the Hag; a genus of insects belonging to the order of vermes intestini. It hath a slender body, carinated beneath; mouth at the extremity, ciliated; the two jaws pinnated; an adipose or raylets fin round the tail and under the belly. The only remarkable species is the glutinosa, about eight inches long. It inhabits the ocean; enters the mouths of fish when on the hooks of lines that remain a tide under water, and totally devours the whole, except skin and bones. The Scarborough fishermen often take it in the robbed fish, on drawing up their lines. Linnaeus attributes to it the property of turning water into glue. N.

N, A liquid consonant, and the 13th letter of the Greek, Latin, English, &c. alphabets.

The n is a nasal consonant; its sound is that of a d, passed through the nose; so that when the nose is stopped by a cold, or the like, it is usual to pronounce d for n. M. P'Abbé de Dangeau observes, that in the French, the n is frequently a mere nasal vowel, without any thing of the consonant in it. He calls it the Slavonic vowel. The Hebrews call their n nun, which signifies child, as being supposed the offspring of m; partly on account of the resemblance of sound, and partly on that of the figure. Thus from the m, by omitting the last column, is formed n; and thus from the capital N, by omitting the first column, is formed the Greek minuscule ν. Hence for binnies, &c. the Latins frequently use binus, &c. and the same people convert the Greek ν, at the end of a word into an m, as φαρμακον, pharmacum, &c. See M.

N before p, b, and m, the Latins change into m, and frequently into l and r; as in in-ludo, illudo; in-rigo, irrego, &c.; in which they agree with the Hebrews, who, in lieu of nun, frequently double the following consonants; and the Greeks do the same; as when for Manlius, they write Μανλιος, &c. The Greeks also, before κ, γ, χ, ν, changed the ν into γ; in which they were followed by the ancient Romans; who, for Angulus, wrote Aggulus; for anceps, agceps, &c.

The Latins retrench the n from Greek nouns ending in ων; as Αιων, Leo; Δρακων, Draco: on the contrary, the Greeks add it to the Latin ones ending in ω; as Κατων, Nero, for Cato, Nero.

N, among the ancients, was a numeral letter, signifying 900; according to the verse in Barionius,

N, quoque nongentos numero designat habendos.

And when a line was struck over it, ῾N, nine thousand. Among the ancient lawyers N. L. stood for non liquet, i.e. the cause is not clear enough to pass sentence upon. N., or N°, in commerce, &c. is used as an abbreviation of numero, number.