CRETONNE 



561 



'\|.ainled at the sides, the forehead retreating, the 

 comiili'vion cadaverous; in addition to which, tin- 

 whole body is dwarfish, tlit hkin thick and coarse, 

 tin- hands and feet large, tlie limbs often rickety, 

 tin- lu'lly protuberant, llecrnt in\ c>t i^at ions have 

 shown that the connection between iTHinim and 

 goitre, is an extremely close one. The disease 

 ml In I M\ \<i><li-ina(q.v.) closely resembles cretinism, 

 except that it comes on during adult life; and it 

 I in* Men proved to IK> always associated with 

 destructive change of the thyroid gland. A similar 

 condition has also been found to follow the removal 

 of the thxroid gland 1>\ surgical operation in a 

 large proportion of cases. It is, therefore, probable 

 that loss of the function of the thyroid gland is the 

 < "'Mitial factor in the production of cretinism, 

 while goitre consists in its enlargement. It is as 

 yet quite uncertain, however, why the inhabit- 

 ants of particular districts are so liable to disease 

 of this organ. Many attempts have been made to 

 improve the condition of the cretin in childhood, 

 by removing him from the locality of his birth, 

 nd by careful training ; the institution founded 

 by Dr Guggenbiihl on the Abendberg, near Inter- 

 laken in Switzerland, having been the prototype 

 of many others on the Continent, and of some 

 in England and Scotland, for the education of 

 idiots. 



Cretonne, originally a white cloth of French 

 manufacture, is a name now applied to a printed 

 cotton fabric used for curtains or for covering furni- 

 ture, which was introduced about 1860. Chintz 

 (q.v.), so much employed for the same purpose in 

 former years, is a comparatively thin printed cloth 

 usually highly glazed. Cretonne, on the other 

 hand, is generally thick and strong for a cotton 

 fabric, and with a twilled, crape, basket, wave, or 

 other figure produced on the loom. When a 

 pattern is printed on this uneven surface (it is 

 sometimes plain), it has a rich, soft appearance. 

 A cretonne is rarely calendered or glazed. The 

 thick weft threads of inferior qualities are com- 

 monly formed of waste cotton, and the patterns 

 upon these, though often bright and showy, are as 

 a rule printed in more or less fugitive colours. 

 Some cretonnen are now printed on both sides with 

 different patterns. 



CreilSC, a river and a department in the centre 

 of France. The river rises near Feniers, on the 

 northern slope of Mont Odouze, and flows 146 miles 

 north- west ward till it falls into the Vienne, a 

 tributary of the Loire, 12 miles N. of Chatellerault. 

 The department, with an area of 2150 sq. m., 

 had a population of ( 1872) 274,663 ; (1891 ) 284,660. 

 Low mountains and chains of hills, 2000 to 3000 

 feet high, occupy the greater part of the land. 

 The climate is moist and variable, and the soil 

 thin and light, interspersed with stretches of heath 

 and pasture in the southern hilly district, but 

 better in the lowlands of the north-east. The 

 rearing of cattle forms the chief industry, and 

 large quantities of chestnuts and fruit are grown. 

 Coal is mined at Ahun. Creuse is divided into the 

 arrondissements of Aubusson, Bourganeuf, Boussac, 

 and (iueret, with Gueret for capital. 



Creusot, or CrcilZOt, LE, a town in the 

 French department of Sa6ne-et- Loire, 14 miles 

 SSE. of Autun, and 236 SSE. of Paris. Situated 

 in the midst of a district rich in coal and iron, it 

 owes its importance to the establishment here in 

 1837 of the great ironworks of Schneider & Co., 

 which rank amongst the largest in Europe. They 

 have their own collieries and coke furnaces, have 

 large smelting furnaces and rolling-mills for armour- 

 plates, execute military engineering work of all 

 kinds, especially cannon, and employ over 13,000 

 people. Pop. (1846) 4012; (1891) 18,467. See 

 140 



Yudot, Le Creuaot, *on Jl'mtmre, Hon Industrie ( 1875), 

 and works by H.-MII.-IM-I t ( ISOO) and \Veyl ( 1889). 



Creiizer, FI:II.M:I< n, a learned German philo- 

 logist, was born at Marburg, March 10, 1771, and 

 studied there and at Jena. In 1H02 he was called 

 to a chair at Marburg, and in 1804 to that of 1'hilo- 

 logy and Ancient History at Heidelberg, which 

 he tilled till his retirement in 1845. Here he died, 

 15th February 1858. Creuzer's firxt and greatest 

 work was his j>erversely ingenious and learned 

 Symbolik und mytkologie der alien Volker, benorulert 

 der Grievhen (4 vols. Leip. 1810-12). His symboli- 

 cal explanation of ancient mythologies was assailed 

 by Hermann, Voss, Lol>eck, and Pott. His next 

 work in importance was a complete edition of the 

 works of Plotinus (3 vols. Oxford, 1835). With 

 G. H. Moser, Creuzer edited several of the philo- 

 sophical works of Cicero. Most of his writings 

 are collected in the series of Deutsche Schriften 

 (1837-54), which contains also his autobiography, 

 under the title A us dem Leben eines alien Professors, 

 subsequently divided and arranged into Deutsche 

 Lehr- und Wanderjahre and Paralipomena. In 

 1854 appeared his Opuscula Selecta. 



Crevasse. See GLACIER. 



Crevecceiir (Fr., 'heart-breaker'), a once 

 famous Dutch fort in the province of North 

 Brabant, at the confluence of the Meuse and the 

 Dieze, 4 miles NNW. of Bois-le-Duc. It figures in 

 history from 1587 to 1794. 



Crevillente", a town of Spain, 20 miles WSW. 

 of Alicante. Pop. 8683. 



Crew, of a ship, is a collective name for all the 

 persons employed therein, but usually limited to 

 designate petty-officers and seamen only. In 

 men-of-war, the entire crew are divided into five 

 groups : ( 1 ) Commissioned and warrant officers ; ( 2 ) 

 chief petty-officers ; ( 3 ) first-class petty-officers ; 

 (4) second-class petty-officers; (5) able seamen, 

 ordinary seamen, non-combatants, and boys. In 

 the royal navy there are upwards of 180 different 

 ranks, grades, or offices among the crew, excluding 

 officers and marines. 



In the case of a merchant-ship about to proceed 

 on a foreign-going voyage from' a British port, the 

 crew sign the agreement between the shipowner 

 and themselves (usually called 'the articles') in 

 the Mercantile Marine Office in the presence of the 

 officers of the Board of Trade ; and on returning to 

 the United Kingdom, the master must lodge the 

 articles at the Mercantile Marine Office within 

 forty-eight hours of his arrival, and the crew are 

 discharged there. Seamen leaving the vessel 

 abroad must be discharged Itefore the British 

 consul, and new engagements abroad must be 

 made before the same official. In the case of vessels 

 in the coasting trade, the crew sign articles on 

 board the vessel, but the agreements are handed 

 over to the Mercantile Marine Offices every June 

 and December. Vessels under 80 tons hand over 

 their crew-lists only, in the same manner. There 

 is no statutory scale for manning British ships, 

 but the Passengers Act requires that a ship cany- 

 ing emigrants snail be manned with an ' efficient ' 

 crew to the satisfaction of the emigration officer 

 clearing her. Owing to improvements in masting 

 and rigging, the use of better mechanical appliances, 

 and the necessity for economical working, mer- 

 chant-ships' crews are now smaller than in former 

 years, except in the best class of passenger vessels. 



Crewe, a town of Cheshire, with a great railway 

 function and the huge works of the London and 

 North-Western Railway, to which it owes its 

 present importance, tt is 168 miles NW. of 

 London, 43 SE. of Liverpool, 31 SSW. of Man- 

 chester, and 53 NW. of Birmingham. About 1840 



