Chapter II: MODERN CONFESSIONS OF FAITH.--The second great creed-making epoch of (2)

It was Sir Henry Thompson, however, who first brought the question prominently before the public. Thompson's problem was--"Given a dead body, to resolve it into carbonic acid, water and ammonia, rapidly, safely and not unpleasantly." To solve this problem, experiments were made by Dr Polli at the Milan gas works, fully described in Dr Pietra Santa's book, _La Cremation des morts en France et a l'etranger_, and by Professor Brunetti, who exhibited an apparatus at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873, and who stated his results in _La Cremazione dei cadaveri_ (Padua, 1873). Polli obtained complete incineration or calcination of dogs by the use of coal-gas mixed with atmospheric air, applied to a cylindrical retort of refracting clay, so as to consume the gaseous products of combustion. The process was complete in two hours, and the ashes weighed about 5% of the weight before cremation. Brunetti used an oblong furnace of refracting brick with side-doors to regulate the draught, and above a cast-iron dome with movable shutters. The body was placed on a metallic plate suspended on iron wire. The gas generated escaped by the shutters, and in two hours carbonization was complete. The heat was then raised and concentrated, and at the end of four hours the operation was over; 180 lb. of wood costing 2s. 4d. sterling was burned. In a reverberating furnace used by Sir Henry Thompson a body, weighing 144 lb., was reduced in fifty minutes to about 4 lb. of lime dust. The noxious gases, which were undoubtedly produced during the first five minutes of combustion, passed through a flue into a second furnace and were entirely consumed. In the ordinary Siemens regenerative furnace (which was adapted by Reclam in Germany for cremation, and also by Sir Henry Thompson) only the hot-blast was used, the body supplying hydrogen and carbon; or a stream of heated hydrocarbon mixed with heated air was sent from a gasometer supplied with coal, charcoal, peat or wood,--the brick or iron-cased chamber being thus heated to a high degree before cremation begins.

Steps were at once taken to form an English society to promote the practice of cremation. A declaration of its objects was drawn up and signed on the 13th January 1874 by the following persons--Shirley Brooks, William Eassie, Ernest Hart, the Rev. H. R. Haweis, G. H. Hawkins, John Cordy Jeaffreson, F. Lehmann, C. F. Lord, W. Shaen, A. Strahan, (Sir) Henry Thompson, Major Vaughan, Rev. C. Voysey and (Sir) T. Spencer Wells; and they frequently met to consider the necessary steps in order to attain their object. The laws and regulations having been thoroughly discussed, the membership of the society was constituted by an annual contribution for expenses, and a subscription to the following declaration:--

"We disapprove the present custom of burying the dead, and desire to
substitute some mode which shall rapidly resolve the body into its
component elements by a process which cannot offend the living, and
shall render the remains absolutely innocuous. Until some better
method is devised, we desire to adopt that usually known as
cremation."

Finally, on 29th April a meeting was held, a council was formed, and Sir H. Thompson was elected president and chairman. Mr Eassie (who in 1875 published a valuable work on _Cremation of the Dead_) was at the same time appointed honorary secretary.[5] In 1875 the following were added:--Mrs Rose Mary Crawshay, Mr Higford Burr, Rev. J. Long, Mr W. Robinson and the Rev. Brooke Lambert. Subsequently followed Lord Bramwell, Sir Chas. Cameron, Dr Farquharson, Sir Douglas Galton, Lord Playfair, Mr Martin Ridley Smith, Mr James A. Budgett, Mr Edmund Yates, Mr J. S. Fletcher, Mr J. C. Swinburne-Hanham, the duke of Westminster (on Lord Bramwell's death), and Sir Arthur Arnold. These may be considered the pioneers of the movement for reform.

On account of difficulties and prejudices[6] the council was unable to purchase a freehold until 1878, when an acre was obtained at Woking, not far distant from the cemetery. At this time the furnace employed by Professor Gorini of Lodi, Italy, appeared to be the best for working with on a small scale; and he was invited to visit England to superintend its erection. This was completed in 1879, and the body of a horse was cremated rapidly and completely without any smoke or effluvia from the chimney. No sooner was this successful step taken than the president received a communication from the Home Office, which resulted in a personal interview with the home secretary; the issue of which was that if the society desired to avoid direct hostile action, an assurance must be given that no cremation should be attempted without leave first obtained from the minister. This of course was given, no further building took place, and the society's labours were confined to employing means to diffuse information on the subject. Sir Spencer Wells brought it before the annual meeting of the British Medical Association in 1880, when a petition to the home secretary for permission to adopt cremation was largely signed by the leading men in town and country, but without any immediate result. The next important development was an application to the council in 1882, by Captain Hanham in Dorsetshire, to undertake the cremation of two deceased relatives who had left express instructions to that effect. The home secretary was applied to, and refused. The bodies were preserved, and Captain Hanham erected a crematorium on his estate, and the cremation took place there. He himself, dying a year later, was cremated also; in both cases the result was attained under the supervision of Mr J. C. Swinburne-Hanham, who succeeded Mr Eassie in 1888 as honorary secretary to the society. The government took no notice. But in 1883 a cremation was performed in Wales by a man on the body of his child, and legal proceedings were taken against him. Mr Justice Stephen, in February 1884, delivered his well-known judgment at the Assizes there, declaring cremation to be a legal procedure, provided no nuisance were caused thereby to others. The council of the society at once declared themselves absolved from their promise to the Home Office, and publicly offered to perform cremation, laying down strict rules for careful inquiry into the cause of death in every case. They stated that they were fully aware that the chief practical objection to cremation was that it removed traces of poison or violence which might have caused death. Declining to trust the very imperfect statement generally made respecting the cause of death in the ordinary death certificate (unless a coroner's inquest had been held), they adopted a system of very stringent inquiry, the result of which in each case was to be submitted to the president, to be investigated and approved by him before cremation could take place, with the right to decline or require an inquest if he thought proper; and this course has been followed ever since the first cremation.

It was on 26th March 1885 that the first cremation at Woking took place, the subject being a lady.[7] In 1888 it became necessary, nearly 100 bodies having been by this date cremated, to build a large hall for religious service, as well as waiting-rooms, in connexion with the crematorium there. The dukes of Bedford and Westminster headed the appeal for funds, each with L105. The former (the 9th duke of Bedford) especially took great interest in the progress of the society, and offered to furnish further donations to any extent necessary. During the next two years he generously defrayed costs to the amount of L3500, and built a smaller crematorium adjacent for himself and family. The latter building was first used on the 18th of January 1891, a few days after the duke's own death. The number of cremations slowly increased year by year, and the total at the end of 1900 was 1824. Many of these were persons of distinction--by rank, or by attainments in art, literature and science, or in public life.

Death certification.

The council next turned their attention to the need for a national system of death certification, to be enforced by law as an essential and much-needed reform in connexion with cremation. On the 6th of January 1893 the duke of Westminster introduced a deputation to the secretary of state for the home department, Mr Asquith, and the president of the Cremation Society opened the case, showing that no less than 7% of the burials in England took place without any certificate, while in some districts it was far greater. In consequence of this the home secretary appointed a select committee of the House of Commons, which was presided over by Sir Walter Foster, of the Local Government Board, to "inquire into the sufficiency of the existing law as to the disposal of the dead ... and especially for detecting the causes of death due to poison, violence, and criminal neglect." After a prolonged inquiry and careful consideration of the evidence, a full report and conclusions drawn therefrom were unanimously agreed to, and published as a blue-book in the autumn of 1893.[8]

The following conclusions are quoted from this volume:--Page iii. "So
far as affording a record of the true cause of death and the detection
of it in cases where death may have been due to violence, poison, or
where criminal neglect is concerned, the class of certified deaths
leaves much to be desired." Page iv. Certification is extremely
important as a deterrent of crime, and numerous proofs are given at
length in support of the statement.... "Contrast this class with that
of uncertified deaths, when the result is such as to force upon your
Committee the conviction that vastly more deaths occur annually from
foul play and criminal neglect than the law recognizes." Page vii.
Great uncertainty in resorting to the coroner's court, and want of
system in connexion with the practice of it, are affirmed to exist.
Page x. It is stated that the opportunity for perpetrating crime is
great in the considerable class of uncertified cases ... "in short,
the existing procedure plays into the hands of the criminal classes."
"Your Committee are much impressed with the serious possibilities
implied in a system which permits death and burial to take place
without the production of satisfactory medical evidence of the cause
of death." Page xii. "Your Committee have arrived at the conclusion
that the appointment of medical officials, who should investigate all
cases of death which are not certified by a medical practitioner in
attendance, is a proposal which deserves their support."

In considering cremation, the committee reported as follows:--Page
xxii. "Your Committee are of opinion that there is only one question
in connexion with this method of disposing of a dead body to which it
is necessary for them to refer. That question is the supposed danger
to the community arising from the fact that with the destruction of
the body the possibility of obtaining evidence of the cause of death
by _post-mortem_ examination also disappears." The mode of proceeding
adopted by the Cremation Society of England having been described,
"your Committee are of opinion that with the precautions adopted in
connexion with cremation, as carried out by the Cremation Society,
there is little probability that cases of crime would escape
detection, but inasmuch as these precautions are purely voluntary,
your Committee consider that in the interests of public safety such
regulations should be enforced by law."

The Cremation Society felt that this report much strengthened the case for legislation amending the law of death certification. In August 1894 the president of the society laid the results of the select committee before the British Medical Association at Bristol, and a unanimous vote was obtained in favour of the suggestions made by it. In November a second deputation waited on Mr Asquith, in which the president of the society begged him to carry out the system recommended. The home secretary replied that the business belonged to the department of the Local Government Board, and that it was already dealing with the question and bringing it to a satisfactory solution. Soon afterwards, however, the government changed, other questions became pressing and further consideration of the subject was postponed.

With reference to the recommendations of the select committee before
mentioned, the regulations necessary for registration of death and the
disposal of the dead may be outlined as follows:--(1) That no body
should be buried, cremated, or otherwise disposed of without a medical
certificate of death signed, after personal knowledge and observation,
or by information obtained after investigation made by a qualified
medical officer appointed for the purpose. (2) A qualified medical man
should be appointed as official certifier in every parish, or district
of neighbouring parishes, his duty being to inquire into all cases of
death and report the cause in writing, together with such other
details as may be deemed necessary. This would naturally fall within
the duties of the medical officer of health for the district, and
registration should be made at his office. (3) If the circumstances of
death obviously demand a coroner's inquest, the case should be
transferred to his court and the cause determined, with or without
autopsy. If there appears to be no ground for holding an inquest, and
autopsy be necessary to the furnishing of a certificate, the official
certifier should make it, and state the result in his report. (4) No
person or company should be henceforth permitted to construct or use
an apparatus for cremating human bodies without license from the Local
Government Board or other authority. (5) No crematory should be so
employed unless the site, construction, and system of management have
been approved after survey by an officer appointed by government for
the purpose. But the licence to construct or use a crematory should
not be withheld if guarantees are given that the conditions required
are or will be complied with. All such crematories to be subject at
all times to inspection by an officer appointed by the government. (6)
The burning of a human body, otherwise than in an officially
recognized crematory, should be illegal, and punishable by penalty.
(7) No human body should be cremated unless the official examiner
added the words "Cremation permitted." This he should be bound to do
if, after due inquiry, he can certify that the deceased has died from
natural causes, and not from ill-treatment, poison or violence.

The Cremation Act 1902 (2 Ed. VII. ch. 8), and the regulations[9] made thereunder by the home secretary, have since given legislative effect to some of the foregoing recommendations and have laid down a code of laws applicable and binding where cremation is resorted to. But the amendments in the law of death certification generally, so long pressed for by the Cremation Society of England and recommended by the select committee, are none the less necessary.

Undoubtedly in populous communities and in crowded districts the burial of dead bodies is liable to be a source of danger to the living. As early as 1840 a commission had been appointed, including some of the earliest authorities on sanitary science,--namely, Drs Southwood Smith, Chadwick, Milroy, Sutherland, Waller Lewis and others,--to conduct a searching inquiry into the state of the burial-grounds of London and large provincial towns. By the report[10] the existence of such a danger was strikingly demonstrated, and intramural interments were in consequence made illegal. The advocates of burial then declared that interment in certain light soils would safely and efficiently decompose the putrefying elements which begin to be developed the moment death takes place, and which rapidly become dangerous to the living, still more so in the case of deaths from contagious disease. But these light dry soils and elevated spots are precisely those best adapted for human habitation; to say nothing of their value for food-production. Granted the efficiency of such burial, it only effects in the course of a few years what exposure to a high temperature accomplishes with absolute safety in an hour. In a densely populated country the struggle between the claims of the dead and the living to occupy the choicest sites becomes a serious matter. All decaying animal remains give off effluvia--gases--which are transferred through the medium of the atmosphere to become converted into vegetable growth of some kind--trees, crops, garden produce, grass, &c. Every plant absorbs these gases by its leaves, each one of which is provided with hundreds of stomata--open mouths--by which they fix or utilize the carbon to form woody fibre, and give off free oxygen to the atmosphere. Thus it is that the air we breathe is kept pure by the constant interaction between the animal and vegetable kingdoms. It may be taken as certain that the gaseous products arising from a cremated body--amounting, although invisible, to no less than 97% of its weight, 3% only remaining as solids, in the form of a pure white ash--become in the course of a few hours integral and active elements in some form of vegetable life. The result of this reasoning has been that, by slow degrees, crematoria have been constructed at many of the populous cities in Great Britain and abroad (see _Statistics_ below).

The subject of employing cremation for the bodies of those who die of contagious disease is a most important one. Sir H. Thompson advocated this course in a paper read before the International Congress of Hygiene held in London in 1891; and a resolution strongly approving the practice was carried unanimously at a large meeting of experts and medical officers of health. Such diseases are small-pox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, consumption, malignant cholera, enteric, relapsing and puerperal fevers, the annual number of deaths from which in the United Kingdom is upwards of 80,000. Complete disinfection takes place by means of the high temperature to which the body is exposed. At the present day it is compulsory to report any case in the foregoing list, whenever it occurs, to the medical officer of health for the district; and it is customary to disinfect the rooms themselves, as well as the clothes and furniture used by the patient if the case be fatal; but the body, which is the source and origin of the evil, and is itself loaded with the germs of a specific poison, is left to the chances which attach to its preservation in that condition, when buried in a fit or unfit soil or situation.

The process of preparing a body for cremation requires a brief notice. The plan generally adopted is to place it (in the usual shroud) in a light pine shell, discarding all heavy oak or other coffin, and to introduce it into the furnace in that manner. Thus there is no handling or exposure of the body after it reaches the crematorium. The type of furnace in general use is on the reverberatory principle, the body being consumed in a separate chamber heated to over 2000 deg. Fahr. by a coke fire. In a few instances a furnace burning ordinary illuminating gas instead of coke is in use. (H. TH.)

_Statistics._--The following statistics show the history of modern cremation and its progress at home and abroad:--

_Foreign Countries._--The first experiment in Italy was made by
Brunetti in 1869, his second and third in 1870. Gorini and Polli
published their first cases in 1872. Brunetti exhibited his at Vienna
in 1873. All were performed in the open air. The next in Europe was a
single case at Breslau in 1874. Soon after, an English lady was
cremated in a closed apparatus (Siemens) at Dresden. The next
cremation in a closed receptacle took place at Milan in 1876. In the
same year a Cremation Society was formed, a handsome building was
erected, and two Gorini furnaces were at work in 1880. In 1899 the
total number of cremations was 1355. In Italy 28 crematoria exist,
viz. at Alessandria, Asti, Bologna, Bra, Brescia, Como, Cremona,
Florence, Genoa, Leghorn, Lodi, Mantua, Milan, Modena, Novara, Padua,
Perugia, Pisa, Pistoia, Rome, San Remo, Siena, Spezia, Turin, Udine,
Verona and Venice. The total number of cremations in Italy in 1906 was
440.

In Germany the first crematorium was erected at Gotha; it was opened
in 1878, and the total cremations down to September 1st, 1907,
numbered 4584. At Ohlsdorf, Hamburg, the crematorium was opened in
November 1892, and the total cremations down to September 1st, 1907,
numbered 2521. At Heidelberg the crematorium was opened in 1891, and
the total cremations down to September 1st, 1907, numbered 1741.
Throughout the German empire there are, in addition to the above,
crematoria at Bremen, Eisenach, Jena, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Mainz,
Offenbach, Heilbronn, Ulm, Chemnitz and Stuttgart, besides over eighty
societies for promoting cremation. The total number of cremations
which took place in Germany in 1906 was 2057, making a total of 13,614
down to September 1st, 1907.

Other societies exist in Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, Norway and
Switzerland. At the crematorium at Copenhagen 77 bodies were cremated
in 1906, the total being 500. The Stockholm crematorium was opened in
October 1887, and the cremations in 1906 numbered 56. The Gothenburg
crematorium (also in Sweden) was opened in January 1890, and the
cremations there in 1906 were 14. Switzerland has four crematoria,
viz. at Basel, Geneva, Zurich and St Gallen--524 cremations took place
in that country in 1906.

In Paris a cremation society was founded in 1880, and in 1886-1887 a
large crematorium was constructed by the municipal council at Pere
Lachaise, containing three Gorini furnaces. It was first used in
October 1887 for two men who died of small-pox. The demand became
large; an improved furnace was soon devised, the unclaimed bodies at
the hospitals and the remains at the dissecting rooms being cremated
there, besides a large number of embryos. In 1906 the number,
including the last-named class, was 6906. The total number of
incinerations at Pere Lachaise down to December 31st, 1906 (including
both classes) was 86,962; but the employment of cremation for the
purposes named has deterred a resort to it by many. Had a separate
establishment been organized for the public, its success would have
been greater. A magnificent edifice has been constructed by the
municipality of Paris for the conservation of the ashes of persons who
have been cremated. Crematoria have been established also at Rouen,
Rheims and Marseilles, and the construction of crematoria in other of
the great provincial centres of France was in contemplation.

In Buenos Aires, since 1844, the bodies of all persons dying of
contagious disease are cremated, and there is also a separate
establishment for the use of the public.

At Tokio in Japan no fewer than 22 crematoria exist, and about an
equal number of cremations and burials in earth take place.

At Calcutta a crematorium was opened in 1906.

At Montreal, Canada, there is a crematorium which began operations in
1902, and completed 44 cremations up to the 31st of December 1905.

_United States._--There were 33 crematoria in the United States on
September 1st, 1907. At Fresh Pond, New York, erected in 1885, the
total number of cremations to December 31st, 1906, being 8514. At
Buffalo, N.Y., the first cremation taking place in 1885, and the total
number down to December 31st, 1905, being 787. At Troy (Earl
Crematorium), N. Y., the first cremation taking place in 1890, and the
total number down to December 31st, 1905, 249. At Swinburne Island,
N.Y., cremations beginning in 1890, total to December 31st, 1905, 123.
At Waterville, N.Y., cremations beginning in 1893, total to December
31st, 1906, 62. At St Louis, Missouri, cremations beginning in 1888,
total to September 1st, 1907, 2151. At Philadelphia, Penn., cremations
beginning in 1888, total to September 1st, 1907, 1685. At San
Francisco, Cal., "Odd Fellows," opened in 1895, total to December
31st, 1906, 6151. Also at San Francisco, Cal., "Cypress Lawn," opened
in 1893, total to December 31st, 1905, 1492. At Los Angeles, Cal., No.
1, Rosedale, opened in 1887, total to December 31st, 1905, 866; No. 2,
Evergreen, opened in 1902, total to December 31st, 1905, 413; No. 3,
Gower Street, opened in 1907 with 54 down to September 1st. At Boston,
Mass., opened in 1893, total to September 1st, 1907, 2493. At
Cincinnati, Ohio, opened in 1887, total to September 1st, 1907, 1245.
At Chicago, opened in 1893, total to September 1st, 1907, 2188. At
Detroit, Michigan, opened in 1887, total to December 31st, 1905, 689.
At Pittsburg, Penn., opened in 1886, total to September 1st, 1907,
377. At Baltimore, opened in 1889, total to December 31st, 1905, 263.
At Lancaster, Penn., opened in 1884, total to December 31st, 1906,
106. At Davenport, Iowa, opened in 1891, total to September 1st, 1907,
331. At Milwaukee, opened in 1896, total to October 1905, 442. At
Washington, opened in 1897, total to December 31st, 1905, 275. The Le
Moyne (Washington, Pa.) crematory, the first in the United States, was
erected by Dr F. Julius le Moyne in 1876, for private use. The first
cremation was that of the baron de Palin, of New York, December 6th,
1876. Dr F. Julius le Moyne died October 1879, and his remains were
cremated in his own crematory. Total number of cremations (to 1907)
41. At Pasadena, Cal., opened in 1895, total to September 1st, 1907,
491. At St. Paul, Minn., opened in 1897, total to December 31st, 1905,
145. At Fort Wayne, Ind., opened in 1897, total to September 1st,
1907, 41. At Cambridge, Mass., opened in 1900, total to September 1st,
1907, 1090. At Cleveland, Ohio, opened in 1901, total to December
31st, 1905, 283. At Denver, Col., opened in 1904, total to December
31st, 1905, 109. At Indianapolis, opened in 1904, total to December
31st, 1905, 32. At Oakland, Cal., opened in 1902, total to September
1st, 1907, 2196. At Portland, Ore., opened in 1901, total to December
31st, 1905, 327. At Seattle, Washington, opened in 1905, with 21 to
the end of that year.

_United Kingdom._--There were 13 crematoria in operation in the United
Kingdom on September 1st, 1907. The oldest is that at Woking, Surrey,
which was first used for the cremation of human remains in 1885. In
that year three cremations took place there, the number gradually
increasing each year until in 1901 301 bodies were cremated. Up to
September 1st, 1907, the total number of cremations at Woking was
2939. Then followed the crematorium at Manchester, opened in 1892 with
90 in 1906 and a total of 1085; at Glasgow, opened in 1895 with 45 in
1906 and a total of 252; at Liverpool, opened in 1896, with 46 in 1906
and a total of 374; at Hull, opened in 1901 (the first municipal
crematorium), with 17 in 1906 and a total of 116; at Darlington, also
opened in 1901, with 13 in 1906 and a total of 33. The Leicester
Corporation crematorium was opened in 1902, with 12 in 1906 and a
total of 50. Next in order came the Golder's Green crematorium,
Hampstead, London, which was opened in December 1902. In 1906 298
cremations took place there, making a total of 1091. After this
followed the Birmingham crematorium, opened in 1903, with 21 in 1906
and a total of 84; the City of London crematorium at Little Ilford,
opened in 1905, with 23 for 1906 and a total of 46; the Leeds
crematorium, opened in 1905, with 15 in 1906 and a total of 42; the
Bradford Corporation crematorium, opened in 1905, with 13 in 1906, and
a total of 20; and the Sheffield Corporation crematorium, opened in
1905, with 6 in 1906 and a total of 26. Thus there were 739
cremations in the United Kingdom in 1906, making a total at the above
crematoria down to September 1st, 1907, of 6158. The Golder's Green
crematorium, situated on the northern boundary of Hampstead Heath,
stands in its own grounds of 12 acres, and is but 35 minutes' drive
from Oxford Circus. London thus has two crematoria within driving
distance of its centre, and the Woking crematorium within easy reach
of the south-west suburbs. (J. C. S.-H.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Macrobius says it was disused in the reign of the younger
Theodosius (Gibbon v. 411).

[2] The Colchians, says Sir Thos. Browne, made their graves in the
air, i.e. on trees.

[3] In the case of a great man there was often a burnt offering of
animals and even of slaves (see Caesar, _De bell. Gall._ iv.).

[4] A temple of the Holy Ghost (see Tertullian, _De anima_, c. 51,
cited in Muller, _Lex. des Kirchenrechts_, s.v. "Begrabniss").

[5] This was the first society formed in Europe for the promotion of
cremation.

[6] For a full account of these, see _Modern Cremation: Its History
and Practice to the Present Date_, by Sir H. Thompson, Bart.,
F.R.C.S., &c. (4th ed., Smith, Elder, Waterloo Place, 1901).

[7] _The Times_, 27th March 1885.

[8] _Reports on Death Certification_ (1893), Eyre & Spottiswoode,
London (373,472).

[9] _Statutory Rules and Orders_, 1903, No. 286, Eyre & Spottiswoode.

[10] _A Special Inquiry into the Practice of Interment in Towns_, by
Edwin Chadwick (London, 1843), is replete with evidence, and should
be read by those who desire to pursue the inquiry further.

CREMER, JAKOBUS JAN (1837-1880), Dutch novelist, born at Arnhem in September 1837, started life as a painter, but soon exchanged the brush for the pen. The great success of his first novelettes (_Betuwsche Novellen_ and _Overbetuwsche Novellen_), published about 1855--reprinted many times since, and translated into German and French--showed Cremer the wisdom of his new departure. These short stories of Dutch provincial life are written in the quaint dialect of the Betuwe, the large flat Gelderland island, formed by the Rhine, the name recalling the presumed earliest inhabitants, the Batavi. Cremer is strongest in his delineation of character. His picturesque humour, coming out, perhaps, most forcibly in his numerous readings of the Betuwe novelettes, soon procured him the name of the "Dutch Fritz Reuter." In his later novels Cremer abandons both the language and the slight love-stories of the Betuwe, depicting the Dutch life of other centres in the national tongue. The principal are: _Anna Rooze_ (1867), _Dokter Helmond en zijn Vrouw_ (1870), _Hanna de Freule_ (1873), _Daniel Sils_, &c. Cremer was less successful as a playwright, and his two comedies, _Peasant and Nobleman_ and _Emma Bertholt_, did not enhance his fame; nor did a volume of poems, published in 1873. He died at the Hague in June 1880. His collected novels have appeared at Leiden. An English novel, founded by Albert Vandam upon _Anna Rooze_, considered by many his best work, was published in London (1877, 3 vols.) under the title of _An Everyday Heroine_.

CREMERA (mod. _Fosso della Valchetta_), a small stream in Etruria which falls into the Tiber about 6 m. N. of Rome. The identification with the Fosso della Valchetta is fixed as correct by the account in Livy ii. 49, which shows that the Saxa Rubra were not far off, and this we know to be the Roman name of the post station of Prima Porta, about 7 m. from Rome on the Via Flaminia. It is famous for the defeat of the three hundred Fabii, who had established a fortified post on its banks.

CREMIEUX, ISAAC MOISE [known as ADOLPHE] (1796-1880), French statesman, was born at Nimes, of a rich Jewish family. He began life as an advocate in his native town. After the revolution of 1830 he came to Paris, formed connexions with numerous political personages, even with King Louis Philippe, and became a brilliant defender of Liberal ideas in the law courts and in the press,--witness his _Eloge funebre_ of the bishop Gregoire (1830), his _Memoire_ for the political rehabilitation of Marshal Ney (1833), and his plea for the accused of April (1835). Elected deputy in 1842, he was one of the leaders in the campaign against the Guizot ministry, and his eloquence contributed greatly to the success of his party. On the 24th of February 1848 he was chosen by the Republicans as a member of the provisional government, and as minister of justice he secured the decrees abolishing the death penalty for political offences, and making the office of judge immovable. When the conflict between the Republicans and Socialists broke out he resigned office, but continued to sit in the constituent assembly. At first he supported Louis Napoleon, but when he discovered the prince's imperial ambitions he broke with him. Arrested and imprisoned on the 2nd of December 1851, he remained in private life until November 1869, when he was elected as a Republican deputy by Paris. On the 4th of September 1870 he was again chosen member of the government of national defence, and resumed the ministry of justice. He then formed part of the Delegation of Tours, but took no part in the completion of the organization of defence. He resigned with his colleagues on the 14th of February 1871. Eight months later he was elected deputy, then life senator in 1875. He died on the 10th of February 1880. Cremieux did much to better the condition of the Jews. He was president of the Universal Israelite Alliance, and while in the government of the national defence he secured the franchise for the Jews in Algeria. This famous _Decret Cremieux_ was the origin of the anti-Semitic movement in Algiers. Cremieux published a _Recueil_ of his political cases (1869), and the _Actes de la delegation de Tours et de Bordeaux_ (2 vols., 1871).

CREMONA, LUIGI (1830-1903), Italian mathematician, was born at Pavia on the 7th of December 1830. In 1848, when Milan and Venice rose against Austria, Cremona, then only a lad of seventeen, joined the ranks of the Italian volunteers, and remained with them, fighting on behalf of his country's freedom, till, in 1849, the capitulation of Venice put an end to the hopeless campaign. He then returned to Pavia, where he pursued his studies at the university under Francesco Brioschi, and determined to seek a career as teacher of mathematics. His first appointment was as elementary mathematical master at the gymnasium and lyceum of Cremona, and he afterwards obtained a similar post at Milan. In 1860 he was appointed to the professorship of higher geometry at the university of Bologna, and in 1866 to that of higher geometry and graphical statics at the higher technical college of Milan. In this same year he competed for the Steiner prize of the Berlin Academy, with a treatise entitled "Memoria sulle superficie de terzo ordine," and shared the award with J. C. F. Sturm. Two years later the same prize was conferred on him without competition. In 1873 he was called to Rome to organize the college of engineering, and was also appointed professor of higher mathematics at the university. Cremona's reputation had now become European, and in 1879 he was elected a corresponding member of the Royal Society. In the same year he was made a senator of the kingdom of Italy. He died on the 10th of June 1903.

As early as 1856 Cremona had begun to contribute to the _Annali di scienze matematiche e fisiche_, and to the _Annali di matematica_, of which he became afterwards joint editor. Papers by him have appeared in the mathematical journals of Italy, France, Germany and England, and he has published several important works, many of which have been translated into other languages. His manual on _Graphical Statics_ and his _Elements of Projective Geometry_ (translated by C. Leudesdorf), have been published in English by the Clarendon Press. His life was devoted to the study of higher geometry and reforming the more advanced mathematical teaching of Italy. His reputation mainly rests on his _Introduzione ad una teoria geometrica delle curve piane_, which proclaims him as a follower of the Steinerian or synthetical school of geometricians. He notably enriched our knowledge of curves and surfaces.

CREMONA, a city and episcopal see of Lombardy, Italy, the capital of the province of Cremona, situated on the N. bank of the Po, 155 ft. above sea-level, 60 m. by rail S.E. of Milan. Pop. (1901) town, 31,655; commune, 39,344. It is oval in shape, and retains its medieval fortifications. The line of the streets is as a rule irregular, but the town as a whole is not very picturesque.

The finest building is the cathedral, in the Lombard Romanesque style, begun in 1107 and consecrated in 1190. The wheel window of the main facade dates from 1274. The transepts, added in the 13th and 14th centuries (before 1370), have picturesque brick facades, with fine terra-cotta ornamentation. The great Torrazzo, a tower 397 ft. high, which stands by the cathedral, and is connected with it by a series of galleries, dates from 1267-1291. It is square below, with an octagonal summit of a slightly later period. The main facade of the cathedral was largely altered in 1491, to which date the statues upon it belong; the portico in front was added in 1497. The building would be much improved by isolation, which it is hoped may be effected. The interior is fine, and is covered with frescoes by Cremonese masters of the 16th century (Boccaccio Boccaccino, Romanino, Pordenone, the Campi, &c.), which are not of first-rate importance. The choir has fine stalls of 1489-1490, upon one of which there is a view of the facade of the cathedral before its alteration in 1491. The treasury contains a richly worked silver crucifix 9 ft. high, of 1478, the base of which was added in 1774-1775. It contains 408 statues and busts altogether, the central three of which belong to an earlier cross of 1231. Adjacent to the cathedral is the octagonal baptistery of 1167, 92 ft. in height and 75 ft. in external diameter, also in the Lombard Romanesque style. The so-called Campo Santo, close to the baptistery, contains a mosaic pavement with emblematic figures belonging probably to the 8th and 9th centuries, and running under the cathedral. Of the other churches, S. Michele has a simple and good Lombard Romanesque 13th-century facade, and a plain interior of the 10th century; and S. Agata a good campanile in the former style. Many of them contain paintings by the later Cremonese masters, especially Galeazzo Campi (d. 1536) and his sons Giulio and Antonio. The latter are especially well represented in S. Sigismondo, 1-1/2 m. outside the town to the E. On the side of the Piazza del Comune opposite to the cathedral are two 13th-century Gothic palaces in brick, the Palazzo Comunale and the former Palazzo dei Giureconsulti, now the seat of the commissioners for the water regulation of the district. Another palace of the same period is now occupied by the Archivio Notarile. The modern Palazzo Ponzoni contains a museum and a technical institute. In front of it is a statue of the composer Amilcare Ponchielli, who was a native of Cremona. The Palazzo Fodri, now the Monte di Pieta, has a beautiful 15th-century frieze of terra-cotta bas-reliefs, as have some other palaces in private hands.

Cremona was founded by the Romans in 218 B.C. (the same year as Placentia) as an outpost against the Gallic tribes. It was strengthened in 190 B.C. by the sending of 6000 new settlers and soon became one of the most flourishing towns of upper Italy. It probably acquired municipal rights in 90 B.C., but Augustus, owing to the fact that it did not support him, assigned a part of its territory to his veterans in 41 B.C., and henceforth it is once more called _colonia_. It remained prosperous (we may note that Virgil came here to school from Mantua) until it was taken and destroyed by the troops of Vespasian after the second battle of Betriacum (Bedriacum) in A.D. 69; the temple of Mefitis alone being left standing (see Tacitus, _Hist._ iii. 15 seq.). One of the bronze plates which decorated the exterior of the war-chest of the _legio III. Macedonica_, one of the legions which had been defeated at Betriacum, has been found near Cremona itself (F. Barnabei in _Notiz. scavi_, 1887, p. 210). Vespasian ordered its immediate reconstruction, but it never recovered its former prosperity, though its position on the N. bank of the Po, at the meeting-point of roads from Placentia, Mantua (the Via Postumia in both cases), Brixellum (where the roads from Cremona and Mantua to Parma met and crossed the river), Laus Pompeia and Brixia, still gave it considerable importance. It was destroyed once more by the Lombards under Agilulf in A.D. 605, and rebuilt in 615, and was ruled by dukes; but in the 9th century the bishops of Cremona began to acquire considerable temporal power. Landulf, a German to whom the see was granted by Henry II., was driven out in 1022, and his palace destroyed, but other Germans were invested with the see afterwards. The commune of Cremona is first mentioned in a document of 1098, recording its investiture by the countess Matilda with the territory known as Isola Fulcheria. It had to sustain many wars with its neighbours in order to maintain itself in its new possessions. In the war of the Lombard League against Barbarossa, Cremona, after having shared in the destruction of Crema in 1160 and Milan in 1162, finally joined the league, but took no part in the battle of Legnano, and thus procured itself the odium of both sides. In the Guelph and Ghibelline struggles Cremona took the latter side, and defeated Parma decisively in 1250. It was during this period that Cremona erected its finest buildings. There was, however, a Guelph reaction in 1264; the city was taken and sacked by Henry VII. in 1311, and was a prey to struggles between the two parties, until Galeazzo Visconti took possession of it in 1322. In 1406 it fell under the sway of Cabrino Fondulo, who received with great festivities both the emperor Sigismund and Pope John XXIII., the latter on his way to the council at Constance; he, however, handed it over to Filippo Maria Visconti in 1419. In 1499 it was occupied by Venetians, but in 1512 it came under Massimiliano Sforza. In 1535, like the rest of Lombardy, it fell under Spanish domination, and was compelled to furnish large money contributions. The population fell to 10,000 in 1668. The surprise of the French garrison on the 2nd of February 1702, by the Imperialists under Prince Eugene, was a celebrated incident of the War of the Spanish Succession. The Imperialists were driven from Cremona after a sharp struggle, but captured Marshal Villeroi, the French commander. Hence the celebrated verse:

"Francais, rendons grace a Bellone;
Notre bonheur est sans egal;
Nous avons conserve Cremonee,
Et perdu notre general."

In the 18th century the prosperity of Cremona revived. In the Italian republic it was the capital of the department of the upper Po. Like the rest of Lombardy it fell under Austria in 1814, and became Italian in 1859.

See _Guida di Cremona_ (Cremona, 1904). (T. AS.)

CREMORNE GARDENS, formerly a popular resort by the side of the Thames in Chelsea, London, England. Originally the property of the earl of Huntingdon (c. 1750), father of Steele's "Aspasia," who built a mansion here, the property passed through various hands into those of Thomas Dawson, Baron Dartrey and Viscount Cremorne (1725-1813), who greatly beautified it. It was subsequently sold and converted into a proprietary place of entertainment, being popular as such from 1845 to 1877. It never, however, acquired the fashionable fame of Vauxhall, and finally became so great an annoyance to residents in the neighbourhood that a renewal of its licence was refused; and the site of the gardens was soon built over. The name survives in Cremorne Road.

CRENELLE (an O. Fr. word for "notch," mod. _creneau_; the origin is obscure; cf. "cranny"), a term generally considered to mean an embrasure of a battlement, but really applying to the whole system of defence by battlements. In medieval times no one could "crenellate" a building without special licence from his supreme lord.

CREODONTA, a group of primitive early Tertiary Carnivora, characterized by their small brains, the non-union in most cases of the scaphoid and lunar bones of the carpus, and the general absence of a distinct pair of "sectorial" teeth (see CARNIVORA). In many respects the Lower Eocene creodonts come very close to the primitive ungulates, or Condylarthra (see PHENACODUS), from which, however, they are distinguished by the approximation in the form of the skull to the carnivorous type, the more trenchant teeth (at least in most cases) and the more claw-like character of the terminal joints of the toes. The general character of the dentition in the more typical forms, such as _Hyaenodon_ (see fig.), recalls that of the carnivorous marsupials, this being especially the case with the Patagonian species, which have been separated as a distinct group under the name of Sparassodonta (q.v.). The skull, however, is not of the marsupial type, and in the European forms at any rate there is a complete replacement of the milk-molars by pre-molars, while the minute structure of the enamel of the teeth is of the carnivorous as distinct from the marsupial type. The head is large in proportion to the body, the lumbar region is unusually rigid, owing to the complexity of the articulations, and the tail and hind-limbs are relatively long and powerful. In life the tail probably passed almost imperceptibly into the body, as in the Tasmanian thylacine.

That the Creodonta are the ancestors of the modern Carnivora is now generally admitted. They are apparently the most generalized and primitive of all (placental?) mammals, and probably the direct descendants of the mammal-like anomodont or theromorphous reptiles of the Triassic epoch; the evolution from that group having perhaps taken place in Africa or in the lost area connecting that continent with India. The relationship of the creodonts to the carnivorous marsupials is not yet determined, but it seems scarcely probable that the remarkable resemblance existing between the teeth of the two groups can be solely due to parallelism; and it has been suggested by Dr L. Wortman that both creodonts and marsupials are descended from a common non-placental stock. In other words, the latter are a side-branch from the anomodont-creodont line of descent. Dr C. W. Andrews has pointed out that certain of the Egyptian creodonts appear to have been aquatic or subaquatic in their habits; and it is possible that from such types are derived the true seals, or _Phocidae_.

With the exception of Australasia, and perhaps South Africa, creodonts (on the supposition that the Patagonian forms are rightly included) appear to have had a nearly world-wide distribution. In Europe and North America they date from the Lowest Eocene and lived till the early Oligocene, while in India they apparently survived till a much later epoch. Some of the Oligocene forms, alike as regards dentition, the union of the scaphoid and lunar of the carpus, and the complexity of the brain, approximated to modern Carnivora.

As regards classification Mr W. D. Matthew includes in the typical family _Hyaenodontidae_ not only the widely spread genera _Hyaenodon_ and _Pterodon_, but likewise _Sinopa_ (_Stypolophus_), _Cynohyaenodon_ and _Proviverra_; but _Viverravus_ (_Didymictis_) and _Vulpavus_ (_Miacis_) are assigned to a separate family (_Viverravidae_). It is these latter forms which come nearest to modern Carnivora, most of them being of Oligocene age. The American and European _Oxyaena_ apparently represents a family by itself, as does the American _Oxyclaena_; and _Palaeonictis_ and _Patriofelis_ are assigned to yet another family; while the North American Lower Eocene and Eocene _Arctocyon_ typifies a family characterized by the somewhat bear-like type of dentition. _Mesonyx_ is also a very distinct type, from the North American Eocene and Oligocene. Some of the species of _Patriofelis_ and _Hyaenodon_ attained the size of a tiger, although with long civet-like skulls. In the earlier forms the claws often retained somewhat of a hoof-like character.

The South American _Borhyaenidae_ include _Borhyaena_, _Prothylacinus_, _Amphiproviverra_, and allied forms from the Santa Cruz beds of Patagonia, and have been referred to a distinct group, the Sparassodonta, mainly on account of the alleged replacement of some only of the milk-molars by premolars. By their first describer, Dr F. Ameghino, they were regarded as nearly related to the marsupials, to which group they were definitely referred in 1905 by Mr W. J. Sinclair, by whom they are considered near akin to _Thylacinus_, but this view seems to be disproved by the investigations of Mr C. S. Tomes into the structure of the dental enamel.

It should be added that Dr J. L. Wortman transfers _Viverravus_ and its allies, together with _Palaeonictis_, to the true Carnivora, the latter genus being regarded as the ancestral type of the sabre-toothed cats (see MACHAERODUS).

AUTHORITIES.--J. L. Wortman, "Eocene Mammalia in the Peabody Museum,
pt. i. Carnivora," _Amer. J. Sci._ vols. xi.-xiv. (1901-1902); W. D.
Matthew, "Additional Observations on the Creodonta," _Bull. Amer.
Mus._ vol. xiv. p. i. (1901); C. W. Andrews, _Descriptive Catalogue of
the Tertiary Vertebrata of the Fayum_, British Museum (1906); W. J.
Sinclair, "The Marsupial Fauna of the Santa Cruz Beds," _Proc. Amer.
Phil. Soc._ vol. xlix. p. 73 (1905). (R. L.*)

CREOLE (the Fr. form of _criollo_, a West Indian, probably a negro corruption of the Span, _criadillo_, the dim. of _criado_, one bred or reared, from _criar_, to breed, a derivative of the Lat. _creare_, to create), a word used originally (16th century) to denote persons born in the West Indies of Spanish parents, as distinguished from immigrants direct from Spain, aboriginals, negroes or mulattos. It is now used of the descendants of non-aboriginal races born and settled in the West Indies, in various parts of the American mainland and in Mauritius, Reunion and some other places colonized by Spain, Portugal, France, or (in the case of the West Indies) by England. In a similar sense the name is used of animals and plants. The use of the word by some writers as necessarily implying a person of mixed blood is totally erroneous; in itself "creole" has no distinction of colour; a Creole may be a person of European, negro, or mixed extraction--or even a horse.

Local variations occur in the use of the word as applied to people. In the West Indies it designates the descendants of any European race; in the United States the French-speaking native portion of the white race in Louisiana, whether of French or Spanish origin. The French Canadians are never termed creoles, nor is the word now used of the South Americans of Spanish or Portuguese descent, but in Mexico whites of pure Spanish extraction are still called creoles. In all the countries named, when a non-white creole is indicated the word negro is added. In Mauritius, Reunion, &c., on the other hand, creole is commonly used to designate the black population, but is also occasionally used of the inhabitants of European descent. The difference in type between the white creoles and the European races from whom they have sprung, a difference often considerable, is due principally to changed environment--especially to the tropical or semi-tropical climate of the lands they inhabit. The many patois founded on French and Spanish, and used chiefly by creole negroes, are spoken of as creole languages, a term extended by some writers to include similar dialects spoken in countries where the word creole is rarely used.

See G. W. Cable, _The Creoles of Louisiana_ (1884); A. Coelho, "Os
Dialetos romanicos on neo latinos na Africa, Asia e America," _Bol.
Soc. Geo. Lisboa_ (1884-1886), with bibliography. For the Creole
French of Haiti see an article by Sir H. H. Johnston in _The Times_,
April 10th, 1909.

CREON, in Greek legend, son of Lycaethus, king of Corinth and father of Glauce or Creusa, the second wife of Jason.

CREON, in Greek legend, son of Menoeceus, king of Thebes after the death of Laius, the husband of his sister Jocasta. Thebes was then suffering from the visitation of the Sphinx, and Creon offered his crown and the hand of the widowed queen to whoever should solve the fatal riddle. Oedipus, the son of Laius, ignorant of his parentage, successfully accomplished the task and married Jocasta, his mother. By her he had two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices, who agreed after their father's death to reign in alternative years. Eteocles first ascended the throne, being the elder, but at the end of the year refused to resign, whereupon his brother attacked him at the head of an army of Argives. The war was to be decided by a single combat between the brothers, but both fell. Creon, who had resumed the government during the minority of Leodamas, the son of Eteocles, commanded that the Argives, and above all Polyneices, the cause of all the bloodshed, should not receive the rites of sepulture, and that any one who infringed this decree should be buried alive. Antigone, the sister of Polyneices, refused to obey, and sprinkled dust upon her brother's corpse. The threatened penalty was inflicted; but Creon's crime did not escape unpunished. His son, Haemon, the lover of Antigone, killed himself on her grave; and he himself was slain by Theseus. According to another account he was put to death by Lycus, the son or descendant of a former ruler of Thebes (Euripides, _Herc. Fur._ 31; Apollodorus iii. 5, 7; Pausanias ix. 5).

CREOPHYLUS of Samos, one of the earliest Greek epic poets. According to an epigram of Callimachus (quoted in Strabo xiv. p. 638) he was the author of a poem called [Greek: Oichalias halosis], which told the story of the conquest of Oechalia by Heracles. Creophylus was said to have been a friend or relative of Homer, who, according to another tradition, was himself the author of the [Greek: Halosis], and presented it to Creophylus in return for the latter's hospitality.

See F. G. Welcker, _Der epische Cyclus_ (1865-1882).