narthex (nartheks)

[NL., turies it was generally divided from the church proper by a complete wall, in which were the main entrance-doors to the church, the narthex thus forming a capacious and lofty vestibule of the full width of the church. In primitive times the narthex was the part of the church to which the catechumens, the energumens, and the cla of penitents called audientes or hearers were admitted. Sometimes it was set apart for the women of the congregation. Occasionally it was double, in which case the inner division was called the esonarthex and the outer division the exхо narthex. In the church-building of western Europe, in certain types of monastic churches, notably in those of the Benedictines and Cistercians, the narthex persisted until of and often formed important architectural feature, as in the splendid example in the great abbey-church of Vézelay, France. Also called ante church, antenave, pronaos. See diagram under bema. 2. In antiq., a small box or casket for unguents or perfumes.-3. [ cap.] An old genus of umbelliferous plants, now referred to Ferula. See asafetida. taining to the nose or nostrils; narial; rhinal. -2. Uttered with resonance in the nose, or with admi ion of the expelled air into the nasal pa ages, by relaxation or dropping of the palatal veil that shuts them off from the pharynx. A nasal sound uttered with complete closure of the mouth-organs is a nasal stop, or check, or mute, or oftenest called a nasal merely: such in English are n, m, ng, uttered respectively in the mouth-positions of d, b, g. There are apt to be in any language as many such as there are positions of mute-closure; thus, in Sanskrit there are five. A nasal uttered in a vowel-position of the mouth-organs is a nasal vowel: such are the French an, on, in, un, the Portuguese ão, etc. Nasal semivowels are also po ible. And sometimes the whole utterance is rendered more or le nasal (the "nasal twang") by habitual relax a tion of the velar closure. 3. In entom., pertaining to the nas us or clypeus. Na sal bone, a nasal. See II., 3.-Na sal canal, crest, duct. See the IMG:content-1212.jpg:[blocks in formation] Nasal Fo a of Man, vertical longitudinal section just to one side of septum: left-hand figure, outer wall of right cavity; right-hand figure, inner or right wall of left cavity, being the left side of the median septum. 1, olfactory nerve, its filaments pa ing through 2, cribriform plate of ethmoid, to ramify upon Schneiderian membrane (I is situated in brain-cavity of the skull). V, branches of trigeminus nerve; Pa, palate flooring nasal cavity, roofing the mouth; Sp, free posterior margin of nasal septum; nouns. Nasal S fo æ. (a) In an at., the nasal turbinal bone (these are both ethmoturbi ST , superior turbinal bone; MT , middle pa ages; the hol nals) 17, inferior turbinal bone, or maxillo low interior or cav turbinal. ity of the nose. In man the nasal fo e are right and left, separated by the nasal septum, and each is subdivided into three fo æ or meatus, superior, middle, and inferior. ornith., the depre ions upon the bill of a bird in which the external nostrils open. These are usually well. marked fo æ at or near the base of the bill, on either side of the culmen, naked or filled in with feathers, or arched over by an operculum or nasal scale; their characters are often of zoological importance. See cuts and diagram un der bill. - Nasal helmet, the helmet of the early middle ages to which a nasal was attached. See II., 1. - Nasal index. See craniometry. - Nasal meatus. See meatus. -Nasal plate, in herpet., one of the special plates of the head of a reptile through or between which the nostrils open; a nasal. - Nasal point, in craniom., the nasion. Nasal scale, in ornith., the horny operculum of a bird's nostril; a naricorn; a rhinotheca. - Nasal septum, the partition between the right and left nasal fo æ, in man complete and consisting of the perpendicular plate of the ethmoid bone or mes ethmoid, the vomer, and a large cartilage called triangular. - Nasal spine, a spinous proce of bone of the nose. Three such are named in man: (a) frontal, a proce of the frontal bone in part IMG:content-1213.jpg:[ocr errors][merged small][graphic] Kahau, or Proboscis-monkey ( Nasalis larvatus).