solve it into carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, rapidly, safely, and not unpleasantly." Relying on the evidence which, suggested recent burial legislation (see Report to the General Board of Health on a General Scheme for Extra mural Sepulture, Clowes and Son, 1850, signed by Lord Shaftesbury, Chadwick, and Southvvood Smith ; also Walker On Graveyards, Longmans, 1839), he pointed out that in the neighbourhood of cemeteries there is a con stantly increasing risk of contaminated air and water. The problem he solved by the Siemens process of cremation, which, when generally employed, would effect a great saving in the cost of funerals, and would also leave a quantity of bone earth equal in value to the bones imported into this country chiefly for manure. The British authorities in India have already had much practical experience of cremation. Poor Hindus often did not supply wood and oil (ghee) enough for the total consump tion of the body, and hence Sir Cecil Beadon at Calcutta, and the sanitary commissioner of Madras, both found it necessary in the public interest to erect cinerators on tho burning ghat or ground (Latin, ustrina), which might be used on payment of a fee. So also at Poonah, Colonel Martin, struck with the high cost (above 12 rupees) of even a poor funeral, constructed in 1864 a pentagonal ciaerator for the use of Brahmans and the other Hindu
castes. The idea is spreading rapidly in New York.
Among the practical methods of cremation which have recently been attempted, we may mention, in the first place, the experiments of Dr Polli at the Milan gas works, which have been fully described in Dr Pietra Santa s book, La cremation dcs marts en France et d Titranger, and those of Professor Brunetti, who exhibited an appar atus at the Vienna Exhibition of 1873, and who states his results in Let Cremazione dd Cadaveri, Padua, 1873. Polli obtained complete incineration or calcination of dogs by the use of coal-gas mixed with atmospheric air, applied to a cylindrical retort of refractingclay, eo as to consume the gaseous products of combustion. The process was complete in two hours, and the ashes weighed about 5 p.c. of the weight before cremation. Brunetti used an oblong furnace of refracting brick with side-doors to regulate the draught, and above a cast-iron dome with movable shutters. The body was placed on a metallic plate suspended on iron wire. The gas generated escapes T>y the shutters, and in two hours carbonization is complete. The heat is then raised and concentrated, and at the end of four hours tho operation is over; 180 lb. of wood costing 2s. 4d. sterling was burned. In the reverberating furnace used by Sir Henry Thompson a body, weighing 144 lb., was reduced in fifty minutes to about 4 lb of lime-dust. The noxious gases, which were undoubtedly produced during the first five minutes of combustion, passed through a flue into a second furnace and were entirely consumed. In the ordinary Siemens regenerative furnace (which has been adapted by Reclam in Germany for cremation, and also by Sir Henry Thompson) only the hot-blast is used, the body supplying hydrogen and carbon ; or a stream of heated hydrocarbon mixed with heated air is sent from a gasometer supplied with coal, charcoal, peat, or wood, the brick or iron-cased chamber being thus heated to a high degree before cremation begins. In one arrangement both gas and air are at a white heat before they meet and burst into i ame in the furnace. The advantages of the Siemens furnace and gas producer (which would cost about 800 in construction) are- thai the heat of the expended fuel is nearly all retained by the regene rators, and that the gas retort admits of the production being stopped without much loss. Some difficulty has been felt about keeping the ashes free from foreign material. The Greeks used a shroud of asbestos, the Egyptians one of amianth. Mr Eassie suggests a zinc coffin, that metal being volatile. It is also suggested that tho ashes might be deposited in urns, and these placed in a columbarium which might be in the church or at home.
See Eassie, Cremation of the Dead, London, 1875, a valuable book in which nearly every source of information on the subject is indicated.
(w. c. s.)
CREMONA, a province of Lombardy, Italy, lying between the Rivers Oglio and Adda, north of the Po, which separates it from Parma and Piacenza. It is conterminous along the OgHo on the north-east with Mantua and Brescia, nnd with Bergamo on the north ; the Adda separates it from Milan on the west. It is about fifty miles in extreme length from north-west to south-east, and fifteen miles in width, containing 632 square miles, and (in 1871) 300,595 inhabitants. The surface is level, and the soil very fertile, producing abundant crops of wheat, rice, maize, and flax. Horses and black cattle are numerous, and silk is an exten sive production, but the sheep are few. There are no im portant manufactures carried on except the spinning of silk.
Cremona, the capital of tho above province and the seat of a bishop, is situated on the north bank of the Po, crossed there by a bridge, 46 miles south-east of Milan ; lines of railway unite it north and westward with Brescia, Bergamo, Pavia, and Milan, and eastward with Mantua. It is well built, of an oval shape, about six miles in circumference, and surrounded by walls flanked with towers and wet ditches. It possesses many good buildings, principally churches, richly adorned with frescoes and paintings by native artists. The cathedral is an ancient structure, begun in 1 107 and completed in 1606, thus including very various styles of architecture. The interior is composed of a nave, with two aisles, divided by eight immense pillars, and ia gorgeously coloured and gilded. Near the cathedral is the great tower, the Torazzo, erected 1261-1284, the highest in northern Italy, being 396 feet in height. In the third story is an enormous astronomical or astrological clock. The Palazzo Pulblico, also a relic of old Cremona, begun in 1206, contains a few paintings by old masters. Cremona has also civil, criminal, and commercial tribunals, a lyceum, a gymnasium, a theatre, a public library, hospitals, asylums, and other charitable institutions, and numerous schools. Its manufactures include silks, cottons, porcelain, earthen ware, and chemical products. It has a considerable trade by the Po, which is navigable thence to the Adriatic, in agricultural produce, oil, wax, honey, and silk ; and the surrounding district is noted for its superior flax. It was formerly celebrated for its violins and other musical instru ments, but the manufacture of these has now declined, Violins of Cremona have been known to sell at from 10ft to 200 guineas each. Population, with suburbs (1871), 30,508. The site of Cremona was taken by the Romans from tho Gallic Cenomani, and colonized by them at various periods. The town suffered in the invasions of the Goths and Lombards, and subsequently in the conflicts of the Guelphs and Ghibellines. In 1799 the Austrians defeated the French at Cremona.
CREOLE (Spanish, Criollo), is a term which primarily was used to denote an inhabitant of the Spanish colonies who was descended from the European settlers, as distin guished from the aborigines, the negroes, and mulattoes. It is now more loosely employed, the name being frequently applied to a native of the West Indies, whose descent is partly but not entirely European. A part of the coloured population of Cuba are at times designated creole negroes, in contradistinction to those who were brought direct from Africa. The creole whites, owing to the enervating influence of the climate, are not a robust race, but exhibit an elegance of gait and a suppleness of joint that are rare among Europeans.
CREON, in Greek fable, son of Lycscthus, king of Corinth and father of Glauce, v.ho was beloved by Jason, and whose tragical fate he shared. See Jason and Medea.
of Thebes at the death of Laius, the husband of his daughter Jocasta. Thebes was then trembling before tho cruelty of the Sphinx, and Creon offered his crown and his daughter to whoever should solve the fatal enigma proposed by the monster. Oedipus, the son of Laius, ignorant of his parentage (see Œdipus), having accomplished the task, re ceived the reward, and married Jocasta, his mother. By her he had two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, who mutually agreed after their father s death to reign in alternate years. Eteocles first ascended the throne, being the elder, but at
the appointed time ha refused to resign, and his brother