In Dumb Crambo the guessers, instead of naming the word, express its meaning by dumb show, a rhyme being given them as a clue.
CRAMER, JOHANN BAPTIST (1771–1858), English musician, of German extraction, was born in Mannheim, on the 24th of February 1771. He was the son of Wilhelm Cramer (1743–1799). a famous London violinist and musical conductor, one of a numerous family who were identified with the progress of music during the 18th and 19th centuries. Johann Baptist was brought to London as a child, and it was in London that the greater part of his musical efforts was exercised. From 1782 to 1784 he studied the pianoforte under Muzio Clementi, and soon became known as a professional pianist both in London and on the continent; he enjoyed a world-wide reputation, and was particularly appreciated by Beethoven. He died in London on the 16th of April 1858. Apart from his pianoforte-playing Cramer is important as a composer, and as principal founder in 1824 of the London music-publishing house of Cramer & Co. He wrote a number of sonatas, &c., for pianoforte, and other compositions; but his Études is the work by which he lives as a composer. These “studies” have appeared in numerous
editions, from 1810 onwards, and became the staple pieces in the training of pianists.
CRAMER, JOHN ANTONY (1793–1848), English classical
scholar and geographer, was born at Mitlödi in Switzerland. He was educated at Westminster and Christ Church, Oxford. He resided in Oxford till 1844, during which time he held many important offices, being public orator, principal of New Inn Hall (which he rebuilt at his own expense), and professor of modern history. In 1844 he was appointed to the deanery of Carlisle,
which he held until his death at Scarborough on the 24th of August 1848. His works are of considerable importance: A Dissertation on the Passage of Hannibal over the Alps, published anonymously with H. L. Wickham (2nd ed., 1828), “a scholar-like work of first-rate ability”; geographical and historical descriptions of Ancient Italy (1826), Ancient Greece (1828), Asia Minor (1832); Travels of Nicander Nucius of Corcyra [Greek traveller of the 16th century] in England (1841); Catenae Graecorum Patrum in Novum Testamentum (1838–1844); Anecdota Graeca (from the MSS. of the royal library in Paris, 1839–1841).
CRÄMER, KARL VON (1818–1902), Bavarian politician, had a very remarkable career, rising gradually from a mere workman in a factory at Doos near Nuremberg to the post of manager, and finally becoming part proprietor of the establishment. Leaving business in 1870 he devoted his time entirely to politics. From 1848 he had been a member of the Bavarian second chamber, at first representing the district of Erlangen-Fürth, and afterwards Nuremberg, which city also sent him after the war of 1866 as its deputy to the German customs parliament, and from 1871 to 1874 to the first German Reichstag. He sat in these bodies as a member of the Progressive party (Fortschrittspartei), and in Bavaria was one of the leaders of the Liberal (Freisinnige) party. His eloquence had a great hold upon the masses. As a parliamentarian he was very clear-headed, and thoroughly understood how to lead a party. For many years he was the reporter of the finance committee of the chamber. In 1882, on account of his great services in connexion with the Bavarian National Exhibition of Nuremberg, the order of the crown of Bavaria was conferred upon him, carrying with it the honour of nobility. He died at Nuremberg on the 31st of December 1902.
CRAMP, CHARLES HENRY (1828– ), American shipbuilder, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on the 9th of May 1828, of German descent, his family name having been Krampf. He was the eldest of eleven children of William Cramp (1807–1869), a pioneer American shipbuilder, who in 1830 established shipyards on the Delaware river near Philadelphia. The son was educated at the Philadelphia Central high school, after which he was employed in his father’s shipyards and made himself master of every detail of ship construction. He showed especial aptitude as a naval architect and designer, and after becoming his father’s partner in 1849 it was to that branch of the work that he devoted himself. His inventive capacity and resourcefulness, together with the complete success of his innovations in naval construction, soon gave him high rank as an authority on shipbuilding, and made his influence in that industry widely felt. In the Mexican War he designed surf boats for the landing of troops at Vera Cruz; during the Civil War he designed and built several ironclads for the United States navy, notably the “New Ironsides” in 1862, and the light-draught monitors used in the Carolina sounds; and after 1887 constructed wholly or in part from his own designs many of the most powerful ships in the “new” navy, including the cruisers “Columbia,” “Minneapolis” and “Brooklyn,” and the battleships “Indiana,” “Iowa,” “Massachusetts,” “Alabama” and “Maine.” In every progressive step in ocean shipbuilding, in the transformation from sail to steam, and from wood to iron and steel, Cramp had a prominent part. His fame as a shipbuilder extended to Europe, and he built warships for several foreign navies, among others the “Retvizan” and the “Variag” for the Russian government. He also constructed a number of freight and passenger steamships for several trans-Atlantic lines.
See A. C. Buel, Memoirs of C. H. Cramp (Philadelphia, 1906).
CRAMP, a painful spasmodic contraction of muscles, most frequently occurring in the limbs, but also apt to affect certain internal organs. This disorder belongs to the class of diseases known as local spasms, of which other varieties exist in such affections as spasmodic asthma and colic. The cause of these painful seizures resides in the nervous system, and operates either directly from the great nerve centres, or, as is generally the case, indirectly by reflex action, as, for example, when attacks are brought on by some derangement of the digestive organs.
In its most common form, that of cramp in the limbs, this disorder comes on suddenly, often during sleep, the patient being aroused by an agonizing feeling of pain in the calf of the leg or back of the thigh, accompanied in many instances with a sensation of sickness or faintness from the intensity of the suffering. During the paroxysm the muscular fibres affected can often be felt gathered up into a hard knot. The attack in general lasts but a few seconds, and then suddenly departs, the spasmodic contraction of the muscles ceasing entirely, or, on the other hand, relief may come more gradually during a period of minutes or even hours. A liability to cramp is often associated with a rheumatic or gouty tendency, but occasional attacks are common enough apart from this, and are often induced by some peculiar posture which a limb has assumed during sleep. Exposure of the limbs to cold will also bring on cramp, and to this is probably to be ascribed its frequent occurrence in swimmers. Cramp of the extremities is also well known as one of the most distressing accompaniments of cholera. It is likewise of frequent occurrence in the process of parturition, just before delivery.
This painful disorder can be greatly relieved and often entirely removed by firmly grasping or briskly rubbing the affected part with the hand, or by anything which makes an impression on the nerves, such as warm applications. Even a sudden and vigorous movement of the limb will often succeed in terminating the attack.
What is termed cramp of the stomach, or gastralgia, usually occurs as a symptom in connexion with some form of gastric disorder, such as aggravated dyspepsia, or actual organic disease of the mucous membrane of the stomach.
The disease known as Writer’s Cramp, or Scrivener’s Palsy, is a spasm which affects certain muscles when engaged in the performance of acts, the result of education and long usage, and which does not occur when the same muscles are employed in acts of a different kind. This disorder owes its name to the relative frequency with which it is met in persons who write much, although it is by no means confined to them, but is liable to occur in individuals of almost any handicraft. It was termed by Dr Duchenne Functional Spasm.
The symptoms are in the first instance a gradually increasing difficulty experienced in conducting the movements required for executing the work in hand. Taking, for example, the case of writers, there is a feeling that the pen cannot be moved with
