089 



CROSSE, ANDREW. 



CUUDEN, ALEXANDER. 



990 



having during his illness arrived for it from the Boston Athenaeum. It 

 excited general admiration and anticipation. He worked on diligently, 

 gaining in executive skill and confidence, and rising steadily in reputa- 

 tion. Among the chief of his earlier works are his ' Herodias with the 

 head of John the Baptist;' 'The Babes in the Wood;' 'Flora;' and 

 ' The Dancers' two life-size statues of children, which have had con- 

 siderable popularity. Among the best of his later works are his 

 bronze statue of Beethoven, now in the Athenaeum at Boston, Ame- 

 rica; the equestrian statue of Washington, which stands in the 

 square at liichmond, Virginia ; and the more ambitious alto-rilievo 

 of the ' Progress of Civilisation in America,' which he was commis- 

 sioned by the federal government to execute for the pediment of 

 the Capitol at Washington. Others of his works are his statues of 

 'The Genius of Mirth;' 'A Shepherdess;' 'David;' and 'Prayer;' 

 his groups of ' Adam and Eve,' of heroic size ; ' A Family suffering 

 under the plague of Fiery Serpents ;' ' A Mother attempting to save 

 herself and Child from the Deluge :' and his ideal busts of Sappho, 

 Vesta, &c. He also made Lumerous designs for bassi-relievi illustra- 

 tive of the Old and New Testaments ; the poets of Greece, Italy and 

 England ; events of American history, &c., as well as several models of 

 leading American statesmen. 



From first entering Rome, Crawford made that city his home. He 

 had just completed a new and spacious studio in order to work with 

 more convenience at the numerous commissions which awaited com- 

 pletion when he was stricken with a disease tumour on the brain 

 which rendered him unable again to take up his chisel. He came to 

 London for the benefit of medical advice, but failed to obtain relief, 

 and died in London on the 8th of October 1857. Crawford was a 

 sculptor of a very high order of merit, not reaching to the first rank, 

 but coming close to it. His works display originality and vigour 

 rather than refinement ; mental power rather than technical skill. 

 Casts of some of his statues are in the Crystal Palace at Sydenham. 



CROSS hi, ANDREW, a celebrated experimenter on electricity, was 

 born at Fyiie Court, in the parish of Bromfield, on the Quautock Hills 

 in Somersetshire, on June 17, 1784. His father was the proprietor of 

 the estate, to which he succeeded in 1800. He was educated at the 

 school of the Rev. M. Sayers, at Bristol, where he had for school- 

 fellows, W. J. Broderip, the Rev. John Eagles, and other equally 

 celebrated men. In 1802 he matriculated at Brasenose College, 

 Oxford, where he was very uncomfortable, the habits, especially 

 that of drinking, being particularly unsuited to him. He returned 

 home in June 1805, on account of the illness of his mother, who 

 shortly afterwards died. Even when at school he had become greatly 

 attached to the study of electricity, and on settling on his paternal 

 estate he devoted still more of his attention to the subject. He 

 provided himself with electrical apparatus, and pursued his experi- 

 ments wholly independent of theories, and searching only for facts. 

 In a cavern near his residence, called Holwell Cavern, he observed the 

 sides and roof covered with arragonite crystallisations, and his obser- 

 vations led him to conclude that the crystallisations were the effects, 

 at least to some extent, of electricity. This induced him to make the 

 attempt to form artificial crystals by the same means, which he began 

 in 1807. He took some of the water from the cave, filled a tumbler, 

 and exposed it to the action, of a voltaic battery excited by water 

 alone, letting the platinum wires of the battery fall on opposite 

 sides of the tumbler from the opposite poles of the battery. After 

 ten days of constant action he procured crystals of carbonate of lime, 

 and subsequently by altering the arrangements he produced them in 

 six days. He found however that darkness was essential to the 

 certainty and rapidity of their production. He carried an insulated 

 wire above the tops of the trees around his house to a length of a mile 

 and a quarter, afterwards shortened to a distance of 1,800 feet. By 

 this wire, which was brought into connection with his apparatus in a 

 chamber, he was enabled to see continually the changes in the state of 

 the atmosphere, and could use the fluid so collected for a variety of 

 purposes. In 1816, at a meeting of country gentlemen, he prophesied 

 " that, by means of electrical agency, we shall be able to communicate 

 our thoughts instantaneously with the uttermost ends of the earth." 

 But though he foresaw the powers of the medium, it does not appear 

 that he took any means towards fulfilling his prophecy, or even made 

 any experiments in that direction ; he continued to confine himself to 

 the endeavour to produce crystals of various kinds, in which he 

 eminently succeeded, having ultimately obtained forty-one mineral 

 crystals, or minerals uncrystallised, in the form, in which they are 

 produced by nature, including one, sub-sulphate of copper, an entirely 

 new mineral neither found in nature nor formed by art previously. His 

 belief was, that even diamonds might be formed in this way. Still he 

 worked alone ; he published none of his experiments to the world, 

 and he propounded no theories. At length, in 1836, the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science held its meeting in Bristol, 

 and Mr. Crosse attended it, intending to be an auditor only ; but 

 having mentioned his discoveries to some of the scientific gentlemen 

 there, he was induced to explain them publicly, and though unpro- 

 vided with apparatus, they were so struck with the importance of them, 

 that he was publicly complimented by the president, the Marquis of 

 Northampton, and by Dr. Buckland, Dr. Dalton, Professor Sedgwick, 

 and others. A few months after this meeting, while pursuing his 

 experiments for forming crystals from a highly caustic solution out of 



contact with atmospheric air, he was greatly surprised by the appear- 

 ance of an insect. Black flint, burnt to redness and reduced to 

 powder, was mixed with carbonate of potash and exposed to strong 

 heat for fifteen minutes. The mixture was poured into a blacklead 

 crucible in an air furnace. It was reduced to powder while warm, 

 mixed with boiling-water, kept boiling for some minutes, and then 

 hydrochloric acid was added to supersaturation. After being ex- 

 posed to voltaic action for twenty-six days a perfect insect, of the 

 Acari tribe, made its appearance, and in the course of a few weeks 

 about a hundred more. The experiment was repeated in other 

 chemical fluids with the like results, and Mr. Weeks, of Sandwich, 

 afterwards produced them in ferrocyanuret of potassium. This dis- 

 covery occasioned great excitement at the time. The possibility was 

 denied, though Mr. Faraday stated in the fame year that he had seen 

 similar appearances in his own electrical experiments; and he was 

 accused of impiety, as aiming at creation. He was much hurt by 

 these attacks, for he was a truly pious man. He says he wa^ inclined 

 to believe that the insects were formed from ova in the water, but failed 

 to detect any ; aud adds, " I have formed no visionary theory that I 

 would travel out of my way to support." He attempted to give no ex- 

 planation of what he admitted he could not comprehend, aud in answer 

 to a person who had written to him, calling him " a reviler of our 

 holy religion," he replied that he was sorry if the faith of his neigh- 

 bours depended on the claw of a mite. These insects, if removed 

 from their birthplace, live and propagate, but uniformly die on the 

 first recurrence of frost, and are entirely destroyed if they fall back 

 into the fluid whence they arose. This was the most remarkable of 

 his discoveries ; but his labours were in some instances more useful. 

 He invented a method, which was patented by others, for purifying 

 sea-water by electricity, which water possessed peculiar antiseptic 

 properties ; this process was also capable of being used for the improve- 

 ment of wines by removing the predominance of bitartrate of potash; 

 to the improvement of spirits by removing acidity ; and to the stopping 

 of the fermentation of cider. He also made experiments of the 

 effects of electricity on vegetation. He found that positive electricity 

 advanced the growth, as was shown by the cultivation of two viues by 

 Mr. Boys of Margate; and that negative electricity favoured the growth 

 of fungi, and produced something like the rot in the potato. But 

 Andrew Crosse did not confine his labours to scientific matters. 

 Though living chiefly on his estate in the country, he took an earnest 

 part in all local affairs. He was an active magistrate, just, but bene- 

 volent ; he advocated the in&truction of the poor, and be gave lectures 

 on various subjects to the neighbouring institutes; he left a quantity 

 of poetry, considerably above mediocrity, which he could not be 

 induced to publish in his lifetime, but which has been given to the 

 world by his widow, in a memoir of him written with much good 

 taste; and he died, after a short illness, on July 6, 1855, leaving 

 behind him the character of a pious good man, and an indefatigable 

 searcher for truth. 



CRUDEN, ALEXANDER, the author of the well-known Con- 

 cordance, was born at Aberdeen in 1701. He studied at Marischal 

 College, but whilst there, his conduct was marked by eccentricities 

 similar to those which characterised his later years, and, as it was 

 found necessary to abandon his intention of becoming a minister of the 

 Church, he catne to London in April 1724, aud subsisted by giving 

 lessons in Greek and Latin. Afterwards he obtained a situation as 

 tutor, and in that capacity resided for some time in the Isle of Man. 

 In 1732 he opened a bookseller's shop under the Royal Exchange, and 

 occupied his leisure hours in the preparation of his ' Concordance of 

 the Old aud New Testament,' which appeared in 1737. It was dedi- 

 cated to Queen Caroline, and Cruden had calculated sanguinely on her 

 majesty's favour. The queen died however just after the publication 

 of his book, and the disappointment brought out his latent insanity. 

 He was removed to a private lunatic asylum at Bethnal-green, where 

 he was confined from March 23 to May 21, 1738, when he escaped. 

 He persisted in asserting that he was of sound mind, and brought an 

 action against the keeper of the asylum and others ; but as might be 

 supposed, the jury was directed by the judge to find a verdict for the 

 defendants. 



Cruden published an appeal to the public, under the title of ' Mr. 

 Cruden greatly Injured on account of a Trial between Mr. Alexander 

 Cruden, bookseller to the late Queen, plaintiff, and Dr. Monro, Matthew 

 Wright, John Oswald, and John Davis, defendants, iu the Court of 

 Common Pleas, in Westminster Hall, July 17, 1739, on an action of 

 Trespass, Assault, and Imprisonment .... with sn account of several 

 other Persons, who have been most unjustly confined in Private Mad- 

 houses. The whole tending to show the great necessity there is for 

 the Legislature to regulate Private Madhouses in a more effectual 

 manner than at present,' 8vo, 1739. Cruden, who appears to have 

 been treated while in the asylum with great brutality, now found 

 employment as a reader of printers' proof-sheets, and in the occasional 

 preparation of indexes. Among others he is said to have compiled 

 the elaborate index to Newton's ' Milton.' 



He now published the first part of a strange kind of autobiography, 

 under the title of the 'Adventures of Alexander the Corrector.' A 

 second time it was deemed necessary to place him under temporary 

 restraint at Chelsea; and again he brought an action in the Court of 

 King's Bench against the parties who had restrained him, with as little 



