CANCER-THE CRAB

 

CANCER-THE CRAB 

THE SIGNS OF THE ZODIAC 

By C.J. BLAKE

THE word which stands at the head of this paper, suggests to us the thought of a very terrible disease, rather than of a brilliant constellation; but we must recollect, that cancer means a crab, and that the disease in question is so called because of the supposed resemblance of the tumour, which is its seat to a crab with outstretched claws. Crabs were as well known to the ancients, as they are to ourselves, for they have been found at all times and in all parts of the earth, and they are spoken of as being a common article of food amongst the Romans. They are of various kinds; from the little pea-crab, which crawls into the shell of a cockle or mussel, and there makes a home for itself. to the large crab found in the seas around the coast of Japan, which measures ten feet between the tips of its nippers or fore-claws.
Many of these creatures are very curious in their habits; for instance, there is the land crab, which burrows in the earth like a rabbit, and only visits the sea once a year, for the purpose of depositing its spawn or eggs; and the robber crab, which is found in the Coral Islands. eats cocoa-nuts, and was formerly supposed to climb the tall cocoa palms, to bring the nuts down. But it is not certain that robber crabs can really do this, though they have often been seen to strip the outside fibre from fallen nuts, in order to find the soft spots, or eye-holes at the top. Inserting a claw into one these holes, they manage to scoop out the contents of the nut and so to furnish themselves with food. 

 The hermit crab, again, steals the shells of creatures for itself, sometimes taking the shell of a dead fish, and sometimes killing the living owner of the shell. 

Though we have not these strange kinds of crabs in our own country, we can observe the common or shore crab, which is itself a very singular creature. Young crabs do not much resemble their grown-up relations; there is almost as much difference between a young crab and an old one, as between a tadpole and a frog. As the young grow older they cast or moult the shell, and every time they do so, the new shell grows firmer and stronger. If they happen through accident to lose a claw, they have also the happen power of producing a new limb in its place. 

The people of old looked at these queer creatures, with their ten legs, of which the first pair form the nippers, their eyes set on stalks in their heads, and fitting into their shells when not in use and curious way of walking or propelling along. They said that the crab walked backwards, and though this is not exactly true, they thought that it was so.

Then they went on to consider that the sun in heaven after going as far as he possibly could towards the north, was now coming towards the Equator, and that the time of  hot weather was at hand. 

So they took the crab for the sign of the summer solstice, or period of heat; and they found a constellation, or group of stars, in that part of the heavens to which the sun had attained, which to their minds resembled a crab, with its nippers, and other claws, and its flat body and short tail.

You will sometimes learn in your geography lessons about the Tropic of Cancer, and perhaps you will remember then, that the tropic is the line which marks the sun's backward course towards the Equator, and consequently the region of heat. CJ BLAKE 

References:

Chatterbox 1903