Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/601

Rh solve it into carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, rapidly, safely, and not unpleasantly.&quot; 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.

1em 1em  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.

, 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 and.  CREON, in Greek fable, son of Mencoceus, became king 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 ), 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 