CENCI-CENSORSHIP OF THE PRESS.

in

CENCI, BEATRICE, called the beautiful parricide,', mass, vespers, and other offices. It is suspended was the daughter of Francesco Censi, a wealthy by chains, which are held Roman nobleman. According to Muratori (Annales, in the hand, and is tossed lib. x.), Francesco was twice married, Beatrice being in the air, so as to throw his daughter by the first wife. After his second the smoke of the marriage, he treated the children of his first wife in cense in all directions. It a revolting manner, and was even accused of hiring varies very much in form, bandits to murder two of his sons on their return from a simple vase, or from Spain. The beauty of Beatrice inspired him chafing-dish, covered by with the horrible and incestuous desire to possess a perforated dome, to her person; with mingled lust and hate, he perse- the ornamental structure cuted her from day to day, until circumstances represented in the woodenabled him to consummate his brutality. The cut. unfortunate girl besought the help of her relatives, and of Pope Clement VII. (Aldobrandini), but did not receive it; whereupon, in company with her step-mother, and her brother, Giacomo, she planned and executed the murder of her unnatural parent. The crime was discovered, and both she and Giacomo were put to the torture; Giacomo confessed, but Beatrice persisted in the declaration that she was innocent. All, however, were condemned, and put to death, August 1599, in spite of the efforts of the learned Farinaceus, who wrote out and presented to the pope an account of the crimes and infamous life of Francesco. Such is Muratori's narrative.

Other historians allege that neither Beatrice, her
step-mother, nor her brother, had any part in the
murder of Francesco, but that their condemnation
was the result of an infernal plot hatched by two
robbers, or by unknown persons whose instruments
these were.
It has also been stated, that the
principal reason for refusing clemency was the
avaricious desire, on the part of the pope, to confiscate
the estates and possessions of the murdered man to
the papal see; a statement in itself not improb-
able. In the Colouna Palace at Bome, there
is still shewn an excellent painting of Beatrice,
attributed to Guido. The story of Beatrice has
been made the subject of a powerful tragedy by
the poet Shelley.

CENIS, MONT, or MONTE CENISIO, a mountain pass of the Alps, between Savoy and Piedmont, forming part of the water-shed between the valleys of the Doire and the Arc. The culminating point of the pass reaches an elevation of 6775 feet above the sea. Schist, limestone, and gypsum, in alternate beds, compose the stra a of the mountain, the vegetation of which is rich in the rarer kinds of Alpine plants. A railroad 49 m. in length now crosses M. C. at the height of 6701 feet. By means of an adhesion rail, of American invention, a gradient of 376 feet per mile is readily surmounted. A tunnel of 7 4-5 miles, estimated to cost $12,000,000, will be completed in 1871.

CE'NOBITES. See MONACHISM.
CENO'MYCE. See REINDEER Moss.

CE'NOTAPH (Gr. kenotafion, from kenos, empty, and tafos, a tomb), a monument which does not contain the remains of the deceased. They were originally erected for those whose bones could not be found, e. g., for those who had perished at sea. Latterly, the name was applied to tombs built by a man during his lifetime, for himself and the members of his family.

CE'NSORS, the name
of two Roman officers of

state. The office was
established by Servius
Tullius, the

fifth king

Thurible.

It continued to be

of Rome. After the expulsion of the kings, it
was held by the consuls, special magistrates not
being appointed till 443 B. C.
filled by patricians till 351 B. C., when C. Marcius
later it was enacted that one of the C. (there
Rutilus, a plebeian, was elected. Twelve years
were always two) must be a plebeian. In 131 B. C.,
both C. for the first time were plebeians. The C.
were elected in the comitia centuriata, presided
five years, but was shortly afterwards limited to
over by a consul.
eighteen months. The censorship was regarded as
the highest dignity in the state, except the dictator-
ship. It was a sacred and irresponsible magistracy,
whose powers were vast and undefined, and whose

The term of office at first lasted

decisions were received with solemn reverence.
duties of the C. were threefold.

the state.

The

the census, or register of the citizens and of their
1. The taking of
property. 2. The regimen morum (regulation of
morals). 3. The administration of the finances of
to value, to take an account of) was originally their
The taking of the census (Lat. censeo,
sole function (hence their name), and was held in the
Campus Martius, in a building called Villa Publica.
The regimen morum was the most dreaded and
absolute of their powers. It grew naturally out of
the exercise of the previous duty, which compelled
them to exclude unworthy persons from the lists of
citizens. Gradually the superintendence of the C.
extended from the public to the private life of citizens.
They could inflict disgrace (ignominia) on any one
whose conduct did not square with their notions of
rectitude or duty. For instance, if a man neglected
the cultivation of his fields, or carried on
a dis-
reputable trade, or refused to marry, or treated his
family either too kindly or too harshly, or
extravagant, or guilty of bribery, cowardice, &c., he
might be degraded, according to his rank, or other-
wise punished. The administration of the finances
of the state included the regulation of the tributum,
or property-tax; of the vectigalia, such as the
tithes paid for the public lands, salt-works, mines,
customs, &c., which were usually leased out
speculators for five years; the preparations of the
state budget, &c.-See Rovers, De Censorum apud
Romanos Auctoritate et Existimatione (Utrecht,
1825).

was

to

CE'NSORSHIP OF THE PRESS, the term CE'NSER (Fr. encensoir, from Lat. incendo, to generally applied to the arrangements for regulating burn), a vase, or other sacred vessel, used for burn- what may be printed, in countries where the press is ing perfumes. See INCENSE. Censers were much not free. The simplest form of C. is when a public used in the Hebrew service of the temple, but their officer-the censor, or licenser, as he is sometimes. form is not accurately ascertained, and it is probable called-reads over the MS. to be printed, and after that they varied in this respect, according to the striking out any objectionable passages, certifies occasions on which they were used. The C., called that the work may be printed. Thence it is comalso a thurible (Lat. thuribulum, from thus, frank-mon in old books to see the word imprimatur—let incense), is used in the Roman Catholic Church at it be printed, followed by one or more signatures.

CENSUS CENTAURS.

Though it has its name from an analogy with the functions of the Roman censor, the C. did not come into operation until the invention of printing. It was common to all European countries, Great Britain included. The C. was established by act of parliament in 1662, 13 Char. II., c. 33; An act for preventing the frequent abuses in printing seditious, treasonable, and unlicensed books and pamphlets, and for regulating of printing and printing-presses. This was a temporary act, renewed from time to time; and its renewal was refused in 1693, owing to a quarrel between the House of Commons and the licenser. Since that time there has been, generally speaking, no restriction in this country on what any man may publish; and he is merely responsible to the law, if in his publication he should commit any public or private wrong. See LIBEL, LAW OF; see also PRESS, FREEDOM OF THE; BOOK-TRADE; and COPYRIGHT.

CE'NSUS means, in this country, the periodical counting of the people. It is a Latin word applied by the Romans to one of the functions of their censors (q. v.). They had to enumerate the people, but only for immediate purposes of taxation, so that no accounts of the results of such enumera

tions has been preserved. The idea of ascertaining the numbers of the people, and the proportions in which they are divided according to sex, age, profession, rank, and the like, as statistical information, is of late origin. The first C. of Britain was taken in the first year of the present century-1801. From that time it has been taken at each period of ten years. An attempt, but a rather unsuccessful one, was made to take the statistics of Ireland in 1811. Ten years after, the attempt was repeated, but the accuracy of the bare enumeration it furnished was doubtful. That of 1831, which was an improvement, was corrected three years after, in order that it might form the basis of a new system of education. The two subsequent enumerations have been very trustworthy, and have furnished besides valuable statistics regarding the agricultural condition of the country. The system of registration under a registrar-general, established in England in 1836, gave considerable assistance in taking the C. of 1841 and of 1851, by supplying a staff for carrying out the enumeration, and also by affording the means of checking it, since, making allowances for migrations, the births and deaths recorded should balance the changes in the population between one C. and another. A similar registration system was extended to Scotland in 1854, of which the C. of 1861 will have the advantage. A C. must be taken for the whole empire simultaneously, otherwise it cannot be accurate. The practice is for the enumerating officer in each petty district to leave a schedule at each house, which he receives filled up, aiding, when necessary, in the filling up. The C. of 1851 was taken for the night of the 31st March. This C. supplied important, but not altogether satisfactory information, as to the educational and ecclesiastical condition of the country, elements which are to be left out in the enumeration of 1861. By the act for taking a C. in 1861, it is provided that a schedule shall be left in each house on Saturday the 6th of April, to be called for on the ensuing Monday. The schedule is to contain compartments for 'particulars of the name, sex, age, rank, profession or occupation, condition, relation to head of family, and birthplace of every living person' who passed the night of Sunday in the house. Almost all civilised nations now take a census at regular intervals. In France, it is taken every five years, the last being in 1856. In Belgium, it is every three years, the last being in 1858. In Austria, the same, the last being in 1857. In the

100

United States, it is every ten years; this year
(1860) being that in which it falls to be taken.
CENT, and CENTIME (Lat. centum, a hundred),
names of coins. The Dutch cent is a copper coin
th of the guilder, which is equal to 1s. 8d.
sterling. In the United States of America, the cent
is a copper coin =th part of the dollar, or
nearly one halfpenny English. The Centime is the
100th of the French franc (q. v.), and is of the value
of th of an English penny.

10

CENTAU'RÉA, a genus of plants of the natural order Composite, sub-order Cynaraceæ, containing many species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants, chiefly natives of the temperate and cold regions of the eastern hemisphere. Six or seven of them species are natives of Britain, some common weeds, whilst some species appear among the frequent ornaments of flower-gardens.-The BLUE-BOTTLE, or CORN BLUE-BOTTLE (C. cyanus), is common in cornfields in Britain and other parts of Europe, and has now become frequent also in similar situations in and indeed

America, and

cyanus.)

over the greater part of
the world. It is an an-
nual, growing to the
height of about two feet,
and producing its flow-
ers in July and August.
The florets of the disk
are small and purple ;
those of the ray are few,
comparatively large, and
Its
of a bright blue.
flowers have long been
much used in wreaths
and garlands. It is com-
mon in gardens, with
flowers variously modi-
fied by cultivation. Wa-
ter distilled from the
flowers of the blue-bottle
was at one time in high
repute as a remedy for
weak eyes. The juice of the florets of the disk, with
a little alum, dyes a beautiful and permanent
blue. The large Blue-bottle (C. montana), a native
of Central Europe, is still more frequently cultivated
in flower-gardens. Its flowers are considerably
larger, and it is a perennial.-SWEET SULTAN (C.
moschata), a native of the Levant, with fragrant
flowers, is also common in flower-gardens. It is
an annual or biennial.-Several species, having the
involucre spiny, bear the name of STAR-THISTLE.
The common STAR-THISTLE (C. calcitrapa) is a
native of the southern parts of Britain and of
Europe.-The Common or Black Knapweed, called
in Scotland Horse Knot (C. nigra), is abundant in
the meadows and pastures of most parts of Britain,
and is a troublesome perennial weed, difficult of
extirpation. C. Jacea, also called KNAPWEED, more
rare in Britain, is very common in some parts of
Europe, and its bitter astringent root, and indeed
the whole plant, were formerly used in medicine.
It affords a beautiful bright yellow dye, almost as
good as Saw-wort.-The name C. has its origin in
an ancient legend concerning the cure of a centaur
by one of the species.

CE'NTAURS ('bull-killers'), a wild race of men who inhabited, in early times, the forests and mountains of Thessaly, and whose chief occupation was bull-hunting. Homer, the first who mentions them, describes them merely as savage, gigantic, and

CENTAURUS-CENTERING.

covered with hair. They do not appear as monsters, half-man and half-horse, until the age of Pindar. The C. are celebrated in Greek mythology on

account of their war with the Lapithæ (q. v.), and their contest with Hercules. The fact lying at the bottom of Pindar's myth may refer to the impression which the old bull-hunters of Thessaly, who spent almost their whole life, it is said, on horseback, first made on some of the neighbouring tribes-viz., that the man and the horse were one creature, which, at least, we know was the opinion entertained by the Mexicans of the Spanish cavalry. On account of their resemblance to the Satyrs, the C. were at a later period introduced into the artistic representations of the Bacchic worship.

doses. The name C. owes its origin to the same | legend with the name Centaurea, although appropriated to plants so different.

CENTE'NES. See TENREC.

CE'NTERING, the framework upon which an arch or vault of stone, brick, or iron is supported during its construction. The simplest form of C. is that used by masons and bricklayers for the arches of common windows and doors. This is merely a deal-board of the required shape, upon the curved edge of which the bricks or stones of the arch are supported until they are keyed in. In building bridges or other structures where arches of great span are to be constructed, the C. is usually made of framed timbers, or timbers and iron combined. The arrangement of the timbers should be such, that the strain upon each shall be mainly a thrust in the direction of its length, for if the strain were transverse, a comparatively slight force would snap it, and if a longitudinal pull, the whole structure would be no stronger than the joints holding the pieces of timber together. In arches of great span, such as that of Waterloo Bridge, London, a longitudinal pulling strain is almost inevitable in some parts, as a beam of great length would bend to some extent under a thrusting strain. In such cases great skill and care are demanded in the designing and construction of the joints. As an arch is built from the piers towards the keystone, the weight upon the haunches during construction tends to push the crown upwards, and therefore the problem of designing a framed C. involves the resistance of this tendency, as well as the supporting of the weight of the materials.

The annexed figure of the C. of Waterloo Bridge, designed by Rennie, presents a fine example of the fulfilment of these requirements. It will be easily CENTAURUS, the Centaur, one of the constellations in the southern hemisphere, represented by direct thrust upon the beams passing obliquely seen that a weight upon np and ce will be resisted on the celestial globe by a form half-man and half-downwards from these parts; one of each pair horse. The stars in this constellation are, according to Ptolemy's catalogue, 37 in number; according to the Britannic catalogue, 35. It contains the stars a Centauri and 8 Centauri, both of the first magnitude.

CENTAURY (Erythræa), a genus of plants of the natural order Gentianeæ, having a funnel-shaped regular 5-partite corolla. The species are pretty little annuals, natives chiefly of the temperate parts of Europe and Asia, with pink or rosecoloured flowers. They possess the tonic and other medicinal virtues of gentian, and although not frequently administered by physicians, are an important domestic medicine; and the tops are collected when the plant is in flower, by the country people both in England and on the continent of Europe, to be employed in cases of dyspepsia, in intermittent fevers, and as a vermifuge. They contain a substance called Centaurine, the hydrochlorate of which is said to be an excellent febrifuge.- The Common C. (E. Centaurium) is the species most frequent in, Britain; a plant of eight inches to a foot in height, with flowers collected in loose heads, growing in dry pastures. Two or three other species are found on sandy sea-shores. Nearly allied to these is the AMERICAN C. (Sabbatia angularis), an annual plant with an erect quadrangular stem, extensively distributed throughout the United States and Canada, and much used in the domestic practice of America, as a prophylactic against autumnal fevers, in strong infusions and large and repeated,

of these oblique beams thrusts outwards, and is directly supported by the abutments; the other thrusts inward towards k, the yielding of which is prevented by the longitudinal pull of the lower and longer oblique beams kq, kr, kd, ka, &c. In this, and other modern structures, cast-iron shoes

have been successfully used for the tying joints. subject to the longitudinal pulling strain. The flexible C., so called from its yielding at the joints, and varying its form with the load put upon it, is now abandoned. It was chiefly used by French engineers. That of Perronet for the bridge of Neuilly is a celebrated example.

Occasionally, when a very great span is required, and the navigation will permit, piers are built, or piles are driven, to support the C., and the design is much simplified thereby.

CENTIGRADE-CENTRAL FORCES.

CENTRAL FORCES-CENTRALISATION.

c,

Fig. 1.

AB. But when

on in AB produced to Bc being AB.
it arrives at B, it receives the first sudden impulse
towards S. By the composition of velocities (q. v.),
it will move now with a new but still uniform

velocity in BC instead of Bc, BC being the diagonal
of the parallelogram of which the sides represent
its impressed and original velocity. Having reached
C at the end of the second interval, it receives the
second impulse towards S. It will now move in
CD instead of in BC produced. If, then, we suppose
the periods of time to be indefinitely diminished in
length, and increased in number, the broken line
ABCD will become ultimately a continuous curve,
and the series of impulses a continuous force. This
completes the explanation.

| curve AE, to reach the point D, and thus recede the length DE from the curve; but being continually drawn out of its direction into a curve by a force to a centre, it falls below the point D by the distance DE. The force which draws it through this distance is called the centripetal force, and that which would make it recede in the same time through the distance DE from the curve is called the centrifugal force. It may be remarked that the centrifugal force is not, like the centripetal, an impressed or external force acting on the body. It is simply the assertion of the body's inertia under the circumstances produced by the centripetal

force.

Many familiar illustrations will occur to the reader of the action of what is called the centrifugal force. A ball fastened to the end of a string, and whirled round, will, if the motion is made A glass of water may be whirled so rapidly that, sufficiently rapid, at last break the string, and fly off. even when the mouth is presented downwards, the force pressing it up against the bottom of the glass. water will still be retained in it, by the centrifugal The centrifugal action will be found to increase with the velocity. In all cases of a body moving in a circle, the force, it can be proved, varies as the and in the inverse ratio of the radius. As in this square of the velocity of the body at the moment, follows that the force is as the inverse cube of the case the velocity varies as the radius inversely, it radius. As in the case of circular motion the body always is at the same distance from the centre, it follows that the centrifugal and centripetal forces are law for all orbits is, that the centrifugal force varies equal at all points of a circular orbit. The general

As the attractive force of gravitation varies as as the inverse cube of the distance from the centre. shewn that the centrifugal force gives perfect secuthe inverse square of the distance, it may hence be

Sir Isaac Newton, of whose philosophy it makes The doctrine of C. F. owes more to Kepler and a considerable branch, than to all the rest of the

Going back, however, on our suppositions, we may here establish Newton's leading law of central forces. That the body must always move in the same plane, results from the absence of any force to remove it from the plane in which at any time. it may be moving. The triangles ASB and BSC are clearly in the same plane, as the latter is on that in which lie the lines Be and BS. Also, sincerity, notwithstanding the constant attraction of the the triangles ASB, BSc are equal, being on equal sun, that the planets, so far as that attraction is conbases, AB, Bc, and triangle BSC cerned, will never fall into the sun. triangle BSc, as they are between the same parallels, cC and BS, it follows (by Euclid I. 37) that ASB BSC. So BSC CSD; and so on. In other words, the areas, described in equal times by the line (called the radius vector) joining the centre of force and the body, are equal. As this is true in the limit, we arrive, by the composition of the small equal areas, at the law: That the areas described by the lines drawn from the moving body to the fixed centre of force, are all in one plane, and proportional to the times of describing them. Very few of the laws of C. F. are capable of being proved like the preceding, without drawing largely on Newton's lemmas, with which we shall not suppose the reader to be acquainted.

Centrifugal and Centripetal Force. We have shewn that a body continually drawn to a centre, if it has an original motion in a line that does not pass through the centre, will describe a curve. At each point in the curve, it tends, through its inertia, to recede from the curve, and proceed in the tangent to it at that point. It always tends to move in a straight line in the direction in which it may at any time be moving, and that line, by the definitions of a tangent and of curvature, is the tangent to the curve at the point. At the point A (see fig. 2), it will endeavour to proceed in AD: if nothing Fig. 2. hindered it, it would actually proceed in that line, so as, in the time in which it describes the arc of the

C

|

philosophers, though almost all the leading mathe maticians have contributed to it. The doctrine of at the end of his Horologium Oscillatorium, pubcentrifugal forces was first mentioned by Huygens, lished in 1673; but Newton was the first who fully handled the doctrine, at least so far as regards the

conic sections.

CENTRALISA'TION, a term which has lately come into general use for expressing a tendency to administer, by the sovereign or the central government, matters which had been previously under local management. We cannot properly use the. term towards an established despotism, for there everything is already directed from the centre. The legitimate application is to a state of change from local to central management-a change in the opposite direction would, on the same principle, be called localization. Of this latter change, however, it can scarcely be said that we have any recent example, unless it may be found in the systems of self-government lately communicated to some of the British colonies. Ever since the existing European states began to grow out of the chaos of the fall of the Roman empire, there has been a continued progress in centralization. That empire itself was, however, the greatest instance of C. which the world has yet seen. In it the numerous municipalities and other local organizations originally existing in Italy, and communicated to the colonies, were entirely centralised. The empire, such as it had been in the days of Constantine, was the type after the