Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Volume 2.djvu/282

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NI T

his own Name 5 as he himfelf tells us in his Dictionary. See Tobacco.

NICTITATING Membrane, in Anatomy, a thin Mem- brane which covers the Eyes of feveral Creatures, and Shelters them from Duft, or too much Light ', yet is fo thin, that they can fee indifferently well through it. See Eye.

The NiB'ttating Membrane is chiefly found in the Bird and Fifh Kind. See Biro and Fish.

This Membrane in the Eagle's Eye, is remarkably clofe and firm, infomuch as to be accounted as a fecond Eye-lid : And hence that remarkable Firmnefs of the Eagle's Sight in viewing the Sun. See Eagle.

NIDUS, Nefi, a Depository, wherein certain Animals, Fowls particularly, Infects, and Reptiles lodge their Eggs, for Incubation ; and wherein, when hatch'd, they nurfe their Young till they become able to fhiTt for them- felves.

The Word is Latin, and fuppofed to be derived from Nidor, ftrong, or ill Smell 5 in regard the Nells of Animals ufually ftink.

Mr. Derham fays, he has often wonder'd how Wafps, Hornets, and other Infecls that gather dry Marerials (as the Dull of Wood fcraped off for that purpofe) mould find a proper Matter to cement and glue their Combs, and line their Cells ; but he adds, That in all probability 'tis in their own Bodies : as in the Tinea Vejxivora, the Cad- Worm,^.

Geo;fortobferves of his Entca that fed on Leaves, that it made its Cell on Leaves glued together with its own Spittle.

NIECE, a Term relative to Uncle and Aunt, fignifying Brother or Siller's Daughter ; which, in the Civil Law, is the third Degree of Confanguinity, and in the Canon Law, the fecond. See Ag-nati and Cog n ATI.

N1ENT Comprize, in Law, an Exception taken to a Pe- titionas injuft ; becaufe the thing defired is not in that Act, or Deed whereon the Petition is grounded.

Thus, a Perfon defiresof the Court to be put inPoflbfnon formerly adjudg'd to him among other Lands : The ad- verfe Party pleads that this Petition is not to be granted, by reafon tho the Petitioner had a Judgment for certain Lands and Houfes, yet this Houfe is not comprized therein.

N1EPE, Nepe, or Neep Tides, are thofe Tides which happen when the Moon is in the middle of the fecond and laft Quarters. See Tide.

The Niepe-Tides are oppofite to the Spring-Tides ; and as the higheft of the Spring-Tides is three Days after the Full or Change, fo the lowed of the Niepe is four Days before the Full or Change 5 on which occalion the Seamen fay, That it is deep Niep.

When a Ship wants Water, fo that me cannot get out of the Harbour, off the Ground, or out of the Dock, the Seamen fay, She is Nieped.

NIGHT, that Part of a Natural Day, during which the Sun is underneath the Horizon. See Day.

Or Night, is that Space of Time wherein the Sun is out of our Hemifphere.

Under the Equator, the Nights are always equal to the Days. Under the Poles, the Night holds half the Year.

The antient Cauls and Germans divided theirTimenot by Days, but Nights $ as appears from Tacitus and Cxfar. And the People of Iceland and the Arabs, do the fame at this day. The fame is obferved of our Saxon Anceftors.

Thus, in the Council of Clovefhoe, Anno 824, we read, Ibi jinita 2? profcripta contentione coram Epifcopo pojr 30 NocT.es, tUiim Juramentum ad Wefiminfler deduction e/?.Whence our Cuftom of faying, Seven-night, fort-night, &c.

NIGHT-M»-e, a popular Name for a Difeafe by the Greek Phyfkians call'd Ephialtes, and the Latins, Incubus 5 to which People lying a-fleep on their Backs, and having their Stomach charg'd with heavy Food difficult of Di- geftion, are very liable. . See Incubus.

The Difeafe makes the flecping Patient appear as if op- prefs'd with a huge Weight on the Breaft ; whence he or- dinarily imagines fome Speclre or Fantom flopping his Breath.

The Difeafe does not arife, as was antiently imagined, from grofs Vapours filling the Ventricles of the Brain j but rather from a too great repletion of theStomach which prevents the Motion of the Diaphragm, and, of confe- rence, the Dilatation of the Breaft neceflary to Refpi- ration.

Others take it to be produced by a Convulfion of the Mufcles of Refpiration. See Ephialtes.

Etmuller obfer»es, That the Arabs call this Difeafe a NoBurnal Epilepfy •-, fince upon its prevailing much, it de- generates into an Epilepfy 5 and is in effecT: the Prodromus hereof in young People, as in old ones of an Apoplexy. _

NIHIL, Nihilum, Nothing j among the School Philo- fophers, is whathasno real E(Je, and is only conceived ne- gatively, and denominated by a Negative. See Esse.

Nihil Capiat per Billam, or per Breve, is a Form ufed when Judgment is given againlt the Plaintiff, fo as to bar his Action, or overthrew his Writ.

Nihil Dicit t is a failing to put in an Anfwer to the Plain- tiff's Plea by the Day afiign'd.

N I H I LI Album, fee Po mphylaj^,

NIHILS, or Nichils, Iffues, which the Sheriffthat is oppofed lays are nothing worth, and llleviable > for the Inefficiency of the Parties that fhould pay them.

Clerkvf the Nichils, Nibilorum Clencus, is an Officer of the Exchequer who makes a Roll of rhe Sums which are ; Nichil'd by. the Sheriff. See Exchequer. ( N1LOMETRE, an Inilrument ufed among the An- tients, to meafure the height of the Water of the N//e 9 in its over-flowingi. See Overf lowing.

In rhe French King's Library is an Arabic Treatife on Ni- hmetres, entitled Neilifalnal al Nil j wherein aredefcribed all the overflowings of the Nile from the ill Year of the Heglra to the 875th.

Herodotus mentions a Column crefled in a Point of the Ifland Delta, to ferve as a Ndometre : And there is ftill one of the fame kind in a Mofque of the fame Place.

As all the Riches of Egypt arife from the overflowing of the Nile, the Egyptian* ufed to fupplicate them at the hands of their Serapis, and committed the mod execrable Crimes, as Actions, forfocth, of Religion, to obtain the Favour. This occafion'd Conjianiwe exprefly to prohibit thefe Sacrifices, &c. and to order the Nilometre to be re- moved into the Church ; whereas till that time it had been in the Temple of Serapis. Julian the Apoftate,had it repla- ced in the Temple, where it continued till the Time of the' Great Theodofuts. See on the Subject of Nihmetres, the ABa Eruditorum Lipfii, Anno itfSfS".

The Word comes from the Greek vCt>.&, Nile, (and that from via,\hi}ft New Mud j or, as others will have it, frotri via, I flow, and \hvi, muddy) and (Ul&v t Meafure.

The Greeks ordinarily call'd the Nilometre, Nilofcope. N1MBIS, in Antiquity, a Term fignifying a Circle, ob- ferved on certain Medals, around the Heads of fome Em- perors j anfwering to the Circles of Light, or Jureofe t pla- ced around the Images cf Saints.

The Nimbis is feen on the Medals of Maurice^ Fhocas, and others, even of the upper Empire.

NIMETULAHITE, a kind of Religious among the Turks 5 fo call'd from Nimctulahi their Inilitutor.

When a Turk would be admitted into the Order, he is to /hut himfelf up clofe in a Chamber forty Days, tied down to four Ounces of Food per Day. The term expired, the Nimetulahites take him by the Hand, and lead him a Moorijh Dance accompanied with an infinity of ridiculous Anions, or Geftures, till the violence of the Exercife, with his former Regimen, throw him down on the Ground. This Fall is conftrued an Extafy, during which he is fup- pofed to have a Vifion.

The Nmetulahites meet every Monday In the Night-time, andfing Hymns to God,&c. NIPPLE, fee Breasts.

NISI Prius t in Law, a Writ Judicial,which lieth in Cafes, where the Jury being impanel'd, and returned before tho Juftices, one of the Parties requeils to have fuch Writ,f<:r the Eafeofthe Country,whereby to will the Sheriff to caufe rhe Inqueft to come before the Juftices in the fame Country.

It is call'd a Writ of the Nfi Pruts, and its Effeft is, that the Sheriff is hereby commanded to bring to Wefiminjxer the Men impanell'd at a certain Day, or before the Juftices of the next Affizes, Nfi die Lun# apud talem Locum prius venerint, &c.

NITRE, in Natural Hiftory, a fort of Salt, thus call'd by the Antients ; by the Moderns, more ufuaily, Saltpetre.

SeeSALTPETRE.

Naturalitts differ as to the Point whether our Saltpetre be the Nitre of the Antients. G. C. Schdhamer has a parti- cular Treatife on the Subject, de Nitre turn vetertm turn noftro Commentarius.

Moft other Authors hold the antient Nitre to be Mineral or Foffil j whereas our Saltpetre is Artificial. Serapion fays, their Mines of Nitre were like thofe of common Salt, and that it was form'd out of running Water congeal'd in its Progrefs into a fort of Stone. He adds, That their Nitre was of four kinds, diflinguifh'd by the Countries whence it came j viz. the Armenian j Roma?i j African 5 call'd Aphromtre, and by Akncenna, Baurach ; and the Egyp- tian, which was the moft famous, giving Name to all the reft j itfelf denominated from Nitrta, a Province in Egypt, where it was found in great abundance. He afiures us, too, that their Nitre was of divers Colours, viz. white, red, and livid 5 that fome was cavernous, likeaSpunge j others clofe and compacl ; others tranfparcnt like Glafs ; and. others fcaly.

Schelhamergwtsa different Account: The Antients, he obferves, diftinguifh'd between Kjl&v, Nitre, AQ&rfl&v t Aphrcnitre, and 'Ap#V v *1f«, Spwrn Nitri, or Scum of Nitre t

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