[Ness, Loch], the second largest loch in Scotland, stretches along the valley of Glenmore, in Inverness-shire, is 22½ m. long, and has an average breadth of 1 m. and an extreme depth of 280 ft.: its main feeders are the Morriston, Oich, and Foyers; the Ness is its chief outlet.
[Nesselrode, Count von], celebrated Russian diplomatist, born at Lisbon, where his father was Russian ambassador; represented Russia at a succession of congresses, played a prominent part at them, and directed the foreign policy of the empire under Alexander I. and Nicholas I., from 1816 to 1856, though he strove to avoid the war which broke out in 1853 (1780-1862).
[Nessus], a Centaur who, for attempting to carry off Dejanira, Hercules' wife, was shot by Hercules with an arrow dipped in the blood of the [Hydra] (q. v.), and who in dying handed to Dejanira his mantle, dipped in his poisoned blood, as a charm to regain her husband's affections should he at any time prove unfaithful. See [Hercules].
[Nessus' Shirt], the poisoned robe which Nessus gave Dejanira, and which in a moment of distrust she gave to Hercules. See [Nessus].
[Nestor], king of Pylos, a protégé and worshipper of Poseidon, the oldest, most experienced, and wisest of the Greek heroes at the siege of Troy; belonged to the generation of the grandfathers of the rest of them.
[Nestorius], a celebrated heresiarch, born in Syria; was made patriarch of Constantinople in 428, deposed for heresy by the Council of Ephesus 431, and banished to the Lybian Desert, where he died; the heresy he taught, called after him Nestorianism, was that the two natures, the divine and the human, coexist in Christ, but are not united, and he would not allow to the Virgin Mary the title that had been given to her as the "Mother of God"; the orthodoxy of the Church as against the doctrine was championed by Cyril of Alexandria.
[Netherlands], a term formerly applied to the whole NW. corner of Europe, occupied by [Belgium] (q. v.) and Holland, but now an official designation only of [Holland] (q. v.).
[Netley], the site of the handsome Royal Victoria Hospital, on the shore of Southampton Water, 3 m. SE. of Southampton, and connected by a direct line with Portsmouth; founded in 1856 as an asylum for invalided soldiers, also the head-quarters of the female nurses of the army; in the vicinity also are interesting remains of a Cistercian abbey.
[Nettlerash] or Urticaria, an irritating eruption in the skin causing a sensation like the stinging of nettles. It may be acute or chronic, frequently caused by errors of diet.
[Neuchâtel] (109), a western canton of Switzerland, lying between Lake Neuchâtel and France; the surface is diversified by the Jura Mountains, and plentifully supplied with small streams; the greater part of the inhabitants are French Protestants; coal and iron are found, stock-raising and agriculture are engaged in, but the great specialty of the canton is watchmaking, which is chiefly carried on at La Chaux-de-Fonds and Le Locle; Neuchâtel was incorporated in the Swiss Confederation in 1815. Neuchâtel (17), capital of the canton, has a fine situation on the NW. shore of the lake, 86 m. NE. of Geneva; has many educational, art, and charitable institutions, and is chiefly engaged in the manufacture of watches, jewellery, &c. Lake of Neuchâtel is a beautiful sheet of water, 25 m. in length, and from 3 to 6 in breadth.