Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/451

Rh about 15,000. It is built on a rocky crest, on the highest part of which is a ruined castle. The cathedral and other churches have fine works of art. It is the seat of a bishop, and has a royal gymnasium. There are salt works and several sulphur springs. A brisk trade is carried on in grain, wine, oil, and cattle. NICOT, Jean, a French diplomatist, born in 1530, died in Paris r May 5, 1600. Being sent by Francis II. as ambassador to the court of Portugal, he there procured some seeds of a tobacco plant from a Flemish merchant, who had obtained them from Florida. These he brought into France, and in honor of him the botanical name Nicotiana was given to tobacco.  NICOTIA, or Nicotine (Oi H 14 N" 2 ), a volatile alkaloid, the active principle of tobacco, discovered by Vauquelin in 1809, and obtained by Posselt and Reimann in 1828 in a state of comparative purity. It may be prepared by the distillation of the infusion of the plant. It is a clear oily fluid, of specific gravity 1 - 048, soluble in water, alcohol, ether, the fixed oils, and oil of turpentine. It possesses an exceedingly acrid burning taste, even when largely diluted, and an odor like that of tobacco. Its vapor is very powerful and irritant to the nostrils; that arising from a single drop is sufficient to render the whole atmosphere of a room insupportable. Nicotia partly decomposes at 482, and becomes brown and thick on exposure to the air. It has a strong alkaline reaction, and forms crystallizable salts with the acids. It is one of the most virulent poisons known, a drop of anhydrous and pure nicotia being sufficient to kill a dog in from half a minute to two minutes. Tannin combines with it to form a compound of little solubility, and it may therefore serve as a temporary antidote to the poison if there be time for its application. Mcotia has been used in criminal poisoning,- and in the celebrated case of Count Bocarme" it was detected in the body of the victim. It protects the animal tissues from decomposition, and Orfila found it several months after death in bodies of animals destroyed by it. The proportion of the alkaloid obtained by this chemist from Havana tobacco was 2 per cent., from that of Maryland 2 -3, and from that of Virginia 6 -9. The empyreumatic oil of tobacco, which imparts the well known odor to old tobacco pipes, contains a large proportion of nicotia, and is a virulent poison. Nicotianine is probably the odorous principle of tobacco. It is a fatty substance haying the smell of tobacco smoke, and an aromatic, somewhat bitter taste. It produces sneezing when applied to the nostrils, and a grain of it swallowed occasions nausea. (See TOBACCO.)  NICOYA, Gulf of, a bay of Costa Rica on the Pacific ocean, formed by the peninsula of Nicoya, the S. point of which, Cape Blanco, is in lat. 9 37' K, Ion. 85 7' W. Its mouth, between Capes Blanco and Herradura, is about 30 m. wide, and the gulf extends N. about 55 m. It contains many islands, of which the principal are Chira, Venado, Bejuco, Castillo, and San Lucar; and numerous streams empty into it, the largest being the Rio Grande on the east and the Tempisque on the north. Punta Arenas, on the E. side of the gulf, is the only port of entry of Costa Rica on the Pacific.  NIEBUHR, Barthold Georg, a German historian, son of Karstens Niebuhr, born in Copenhagen, Aug. 27, 1776, died in Bonn, Jan. 2, 1831. He was two years old when his father removed to Meldorf in Holstein, where he passed his boyhood till 1793. He learned in the nursery both the German and Danish languages; was instructed by his father in geography, history, and English and Latin; and on entering the gymnasium of Meldorf in 1789 was advanced at once to the first class. After having passed some time in Gottingen, he was sent in 1794 to the university of Kiel, where he remained two years, and became intimately acquainted with Mme. Hensler (whose sister Amalia Behrens was his first wife), with the counts Stolberg, and with Voss and Jacobi. In 1796 he became private secretary to Schimmelmann, the Danish minister of finance, was soon after appointed secretary to the royal library by Count Bernstorff, and in 1798 went to England, and resided chiefly in London and Edinburgh for more than a year. Having received two small appointments from the government at Copenhagen, he married, and resided in that capital till 1806, directing his studies chiefly toward classical antiquity, and establishing his reputation both as a scholar and an administrative officer. In 1806 he removed to Berlin, having received an appointment as joint director of the bank, but was soon obliged to flee with the other officials after the battle of Jena. He was intrusted by Hardenberg with the financial department of the commissariat, and accompanied the army till the battle of Friedland. After the .dismissal of Hardenberg (1807) he was appointed on the commission to conduct the government provisionally, and suggested fiscal reforms which were accepted by the new administration under Stein. He resided one year in Amsterdam, making unsuccessful efforts to negotiate a loan, and on his return to Berlin in 1809 was nominated privy councillor, and was made the head of the department for the management of the national debt and the supervision of the banks. The opposition made by the ministry to his financial plans caused him to demand his dismissal, and both Hardenberg and Stein attributed his conduct to an undue waywardness and impatience of disposition. His own letters prove that while the important offices to which he had been raised had given him an extravagant estimate of his financial abilities, he was nevertheless chiefly desirous to return to the literary studies from which he had been withheld by public duties. Appointed historiographer to the king, he delivered lectures on ancient Roman history in the university of Berlin in 1810 and 1811, which were 