Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/491

CENTENO. 421 CENTLIVRE. at !i banquet by oflUer^ who feared the revela- tiiiiis wliii-li lie had puiposed to make to the King. CENTER. See Centre. CENTERING. Sw Ce.ntuinu. CEN'TERVILLE. A city and the county- seal of Appanoose County. Iowa, 90 miles south- east of Des Moines, on the Chieafjo. Koek Island and Paeilie. the Keokuk and Western, and the Iowa Central railroads (Map: Iowa. D4). Coal and limestone underlie the vicinity, and large quantities are shipped. Pork-packing and the exportation of live stock are prominent indus- tries, and there are manufactures of lumber, flour, iron, and other articles. The city has a park and a public library. Settled in 1847, Centerville was incorporated in llie following year. Its government is administered by a mayor, elected biennially, and a city council. Population, in IS'JO, 3008; in 1900, 5256. CENTERVILLE. A town and the county seat of (juei'M Aiine County. Md.. 30 miles east l)v north of Annapolis, on the Corsica River, at the head of navigation, and on the Queen Anne's and the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore railroads (Map: Maivland. -S 4). The town is surrounded by a fertile agiicultural and peach- growing district, and has carriage-works, ma- chine-shops, flour-mill, canning-factory, cream- ery, shirt-factory, etc. The waterworks are owned bv the municipalitv. Population, in 1890. 1309: in 1900, 1231. CENT-GARDES, saNga'd'- The title of a special l>ody-guard instituted by Louis XI. of France in 1474. consisting of 100 nobles, acting as guards of the palace, each of whom main- tained two archers. The latter were later devel- oped into the t/dnlrx dii corps. The Cent-Gardes were disbanded in 1727 by Louis XV.. restored by Xapoleon III., and finally dissolved at the fall of the Empire. CENTIGRADE SCALE (Fr., from Lat. cen- Itim. hundred -r rjradus, degree). A scale for thermometers where the zero is fixed at the freez- ing-point of water, and the 100' point at the temperature at which water boils under a pres- sure of 700 millimeters (30 inches). See Ther- MOMETKY and Thermometers. CENTIME, sax'tem' (from Lat. ceiifesimu.<!, lunulrcillh. from centum, hundred). In the French monetar)' system, the lumdredth part of a franc, or two mills. CENTIPEDE, or CENTIPED (Lat. centi- pedo, it III II III du. fnnii cintiini. hundred + pes, foot). Centipedes belong to the order Chilopoda, one of the two principal groups of the Myria- poda, and in some places are popularly known as 'galley-worms.' They have fewer segments in the body than the Chilognatha, the millipedes, in which respect they more closely approach spiders and insects: a centipede, indeed, is like a primitive insect in structure. The form of the body is flattened, has more concentration headward than in the millipedes, and each seg- ment tiears one pair of legs. In counting the segments, the ventral sxirface should be observed, for the dorsal shields often overlap. The head, covered by a flat shield, bears a pair of long antenna-, a pair of small, strong mandibles, and a pair of under jaws; and it contains poison- glands, the venom being emitted through a pair of modified legs. U ibils and Habitat. — Centi[iedes are active and ferocious. All are fond of dark and damp places, and staj' by day under stones and hark, in decaying wood and leaves, or in loose soil. They go in search of food by night, devouring worms, moUusks, and insects, which they are able to ]uirsuc with much persistence, guided almost wliolly by the sense of touch, for their powers of vision are at the best poorly developed. Only one family. Scutigerid*, has compound eyes. In the other forms the eyes are simple or absent. According to Plateau, centipedes can distinguish light from dark, but, since they are night prowl- ers, the blind forms seem to get on as well as the others. As destroyers of insects, etc., cen- tipedes are, therefore, of practical importance to agriculture. The smaller forms seldom, if ever, bite man, and the poison is never fatal. The bite of the large tropical forms, however, is painful and serious. According to Humlinldt, the children of South American Indians tear off the head and eat the remainder of the body. Chissi/ication and History. — Four families are distinguished — namely. Scutigeridie, Lithobiidoe, Seolopendrida', and (Jeophilida'. To the Scuti- gerid« belong long, stout myriapods, and the genus Scutigera is distinguished by its long legs, but is rare in the Ignited States north of Xew York City. The body of the Lithobiida> is unevenly jointed. The genus Lithobius is of world-wide distribution, Lithobius forficatiis in- haliiting both Europe and America. The Scolo- pendrida- usually have four ocelli and from 17 to 20 jointed antenna". To the genus Scolo- pendra the large-jointed centipedes belong, such as the giant centipede iScolopendra gigantea) of tropical America and the West Indies. The Geophilidfe have from 30 to 200 segments, the typical genus (Geophilus) inhabiting both Eu- rope and America, under stones and decaying wood. One European species is phosj)liorescent.. The centipedes appeared later in geological times tlian the millipedes. A Geophilus occurs in the Lower Carboniferous of Nova Scotia and the coal formations of Germany, and the order is well represented in Tertiary times. Compare JIiixiPEDE; and for bibliography, etc., see Myri.- rODA. CENTLIVRE, sliN'tUAr', Si s. na (e.l667- 1723 1. An English dramatic authoress, the daughter of a Lincolnshire gentleman named Freeman, born (most probably) in Ireland. Her early history is obscure: but when sixteen years of age she won the heart of a nephew of Sir Stephen Fox, who, however, died shortly after their marriage. Her second husband (an otFicer named Carroll lost his life in a duel. Left in extreme poverty, his widow endeavored to sup- port herself by writing for the theatre, and after producing a tragedy called The Perjured Hus- band, made her appearance on the stage. She afterwards married (1706) .Joseph Centlivre, principal cook to Queen -Anne. Of her plays, The liusj/bodi/, in which the leading character. Mar- plot, is highly amusing (1700) : A Bold Stroke for a Wife (1718); and The Wonder (1714), though not distinguished by purity of style or truthfulness of portraiture, are lively in their plots, and have kept their place on the stage. Her collected Dniniulir Works appeared in 1701 (3 vols.) ; new edition containing an account of her life (London. 1S72).