While natural causes, undoubtedly, had 8 great influence in determining the method of disposal, especially in very early times, religious belief in the resurrection of the physical man has usually been the chief factor which has caused the spread of the custom of interment rather than the more sanitary method of disposal by fire. The Egyptians, Jews, Mohammedans, and Christians all believe more or less fully in the physical resurrection of the body; and the question arises, whether cremation does not impair the prospect of a future life. With the spread of Christianity, burial was substituted for cremation, both in the heart of the Roman Empire and among the converted pagans on its outskirts.

Cremation was once common in England, and was but slowly supplanted by inhumation. The same is true of the Gallic and Germanic races. It is said that Charlemagne, in his zeal for Christian burial, punished the act of cremation with the death penalty. Cremation is still practiced in India and among some other Oriental nations. In Japan the Shinto sect practices burial and the Monto sect cremation.

CREMATION IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. In Great Britain the revival of the practice of cremation was discussed as early as 1658, when Sir Thomas Browne published his Hydriotaphia,

or Urn Burial. In 1817 Dr. J. Jameson wrote a sketch on the Origin of Cremation. For many years during the early part of the century, Dr. Lord, Health Officer for Hempstead, continued to agitate the subject, but no practical results were achieved. In 1797 cremation was discussed by the French legislature under the Directory. But it was in Italy that the first practical steps were taken toward reestablishing the practice of cremation. From 1852 on, the subject was agitated in the various national scientific congresses and through their efforts the incineration of human dead was made legal by the introduction of a provision for that purpose in the National Sanitary Code. The process has since rapidly grown in favor in Italy, and, besides the private crematories, twenty-seven in number, there are now municipally owned crematories in Rome, Milan, Florence, and Venice.

In Germany the subject was discussed at scientific meetings almost as early as in Italy, but greater legal difficulties were encountered here than in Italy. In 1874 the body of an Englishwoman was reduced to ashes in a siemens furnace constructed at Dresden, and this was the first cremation scientifically performed; but the Government of Saxony, after two incinerations. forbade the practice. Soon after, legal right to construct a crematory was secured in the neighboring Duchy of Gotha, and for twelve years this was the only place in Germany where incinera tion could be practiced. The practice is still illegal in Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, ani Würtemburg; and in 1905 there were but nine crematories in Germany, though there were 26 cremation societies with a membership of 22,000.

In France, after much agitation, a law was passed in 1887, legalizing the practice. Soon after the city of Paris erected a crematory where cremation is compulsory for certain classes, including all unclaimed hospital dead, the remains from dissecting tables and dead bodies from streets and sewers. In 1905 France had four crematories.

In

in

England, Sir Henry Thompson, 1874, organized the "Cremation Society of London,' whose object is to introduce "some rapid process of disposal which cannot offend the living and shall render the remains absolutely innocuous." A crematory was erected at Woking, near London, and here the first incineration took place in March, 1885. Since that date twelve other crematories have been put in operation.

Switzerland has four crematories; Sweden, two;

Denmark, one. Other countries which possess crematories are Canada, Australia, Brazil, and Japan.

The first place in the United States where the subject of cremation was systematically agitated was the city of New York, in 1873, but it was not until 1881 that a crematory was built for the use of its population. In the meantime, a few cremations were made in private furnaces at Washington, Pa., and Salt Lake City. During the closing decade of the nineteenth century the movement grew rapidly in popularity, and the United States now ranks first in the number of optional annual incinerations. At the close of this article are appended tables showing the location of crematories and annual number of incinerations for the whole country.

ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST CREMATION. Within the last few years the conviction has rapidly spread that a more rapid and sanitary method of disposal must be substituted for burial, especially in the great centres of population. To find enough land for burial purposes is becoming a more and more difficult matter. It has been estimated that 24 acres are annually required for the burial of the dead of London. If 4000 corpses are crowded into an acre, it has been estimated by the same authority that, at the mortality rate of 20 per 1000, New York, with a population of 4,000,000, requires 20 acres annually to bury its dead. A similar computation of population, death-rate, and space required for burial will show that, unless the custom is changed, much of the available space in the vicinity of all large cities will eventually be required for burial purposes.

The sanitary objections to burial are of still greater importance than the economic difficulties. Through pollution of the air and water the presence of a crowded cemetery may become a menace to the health of the community. The development of the germ theory of disease has added to the realization of this general danger the specific fear that, in the case of those who die from communicable diseases, the germs may be conveyed through the ground from a dead victim to a living host. To what extent this is possible is still a mooted question among bacteriologists. Elaborate experiments, conducted by Pasteur, would seem to show that, in the case of animals at least, disease germs are conveyed from a buried to a living animal. It is a well-known fact that the purifying organisms, for the most part, must work near the surface of the ground, where there is a plentiful supply of oxygen, and that ordinarily bodies are buried too deep and with too many impedimenta about them to be readily acted upon. In 1900 Sir Henry Thompson. in an address before the Cremation Society of England, advocated that while cremation remained optional for ordinary cases, it should be made obligatory when death is due to such transmissi

ble diseases as smallpox, diphtheria, scarlet fever, typhoid fever, and tuberculosis. In cases of epidemics and after battles, when there are large numbers of bodies to be disposed of at once, cremation seems especially advisable. In cities like New Orleans, where the soil is so full of water that burial is impossible, cremation seems a more natural alternative than sealing up bodies in artificial tombs, constructed above the surface of the ground.

An objection to cremation, in the minds of some, is that trace of the dead is obliterated from the sight of the living. But the condition and ultimate fate of graveyards, especially in the heart of great cities, is a proof that in many cases such memorials are but transitory. In Continental Europe an average of twenty-five years is allowed for the occupancy of a grave, after which, in most cases, the ownership reverts to the municipality and the grave may be opened again. (See CEMETERY.) In England the law permits the opening of graves after fourteen years. In London some of the abandoned cemeteries have been utilized as public parks. It is stated that about 100 graveyards have been destroyed or partially abandoned in New York since it became a city. During the construction of the Boston subway, King's Chapel burial - ground was excavated and its occupants removed. In considering the comparative merits of inhumation and incineration, it should be borne in mind that the ultimate fate of every human body is resolution into its elements.

The Boston Cemetery Board has recommended the erection of a municipal crematory for the incineration of paupers and criminals, thus doing away with the Potter's Field. It is asserted that bodies can be burned for $1 each, while it costs about $3 to bury them. The public burials in Boston amount to about 500 annually, and the Potter's Field is full. A public crematory is doubtless an improvement in all respects over the loathsome Potter's Field.

Aside from the sentimental objection to cremation already mentioned, the chief argument against cremation is the medico-legal one that with the burning of the body possible traces of crime are obliterated. Frederick L. Hoffman, in a paper on "Cremation as a Life Insurance Problem" (Sanitarian for January, 1901), calls attention to this phase of the subject and points out that 64 of the 528 persons cremated at Saint Louis, Mo., in 1895-99 died from accidents, violence, or suicide. In view of the number of murders, by poison or otherwise, that are committed to obtain insurance money, it is recommended that very special precautions be taken to ascertain the exact cause of death before issuing a permit for cremation. To meet this difficulty, the Cremation Society of England investigates the conditions of death in the case of every body for whose incineration application is made. It has also secured the services of a distinguished pathologist to make autopsies when necessary.

METHODS OF CREMATION. Among the practical methods of cremation which have been attempted may be mentioned, in the first place, the experiments of Dr. Polli at the Milan gas-works, and those of Professor Brunetti, who exhibited an apparatus at the Vienna exhibition of 1873, and described his results in La cremazione dei cadaveri (Padua, 1873). Polli obtained complete incineration or calcination of the bodies of dogs by

the use of coal-gas mixed with atmospheric air, applied to a cylindrical retort of refractory clay, so as to consume the gaseous products of combustion. The process was complete in two hours, and the ashes weighed about 5 per cent. of the weight before cremation. Brunetti used an oblong furnace of refractory brick with side-doors to regulate the draught, and a cast-iron dome above with movable shutters. The body was placed on a metallic plate suspended on wire. The gas generated escaped by the shutters, and in two hours carbonization was complete. The heat was then raised and concentrated, and at the end of four hours the operation was over; 180 pounds of wood, costing about 60 cents, was burned. In the reverberating furnace used by Sir Henry Thompson, a body, weighing 144 pounds, was reduced in 50 minutes to about 4 pounds of lime-dust. The noxious gases which were undoubtedly produced during the first five minutes of combustion passed through a flue into a second furnace, and were entirely consumed. In the ordinary Siemens regenerative furnace (adapted by Recalm in Germany for cremation, and also by Sir Henry Thompson) only the hot blast is used, the body supplying hydrogen and carbon, or a stream of heated hydrocarbon mixed with heated air is sent from a gasometer supplied with coal, charcoal, peat, or wood, the brick or iron-cased chamber being thus heated to a high degree before cremation begins. In one arrangement both gas and air are at a white heat before they meet and burst into flame in the furnace. The advantage of the Siemens furnace and gas-producer are that the heat of the expended fuel is nearly all retained by the regenerators, and that the gas retort admits of the production being stopped without much loss. Some difficulty has been felt about keeping the ashes free from foreign material. The Greeks used a shroud of asbestos, the Egyptians one of amianth. Mr. Eassie has suggested a zinc coffin—that metal being volatile.

At the Fresh Pond Crematory in New York City the body is removed from the coffin, which is burned separately. The body is then wrapped in an alum-soaked sheet to prevent premature ignition of the clothing and placed in a clay retort which is subjected to extreme heat. The retort is perforated to allow the gases which are generated during the early part of the process to escape into a combustion chamber, where they are burned and purified before passing off in the flues. The process of incineration requires from one to three hours, according to the size and condition of the body. The ashes are gathered from the bottom of the retort, the ashes from the clothing are fanned out, iron removed with a magnet, and the clean bone-ash sealed in a black tin canister. A columbarium or urn hall is provided, where the ashes may be placed in urns, and where the funeral service may be held. At the crematory in Mount Auburn Cemetery, near Boston, Mass., the retorts and incinerating apparatus were made by the Engle Sanitary and Cremation Company of Des Moines, Iowa.

A crematorium at Washington, D. C., to be built by the Commissioners of the District of Columbia at the joint expense of the District and the United States, was authorized in April, 1906. The act makes compulsory the burning of the bodies of all persons who die from the more dangerous communicable diseases, provided

Lat. crena, notch). Any embrasure or opening in the walls of a fortified place; especially the spaces between merlons (q.v.) on a battlemented parapet, from which missiles could be discharged. Hence it is sometimes used to designate a battlement. Crenellated is used of a building supplied with crenels. See BATTLE

MENT.

CRE'NIC ACID (from Gk. κpývn, krēnē, fountain). One of the constituents of vegetable mold, produced wherever leaves and other plant matter are decaying, especially in peat-bogs and marshes.

CRE ODON'TA (Neo-Lat., nom. pl. of Gk. κpéaç, kreas, flesh + odos, odous, tooth). A suborder of extinct mammals, ancestral to the true carnivores, and hence sometimes called Carnivora Primigenia, and found fossil in the lower Tertiary rocks. The creodonts comprise primitive or synthetic types of animals that vary in size from that of a weasel to that of a grizzly bear, and that combine the characters of the true carnivorous families in such manner as to render determination of the taxonomic rank of any particular species a matter of some difficulty. The members of the suborder present resemblances to the bears, civets, and dogs among the true carnivores; the genus Patriofelis seems prophetic of the Pinnipedia, or seals, and Mesonyx resembles the carnivorous marsupials of Australia. The more primitive forms show characters possessed also by the Insectivora, Tillodontia, and Condylarthra. The oldest known mammal skull-that of Triisodon from the lower Puerco beds of the lowest Eocene of New Mexico -is placed among the Creodonta. Creodont remains are found in the lower Tertiary of Pata gonia, and these are of interest because they resemble the carnivorous marsupials of Australia and New Zealand much more closely than do the North American creodonts. The range of the suborder in both North America and Europe is from the base of the Eocene into the lower Miocene. During Eocene time the creodonts played that important rôle among land animals which subsequently, during later Eocene and Miocene time, was assumed by the true carnivores. Among the more interesting and important genera are Arctocyon, Hyænodon, Mesonyx, Oxyæna, Patriofelis, Stylolophus.

BIBLIOGRAPHY. Matthew, "A Revision of the Puerco Fauna," Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. ix. (New York, 1897); id., "Additional Observations on the Creodonta," Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, vol. xiv. (New York, 1901); Scott, "A Revision of the North American Creodonta," Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. ix. (Philadelphia, 1887). See articles on MESONYX; OXYÆNA; HYENODON; PATRIOFELIS; MAMMALIA; TRIISO

European birth, neither is it used in speaking of the Canadian French.

CREOLE CASE, THE. An incident in American history, which caused some friction between the governments of the United States and Great

Britain and was the occasion of an animated debate between the pro-slavery and anti-slavery elements in Congress. In 1841, 19 of the 135 slaves on board the American brig Creole revolted, while being transported coastwise between Hampton Roads and New Orleans, and securing control, after killing the captain and wounding several others, directed the vessel to Nassau, New Providence, where all those who had not been directly concerned in the revolt were immediately liberated by the British authorities, the others being held for trial on a charge of murder, in the local courts. Daniel Webster, who was then Secretary of State, demanded the return of the slaves, on the ground that they were legally property and were on American soil and under the jurisdiction of the United States, so long as they were under the American flag, even when on board a ship. They were never returned, however, by the British Government. The incident caused J. R. Giddings (q.v.) to offer a series of resolutions in the House of Representatives, on March 21, 1842, declaring that slavery could exist only by positive law of the separate States; that these States had delegated no control over slavery to the Federal Government, which alone had jurisdiction on the high seas, and, therefore, that slaves on the high seas became free, and the coastwise slave trade was unconstitutional. The House passed a resolution of censure, and Giddings immediately resigned, but was triumphantly reëlected. His resolutions expressed the basis of one phase of the constitutional anti-slavery agitation. are given in full in Giddings's History of the Rebellion (New York, 1864). The statute of March 2, 1807, regulating the coastwise slave trade, is in 2 U. S. Statutes at Large 426. See SLAVERY.

They

CREOLE STATE. Louisiana. See STATES, POPULAR NAMES OF.

CRE OLIN (origin uncertain). An unofficial dark-brown, sirupy liquid, of tarry odor, derived from coal-tar. It is soluble in alcohol and forms a milky fluid (an emulsion) with water. Different specimens vary considerably in composition and strength, and the careless use of the substance may cause poisoning. It is a good antiseptic, particularly against organisms that bear no spores, and is a powerful deodorizer. operative surgery, it has the disadvantage that the milky character of the solution makes it difficult to see instruments placed in it.

In

CRE'ON (Lat., from Gk. Kpfwv, Kreōn). brother of Jocasta, wife of Laïus, King of Thebes. In the Greek legend, the son of Menæceus, and After the death of Laïus he assumed the government and offered the crown and Jocasta to whosoever could free the city from the Sphinx. Edipus (q.v.) accomplished the task, and thus unconsciously became the husband of his own mother. After his fall Creon once more assumed the rule as guardian of the sons of Edipus, Eteocles and Polynices (q.v.). After the death of the brothers, Creon again became king, and forbade the burial of Polynices and the Argives. Antigone (q.v.), however, defied Creon and buried her brother's body, whereupon Creon sen