orn at Chartres, a
PORT-ROYALIST (q. v.), friend of Arnauld and Pascal; was along
with the former author of the famous "Port Royal Logic" (1625-1695).

NICOTINE, a poisonous alkaloid extracted from the leaves of the
tobacco plant, is a colourless, oily liquid, readily soluble in water,
and has a pungent odour.

NIEBUHR, BARTHOLD GEORG, distinguished historian, born at
Copenhagen, son of the succeeding; studied at Kiel, and for a time at
London and Edinburgh; after various civil appointments in Denmark,
entered the civil service of Prussia in 1806; on the establishment of the
university of Berlin in 1810 gave in connection with it a course of
lectures on Roman history, by which he established his reputation as a
historian, several of the conclusions of which he afterwards confirmed
during his residence as ambassador at the Papal Court at Rome from 1816
to 1823; the revolution of the three days of July 1830 in Paris
threatening, as he thought, a recurrence of the horrors of the first,
gave him such a shock that he sickened of it and died; by his treatment
of the history of Rome he introduced a new era in the treatment of
history generally, which consisted in expiscating all the fabulous from
the story and working on the residuum of authenticated fact, without,
however, as would appear, taking due account of the influence of the
faith of the people on the fable, and the effect of the latter on the
life and destiny of the nation whose history it was his purpose to relate
(1776-1830).

NIEBUHR, KARSTEN, a celebrated traveller, born in Hanover; joined a
Danish expedition in exploration of Arabia, and alone of the members of
it returned home, which he did by way of Persia, Palestine, and Cyprus,
and wrote an account of the results of his researches (1733-1815).

NIEL, ADOLPHE, French marshal, born at Muret; entered the Engineers
1825, served in the Algerine War in 1835, before Rome in 1849, at
Bomarsund in 1854, at Sebastopol in 1856, as well as at Magenta and
Solferino, and finally became Minister of War (1802-1869).

NIEPEE, JOSEPH NICEPHORE, French chemist, born at Chalons-sur-Saone;
inventor of photography, the method of effecting which he achieved after
long brooding in 1824, and afterwards communicated to Daguerre, with whom
he entered into partnership, and who made it known after his death
(1765-1833).

NIFLHEIM or MISTHOME, in the Norse mythology the primeval
northern region of cold and darkness, in