Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/496

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perfoliate yellow centaury-, with an alatcd ftalk. Tourn. Lift.

p. 122.

Centaurium mineralc, among Chcmifts, a name given by fome to the panacea of antimony, called alfo by Glauber, purgans universale ; the preparation of which is given by Jungkcn, Vid. Jangk. Lex. Chym. Pharm. P. i. p. i86, feq. See Pana- cea.

CENTAURQIDES, in medicine arid pharmacy, the fame with gratiola. §{uinc. Difpenf. P. 2. Sect. 4. n. 310. See GrA- tiola.

Others give the denomination to the greater centaury. See Centaurium.

CENTENARIUS, or CentenaRio, in the middle age; was an officer who had the government or command, with the adrninifrrationof juftice, in a village. The centenaril, as well as vicarii, were under the jurifdiction and command of the court. We find them both among the Franks, Germans, Goths, Lombards, &c. Trev. Diet. Univ. T. r. p. 1552. voc. centenier.

Centenarius is alfo ufed for an officer who had the command of an hundred men ; more frequently called centurion. Veget, I.2.C.13. Calv. Lex. Jur. p. 170. See Centurion', Cyd.

Centenarius, in monaftcries, was an officer who had the fu- perintendance of an hundred monks. Bingb. Orig. Ecclef. I. 7. c. 3. §. 7.

Centenarius was alfo ufed for a perfon worth an hundred thoufand fellerces ; otherwife called cenf/s. Calv. Lex. Jur. p. 170. See Census.

CENTENINUM otwhj among naturalifts, denotes a fort of hen's egg, much fmaller than ordinary, vulgarly called a cock's egg; from which it has been fabuloufly held that the cockatrice or bafilifk was produced. Brown, Vulg. Err. 1. 3. c. 7. The name is taken from an opinion, that thefe are the Iaft eggs which hens lay, having laid an hundred before ; whence centeninum, q. d. the hundredth egg.

Thefe eggs have no yolks, but in other refpectsare like com- mon eggs, having the albumen, chalazas, membranes, &c. in common with others.

In the place of the yolk is found a body refcmbling a little fer- pent coiled up, which doubtlefs gave rife to the tradition of the bafilifk's origin from hence. Vid. Vallifn, Prim. Raccolt. d' Ofiervaz. p. 66, feq. Giorn. de Letter, d'ltal. T. 5.

P- i?3*

'I heir formation is probably afcribed by Harvey to this, that the yoiks in the vitellary of the hen are exbaulted before the albumina. Harvey de Generat. Animal. Exerc. 1 2. M. La Peyronie has carried the hiftory of the ova centenina to a greater length, as well as certainty : a hen was brought to him which for a confiderable time laid no other eggs : the fame hen was alfo obferved to crow like a cock, and to ren- der by the cloaca a thin yellow matter, much like the yolk of an egg diluted in water. Upon opening her, me was found hydropical ; a bladder as big as the fift, full of water, was found contiguous to the oviduct, which it prefled and crouded in fuch manner, as not to leave the cavity thereof above five lines in diameter ; fo that a common eg2", fuch as it is when it falls from the ovary into the tube, could not pafs without burfting, by which the yolk was let out, and difcharged ano- ther way. Mem. Acad. Scienc. an. 1710. p. 730, feq.

CENTER (Cyd.) — Center of the equant, in the old aftro- nomy, a point in the line of the aphelion ; being fo far difrant from the center of the excentric, towards the aphelion, as the fun is from the center of the excentric towards the perihelion.

Center of gravity. When any number of bodies move in right lines with uniform motions, their common center of gra- vity, moves likewife in a right line with an uniform motion : and the fum of their motions efti mated in any given direc- tion, isprecifely the fame as if all the bodies, in one mafs, were carried on with the direction and motion of their com- mon center of gravity. Nor is the center of gravity of any number of bodies affected by their collifions or actions on each other. Mac Laurin, Account of Sir If. Newton's Difcov.

CENTERING of an optic glafs, the grinding it fo as that the thickefr part is exactly in the middle.

One of the greatest difficulties in grinding large optic o-lafies is, that in figures fo little convex, the leaff difference will put the center two or three inches out of the middle a. Dr. Hook notes, that tho* it were better the thickeft part of a long object glafs were exactly in the middle, yet it may be a very good one when it is an inch or two out of it b. — [* Phil. Tranf. N° 4. p. 57. b Id. ibid. p. 64, feq.]

M. Caflini the younger has a difcourfc exprefs on theneceffity of well centering the objed glafs of a large telefcope, that is, of grinding them fo, that the center may fall exactly in the axis of the telefcope. Mem. Acad, Scienc. an. 1710. p. 299, feq.

CENTESIMA ujura 9 that wherein the intercft in an hundred months became equal to the principal ; ;. e. where the money is laid out at one per cent, per month, anfwering to what in our ftile would be called 12 per cent, for the Romans reckon- ed their interefi: not by the year, but by the month. BrijJ. de Verb.Signif. p. 117. Calv Lex. Jur. p 170.

CENTESIMATION, cmteftnwtU, the punifhing every hun- dredth man.

Macrinus fometimes decimated, and fometimei csr.tcfinwted £\e. foldiers. The latter term teems to have been introduced by bimfelf, to the hontiUr of his clemency, as being contented to centeftmate thofe who deferve'd decima.ion, or vtcefimatioa. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 1. p. -498. Calv. hex. Jur. p. 170.

CENTGRAVIUS, in middle age writers, the fame with cen- tcnarius. Calv Lex. jur. p. 171. See Centenarius.

CENTILOQUIUM, denotes a collection of an hundred fen- ttnees, opinions, or fayings.

The centiioquiam of Hcrmas contains an hundred aphorifms, or aftrological fentences, fuppofed to have been written by fome Arab, falfcly fathered on Hermes Trifmcgiftus. It is only extant in Latin, in which language it has been feveral times printed. Fabric BibI Gnee. 1. 1 c. 9. §. 5. The centiloquium of Ptolemy is a famous aftrological piece, fre- quently confounded with the former, confiding"! ike wife of an mindred fentences or doctrines, digefted into fhort aphorifms, entitled alfo in Greek x«£?r^, as being the fruit or reililt of the former writings of that celebrated aftronomer, viz. his qua- dripartttum and almagefimn ; or rather, by reafon ihat herein is fhewn the ufe of aftrological Calculations. Cardan, Argol, and fine others, deny it to be the work of Ptolemy, and afcribe it to Hermes, or fome later writer : but Voffius and Fabriciusmew this opinion is founded on a miftake. I'oJJ. dc Scient. Mathem. c 37. §. 10. Fabric. Bib], Grsc, 1. 1. c, 9. § 6. Vital. Lex. Mathem. p 99, feq.

CENTINODIUM, an officinal plant, popularly called knot- grafs ; by the botanifts 'polygonum ; reputed an afiringent and vulnerary. Vid G:rr. Med. Defin. voc. wfovyomi, $h<inc. Difpenf. P. 2. Sect. 2. n. 10;. See Polygonum.

CENTIPES. See the article ScoloPendra.

CENTNER. See Hundred docimajiic.

CENTONARTI, in antiquity, a fort of officers or operators, whofe bufmefs was to make ccmones, or coats patched of leather and cloth, wherewith to cover the vine.-e under which the befiegers made their approaches, as well as the towers and machines ufed to batter the place, and prevent their being let on fire by the enemy. In the Theodofian code we have a ti- tle, de centonariis & dendrophor'u. And in antient inscriptions, the centona it are joined with the tignarii, or carpenters, fer~ rarii or fmiths, &c. who made but one company, under the denomination of collegium fabrorum is" centenariorum. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 1. p. 398. Jquin, Lex. Milit. T. 1. p. 14.

GENTRATiON, centratio. See Concentration, Cyd. and Concentrating, Suppl.

Paracelfus ufes the word cen'.ratio, for the change or converfion of a faline principle into a corrofive and ulcerating quality. According to him, a centrum falis is the beginning of ulcers. Caff. Lex. Med. in voc.

CENTRINE, in zoology, the name by which moil authors call the porcus pifcis. It is properly of the galeus kind, but much thicker and fhorter than any other of that genus, and from head to tail is fomewhat of a triangular figure; its broad and fiat belly making one fide of the triangle, and its two fides, which meet at the back, the other two. It is of a dufky brown colour ; its head is fmall for the fize of the body, fome- what comprefTed, and full of rough tubercles : the eyes are of an elliptic figure, the pupils black, and the iris green : its mouth is fmall, and placed in the under part of its head, as in all the galei : it has three rows of teeth in the upper jaw, and in the under only one, which contains nine teeth, the middle one of which is placed upright, the others flaming to the right and left. AUlrov. de Pifc. 1. 3. c. 141. It has its name of porcus pifcis either from the fhape of its back, which rifing into a ridge refembles that of a hog, or from his loving like the hog to wallow in mud.

CENTRINES, in phyfiology, a fpecies of infects hatched in. the wild fig-tree, and ufed in caprification. Plin. Hift. Nat. I.17. c. 27. See Caprification.

CENTRISCUS, in zoology, the antient name for the common little prickly fifth, which we call in Englifhthe ftickleback, or barnfticie, ufually known among authors by the names of pug- nitius, and aculeatus pifciculus. Hay's Ichthyog. p. 341. See the article Pugnitius.

CENTUMMORBIA, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for the common moneywort ornummularia, from its fuppofed virtues. Gcr. E mac. Ind. 2.

CEN TUMVIRI, in antiquity, an order of judges, to the num- ber of an hundred and upwards, under ihe Roman pnetors. The centumviri were a body of men chofen three out of each tribe ; fo that their number amounted to five more than their name imports ; their bufmefs was to judge of matters relating to teftaments, tutorage, inheritances, and fuch other matters of lefler weight and moment, as the pnetors committed to them. Their body was afterwards increafed to an hundred and eighty. Vid. Cic. de Orat. 1. 1. c. 38. Kenn. Rom. Ant. Not. K 2. 1. 3. c. i,. & 16.

The centumviri were called together by fetting up a fpear j at firft, by thofe who had difcharged the office ©f quseftor ; af- terwards, by the decemviri. Suet, in Auguft. c. 36. Sec alfo Briff. de Verb. Signif. p. 117. Calv. Lex. Jur. p. 171. Pitifc. Lex. Ant. T. 1. p. 399, feq.

CENTUNCULUS, in botany, a name ufed by fome authors for the gnaphalium, or cudweed. Ger. Emac. Ind, 2.

Cen-