of Homer, who, according to another tradition, was himself the author of the Ἅλωσις, and presented it to Creophylus in return for the latter’s hospitality.
See F. G. Welcker, Der epische Cyclus (1865–1882).
CREOSOTE, Creasote or Kreasote (from Gr. κρέας, flesh,
and σώζειν, to preserve), a product of the distillation of coal,
bone oil, shale oil, and wood-tar (more especially that made
from beech-wood). The creosote is extracted from the distillate
by means of alkali, separated from the filtered alkaline solution
by sulphuric acid, and then distilled with dilute alkali; the
distillate is again treated with alkali and acid, till its purification
is effected; it is then redistilled at 200° C., and dried by means
of calcium chloride. It is a highly refractive, colourless, oily
liquid, and was first obtained in 1832 by K. Reichenbach from
beech-wood tar. It consists mainly of a mixture of phenol,
cresol, guaiacol, creosol, xylenol, dimethyl guaiacol, ethyl
guaiacol, and various methyl ethers of pyrogallol. Creosote has
a strong odour and hot taste, and burns with a smoky flame.
It dissolves sulphur, phosphorus, resins, and many acids and
colouring matters; and is soluble in alcohol, ether, and carbon
disulphide, and in 80 parts by volume of water. It is distinguished
from carbolic acid by the following properties:—it
rotates the plane of polarized light to the right, forms with
collodion a transparent fluid, and is nearly insoluble in glycerin;
whereas carbolic acid has no effect on polarized light, gives with
about two-thirds of its volume of collodion a gelatinous mass,
and is soluble in all proportions in glycerin; further, alcohol and
ferric chloride produce with creosote a green solution, turned
brown by water, with carbolic acid a brown, and on the addition
of water a blue solution. Creosote, like carbolic acid, is a
powerful antiseptic, and readily coagulates albuminous matter;
wood-smoke and pyroligneous acid or wood-vinegar owe to its
presence their efficacy in preserving animal and vegetable substances
from putrefaction.
Creosote oil is the name generally applied to the fraction of the coal tar distillate which boils between 200° and 300° C. (see Coal Tar). It is a greenish-yellow fluorescent liquid, usually containing phenol, cresol, naphthalene, anthracene, pyridine, quinoline, acridine and other substances. Its chief use is for the preservation of timber.
Pharmacology and Therapeutics.—Creosote derived from wood-tar is given medicinally in doses of from one to five minims, either suspended in mucilage, or in capsules. It should always be administered after a meal, when the gastric contents dilute it and prevent irritation. Creosote and carbolic acid (q.v.) have a very similar pharmacology; but there is one conspicuous exception. Beech-wood creosote alone should be used in medicine, as its composition renders it much more valuable than other creosotes. Its constituents circulate unchanged in the blood and are excreted by the lungs. Although carbolic acid has no value in phthisis (pulmonary tuberculosis) or in any other bacterial condition of the lungs, creosote, having volatile constituents which are excreted in the expired air and which are powerfully antiseptic, may well be of much value in these conditions. In phthisis creosote is now superseded by both its carbonate (creosotal)—given in the same doses—which causes less gastric disturbance, and by guaiacol itself, which may be given in doses up to thirty minims in capsules. The phosphate (phosote or phosphote), phosphite (phosphotal), and valerianate (eosote) also find application. Similarly the carbonate of guaiacol may be given in doses even as large as a drachm. Creosote may also be used as an inhalation with a steam atomizer. It is applicable not only in phthisis but in bronchiectasis, bronchitis, broncho-pneumonia, lobar pneumonia and all other bacterial lung diseases. Like carbolic acid, creosote may be used in toothache, and the local antiseptic and anaesthetic action which it shares with that substance is often of value in relieving gastric pain due to simple ulcer or cancer, and in those forms of vomiting which are due to gastric irritation.
For the determination and separation of the various constituents of creosote see F. Tiemann, Ber. (1881), 14, p. 2005; A. Béhal and C. Choay, Comptes rendus (1893), 116, p. 197; and L. F. Kebler, Amer. Jour. Pharm. (1899), p. 409.
CREPUSCULAR (from Lat. crepusculum, twilight), of or
belonging to the twilight, hence indistinct or glimmering; in
zoology the word is used of animals that appear before sunrise
or nightfall.
CRÉQUY, a French family which originated in Picardy, and
took its name from a small lordship in the present Pas-de-Calais.
Its genealogy goes back to the 10th century, and from it originated
the noble houses of Blécourt, Canaples, Heilly and Royon.
Henri de Créquy was killed at the siege of Damietta in 1240;
Jacques de Créquy, marshal of Guienne, was killed at Agincourt
with his brothers Jean and Raoul; Jean de Créquy, lord of
Canaples, was in the Burgundian service, and took part in the
defence of Paris against Joan of Arc in 1429, received the order
of the Golden Fleece in 1431, and was ambassador to Aragon
and France; Antoine de Créquy was one of the boldest captains
of Francis I., and died in consequence of an accident at the siege
of Hesdin in 1523. Jean VIII., sire de Créquy, prince de Poix,
seigneur de Canaples (d. 1555), left three sons, the eldest of whom,
Antoine de Créquy (1535–1574), inherited the family estates on
the death of his brothers at St Quentin in 1557. He was raised
to the cardinalate, and his nephew and heir, Antoine de Blanchefort,
assumed the name and arms of Créquy.
Charles I. de Blanchefort, marquis de Créquy, prince de Poix, duc de Lesdiguières (1578–1638), marshal of France, son of the last-named, saw his first fighting before Laon in 1594, and was wounded at the capture of Saint Jean d’Angély in 1621. In the next year he became a marshal of France. He served through the Piedmontese campaign in aid of Savoy in 1624 as second in command to the constable, François de Bonne, duc de Lesdiguières, whose daughter Madeleine he had married in 1595. He inherited in 1626 the estates and title of his father-in-law, who had induced him, after the death of his first wife, to marry her half-sister Françoise. He was also lieutenant-general of Dauphiné. In 1633 he was ambassador to Rome, and in 1636 to Venice. He fought in the Italian campaigns of 1630, 1635, 1636 and 1637, when he helped to defeat the Spaniards at Monte Baldo. He was killed on the 17th of March 1638 in an attempt to raise the siege of Crema, a fortress in the Milanese. He had a quarrel extending over years with Philip, the bastard of Savoy, which ended in a duel fatal to Philip in 1599; and in 1620 he defended Saint-Aignan, who was his prisoner of war, against a prosecution threatened by Louis XIII. Some of his letters are preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and his life was written by N. Chorier (Grenoble, 1683).
His eldest son, François, comte de Sault, duc de Lesdiguières (1600–1677), governor and lieutenant-general of Dauphiné, took the name and arms of Bonne. The younger, Charles II. de Créquy, seigneur de Canaples, was killed at the siege of Chambéry in 1630, leaving three sons—Charles III., sieur de Blanchefort, prince de Poix, duc de Créquy (1623?–1687); Alphonse de Créquy, comte de Canaples (d. 1711), who became on the extinction of the elder branch of the family in 1702 duc de Lesdiguières, and eventually succeeded also to his younger brother’s honours; and François, chevalier de Créquy and marquis de Marines, marshal of France (1625–1687).
The last-named was born in 1625, and as a boy took part in the Thirty Years’ War, distinguishing himself so greatly that at the age of twenty-six he was made a maréchal de camp, and a lieutenant-general before he was thirty. He was regarded as the most brilliant of the younger officers, and won the favour of Louis XIV. by his fidelity to the court during the second Fronde. In 1667 he served on the Rhine, and in 1668 he commanded the covering army during Louis XIV.’s siege of Lille, after the surrender of which the king rewarded him with the marshalate. In 1670 he overran the duchy of Lorraine. Shortly after this Turenne, his old commander, was made marshal-general, and all the marshals were placed under his orders. Many resented this, and Créquy, in particular, whose career of uninterrupted success had made him over-confident, went into exile rather than serve under Turenne. After the death of Turenne and the retirement of Condé, he became the most important general officer in the army, but his over-confidence was punished
