C E N 
lay, having laid one hundred before ; whence centenhium, 
the hundredth egg. Theft eggs have no yolk, but in 
other refpe&s differ not from common ones, having the 
albumen, chalazes, membranes, &c. in common with 
others. In the place of the yolk is found a little fubftance 
like a ferpent coiled up, which doubtlefs gave rife to the 
fable of the bafilifk’s origin from thence. The caufe is 
afcribed by HervCy to this, that the yolks in the vitellary 
of the hen are exhanfted before the albumina. 
CENTENARY,/. [ centenarius , Lat.] The number of 
a hundred—fn every centenary of years from the creation, 
fome fmall abatement fliould have been made. Hakcwill. 
CEN'TER,/ See Centre. 
CENTE'SIMA USU'RA, that wherein the intereft in 
an hundred months became equal to the principal, i. e. 
where the money is laid out at one per cent, per month : 
anfwe'ring to what in our flyle would be called 1.2 per cent, 
for the Romans reckoned their intereft not by the year, 
but by the month. 
CENTE'SIMAL,/. [centefmus, Lat.] Hundredth ; the 
next ftep of progreffion after decimal in the arithmetic of 
fractions.—The neglect of a few centefimals in the fide of 
the cube, would bring it to an equality with the cube of 
a foot. Arbuthnot. 
CENTESIM A'TlON,/.a milder kind of military punifh- 
ment, in cafes of defertion, mutiny, See. when only every 
hundredth man is executed. 
CENTIFO'LIOUS, adj. [from centum and folium, Lat.] 
Having an hundred leaves. 
CENTILO'QyiUM, f a collection of a hundred fen- 
tences, opinions, orfayings. The centiloquium of Hermes 
contains a hundred aphorifms, or altrological fentences, 
fuppofed to have been written by fome Arab, but'fathered 
on Hermes Trifmegiftus. It is only extant in Latin, in 
which it has feveral times been printed. The centiloquium 
of Ptolemy is a famous aftrological piece, frequently con¬ 
founded with the former, confiding likewife of a hundred 
fentences or detrines, divided into ftiort aphorifms, inti- 
tled in Greek as being the fruit or refult of the 
former writings of that celebrated aftronomer, viz. his 
quadripartitum and almagefum ; of rather, becaufe that 
herein is fhewn the ufe of aftrological calculations. 
CEN TIPES, in entomology. See Scolopendra. 
CENTLI'VRE (Su(anna), a celebrated comic writer, 
born at Holbeach in Lincolnlhire. Lofing her mother, 
her father, whole name was Freeman, married a fecond 
wife, who treated Sufanna with fuch feverity, that, on a 
company of (trolling comedians coming to Stamford, die 
joined them, and took a final leave of her father’s houfe. 
She acquired fome merit on the country ftage ; but, having 
a greater inclination to wear the breeches than the petti¬ 
coats, file ftruck chiefly into the men’s parts. Several gay 
adventures are related of this lady in her youth ; one of 
which was, that fhe fpent a confiderable time in Cam¬ 
bridge, at the chambers of a gentleman of fortune, dif- 
guifed under a man’s habit; fo that, it feems, file had, 
what the generality of her fex have not, the benefit of an 
univerfity education. Afterwards fhe went to. London, 
where fhe took care to improve the charms of her perfon 
and her genius. She learned French, and read a great 
deal of poetry ; for which (lie was fo particularly turned, 
that, as her biographers tell us, fhe compofed a long be¬ 
fore fhe was feven years old. She is the author of 15 
plays, and feveral little poems, for fome of which fhe is 
laid to have received confiderable prefents from v.ery great 
perfonages: from prince Eugene a very handfcme.and 
weighty gold f'nuff-box ; and from the duke d’Aumont 
the French ambafiador another, for a mafquerade which 
fine addrefled to him. Her talent was comedy, particu¬ 
larly the contrivance of plots and incidents. Steele in one 
of the Tatlers, fpeaking of her “Bufy Body,” recom¬ 
mends it in tbefe terms: “ The plotand incidents of the 
play are laid with that fubtlety and fpirit, which is peculiar 
to females of wit; and is feldom well performed by thole 
of the other fex, in whom craft in love is an adt of inven- 
VO.L. IV. No. 175. 
C E N 29 
tion, and not, as with women, the efredt of nature and 
inflindt. She died December 1, 1723, after being thrice 
married; and has fince been mentioned by Pope in the 
Dunciad, for having written, as his commentator fays, a 
ballad againfthis Homer, before he began it. She kept 
for many years a conftant correfpondence with mafiy gen¬ 
tlemen of eminence and wit; particularly with Steele, 
Rowe, Budgell, Sewell, See. She had a fmall wen on her 
left.eye-lid, which gave her a mafculine air. She died in 
Spring-gardens, at the houfe of her hufband jofeph Cent- 
livre, who had been one of queen Anne’s cooks, and 
had fallen in love with her at Windfor, about 1706, where 
file adted the part of Alexander the Great. 
CENT'NER, /. with afiayers, a weight divided into a 
hundred parts. See Balance, vol. ii. p. 64.2; and the 
article Weight. 
CEN'TO, /. [cento, Lat.] A compoftion formed by 
joining feraps or extracts from other author?.—It was 
quilted, as it were, out of fiweds of divers poets, fuch as 
fcholars call a cento. Camden. 
CLN'TO POZ'ZI, a town of Italy, in the kingdom of 
Naples, and province of Bari: three miles north of Matera. 
CENTOR'BI, a town of Sicily, in the valley of Demo¬ 
ns, at the foot of Mount HItna, near which is found a 
ftone which diflolves in v.'ater like foap: nineteen miles 
weft-north-weft of Jaci. 
CENTO'RIO (Afcanius), of an illuftrious family of 
Milan, bore arms in the fixteenth century, in which he 
was as much the philofopher as the foldier. He took ad¬ 
vantage of the leifure afforded him by the peace, for re¬ 
ducing to order the military and hiftorical memoirs he had 
collected during the tumult of war. They are very much 
efteemed in Italy, not lefs for their excellence than their 
rarity. They appeared at Venice in 1565 and 1569, in 
2 vols. 4-to. The former, in fix books, treats of the wars 
of Tranfilvania, and the other of thqfe of bis own lime ; 
in eight books. 
CE'NTRAL, adj. [from centre.'] Relating to the cen¬ 
tre; containing the centre ; placed in the centre, or mid¬ 
dle. Thus we fay central echpfe, central forces, central 
rule, See. 
CENTRAL ECLIPSE, is when the centres of the lu¬ 
minaries exactly coincide, and come in aline with the eye. 
See Astronomy, vol. ii.. p. 398. 
CENTRAL FORCES, are forces having- a tendency 
diredtly towards or from fome point or centre; or forces 
which caufe a moving body to tend towards, or recede 
from, the centre-of motion.' See Mechanics. 
CENTRAL RULE, is a rule or method difeovered by 
Mr. Thomas Baker, reft or of Nympton, in Devonlbire, 
which he publifhed in his Geometrical Key, in 1684, for 
determining the centre of a circle which fhall cut a given 
parabola in as many points as a given equation, to be.con- 
ftruted, has real roots; and this he has applied with good 
fuccefs in the conftruftion of all equations as far as the 
fourth power inclufive. The central rule is chiefly found¬ 
ed on this property of the parabola ; that, if a line be in¬ 
fer ibed in the curve perpendicular to any diameter, the 
reftangle of the fegments of this line is equal to the rec¬ 
tangle of the intercepted part of the diameter and the pa¬ 
rameter of the axis. The central rule has the advantage 
over the methods of conftruCtirtg equations by Des Cartes 
and De Latteres, which are liable to the trouble of pre¬ 
paring the equations by taking away the fecond tenn^ 
whereas Baker’s method effects the lame thing without 
any previous preparation whatever. See alfo Pliilof. Tranf. 
No. 157. 
CENTRALLY, adv. [from central ] With regard to 
the centre.—Though one of the feet molt commonly bears 
the weight, j et the whole weight relts centrally upon it. 
Dry den. 
CEN'TRE, /. [-centrum, Lat. from Gr. a point.] 
The middle ; that which is equally diftant f;„om all extre¬ 
mities. This is a word of very extenfive application. In 
chemiftry, it is the refidence or foundation of matter. 
I Ik 
