ALIMENTARY CANAL 



2U1 



ALKALI 



also to end the movement, begun by Genet, 

 which sought to secure American aid for 

 France in its war with England (see GENET). 

 Their extreme character, however, aroused 

 great indignation, led to the Kentucky and 

 Virginia Resolutions (which see), and was 

 partly, if not chiefly, responsible for the decline 

 of the Federalist party. See ADAMS, Jon N . 



ALIMENTARY, alimen' tari, CANAL, a 

 long tube which receives and digests the food 

 taken into the body. It is about thirty feet 

 long in an adult, or five or six times his height, 

 and is lined throughout with soft, reddish mu- 



I'ARTS OK THi: AM.MKNTAUY PANAL 





Lower end of 



oesophoffun 

 Stomach 



Duodenum 

 Ascending colon 



(a) 

 (M 

 O) 





Descending colon 



;m 



Convolution* of the 

 small Inteatlnea 



The caecum. 

 the vermiform ap- 

 pendix 



cous membrane. This is a thin skin which 

 MS glands having the power to or 

 \vlm-l i In Ip m digestion. Outside the 



mucous membrane are layers of muscle and 

 tissue which strengthen the alimentary canal 

 and push the swallowed food along its course. 



The alimentary canal begins at the mouth 

 and includes the pharynx, O3sophagus, stomach 

 and the small and large intestines. The small 

 intestine for about ten inches from the stomach 

 is called the duodenum; for the next eight 

 feet it is called the jejunum; and for the re- 

 maining eleven feet, the ileum. The small 

 intestine opens into the side of the large intes- 

 tine by a slit-like valve. The beginning of the 

 large intestine is a small pouch called the 

 caecum; leading from the caecum is a small 

 tube a quarter of an inch in diameter and two 

 inches long, called the vermiform appendix, 

 but the latter cannot be considered a part of 

 the alimentary canal. Extending upward to 

 the ribs from the caecum is the ascending 

 colon; the intestine then crosses the abdomen 

 to the left side, forming the transverse colon; 

 a section about six inches long passing down- 

 ward is called the descending colon. The last 

 section of the large intestine is the rectum. See 

 INTESTINES; STOMACH; DIGESTION. 



ALIZARIN, aliz'arin, a substance chemi- 

 cally abstracted from madder root, forming a 

 coloring matter exceedingly valuable for dye- 

 ing. It produces various shades of red, of 

 which the most popular is "turkey" red. The 

 more modern process of obtaining alizarin from 

 the refuse of coal tar has caused the cultivation 

 of madder to be almost entirely abandoned, 

 though it is still found growing wild in most 

 tropical countries. See MADDER. 



ALKALI, al' kaly. This Arabic word orig- 

 inally meant the ashes of certain plants called 

 in English saltwort and glasswort. Its meaning 

 was then extended to the most characteristic 

 constituents of the lye made by treating the 

 ashes of plants (for instance, wood ashes) with 

 water, and then to a class of substances resem- 

 bling these two constituents of lye, namely, 

 potassium carbonate (potash, pearl ash) and 

 sodium carbonate (soda, soda ash). Solutions 

 of these two substances soften animal and 

 vegetable tissues and therefore feel slippery 

 to the fingers. Upon many vegetable and arti- 

 ficial coloring matters they have the opposite 

 t from acids. For example, they turn 

 red litmus blue, and colorless phenol phthalcin 

 pink. They neutralize acids, forming salts, and 

 act upon fats, making soap and glycerine. 



When lime is added to a solution of sodium 

 (or potassium) carbonate, a precipitate is 

 formed. When this is allowed to settle, the 



