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.
[Illustration: Dentition of _Hyaenodon leptorhynchus_, from the Lower
Oligocene of France. The last upper molar is concealed by the
penultimate tooth.]
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).
CREOSOTE, CREASOTE or KREASOTE (from Gr. [Greek: kreas], flesh, and
[Greek: sozein], to preserve), a product of the distillation of coal,
bone oil, shale oil, and wood-tar (more especially that made from
beech-wood). The creosote is extracted from the distillate by means of
alkali, separated from the filtered alkaline solution by sulphuric acid,
and then distilled with dilute alkali; the distillate is again treated
with alkali and acid, till its purification is effected; it is then
redistilled at 200 deg. C., and dried by means of calcium chloride. It
is a highly refractive, colourless, oily liquid, and was first obtained
in 1832 by K. Reichenbach from beech-wood tar. It consists mainly of a
mixture of phenol, cresol, guaiacol, creosol, xylenol, dimethyl
guaiacol, ethyl guaiacol, and various methyl ethers of pyrogallol.
Creosote has a strong odour and hot taste, and burns with a smoky flame.
It dissolves sulphur, phosphorus, resins, and many acids and colouring
matters; and is soluble in alcohol, ether, and carbon disulphide, and in
80 parts by volume of water. It is distinguished from carbolic acid by
the following properties:--it rotates the plane of polarized light to
the right, forms with collodion a transparent fluid, and is nearly
insoluble in glycerin; whereas carbolic acid has no effect on polarized
light, gives with about two-thirds of its volume of collodion a
gelatinous mass, and is soluble in all proportions in glycerin; further,
alcohol and ferric chloride produce with creosote a green solution,
turned brown by water, with carbolic acid a brown, and on the addition
of water a blue solution. Creosote, like carbolic acid, is a powerful
antiseptic, and readily coagulates albuminous matter; wood-smoke and
pyroligneous acid or wood-vinegar owe to its presence their efficacy in
preserving animal and vegetable substances from putrefaction.
_Creosote oil_ is the name generally applied to the fraction of the coal
tar distillate which boils between 200 deg. and 300 deg. C. (see COAL
TAR). It is a greenish-yellow fluorescent liquid, usually containing
phenol, cresol, naphthalene, anthracene, pyridine, quinoline, acridine
and other substances. Its chief use is for the preservation of timber.
_Pharmacology and Therapeutics._--Creosote derived from wood-tar is
given medicinally in doses of from one to five minims, either suspended
in mucilage, or in capsules. It should always be administered after a
meal, when the gastric contents dilute it and prevent irritation.
Creosote and carbolic acid (q.v.) have a very similar pharmacology; but
there is one conspicuous exception. Beech-wood creosote alone should be
used in medicine, as its composition renders it much more valuable than
other creosotes. Its constituents circulate unchanged in the blood and
are excreted by the lungs. Although carbolic acid has no value in
phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis) or in any other bacterial condition of
the lungs, creosote, having volatile constituents which are excreted in
the expired air and which are powerfully antiseptic, may well be of much
value in these conditions. In phthisis creosote is now superseded by
both its carbonate (creosotal)--given in the same doses--which causes
less gastric disturbance, and by guaiacol itself, which may be given in
doses up to thirty minims in capsules. The phosphate (phosote or
phosphote), phosphite (phosphotal), and valerianate (eosote) also find
application. Similarly the carbonate of guaiacol may be given in doses
even as large as a drachm. Creosote may also be used as an inhalation
with a steam atomizer. It is applicable not only in phthisis but in
bronchiectasis, bronchitis, broncho-pneumonia, lobar pneumonia and all
other bacterial lung diseases. Like carbolic acid, creosote may be used
in toothache, and the local antiseptic and anaesthetic action which it
shares with that substance is often of value in relieving gastric pain
due to simple ulcer or cancer, and in those forms of vomiting which are
due to gastric irritation.
For the determination and separation of the various constituents of
creosote see F. Tiemann, _Ber._ (1881), 14, p. 2005; A. Behal and C.
Choay, _Comptes rendus_ (1893), 116, p. 197; and L. F. Kebler, _Amer.
Jour. Pharm._ (1899), p. 409.
CREPUSCULAR (from Lat. _crepusculum_, twilight), of or belonging to the
twilight, hence indistinct or glimmering; in zoology the word is used of
animals that appear before sunrise or nightfall.
CREQUY, a French family which originated in Picardy, and took its name
from a small lordship in the present Pas-de-Calais. Its genealogy goes
back to the 10th century, and from it originated the noble houses of
Blecourt, Canaples, Heilly and Royon. Henri de Crequy was killed at the
siege of Damietta in 1240; Jacques de Crequy, marshal of Guienne, was
killed at Agincourt with his brothers Jean and Raoul; Jean de Crequy,
lord of Canaples, was in the Burgundian service, and took part in the
defence of Paris against Joan of Arc in 1429, received the order of the
Golden Fleece in 1431, and was ambassador to Aragon and France; Antoine
de Crequy was one of the boldest captains of Francis I., and died in
consequence of an accident at the siege of Hesdin in 1523. Jean VIII.,
sire de Crequy, prince de Poix, seigneur de Canaples (d. 1555), left
three sons, the eldest of whom, Antoine de Crequy (1535-1574), inherited
the family estates on the death of his brothers at St Quentin in 1557.
He was raised to the cardinalate, and his nephew and heir, Antoine de
Blanchefort, assumed the name and arms of Crequy.
Charles I. de Blanchefort, marquis de Crequy, prince de Poix, duc de
Lesdiguieres (1578-1638), marshal of France, son of the last-named, saw
his first fighting before Laon in 1594, and was wounded at the capture
of Saint Jean d'Angely in 1621. In the next year he became a marshal of
France. He served through the Piedmontese campaign in aid of Savoy in
1624 as second in command to the constable, Francois de Bonne, duc de
Lesdiguieres, whose daughter Madeleine he had married in 1595. He
inherited in 1626 the estates and title of his father-in-law, who had
induced him, after the death of his first wife, to marry her half-sister
Francoise. He was also lieutenant-general of Dauphine. In 1633 he was
ambassador to Rome, and in 1636 to Venice. He fought in the Italian
campaigns of 1630, 1635, 1636 and 1637, when he helped to defeat the
Spaniards at Monte Baldo. He was killed on the 17th of March 1638 in an
attempt to raise the siege of Crema, a fortress in the Milanese. He had
a quarrel extending over years with Philip, the bastard of Savoy, which
ended in a duel fatal to Philip in 1599; and in 1620 he defended
Saint-Aignan, who was his prisoner of war, against a prosecution
threatened by Louis XIII. Some of his letters are preserved in the
Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, and his life was written by N. Chorier
(Grenoble, 1683).
His eldest son, Francois, comte de Sault, due de Lesdiguieres
(1600-1677), governor and lieutenant-general of Dauphine, took the name
and arms of Bonne. The younger, Charles II. de Crequy, seigneur de
Canaples, was killed at the siege of Chambery in 1630, leaving three
sons--Charles III., sieur de Blanchefort, prince de Poix, duc de Crequy
(1623?-1687); Alphonse de Crequy, comte de Canaples (d. 1711), who
became on the extinction of the elder branch of the family in 1702 duc
de Lesdiguieres, and eventually succeeded also to his younger brother's
honours; and Francois, chevalier de Crequy and marquis de Marines,
marshal of France (1625-1687).
The last-named was born in 1625, and as a boy took part in the Thirty
Years' War, distinguishing himself so greatly that at the age of
twenty-six he was made a _marechal de camp_, and a lieutenant-general
before he was thirty. He was regarded as the most brilliant of the
younger officers, and won the favour of Louis XIV. by his fidelity to
the court during the second Fronde. In 1667 he served on the Rhine, and
in 1668 he commanded the covering army during Louis XIV.'s siege of
Lille, after the surrender of which the king rewarded him with the
marshalate. In 1670 he overran the duchy of Lorraine. Shortly after this
Turenne, his old commander, was made marshal-general, and all the
marshals were placed under his orders. Many resented this, and Crequy,
in particular, whose career of uninterrupted success had made him
over-confident, went into exile rather than serve under Turenne. After
the death of Turenne and the retirement of Conde, he became the most
important general officer in the army, but his over-confidence was
punished by the severe defeat of Conzer Bruck (1675) and the surrender
of Trier and his own captivity which followed. But in the later
campaigns of this war (see DUTCH WARS) he showed himself again a cool,
daring and successful commander, and, carrying on the tradition of
Turenne and Conde, he was in his turn the pattern of the younger
generals of the stamp of Luxembourg and Villars. He died in Paris on the
3rd of February 1687.
Alphonse de Crequy had not the talent of his brothers, and lost his
various appointments in France. He went to London in 1672, where he
became closely allied with Saint Evremond, and was one of the intimates
of King Charles II.
Charles III. de Crequy served in the campaigns of 1642 and 1645 in the
Thirty Years' War, and in Catalonia in 1649. In 1646, after the siege of
Orbitello, he was made lieutenant-general by Louis. By faithful service
during the king's minority he had won the gratitude of Anne of Austria
and of Mazarin, and in 1652 he became duc de Crequy and a peer of
France. The latter half of his life was spent at court, where he held
the office of first gentleman of the royal chamber, which had been
bought for him by his grandfather. In 1659 he was sent to Spain with
gifts for the infanta Maria Theresa, and on a similar errand to Bavaria
in 1680 before the marriage of the dauphin. He was ambassador to Rome
from 1662 to 1665, and to England in 1677; and became governor of Paris
in 1675. He died in Paris on the 13th of February 1687. His only
daughter, Madeleine, married Charles de la Tremoille (1655-1709).
The marshal Francois de Crequy had two sons, whose brilliant military
abilities bade fair to rival his own. The elder, Francois Joseph,
marquis de Crequy (1662-1702), already held the grade of
lieutenant-general when he was killed at Luzzara on the 13th of August
1702; and Nicolas Charles, sire de Crequy, was killed before Tournai in
1696 at the age of twenty-seven.
A younger branch of the Crequy family, that of Hemont, was represented
by Louis Marie, marquis de Crequy (1705-1741), author of the _Principes
philosophiques des saints solitaires d'Egypte_ (1779), and husband of
the marquise separately noticed below, and became extinct with the death
in 1801 of his son, Charles Marie, who had some military reputation.
For a detailed genealogy of the family and its alliances see Moreri,
_Dictionnaire historique; Annuaire de la noblesse francaise_ (1856 and
1867). There is much information about the Crequys in the _Memoires_
of Saint-Simon.
CREQUY, RENEE CAROLINE DE FROULLAY, MARQUISE DE (1714-1803), was born on
the 19th of October 1714, at the chateau of Monfleaux (Mayenne), the
daughter of Lieutenant-General Charles Francois de Froullay. She was
educated by her maternal grandmother, and married in 1737 Louis Marie,
marquis de Crequy (see above), who died four years after the marriage.
Madame de Crequy devoted herself to the care of her only son, who
rewarded her with an ingratitude which was the chief sorrow of her life.
In 1755 she began to receive in Paris, among her intimates being
D'Alembert and J. J. Rousseau. She had none of the frivolity generally
associated with the women of her time and class, and presently became
extremely religious with inclinations to Jansenism. D'Alembert's visits
ceased when she adopted religion, and she was nearly seventy when she
formed the great friendship of her life with Senac de Meilhan, whom she
met in 1781, and with whom she carried on a correspondence (edited by
Edouard Fournier, with a preface by Sainte-Beuve in 1856). She commented
on and criticized Meilhan's works and helped his reputation. She was
arrested in 1793 and imprisoned in the convent of Les Oiseaux until the
fall of Robespierre (July 1794). The well-known _Souvenirs de la
marquise de Crequy_ (1710-1803), printed in 7 volumes, 1834-1835, and
purporting to be addressed to her grandson, Tancrede de Crequy, was the
production of a Breton adventurer, Cousin de Courchamps. The first two
volumes appeared in English in 1834 and were severely criticized in the
_Quarterly Review_.
See the notice prefixed by Sainte-Beuve to the _Lettres_; P. L. Jacob,
_Enigmes et decouvertes bibliographiques_ (Paris, 1866); Querard,
_Supercheries litteraires_, s.v. "Crequy"; _L'Ombre de la marquise de
Crequy aux lecteurs des souvenirs_ (1836) exposes the forgery of the
_Memoires_.
CRESCAS, HASDAI BEN ABRAHAM (1340-1410), Spanish philosopher. His work,
_The Light of the Lord_ (_'Or 'Adonai_), deeply affected Spinoza, and
thus his philosophy became of wide importance. Maimonides (q.v.) had
brought Jewish thought entirely under the domination of Aristotle. The
work of Crescas, though it had no immediate success, ended in effecting
its liberation. He refused to base Judaism on speculative philosophy
alone; there was a deep emotional side to his thought. Thus he based
Judaism on love, not on knowledge; love was the bond between God and
man, and man's fundamental duty was love as expressed in obedience to
God's will. Spinoza derived from Crescas his distinction between
attributes and properties; he shared Crescas's views on creation and
free will, and in the whole trend of his thought the influence of
Crescas is strongly marked.