Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/606

572 Greece and. Turkey, transferred the island of Crete to the government of Mehemet Ali, viceroy of Egypt. This change of masters brought some relief to the unfortunate Cretans, who at least exchanged the licence of local misrule for the oppression of an organized despotism ; and the government of Mustafa Pasha, the ruler of the island for a considerable period, was more enlightened and intelligent than that of most Turkish governors. In 1840 Crete was again taken from Mehemet Ali, and replaced under the dominion of the Turks, as it has continued ever since. Great improvement has undoubtedly taken place in the administration, and the island is said to bj now the best governed and the most lightly taxed of all the provinces of the Turkish empire. But the strong djsire of the Cretans for freedom and union with the Greek monarchy has given rise to two successive revolts ; the first of which in 1859 was speedily repressed ; but the second, in 1866, lasted for a considerable period, and required great exertions on the part of the Porte to put it down. It was followed by the concession of additional privileges to the Christian inhabitants, and a kind of constitutional government, which has placed the island in quite an exceptional position among Turkish provinces, In all these insurrections, as well as in those against the Venetians in former days, a leading part has been borne by the people known as Sfakiots, a racs of hardy mountaineers inhabiting the highlands and upland plains of the White Mountains, and who, from the rugged and inaccessible natuce of their country, have always enjoyed a condition of semi-independence, while their active and warlike habits have rendered them formidable neigh bours to the inhabitants of the plains. There is, however, no ground for supposing them to be in any respect a distinct race from the other population of the island ; they appear to be, on the contrary, the lineal representatives of the ancient Cretans, who have preserved comparatively unimpaired the character and manners of their forefathers. A curious proof of this is found in their still wearing high boots, a fashion noticed by ancient writers as characteristic of the Cretans, and which was then, as now, wholly unknown to the Greeks of the mainland. It is mentioned also by Venetian writers, that as late as the 17th century the Sfakiots retained that skill in the use of the bow for v?hich the Cretans were so celebrated in antiquity, and were with difficulty induced to lay it aside for the more civilized firearms of their rulers.

Population.—The inhabitants of Crete under the Vene tians were estimated at about 250,000 souls. After the Turkish conquest the population was for a time greatly reduced, but afterwards gradually rose, till it was supposed again to have attained to about 260,000 at the time of the outbreak of the Greek revolution in 1821, of whom about half were Mahometans. The ravages of the war from 1821 to 1830, and the emigration that followed, produced a great diminution, and the population of the island was estimated by Mr Pashley in 1836 at only about 130,000. Since then it has again materially increased ; it was calculated by Captain Spratt in 1865 as amounting to 210,000, and this nearly agrees with the latest official estimate which gives 200,000 inhabitants in all, of whom less than 40,000 are Mahometans. It must be observed that very few of these are Turks, the Mussulman popula tion being almost entirely of native Cretan origin. Hence the Greek language ia the only one spoken throughout the island, even in the towns and among the Mahometans.

Towns.—The only considerable towns in Crete are Candia, so long the capital of the island ; Canea, which has succeeded to that dignity since the renewal of the Turkish dominion in 1840 ; and Eetimo, or llhithymno, also on the north coast, a small fortified town, with a good port and about 10,000 inhabitants. lerapetra, on the south coast, on the site of the ancient Hierapytna, though reckoned the fourth city of the island and the capital of the eastern district, is a very poor place, with not more than about 2000 inhabitants.

1em  CRETINISM may be defined as an endemic idiocy, of which the characteristic is an arrested development of body as well as mind. The origin of the word is doubtful. Its* southern French form Chrestiaa suggested to Michel a derivation from cresta (crete), the goose foot of red cloth worn by the Cagots of the Pyrenees. The Cagots, however, were not cretins. Again Christianus (which appears in the Lombard cristanei, and the Savoyard innocents and gens du bon dieu) is merely a translation of the older cretin^ which is probably connected with creta (craie) a sail .&amp;gt;w or yellow-earthy complexion being a common mark of cretin ism. Many other symptoms show that the whole organism is stunted. We quote the vivid picture by BeauprJ (Dis sertation sur les Cretins^ translated in Blackie on Cretinism, Edin. 1855):—

1em

Generally the cretin is deaf and dumb, or able to utter only a hoarse cry. He is indifferent to heat, cold, blows, and even the most revolting odours. Some appear to want intelligence altogether, and even the power of articulation. Others acquire the rudiments of language, and are able to perform simple tasks. There are, indeed, several distinct varieties of cretinism which have been noticed by Abercrombie, founding on the descriptions of Foderd and De Saussure (De Fatuitate Alpina, Edin. 1803), Wenzel (Ueler d, Crdinismus, Vienna, 1802), and Guggenbiihl of the Abendberg at Interlaken. The abnormal cranial deve lopment has been studied by Virchow (Der Crdinismus in Unter/ranken, Wiirzburg, 1852) and Vogt (Mcmoires sur les Microcephales, Geneva, 1867). Many cretins are h} drocephalic ; but more frequently the skull is microce- phalic, with premature ossification of the sutures and in duration of portions of the brain matter. The anterior lobes are said to be much lighter than in healthy brains, but this difference does not extend to the cerebellum. Vogt maintains that the microccphale has a pithecoid skull at the crown, and a human skull at the base and crown. But his .suggestion that this is a case of atavism, and that cretins 