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CROTHERS 207 CROUP studies at that university. In 1902, after having occupied several positions on the faculty of Yale, he became professor of English in the Sheffield Scientific School. In 1916 he was appointed dean of the Graduate School at Yale. He was editor of the "Yale Review" and in 1903 was lecturer at Columbia. He was a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. His writings include "Develop- ment of the English Novel" 1899); and "HistoiT of Henry Fielding" (1918). He also edited the works of many English writers, contributed articles on literature to several encyclopaedias, and was a well- known contributor to magazines. CROTHERS, SAMUEL McCHORD, an American clergyman of the Unitarian church and author. Born in Illinois in 1857, he graduated from Princeton in 1874 and received his theological educa- tion at Union Theological Seminary, New York. After serving pastorates in Cali- fornia, Nevada, and Vermont, he became in 1894 pastor of the Unitarian Church in Cambridge, Mass. A few years later he was appointed one of the preachers at Harvard University. His writings are mostly of the familiar essay type and are classics in English style. Most of them were originally written for the "Atlantic Monthly." Among his best known works are "The Pardoner's Wallet" (1905); "The Gentle Reader" (1903); "By the Christmas Fire" (1908); "Am .ng Friends" (1910) ; "Humanly Speakiuo^^ (1912) ; "Oliver Wendell Holmes and His Fellow Boarders" (1909) ; "Three Lords of Destiny" (1913). CROTON, a genus of EuphorbiacesB the typical one of the tribe Crotonese. Some are trees, others bushes, and yet others herbaceous plants; the leaves and inflorescence are also variable. They occur in the warmer parts of both hemi- spheres. Some are purgative. A decoc- tion of C. perdicipes is used in Brazil as a cure for syphilis and as a diuretic. The purgative root of C. campestns, and the leaves and bark of C. origanifolius, are diaphoretic and antispastic. The wood of C. Tialium is sudorific, and used against syphilis; the seeds are purgative. The oil of C. Tiglium and Pava-iia, two East Indian trees, is so acrid as to blister the skin. They are used as diuretics and purgatives. Many are balsamic. C hal- samifer is used in Martinique in the prep- aration of the liquid called eau de man- tes. Frankincense is extracted from C. thurifer and C. adipatus, which grow on the Amazon. C. hutnilis, found in the West Indies, has aromatic qualities, and is used in medicating baths. C. gratis- sitmus is fragrant, and is used as a per- fume by the Koras in south Africa. The balsam of C origanifolius is emnloyted as a substitute for copaiva. C. casca/rilla is aromatic. Yet others have a coloring matter. C. Draco and C. sanguiferum furnish a red substance like gum-lac. C. cascarllla, a Jamaica bush, was thought to furnish the cascarilla of commerce, which is now known to be derived from C. Eleuteria, a Bahama shrub; that of Mexico comes from C. pseudo-China; and C. nitens, C. cascarilloides, viicans, and suberosus might also be made to yield cascarilla. CROTON, a river in New York which joins the Hudson, 32 miles N. of New York City. It supplies the city with water through the Croton Aqueduct, which was first opened in 1842. A new aqueduct was completed in 1906, CROTON AQUEDUCT, the aqueduct which carries a portion of the water supply of New York City from the Cro- ton basin, an area of about 375 square miles, situated about 30 miles from the city. The old aqueduct was constructed between 1837 and 1842; it is 38 miles long, with a declivity for the greater part of its course of 13 V^ inches to the mile, the water channel averaging 8 feet 5 inches in height and 7 feet 8 inches in greatest breadth. New York needs demanding a greater supply, a new aqueduct was begun in 1883. This de- livers to the city about 336.000,000 gal- lons daily. With the completion of the Catskill aqueduct in 1917 the Croton aqueduct furnishes only about half the water supply of New York City. CROUP, a term used in Scotland from an early period to describe a certain train of laryngeal symptoms, was first applied by Dr. Francis Home, in 1765, to an acute inflammatory and non-contagious affection of the larynx, in which there is the formation of a false membrane or fibrinous deposit on the mucous surface of the windpipe. The invasion of the dis- ease resembles that of simple catarrh, and may be very insidious. If the patient is not relieved by coughing or vomiting up some membranous shreds and glairy mu- cus, a state of greater dyspnoea ensues. A period of extreme restlessness and suffering is (unless relieved by im- mediate treatment) soon followed by death from increasing coma, syncope, or exhaustion. Croup seems to be caused by a damp atmosphere of low temperature, espe- cially in exposed situations. It is most frequently met with between the years of two and ten, though all ages are liable to suffer from it. It is commoner in boys than girls,