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NEC have secured her a splendid reputation though she had not been learned herself. She founded at Paris an hospital which bears her name. She died in 1794. Five volumes of "Melanges" were published from her papers by her husband.—F. E.  NECKER,, a botanist of the eighteenth century, was born in Flanders in 1729, and died at Manheim on 10th December, 1793. He showed early a taste for science, and applied himself with diligence to its prosecution. He was of a melancholic and hypochondriacal disposition, which was aggravated by over-study. He took the degree of doctor of medicine at the university of Douay, and was chosen botanist to the elector palatine. He was also historiographer of the palatinate. He was an honorary member of the college of medicine of Nancy, and a fellow of many learned societies. A genus of mosses was named Neckera after him by Hedwig. He wrote "An Account of the Wild Plants of France and Belgium;" "A Treatise on the Arrangement and the Physiology of Mosses and Fungi;" "On the Physiology of Organized Bodies;" also, "Elements of Botany," and a "Monograph on Tussilago and Petasites."—J. H. B.  NECKHAM,, sometimes called, from the place of his birth, Alexander of St. Albans, was born in that city in 1157, on the very night that Richard Coeur de Lion was born. His mother, it is said, was appointed nurse to the royal child. Alexander was educated at St. Albans, and with such good effect that at the age of twenty-three he gave lectures in the university of Paris. On his return to England he became a monk, and in 1213 he was elected abbot of Cirencester. His death occurred in 1217 at Kemsey in Worcestershire, and he was buried in Worcester. He was accomplished in all the learning of that age, and paid special attention to the subject of grammar, on which he wrote several treatises. He was an excellent Latinist, and wrote an elegant poem in Latin on the character of a true monk, and a long poem in ten books on science, part of which he converted into prose, with the title "De naturis rerum." His theological works, which are numerous, have not been printed.—R. H.  NEE,, a French line engraver, was born at Paris about 1735. He was a scholar of J. P. le Bas, and engraved in the manner of his master; his style being clear, neat, and careful, rather than brilliant or forcible. Among his plates are a series of vignettes to Ovid's Metamorphoses; the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, after Gravelot; and a portrait of Benjamin Franklin, after Carmontelle: but the greater part are landscapes, among the best being a folio volume of Tableaux Pittoresques de la Suisse, after A. Vandevelde, &c. Nee died in 1818.—J. T—e.  NEEDHAM,, a priest of the Roman catholic church, and a physiologist of some note, was born in London in 1713. He received his education at Douay and Cambray. After taking orders he taught in the former university, and in 1744 he was chosen professor of philosophy in the English college at Lisbon. He afterwards spent several years as a travelling tutor. During this time his scientific writings brought him considerable reputation: in 1747 he obtained the fellowship of the Royal Society, and in 1768 he was elected a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences. In the following year he was invited to assist in the institution of the Academy of Sciences and Belles Lettres at Brussels, founded by Maria Theresa. He ultimately accepted the directorship of the academy, an office which he retained at the time of his death in 1781. He also held the canonry of Soigny. His reputation as a biologist was high. Haller makes honourable mention of him; and in botanical science his name has been perpetuated by Brown in the genus Needhamia. He wrote several treatises on microscopical science; the first of these was published in London in 1745; the remaining ones are in French. He also was the author of "Idée sommaire, ou Vue générale du Système Physique et Metaphysique de M. Needham sur la Génération des Corps organisés," in which he opposed the Système de la Nature. A tract of his which appeared in 1763, "De Inscriptione quâdam Egyptiacâ," advocating the notion that the Chinese were descended from the Egyptians, was replied to by E. W. Montagu. Some of his writings appear in the Philosophical Transactions, and he is the author of some observations on ants and bees in the Memoirs of the Brussels Academy.—F. C. W.  NEEDHAM,, perhaps the earliest English writer who acquired a reputation, though a questionable one, by journalism, was born at Burford in Oxfordshire in 1620. He was the son of an Oxford student, who married the daughter of a Burford innkeeper, and died when Marchmont was an infant. His mother married afterwards the vicar of Burford, who sent his stepson to Oxford. In 1643, after having been an undermaster at Merchant Taylors' and an attorney's clerk, he wrote the Mercurius Britannicus, one of the newspapers called into existence by the contest between king and parliament, from which dates the rise of English journalism. The Mercurius Britannicus, was an "organ" of the parliament; but in 1647 having meanwhile studied and begun to practise medicine. Needham suddenly became a royalist, had an interview with Charles I. at Hampton Court, and began to write in the interest of the king the Mercurius Pragmaticus. With the fall of the royal cause Needham was important enough to be persecuted, but through the influence of Bradshaw and Lenthall, escaped any punishment severer than a preliminary imprisonment. He now returned to the popular side, and began to publish in 1649 the Mercurius Politicus, which "flew," says Anthony Wood, "every week into all the parts of the nation for more than ten years." It was suppressed at the Restoration, when, after flight to the continent, Needham was pardoned; and having resumed the practice of medicine, this coarse but vigorous writer died in 1678. Speaking of the Mercurius Politicus, in the sketch in the Athenæ Oxonienses, which is the chief authority for Needham's biography, Anthony Wood calls him the "Goliath of the Philistines, the great champion of the late usurper, whose pen in comparison with others was like a weaver's beam." "He was," Wood adds, "a person endowed with quick natural parts, was a good humanitian, poet, and boon-droll." Of Needham's forgotten pamphlets there is a list in Chalmers' Biographical Dictionary.—F. E.  NEEDHAM,, M.D., an eminent anatomist of the seventeenth century, was a native of Surrey. He received his early education at Westminster school, and thence proceeded to Cambridge, where he graduated as doctor of medicine in 1664. He was admitted an honorary fellow of the College of Physicians in the same year. He had at that time commenced practice at Shrewsbury, but soon quitted that town for Oxford, to which place he was attracted by the fame of its anatomical school. There he attended the lectures of Willis, Lower, and Millington. He afterwards settled in London, became a fellow of the Royal Society, and was appointed physician to the Charter-house. He died in poverty on the 16th of April, 1691, and was buried at St. Giles-in-the-Fields. He was the friend of Sydenham, who mentions him in terms of the highest praise in his Epistle dedicatory to Dr. Mapletoft. He was the author of a standard anatomical work, "Dissertatio de Formato Fœtu," London, 1667. A paper of his also appeared in the Philosophical Transactions, and a dissertation from his pen on the blood, bile, lymph, and other animal fluids, is published by Birch in his History of the Royal Society.—F. C. W.  NEEFS,, called the Elder, an eminent Flemish painter, was born at Antwerp in 1570. He was the scholar of H. van Steenwyck, whose manner he imitated, but whom he surpassed as a colourist. He painted architectural subjects, being especially successful in representing interiors of Gothic churches, from the faithfulness with which he copied the architectural forms and details, his knowledge of perspective, and his skilful arrangement of the light and shadow. His particular effects of sunlight, interiors by lamp or torch-light, &c., are greatly esteemed. The figures in many of his pictures were painted by the younger Francken, the elder Teniers, and Breughel. He died in 1651.—His son,, called the Younger—born in 1601; died about 1660—painted the same class of subjects, and in the same manner as his father, but was in all respects inferior to him.—J. T—e. <section end="557H" /> <section begin="557Zcontin" />NEER, or, was born at Gorkum about 1615, lived some years in Amsterdam, and settled finally in Rotterdam, where he was still living in 1691. He was an excellent landscape painter, and more especially of moonlight scenes. The National gallery possesses two admirable examples of his work—a large picture, a sunset, with figures by Cuyp, and a small moonlight piece.—Arthur's son,, was also a celebrated painter. He was born at Amsterdam in 1643, and settled at Düsseldorf on the Rhine, where he was appointed painter to the elector palatine, and where he was the master of the celebrated Vanderwerff. Though Eglon was also a landscape painter, he is more distinguished as <section end="557Zcontin" />