Francesco Cenci, a noble and wealthy Roman, who, according to the common story, after his second marriage, behaved toward the children of his first marriage in the most shocking manner, procured the assassination of two of his sons, on their return from Spain, and debauched his youngest daughter Beatrice. She failed in an appeal for protection to the Pope, and planned and executed the murder of her father. She was beheaded in 1599 and the Cenci estates confiscated. She is the alleged subject of an admired painting by Guido, and is the heroine of one of Shelley's most powerful plays. Recent researches have deprived the story of most of its romantic elements, and have shown Beatrice to be a very commonplace criminal, whatever the evil deeds of her father may have been. Her stepmother and brother, who were equally guilty with her, were also executed. The portrait by Guido is now believed not to represent her at all.
CENIS, MONT (se-nē′), a mountain belonging to the Graian Alps, between Savoy and Piedmont, 11,755 feet high. It is famous for the winding road constructed by Napoleon I., which leads over it from France to Italy, and for an immense railway tunnel, which, after nearly 14 years' labor, was finished in 1871. The tunnel does not actually pass through the mountain, but through the Col de Fréjus, about 15 miles to the S. W., where it was found possible to construct it at a lower level. The Mont Cenis Pass is 6,765 feet above the level of the sea, whereas the elevation of the entrance to the tunnel on the side of Savoy is only 3,801 feet, and that on the side of Piedmont 4,246 feet. The total length of the tunnel is 42,145 feet, or nearly 8 miles. The total cost amounted to about $15,000,000, which was borne partly by the French and Italian governments and partly by the Northern Railway Co. of Italy. The tunnel superseded a grip railway which was constructed over the mountain by Mr. Fell, an English engineer, 1864-1868.
CENOTAPH, an empty monument, that is, one raised to a person buried elsewhere.
CENOZOIC, a geological term applied to the latest of the three divisions into which strata have been arranged, with reference to the age of the fossils they include. The Cenozoic system embraces the tertiary and post-tertiary systems of British geologists, exhibiting recent forms of life, in contra-distinction to the Mesozoic, exhibiting intermediate, and the Palaeozoic, ancient and extinct, forms. It corresponds nearly with what has been called the age of mammals.
CENSUS, a periodical enumeration of the people of any State or country, with information regarding sex, age, family, occupation, possessions, religious beliefs, and other details. The original idea of counting the people was for the sake of obtaining the greatest number of men capable of bearing arms, and, secondly, of facilitating the raising of taxes. Such enumerations go back to a remote antiquity. Amasis in Egypt made a census 500 years before Christ. The first chapter of “Numbers” chronicles an enumeration of the Children of Israel for military purposes. King David numbered the people, and it is said that it was contrary to the will of the Lord, and consequently was punished by a plague which carried off 50,000 people (see Book of Kings). Solon at Athens established a census for the purpose of facilitating taxation and classifying the citizens. It is stated that after the time of Servius Tullius, or about 443 B. C., the census was taken every five years for military and tax purposes in Rome. The especial officers who served in this work were called censors. The property of the Roman citizens was registered by means of a census taken under Augustus. It is said that during the Middle Ages religious prejudices prevented the census from being taken, but various cities made attempts at different times to register the number of inhabitants. Thus Nuremberg held an enumeration in 1449 and Strasburg in 1475. Many of the details of these mediæval censuses are valuable as showing the property qualifications and other facts regarding life at this time. The ancient church books also contain interesting details regarding marriages, births, and deaths of citizens.
In the 18th century censuses began to be made in the more important countries of Europe. Thus in Sweden, in 1748, the first important enumeration of the people took place in 1749, and a special board for that purpose was called into life. Regular censuses were first established in the United States in 1790, in England and France in 1801, in Prussia in 1816, in Holland in 1819, in Sardinia in 1838, in Switzerland in 1841, and in Belgium in 1846. Censuses are now taken in Austria, Belgium, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Russia, Switzerland, the United States of America, India, and most of the British colonies, every ten years; in France and Germany, every five years; in Spain, at irregular intervals, the last having been in 1900. The International Statistical Congress, which
