CROTCHETS, in Printing, marks or characters serving to inclose a word or sentence distinguished from the rest: thus [ ].
CROTON or CROTONA (COTRONE), in Ancient Geography, a celebrated city of Magna Græcia, at the mouth of the small river Æsarus, in the country of the Bruttii, on the western shore of the Ionian Sea. It was founded in the year 710 B.C. by a colony of Achæans under the command of Mycellus, in accordance with a decree of the oracle at Delphi.
The first well established fact in the history of Crotona is the friendship that subsisted between it and the rival city of Sybaris. Till the arrival of the philosopher Pythagoras these two cities continued advancing in material prosperity, and cultivating the arts of war and peace with much success. The Crotonians were renowned for their skill in all athletic exercises; the Sybarites for that luxury and effeminacy which has made their name proverbial. The government of Crotona, oligarchical in form, had hitherto been confined to the council of one thousand, who traced their descent from the Achæan founders of the city. But Pythagoras introduced great political changes, with the details of which we are not acquainted. A secret society of 300 of his disciples contrived to guide, and even overawe, the deliberations of the supreme council. The people, who were carefully excluded from all share in the government, rose in rebellion against the Pythagoreans, expelled them from the city, and established a democracy. Confusion spread through all the south of Italy, and was heightened by the overthrow of Sybaris. Under the command of the celebrated athlete Milo, the Crotonians marched against that city, and though opposed by an army three times their own in number, took it and levelled it with the ground. This event took place in 510 B.C. Before 30 years had elapsed, the Crotonians themselves sustained a still more disgraceful defeat from the united forces of the Locrians and Rhegians, which however, was not attended with such disastrous consequences to their city. This event is referred by the best authorities to the year 480 B.C. During the Athenian invasion of Sicily, the people of Crotona refused to side with either of the contending parties; they supplied the Athenians with provisions, but refused to allow them a passage
through their territory. In 389 B.C. Crotona fell into the hands of the elder Dionysius, who retained possession of it for twelve years; but on his death at the end of that period it recovered its independence. The prosperity of the city, however, was greatly impaired by the intestine feuds which raged within its walls, and the growing power of external foes. Being hard-pressed by the Bruttians, Crotona applied to the Syracusans for assistance. Succours were sent by that people, but the Crotonians were obliged to conclude a treaty with the Bruttii, as they were now in danger from their own exiles. Menedemus, their general, defeated the exiles, and established a tyranny which lasted for some time. In the beginning of the third century B.C., the city fell into the hands of Agathocles, who retained it for some years; and in the wars of the Romans with Pyrrhus it suffered so severely, that whereas its walls had formerly inclosed a space of 12 miles in circumference, not half of that extent was now inhabited. In the absence of Pyrrhus in Sicily, Crotona fell into the hands of the Roman consul, Cornelius Rufinus, B.C. 277. During the latter years of the second Punic war, Crotona was the headquarters of Hannibal for three successive winters. This completed the ruin of the town, which a few years after was colonized from Rome. From this time Crotona sank into total obscurity, and is not mentioned again in Roman history till the wars of Narses and Belisarius against the Goths. After that it remained subject to the Byzantine emperors till it passed into the hands of the Normans.
Crotona was celebrated in ancient times for the excellence of its situation, to which was attributed the beauty of its women and the strength of its men. Milo, the most famous athlete of antiquity, was a native of Crotona. The medical school of Crotona was, in the days of Herodotus, and long after, the most renowned in Greece. The most celebrated physician of that school was Alcmaeon. It is not known whether Crotona was remarkable in an architectural point of view. But the temple of Lacinian Juno, six miles from the city, was the most sacred and magnificent work of that kind in the whole of Magna Græcia, and contained, among other ornaments, one of the masterpieces of Zeuxis. Some fragments of this great edifice are still visible.
About a mile from the site of the old Crotona stands the modern town of Cotrone, an insignificant place. It is strongly fortified, however, and contains a population of about 6000 souls.
CROTON OIL is expressed from the seeds of an euphorbiaceous shrub, the Croton tiglium, a native of Hindustan and of the warmer parts of Asia. The fruit is about the size of a hazel nut, of an ovate triangular shape, and containing three ovate seeds about the size of a pea. The kernels of these yield, on pressure, about 50 per cent. of oil, which is of a pale amber colour, and a thickish consistency like castor oil. It has no odour, but has a peculiar acrid taste, which is felt most strongly in the back of the palate and throat. Croton oil is a speedy, powerful, and sure cathartic, in small doses of one to three drops; and it possesses two valuable properties, 1st, that however active and powerful the purgative action may be, it soon ceases, and leaves little or no debility; and, 2d, that it excites the biliary secretion more powerfully than any known medicine. In consequence of one or two drops being a dose, and its action commencing very shortly after its administration, it is invaluable in impending apoplexy, and in almost all diseases in which torpor or paralysis exists. In hydrocephalus, even when effusion of water on the brain appears to have taken place, the late Dr. Abercrombie stated that it would often bring about the recovery of the patient. It is a medicine which deserves far more attention than it has yet received. (J. S.-K.)