chiefs have not usually much power, though such authority as they have has always been maintained by the foreign Powers who have possessed the islands. The clothing, when not a caricature of European dress, is of the scantiest, and the waggling tags in which the loin-cloths are tied behind early gave rise to fanciful stories that the inhabitants were naked and tailed. The houses are good, and often of considerable size. The natives are skilful with their lands, and though they never cultivate cereals, exercise some care and knowledge over the coco-nut and tobacco, and have had much success with the foreign fruits and vegetables The more important of his papers were: "On the Structure of the North-Western Highlands " (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1861), and "On the Geological Structure of the Southern Grampians" (ib., 1863). He contributed the article " Mineralogy" to the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. Among his other works were Manual of Mineralogy (1849); Elements of Mineralogy (1858, 2nd ed., 1873): Geological Map of Scotland (1858); and Geology and Scenery of the North of Scotland (1866). NICOL, WILLIAM (? 1768–1851), Scottish physicist, was born about 1768, and died at Edinburgh on the 2nd of September 1851. Nothing is known of his early history beyond the fact | Lords, and his time was mainly devoted to genealogical and histhat, after amassing a small competence as a popular lecturer on natural philosophy, he settled in Edinburgh to live a very retired life in the society of his apparatus alone. Besides the invention of the prism known by his name ("A method of increasing the divergence of the two rays in calcareous spar, so as to produce a single image," New Edin. Journ., 1828), he devoted himself chiefly to the examination of fluid-filled cavitics in crystals, and of the microscopic structure of various kinds of fossil wood. His skill as a working lapidary was very great; and he prepared a number of lenses of garnet and other precious stones, which he preferred to the achromatic microscopes of the time. NICOLAI, CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH (1733-1811), German author and bookseller, was born on the 18th of March 1733 at Berlin, where his father, Christoph Gottlieb Nicolai (d. 1752), was the founder of the famous Nicolaische Buchhandlung. He received a good education, and in 1749 went to Frankfort-onOder to learn his father's business, finding time also to become acquainted with English literature. In 1752 he returned to Berlin, and began to take part in literary controversy by defending Milton against the attacks of J. C. Gottsched. His Briefe über den jetzigen Zustand der schönen Wissenschaften in Deutschland, published anonymously in 1755 and reprinted by G. Ellinger in 1894, were directed against both Gottsched and Gottsched's Swiss opponents, Johann Jakob Bodmer and Johann Jakob Breitinger; his enthusiasm for English literature won for him the friendship of Lessing and Moses Mendelssohn. In association with Mendelssohn he established in 1757 the Bibliothek der schönen Wissenschaften, a periodical which he conducted until 1760. With Lessing and Mendelssohn Nicolai founded in 1759 the famous Briefe, die neueste Literatur betreffend; and from 1765 to 1792 he edited the Allgemeine deutsche Bibliothek. This latter periodical served as the organ of the so-called "popular philosophers," who warred against authority in religion and against what they conceived to be extravagance in literature. The new movement of ideas represented by Herder, Goethe, Schiller, Kant and Fichte, Nicolai was incapable of understanding, and he made himself ridiculous by foolish misrepresentation of the aims of these writers. Of Nicolai's independent works, perhaps the only one which has some historical value is his Anekdoten von Friedrich II. (1788-1792). His romances are forgotten, although Das Leben und die Meinungen des Herrn Magister Sebaldus Nothanker (1773-1776), and his satire on Goethe's Werther, Freuden des jungen Werthers (1775), had a certain reputation in their day. Between 1788 and 1796 Nicolai published in 12 vols. a Beschreibung einer Reise durch Deutschland und die Schweiz, which bears witness to the narrow conservatism of his views in later life. He died in Berlin on the 11th of January 1811. Nicolai's Bildniss und Selbstbiographie was published by M. S. Löwe in the Bildnisse jetzt lebender Berliner Gelehrter, in 1806. See also L. F. G. von Göckingk, F. Nicolai's Leben und literarischer Nachlass (1820); J. Minor, Lessings Jugendfreunde, in J. Kürschner's Deutsche Nationalliteratur, vol. Ixxii. (1883); O. Hoffmann, Herders Briefwechsel mit Nicolai (1887); E. Friedel, Zur Geschichte der Nicolaischen Buchhandlung (1891); and E. Altenkrüger, F. Nicolais Jugendschriften (1894). NICOLAY, OTTO (1810-1849), German composer, was born on the 9th of June in Königsberg. He studied music in Berlin and in 1833 became organist to the German embassy in Rome. There his operas Enrico II (1839) and Il Templario (1840) were produced, besides some church music, a series of songs, and a number of compositions for the pianoforte.. He was subsequently appointed Hof Kapellmeister at the Berlin Opera House; and there, only two days before he died (on the 11th of March 1849), was performed his brilliant opera, The Merry Wives of Windsor, the work by which he is now remembered. NICOLAS, SIR NICHOLAS HARRIS (1799-1848), English antiquary, fourth son of John Harris Nicolas (d. 1844), was born at Dartmouth on the 10th of March 1799. Having served in the navy from 1812 to 1816, he studied law and was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in 1825. His work as a barrister, however, was confined principally 10 peerage cases before the House of torical studies. In 1831 he was made a knight of the order of the Guelphs, and in 1832 chancellor and knight-commander of the order of St Michael and St George, being advanced to the grade of the grand cross in 1840. He became a member of the council of the Society of Antiquaries in 1826, but soon began to criticize the management of the society's affairs, and withdrew in 1828. He then criticized the Record Commission, which he regarded as too expensive. These attacks, which brought him | into controversy with Sir Francis Palgrave, led in 1836 to the appointment of a select committee to inquire into the public records. He was also responsible for several reforms at the British Museum. In 1822 Nicolas married Sarah (d. 1867), daughter of John Davison of Loughton, Essex, a reputed descendant of the Tudor statesman William Davison. By her he left two sons and six daughters. Pecuniary difficulties compelled him to leave England, and he died near Boulogne on the 3rd of August 1848. Although a sharp and eager controversialist Nicolas was a genial and generous man, with a great knowledge of genealogical questions. The most important of the works of Nicolas is his History of the Orders of Knighthood of the British Empire; of the Order of the (London, 1841-1842). Among his numerous other writings are, The Guelphs; and of Medals, Clasps, &c., for Naval and Military Services Chronology of History (London, 1833); Life of William Davison (London, 1823); Synopsis of the Peerage of England (London, 1825); Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton (London, 1847); and an Proceedings and Ordinances of the Privy Council of England, 1386uncompleted History of the Royal Navy (London, 1847). He edited 1542 (London, 1834-1837), and Despatches and Letters of Lord Nelson (London, 1844-1846); wrote lives of Chaucer, Burns, Cowper. Thomson, Collins, Kirke White and others for Pickering's Aldine edition of the Compleat Angler; and several elaborate works on edition of the poets; lives of Izaak Walton and Charles Cotton for an genealogical and kindred subjects printed for private circulation only. NICOLAUS DAMASCENUS, Greek historian and philosopher of Damascus, flourished in the time of Augustus and Herod the Great, with both of whom he was on terms of friendship. He instructed Herod in rhetoric and philosophy, and had attracted the notice of Augustus when he accompanied his patron on a visit to Rome. Later, when Herod's conduct aroused the suspicions of Augustus, Nicolaus was sent on a mission to bring about a reconciliation. He survived Herod, and it was through his influence that the succession was secured for Archelaus; but the date of his death, like that of his birth, is unknown. Fragments of his universal history ('Ioropia kaloλikη), from the time of the Assyrian empire to his own days, his autobiography, and his life of Augustus (Bios Kainapos) have been preserved, chiefly in the extracts of Constantine Porphyrogenitus. Nicolaus also wrote comedies and tragedies, paraphrased and wrote commentaries on parts of Aristotle, and was himself the author of philosophical treatises. Fragments in C. Müller, Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum, iii.; see also F. Navet, Nikolaus von Damascus (1853), containing an account of his life and writings, and translation of the fragments. NICOLAUS OF LYRA (c. 1265-1349), French commentator, was born in Lire, now Vieille-Lyre, in the department of Eure, Normandy. He entered the Franciscan order at Verneuil about 1300, and studied at Paris, where, becoming a doctor some time before 1309, he taught for many years. From 1319 he was provincial of his order in France, and was present in that capacity at the general chapter at Pérouse (1321). In 1325 he was provincial of Burgundy, and as executor of the estate of Jeanne of Burgundy, widow of King Philip VI., he founded the college of Burgundy at Paris, where he died in the autumn of 1349, being buried in the chapter hall of the convent of the Cordeliers. Among the authentic works of Nicolaus of Lyra are: (1) two commentaries on the whole Bible, one (Postilla litteralis, 13221331) following the literal sense, the other (Postilla mystica seu moralis, 1339) following the mystic sense. There are numerous editions (Rome, 1471-1472; Douai, 1617; Antwerp. 1634). (2) Tractatus de differentia nostrae translationis (i.c Vulgate) ab Hebraica veritate, 1333. (3) Two treatises against the Jews. (4) A theological treatise on the Beatific Vision, directed against pope John XXII. (1334), unpublished. (5) Contemplatio de vita S. Francisci, a book of devotions. Nicolaus was above all a commentator. His exegesis, which was dominated by his polemics against the Jews, is characterized by a fidelity to the literal sense, the comparison with the Hebrew text, the direct use of Jewish commentators, a very independent attitude towards traditional interpretations, and a remarkable historical and critical sense. In all this he resembled Roger Bacon. His works, especially the Postilla litteralis, were very popular in the 14th and 15th centuries, but produced few imitators. In addition to the notices in Wadding, du Moustier, Sbaraglia and Fabricius, see C. Siegfried, in Archiv. f wissenschaftliche Erforschung des A.T., vols. i., ii.; A. Merx, Die Prophetie des Joel und ihre Ausleger (1879, pp. 305-366); M. Fischer in Jahrbücher f. protestantische Theologie, xv.; F. Maschkowski, in Zeitschrift f. alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, xv.; Neumann in Revue des études juives, vols. 26 and 27; H. Labrosse in Positions des thèses de l'École des Chartes (1906). NICOLAY, the name of a French family of Vivarais which came rapidly into legal prominence at the end of the 15th century. Jean Nicolay (d. 1527), son of a bailli of Bourg Saint-Andéol, became councillor at the parlement of Toulouse and afterwards at the Grand Council, chancellor of the kingdom of Naples, Maître des Requêtes, and, finally, first president of the Chambre des Comptes of Paris (1506). This last post was filled continuously up to the Revolution by his descendants. Antoine Chrétien de Nicolay (1712-1777) became marshal of France in 1775. His brother, Aymar Chrétien François Michel (1721-1769), bishop of Verdun, was first almoner of Marie Josephe of Saxony, wife of the dauphin Louis (d. 1765), and her influential counsellor. See A. de Boislisle, Pièces justificatives pour servir à l'histoire des premiers présidents de la Chambre des Comptes (1873), and Histoire de la maison de Nicolay (1875). NICOLE, PIERRE (1625-1695), one of the most distinguished of the French Jansenists, was the son of a provincial barrister, and was born at Chartres. Sent to Paris in 1642 to study theology, he soon entered into relations with the Jansenist community at Port Royal (q.v.) through his aunt, Marie des Anges Suireau, who was for a short time abbess of the convent. Some scruple of conscience forbade him to proceed to the priesthood, and he remained throughout life a "clerk in minor orders," although a profound theological scholar. For some years he was a master in the "little school " for boys established at Port Royal, and had the honour of teaching Greek to young Jean Racine, the future poet. But his chief duty was to act, in collaboration with Antoine Arnauld, as general editor of the controversial literature put forth by the Jansenists. He had a large share in collecting the materials for Pascal's Provincial Letters (1656); in 1658 he translated the Letters into Latin, under the pseudonym of Nicholas Wendrock. In 1664 he himself began a series of letters, Les Imaginaires, intended to show that the heretical opinions commonly ascribed to the Jansenists really existed only in the imagination of the Jesuits. His letters being violently attacked by Desmaretz de Saint-Sorlin, an erratic minor poet who professed great devotion to the Jesuits, Nicole replied to him in another series of letters, Les Visionnaires (1666). In the course of these he observed that poets and dramatists were no better than "public poisoners." This remark stung Racine to the quick; he turned not only on his old master, but on all Port Royal, in a scathing reply; which as Boileau told him-did more honour to his head than to his heart. About the same time Nicole became involved in a controversy about transubstantiation with the Huguenot Claude; out of this grew a massive work, La Perpétuité de la foi de l'église catholique touchant l'eucharistie (1669), the joint effort of Nicole and Antoine Arnauld. But Nicole's most popular production was his Essais de morale, a series of short discussions on practical Christianity. The first volume was published in 1671, and was followed at irregular intervals by others; altogether the series numbers fourteen volumes. In 1679, on the renewal of the persecution of the Jansenists, Nicole was forced to fly to Belgium in company with Arnauld. But the two soon parted. Nicole was elderly and in poor health; the life of a fugitive was not to his taste, and he complained that he wanted rest. "Rest," answered Arnauld," when you have eternity to rest in!" In 1683 Nicole made a rather ambiguous peace with the authorities, and was allowed to come back to Paris. There he continued his literary labours up to the last, he was writing a refutation of the new heresy of the Quietists, when death overtook him on the 16th of November 1695. Nicole was one of the most attractive figures of Port Royal. Many stories are told of his quaint absent-mindedness and unreadi ness in conversation. His books are distinguished by exactly opposite qualities; they are neat and orderly to excess. Hence they were exceedingly popular with Mme de Sévigné and readers of her class. No other Jansenist writer, not even Pascal, was so successful in putting the position of Port Royal before the world. And although a modern appetite quails before fourteen volumes on morality, there is much solid sense and practical knowledge of human nature to be found in the Essais de morale. Several abridgments of the work exist, notably a Choix des essais de morale de Nicole, ed. Silvestre de Saci (Paris, 1857). Nicole's life is told at length in the 4th volume of Sainte Beuve's Port-Royal. (ST. C.) NICOLL, ROBERT (1814-1837), Scottish poet, was born on the 7th of January, 1814, at the farm of Little Tullybeltane, in the parish of Auchtergaven, Perthshire. When Robert was five years old his father was reduced to poverty. He became a day-labourer, and was only able to give his son a very slight education. At sixteen the boy was apprenticed to a grocer and wine-merchant at Perth. In 1833 he began to contribute to Johnstone's Magazine (afterwards Tail's Magazine), and in the next year his apprenticeship was cancelled. He visited Edinburgh, and was kindly received there, but obtained no employment. He opened a circulating library at Dundee, but in 1836 he became editor of the Leeds Times. He held pronounced Radical opinions, and overtaxed his slender physical resources in electioneering work for Sir William Molesworth in the summer of 1837. He was obliged to resign his editorship, and died at the house of his friend William Tait, at Trinity, near Edinburgh, on the 7th of December 1837, in his twenty-fourth year. He had published a volume of Poems in 1835; and in 1844 appeared further volume, Poems and Lyrics, with an anonymous memoir of the author by Mrs C. I. Johnstone. The best of his lyrics are those written in the Scottish dialect. They are simple in feeling and expression, genuine folk-songs. An eloquent appreciation of his character and his poetry was included in Charles Kingsley's article on " Burns and his School " in the North British Review for November 1851. See also P. R. Drummond, Life of Robert Nicoll, Poet (1884). NICOLL, SIR WILLIAM ROBERTSON (1851- ), Scottish Nonconformist divine and man of letters, was born at Auchindoir, Aberdeenshire, on the roth of October 1851, the son of a Free Church minister. He graduated M.A. at Aberdeen in 1870, and studied for the ministry at the Free Church College there until 1874, when he was ordained minister of the Free Church at Dufftown. Three years later he moved to Kelso, and in 1884 became editor of the Expositor. In 1886 he founded the British Weekly, a Nonconformist organ which obtained great influence over opinion in the free churches. Robertson Nicoll secured many writers of exceptional talent for his to which he was himself a considerable contributor, the papers signed "Claudius Clear" being among those from his hand. He also founded and edited the Bookman (1891, &c.), and acted as chief literary adviser to the publishing firm of Hodder & Stoughton. Among his other enterprises were The Expositor's Bible and The Theological Educator. He edited The Expositor's Greck Testament (1897, &c.), and a series of Contemporary Writers (1894, &c.), and of Literary Lives (1904, &c.). He wrote a history of The Victorian Era in English Literature, and edited, with T. J. Wise, Literary Anecdotes of the Nineteenth Century. The knighthood bestowed on him among the birthday honours in 1909 was an apt recognition of his long and able devotion to the "journeyman work" of literature. paper, A list of his publications is included in a monograph on Dr Nicoll by Jane T. Stoddart ("New Century Leaders," 1903). NICOLLS, RICHARD (1624–1672), American colonial governor, was born probably at Ampthill, Bedfordshire, England, in 1624. He commanded a royalist troop of horse during the Civil War, and on the defeat of the king went into exile. Soon after the Restoration he became groom of the bedchamber to the duke of York, through whose influence he was appointed in 1664 on a | Deoλoyovμeva (The Theology of Arithmetic), written in a spirit of commission with Sir Robert Carr (d. 1667), George Cartwright Pythagorean mysticism and Oriental superstition, and setting and Samuel Maverick, to conquer New Netherland from the forth the application of arithmetic, or rather of the first ten Dutch and to regulate the affairs of the New England colonies numbers, to the origin and attributes of the gods. But the and settle disputes among them. The expedition set sail from extracts in Photius are now generally attributed to Iamblichus. Portsmouth on the 25th of May 1664, and New Amsterdam was Other works of Nicomachus were: a Life of Pythagoras and a surrendered to Nicolls on the 8th of September. Under authority | Collection of Pythagorean Doctrines, the chief source of the life of of a commission from the duke of York, Nicolls assumed the Pythagoras and the account of his philosophy by Iamblichus. position of deputy-governor of New Netherland (New York). His EDITIONS.-Introd. to Arith., by R. Hoche (1866); Manual of policy was vigorous but tactful, and the transition to the new Harmony, by C. de Jan in Musici scriptores Graeci (1895), with account of Nicomachus and his works, and French translation, with regime was made smoothly and with due regard to the interests bibliography and notes, by C. E. Ruelle (1881); Theology of Arithof the conquered people. They were guaranteed in the possession metic, by F. Ast (1817); see W. Christ, Geschichte der griechischen of their property rights, their laws of inheritance, and the enjoy- Literatur (1898); M. Cantor, Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathement of religious freedom. The English system of law and malik, i. (1894) p. 400, and J. Gow, A Short History of Greek Matheadministration was at once introduced into Long Island, Statenmatics (1884), p. 88, both of whom give summaries of the Arithmetic. Island and Westchester, where the English element already predominated, but the change was made much more slowly in the Dutch sections. A code of laws, known as the "Duke's Laws," drafted by the governor with the help of his secretary; Matthias Nicolls1 (c. 1630-1687), and dated the 12th of March, was proclaimed at Hempstead, Long Island, on the 1st of March 1665 and continued in force until 1683; the code was compiled from the codes of the New England colonies, and it provided for trial by jury, for proportional taxation on property, for the issuance of new patents for land and for land tenure only by licence from the duke. Nicolls returned to England in the summer of 1668 and continued in the service of the duke of York. He was killed in the naval battle of Southwold Bay on the 28th of May 1672. See J. R. Brodhead, History of the State of New York (2 vols., rev. ed., 1872). For the "Duke's Laws" see Laws of Colonial New York, i. 6-100. NICOLSON, WILLIAM (1655-1727), English divine and antiquary, was educated at Queen's College, Oxford (M.A, 1679; fellow, 1679-1682). After visiting Leipzig to learn German he was made prebendary of Carlisle in 1681, archdeacon in 1682. Twenty years later he was appointed bishop of the same diocese, where he remained until his translation to Derry in 1718. In 1727 he was nominated archbishop of Cashel and Emly, but died before he could assume charge. Nicolson is remembered by the impulsiveness of his temperament, which led him into a good deal of strife as a bishop, and more happily by his zeal in collecting and guarding manuscripts and other official documents. For this purpose he had special rooms built at Derry. His chief works were the Historical Library (English, 1696-97-99; Scottish, 1702; Irish, 1724; complete later editions, 1732 and 1776), and Leges Marchiarum or Border Laws (1705, new ed., 1747). NICOMACHUS, a Neo-pythagorean philosopher and mathe-❘ matician, born at Gerasa in Arabia Petraca, flourished about A.D. 100. In his musical treatise he mentions Thrasyllus (d. 36), the astrologer and confidant of Tiberius, and his Arithmetic was translated by Apuleius, who wrote under Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. He is the author of two extant treatises: (1) 'Apiμntikn eloaywyń (Introduction to Arithmetic), a metaphysical account of the theory and properties of numbers, and the first work in which arithmetic was treated quite independently of geometry. It was extremely popular, was the subject of commentaries by Iamblichus (ed. H. Pistelli, 1894) and others, was translated into Latin by Apuleius (according to Cassiodorus, the translation itself being lost) and Boëtius, and used as a schoolbook down to the Renaissance. (2) 'Eyxepídiov ȧpμoviks (Manual of Harmony), complete in one book, to which are erroneously appended as a second book some fragments probably belonging to a larger treatise On Music now lost. It is the oldest authority on the Pythagorean theory of music. Photius (cod. 187) also mentions a work by Nicomachus called 'Apiμnrikȧ 1 Matthias may have been a cousin of Richard Nicolls; his family were of Islip, Oxford; he was secretary of the province, held various judicial positions, and was mayor of New York City in 1672. Matthias's son William (1657-1723), a lawyer, was a member of the New York Assembly from 1702 until his death and was speaker in 1702-1718; he received a royal patent for what is now the town of Islip on Long Island. Descendants of Richard and of Matthias Nicolls spell the name " Nicoll." NICOMACHUS, of Thebes, Greek painter, of the early part of the 4th century, was a contemporary of the greatest painters of Greece; Vitruvius observes that if his fame was less than theirs, it was the fault of fortune rather than of demerit. Pliny (xxxv. 108) gives a list of his works; among them a "Rape of Persephone," Victory in a Quadriga," a group of Apollo and Artemis, and the " Mother of the Gods seated on a Lion." Pliny tells us that he was a very rapid worker and used but four colours (the last seems impossible). Plutarch mentions his paintings as possessing the Homeric merit of ease and absence of effort. NICOMEDES I., son of Zipoetes, king of Bithynia (c. 278– 248 B.C.). He made himself master of the whole country and put to death his brother, who had set himself up as an independent ruler. He enlarged and consolidated the kingdom, founded the great city of Nicomedia as the capital, and fought successfully for some time with Antiochus of Syria. His reign seems to have been prosperous and uneventful; the year of his death is uncertain. Livy xxxviii. 16; Justin xxv. 2; Memnon in C. Müller, Frag. hist. Graec. iii. 535. NICOMEDES II., Epiphanes, king of Bithynia, 149-91 B.C., fourth in descent from Nicomedes I., was the son of Prusias II. He was so popular with the people that his father sent him to Rome. Here he was so much favoured by the senate that Prusias sent an emissary to Rome with secret orders to assassinate him. But the emissary revealed the plot, and persuaded the prince to rebel against his father. Supported by Attalus II., king of Pergamum, he was completely successful, and ordered his father to be put to death at Nicomedia. During his long reign Nicomedes adhered steadily to the Roman alliance, and assisted them against Aristonicus of Pergamum. He made himself for a time master of Paphlagonia, and in order to have a claim on Cappadocia married Laodice (the widow of Ariarathes VI.), who had fled to him when Mithradates the Great endeavoured to annex the country. When her two sons died, Nicomedes brought forward an impostor as a claimant to the throne; but the plot was detected. The Romans refused to recognize the claim, and required Nicomedes to give up all pretensions to Cappadocia and to abandon Paphlagonia. Appian, Mithrad. 4-7; Strabo xiii. 624, 646; Diod. Sic. xxxii. 20, 21; Justin xxxiv. 4, xxxvii. 4, xxxviii. 1, 2. NICOMEDES III., Philopator, king of Bithynia, 91-74 B.C., was the son and successor of Nicomedes II. His brother Socrates, assisted by Mithradates, drove him out, but he was reinstated by the Romans (90). He was again expelled by Mithradates, who defeated him on the river Amneus (or Amnias) in Paphlagonia. This led to the first Mithradatic War, as the result of which Nicomedes was again restored (84). At his death he bequeathed his kingdom to the Romans, a legacy which subsequently brought about the third Mithradatic War. Justin xxxvii. 4, xxxviii. 1, 2; Appian, Mithrad. 7. 10-20, 57, 60; Memnon in C. Müller, Frag. hist. Graec. iii. 541; Plutarch, Sulla, 22, 24; Eutropius vi. 6. NICOMEDIA (mod. Ismid], an ancient town at the head of the Gulf of Astacus, which opens on the Propontis, was built in 264 B.C. by Nicomedes I. of Bithynia, and has ever since been one of the chief towns in this part of Asia Minor. It was the metropolis of Bithynia under the Roman empire (see NICAEA), and Diocletian made it the chief city of the East. Owing to its position at the convergence of the Asiatic roads to the new capital, Nicomedia retained its importance even after the foundation of Constantinople and its own capture by the Turks (1338). See C. Texier, Asie mineure (Paris, 1839); V. Cuenet, Turquie d'Arie (Paris, 1894). | A Lombard dialect is still spoken here, and the town is less modernized in every respect than any other in Sicily. The Sicel town of Herbita is usually placed here, but without sufficient reason, and the origin of Nicosia is unknown. It was destroyed by the Saracens and repopulated by the Normans. NICOPOLIS, or ACTIA NICOPOLIS, an ancient city of Epirus, founded 31 B.C. by Octavian (Augustus) in memory of his victory over Antony and Cleopatra at Actium. The colony, composed of settlers from a great many of the towns of the neighbouring countries (Ambracia, Anactorium, Calydon, Argos Amphilochicum, Leucas, &c.), proved highly successful, and the city was considered the capital of southern Epirus and Acarnania, and obtained the right of sending five representatives to the Amphictyonic council. On the spot where Octavian's own tent had been pitched he erected a sanctuary to Neptune adorned with the beaks of the captured galleys; and in further celebration of his victory he instituted the so-called Actian games in honour of Apollo Actius. The city was restored by the emperor Julian, and again after the Gothic invasion by Justinian; but in the course of the middle ages it was supplanted by the town of Prevesa. The ruins of Nicopolis, now known as Palaco-end to his enterprise. His parliamentary career dates from 1860. prevesa (Old Prevesa), lie about 3 m. north of that city, on a small bay of the Gulf of Arta (Sinus Ambracius) at the narrowest part of the isthmus of the peninsula which separates the gulf from the Ionian Sea. Besides the acropolis, the most conspicuous objects are two theatres (the larger with twenty-seven rows of seats) and an aqueduct which brought water to the town from a distance of 27 m. Nicopolis was also the name of (1) a city in Cappadocia in the valley of the Lycus, founded by Pompey on the spot where he defeated Mithradates; (2) a city in Egypt, founded by Octavian 24 B.C. to commemorate his final victory over Antony; and (3) a city in Thrace (Nikup) at the junction of the latrus with the Danube, founded by Trajan in memory of his victory over the Dacians. NICOSIA, the capital of Cyprus, situated in the north central part of the island. Pop. (1901) 14,752 (Moslem, 6013; Christian, 8739). Its earliest name was Ledra, but Leucos, son of Ptolemy Soter (280 B.C.), is said to have restored it and changed its name to Leuteon, Leucotheon or Levcosia. A mile S.W. of the town lies the very large Bronze Age necropolis known as Hagia Paraskevi, which has been repeatedly explored with valuable results. The circuit of the city was reduced in 1567, under the direction of the Venetian engineer G. Savorgnano, from 9 m. to 3 m.; eighty churches and a number of fine houses were sacrificed. The new walls were given a circular shape, with eleven bastions and three gates. Water is supplied by two aqueducts. Government House, the residence of the high commissioner, the government offices, hospital, central prison and the new English church are without the walls. The fosse has been planted, and part of it used as an experimental garden. Carriage roads have been completed to Kyrenia, Kythraia, Famagusta, Larnaca, Limasol and Morphou. The principal monuments of the Lusignan period are the fine cathedral church of St Sophia, an edifice of French Gothic, at once solid and elegant (the towers were never completed); the church of St Catherine, an excellent example of the last years of the 14th century (both these are now mosques); and the church of St Nicolas of the English (now a grain store), built for the order of the Knights of St Thomas of Acre. A gateway of no great importance is nearly all that remains of the palace last used by the Venetian provveditori. It dates from the end of the 15th century. There is a museum, with a valuable catalogue. The chief industries are tanning and hand weaving, both silk and NICOSIA, a city and episcopal see (since 1816) of Sicily, in the province of Catania, 21 m. by road N. of the railway station of Leonforte (which is 49 m. W. of Catania) and 42 m. W.N.W. of Catania direct, 2840 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 16,004. The town retains a thoroughly medieval appearance, with a fine Norman cathedral and some other interesting churches, among them S. Maria Maggiore, with a reredos by Antonio Gagini. cotton. NICOTERA, GIOVANNI (1828-1894), Italian patriot and politician, was born at San Biagio on the 9th of September 1828. Joining the party of young Italy he was among the combatants at Naples in May 1848, and was at San Pancrazio with Garibaldi during the defence of Rome. After the fall of Rome he fled to Piedmont, where he organized the expedition to Sapri in 1857, but shortly after his arrival there he was defeated and severely wounded by the Bourbon troops. Condemned to death, but reprieved through the intervention of the British minister, he remained a prisoner at Naples and at Favignana until 1860, when he joined Garibaldi at Palermo. Sent by Garibaldi to Tuscany, he attempted to invade the Papal States with a volunteer brigade, but his followers were disarmed and disbanded by Ricasoli and Cavour. In 1862 he was with Garibaldi at Aspromonte; in 1866 he commanded a volunteer brigade against Austria; in 1867 he invaded the Papal States from the south, but the defeat of Garibaldi at Mentana put an During the first ten years he engaged in violent opposition, but from 1870 onwards he joined in supporting the military reforms of Ricotti. Upon the advent of the Left in 1876, Nicotera became minister of the interior, and governed with remarkable firmness. He was obliged to resign in December 1877, when he joined Crispi, Cairoli, Zanardelli and Baccarini in forming the "pentarchy" in opposition to Depretis, but he only returned to power thirteen years later as minister of the interior in the Rudini cabinet of 1891. On this occasion he restored the system of uninominal constituencies, resisted the socialist agitation, and pressed, though in vain, for the adoption of drastic measures against the false bank-notes put in circulation by the Roman bank. He fell with the Rudini cabinet in May 1892, and died at Vico Equense, near Naples, on the 13th of June 1894. See V. Giordano, La Vita ed i discorsi di Giovanni Nicotera (Salermo, 1878); Mauro, Biografia di Giovanni Nicotera (Rome, 1886; German trans., Leipzig, 1886); and Mario, In memoria di Giovanni Nicotera (Florence, 1894). NICOTINE, COH1N2, an alkaloid, found with small quantities of nicotimine, C,HN, nicoteine, C10H12N2, and nicotelline, C10H,N2, in tobacco. The name is taken from Nicotiana, the tobacco plant, so called after Jean Nicot (1530-1600), French ambassador at Lisbon, who introduced tobacco into France in 1560. These four alkaloids exist in combination in tobacco chiefly as malates and citrates. The alkaloid is obtained from an aqueous extract of tobacco by distillation with slaked lime, the distillate being acidified with oxalic acid, concentrated to a syrup and decomposed by potash. The free base is extracted by ether and fractionated in a current of hydrogen. It is a colourless oil, which boils at 247° C. (745 mm.), and when pure is almost odourless. It has a sharp burning taste, and is very poisonous. It is very hygroscopic, dissolves readily in water, and rapidly undergoes oxidation on exposure to air. The free alkaloid is strongly laevo-rotatory. F. Ratz (Monals., 1905, 26, P. 1241) obtained the value [a]=-169-54° at 20°; its salts are dextro-rotatory. It behaves as a di-acid as well as a di-tertiary base. On oxidation with chromic or nitric acids, or potassium permanganate, it yields nicotinic acid or 8-pyridine carboxylic acid, CHAN CO2H; alkaline potassium ferricyanide gives nicotyrine, CH0N2, and hydrogen peroxide oxynicotine, CH4NO. Oxida tion of its isomethylhydroxide with potassium permanganate yields trigonelline, C,H,NO, (A. Pictet and P. Genequand, Ber., 1897, 30, P. 2117). It gives rise to various decomposition products such as pyridine, picoline, &c., when its vapour is passed through a red-hot tube. The hydrochloride on heating with hydrochloric acid gives methyl chloride (B. Blau, Ber., 1893, 26, p. 631). Hydriodic acid and phosphorus at high temperature give a dihydro-compound, whilst sodium and alcohol give hexa- and octo-hydro derivatives. Nicotine may be recognized by the addition of a drop of 30% formaldehyde, the mixture being allowed to stand for one hour and the solid residue then moistened by a drop of concentrated |