[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Zoea of Common Shore-Crab in its second stage.
(Spence Bate.)
r, Rostral spine.
s, Dorsal spine.
m, Maxillipeds.
t, Buds of thoracic feet.
a, Abdomen.]
In most Crustacea, however, this primitive scheme is more or less
modified. The earlier stages may be suppressed or passed through
within the egg (or within the maternal brood-chamber), so that the
larva, on hatching, has reached a stage more advanced than the
nauplius. Further, the gradual appearance and differentiation of the
successive somites and appendages may be accelerated, so that
comparatively great advances take place at a single moult. In the
Cirripedia, for example, the latest nauplius stage (fig. 13, A) gives
rise directly to the so-called _Cypris_-larva (fig. 13, B), differing
widely from the nauplius in form, and possessing all the appendages of
the adult. Another very common modification of the primitive method of
development is found in the accelerated appearance of certain somites
or appendages, disturbing the regular order of development. This
modification is especially found in the Malacostraca. Even in those
which have most fully retained the primitive order of development, as
in the _Penaeidea_ and _Euphausiidae_, the last pair of abdominal
appendages make their appearance in advance of those immediately in
front of them. The same process, carried further, leads to the very
peculiar larva known as the _Zoea_, in the typical form of which,
found in the Brachyura (fig. 14), the posterior five or six thoracic
somites have their development greatly retarded, and are still
represented by a short unsegmented region of the body at a time when
the abdominal somites are fully formed and even carry appendages. The
_Zoea_ was formerly regarded as a recapitulation of an ancestral form,
but there can be no doubt that its peculiarities are the result of
secondary modification. It is most typically developed in the most
specialized Decapoda, the Brachyura, while the more primitive groups
of Malacostraca, the _Euphausiidae_, _Penaeidea_ and Stomatopoda,
retain the primitive order of appearance of the somites, and, for the
most part, of the limbs. At the same time, the tendency to a
retardation in the development of the posterior thoracic somites is
very general in Malacostracan larvae, and may perhaps be correlated
with the fact that in the primitive Phyllocarida the whole thoracic
region is very short and the limbs closely crowded together.
[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Nauplius of _Tetraclita porosa_ after the
first moult.
(Fritz Muller.)]
Besides the nauplius and the zoea there are many other types of
Crustacean larvae, distinguished by special names, though, as their
occurrence is restricted within the limits of the smaller systematic
groups, they are of less general interest. We need only mention the
_Mysis_-stage (better termed Schizopod-stage) found in many Macrura
(as, for example, the lobster), which differs from the adult in having
large natatory exopodites on the thoracic legs.
Most of the larval forms swim freely at the surface of the sea, and
many show special adaptations to this habit of life. As in many other
"pelagic" organisms, spines and processes from the surface of the body
are often developed, which are probably less important as defensive
organs than as aids to flotation. This is well seen in the nauplius of
many Cirripedia (fig. 15) and in nearly all zoeae. Perhaps the most
striking example is the zoea-like larva of the _Sergestidae_, known as
_Elaphocaris_, which has an extraordinary armature of ramified spines.
The same purpose is probably served by the extreme flattening of the
body in the membranous _Phyllosoma_-larva of the rock-lobsters and
their allies (Loricata).
_Past History._
Although fossil remains of Crustacea are abundant, from the most ancient
fossiliferous rocks down to the most recent, their study has hitherto
contributed little to a precise knowledge of the phylogenetic history of
the class. This is partly due to the fact that many important forms must
have escaped fossilization altogether owing to their small size and
delicate structure, while very many of those actually preserved are
known only from the carapace or shell, the limbs being absent or
represented only by indecipherable fragments. Further, many important
groups were already differentiated when the geological record began. The
Phyllopoda, Ostracoda and Cirripedia (Thyrostraca) are represented in
Cambrian or Silurian rocks by forms which seem to have resembled closely
those now existing, so that palaeontology can have little light to throw
on the mode of origin of these groups. With the Malacostraca the case is
little better. There is considerable reason for believing that the
_Ceratiocaridae_, which are found from the Cambrian onwards, were allied
to the existing _Nebalia_, and may possibly include the forerunners of
the true Malacostraca, but nothing is definitely known of their
appendages. In Palaeozoic formations, from the Upper Devonian onwards,
numbers of shrimp-like forms are found which have been referred to the
Schizopoda and the Decapoda, but here again the scanty information which
may be gleaned as to the structure of the limbs rarely permits of
definite conclusions as to their affinities. The recent discovery in the
Tasmanian "schizopod" _Anaspides_, of what is believed to be a living
representative of the Carboniferous and Permian _Syncarida_, has,
however, afforded a clue to the affinities of some of these
problematical forms.
True Decapods are first met with in Mesozoic rocks, the first to appear
being the _Penaeidea_, a primitive group comprising the _Penaeidae_ and
_Sergestidae_, which occur in the Jurassic and perhaps in the Trias.
Some of the earliest are referred to the existing genus _Penaeus_. The
Stenopidea, another primitive group, differing from the Penaeidea in the
character of the gills, appear in the Trias and Jurassic. The Caridea or
true prawns and shrimps appear later, in the Upper Jurassic, some of
them presenting primitive characteristics in the retention of swimming
exopodites on the walking-legs. The Eryonidea (fig. 16, 3), a group
related to the Loricata but of a more generalized type, are specially
interesting since the few existing deep-sea forms appear to be only
surviving remnants of what was, in the Mesozoic period, a dominant
group. The Mesozoic _Glyphaeidae_ have been supposed to stand in the
direct line of descent of the modern rock-lobsters and their allies
(Loricata). Some of the Loricata have persisted with little change from
the Cretaceous period to the present day.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.
1, _Dromilites Lamarckii_, Desm.; London Clay, Sheppey.
2, _Palaeocorystes Stokesii_, Gault; Folkestone.
3, _Eryon arctiformis_, Schl.; Lithographic stone, Solenhofen.
4, _Mecocheirus longimanus_, Schl.; Lithographic stone, Solenhofen.
5, _Cypridea tuberculata_, Sby.; (Ostracoda); Weald, Sussex.
6, _Loricula pulchella_, Sby (Cirripedia); L. Chalk, Sussex.]
The Anomura are hardly known as fossils. The Brachyura, on the other
hand, are well represented (fig 16, 1, 2). The earliest forms, from the
Lower Oolite and later, belonging chiefly to the extinct family
_Prosoponidae_, have been shown to have close relations with the most
generalized of existing Brachyura, the deep-sea _Homolodromiidae_, and
to link the Brachyura to the Homarine (lobster-like) Macrura.
A few Isopoda are known from Secondary rocks, but their systematic
position is doubtful and they throw no light on the evolution of the
group. The Amphipoda are not definitely known to occur till Tertiary
times. Stomatopoda of a very modern-looking type, and even their larvae,
occur in Jurassic rocks.
In the dearth of trustworthy evidence as to the actual forerunners of
existing Crustacea, we are compelled to rely wholly on the data afforded
by comparative anatomy and embryology in attempting to reconstruct the
probable phylogeny of the class. It is unnecessary to insist on the
purely speculative character of the conclusions to be reached in this
way, so long as they cannot be checked by the results of palaeontology,
but, when this is recognized, such speculation is not only legitimate
but necessary as a basis on which to build a natural classification.
The first attempts to reconstruct the genealogical history of the
Crustacea started from the assumption that the "theory of
recapitulation" could be applied to their larval history. The various
larval forms, especially the nauplius and zoea, were supposed to
reproduce, more or less closely, the actual structure of ancestral
types. So far as the zoea was concerned, this assumption was soon shown
to be erroneous, and the secondary nature of this type of larva is now
generally admitted. As regards the nauplius, however, the constancy of
its general character in the most widely diverse groups of Crustacea
strongly suggests that it is a very ancient type, and the view has been
advocated that the Crustacea must have arisen from an unsegmented
nauplius-like ancestor.
The objections to this view, however, are considerable. The resemblances
between the Crustacea and the Annelid worms, in such characters as the
structure of the nervous system and the mode of growth of the somites,
can hardly be ignored. Several structures which must be attributed, to
the common stock of the Crustacea, such as the paired eyes and the
shell-fold, are not present in the nauplius. The opinion now most
generally held is that the primitive Crustacean type is most nearly
approached by certain Phyllopods such as _Apus_. The large number and
the uniformity of the trunk somites and their appendages, and the
structure of the nervous system and of the heart in _Apus_, are
Annelidan characters which can hardly be without significance. It is
probable also, as already mentioned, that the leaf-like appendages of
the Phyllopoda are of a primitive type, and attempts have been made to
refer their structure to that of the Annelid parapodium. In many
respects, however, the Phyllopoda, and especially _Apus_, have diverged
considerably from the primitive Crustacean type. All the cephalic
appendages are much reduced, the mandibles have no palps, and the
maxillulae are vestigial. In these respects some of the Copepoda have
retained characters which we must regard as much more primitive. In
those Copepods in which the palps of the mandibles as well as the
antennae are biramous and natatory, the first three pairs of appendages
retain throughout life, with little modification, the shape and function
which they have in the nauplius stage, and must, in all likelihood, be
regarded as approximating to those of the primitive Crustacea. In other
respects, however, such as the absence of paired eyes and of a
shell-fold, as well as in the characters of the post-oral limbs, the
Copepoda are undoubtedly specialized.
In order to reconstruct the hypothetical ancestral Crustacean,
therefore, it is necessary to combine the characters of several of the
existing groups. It may be supposed to have approximated, in general
form, to _Apus_, with an elongated body composed of numerous similar
somites and terminating in a caudal furca; with the post-oral appendages
all similar and all bearing gnathobasic processes; and with a carapace
originating as a shell-fold from the maxillary somite. The eyes were
probably stalked, the antennae and mandibles biramous and natatory, and
both armed with masticatory processes. It is likely that the trunk-limbs
were also biramous, with additional endites and exites. Whether any of
the obscure fossils generally referred to the Phyllopoda or Phyllocarida
may have approximated to this hypothetical form it is impossible to say.
It is to be noted, however, that the Trilobita, which, according to the
classification here adopted, are dealt with under Arachnida, are not
very far removed, except in such characters as the absence of a
shell-fold and of eye-stalks, from the primitive Crustacean here
sketched.
On this view, the nauplius, while no longer regarded as reproducing an
ancestral type, does not altogether lose its phylogenetic significance.
It is an ancestral _larval_ form, corresponding perhaps to the stages
immediately succeeding the trochophore in the development of Annelids,
but with some of the later-acquired Crustacean characters superposed
upon it. While little importance is to be given to such characters as
the unsegmented body, the small number of limbs and the absence of a
shell-fold and of paired eyes, it has, on the other hand, preserved
archaic features in the form of the limbs and the masticatory function
of the antenna.
The probable course of evolution of the different groups of Crustacea
from this hypothetical ancestral form can only be touched on here. The
Phyllopoda must have branched off very early and from them to the
Cladocera the way is clear. The Ostracoda might have been derived from
the same stock were it not that they retain the mandibular palp which
all the Phyllopods have lost. The Copepoda must have separated
themselves very early, though perhaps some of their characters may be
persistently larval rather than phylogenetically primitive. The
Cirripedia are so specialized both as larvae and as adults that it is
hard to say in what direction their origin is to be sought.
For the Malacostraca, it is generally admitted that the Leptostraca
(_Nebalia_, &c.) provide a connecting-link with the base of the
Phyllopod stem. Nearest to them come the Schizopoda, a primitive group
from which two lines of descent can be traced, the one leading from the
Mysidacea (_Mysidae_ + _Lophogastridae_) to the Cumacea and the
sessile-eyed groups Isopoda and Amphipoda, the other from the
Euphausiacea (_Euphausiidae_) to the Decapoda.
_Classification._
The modern classification of Crustacea may be said to have been founded
by P. A. Latreille, who, in the beginning of the 19th century, divided
the class into Entomostraca and Malacostraca. The latter division,
characterized by the possession of 19 somites and pairs of appendages
(apart from the eyes), by the division of the appendages into two
tagmata corresponding to cephalothorax and abdomen, and by the constancy
in position of the generative apertures, differing in the two sexes, is
unquestionably a natural group. The Entomostraca, however, are certainly
a heterogeneous assemblage, defined only by negative characters, and the
name is retained only for the sake of convenience, just as it is often
useful to speak of a still more heterogeneous and unnatural assemblage
of animals as Invertebrata. The barnacles and their allies, forming the
group Cirripedia or Thyrostraca, sometimes treated as a separate
sub-class, are distinguished by being sessile in the adult state, the
larval antennules serving as organs of attachment, and the antennae
being lost. An account of them will be found in the article THYROSTRACA.
The remaining groups are dealt with under the headings ENTOMOSTRACA and
MALACOSTRACA, the annectent group Leptostraca being included in the
former.
It may be useful to give here a synopsis of the classification adopted
in this encyclopaedia, noting that, for convenience of treatment, it has
been thought necessary to adopt a grouping not always expressive of the
most recent views of affinity.
Class _Crustacea_.
Sub-class _Entomostraca_.
Order _Branchiopoda_.
Sub-orders _Phyllopoda_.
_Cladocera_.
_Branchiura_.
Orders _Ostracoda_.
_Copepoda_.
Sub-classses _Thyrostraca_ (_Cirripedia_).
_Leptostraca_.
_Malacostraca_.
Order _Decapoda_.
Sub-orders _Brachyura_.
_Macrura_.
Orders _Schizopoda_ (including _Anaspides_).
_Stomatopoda_.
_Sympoda_ (Cumacea).
_Isopoda_ (including _Tanaidacea_).
_Amphipoda_.
(W. T. Ca.)
CRUSTUMERIUM, an ancient town of Latium, on the edge of the Sabine
territory, near the headwaters of the Allia, not far from the Tiber. It
appears several times in the early history of Rome, but was conquered in
500 B.C. according to Livy ii. 19, the _tribus Crustumina_ [or
_Clustumina_] being formed in 471 B.C. Pliny mentions it among the lost
cities of Latium, but the name clung to the district, the fertility of
which remained famous. No remains of it exist, and its exact site is
uncertain.
See T. Ashby in _Papers of the British School at Rome_, iii. 50.
CRUVEILHIER, JEAN (1791-1874), French anatomist, was born at Limoges in
1791, and was educated at the university of Paris, where in 1825 he
became professor of anatomy. In 1836 he became the first occupant of the
recently founded chair of pathological anatomy. He died at Jussac in
1874. His chief works are _Anatomie descriptive_ (1834-1836); _Anatomie
pathologique du corps humain_ (1829-1842), with many coloured plates;
_Traite d'anatomie pathologique generale_ (1849-1864); _Anatomie du
systeme nerveux de l'homme_ (1845); _Traite d'anatomie descriptive_
(1851).
CRUZ E SILVA, ANTONIO DINIZ DA (1731-1799), Portuguese heroic-comic
poet, was the son of a Lisbon carpenter who emigrated to Brazil shortly
before the poet's birth, leaving his wife to support and educate her
young family by the earnings of her needle. Diniz studied Latin and
philosophy with the Oratorians, and in 1747 matriculated at Coimbra
University, where he wrote his first versus about 1750. In 1753 he took
his degree in law, and returning to the capital, devoted much of the
next six years to literary work. In 1756 he became one of the founders
and drew up the statues of the _Arcadia Lusitana_, a literary society
whose aims were the instruction of its members, the cultivation of the
art of poetry, and the restoration of good taste. The fault was not his
if these ends were not attained, for, taking contemporary French authors
as his models, he contributed much, both in prose and verse, to its
proceedings, until he left in February 1760 to take up the position of
_juiz de fora_ at Castello de Vide. On returning to Lisbon for a short
visit, he found the _Arcadia_ a prey to the internal dissensions that
caused its dissolution in 1774, but succeeded in composing them and in
1764 he went to Elvas to act as auditor of one of the regiments
stationed there. During a ten years' residence, his wide reading and
witty conversation gained him the friendship of the governor of that
fortress and the admiration of a circle comprising all that was
cultivated in Elvas. As in most cathedral and garrison towns, the
clerical and military elements dominated society, and here were mutually
antagonistic, because of the enmity between their respective leaders,
the bishop and the governor. Moreover, Elvas, being a remote provincial
centre, abounded in curious and grotesque types. Diniz, who was a keen
observer, noted these, and, treasuring them in his memory, reproduced
them, with their vanities, intrigues and ignorance, in his masterpiece,
_Hyssope_. In 1768 a quarrel arose between the bishop, a proud,
pretentious prelate, and the dean, as to the right of the former to
receive holy water from the latter at a private side door of the
cathedral, instead of at the principal entrance. The matter being one of
principle, neither party would yield what he considered his rights, and
it led to a lawsuit, and divided the town into two sections, which
eagerly debated the arguments on both sides and enjoyed the ridiculous
incidents which accompanied the dispute. Ultimately the dean died, and
was succeeded by his nephew, who appealed to the crown with success and
the bishop lost his pretension. The _Hyssope_ arose out of and deals
with this affair. It was dictated in seventeen days, in the years
1770-1772, and, in its final redaction, consists of eight cantos of
blank verse. The pressure of absolutism left open only one form of
expression, satire, and in this poem Diniz produced an original work
which ridicules the clergy and the prevailing Gallomania, and contains
episodes full of humour. It has been compared with Boileau's _Lutrin_,
because both are founded on a petty ecclesiastical quarrel, but here the
resemblance ends, and the poem of Diniz is the superior in everything
except matrification.
Returning to Lisbon in 1774, Diniz endeavoured once more to resuscitate
the _Arcadia_, but his long absence had withdrawn its chief support, its
most talented members Garcao (q.v.) and Quita were no more, and he only
assisted at its demise. In April 1776 he was appointed _disembargador_
of the court of Relacao in Rio de Janeiro and given the habit of Aviz.
He lived in Brazil, devouting his leisure to a study of its natural
history and mineralogy, until 1789, when he went back to Lisbon to take
up the post of _disembargador_ of the Relacao of Oporto; in July 1790 he
was promoted, and became _disembargador_ of the Casa da Supplicacao. In
this year he was sent again to Brazil to assist in trying the leaders of
the Republican conspiracy in Minas, in which Gonzaga (q.v.) and the
other men of letters were involved, and in December 1792 he became
chancellor of the Relacao in Rio. Six years later he was named
councillor of the _Conselho Ultramarino_, but did not live to return
home, dying in Rio on the 5th of October 1799.
Diniz possessed a poetic temperament, but his love of imitating the
classics, whose spirit he failed to understand, fettered his muse, and
he seems never to have perceived that mythological comparisons and
pastoral allegories were poor substitutes for the expression of natural
feeling. The conventionalism of his art prejudiced its sincerity, and,
inwardly cherishing the belief that poetry was unworthy of the dignity
of a judge, he never gave his real talents a chance to display
themselves. His Anacreontic odes, dithyrambs and idylls earned the
admiration of contemporaries, but his Pindaric odes lack fire, his
sonnets are weak, and his idylls have neither the truth nor the
simplicity of Quita's work. As a rule Diniz's versification is weak and
his verses lack harmony, though the diction is beyond cavil.
His poems were published in 6 vols. (Lisbon, 1807-1817). The best
edition of _Hyssope_, to which Diniz owes his lasting fame, is that of
J. R. Coelho (Lisbon, 1879), with an exhaustive introductory study on
his life and writings. A French prose version of the poem by
Boissonade has gone through two editions (Paris, 1828 and 1867), and
English translations of selections have been printed in the _Foreign
Quarterly Review_, and in the _Manchester Quarterly_ (April 1896).
See also Dr Theophilo Braga, _A. Arcadia Lusitana_ (Oporto, 1899).
(E. Pr.)
CRYOLITE, a mineral discovered in Greenland by the Danes in 1794, and
found to be a compound of fluorine, sodium and aluminium. From its
general appearance, and from the fact that it melts readily, even in a
candle-flame, it was regarded by the Eskimos as a peculiar kind of ice;
from this fact it acquired the name of cryolite (from Gr. [Greek:
kryos], frost, and [Greek: lithos], stone). Cryolite occurs in
colourless or snow-white cleavable masses, often tinted brown or red
with iron oxide, and occasionally passing into a black variety. It is
usually translucent, becoming nearly transparent on immersion in water.
The mineral cleaves in three rectangular directions, and the crystals
occasionally found in the crevices have a cubic habit, but it has been
proved, after much discussion, that they belong to the anorthic system.
The hardness is 2.5, and the specific gravity 3. Cryolite has the
formula Na3AlF6, or 3NaF.AlF3, corresponding to fluorine 54.4, sodium
32.8, and aluminium 12.8%. It colours a flame yellow, through the
presence of sodium, and when heated with sulphuric acid it evolves
hydrofluoric acid.
Cryolite occurs almost exclusively at Ivigtut (sometimes written
Evigtok) on the Arksut Fjord in S.W. Greenland. There it forms a large
deposit, in a granitic vein running through gneiss, and is accompanied
by quartz, siderite, galena, blende, chalcopyrite, &c. It is also
associated with a group of kindred minerals, some of which are evidently
products of alteration of the cryolite, known as pachnolite,
thomsenolite, ralstonite, gearksutite, arksutite, &c. Cryolite likewise
occurs, though only to a limited extent, at Miyask, in the Ilmen
Mountains; at Pike's Peak, Colorado, and in the Yellowstone Park.
Cryolite is a mineral of much economic importance. It has been
extensively used as a source of metallic aluminium, and as a flux in
smelting the metal. It is largely employed in the manufacture of certain
sodium salts, as suggested by Julius Thomsen, of Copenhagen, in 1849;
and it has been used for the production of certain kinds of porcelain
and glass, remarkable for its toughness, and for enamelled ware.
Although cryolite is known as "ice-stone" (_Eisstein_), it is not to be
confused with "ice-spar" (_Eisspath_), which is a vitreous kind of
felspar termed "glassy felspar" or rhyacolite. (F. W. R.*)
CRYPT (Lat. _crypta_, from the Gr. [Greek: kryptein], to hide), a vault
or subterranean chamber, especially under churches. In classical
phraseology "crypta" was employed for any vaulted building, either
partially or entirely below the level of the ground. It is used for a
sewer (_crypta Suburae_, Juvenal, _Sat._ v. 106); for the "carceres," or
vaulted stalls for the horses and chariots in a circus (Sidon. Apoll.
_Carm._ xxiii. 319); for the close porticoes or arcades, more fully
known as "cryptoporticus," attached by the Romans to their suburban
villas for the sake of coolness, and to the theatres as places of
exercise or rehearsal for the performers (Plin. _Epist._ ii. 15, v. 6,
vii. 21; Sueton. _Calig._ 58; Sidon. Apoll, lib. ii. epist. 2); and for
underground receptacles for agricultural produce (Vitruv. vi. 8, Varro,
_De re rust._ i. 57). Tunnels, or galleries excavated in the living
rock, were also called _cryptae_. Thus the tunnel to the north of
Naples, through which the road passes to Puteoli, familiar to tourists
as the "Grotto of Posilipo," was originally designated _crypta
Neapolitana_ (Seneca, Epist. 57). In early Christian times _crypta_ was
appropriately employed for the galleries of a catacomb, or for the
catacomb itself. Jerome calls them by this name when describing his
visits to them as a schoolboy, and the term is used by Prudentius (see
CATACOMBS).
A crypt, as a portion of a church, had its origin in the subterranean
chapels known as "confessiones," erected around the tomb of a martyr, or
the place of his martyrdom. This is the origin of the spacious crypts,
some of which may be called subterranean churches, of the Roman churches
of S. Prisca, S. Prassede, S. Martino ai Monti, S. Lorenzo fuori le
Mura, and above all of St Peter's--the crypt being thus the germ of the
church or basilica subsequently erected above the hallowed spot. When
the martyr's tomb was sunk in the surface of the ground, and not placed
in a catacomb chapel, the original memorial-shrine would be only
partially below the surface, and consequently the part of the church
erected over it, which was always that containing the altar, would be
elevated some height above the ground, and be approached by flights of
steps. This fashion of raising the chancel or altar end of a church on a
crypt was widely imitated long after the reason for adopting it ceased,
and even where it never existed. The crypt under the altar at the
basilica of St Maria Maggiore in Rome is merely imitative, and the same
may be said of many of the crypts of the early churches in England. The
original Saxon cathedral of Canterbury had a crypt beneath the eastern
apse, containing the so-called body of St Dunstan, and other relics,
"fabricated," according to Eadmer, "in the likeness of the confessionary
of St Peter at Rome" (see BASILICA). St Wilfrid constructed crypts still
existing beneath the churches erected by him in the latter part of the
7th century at Hexham and Ripon. These are peculiarly interesting from
their similarity in form and arrangement to the catacomb chapels with
which Wilfrid must have become familiar during his residence in Rome.
The cathedral, begun by Aethelwold and finished by Alphege at Winchester,
at the end of the 10th century, had spacious crypts "supporting the holy
altar and the venerable relics of the saints" (Wulstan, _Life of St
Aethelwold_), and they appear to have been common in the earlier churches
in England. The arrangement was adopted by the Norman builders of the
11th and 12th centuries, and though far from universal is found in many
of the cathedrals of that date. The object of the construction of these
crypts was twofold,--to give the altar sufficient elevation to enable
those below to witness the sacred mysteries, and to provide a place of
burial for those holy men whose relics were the church's most precious
possession. But the crypt was "a foreign fashion," derived, as has been
said, from Rome, "which failed to take root in England, and indeed
elsewhere barely outlasted the Romanesque period" (_Essays on
Cathedrals_, ed. Howson, p. 331).
Of the crypts beneath English Norman cathedrals, that under the choir of
Canterbury (q.v.) is by far the largest and most elaborate in its
arrangements. It is, in fact, a subterranean church of vast size and
considerable altitude. The whole crypt was dedicated to the Virgin Mary,
and contained two chapels especially dedicated to her,--the central one
beneath the high altar, enclosed with rich Gothic screen-work, and one
under the south transept. This latter chapel was appropriated by Queen
Elizabeth to the use of the French Huguenot refugees who had settled at
Canterbury in the time of Edward VI. There were also in this crypt a
large number of altars and chapels of other saints, some of whose
hallowed bodies were buried here. At the extreme east end, beneath the
Trinity chapel, the body of St Thomas (Becket) was buried the day after
his martyrdom, and lay there till his translation, July 7, 1220.
The cathedrals of Winchester, Worcester and Gloucester have crypts of
slightly earlier date (they may all be placed between 1080 and 1100),
but of similar character, though less elaborate. They all contain
piscinas and other evidences of the existence of altars in considerable
numbers. They are all apsidal. The most picturesque is that of
Worcester, the work of Bishop Wulfstan (1084), which is remarkable for
the multiplicity of small pillars supporting its radiating vaults.
Instead of having the air of a sepulchral vault like those of Winchester
and Gloucester, this crypt is, in Professor Willis's words, "a complex
and beautiful temple." Archbishop Roger's crypt at York, belonging to
the next century (1154-1181), was filled up with earth when the present
choir was built at the end of the 14th century, and its existence
forgotten till its disinterment after the fire of 1829. The choir and
presbytery at Rochester are supported by an extensive crypt, of which
the western portion is Gundulf's work (1076-1107), but the eastern part,
which displays slender cylindrical and octagonal shafts, with light
vaulting springing from them, is of the same period as the
superstructure, the first years of the 13th century. This crypt, and
that beneath the Early English Lady chapel at Hereford, are the latest
English existing cathedral crypts. That at Hereford was rendered
necessary by the fall of the ground, and is an exceptional case. Later
than any of these crypts was that of St Paul's, London. This was a
really large and magnificent church of Decorated date, with a vaulted
roof of rich and intricate character resting on a forest of clustered
columns. Part of it served as the parish church of St Faith. A still
more exquisite work of the Decorated period is the crypt of St Stephen's
chapel at Westminster, than which it is difficult to conceive anything
more perfect in design or more elaborate in ornamentation. Having
happily escaped the conflagration of the Houses of Parliament in
1834--before which it was degraded to the purpose of the speaker's state
dining-room--it has been restored to its former sumptuousness of
decoration, and is now one of the most beautiful architectural gems in
England.
Of Scottish cathedrals the only one that possesses a crypt is the
cathedral of Glasgow, rendered celebrated by Sir Walter Scott in his
novel of _Rob Roy_ (ch. xx.). At the supposed date of the tale, and
indeed till a comparatively recent period, this crypt was used as a
place of worship by one of the three congregations among which the
cathedral was partitioned, and was known as "the Laigh or Barony Kirk."
It extends beneath the choir transepts and chapter-house; in consequence
of the steep declivity on which the cathedral stands it is of unusual
height and lightsomeness. It belongs to the 13th century, its style
corresponding to Early English, and is simply constructional, the
building being adapted to the locality. In architectural beauty it is
quite unequalled by any crypt in the United Kingdom, and can hardly
anywhere be surpassed. It is an unusually rich example of the style, the
clustered piers and groining being exquisite in design and admirable in
execution. The bosses of the roof and capitals of the piers are very
elaborate, and the doors are much enriched with foliage. "There is a
solidity in its architecture, a richness in its vaulting, and a variety
of perspective in the spacing of its pillars, which make it one of the
most perfect pieces of architecture in these kingdoms" (Fergusson).
In the centre of the main alley stands the mutilated effigy of St Mungo,
the patron saint of Glasgow, and at the south-east corner is a well
called after the same saint.
Crypts under parish churches are not very uncommon in England, but they
are usually small and not characterized by any architectural beauty. A
few of the earlier crypts, however, deserve notice. One of the earliest
and most remarkable is that of the church of Lastingham near Pickering
in Yorkshire, on the site of the monastery founded in 648 by Cedd,
bishop of the East Saxons. The existing crypt, though exceedingly rude
in structure, is of considerably later date than Bishop Cedd, forming
part of the church erected by Abbot Stephen of Whitby in 1080, when he
had been driven inland by the incursions of the northern pirates. This
crypt is remarkable from its extending under the nave as well as the
chancel of the upper church, the plan of which it accurately reproduces,
with the exception of the westernmost bay. It forms a nave with side
aisles of three bays, and an apsidal chancel, lighted by narrow deeply
splayed slits. The roof of quadripartite vaulting is supported by four
very dwarf thick cylindrical columns, the capitals of which and of the
responds are clumsy imitations of classical work with rude volutes.
Still more curious is the crypt beneath the chancel of the church of
Repton in Derbyshire. This also consists of a centre and side aisles,
divided by three arches on either side. The architectural character,
however, is very different from that at Lastingham, and is in some
respects almost unique, the piers being slender, and some of them of a
singular spiral form, with a bead running in the sunken part of the
spiral. Another very extensive and curious Norman crypt is that beneath
the chancel of St Peter's-in-the-East at Oxford. This is five bays in
length, the quadripartite vaulting being supported by eight low,
somewhat slender, cylindrical columns with capitals bearing grotesque
animal and human subjects. Its dimensions are 36 by 20 ft. and 10 ft. in
height. This crypt has been commonly attributed to Grymboldt in the 9th
century; but it is really not very early Norman. Under the church of St
Mary-le-Bow in London there is an interesting Norman crypt not very
dissimilar in character to that last described. Of a later date is the
remarkably fine Early English crypt groined in stone, beneath the
chancel of Hythe in Kent, containing a remarkable collection of skulls
and bones, the history of which is quite uncertain. There is also a
Decorated crypt beneath the chancel at Wimborne minster, and one of the
same date beneath the southern chancel aisle at Grantham.
Among the more remarkable French crypts may be mentioned those of the
cathedrals of Auxerre, said to date from the original foundation in
1085; of Bayeux, attributed to Odo, bishop of that see, uterine brother
of William the Conqueror, where twelve columns with rude capitals
support a vaulted roof; of Chartres, running under the choir and its
aisles, frequently assigned to Bishop Fulbert in 1029, but more probably
coeval with the superstructure; and of Bourges, where the crypt is in
the Pointed style, extending beneath the choir. The church of the Holy
Trinity attached to Queen Matilda's foundation--the "Abbaye aux Dames"
at Caen--has a Norman crypt where the thirty-four pillars are as closely
set as those at Worcester. The church of St Eutropius at Saintes has
also a crypt of the 11th century, of very large dimensions, which
deserves special notice; the capitals of the columns exhibit very
curious carvings. Earlier than any already mentioned is that of St
Gervase of Rouen, considered by E. A. Freeman "the oldest ecclesiastical
work to be seen north of the Alps." It is apsidal, and in its walls are
layers of Roman brick. It is said to contain the remains of two of the
earliest apostles of Gaul--St Mello and St Avitian. There are numerous
crypts in Germany. One at Gottingen may be mentioned, where cylindrical
shafts with capitals of singular design support "vaulting of great
elegance and lightness" (Fergusson), the curves being those of a
horseshoe arch. The crypts of the cathedrals or churches at Halberstadt,
Hildesheim and Naumburg also deserve to be noticed; that of Lubeck may
be rather called a lower choir. It is 20 ft. high and vaulted.
The Italian crypts, when found, as a rule reproduce the "confessio" of
the primitive churches. That beneath the chancel of S. Michele at Pavia
is an excellent typical example, probably dating from the 10th century.
It is apsidal and vaulted, and is seven bays in length. That at S. Zeno
at Verona (c. 1138) is still more remarkable; its vaulted roof is
upborne by forty columns, with curiously carved capitals. It is
approached from the west by a double flight of steps and contains many
ancient monuments. S. Miniato at Florence, begun in 1013, has a very
spacious crypt at the east end, forming virtually a second choir. It is
seven bays in length and vaulted. The most remarkable crypt in Italy,
however, is perhaps that of St Mark's, Venice. The plan of this is
almost a Greek cross. Four rows of nine columns each run from end to
end, and two rows of three each occupy the arms of the cross, supporting
low stunted arches on which rests the pavement of the church above. This
also constitutes a lower church, containing a _chorus cantorum_ formed
by a low stone screen, not unlike that of S. Clemente at Rome (see
BASILICA), enclosing a massive stone altar with four low columns. This
crypt is reasonably supposed to belong to the church founded by the doge
P. Orseolo in 977. There are also crypts deserving notice at the
cathedrals of Brescia, Fiesole and Modena, and the churches of S.
Ambrogio and S. Eustorgio at Milan. The former was unfortunately
modernized by St Charles Borromeo. The crypt at Assisi is really a
second church at a lower level, and being built on the steep side of a
hill is well lighted. The whole fabric is a beautiful specimen of
Italian Gothic, and both the lower and upper churches are covered with
rich frescoes.
Domestic crypts are of frequent occurrence. Medieval houses had as a
rule their chief rooms raised above the level of the ground upon vaulted
substructures, which were used as cellars and storerooms. These were
sometimes partially underground, sometimes entirely above it. The
underground vaults often remain when all the superstructure has been
swept away, and from their Gothic character are frequently mistaken for
ecclesiastical buildings. The older English towns are full of crypts of
this character, now used as cellars. They occur in Oxford and Rochester,
are very abundant in the older parts of Bristol, and, according to J. H.
Parker, "nearly the whole city of Chester is built upon a series of them
with the Rows or passages made on the top of the vaults" (_Domestic
Architecture_, iii. 91). The crypt of Gerard's Hall in London, destroyed
in the construction of New Cannon Street, figured by Parker (_Dom.
Arch._ ii. 185), was a beautiful example of the lower storey of the
residence of a wealthy merchant of the time of Edward I. It was divided
down the middle by a row of four slender cylindrical columns supporting
a very graceful vault. The finest example of a secular crypt now
remaining in England is that beneath the Guildhall of London. The date
of this is early in the 15th century--1411. It is a large and lofty
apartment, divided into four alleys by two rows of clustered shafts
supporting a rich lierne vault with ribs of considerable intricacy.
There is a fine vaulted crypt of the same date and of similar character
beneath St Mary's Hall, the Guildhall of the city of Coventry. (E. V.)
CRYPTEIA (Gr. [Greek: kryptein], to hide), a kind of secret police in
ancient Sparta, founded, according to Aristotle, by Lycurgus; there is,
however, no real evidence as to the date of its origin. The institution
was under the supervision of the ephors, who, on entering office,
annually proclaimed war against the helots (serf-class) and thus
absolved from the guilt of murder any Spartan who should slay a helot.
It was instituted primarily as a precaution against the ever-present
danger of a helot revolt, and secondarily perhaps as a training for
young Spartans, who were sent out by the ephors to keep watch on the
helots and assassinate any who might appear dangerous. Plato (_Laws_, i.
p. 633) emphasizes the former aspect, but there can be little doubt
that, at all events after the revolt of 464 (see Cimon), its more
sinister purpose was predominant, as we may gather from the secret
massacre of 2000 helots who, on the invitation of the ephors, claimed to
have rendered distinguished service (Thuc. iv. 80).
See HELOTS; EPHOR; also A. H. J. Greenidge, _Handbook of Gk. Const.
Hist._ (London, 1896); G. Gilbert, _Gk. Const. Antiq._ (Eng. trans.,
London, 1895).
CRYPTOBRANCHUS, a genus of thoroughly aquatic, but lung-breathing tailed
Batrachia, of the family _Amphiumidae_, characterized by a heavy,
flattened build, a very porous tubercular skin, with a frilled fold
along each side, short stout limbs with four very short fingers and five
very short toes, and minute eyes without lids. The vertebrae are
biconcave, and although the gills are lost in the adult, ossified
gill-arches, two to four in number, persist. A strong series of vomerine
teeth extends across the palate. Three species of this genus are known.
One is the well-known fossil of Oeningen first described as _Homo
diluvii testis_ and shown by Cuvier to be nearly related to the gigantic
salamander of Japan, _Cryptobranchus maximus_, which has since been
found to inhabit China also; the third is the hellbender, mud-puppy or
water-dog of North America, _C. alleghaniensis_, also known under the
name of _Menopoma_. Both the fossil _C. scheuchzeri_ and _C. maximus_
grow to a length of over 5 ft. and are by far the largest Urodeles
known, whilst _C. alleghaniensis_ reaches the respectable length of 18
in.
The eggs are laid in rosary-like strings. They have been found, in
Japan, deposited in deep holes in the water, where they form large
clumps (70 to 80 eggs) round which the female coils herself. The
gigantic salamander has also bred in the Amsterdam zoological gardens,
the eggs numbering upwards of 500; the male, it is stated, took charge
of the eggs, and for the ten weeks which elapsed before the release of
the last larva, he kept close to them, at times crawling among the
coiled mass of egg-strings or lifting them up, evidently for the purpose
of aeration. The larva on leaving the egg is about an inch long,
provided with three branched external gills on each side, and showing
mere rudiments of the four limbs.
CRYPTOGRAPHY (from Gr. [Greek: kryptos], hidden, and [Greek: graphein],
to write), or writing in cipher, called also steganography (from Gr.
[Greek: stegane], a covering), the art of writing in such a way as to be
incomprehensible except to those who possess the key to the system
employed. The unravelling of the writing is called deciphering.
Cryptography having become a distinct art, Bacon (Lord Verulam) classed
it (under the name _ciphers_) as a part of grammar. Secret modes of
communication have been in use from the earliest times. The
Lacedemonians had a method called the _scytale_, from the staff ([Greek:
skytale]) employed in constructing and deciphering the message. When the
Spartan ephors wished to forward their orders to their commanders
abroad, they wound slantwise a narrow strip of parchment upon the
[Greek: skytale] so that the edges met close together, and the message
was then added in such a way that the centre of the line of writing was
on the edges of the parchment. When unwound the scroll consisted of
broken letters; and in that condition it was despatched to its
destination, the general to whose hands it came deciphering it by means
of a [Greek: skytale] exactly corresponding to that used by the ephors.
Polybius has enumerated other methods of cryptography.
The art was in use also amongst the Romans. Upon the revival of letters
methods of secret correspondence were introduced into private business,
diplomacy, plots, &c.; and as the study of this art has always presented
attractions to the ingenious, a curious body of literature has been the
result.
John Trithemius (d. 1516), the abbot of Spanheim, was the first
important writer on cryptography. His _Polygraphia_, published in 1518,
has passed through many editions, and has supplied the basis upon which
subsequent writers have worked. It was begun at the desire of the duke
of Bavaria; but Trithemius did not at first intend to publish it, on the
ground that it would be injurious to public interests. A
_Steganographia_ published at Lyons (? 1551) and later at Frankfort
(1606), is also attributed to him. The next treatises of importance were
those of Giovanni Battista della Porta, the Neapolitan mathematician,
who wrote _De furtivis litterarum notis_, 1563; and of Blaise de
Vigenere, whose _Traite des chiffres_ appeared in Paris, 1587. Bacon
proposed an ingenious system of cryptography on the plan of what is
called the double cipher; but while thus lending to the art the
influence of his great name, he gave an intimation as to the general
opinion formed of it and as to the classes of men who used it. For when
prosecuting the earl of Somerset in the matter of the poisoning of
Overbury, he urged it as an aggravation of the crime that the earl and
Overbury "had cyphers and jargons for the king and queen and all the
great men,--things seldom used but either by princes and their
ambassadors and ministers, or by such as work or practise against or, at
least, upon princes."
Other eminent Englishmen were afterwards connected with the art. John
Wilkins, subsequently bishop of Chester, published in 1641 an anonymous
treatise entitled _Mercury, or The Secret and Swift Messenger_,--a small
but comprehensive work on the subject, and a timely gift to the
diplomatists and leaders of the Civil War. The deciphering of many of
the royalist papers of that period, such as the letters that fell into
the hands of the parliament at the battle of Naseby, has by Henry Stubbe
been charged on the celebrated mathematician Dr John Wallis (_Athen.
Oxon._ iii. 1072), whose connexion with the subject of cipher-writing is
referred to by himself in the Oxford edition of his mathematical works,
1689, p. 659; as also by John Davys. Dr Wallis elsewhere states that
this art, formerly scarcely known to any but the secretaries of princes,
&c., had grown very common and familiar during the civil commotions, "so
that now there is scarce a person of quality but is more or less
acquainted with it, and doth, as there is occasion, make use of it."
Subsequent writers on the subject are John Falconer (_Cryptomenysis
patefacta_), 1685; John Davys (_An Essay on the Art of Decyphering: in
which is inserted a Discourse of Dr Wallis_), 1737; Philip Thicknesse
(_A Treatise on the Art of Decyphering and of Writing in Cypher_), 1772;
William Blair (the writer of the comprehensive article "Cipher" in
Rees's _Cyclopaedia_), 1819; and G. von Marten (Cours _diplomatique_),
1801 (a fourth edition of which appeared in 1851). Perhaps the best
modern work on this subject is the _Kryptographik_ of J. L. Kluber
(Tubingen, 1809), who was drawn into the investigation by inclination
and official circumstances. In this work the different methods of
cryptography are classified. Amongst others of lesser merit who have
treated of this art may be named Gustavus Selenus (i.e. Augustus, duke
of Brunswick), 1624; Cospi, translated by Niceron in 1641; the marquis
of Worchester, 1659; Kircher, 1663; Schott, 1665; Ludwig Heinrich
Hiller, 1682; Comiers; 1690; Baring, 1737; Conrad, 1739, &c. See also a
paper on _Elizabethan Cipher-books_ by A. J. Butler in the
Bibliographical Society's _Transactions_, London, 1901.
Schemes of cryptography are endless in their variety. Bacon lays down
the following as the "virtues" to be looked for in them:--"that they be
not laborious to write and read; that they be impossible to decipher;
and, in some cases, that they be without suspicion." These principles
are more or less disregarded by all the modes that have been advanced,
including that of Bacon himself, which has been unduly extolled by his
admirers as "one of the most ingenious methods of writing in cypher, and
the most difficult to be decyphered, of any yet contrived" (Thicknesse,
p. 13).
The simplest and commonest of all the ciphers is that in which the
writer selects in place of the proper letters certain other letters in
regular advance. This method of transposition was used by Julius Caesar.
He, "per quartam elementorum literam," wrote _d_ for _a_, _e_ for _b_,
and so on. There are instances of this arrangement in the Jewish rabbis,
and even in the sacred writers. An illustration of it occurs in Jeremiah
(xxv. 26), where the prophet, to conceal the meaning of his prediction
from all but the initiated, writes _Sheshak_ instead of Babel (Babylon),
the place meant; i.e. in place of using the second and twelfth letters
of the Hebrew alphabet (_b_, _b_, _l_) from the beginning, he wrote the
second and twelfth (_sh_, _sh_, _k_) from the end. To this kind of
cipher-writing Buxtorf gives the name Athbash (from _a_ the first letter
of the Hebrew alphabet, and _th_ the last; _b_ the second from the
beginning, and _h_ the second from the end). Another Jewish cabalism of
like nature was called Albam; of which an example is in Isaiah vii. 6,
where Tabeal is written for Remaliah. In its adaptation to English this
method of transposition, of which there are many modifications, is
comparatively easy to decipher. A rough key may be derived from an
examination of the respective quantities of letters in a type-founder's
bill, or a printer's "case." The decipherer's first business is to
classify the letters of the secret message in the order of their
frequency. The letter that occurs oftenest is _e_; and the next in order
of frequency is _t_. The following groups come after these, separated
from each other by degrees of decreasing recurrence:--_a_, _o_, _n_,
_i_; _r_, _s_, _h_; _d_, _l_; _c_, _w_, _u_, _m_; _f_, _y_, _g_, _p_,
_b_; _v_, _k_; _x_, _q_, _j_, _z_. All the single letters must be _a_,
_I_ or _O_. Letters occurring together are _ee_, _oo_, _ff_, _ll_, _ss_,
&c. The commonest words of two letters are (roughly arranged in the
order of their frequency) _of_, _to_, _in_, _it_, _is_, _be_, _he_,
_by_, _or_, _as_, _at_, _an_, _so_, &c. The commonest words of three
letters are _the_ and _and_ (in great excess), _for_, _are_, _but_,
_all_, _not_, &c.; and of four letters--_that_, _with_, _from_, _have_,
_this_, _they_, &c. Familiarity with the composition of the language
will suggest numerous other points that are of value to the decipherer.
He may obtain other hints from Poe's tale called _The Gold Bug_. As to
messages in the continental languages constructed upon this system of
transposition, rules for deciphering may be derived from Breithaupt's
_Ars decifratoria_ (1737), and other treatises.
Bacon remarks that though ciphers were commonly in letters and alphabets
yet they might be in words. Upon this basis codes have been constructed,
classified words taken from dictionaries being made to represent
complete ideas. In recent years such codes have been adapted by
merchants and others to communications by telegraph, and have served the
purpose not only of keeping business affairs private, but also of
reducing the excessive cost of telegraphic messages to distant markets.
Obviously this class of ciphers presents greater difficulties to the
skill of the decipherer.
Figures and other characters have been also used as letters; and with
them ranges of numerals have been combined as the representatives of
syllables, parts of words, words themselves, and complete phrases. Under
this head must be placed the despatches of Giovanni Michael, the
Venetian ambassador to England in the reign of Queen Mary, documents
which have only of late years been deciphered. Many of the private
letters and papers from the pen of Charles I. and his queen, who were
adepts in the use of ciphers, are of the same description. One of that
monarch's letters, a document of considerable interest, consisting
entirely of numerals purposely complicated, was in 1858 deciphered by
Professor Wheatstone, the inventor of the ingenious crypto-machine, and
printed by the Philobiblon Society. Other letters of the like character
have been published in the _First Report of the Royal Commission on
Historical Manuscripts_ (1870). In the second and subsequent reports of
the same commission several keys to ciphers have been catalogued, which
seem to refer themselves to the methods of cryptography under notice. In
this connexion also should be mentioned the "characters," which the
diarist Pepys drew up when clerk to Sir George Downing and secretary to
the earl of Sandwich and to the admiralty, and which are frequently
mentioned in his journal. Pepys describes one of them as "a great large
character," over which he spent much time, but which was at length
finished, 25th April 1660; "it being," says he, "very handsomely done
and a very good one in itself, but that not truly alphabetical."
Shorthand marks and other arbitrary characters have also been largely
imported into cryptographic systems to represent both letters and words,
but more commonly the latter. This plan is said to have been first put
into use by the old Roman poet Ennius. It formed the basis of the method
of Cicero's freedman, Tiro, who seems to have systematized the labours
of his predecessors. A large quantity of these characters have been
engraved in Gruter's _Inscriptiones_. The correspondence of Charlemagne
was in part made up of marks of this nature. In Rees's _Cyclopaedia_
specimens were engraved of the cipher used by Cardinal Wolsey at the
court of Vienna in 1524, of that used by Sir Thomas Smith at Paris in
1563, and of that of Sir Edward Stafford in 1586; in all of which
arbitrary marks are introduced. The first English system of
shorthand--Bright's _Characterie_, 1588--almost belongs to the same
category of ciphers. A favourite system of Charles I., used by him
during the year 1646, was one made up of an alphabet of twenty-four
letters, which were represented by four simple strokes varied in length,
slope and position. This alphabet is engraved in Clive's _Linear System
of Shorthand_ (1830), having been found amongst the royal manuscripts in
the British Museum. An interest attaches to this cipher from the fact
that it was employed in the well-known letter addressed by the king to
the earl of Glamorgan, in which the former made concessions to the Roman
Catholics of Ireland.
Complications have been introduced into ciphers by the employment of
"dummy" letters,--"nulls and insignificants," as Bacon terms them. Other
devices have been introduced to perplex the decipherer, such as spelling
words backwards, making false divisions between words, &c. The greatest
security against the decipherer has been found in the use of elaborate
tables of letters, arranged in the form of the multiplication table, the
message being constructed by the aid of preconcerted key-words. Details
of the working of these ciphers may be found in the treatises named in
this article. The deciphering of them is one of the most difficult of
tasks. A method of this kind is explained in the Latin and English lives
of Dr John Barwick, whose correspondence with Hyde, afterwards earl of
Clarendon, was carried on in cryptography. In a letter dated 20th
February 1659/60, Hyde, alluding to the skill of his political opponents
in deciphering, says that "nobody needs to fear them, if they write
carefully in good cyphers." In his next he allays his correspondent's
apprehensiveness as to the deciphering of their letters.
"I confess to you, as I am sure no copy could be gotten of any of my
cyphers from hence, so I did not think it probable that they could be
got on your side the water. But I was as confident, till you tell me
you believe it, that the devil himself cannot decypher a letter that
is well written, or find that 100 stands for Sir H. Vane. I have heard
of many of the pretenders to that skill, and have spoken with some of
them, but have found them all to be mountebanks; nor did I ever hear
that more of the King's letters that were found at Naseby, than those
which they found decyphered, or found the cyphers in which they were
writ, were decyphered. And I very well remember that in the volume
they published there was much left in cypher which could not be
understood, and which I believe they would have explained if it had
been in their power."
An excellent modification of the key-word principle was constructed by
Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort.
Ciphers have been constructed on the principle of altering the places of
the letters without changing their powers. The message is first written
Chinese-wise, upward and downward, and the letters are then combined in
given rows from left to right. In the celebrated cipher used by the earl
of Argyll when plotting against James II., he altered the positions of
the words. Sentences of an indifferent nature were constructed, but the
real meaning of the message was to be gathered from words, placed at
certain intervals. This method, which is connected with the name of
Cardan, is sometimes called the trellis or cardboard cipher.
The wheel-cipher, which is an Italian invention, the string-cipher, the
circle-cipher and many others are fully explained, with the necessary
diagrams, in the authorities named above--more particularly by Kluber in
his _Kryptographik_. (J. E. B.)
CRYPTOMERIA, or JAPANESE CEDAR, a genus of conifers, containing a single
species, _C. japonica_, native of China and Japan, which was introduced
into Great Britain by the Royal Horticultural Society in 1844. It is
described as one of the finest trees in Japan, reaching a height of 100
or more feet, usually divested of branches along the lower part of the
trunk and crowned with a conical head. The narrow, pointed leaves are
spirally arranged and persist for four or five years; the cones are
small, globose and borne at the ends of the branchlets, the scales are
thickened at the extremity and divided into sharply pointed lobes, three
to five seeds are borne on each scale. _Cryptomeria_ is extensively used
in Japan for reafforesting denuded lands, as it is a valuable timber
tree; it is also planted to form avenues along the public roads. In
Veitch's _Manual of Coniferae_ (ed. 2, 1900, p. 265) reference is made
to "an avenue of Cryptomerias 7 m. in extent near Lake Hakone" in which
"the trees are more than 100 ft. high, with perfectly straight trunks
crowned with conical heads of foliage." Professor C. S. Sargent, in his
_Forest Flora of Japan_, says, "Japan owes much of the beauty of its
groves and gardens to the _Cryptomeria_. Nowhere is there a more solemn
and impressive group of trees than that which surrounds the temples and
tombs at Nikko where they rise to a height of 100 to 125 ft.; it is a
stately tree with no rival except in the sequoias of California." Many
curious varieties have been obtained by Japanese horticulturists,
including some dwarf shrubby forms not exceeding a few feet in height.
When grown in Great Britain _Cryptomeria_ requires a deep, well-drained
soil with plenty of moisture, and protection from cold winds.
CRYPTO-PORTICUS (Gr. [Greek: kryptos], concealed, and Lat. _porticus_),
an architectural term for a concealed or covered passage, generally
underground, though lighted and ventilated from the open air. One of the
best-known examples is the crypto-porticus under the palaces of the
Caesars in Rome. In Hadrian's villa in Rome they formed the principal
private intercommunication between the several buildings.
CRYSTAL-GAZING, or SCRYING, the term commonly applied to the induction
of visual hallucinations by concentrating the gaze on any clear deep,
such as a crystal or a ball of polished rock crystal. Some persons do
not even find a clear deep necessary, and are content to gaze at the
palm of the hand, for example, when hallucinatory pictures, as they
declare, emerge. Among objects used are a pool of ink in the hand
(Egypt), the liver of an animal (tribes of the North-West Indian
frontier), a hole filled with water (Polynesia), quartz crystals (the
Apaches and the Euahlayi tribe of New South Wales), a smooth slab of
polished black stone (the Huille-che of South America), water in a
vessel (Zulus and Siberians), a crystal (the Incas), a mirror (classical
Greece and the middle ages), the finger-nail, a sword-blade, a
ring-stone, a glass of sherry, in fact almost anything. Much depends on
what the "seer" is accustomed to use, and some persons who can "scry" in
a glass ball or a glass water-bottle cannot "scry" in ink.
The practice of inducing pictorial hallucinations by such methods as
these has been traced among the natives of North and South America,
Asia, Australia, Africa, among the Maoris, who sometimes use a drop of
blood, and in Polynesia, and is thus practically of world-wide
diffusion. This fact was not observed (that is, the collections of
examples were not made) till recently, when experiments in private
non-spiritualist circles drew attention to crystal-gazing, a practice
always popular among peasants, and known historically to have survived
through classical and medieval times, and, as in the famous case of Dr
Dee, after the Reformation.
The early church condemned _specularii_ (mirror-gazers), and Aubrey and
the _Memoirs_ of Saint-Simon contain "scrying" anecdotes of the 17th and
18th centuries, while Sir Walter Scott's story, _My Aunt Margaret's
Mirror_, is based on a tradition of about 1750 in a noble Scottish
family. The practice, in all times and countries, was used for purposes
of divination. The gazer detected unknown criminals, or described remote
events, or even professed to foretell things future. Sometimes the
supposed magician or medicine man himself did the scrying; occasionally
he enabled his client to see for himself; often a child was selected as
the scryer. The process was usually explained as the result of the
action of a spirit, angel or devil, and many unessential formulae,
invocations, "calls," written charms with cabbalistic signs, and
fumigations, were employed. These things may have had some effect by way
of suggestion; the scryer may have been brought by them into an
appropriate frame of mind; but, as a whole, they are tedious and
superfluous.
A person can either induce the pictorial hallucinations (he may discover
his capacity by accident, like George Sand, as she tells in her
_Memoirs_--and other cases are known), or he cannot induce them, though
he stare till his eyes water. It is almost universally found, in cases
of successful experiment, that the glass ball, for example, takes a
milky or misty aspect, that it then grows black, reflections
disappearing, and that then the pictures emerge. Some people arrive at
seeing the glass ball milky or misty, and can go no further. Others see
pictures of persons or landscapes, only in black and white, and
motionless. Others see in the glass coloured figures of men, women and
animals in motion; while in rarer cases the ball disappears from view,
and the scryer finds himself apparently looking at an actual scene. In a
few attested cases two persons have shared the same vision. In
experiments with magnifying glasses, and through spars, the ordinary
effects of magnifying and of alteration of view are sometimes produced;
sometimes they are not. The evidence, of course, is necessarily only
that of the scryers themselves, but repeated experiments by persons of
probity, and unfamiliar with the topic, combined with the world-wide
existence of the practice, prove that hallucinatory pictures are really
induced.
It has not been found possible to determine, before experiment, whether
any given man or woman will prove capable of the hallucinatory
experiences. Many subjects with strong powers of "visualization," or
seeing things "in the mind's eye," cannot scry; others are successful in
various degrees. We might expect persons who have experienced
spontaneous visual hallucinations, of the kind vulgarly styled "ghosts"
or "wraiths," to succeed in inducing pictures in a glass ball. As a
matter of fact such persons sometimes can and sometimes cannot see
pictures in the way of crystal-gazing; while many who can see in the
crystal have had no spontaneous hallucinations. It is useless to make
experiments with hysterical and visionary people, "whose word no man
relies on"; they may have the hallucinatory experiences, but they would
say that they had in any case.
The nearest analogy to crystal visions, as described, is the common
experience of "hypnagogic illusions" (cf. Alfred Maury. _Les Reves et le
sommeil_). With closed eyes, between sleeping and waking, many people
see faces, landscapes and other things flash upon their view, pictures
often brilliant, but of very brief duration and rapid mutation.
Sometimes the subject opens his eyes to get rid of an unpleasant vision
of this kind. People who cannot scry may have these hypnagogic
illusions, and, so far, may partly understand the experience of the
scryer who is wide awake. But the visions of the scryer often endure for
a considerable time. He or she may put the glass down and converse, and
may find the picture still there when the ball is taken up again. New
figures may join the figure first seen, as when one enters a room. In
these respects, and in the awakeness of the scryer, crystal pictures
differ from hypnagogic illusions. In other ways the experiences
coincide, the pictures are either fanciful, like illustrations of some
unread history or romance, or are revivals of remembered places and
faces.
Occasionally, in hypnagogic illusions, the observer can see the picture
develop rapidly out of a blot of light or colour, beheld by the closed
eyes. One or two scryers think that they, too, can trace the picture as
it develops on the suggestion of some passage of light, colour or shadow
in the glass or crystal. But, as a rule, the scryer cannot detect any
process of development from such _points de mire_; though this may be
the actual process.
On the whole there seems little doubt that successful crystal-gazing is
the exertion of a not uncommon though far from universal faculty, like
those of "chromatic audition"--the vivid association of certain sounds
with certain colours--and the mental seeing of figures arranged in
coloured diagrams (Galton, _Inquiry into Human Faculty_, pp. 114-154).
The experience of hypnagogic illusions also seems far more rare than
ordinary dreaming in sleep. Unfortunately, while these phenomena have
been carefully studied by officially scientific characters, in England
orthodox _savants_ have disdained to observe crystal-gazing, while in
France psychologists have too commonly experimented with subjects
professionally hysterical and quite untrustworthy. Our remarks are
therefore based mainly on considerable personal study of "scrying" among
normal British subjects of both sexes, to whom the topic was previously
unknown.
The superstitious associations of crystal-gazing, as of hypnotism,
appear to bar the way to official scientific investigation, and the
fluctuating proficiency of the seers, who cannot command success, or
determine the causes and conditions of success and failure, tends in the
same direction. The existence, too, of paid professionals who lead
astray silly women, encourages the natural scientific contempt for the
study of the faculty.
The seeing of the pictures, as far as we have spoken of it, appears to
be a thing unusual, but in no way abnormal, any more than dreams or
hypnagogic illusions are abnormal. Crystal pictures, however, are
commonly dismissed as mere results of "imagination," a theory which, of
course, is of no real assistance to psychology. Persons of recognized
"imaginativeness," such as novelists and artists, do not seem more or
less capable of the hallucinatory experiences than their sober
neighbours; while persons not otherwise recognizably "imaginative" (we
could quote a singularly accurate historian) are capable of the
experiences. It is unfortunate, as it awakens prejudice, but in the
present writer's opinion it is true, that crystal-gazing sometimes is
rewarded with results which may be styled "supra-normal." In addition to
the presentation of revived memories, and of "objectivation of ideas or
images consciously or unconsciously in the mind of the percipient,"
there occur "visions, possibly telepathic or clairvoyant, implying
acquirement of knowledge by supra-normal means."[1]
A number of examples occurring during experiments made by the present
writer and by his acquaintances in 1897 were carefully recorded and
attested by the signatures of all concerned The cases, or rather a
selection of the cases, are printed in A. Lang's book, _The Making of
Religion_ (2nd ed., London, 1902, pp. 87-104). Others are chronicled in
A. Lang's Introduction to Mr N. W. Thomas's work, _Crystal Gazing_
(1905). The experiments took this form: any person might ask the scryer
(a lady who had never previously heard of crystal-gazing) "to see what
he was thinking of." The scryer, who was a stranger in a place which she
had not visited before, gave, in a long series of cases, a description
of the person or place on which the inquirer's thoughts were fixed. The
descriptions, though three or four entire failures occurred, were of
remarkable accuracy as a rule, and contained facts and incidents unknown
to the inquirers, but confirmed as accurate. In fact, some Oriental
scenes and descriptions of incidents were corroborated by a letter from
India which arrived just after the experiment; and the same thing
happened when the events described were occurring in places less remote.
On one occasion a curious set of incidents were described, which
happened to be vividly present to the mind of a sceptical stranger who
chanced to be in the room during the experiment; events unknown to the
inquirer in this instance. As an example of the minuteness of
description, an inquirer, thinking of a brother in India, an officer in
the army, whose hair had suffered in an encounter with a tiger, had
described to her an officer in undress uniform, with bald scars through
the hair on his temples, such as he really bore. The number and
proportion of successes was too high to admit of explanation by chance
coincidence, but success was not invariable. On one occasion the scryer
could see nothing, "the crystal preserved its natural diaphaneity," as
Dr Dee says; and there were failures with two or three inquirers. On the
other hand no record was kept in several cases of success.
Whoever can believe that the successes were numerous and that
descriptions were given correctly--not only of facts present to the
minds of inquirers, and of other persons present who were not
consciously taking a share in the experiments, but also of facts
necessarily unknown to all concerned--must of course be most impressed
by the latter kind of success. If the process commonly styled
"telepathy" exists (see TELEPATHY), that may account for the scryer's
power of seeing facts which are in the mind of the inquirer. But when
the scryers see details of various sorts, which are unknown to the
inquirer, but are verified on inquiry, then telepathy perhaps fails to
provide an explanation. We seem to be confronted with actual
clairvoyance (q.v.), or _vue a distance_. It would be vain to form
hypotheses as to the conditions or faculties which make _vue a distance_
possible. This way lie metaphysics, with Hegel's theory of the Sensitive
Soul, or Myers' theory of the Subliminal Self. "The intuitive soul,"
says Hegel, "oversteps the conditions of time and space; it beholds
things remote, things long past, and things to come."[2]
What we need, if any progress is to be made in knowledge of the subject,
is not a metaphysical hypothesis, but a large, carefully tested, and
well-recorded collection of examples, made by _savants_ of recognized
standing. At present we are where we were in electrical science, when
Newton produced curious sparks while rubbing glass with paper. By way of
facts, we have only a large body of unattested anecdotes of supra-normal
successes in crystal-gazing, in many lands and ages; and the scanty
records of modern amateur investigators, like the present writer. Even
from these, if the honesty of all concerned be granted (and even clever
dishonesty could not have produced many of the results), it would appear
that we are investigating a strange and important human faculty. The
writer is acquainted with no experiments in which it was attempted to
discern the future (except in trivial cases as to events on the turf,
when chance coincidence might explain the successes), and only with two
or three cases in which there was an attempt to help historical science
and discern the past by aid of psychical methods. The results were
interesting and difficult to explain, but the experiments were few.
Ordinary scryers of fancy pictures are common enough, but scryers
capable of apparently supra-normal successes are apparently rare.
Perhaps something depends on the inquirer as well as the scryer.
The method of scrying, as generally practised, is simple. It is usual to
place a glass ball on a dark ground, to sit with the back to the light,
to focus the gaze on the ball (disregarding reflections, if these cannot
be excluded), and to await results. Perhaps from five to ten minutes is
a long enough time for the experiment. The scryer may let his
consciousness play freely, but should not be disturbed by lookers-on. As
a rule, if a person has the faculty he "sees" at the first attempt; if
he fails in the first three or four efforts he need not persevere.
Solitude is advisable at first, but few people can find time amounting
to ten minutes for solitary studies of this sort, so busy and so
gregarious is mankind. The writer has no experience of trance, sleep or
auto-hypnotization produced in such experiments; scryers have always
seemed to retain their full normal consciousness. As regards scepticism
concerning the faculty we may quote what Mr Galton says about the
faculty of visualization: "Scientific men as a class have feeble power
of visual reproduction.... They had a mental deficiency of which they
were unconscious, and, naturally enough, supposed that those who
affirmed _they_ were possessed of it were romancing."
AUTHORITIES.--A useful essay is that of "Miss X" (Miss Goodrich Freer)
in the _Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research_, v. The
history of crystal-gazing is here traced, and many examples of the
author's own experiments are recorded. A. Lang's _The Making of
Religion_, ch. v., contains anthropological examples and a series of
experiments. In N. W. Thomas's _Crystal Gazing_ the history and
anthropology of the subject are investigated, with modern instances.
For Egypt, see Lane's _Modern Egyptians_, and the _Journal_ of Sir
Walter Scott, xi. 419-421, with _Quarterly Review_, No. 117, pp.
196-208. These Egyptian experiments of 1830 were vitiated by their
method, the scryer being asked to see and describe a given person,
named. He ought not, of course, to be told more than that he is to
descry the inquirer's thoughts, and there ought never to be physical
contact, as in holding hands, between the inquirer and the scryer
during the experiment. There is a chapter on crystal-gazing in _Les
Nevroses et les idees fixes_ of Dr Janet (1898). His statements are
sometimes demonstrably inaccurate (see _Making of Religion_, Appendix
C). A curious passage on the subject, by Ibn Khaldun, an Arabian
medieval _savant_, is quoted by Mr Thomas from the printed Extracts of
MSS. in the Bibliotheque Nationale. There is also a chapter on
crystal-gazing in Myers' _Human Personality_. (A. L.)