Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/745

Rh T N Y B 687 it passes from the age of mature or adult life into old age is evidenced (1) by a diminished rate in the exchange of matter of the body ; (2) by a diminished power manifested by the organism as a whole, as well as by each of its individual organs, to accomplish work ; (3) by a general loss of weight of the body and of its essential tissues and organs, though the weight of the body as a whole may increase by the development and storage of fat ; (4) by a tendency to structural change of organs or parts of organs whose proper function is essential to life, as, for example, of the circulatory, respiratory, and nervous apparatuses ; (5) by a readiness to be injuriously affected by external circumstances, which at an earlier period produce no ob vious effect upon the body or only temporary impairment of its functions. The gradual and general deterioration of the organism thus evidenced is usually interrupted by the supervention of some process impairing so greatly the functions of a vital organ that the organism as a whole ceases to perform the functions which characterize it as living, and death results. Whatever the remote cause of death, the proximate cause is in every case an arrest of the circulation of the blood, putting an end to the exchanges of matter and energy which are the most characteristic of the accompaniments of life. (A. G.*) NUTTALL, THOMAS (1786-1859), botanist and orni thologist in the United States of America, where he lived and worked from 1808 until 1842, was born at Settle in Yorkshire in 1786, and spent some years as a journeyman printer in England. Soon after going to the United States he was induced by Professor Barton to apply himself to the study of the plants of that region ; and in pursuance of his investigations he undertook many long and arduous as well as dangerous journeys, usually spending the summers in the field and the winters in working out the materials accumulated during his expeditions. In 1822 he was appointed curator of the botanic gardens of Harvard university, but continued his explorations, and in 1834 crossed the continent to the Pacific Ocean, and visited the Sandwich Islands. Some property having been left him in England on condition of his residing on it during part of each year, he left America in 1842, and did not again revisit it, except for a short time in 1852. He died at St Helen s, Lancashire, 10th September 1859. Almost the whole of his scientific work was done in the States, and his published works appeared there. The more important of these are, The Genera of North American Plants, and a Catalogue of tlie Species for the year 1817, 2 vols. (1818) ; Journal of Travels into the Arkansas Territory during the year 1819 (1821) ; The North American Sylva, 3 vols. (1842-1849) ; Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada (1834 and 1840) ; and numerous papers on similar subjects in the various American scientific periodicals. NUX VOMICA, a poisonous drug, consisting of the seed of Strychnos Nux-Vomica, L., a tree indigenous to most parts of India, and found also in Burmah, Siam, Cochin China, and northern Australia. The tree, which be longs to the natural order Loganiaceee, is of moderate size, with a short, thick, often crooked stem, and ovate entire leaves, marked with 5 or 6 or 7 veins radiating from the base of the leaf. The flowers are small, greenish-white, and tubular, and are arranged in terminal corymbs. The fruit is of the size of a small orange, and has a thin hard shell, enclosing a bitter, gelatinous, white pulp, in which from 1 to 5 seeds are vertically embedded. The seed is disk-shaped, rather less than 1 inch in diameter, and about and in some varieties furnished with an acute keel-like ridge at the margin. This is particularly the case with the seeds imported from Bombay and collected in that province. Those imported from Madras and Cochin China have usually a rounded margin (Pharm. Journ. [3], xii. p. 1053). The acute margin is considered in commerce indi cative of superior quality, seeds so characterized yielding the largest quantity of the active principles. The external surface of the seed is of a greyish-green colour and satiny appearance, due to a coating of appressed silky hairs. The interior of the seed consists chiefly of horny albumen, which is easily divided along its outer edge into two halves by a Flowers, Fruit, and Seed of Nux Vomica. fissure, in which lies the embryo. The latter is about three-tenths of an inch long, having a pair of heart-shaped membranous cotyledons. The drug owes its poisonous property chiefly to the alkaloids strychnia and brucia, the mixed alkaloids found in the seed being in the proportion of about 1 per cent, of the former to 2 per cent, of the latter. These alkaloids occur in the seeds in combination with a probably complex body which has been named strychnic or igasuric acid. Brucia is distinguished from strychnia by giving a red colour when moistened with strong nitric acid, and by being soluble in 150 parts of boiling water, while strychnia requires 2500 parts for its solution. It is remarkable that although the pulp contains strychnia it is not poisonous to birds, being eaten by the hornbill, Buceros malabaricus, and other species. Parasitic plants of the natural order Loranthaceee, when growing on Strychnos Nux-Vomica, acquire the poisonous properties of the latter. Nux Vomica seeds are imported into Great Britain from Bombay, Madras, and Cochin China to the average extent of about 200 tons per annum, valued at 1600. NYANZA. For Albert Nyanza and Victoria Nyanza, see NILE, snpr. pp. 504, 505. NYASSA, LAKE. See ZAMBESI. NYBORG, a town and seaport of Denmark on the east side of the island of Fiinen, 28| miles by rail east of Odense, and the point from which the steam-packets cross the Great Belt to Korsor in Zealand. The fortress, built by Christian IV. and Frederick III., was dismantled in 1869, and the ruins of the castle are now used as a prison. From 4812 in 1870 the population increased to 5402 by 1880. As early as the 12th century the town was founded and a castle erected on Knudshoved (Canute s Head) by Knud, nephew of Walde- mar the Great ; aud from the 13th to the 15th century Nyborg was one of the most important places in Denmark, a seat of the royal court, and a frequent meeting-place of the estates. In 1531 the people of Liibeck took the town by storm. In 1658 it surrendered to the Swedes ; but Peter Bredal, icebound in the harbour, held
 * inch in thickness, slightly depressed towards the centre,