6 in 1906 and a total of 26. Thus there were 739 cremations in the
United Kingdom in 1906, making a total at the above crematoria down to September 1st, 1907, of 6158. The Golder’s Green crematorium, situated on the northern boundary of Hampstead Heath, stands in its own grounds of 12 acres, and is but 35 minutes’ drive from Oxford Circus. London thus has two crematoria within driving distance of its centre, and the Woking crematorium within easy reach of the south-west suburbs. (J. C. S.-H.)
CREMER, JAKOBUS JAN (1837–1880), Dutch novelist, born
at Arnhem in September 1837, started life as a painter, but soon
exchanged the brush for the pen. The great success of his first
novelettes (Betuwsche Novellen and Overbetuwsche Novellen),
published about 1855—reprinted many times since, and translated
into German and French—showed Cremer the wisdom of
his new departure. These short stories of Dutch provincial life
are written in the quaint dialect of the Betuwe, the large flat
Gelderland island, formed by the Rhine, the name recalling the
presumed earliest inhabitants, the Batavi. Cremer is strongest
in his delineation of character. His picturesque humour, coming
out, perhaps, most forcibly in his numerous readings of the
Betuwe novelettes, soon procured him the name of the “Dutch
Fritz Reuter.” In his later novels Cremer abandons both the
language and the slight love-stories of the Betuwe, depicting
the Dutch life of other centres in the national tongue. The
principal are: Anna Rooze (1867), Dokter Helmond en zijn Vrouw
(1870), Hanna de Freule (1873), Daniel Sils, &c. Cremer was
less successful as a playwright, and his two comedies, Peasant
and Nobleman and Emma Bertholt, did not enhance his fame;
nor did a volume of poems, published in 1873. He died at the
Hague in June 1880. His collected novels have appeared at
Leiden. An English novel, founded by Albert Vandam upon
Anna Rooze, considered by many his best work, was published
in London (1877, 3 vols.) under the title of An Everyday Heroine.
CREMERA (mod. Fosso della Valchetta), a small stream in
Etruria which falls into the Tiber about 6 m. N. of Rome. The
identification with the Fosso della Valchetta is fixed as correct
by the account in Livy ii. 49, which shows that the Saxa Rubra
were not far off, and this we know to be the Roman name of the
post station of Prima Porta, about 7 m. from Rome on the Via
Flaminia. It is famous for the defeat of the three hundred Fabii,
who had established a fortified post on its banks.
CRÉMIEUX, ISAAC MOÏSE [known as Adolphe] (1796–1880), French statesman, was born at Nîmes, of a rich Jewish family. He began life as an advocate in his native town. After the revolution of 1830 he came to Paris, formed connexions with numerous political personages, even with King Louis Philippe, and became a brilliant defender of Liberal ideas in the law courts and in the press,—witness his Éloge funèbre of the bishop Grégoire (1830), his Mémoire for the political rehabilitation of Marshal Ney (1833), and his plea for the accused of April (1835). Elected deputy in 1842, he was one of the leaders in the campaign against the Guizot ministry, and his eloquence contributed greatly to the success of his party. On the 24th of February 1848 he was chosen by the Republicans as a member of the provisional government, and as minister of justice he secured the decrees abolishing the death penalty for political offences, and making the office of judge immovable. When the conflict between the Republicans and Socialists broke out he resigned office, but continued to sit in the constituent assembly. At first he supported Louis Napoleon, but when he discovered the prince’s imperial ambitions he broke with him. Arrested and imprisoned on the 2nd of
December 1851, he remained in private life until November 1869, when he was elected as a Republican deputy by Paris. On the 4th of September 1870 he was again chosen member of the government of national defence, and resumed the ministry of justice. He then formed part of the Delegation of Tours, but took no
part in the completion of the organization of defence. He resigned with his colleagues on the 14th of February 1871. Eight months later he was elected deputy, then life senator in 1875. He died on the 10th of February 1880. Crémieux did much to better the condition of the Jews. He was president of the Universal Israelite Alliance, and while in the government of the national defence he secured the franchise for the Jews in
Algeria. This famous Décret Crémieux was the origin of the anti-Semitic movement in Algiers. Crémieux published a Recueil of his political cases (1869), and the Actes de la délégation de Tours et de Bordeaux (2 vols., 1871).
CREMONA, LUIGI (1830–1903), Italian mathematician, was born at Pavia on the 7th of December 1830. In 1848, when Milan and Venice rose against Austria, Cremona, then only a lad of seventeen, joined the ranks of the Italian volunteers, and remained with them, fighting on behalf of his country’s freedom, till, in 1849, the capitulation of Venice put an end to the hopeless campaign. He then returned to Pavia, where he pursued his studies at the university under Francesco Brioschi, and determined to seek a career as teacher of mathematics. His first appointment was as elementary mathematical master at the gymnasium and lyceum of Cremona, and he afterwards obtained a similar post at Milan. In 1860 he was appointed to the professorship of higher geometry at the university of Bologna, and in 1866 to that of higher geometry and graphical statics at the higher technical college of Milan. In this same year he competed for the Steiner prize of the Berlin Academy, with a treatise entitled “Memoria sulle superficie de terzo ordine,” and shared the award with J. C. F. Sturm. Two years later the same prize was conferred on him without competition. In 1873 he was called to Rome to organize the college of engineering, and was also appointed professor of higher mathematics at the university. Cremona’s reputation had now become European, and in 1879 he was elected a corresponding member of the Royal Society. In the same year he was made a senator of the kingdom of Italy. He died on the 10th of June 1903.
As early as 1856 Cremona had begun to contribute to the Annali di scienze matematiche e fisiche, and to the Annali di matematica, of which he became afterwards joint editor. Papers by him have appeared in the mathematical journals of Italy, France, Germany and England, and he has published several important works, many of which have been translated into other languages. His manual on Graphical Statics and his Elements of Projective Geometry (translated by C. Leudesdorf), have been published in English by the Clarendon Press. His life was devoted to the study of higher geometry and reforming the more advanced mathematical teaching of Italy. His reputation mainly rests on his Introduzione ad una teoria geometrica delle curve piane, which proclaims him as a follower of the Steinerian or synthetical school of geometricians. He notably enriched our knowledge of curves and surfaces.
CREMONA, a city and episcopal see of Lombardy, Italy, the capital of the province of Cremona, situated on the N. bank of the Po, 155 ft. above sea-level, 60 m. by rail S.E. of Milan. Pop. (1901) town, 31,655; commune, 39,344. It is oval in shape, and retains its medieval fortifications. The line of the streets
is as a rule irregular, but the town as a whole is not very picturesque.
The finest building is the cathedral, in the Lombard Romanesque style, begun in 1107 and consecrated in 1190. The wheel window of the main façade dates from 1274. The transepts, added in the 13th and 14th centuries (before 1370), have picturesque brick façades, with fine terra-cotta ornamentation. The great Torrazzo, a tower 397 ft. high, which stands by the cathedral, and is connected with it by a series of galleries, dates from 1267–1291. It is square below, with an octagonal summit of a slightly later period. The main façade of the cathedral was largely altered in 1491, to which date the statues upon it belong; the portico in front was added in 1497. The building would be much improved by isolation, which it is hoped may be effected. The interior is fine, and is covered with frescoes by Cremonese masters of the 16th century (Boccaccio Boccaccino, Romanino, Pordenone, the Campi, &c.), which are not of first-rate importance. The choir has fine stalls of 1489–1490, upon one of which there is a view of the façade of the cathedral before its alteration in 1491. The treasury contains a richly worked silver crucifix 9 ft. high, of 1478, the base of which was added in 1774–1775. It contains 408 statues and busts altogether, the central three of which belong to an earlier cross of 1231. Adjacent to the
