in Music, a note or character equal in time to half a minim, or two quavers.

CROCHETS, 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 Graecia, at the mouth of the small river Æscus, 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 Achaeans under the command of Myscellus, 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 Crotoniats 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 Achaean 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 Crotoniats 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 Crotoniats 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 Crotoniats 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, n.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 Nares 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 Alcmeon. 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 Graecia, 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 consistence like castor oil. It has no odour, but has a peculiar acid 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 bilary 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.

GROUP, a specific inflammatory affection of the larynx Crousaz, and trachea (windpipe), giving rise to a peculiar secretion which concretes as soon as it is thrown out, and forms a false membrane which blocks up the air tube, and produces rapid death by suffocation. This disease is peculiar to children from a few months old to the age of 12 years; and is most common in damp low-lying situations, in the neighbourhood of the sea, or marshes, or of rivers. It makes its appearance suddenly during the night. The child goes to bed apparently in perfect health. After he has been asleep for a few hours he is heard to give an occasional cough of a peculiar ringing character, as if he had coughed through a brass trumpet. The cough rapidly becomes more frequent, with an increasing difficulty of breathing, accompanied by a peculiar crowing and wheezing noise at each inspiration; the voice becomes rough and hoarse, the child restless and feverish, the face flushed, and with an excited anxious expression; he complains of uneasiness in the throat, and says he is choking. The difficulty of breathing rapidly increases, and great efforts are made by the child to dilate the chest in order to get breath; the air is drawn into the lungs with extreme difficulty, as if by a piston, and through a very narrow aperture, and the crowing sound is audible at a considerable distance. Sometimes these symptoms, if not very severe, subside after midnight, to return the next night; but if severe, unless the child be promptly relieved, the disease will rapidly terminate fatally.

As soon as the disease is noticed, the child ought to be put into a hot bath, and kept there for ten minutes, or even until slight faintness is experienced. Simultaneously, or while this bath is getting ready, an emetic ought to be administered; and by far the best for this purpose is the sulphate of copper, in doses of two or three grains, dissolved in a little hot water. If this be not at hand, an emetic of ipecacuan or of antimony may be substituted; and in any case the emetic should be repeated at intervals of half-an-hour or an hour, according to circumstances, till the child is somewhat relieved. Immediately after the vomiting is over, calomel in half-grain or one-grain doses should be given every second hour till the symptoms yield, and the breathing becomes free and natural. In very severe cases it is useful to blister the throat; and by far the most efficacious and speedy way of accomplishing this is to rub the nitrate of silver over the whole course of the windpipe. Bloodletting, in all its forms, is a dangerous remedy (though very generally recommended), as, unless it removes the disease at the moment, which it very rarely does, it increases the tendency to the formation of the false membrane in the windpipe.

(Croesus)