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CROOKES

4*2

CRUIKSHANK

Crookes, Sir William, an eminent English chemist and electrician, was born at London in 1832, and educated at the Royal College of Chemistry. In 1855 he became professor of chemistry at the Science Training College at Chester; in 1859 founded The Chemical News; and in 1864 became editor of the Quarterly Journal of Science. Subsequently he became a member of the council of the Royal Society, vice-president of the Chemical Society and prize-winner and gold-medalist of the French Academie des Sciences. His researches in physics and chemistry led in 1861 to his discovery of the metal thallium; of the sodium amalgam process for separating gold and silver from their ores; of other important discoveries in molecular physics and radiant matter; and to the invention of the radiometer and the otheo-scope. In 1871 he published Select Methods in Chemical Analysis; subsequently The Manufacture of Beet-Root Sugar in England; Handbook of Dyeing and Calico-Printing; Treatise on Metallurgy; Wagner's Chemical Technology; Auerbach's Anthracen and Its Derivatives; Ville's Artificial Manures; with The Profitable Disposal of Sewage and The Wheat Problem. The latter consisted of an address delivered before the British Association in 1898. Dealing with physical research and the wheat problem, it created much interest and discussion. He is an authority on sanitation, and has studied spiritualism scientifically.

Croquet, a popular outdoor game, played on a grass lawn or levelled dirt-court under given rules. These rules, if adhered to and followed, and where the player is skilled in checkmating his own and his party's opponent, make a match well-nigh as interesting as a game of billiards, especially if all the players, who may be two or eight in number, are experts. The players, who are each furnished with a mallet and ball, are divided into pairs of partners, each playing alternately, the contest or feature of the game being to get one's ball from the starting point (the near stake), first through the various hoops (usually from 6 to 10 in number) placed upright in the ground in a defined order, to the farthest stake or goal, and back again.

Cross, Mrs. (Marian Evans). See ELIOT, GEORGE.

Cross, Mrs. George Frederick (Ada Cambridge), the novelist, was born at St. Germains, Norfolk, Nov. 21, 1844. Upon her marriage to the Rev. Mr. Cross in 1870 she sailed for Victoria, her home, with a sojourn in various bush-districts, until she settled at Williamstown in 1893. Mrs. Cross's published works include 15 or more volumes, from My Guardian (1877) to Thirty Years in Australia. (1903)

Cross-Pollina'tion (in plants), the transfer of pollen from the stamen to the stigma of another flower. See POLLINATION.

Cross, Southern, one of the star-groups in the southern heavens. Its right ascension is approximately 12 hours: its declination 60° south. The four main stars form a rough cross. It has been invisible from north of the latitude of Alexandria, Egypt, for 18 centuries. The Portuguese explorers of Africa about 1450 were the first modern Europeans to see it.

Crow, a bird of black plumage, belonging to the Corvidcs family, which includes jackdaws, ravens, rooks, bluejays and magpies. It is very extensive, embracing some 200 species, and its representatives are found in all parts of the world, except New Zealand, and sparingly in the Australian region. Six members of the family live in the eastern United States. The common American crow is abundant, is distributed generally in this country, and remains with us the entire year. In the winter crows assemble in great numbers in rookeries or crow-roosts. There are a number of these roosting-places in various parts of the country; the one on the Potomac near Washington is well-known. The number that assemble there at one time has been estimated at 40,000. The crows are usually considered to be destructive birds, but they do more good than harm. They injure cornfields to a considerable degree, but they also destroy many cutworms, beetles, grasshoppers, tent-caterpillars and other injurious insects, and thereby compensate for their own misdeeds. They also kill field-mice, rabbits and other rodents, follow the plow in the early spring, and eat the larvae, field-mice and worms in the furrows. These wily birds soon lose all fear of the farmer's scarecrow, but remain suspicious of bits of bright tin swinging from cords stretched across a field, and they will not go near corn that has been dipped in tar. The birds are models of family affection; the male feeds his mate while she is on the nest, broods the eggs when she is absent, and stands guard with untiring zeal; and both parents long keep watch over their young.

Crozier, John B., born in Ontario and educated at Gait and the University of Toronto, graduating in 1872. Soon after, he went to London, England, and commenced the practice of medicine. In 1880 appeared his Religion of the Future, a work of merit. In 1885 his History of Intellectual Development followed, and in 1887 he published Lord Randolph Churchill, His Civilization and Progress has reached a third edition.

Cruikshank (kr&6k'sh&nk), George, an English cartoon-etcher, was born at London, Sept. 27, 1792. His father and elder brother were caricaturists. He thought of becoming an actor; but a publisher who saw some of his sketches talked him into illustrating children's books and songs. But he soon found that his genius lay in cartoons. His