Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/501

 CER

erithace. This is a yellow matter collected into lumps on the thighs of the hinder legs of bees, and is fuppofed by the ge- nerality of the world to be real yellow wax. This, however, is an error, fince it has none of the qualities of wax, and is only the farina of flowers which the bees probably feed upon, and which after having palled through their bowels becomes wax. See Wax.

CERITES, the wax-Jone, a name ufed by fome old authors for that yellow agate ufually called cerachates. See the article Cerachates.

CERNUA, in ichthyography, the name of a fmall frefh water fifh, called by others the aurata, afpredo, and perca minor, or finall pearch, and in Englifh the ruffe. It is very much of the fhape and figure of the common pearch, feldom, at its utmbft growth being known to exceed fix inches ; and it differs in this alfo,that it has none of thofe black tranfverfe lines with which the back and fides of the common pearch are variegated. Its fcales are moderately large, and are fo bent and fimbriated, or ferrated at their edges, that they make the whole fifh very rough. It has alfo a very large quantity of a vifcous matter adhering to its fcales. Its back is of a yellowifh ereen ; its fides are of a pale and obfcure yellow, but about its gills it is of a fine bright gold colour. Its belly is white ; and its back, fides, and fins, except thofe under the belly, are variegated with black fpots. Its mouth is moderately large, and its jaws rough, in the manner of a file; and it has one long back fin, the anterior rays of which are rigid and prickly. It is caught in many of our rivers, as the Yare at Norwich, &c. IVillugh- bys Hilt. Pifc. p. 334,

CEROCHYTOS, Ki^inO. yp.<p*, in antiquity, a method of painting in wax, melted and coloured with pigments for the purpofe, and applied with pencils, Plin. Hift. Nafc I. 35. c. 1 1. & 1. 21. c. 14. Du Cange, Gloff Gr. T. r. p. 6+7. The word is compounded of *r, f ©., cera, wax, and x"-,funch, I melt down.

CEROMA {Cycl.) — The name aroma is fometimes applied by antient phyficians to a cerate or cerecloth. Blanch. Lex.Med. p. 148.

The champions ready to engage in the palaeffra having (trip- ped themfelvesnaked,were firft anointed with oil.then ftrewed over with duft, to which was laftly added wax. From the laft ingredient, this compofition was denominated *jfqte, ceroma from cera, wax. Fair. Thef. p. 535.

CEROMANTIA, mpiuahm, an antient method of divination, by means of wax melted over a veflel of water, and let drop in three diltincft fpaces, obferving the figure, fituation, diftance, and concretion of the drops. Pott. Arch. Grac. 1.2. c. 18. p. 353. See Divination, Cycl.

CEROSTROTUM, tatfiffur^ in antient writers, denotes a fort of picture compofed of pieces of horn ; anfwering to what a- mong us is called Mofaic work. Plin. Hift. Nat. 1. 1 1 . c. 37. Vitruv. de Architect. ]. 4. c. 6. Fab. Thef. p. 535. See Mo- saic, Cycl.

Some write the word ceroflratum, and fuppofe it primarily to denote a fort of pavement compofed of pieces of wood, inlaid and joined with flips of horns, varioufly coloured and figured Pitifi. Lex. Ant. T. 1. p. 408.

Salmafius will alfo have cerojlrata to denote a method of paint- ing, or enamelling with wax, otherwife called cerocbytos. Sal- maf. Exerc. ad Solin. p. 231. C. See Cerochytos.

CERPASUS, in natural hiftory, a name given by Uranius to a poifonous drug of the Abyflines ; probably the fame with the car pa fui of the Greeks.

CERRUS, in botany, a name given by many authors to the a:gi- Iops, or bitter oak ; or oak that has large acorns, and a prickly cup. Aldrov. Dendr. p. 253.

Cer r. us,in ichthyology, a name given by fome of the old writers, Pliny, Martial, and others, to the fifh called by the generality of writers fmaris, by fome mjena Candida. It is of the fparus kind, according to the Artedian fyftem, and is diftinguifhed from the other fifhes of that genus by its having a black fpot in the middle of each fide, and the peaoral and tail fins red. See the article Sparus.

CERTHIA, in zoology, the name of a bird made by Linnams a diftinfl genus of the order of the pica:. The charafters of this are, that the bill is not flat at the end, but round in figure, and pointed, and fomewhat hooked, and the tailricid. There is but one known bird of this fpecies,which is the reptatrix, or creeper. Linncei Syftem. Natural, p. 45. This fmall bird is called in Englifh the creeper, from its climbing and running up the branches of trees, which it does in the fame manner with the woodpecker, and has thence by fome been ranked among the birds of that genus, but improperly ; its toes being placed as in the generality of birds, and not two of them behind, as is the diftinguifhing character of the wbod- pecker or picus kind.

It is an extremely fmall bird, fcarce exceeding the wren in fize ; its beak is long, hooked, (lender and fharp ; its tongue is not longer than the beak, as it is in all the woodpeckers, but it ter- minates, as in thofe birds, in a bony point; its throat, breaft, and belly are white ; its rump of a tawney colour, and its back of the fame, but mottled a little with white, as is alfo the head, but this is of a fomewhat more dufky and deep colour. It has on each fide a white fpot over the eye ; its long wing feathers Suppi,. Vol. I.

CER'

are fome all over brown, others brown tip'd with white \ the mailer feathers of its wings are blackifh, and its tail is yen- long in proportion to its fize, and is ftiff and rigid, as in the woodpecker kind ; all the feathers of it are of a brovvnilr, co-

t Ur ' i tcl '* bs 1 t r e l eXaai >' asthbwood P cckCT ' * Which it It greatly affifted by the rigidity of its tail. It builds in holes ot trees, and lays a great number of eggs, fometimes eighteen «, t ™5, -Ks/sOrnithoI. p. ,oo. S

CfiKVICARIA, in botany, a term ufed by fome authors to ex- prefs the thapfia of the (hops, or leffer libanotis of Theophraftus. J. Baubin, V. 3. p. 164.

Cervicaria is alfo a name given by fome to the trache- bum. Irer. Emac. Ind. 2.

CE „ R. VICEM /'f «*'**» primus, in anatomy, a name given by bpigehus, and fome others, to a mufcle of the neck, called b'y Cowper, Winflow, and Albinus, by a much fhorter name, the iongus colli.

CERVICIS tertim ; in anatomy, a name given by Fallooius and others, to a mufcle called by Albinus tranfverfalis cervicis, and by Winflow, tranfverfalis magnus.

? V i. X ^J cl \~ Ceev1x 'f th < fcp'Ja, denotes the head of" the Ihoulder blade, or that upper procefs whofe firms receives the head of the humerus. Drake, Anthrop. 1. 4. c. 6. p. 406. bee the article ScArvLA, Cycl. ■

CER(JSE,(L>'.)or CERliss,is the fame with what we popularly call white lead, though fometimes a diftinftion is made, and the appellation cerufe reftrained to the purer, clearer.and finer fort, by way of oppofition to the coarfer, which is called fimply whtte lead. Smith, Art of paint, p. 15, feq. The manner of preparing cerufe in quantities at Venice is de- imbed by Sir Phil. Vernatti. The plates for this purpofe are large, and about the thicknefs of a knife's bark, and rolled up, but fo as that the furfaces no where touch. Each roll is put in a ieveral pot, wherein it is upheld by a little bar from the bot- tom, that it may not touch the vinegar, which is alfo put into the pot, to effeft the converfion. The pots are then covered with a plateof lead asclofe as may be, and over this with a board ; after which they are let down into a bed of horfe dung, big enough to contain 400 pots. After three weeks continuance the pots are taken up, the plates unrolled,laid on a board, and beaten with battledores till all the flakes come off, which, when they prove good, are hard, thick, and weighty j when other- wife, porous and light, and fometimes black or burned, if the dung proves not well ordered : fometimes alfo there will be no flakes, or cerufe at all. From the beating table it is carried to the mill, ground with water between two ftones to an almofl impalpable iinenefs : laftly.it is moulded into fmall parcels, and expofed to the fun to dry, and harden for ufe. Vernatti m Phil. Tranf. N° 138. p. 935, feq.

Ceruss, in medicine, is ufed externally in ointment, or dry powders, fprinkling it on old ulcers, watery running fores, &c. inwardly it is accounted poifonous, or at lead very dangerous.

Ceruse, in the manufafture of China. — TheChinefe make ari ufe of this preparation of lead, which it is eafier to fee the ad- vantages of, than to comprehend the manner in which they are brought about. The China veifels, when they have been baked and finifhed as to the matter, and even covered with their varnifh, will yet receive into their very fubftance, the colours which thofe people mix up with an addition of cerufe, and, as fome of the old accounts fay of copperas and faltpetre ; but though thefe latter ingredients had ufe to be added, the ce- rufe alone fupplies their place at this time, at leaft in very ma- ny things. It would be worth while to try an admixture of arufe with the colours ufed in painting on glafs, and this, after a fecond baking, might perhaps be found to incorporate itfelf in the fame manner that it does into China ware, and recover the long loft fecret of letting in the ftrongeft colours without hurting the tranfparence. Obferv. fur 1' Afie.

Ceruse af antimony, a preparation of thereguliis of that mineral, powdered, mixed with fpirit of nitre, and diftilled in a retort till no more fumes will rife. What remains at the bottom being pulverized and wafhed fweet, makes the certifa antimonii, a medicine prefcribed as a diuretic, and by fome reckoned equal to the mineral bezoar. Some prepare the cerufe by fufing and fulminating the regulus with nitre in fubftance; the produce of which is a fixed powder called the cerufe of antimony. Shhic. Difpenf. P. 2. Soft. 1 5. p. 276. Teichmey, Inft. Chem. P. 2. c. 11. p. 165. & c. 17. p. 232. StaM.Phil.Priric.Chem. P. 2. Sect. 4. n. 154.

CERVULA, or CervulUs, in middle-age writers, a kind of fport, celebrated by pagans, and after their example, by the chriftiansj on New Year's Day; when they run about in rnafquerade, dreffed in imitation of deer, and other beafis. We find divers cenfures of the fathers, and decrees of coun- cils againft the obfervance of this ceremony. Even litanies were compofed, and faffing prefcribed, for that day, adcakan- damgmtilium canfuetudimm. Du Cange, Gloff. Lat. T. I. p. 940. Item Gloff. Gra:c. p. 638. Bingb. Orig. Ecclef. 1. 20. c. I. §. 3. Spe/ta. Gloff. p. 133.

CERVUS, the flag. In the Linnaean fyftem of zoology, this makes a diftinfl genus of animals, the charaflers of which are, that they are of the order of the pecota, and have horns hairy while young, but growing ftnooth afterwards, renewed every year, folid, and growing from the points. Thefe aie gene- 6 X ra Uy