Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/678

* CRIPPLEGATE. 584 CRISIS. its name from the lame beggars who congregated there, in a.u. 1010, to touch the body of Kdmund the Martyr, as it was passing througli. It was twice rebuilt, and was iniUed down in 1760. The name was also applied to the district round it. CRIPPLE OF PEN'CHtTRCH, The. The second title of The Fair Maid of the Exchange (q.v.), a play by Hey wood. CRISIS (Lat., from Gk. Kpiaig, krisis, decision, from Kpiveiv, h-rinciii, Lat. cernere, to decide). A name used by the older physicians to denote the rapid or sudden determination of an acute disease in the direction of convalescence or of death. It is opposed in signification to lysis (/«o, I relax), which denotes the gradual subsidence of the symptoms and improvement in condition in most "chronic and in some acute diseases. The doctrine of crises was closely bound up with that of a materies morii, or material of disease, in the blood, which was presumed to be undergoing changes, during the whole course of the malady, tending to an evacuation of some kind from the system in the form of a critical discharge (apo- s'tasis or abscess), which, when observed, was supposed to contain the matter of disease in a state of coctioii, and to be the direct cause of the sudden relief of the patient. Thus, according to the character and seat of the critical discharge, it was common to speak of a crisis by sweating, by diarrhoea, by expectoration, by urine, by paro- tid swellings, etc. ; and no crisis was considered regular that was not attended by some sjmiptom of this kind. Another curious doctrine associated with that of crises was the belief in certain days as ruling the beneficent or injurious, the complete or incomplete character of a crisis. The seventh, fourteenth, and twentieth (according to some, the twenty-first) days of the disease were regarded as eminently critical ; less so, but still favorably critical, were the third, fifth, eleventh, and seven- teenth : the fourth day was the indicator of a complete crisis on the seventh; the sixth day was the tyrant, notorious for imfavorable crises; the second, eighth, tenth, thirteenth, and the rest were non-critical. Few physicians now use the term, except in periodic diseases such as malaria, or in diseases which run a certain course, such as typhoid fever. CRISIS. A series of patriotic writings, four- teen in nimber, published by Thomas Paine at Philadelphia during the Revolution. They ap- peared at intervals from 1775 to 1783. CRISIS, Economic. A term employed by economic writers somewhat loosely to designate either the acute phase or the whole course of the disturbances in economic life which have charac- terized the last century, and which have recurred with such frequency as to make them appear in- evitable results of the modern industrial order. The phenomena involved are so complex that they nuist be described rather than defined. The salient fact in the economic history of recent times is the alternation of prosperity and depression, of good tiiiies and bad. A period of prosperity with expanding business, great activity in production and commerce, is brought suddenly to a close, generally by the failure of a prominent banking house, bringing with it the fall of other financial and mercantile concerns. Business is paralyzed, creditors demand the payment of claims, and debtors find it next to impossible to secure the means of payment. Panic rules, and lor a time the whole mercantile structure threat- ens to collapse. From such a shock business recovers but slowly, its activity is reduced to the lowest ebb, and some time elapses before the restoration of confidence takes place. This period of depression is uuich more prolonged than the acuter phase which precedes it. After a time business revives and begins to expand. Prices rise and activity becomes greater. A wave of prosperity again appears which seems to carry everything before it until it, in turn, is cheeked suddenly, and a new crisis is at hand. Lord Overstone, in an oft-quoted passage, describes these successive phases as follows: "State of quiescence, improvement, growing confidence, prosperity, excitement, overtrading, convulsions, pressure, stagnation, distress ending again in quiescence." In the absence of any general term to designate this related sequence of phenomena, the term crisis has frequently been used to embrace them all. Strictly speaking, it should doubtless be con- fined to the acute stage when the collapse which has been slowly preparing actuallj- takes place. In like manner, the term panic applies to the same movement, but expresses it more subject- ively, emphasizing how men feel and act rather than the conditions which give birth to those feel- ings and actions. But as we cannot well break the sequence and discuss in isolated fashion one of its members, it will not be deemed inappro- priate to discuss in this article crises, their ante- cedents, and their consequences. Crises are designated as financial, commercial, and industrial. These qualifying jihrases mark the places in the economic organism where the disturbance is felt. In a purely financial crisis the stock market is the storm-centre, the dis- turbance affecting but slightly commercial or productive enterprises. A commercial crisis is of wider area, and embraces the trading classes, while an industrial crisis extends its baneful in- fluence to producers in all lines of agriculture, manufactures, and the like. These expressions do not designate so much different classes of crises as crises of different degrees of intensity, inasmuch as an industrial disturbance will al- ways imply disturbance in trade and the money market, wliile trade upheavals imply commotion in the money market, though a financial panic does not necessarily imply the others. While crisis and depression are usually asso- ciated, this is not always the case. Panic and crises may occur, and after a brief interval a.ffairs may prosper as before. This is particu- larly true of the purely financial crises, which are not deep-rooted enough to affect wider areas. The crisis in its larger sense, however, is invari- ably followed by hard times. On the other hand, depression may occur without a panic. It is hardly correct to sa.y that it is ushered in with- out a crisis, for the phenomena of such a period can ustxally be observed even if they laek the spectacxilar elements which so frequently accom- pany them. It should be observed, moreover, that crises may be local or general, and while they have many points in common, it is particu- larly the latter with which Ave have to deal. General crises affecting the economic situation of an entire country, and extending themselves to other <'oimtries which have trade relations with the former, are peculiarly a mark of the modern organization of business. A century ago