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.

NEVADA (46), one of the western States of the American Union,
occupying a wide stretch of territory on the Great Plateau or Basin,
between the Rocky Mountains on the E. and the Cascades and the Sierra
Nevada on the W., has Oregon and Idaho on the N., and California on the
S. and W.; elevated, cold,