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.

NEUCHATEL (109), a western canton of Switzerland, lying between Lake Neuchatel 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; Neuchatel was incorporated in the Swiss Confederation in 1815.  NEUCHATEL (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 NEUCHATEL is a beautiful sheet of water, 25 m. in length, and from 3 to 6 in breadth.

NEUSTRIA, western portion of the kingdom of the Franks in the time of the Merovingian and Carlovingian dynasties, and in constant rivalry with AUSTRASIA (q. v.), the kingdom of the East; it extended from the Scheldt to the Loire and Soissons; Paris, Orleans, and Tours were the chief towns.

NEUVILLE, ALPHONSE DE, French painter of battle-scenes, born at St. Omer; he was an illustrator of books, among others Guizot’s “Histoire de France” (1836-1885).

NEVA, a river of Russia issuing from the SW. corner of Lake Ladoga, flows westward in a broad rapid current past St. Petersburg, and discharges its great volume of water into the Bay of Cronstadt, in the Gulf of Finland, after a winding course of 40 miles.