NIHILISM 466 NIKISCH her way to the East, where she rendered invaluable service to the sick and wounded by her incessant labors in nurs- ing and hospital reform. The strain, both mental and physical, which this work de- manded permanently injured her health; yet notwithstanding her confinement to a sick-room, she continued to give her ex- perience in the interest of hospital re- form, and for this purpose she was con- sulted during the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. She pub- lished "Notes on Hospitals" (1859), "Notes on Nursing" (1860), "On the Sanitary State of the Army in India" (1863), "Notes on Lying-in Institutions" (1871) ; "Life or Death in India" (1873) : etc. She received many acknowledg- ments of her services to humanity from many governments. One of the figures of the Crimean Memorial in Waterloo Place, London, is that of Miss Nightin- gale. She died in London, Aug. 13, 1910. NIHILISM, in ordinary language, nothingness; the state or condition of be- ing nothing, nihility. In history, a term used to designate the Russian Socialist movement, which began about 1870, and may be divided into two distinct periods : (1) "The going among the peasants." A number of young men and young women of the upper class voluntarily went to work in the fields and the fac- tories so as personally to carry on a So- cialist propaganda and distribute Social- ist literature. Their organs were the "Yperiod" (Forward!) of London and the "Workman" of Geneva. This lasted about six years, during which time there were 23 political trials of 417 persons, half of whom were condemned to exile in Siberia or to hard labor in the mines. (2) In 1878 the struggle with the gov- ernment commenced. At a congress held at Lipezk, shortly after Solovieff's at- tempt on the life of Alexander II., the acquisition of political freedom was de- clared to be the first necessity. It was hoped to gain this by the formation of a legislative body, elected by the people, with guarantees for electoral independ- ence, and liberty to agitate for reforms. This was demanded from Alexander III. shortly after the assassination of his predecessor as the price of cessation from violence. The Nihilist program is an agrarian socialism based on communal property. Before the rise of the Bolshe- viks in 1917 the Nihilists were identified with French and Italian anarchists. Consult Kornilov's "Modern Russian His- tory" (1917), Nihilism in metaphysics is the doctrine that refuses a substantial reality to the phenomenal existence of which man is conscious. NIIGrATA, a seaport of Hondo, Japan ; on a narrow strip of land at the mouth of the Shinano river; opened to foreign trade in 1869. The harbor does not ad- mit of the entrance of vessels of foreign build, and the roadstead is exposed; the foreign trade has therefore remained only nominal. Pop. about 62,000. NIJNI-NOVGOROD ("Lower Nov- gorod"), a famous commercial city of Russia, and capital of the province of the same name; at the confluence of the Oka with the Volga; 274 miles E. of Moscow. There is an upper city, con- taining the Kreml and many churches, a lower city, and a suburb. The great fair before the World War brought buy- ers and sellers from all climes between GeiTnany and China. For the con- venience of those frequenting the fairs, there was an enormous market hall, and 60 blocks of buildings for booths, con- taining more than 2,500 apartments sep- arated by fireproof walls. There were three annual fairs, two of them of minor account. The third, beginning July 15 and continuing into September, was the greatest in the world. During the fair, the normal population was very largely increased. The value of goods sold at one of these fairs often exceeded $100,- 000,000. At these fairs all foreign goods were supplied in smaller quantities, those of Russian production showing an in- crease. Nijni-Novgorod, founded in 1221, was devastated on several occasions by the Tartars; its prosperity dates from 1817, when the great fair was removed to Nijni-Novgorod from Makariev after a great fire. Pop. about 110,000. NIKALGEN, a local anaesthetic, dis- covered in 1916 by Gordon Edwards of San Francisco, Cal. it consists of a mixture of quinine, hydrochloric acid, and urea, and was largely used dur- ing the war by the Allies. It is applied by means of an atomizer in the form of a fine spray. NIKE, in Greek mythology, the god- dess of victory (Latin, VictoHa). She was rewarded by Zeus with the permis- sion to live in Olympus, for the readi- ness with which she came to his assist- ance in the war with the Titans. There was a temple to her on the Acropolis of Athens. She is usually represented with wings, and frequently bearing a palm branch and wreath. NIKISCH ABTHUR, a Hungarian musical conductor; born in Hungary in 1855 and educated at the Vienna Con-
