Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 4).

Date:: 1830-33

Credit: Encyclopaedia Americana: a popular dictionary of arts, sciences, literature, history, politics and biography, brought down to the present time : including a copious collection of original articles in American biography : on the basis of the seventh edition of the German Conversations-Lexicon (Volume 4). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

Title Page

9/632

CRAVAT—CRAWFISH. possible to incline the head in any direc- tion. Most fashions have been invented to hide an infirmity or a deformity: large cravats were probably fii-st used to conceal some disagreeable scars, or some unlucky malformation. A singer or a public speak- er cannot use his voice to advantage dur- ing the time when his cravat is tied too tight. The habit of wearing large cravats renders tlie neck very liable to be affected by exposure. By uncovering the neck imprudently when heated, severe and dangerous diseases have often been con- tracted. A young man or young lady, on leaving a party in a wann apartment, should be careful to protect the neck and breast from cold. Craven, Elizabeth, lady; margravine of Anspach, youngest daughter of the earl of Berkeley ; born in 1750, and mamed in 1767, to William, last earl of Craven, by whom she had seven children. But, after a connexion of 14 years, in consequence of his ill-treatment, a separation was agreed upon in 1781. Lady Craven, after this, lived successively at the courts of Versailles, Madrid, Lisbon, Vienna, Berlin, Constantinople, Wareaw, St. Petersburg, Rome, Florence and Naples; then in An- spach, where she became acquainted with tlie margrave Christian Frederic Charles Alexander, a nephew of Frederic the Great. On this tour, in 1787, she was persuaded by the count Choiseul-Gouffier, French ambassador to Constantinople, to descend into tlie grotto of Antiparos, which no woman had ever before visited. After the death of lord Craven, at Lisbon, in 1791, the margrave married her, sur- rendered his estates to the king of Prussia for a yearly pension, and went, with his consort, to England, where he purchased an estate (Brandenburg), not far from Hammeremith, and died in 1806. From that time, lady Craven has lived partly in England, partly in Naples. The account of her travels through the Crimea to Con- stantinople, in a series of lettei-s, was first published in 1789. A new enlarged edi- tion ap])eared in 1814. Besides these, she has written poems, plays and roman- ces; also her own memoirs (Memoirs of the Margravine of Anspach, formerly Lady Craven, &c., London, 1825). These are interesting on account of her intercourse with Catharine II, Joseph II, and other princes. Crawfish {astactis,Fab.); acrustaceous genus, belonging to the faniily decapoda viacroura (ten legged, long tailed), charac- terized by having the anterior part of the elongated semi-cylindric superior shell 1 * produced to form a rostrum or beak; the abdomen large, slightly attenuated poste- riorly, composed of six joints, forming a tail quite as long, when extended, as the body, and terminating in five broad-fring- ed, swimming appendages, which fold laterally upon each other. In both sexes, the under part of the abdomen is generally provided with five paire of false claws, each terminated by two plates or pla- ments. The exterior jaw-feet are mostly naiTow, elongated, and do not entirely cover-the other parts of the mouth. The gills are pyramidal, brush-shaped, or plume-like, separated from each other by tendinous slips, and situated beneath the sides of the gi-eat superior shell, over the external base of the feet. Of the latter, the second and third pairs are elongated, slender, and furnished at the last joint, which is movable, with small pincers; the fourth and fifth pairs have the last joints simply pointed or hooked. The sexual organs are placed, in both sexes, in the basal joint of the last pair of feet. The species belonging to this genus, as at present restricted, do not exceed six. Some of these kinds are peculiar to salt and others to fresh water. Of the former, the most celebrated is the lobster {astacus gammarus), so prominent among the lux- uries of New York, and our other eastern maritime cities. In their modes of living, the crawfish generally resemble the aquat- ic crabs (see Crab), feeding on putrefying animal matter, spending their time on the sandy or rocky bottom of deep watei-s, and only approaching the shallows when impelled by the necessity of undergoing their change of shell, or when under the sexual influence. The common lobster is the largest species, and grows to a size which may well appear wonderful to per- sons accustomed to see none but small ones. They are brouglit to the New York market moi-e than two feet in length, and weighing 20 pounds and upwards. Such individuals, however, are not preferred for the table, as their size is a good indication of their age, and their period of life is stated to extend to 20 years and more. The smaller, or half-sized lobsters, are consid- ered the best. The quite small, or young ones, which are commonly sold in New Haven (Connecticut), as too small for the New York market, are, in our opinion, far superior to either.—The fresh-water craw- fish, of which one species (astacus bartnoii) is veiy common in most of the fresh- water streams and brooks from Pennsyl- vania southward, affords us the best op- portunity for observing their habits. We

Licence and re-use

Contents