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CEN'TIGRAMME, from cent and gramme. 

 A French weight, tHe hundredth part of 

 a gramme, or (H543 grains. See GRAMME. 



CENTIL'IXER, from cent and litre. A 

 French measure of capacity; the hun- 

 dredth part of a litre, or 0'6103 cub. inch. 



CESTIME'TRE, from cent and metre. A 

 French long measure ; the hundredth 

 part of a metre, or 3937 inches. 



CEI/TIPED, Lat. centipeda, an animal 

 (insect) having a hundred feet (centum 

 andpw). The term is commonly applied 

 to insects which have many feet. 



OEX'TNEK, in metallurgy and assaying, 

 a decimastic hundred (ccnMm). Metal- 

 lurgists use a weight divided into a 

 hundred equal parts, each one pound: 

 The whole they call a centner. The pound 

 is divided into 32 equal parts or half 

 ounces ; the half-ounce into two quarters ; 

 and these into two drams. Assayers use 

 different weights : with them a centner is 

 a dram, to which the other parts are pro- 

 portionate. 



CEN'TO, Lat. a patched cloth. Used to 

 designate a composition formed of verses 

 or passages from other authors, disposed 

 in a new order. 



CE.N'TKAL, Lat. centralis, relating to the 

 centre, e.g. the central forces, which is the 

 name given in mechanics to those powers 

 which cause a moving body to recede 

 from, or tend towards, the centre of 

 motion. 



CEN'TBE, Lat. centrum, from x.tvr^ov, 

 a point. Popularly, a point equally distant 

 from the extremities of a line, figure, or 

 body. In the geometry of curves, any 

 point in which two or more diameters 

 concur, is called a centre. In mechanical 

 philosophy there is, 1. Centre of gravity, 

 that point about which the parts of a 

 body, in any situation, balance each 



other. 2. Centre oj motion, the point 



about which all the other parts of a body 

 move, when that body is put in motion : 

 this is more correctly the axis, and passes 

 through the centre of gravity, if the body 



be not under constraint. 3. Centre of 



oscillation, that point in a pendulum, in 

 which, if the weight of the several parts 

 were collected, each vibration would be 

 performed in the same time as when those 

 weights were separate. This is the point 

 whence the length of the pendulum is 

 measured. 4. Centre of suspension, that 

 point in a moving body wherein the per- 

 cutient force is greatest, or that point 

 with which, if the body strike against 

 any obstacle, no shock will be felt at the 

 point of suspension. The centre of a dial 

 is a point in which the axis of the world 

 intersects the plane of the dial, a-nd there- 

 fore, in dials which have two centres, it 

 is the point wherein all the hour-lines 

 intersect. The centre of a bastion is the 

 point in the middle of the gorge M'here 



the capital line commences, which is 

 generally at the angle of the inner 

 polygon. 



CES'TREBIT, a carpenter's tool, which 

 makes a cylindrical hole, and turns on an. 

 axis or centre when used in boring. 



CENTRIFU'GAL, from centrum, centre, 

 and fugio, to flee, tending to recede froa. 

 the centre. The centrifugal force of a 

 body is that force by which any body 

 moving in a curve tends to fly off from the 

 axis of its motion, in a tangent to the 

 periphery of the curve. ' Thus the cen- 

 trifugal force arising from the velocity of 

 the earth in its orbit, balances the attrac- 

 tion of the sun, and that arising from the 

 earth's rotation on its axis, is 1- 289th of 

 that force with which bodies tend to fall 

 towards its centre. In the centrifugal 

 pump, which has the form of the letter T 

 and revolves on an axis, this force has 

 been applied to the raising of water. 



CENTRIPE'TAL, from centrum, centre, 

 and peto, to seek; tending towards the 

 centre. The centripetal force of a body is 

 that force, whatever it may be, which 

 impels it from a right line towards a 

 point as a centre, as in the case of a 

 planet revolving round the sun as the 

 centre of the system. 



CENTRONO'TCS, a genus of Scombroides, 

 characterised by the spines, which, in 

 acanthopterygious fishes, generally form, 

 the anterior portion of the dorsal or a 

 first separate dorsal, but in them are free 

 and unconnected by a common membrane ; 

 they all have ventrals. The pilot-fish ia 

 a species, or rather subgenus (Naucrates, 

 Rannesque) of this genus. 



CENTUM'VIR (Latin), one of the 105 

 judges in ancient Rome, appointed to 

 decide common caruses among the people. 

 The word is compounded of centum, a hun- 

 dred, and fir, a man. 



CENTUMVIRI, Roman judges who were 

 chosen three from each of the 35 tribes, 

 making in all 105, though they were de- 

 signated in round numbers 100 men. 



CENTU'RION (from centum") ; a military 

 officer among the Romans, who com- 

 manded 100 men, answering to a captain 

 in modern times. 



CEN'TDRY, a hundred years (centum, 

 hundred) ; generally anything consisting 

 of a hundred parts. The centuries oj 

 Magdeburg, is a title given to an ecclesi- 

 astical history, arranged in 13 centuries. 

 It is the work of a great number of pro- 

 testants of Magdeburg. 



CEPHALAN'THUS, the button-wood tree 

 of North America, constituting a genus 

 Triandria Monogynia. Name from 

 xiQetXvi, a head, and etvdof , a flower. 



CEPHALAS'PIS, a fossil fish of the car- 

 boniferous series, named from its head 

 (xiZx/.r,) being covered by a sort of shield 



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