313 



CREDIT. 



CRETINS. 



311 





CREDIT. [BILL OF EXCHANGE ; CURRENCY.] 



CREDIT, LETTER OF, is an order given by bankers or others at 

 one place to enable a person to receive money from their agents at 

 another place. The person who obtains a letter of credit may proceed 

 on his journey, and need only carry with him a sum sufficient to 

 defray his expenses ; he even derives from it some of the advantages 

 of a banking account when he reaches his destination, as he may avail 

 him self of it only for part of the sum named. If it were not for the 

 convenience which a letter of credit affords, a person intending to make 

 a tour, for example, on the Continent, would be under the necessity 

 either of taking with him the whole of the money which he would 

 require during his absence, or of receiving remittances from home, 

 addressed to him at particular places. 



This instrument is now subject to a stamp duty of one penny, except 

 when it is sent by a person in the United Kingdom to a person abroad, 

 authorising drafts on the United Kingdom. It is not a negotiable 

 instrument. No one, therefore, can legally demand payment or give a 

 valid discharge for the amount except the person named in it, or his 

 agent duly authorised for that purpose ; so that payment to any other 

 is no discharge of the banker from his engagement thereon. At the 

 same time there is no contract of the banker or his agents with 

 the payee, so as to be liable for damages in an action instituted by the 

 payee for having refused him payment, according to the tenor of the 

 letter, unless indeed the payee in one locality happens to be the same 

 person who in another purchased the letter for his own convenience. 

 Where the payee and the purchaser of the letter are different persons, 

 the payee's remedy in such a case is against the purchaser, to whom 

 the banker is answerable for the default of his agents in not meeting 

 the payee's drafts by prompt payment. 



CREED, from the Latin credo (I believe), the English name for 

 those short summaries of Christian doctrine which in the Continental 

 churches are commonly called symbols, though sometimes, also, credos. 

 The English Church adopts, as " thoroughly to be received and 

 believed," the three ancient creeds, called the Apostles' creed, the 

 Athanasian creed, and the Nicene creed, but only says of them gene- 

 rally, that " they may be proved by most certain warrants of holy 

 Scripture." (Art. viii.) The Roman Catholic Church adopts along 

 with the.se what is called the Creed of the Council of Constantinople, 

 which contains some addition to what is said in the Nicene creed on 

 the subject of the divinity of the Holy Ghost. Many other similar 

 formulae have been received at different times in particular Churches. 



CREEK is a small inlet on a low sandy coast. Such inlets occur 

 also frequently in harbours inclosed by a low shore and along the banks 

 of rivers, Sometimes, especially hi harbours, creeks are formed by the 

 mouths of small brooks and rivulets. In large rivers creeks are 

 resorted to by small craft as harbours or landing places, and they are 

 often visited by fish in spawning time. In the United States the name 

 creek is very generally applied to small inland streams, which in 

 England would be called brooks or rivers. 



CREEK INDIANS. [NORTH AMERICAS INDIANS.] 



CKKKS AND CHIPPEWAYS. [NORTH AMERICA'S INDIANS.] 



CKEMO'NA, a general name given to violins made at Cremona in 

 the 17th century by the Amati family, and by Straduarius at the 

 commencement of the 18th. These instruments excel all others, and 

 the choicest of them bear very high prices. [VioLls.] Cremona is a 

 name erroneously given to a stop in the organ ; it ought to be Krumhrjrn, 

 a sort of cornet, of which it is intended to be an imitation. 



CRENIC ACID (3HO,C J .H 1 ,0,.). An acid found combined with 

 ammonia in vegetable mould. It dissolves in water with a yellow 

 colour, and, rapidly absorbing oxygen, becomes converted into a brown 

 solution of Ajxtcrenic acid (2HO,C (S H la O.,). 



CREOLES, a word originally Spanish, and used to designate the 

 children and descendants of European parents, who were born in the 

 South American or West Indian colonies, as distinct from the resident 

 inhabitants born hi Europe, as well as from the offspring of mixed 

 blood, such as the Mulattos and Mestizoes, born of negro or Indian 

 mothers. The Creoles of Spanish America were for a long time inad- 

 missible to civil and political offices, as well as to the higher ranks in 

 the army ; and even after Charles III. removed their disqualifications, 

 they were still considered as inferior to the native Spaniards. This 

 state of humiliation contributed perhaps as much as the climate to 

 render them lazy and indolent. The insurrection of the Spanish 

 colonies made the Creoles masters of the country, from which the 

 native Spaniards were mostly driven away. In the West India Islands 

 the Creoles are upon an equal footing with European natives. The 

 Creole women are characterised by the symmetry of their persons, the 

 brilliancy of their eyes, and the sallowness of then- complexions. 



CBEOSOTE. [C*i VSOTE.] 



CBEPUSCULUM. [TWILIGHT.] 



CREST, from the Latin crista, the ornament of the helmet : a term 

 in heraldry sometimes used for the helmet itself. Hence, to creel, to 

 adorn as with a plume or crest, in Milton, ' Par. Lost/ ix. 500. 



" bis head 



crtltfd aloft." 



In speaking of the cimier or crest, says Dallaway (' Inquiries into the 



-'in >n,l I'ncTesaof Heraldry in England,' 4to, Olouc. 1793, p. 386), 



' It will be necessary to describe the armour worn for the defence of 



the head, and the progressive embellishments which were added to its 

 rude form, with the era of their invention. Montfaucon, that most 

 critical antiquary, has preserved many delineations of the ancient 

 Norman casque, which, when the whole body was invested in mail, 

 was composed of iron framework, covered with leather, and quite flat 

 at the top, to which shape succeeded the conical head. By the num- 

 ber of bars of which the beauvoir or visor consisted, when presented in 

 front view, the rank of the wearer was ascertained ; that of the esquire 

 was always in profile and closed, to denote his vigilance and activity in 

 battle. The date of the introduction of crests into England is uncer- 

 tain. After the time of Richard I., some of the kings are represented 

 with a crown as a sort of crest on the helmet. The seal of Edmund 

 Crouchback, earl of Lancaster, exhibits the crest, accompanied by the 

 lambrequin and wreath, prior to the year 1286. The crest is said to 

 have been carved in light wood, or made of leather, in the shape of 

 some animal, real or fictitious, and fastened by a fillet of silk round 

 the helmet, over which was a large piece of fringed samit or taffeta, 

 pointed, with a tassel at the end. Before figures were introduced, 

 plumes only were used, as well upon the head of the horse as on that 

 of the warrior, which we gather from the seal of Baron de Spencer in 

 1296." In 1322, Thomas, earl of Leicester, bore the figure of a dragon. 

 " The principal application of crests was in jousts or hastiludes, when 

 the shield was not borne, but where they afforded an equal distinction ; 



or by the chief commanders of horsemen in the field of battle 



Crests are not held to be absolutely hereditable, but may be assumed ; 

 and as females could not avail themselves of their primary use, accord- 

 ingly no woman is allowed to bear a crest. As an appendage to sepul- 

 chral monuments, crests are placed beneath the head of the armed effigy, 

 attached to the helmet by the wreath and lambrequin ; and at the feet 

 a lion or dog is added. Upon many of the large altar-tombs, so fre- 

 quent in the 16th and 17th centuries, those both of the man and of 

 his wife's family are carved at the feet of the recumbent figures." The 

 wreath on which the crest rests was of silk, twisted of different colours, 

 according to the fancy of the wearer. The position of the crest when 

 the arms are blazoned varies with the rank of the bearer. Peers have 

 the coronet on the shield, and the helmet and crest above the coronet. 

 Commoners have the helmet and crest, with the interposing wreath, 

 resting on the shield. 



Instances of crests formed of feathers may be seen in that of Sir 

 Henry Percy, in Edward I.'s tune, engraved at the bottom of plate 

 xxiv. of Meyrick's ' Critical Inquiry into Antient Armour; ' and in that 

 of Sir John Harsick, (. Richard II., 1376, in plate xxxvi. of the same 

 work ; and many such occur in the illuminations to the contemporary 

 manuscripts of Froissart's Chronicle. The custom of conferring crests 

 as distinguishing marks seems to have originated with Edward III., 

 who in 1333 ('Rot. Pat.,' 9 Edward III.) granted one to William 

 Montacute, earl of Salisbury, his " tymbre," as it was called, of the 

 Eagle. By a further grant in the 13th of the same king (' Rot. Vase.,' 

 13 Edw. III. m. 4), the grant of this crest was made hereditary, and 

 the manor of Wodeton given in addition to support its dignity. 



CKESYL (C,.H,). The hypothetical radical of an alcohol, crcsylic 

 alcohol, or hydrate of cresyl (C U H,0,HO), found hi some descriptions 

 of commercial creasote prepared from coal tar. 



CRESYLIC ALCOHOL. [CRESYL.] 



CRETINS, a word of which the derivation has been disputed, but 

 which is probably from the Romanesque cretina, a miserable creature ; 

 and the various names for the same class, trotteln, lallen, giicken, 

 cagot, &c., all convey a similar meaning. In the Valais and other 

 Alpine valleys, crdtins are certain individuals who are more or less 

 idiots, and most of whom have large swellings on their necks, called 

 goitres. The goitre or wen is not, however, always a necessary sign of 

 crdtinism. The goitres are of all sizes, from that of a walnut to the 

 size of a quartern loaf. There are also various gradations of cretins ; 

 those in the lowest state of idiotcy cannot articulate distinct sounds, 

 but make a sort of cry, or burst out into an idiotic laugh ; they are as 

 helpless as infants, and their intelligence seems below that of many 

 brutes. Others are able to go about, and attend to some easy labour, 

 and make themselves understood. They are numerous about the 

 villages and hamlets of the Lower Valais and of the Val d'Aosta ; they 

 are not so common in the German part of Switzerland, where, in many 

 of the valleys they are unknown ; it is said that they are not found 

 among the natives of the higher valleys or mountains ; even in the 

 Upper Valais, east of Sion, they are rare. Crdtinism, however, is 

 not confined to Switzerland, it prevails in Carinthia, in the valleys of 

 the Pyrenees and the Apennines ; in the Harz mountains ; and, out of 

 Europe, in Tatary, in the Ural mountains, in Bootan, Tibet, Sumatra, 

 among the Cordilleras, and even in Africa, in Bambarra, and along the 

 tipper part of the Niger. Isolated cases are met with everywhere. 

 There has been much discussion about the causes of this infirmity. 

 In Germany great attention has been paid to the subject, and Dr. 

 Roson (iiber Cretinismus und angebornen Blodsinn,' in a discourse 

 delivered before the Natural History Society, at Eslangen, in 1841), 

 attributes it sometimes to the state of health of the parents, but more 

 frequently to atmospheric and climatial causes, and particularly to 

 such sudden changes of temperature and of weather as are experienced 

 in mountain valleys, in which also are commonly found morassy soils 

 or stagnant waters ; and above all, the nature of the water which is 

 drunk. Attempts have been made to ascertain the proportions of 



