Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/455

 CRAB APPLE CRABBE 451 them, while the legs and claws are all directed forward and occupy the opening of the shell. Most of the species pass through a metamor- phosis, the first stage of which is much like that of the common crabs ; but after they have attained considerable size and have acquired the full complement of legs and claws, the ab- domen is perfectly symmetrical and furnished with appendages, as in shrimps and lobsters. In this and the earlier stages they swim about freely at the surface of the water, but soon change their form and begin to inhabit small shells, which are from time to time exchanged for larger ones as the crabs increase in size. When changing the shells, combats between individuals sometimes take place for the pos- session of the more desirable shells, and this has given rise to their common name. Some of the species in the tropics are terrestrial, like the land crabs, and travel long distances from the sea and even up among mountains, carrying the marine shells with them. The robber crab (birgus), inhabiting the islands of the Indian and Pacific oceans, is an enormous terrestrial crab allied to the hermit crabs, but does not inhabit shells, the abdomen being shorter and covered with a hard integument. It feeds upon cocoanuts, climbing the trees and break- ing open the fruit with its claws, which are adapted to the purpose. Some of the anomu- rans approach closely in form to the brachy- urans, resembling the common crabs except that the abdomen in both sexes has appen- dages upon the segment next to the last. The species of hypoconcha, which inhabit both coasts of tropical America, are of this form, but they always carry one of the valves of a bivalve shell upon the back, which is soft and unprotected. The shell is held in place by the hind legs, which are specially adapted to the purpose. Species of an allied genus carry com- pact sponges, or similar substances, in the same way. Others have a hard shell wholly unpro- tected. Such are the gigantic species of li- thodes and its allies in the arctic and antarctic seas, and, in the warmer seas, the little, bright- ly colored porcellanians, with flattened bodies and large compressed claws. CRAB APPLE. See APPLE. < R ABB, George, an English barrister and phi- lologist, born at Palgrave, Dec. 8, 1778, died at Hammersmith, Dec. 4, 1854. Intended for the medical profession, his delicate nervous organization made him incompetent to follow it. He devoted himself to teaching, studied in Germany, and published on his return German text books, which were long in use. In 1821, after having been married 22 years, he grad- uated at the university of Oxford, with reputa- tion for mathematical attainments. He was 51 years of age when he was admitted to the bar. His offensive manners prevented his suc- cess as a practitioner, but he made several con- tributions to legal literature which became standard works ; among these is a " History of English Law." He is best known by his " English Synonymes," published in 1816. He was the author also of a historical and of a technological dictionary. CRARBE, George, an English poet, born at Aldborough, Suffolk, Dec. 24, 1754, died at Trowbridge, Wiltshire, Feb. 3, 1832. His father, who was a collector of salt duties, ex- erted himself to give him a superior educa- tion, and at the age of 14 years apprenticed him to a surgeon near Bury St. Edmund's. Three years later he was transferred to another surgeon at Woodbridge, with whom he com- pleted his apprenticeship. His father was a subscriber to a "Philosophical Magazine," the last page of which, devoted to poetry, he was accustomed to tear off before sending the num- bers to be bound. These rejected sheets had first excited the poetical tastes and powers of his son, who, even during his school days, made many attempts at versifying. While at Woodbridge he competed successfully with a poem on " Hope " for a prize offered by the "Lady's Magazine," to which he continued to contribute. In 1775 his first separate publica- tion, a poem on " Inebriety," was issued anony- mously at Ipswich. Never pleased with his profession, he determined to abandon it for literary adventure, and, provided with a loan of 5, he worked his way in a sloop from Aid- borough to the metropolis, where he arrived in 1780. He found no publisher; and his first printed poem, " The Candidate," which ap- peared anonymously in that year, was coldly received and brought him no profit. He wrote to Lord North, Lord Shelburne, and Lord Thurlow, but received no answer. Threatened with arrest, he applied without an introduction to Edmund Burke, at whose door he left a simple and manly letter, and then in his agita- tion walked Westminster bridge throughout the night. Burke received him kindly and in- troduced him to Fox, Reynolds, Johnson, and others, gave him advice and criticism about his poem "The Library," and secured for it a publisher in 1781. It was favorably noticed, and a second edition was published in 1783. Lord Thurlow, with tardy generosity, now in- vited him to breakfast and presented him with a bank note for 100. At Burke's persuasion he qualified* himself for holy orders, was or- dained a deacon in 1781 and a priest in the following year, and after a short curacy in his native parish was made chaplain to the duke of Rutland at Belvoir castle. In 1783 he pub- lished "The Village," which obtained imme- diate popularity, some of its descriptions, as that of the parish workhouse, being copied into nearly all periodicals. Lord Thurlow, declar- ing that he was "as like to parson Adams as twelve to a dozen," presented him to two small livings in Dorsetshire, and in 1785 he married a lady who was the object of his early love. After the publication of "The News- paper " in that year he did not resume author- ship for 22 years, assigning the death of his distinguished friends as his reason, but in truth