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NISIBIS toire et description de la mile de Nimes (8vo, 1835); Melanges (2 vols. 8vo, 1838); Precis de Vhistoire de la litterature francaise depuis ses premiers monuments jusqu*d nos jours (18mo, 1840), a valuable sketch, which was first printed in the Dictionnaire de la conversation; and Histoire de la litterature francaise (4 vols. 8vo, 1844-'61 ; new ed., 4 vols. 12mo, 1863), a re- modelling of his lectures at the normal school. His most important essays published in the reviews have been reprinted under the titles of Etudes sur les grands hommes de la renais- sance (1856), and Etudes de critique litteraire (1858), containing his essays Les deux morales, and Nouvelles etudes d'histoire et de litterature (1864). He has also superintended the publi- cation of the Collection des classiques latins, with a French translation (27 vols. 8vo, 1839 et seq.). II. Marie Edouard Charles, a French au- thor, brother of the preceding, born in Chatil- lon-sur-Seine, Jan. 10, 1808. He left commer- cial for literary life, was from 1831 to 1848 a journalist attached to the service of Louis Philippe, and subsequently became connected with the ministry of the interior. Among his principal works are : Histoire des litres popu- laires depuis le XV* siecle jusqu'en 1852 (2 vols., 1854; 2d ed., 1864); Les gladiateurs de la republique des lettres aux XV e , XVI e et XVII* siecles (2 vols., 1860); and Histoire de la langue populaire de Paris et de sa lanlieue (1873). In 1874 he proposed to publish, with notes, about 200 letters recently discovered by him in the library of Parma, including 152 from the count de Caylus and 48 from the abbe Barthelemy. NISIBIS, in ancient geography, the capital of Mygdonia, a district of Mesopotamia, on the river Mygdonius. It was important as a com- mercial city and a military post, being fre- quently conspicuous during the wars of the Romans against Armenia, Parthia, and Persia. From the latter part of the 4th century it re- mained in the hands of the Persians. Its ruins are now visible near Nizibin in the Turkish vilayet of Diarbekir. Some critics identify the district in which it was situated with the Aram Zoba of Scripture; while others place the latter near Nizib on the Euphrates, a place known by the victory of Ibrahim Pasha over the Turkish army in June, 1839. NISI PRIUS, a law term, which originated as follows. Anciently, nearly all actions in Eng- land of any importance were begun and tried before the courts of Westminster. But when the custom began of bringing actions of less value before these courts, and these grew to be numerous, the burden of coming from differ- ent and distant parts of England to London became very great ; and a practice was intro- duced some centuries since of beginning a case in Westminster, as the law required, but con- tinuing it from term to term, " unless before " the next term a court which could try the case should be held in the county where the cause of action arose or existed. The record was in NITRATES 461 Latin ; and the words nisi prius (unless before), being the essential part, gave name to the whole procedure. A court of eyre or of assize always did sit in the county in the vacation, and so the case was sure to be tried at home. Practically the phrase " nisi prius court," both in England and the United States, now signi- fies a court held by one of the judges, or less than a whole bench, usually with a jury, be- cause such was the constitution of the assize courts before mentioned. Hence the deter- mination of a law question at nisi prius is com- monly made by one judge only, and on the spur of the moment. Many volumes have been Eublished, both in England and the United tates, of the decisions made at nisi prius ; but they have not the authority of decisions made by the court sitting in ~banco, both because they are usually the decisions of one judge only, and also because the judges have not had the aid of full argument by counsel. NISSA, or Nish (anc. Naissus), a town of Eu- ropean Turkey, in the vilayet of Prisrend, on the Nissava, an affluent of the Morava, 70 m. S. W. of Widdin; pop. recently estimated at from 6,000 to 16,000, including many Chris- tians. It is the residence of a Turkish pasha and of a Greek bishop, and has famous ther- mal springs. It is chiefly remarkable for its fortifications, and for commanding military communications between Thrace, Bulgaria, and Servia. The plain of Nissa is very fertile. The town was formerly the capital of Servia. The ancient Naissus was an important city, and the birthplace of Constantine the Great. NITRATES, salts formed by the combination of nitric acid with bases. Some of these are natural products, as the nitrates of potash, soda, lime, and magnesia ; and others are arti- ficially formed, as the nitrates of the metals. Several of both kinds are sufficiently important to require particular mention. None of these salts possess acid reaction; they are distin- guished for their solubility in water, and hence, the acid not forming a precipitate with any base, its presence, free or combined, can be determined only by other methods, several of which are described in works on chemistry. At a high heat the nitrates undergo decomposi- tion, sometimes being converted into free nitric acid and the oxidized base, and sometimes into oxygen, which escapes, and nitrous acid, which remains in combination with the base, forming a nitrite. 1. Nitrate of Potash, Nitre, or Salt- petre. First in importance among these salts is the nitrate of potash, or potassic nitrate, represented by the formula KNO 3 . It is an anhydrous, dimorphous white salt, having a specific gravity of 2 -07, crystallizing in long six-sided prisms with dihedral summits, be- longing to the rhombic system, and also in rhombohedral forms resembling ordinary calc spar. Frankenheim observed that when a solu- tion of saltpetre is left to evaporate under the microscope, both kinds of crystals make their appearance together. When the evaporation