Bibliography.–Captain Mahan, Influence of Sea Power upon the French Revolution and the Empire (London, 1892); Chevalier, Histoire de la marine française sous le consulat et l’empire (Paris, 1886). All the operations connected with the successive invasion schemes are recorded, with exhaustive quotations of documentary evidence, in Projets et tentatives de débarquement aux Iles Britanniques, by Captain Desbrière (Paris, 1901). Captain Desbrière’s exhaustive work was done for the historical section of the French general staff, and is a fine example of the scholarly and conscientious modern French historical school. (D. H.)
NAPOLEONITE, also called Corsite because the stone is
found in the island of Corsica, a variety of diorite which is
characterized by orbicular structure. The grey matrix of the
stone has the normal appearance of a diorite, but contains many
rounded lumps 1 or 2 in. in diameter, which show concentric
zones of light and dark colours. In these spheroids also a
distinct and well-marked radial arrangement of the crystals is
apparent. The centre of the spheroid is usually white or pale
grey and consists mainly of felspar; the same mineral makes the
pale zones while the dark ones are rich in hornblende and
pyroxene. The felspar is a basic variety of plagioclase (anorthite
or bytownite). Though mostly rounded, the spheroids may
be elliptical or subangular; sometimes they are in contact with
one another but usually they are separated by small areas of
massive diorite. When cut and polished the rock makes a beautiful
and striking ornamental stone. It has been used for making
paper-weights and other small ornamental articles.
Spheroidal structure is found in other diorites and in quite a number of granites in various places, such as Sweden, Russia, America, Sardinia, Ireland. It is by no means common, however, and usually occurs in only a small part of a granitic or dioritic mass, being sometimes restricted to an area of a few square yards. In most cases it is found near the centre of the outcrop, though exceptionally it has been found quite close to the margin. It arises evidently from intermittent and repeated crystallization of the rock-forming minerals in successive stages. Such a process would be favoured by complete rest, which would allow of supersaturation of the magma by one of the components. Rapid crystallization would follow, producing deposits on any suitable nuclei, and the crystals then formed might have a radial disposition on the surfaces on which they grew. The magma might then be greatly impoverished in this particular substance, and another deposit of a different kind would follow, producing a zone of different colour. The nucleus for the spheroidal growth is sometimes an early porphyritic crystal, sometimes an enclosure of gneiss, &c., and often does not differ essentially in composition from the surrounding rock. When spheroids are in contact their inner zones may be distinct while the outer ones are common to both individuals having the outlines of a figure of eight. This proves that growth was centrifugal, not centripetal.
Many varieties of spheroids are described presenting great differences in composition and in structure. Some are merely rounded balls consisting of the earliest minerals of the rock, such as apatite, zircon, biotite and hornblende, and possessing no regular arrangement. Others have as centres a foreign fragment such as gneiss or hornfels, with one or more zones, pale or dark, around this. Radial arrangement of the crystals, though often very perfect, is by no means universal. The spheroids are sometimes flattened or egg-shaped, apparently by fluxion movements of the magma at a time when they were semi-solid or plastic. As a general rule the spheroids are more basic and richer in the ferromagnesian minerals than the surrounding rock, though some of the zones are often very rich in quartz and felspar. Graphic or perthitic intergrowths between the minerals of a zone are frequent. The spheroids vary in width up to 1 or 2 ft. In some cases they contain abnormal constituents such as calcite, sillimanite or corundum. (J. S. F.)
NAQUET, ALFRED JOSEPH (1834–), French chemist
and politician, was born at Carpentras (Vaucluse), on the 6th
of October 1834. He became professor in the faculty of medicine
in Paris in 1863, and in the same year professor of chemistry
at Palermo, where he delivered his lectures in Italian. He lost
his professorship in 1867 with his civic rights, when he was
condemned to fifteen months’ imprisonment for his share in a
secret society. On a new prosecution in 1869 for his book
Religion, propriété, famille he took refuge in Spain. Returning
to France under the government of Emile Ollivier he took an
active share in the revolution of the 4th of September 1870,
and became secretary of the commission of national defence.
In the National Assembly he sat on the extreme Left, consistently
opposing the opportunist, policy of successive governments.
Re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies he began the agitation
against the marriage laws with which his name is especially
connected. His proposal for the re-establishment of divorce was
discussed in May 1879, and again in 1881 and 1882, and became
law two years later. Naquet, although he disapproved in
principle of a second chamber, secured his election to the senate
in 1883 to pilot his measure through that body. In 1886 by his
efforts divorce became legal after three years of definite separation
on the demand of one of the parties concerned. In 1890 he
resigned from the senate to re-enter the Chamber of Deputies,
this time for the 5th arrondissement of Paris, and took his seat
with the Boulangist deputies. After Boulanger’s suicide his
political influence declined, and was further compromised by
accusations (of which he was legally cleared) in connexion with
the Panama scandals.
The thesis written for his doctorate, Application de l’analyse chimique à la toxicologie (1859), was followed by many papers on chemistry contributed to learned journals, and his Principes de chimie fondés sur les théories modernes (1865) reached its 5th edition in 1890. He is better known by his political works, Socialisme collectiviste et socialisme libéral (1890, Eng. trans., 1891), L’Humanité et la patrie (1901), Loi du divorce (1903), L’Anarchie et le collectivisme (1904), Désarmement ou alliance anglaise (1908).
NARA, an important water channel in Sind, India, probably
representing a former bed of the Indus, though now traversing
the desert far E. of the river. Its total length is 250 m.; and by
means of cross cuts, weirs and embankments, it has been made
to irrigate no less than 429 sq. m., with a navigable length of
425 m.
NARA, a town of Japan, in the province of Yamato, 2512 m.
from Osaka by rail. Pop. 32,000. It lies on the slope of a range
of picturesque hills, beautifully wooded with, cryptomerias,
evergreen oaks, &c. This was the first permanent capital of
Japan. Up to the beginning of the 8th century the imperial
court changed its location at the accession of each sovereign, and
the court’s place of residence naturally became the official
metropolis. But Nara remained the metropolis during seven
consecutive reigns (709 to 784), and its seventy-five years of
favoured existence sufficed for the building and furnishing of
several imposing shrines and temples, for the laying out of a
noble park, for the casting of a colossal image of Buddha, and
for the execution of many other beautiful specimens of applied
art. Not much is known of the Nara palace in its original form,
but many of the articles and ornaments used by its inmates
survive in a celebrated collection which, during nearly twelve
hundred years, had been preserved in a store-house (Shoso-in)
near the temple of Todai-ji. This collection cannot be visited
by strangers more than once a year, and even then only by special
permission. The vigorous growth of the Buddhist creed throughout
the Nara epoch was remarkable, and found outward expression
in many striking architectural and artistic Works. The
best of these, namely, those dating from the first half of the
8th century, show Indo-Grecian affinities, which gradually grow
fainter as the end of the epoch approaches. The temple called
Todai-ji was completed about 750. At present the buildings
enclose a quadrangle 520 ft. by 620, the south side being mainly
occupied by the huge, ungainly and no longer perpendicular hall
containing the Dai Butsu, or colossal statue of Buddha. The
casting of this wonderful piece of work was accomplished after
eight failures in 749 by Takusho, an artist from Korea. On two
occasions the head was melted during the burning of the temple
(1180 and 1567) and from 1567 to 1697 the statue stood exposed
to the weather. The height of the figure is 53 ft. On a hill to the
east of the temple stands a bell-house with a huge bell, cast in
732, 1312 ft. high, 9 ft. across the mouth and weighing 37 tons.
The great Buddha is often spoken of as the most remarkable of
the Nara relics; but restorations have so marred it that it can
no longer be compared with many smaller examples of contemporaneous
and subsequent sculpture. More worthy of close
attention are two effigies of Brahma and Indra preserved among
the relics of Kobuku-ji, which, with Kasuga-no-Miya, Ni-gwatsudo
and Todai-ji, constitute the chief religious edifices. These
figures, sculptured in wood, have suffered much from the ravages
of time, but nothing could destroy the grandeur of their proportions
or the majesty and dignity of their pose. Several other
