Part 13

CROSS RIVER, a river of West Africa, over 500 m. long. It rises in 6 deg. N, 10 deg. 30' E. in the mountains of Cameroon, and flows at first N.W. In 8 deg. 48' E., 5 deg. 50' N. are a series of rapids; below this point the river is navigable for shallow-draught boats. At 8 deg. 20' E., 6 deg. 10' N., its most northern point, the river turns S.W. and then S., entering the Gulf of Guinea through the Calabar estuary. The Calabar river, which rises about 5 deg. 30' N., 8 deg. 30' E., has a course parallel to, and 10 to 20 m. east of, the Cross river. Near its mouth, on its east bank, is the town of Calabar (q.v.). It enters the estuary in 4 deg. 45' N. The Cross, Calabar, Kwa and other streams farther east, which rise on the flanks of the Cameroon Mountains, form a large delta. The Calabar and Kwa rivers are wholly within the British protectorate of Southern Nigeria, as is the Cross river from its mouth to the rapids mentioned. The upper course of the river is in German territory.

CROSS-ROADS, BURIAL AT, in former times the method of disposing of executed criminals and suicides. At the cross-roads a rude cross usually stood, and this gave rise to the belief that these spots were selected as the next best burying-places to consecrated ground. The real explanation is that the ancient Teutonic peoples often built their altars at the cross-roads, and as human sacrifices, especially of criminals, formed part of the ritual, these spots came to be regarded as execution grounds. Hence after the introduction of Christianity, criminals and suicides were buried at the cross-roads during the night, in order to assimilate as far as possible their funeral to that of the pagans. An example of a cross-road execution-ground was the famous Tyburn in London, which stood on the spot where the Oxford, Edgware and London roads met.

CROSS SPRINGER, in architecture, the block from which the diagonal ribs of a vault spring or start: the top of the springer is known as the skewback (see ARCH).

CROTCH, WILLIAM (1775-1847), English musician, was born in Green's Lane, Norwich, on the 5th of July 1775. His father was a master carpenter. The child was extraordinarily precocious, and when scarcely more than two years of age he played upon an organ of his parent's construction something like the tune of "God save the King." At the age of four he came to London and gave daily recitals on the organ in the rooms of a milliner in Piccadilly. The precocity of his musical intuition was almost equalled by a singularly early aptitude for drawing. In 1786 he went to Cambridge as assistant to Dr Randall the organist. His oratorio _The Captivity of Judah_ was played at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, on the 4th of June 1789. He was then only fourteen years of age. His intention of entering the church carried him to Oxford in 1788, but the superior attractions of a musical career acquired an increasing influence over him, and in 1790 he was appointed organist of Christ Church. At the early age of twenty-two he was appointed professor of music in the university of Oxford, and there in 1799 he took his degree of doctor in that art. In 1800 and the four following years he read lectures on music at Oxford. Next he was appointed lecturer on music to the Royal Institution, and subsequently, in 1822, principal of the London Royal Academy of Music. His last years were passed at Taunton in the house of his son, the Rev. W. R. Crotch, where he died suddenly on the 29th of December 1847. He published a number of vocal and instrumental compositions, of which the best is his oratorio _Palestine_, produced in 1812. In 1831 appeared an 8vo volume containing the substance of his lectures on music, delivered at Oxford and in London. Previously, he had published three volumes of _Specimens of Various Styles of Music_. Among his didactic works is _Elements of Musical Composition and Thorough-Bass_ (London, 1812). The oratorio bearing the title _The Captivity of Judah_, and produced on the occasion of the installation of the duke of Wellington as chancellor of the university of Oxford in 1834, is a totally different work from that which he wrote upon the same subject as a boy of fourteen. He arranged for the pianoforte a number of Handel's oratorios and operas, besides symphonies and quartetts of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. The great expectations excited by his infant precocity were not fulfilled; for he manifested no extraordinary genius for musical composition. But he was an industrious student and a sound artist, and his name remains familiar in English musical history.

CROTCHET (from the Fr. _croche_, a hook; whence also the Anglicized "crochet," pronounced as in French, for the knitting-work done with a hook instead of on pins), properly a small hook, and so used of the hook-like _setae_ or bristles found in certain worms which burrow in sand. In music, a "crotchet" is a note of half the value of a minim and double that of a quaver; it is marked by a round black head and a line without a tail or hook; the French _croche_ is used of a "quaver" which has a tail, but in ancient music the _semiminima_, the modern crotchet, is marked by an open note with a hook. Derived either from an old French proverbial phrase, _il a des crochues en teste_, or from a meaning of twist or turn, as in the similar expression "crank," comes the sense of a whim, fancy or perverse idea, seen also in the adjective "crotchety" of a fussy unreasonable person.

CROTONA, CROTO or CROTON (Gr. [Greek: Kroton], mod. Cotrone) a Greek town on the E. coast of the territory of the Bruttii (mod. _Calabria_), on a promontory 7 m. N.W. of the Lacinian promontory. It was founded by a colony of Achaeans led by Myscellus in 710 B.C. Its name was, according to the legend, that of a local prince who afforded hospitality to Heracles, but was accidentally killed by him and buried on the spot. Like Sybaris, it soon became a city of power and wealth. It was especially celebrated for its successes in the Olympic games from 588 B.C. onwards, Milo being the most famous of its athletes. Pythagoras established himself here between 540 and 530 B.C. and formed a society of 300 disciples (among whom was Milo), who acquired considerable influence with the supreme council of 1000 by which the city was ruled. In 510 B.C. Crotona was strong enough to defeat the Sybarites, with whom it had previously been on friendly terms, and raze their city to the ground. Shortly afterwards, however, an insurrection took place, by which the disciples of Pythagoras were driven out, and a democracy established. The victory of the Locrians and Phlegians over Crotona in 480 B.C. marked the beginning of its decline. It suffered after this from the attacks of Dionysius I., who became its master for twelve years, of the Bruttii, and of Agathocles, and even more from the invasion of Pyrrhus, after which in 277 the Romans obtained possession of it. Livy states that the walls had a length of 12 m. and that about half the area within them had at that time ceased to be inhabited. After the battle of Cannae Crotona revolted from Rome, and Hannibal made it his winter quarters for three years. It was made a colony by the Romans at the end of the war (194 B.C.). After that time but little is heard of it, though Petronius mentions the corrupt morals of its inhabitants; but it continues to be mentioned down to the Gothic wars. The importance of the city was mainly due to its harbour, which, though not a good one, was the only port between Tarentum and Rhegium. The original settlement occupied the hill above it (143 ft.) and later became the acropolis. Its healthy situation was famous in antiquity, and to this was ascribed its superiority in athletics; it was the seat also of a medical school which in the days of Herodotus was considered the first in Greece. Of the exact site of the ancient city and its remains practically nothing is known; a few fragments of the productions of its art preserved in private hands at Cotrone are described by F. von Duhn in _Notizie degli scavi_, 1897, 343 seq. (T. As.)

CROTONIC ACID (C4H6O2). Three acids of this empirical formula are known, viz. crotonic acid, isocrotonic acid and methacrylic acid; the constitutional formulae are--

HC.CO(2)H, HC.CO2H /CH3 .. .. CH2:C HC.CH3 CH3.CH \CO2H. Crotonic Acid. Isocrotonic Acid. Methacrylic Acid.

The isomerism of crotonic and isocrotonic acids is to be explained on the assumption of a different spatial arrangement of the atoms in the molecule (see STEREOCHEMISTRY).

Crotonic acid, so named from the fact that it was erroneously supposed to be a saponification product of croton oil, may be prepared by the oxidation of croton-aldehyde, CH3.CH:CH.CHO, obtained by dehydrating aldol, or by treating acetylene successively with sulphuric acid and water; by boiling allyl cyanide with caustic potash; by the distillation of [beta]-oxybutyric acid; by heating paraldehyde with malonic acid and acetic acid to 100 deg. C. (T. Komnenos, _Ann._, 1883, 218, p. 149).

CH2(COOH)2 + CH3CHO -> CH3CH:C(COOH)2 -> CH3.CH:CH.COOH;

or by heating pyruvic acid with an excess of acetic anhydride and sodium acetate to 160-180 deg. C. (B. Homolka, _Ber._, 1885, 18, p. 987). It crystallizes in needles (from hot water) which melt at 72 deg. C. and boil at 180-181 deg. C. It is moderately soluble in cold water. It combines directly with bromine, and, with fuming hydrobromic acid at 100 deg. C., it gives chiefly [alpha]-brombutyric acid. With hydriodic acid it gives only [beta]-iodobutyric acid. Potash fusion converts it into acetic acid; nitric acid oxidizes it to acetic and oxalic acids; chromic acid mixture to acetaldehyde and acetic acid, and potassium permanganate to [alpha][beta]-dioxybutyric acid.

Isocrotonic acid (Quartenylic acid) is obtained from [beta]-chlorisocrotonic acid, formed when acetoacetic ester is treated with phosphorus pentachloride and the product poured into water, by the action of sodium amalgam (A. Geuther). It is an oil, possessing a smell like that of butyric acid. It boils at 171.9 deg. C., with partial conversion into crotonic acid; the transformation is complete when the acid is heated to 170-180 deg. C. in a sealed tube. Potassium permanganate oxidizes it to [beta][gamma]-dioxybutyric acid.

Methacrylic acid was first obtained in the form of its ethyl ester by E. Frankland and B. F. Duppa (_Annalen_, 1865, 136, p. 12) by acting with phosphorus pentachloride on oxyisobutyric ester (CH3)2.C(OH).COOC2H5. It is, however, more readily obtained by boiling citra- or meso-brompyrotartaric acids with alkalis. It crystallizes in prisms, which are soluble in water, melt at 16 deg. C., and boil at 160.5 deg. C. When fused with an alkali, it forms propionic acid; with biomine it yields [alpha][beta]-dibromisobutyric acid. Sodium amalgam reduces it to isobutyric acid. A polymeric form of methacrylic acid has been described by F. Engelhorn (_Ann._, 1880, 200, p. 70).

CROTON OIL (_Crotonis Oleum_), an oil prepared from the seeds of _Croton Tiglium_, a tree belonging to the natural order Euphorbiaceae, and native or cultivated in India and the Malay Islands. The tree is from 15 to 20 ft. in height, and has few and spreading branches, alternate, oval-oblong leaves, acuminate at the point, and covered when young with stellate hairs, and terminal racemes of small, downy, greenish-yellow, monoecious flowers. The male blossoms have five petals and fifteen stamens; the females have no petals but a large oblong ovary bearing three bifid styles. The fruit or capsule is obtusely three-cornered, and about the size of a hazel-nut; it contains three cells each enclosing a seed. The seeds resemble those of the castor-oil plant; they are about half an inch long, and two-fifths of an inch broad, and have a cinnamon-brown, brittle integument; between the two halves of the kernel lie the large cotyledons and radicle. The ocular distinction between the two kinds of seeds may be of great practical importance. The most obvious distinction is that the castor-oil seeds have a polished and mottled surface. The kernels contain from 50 to 60% of oil, which is obtained by pressing them, when bruised to a pulp, between hot plates. Croton oil is a transparent and viscid liquid of a brownish or pale-yellow tinge, and acrid, peculiar and persistent taste, a disagreeable odour and acid reaction. It is soluble in volatile oils, carbon disulphide, and ether, and to some extent in alcohol. It contains acetic, butyric and valeric acids, with glycerides of acids of the same series, and a volatile body, C5H8O2, tiglic acid, metameric with angelic acid, and identical with methylcrotonic acid, CH3.CH:C(CH3)(CO2H). The odour is due to various volatile acids, which are present to the extent of about 1%. A substance called crotonal appears to be responsible for its external, but not its internal, action. The latter is probably due to crotolinic acid, C9H14O2, which has active purgative properties. The maximum dose of croton oil is two minims, one-fourth of that quantity being usually ample.

Applied to the skin, croton oil acts as a powerful irritant, inducing so much inflammation that definite pustules are formed. The destruction of the true skin gives rise to ugly scars which constitute, together with the pain caused by this application, abundant reason why croton oil should never be employed externally. Despite the pharmacopoeial liniment and the practice of a few, it may be said that this employment of croton oil is now entirely without justification or excuse.

Taken internally, even in the minute doses already detailed, croton oil very soon causes much colic and the occurrence of a fluid diarrhoea which usually recurs several times. It is characteristic of this purgative that it is a hydragogue even in minimal dose, the fluid secretions of the bowel being most markedly increased. The drug appears to act only upon the small intestine. In somewhat larger doses it produces severe gastro-enteritis. The flow of bile is somewhat increased. Such effects may all be produced, even up to the discharge of blood, by the absorption of croton oil from the skin.

The minuteness of the dose, the certainty of the action, and the large amount of fluid drained away constitute this the best drug for administration to an unconscious patient (especially in cases of apoplexy, when it is desirable to remove fluid from the body), or to insane patients who refuse to take any drug. One drop of the oil, placed on the back of the tongue, must inevitably be swallowed by reflex action. A dose should never be repeated. The characters of this drug obviously contra-indicate its use in all cases of organic disease or obstruction of the bowel, in pregnancy, or in cases of constipation in children or the aged.

CROUP, a name formerly given to diseases characterized by distress in breathing accompanied by a metallic cough and some hoarseness of speech. It is now known that these symptoms are often associated with diphtheria (q.v.), spasmodic laryngitis (q.v.), and a third disease, spasmodic croup, to which the term is now alone applied. This occurs most frequently in children above two years of age; the child goes to bed quite well, and a few hours later suddenly awakes with great difficulty in inspiration, the chest wall becomes markedly retracted, and there is a metallic cough. The child becomes cyanosed, and, to the inexperienced nurse, seems in an almost moribund condition. In the course of four or five minutes, normal respiration starts again, and the attack is over for the time being; but it may recur several times a day. The seizure may be accompanied by convulsions, and death has occurred from dyspnoea. The best treatment is to plunge the child into a warm bath, and sponge the back and chest with cold water. Subsequently this can be done two or three times a day. Should the cyanosis become very severe, respiration can be restarted by making the child sick, either with a dose of ipecacuanha wine, or by forcing one's finger down the throat. Generally the bowels should be attended to; and the throat carefully examined for enlarged tonsils or adenoids, which if present should be treated.

CROUSAZ, JEAN PIERRE DE (1663-1750), Swiss writer, was born at Lausanne. He was a many-sided man, whose numerous works on many subjects had a great vogue in their day, but are now forgotten. He has been described as an _initiateur plutot qu'un createur_, chiefly because he introduced at Lausanne the philosophy of Descartes in opposition to the reigning Aristotelianism, and also as a Calvinist pendant (for he was a pastor) of the French _abbes_ of the 18th century. He studied at Geneva, Leyden and Paris, before becoming (1700) professor of philosophy and mathematics at the academy of Lausanne, of which he was four times rector before 1724, when the theological disputes connected with the _Consensus_[1] led him to accept a chair of philosophy and mathematics at Groningen. In 1726 he was appointed governor to the young prince Frederick of Hesse-Cassel, and in 1735 returned to Lausanne with a good pension. In 1737 he was reinstated in his old chair, which he retained to his death. Gibbon, describing his first stay at Lausanne (1752-1755), writes in his _Autobiography_, "the logic of de Crousaz had prepared me to engage with his master Locke and his antagonist Bayle."

The most important of his works are: _Nouvel Essai de logique_ (1712), _Geometrie des lignes et des surfaces rectilignes et circulaires_ (1712), _Traite du beau_ (1714), _Examen du traite de la liberte de penser d'Antoine Collins_ (1718), _De l'education des enfants_ (1722, dedicated to the then Princess of Wales), _Examen du pyrrhonisme ancien et moderne_ (1733, an attack chiefly on Bayle), _Examen de l'essai de M. Pope sur l'homme_ (1737, an attack on the Leibnitzian theory of that poem), _Logique_ (6 vols., 1741), _De l'esprit humain_ (1741), and _Reflexions sur l'ouvrage intitule: La Belle Wolfienne_ (1743). (W. A. B. C.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The "Consensus ecclesiarum Helveticarum reformatarum" was a document drawn up in 1675 and imposed in 1722--as a test of strict Protestant orthodoxy as to the doctrine of grace--by Bern on its subjects in Lausanne and Vaux.

CROW (Dutch, _kraai_, Ger. _Krahe_, Fr. _corbeau_, Lat. _corvus_), a name most commonly applied in Britain to the bird properly called a rook (_Corvus frugilegus_), but perhaps originally peculiar to its congener, nowadays usually distinguished as the black or carrion-crow (_C. corone_). By ornithologists it is also used in a far wider sense, as under the title crows, or _Corvidae_, is included a vast number of birds from almost all parts of the world, and this family is probably the most highly developed of the whole class _Aves_. Leaving out of account the best known of these, as the raven, rook, daw, pie and jay, with their immediate allies, our attention will here be confined to the crows in general; and then the species of the family to which the appellation is more strictly applicable may be briefly considered. All authorities admit that the family is very extensive, and is capable of being parted into several groups, but scarcely any two agree. Especially must reserve be exercised as regards the group _Streperinae_, or piping crows, belonging to the Australian Region, and referred by some writers to the shrikes (_Laniidae_): and the jays too have been erected into a distinct family (_Garrulidae_), though it seems hardly possible to separate them even as a subfamily from the pies (_Pica_ and its neighbours), which lead almost insensibly to the typical crows (_Corvinae_). Dismissing these subjects for the present, it will perhaps be most convenient to treat of the two groups which are represented by the genera _Pyrrhocorax_ or choughs, and _Corvus_ or true crows in the most limited sense.

_Pyrrhocorax_ comprehends at least two very good species, which have been needlessly divided generically. The best known of them is the Cornish chough (_P. graculus_), formerly a denizen of the precipitous cliffs of the south coast of England, of Wales, of the west and north coasts of Ireland, and some of the Hebrides, but now greatly reduced in numbers, and only found in such places as are most free from the intrusion of man or of daws (_Corvus monedula_), which last seem to be gradually dispossessing it of its sea-girt strongholds, and its present scarcity is probably in the main due to its persecution by its kindred. In Britain, indeed, it would appear to be only one of the survivors of a more ancient fauna, for in other countries where it is found it has been driven inland, and inhabits the higher mountains of Europe and North Africa. In the Himalayas a larger form occurs, which has been specifically distinguished (_P. himalayanus_), but whether justifiably so may be doubted. The general colour is a glossy black, and it has the bill and legs bright red. The remaining species (_P. alpinus_) is altogether a mountaineer, and does not affect a sea-shore life. Otherwise it frequents much the same kind of localities, but it does not occur in Britain. The alpine chough is somewhat smaller than its congener, and is easily distinguished by its shorter and bright yellow bill. Remains of both have been found in French caverns the deposits in which were formed during the "Reindeer Age." Commonly placed by systematists next to _Pyrrhocorax_ is the Australian genus _Corcorax_, represented by a single species (_C. melanorhamphus_), but this assignment of the bird, which is chiefly a frequenter of woodlands, cannot be admitted without hesitation.