Census work began in the United States with the beginning of the government. In order to secure a proper apportionment of representatives in the lower house of congress a C. is taken every tenth year. At first it was nothing more than an enumeration of the people, classifying slave and free. Additions and improvements were made until the schedules of 1870 comprised questions as to name, age, sex, color, conjugal condi tion, place of birth and place of birth of father and mother. To these were added par ticulars as to schools, libraries, newspapers, churches, disease and mortality, pauperism and crime, school, 'unitary and citizenship ages ;areas of farms, families and dwellings ; the blind, deaf and dumb, insane and idiotic, occupations of the people, wealth, taxa tion, and public indebtedness, and the amount and value of the products of agriculture and manufactures. The questions were certainly comprehensive enough, but the mode of taking the C. was slow, cumbrous, and unsatisfactory. It was two years and six months after the beginning of the work when the compilation known as the Compendium was sent to congress. In the introduction to this compendium gen. Walker, superin tendent of the ninth C., says : "There is no reason, however, why, with such mod ifications of existing laws as would insure that the material should come originally to the census office in proper shape for tabulation, the entire compilation should not bo concluded within a year from the date of the first receipt of returns. It is not possible for one who has had such painful occasion as the present superintendent to observe the workings of the census law of 1850, to characterize it otherwise than as clumsy, anti quated and barbarous. The machinery it provides is as unfit for use in the C. of the United States, in this day of advanced statistical science, as the smooth-bore muzzle loading queen's arm of the revolution would be for service against the repeating rifle of the present time. It ought not to be possible that another C. should be taken under this law ; such a thing ought not to be seriously proposed. The country has suffered more than enough already of discredit and of loss on account of the wretched insuffi ciency and inappropriateness of the provisions of this ill-constructed and outgrown statute." In 1850 Mr. Joseph C. G. Kennedy, who superintended the C. of that decade, ventured to prophesy our future population, basing his estimates upon the progress already achieved. Of course, he did not make allowances for the war, then undreamed of. He reckoned that in 1870 we should have a population of 42,328,432, and in 1880 it would rise to 56,450,241. His estimates were high, but without the war we should probably have come well up to them. Taking the whole country, we lost through battle and diseases consequent upon military service more than a million of men ; and these were men in the prime of life—just the period for natural increase of families. Three times as many, who did not lose their lives, were away from their homes one, two, or throe years, and this, too, greatly reduced natural increase.
CENT (ante), a coin of the United States valued at the hundredth part of a dollar. The first one authorized by act of congress, April 2, 1792, was copper, and weighed 264 grains. The next year the weight was reduced to 208 grains, and in 1796 to 168 grains. Half cents were also coined, but not to great extent. Collectors of coins should remem ber that no coins other than gold or silver were issued from the United States mint in the year 1815 or 1832. By the act of Feb. 2, 1857 the issue of half cents was discontinued, and the copper C. was made of .88 copper and 12 zinc, and to weigh 72 grains. April 22, 1864, the bronze C. was introduced, consisting of .95 copper and .5 tin and zinc, and weiohing 48 grains. Ten of the present cents weigh just a troy ounce, and 120 cents weigh a troy pound. They cannot be conveniently used for avoirdupois or com mon weight. Cents are legal tender to the amount of 25 cents.
CENTAU'RiA, a genus of plants of the natural order composite, sub-order cynaracece, containing many species of annual and perennial herbaceous plants, chiefly natives of the temperate and cold regions of the eastern hemisphere. Six or seven species are natives of Britain, some of themcommon 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 America, and indeed over the greater part of the world. It is an annual, growing to the height of about 2 ft., and producing its flowers in July and August. The florets of the disk are small and purple; those of the ray are few, comparatively large, and of a bright blue. Its flowers have been much used in wreaths and garlands. It is common in gardens, with flowers variously modified by cultivation. Water 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. montane), a native of central Europe, is still more frequently cultivated in dens. 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-gar dens. It is an annual or biennial.—Several species, having the involucre spiny, bear the name of STAR-TBISTLE. The common STAR-TITISTLE calcitrapa) is a native of the southern parts of Britain and of Europe.—The common or black KNAMEED, 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. jaw, 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.