SECRETION 



5289 



SEDALIA 



Its food includes frogs, insects, lizards, small 

 tortoises and snakes. The latter it strikes with 

 its wings or feet, or perhaps it flies with its vic- 

 tim high in the air and kills it by letting it fall 

 to the ground. In Cape Colony a fine is im- 

 posed for killing the bird, because of its de- 

 struction of snakes. It builds a bulky nest, in 

 a tree or bush The eggs, two or three in num- 

 ber, are a dull white, spotted with rust color. 



The South African farmers sometimes tame 

 secretary birds and keep them about their 

 buildings to destroy the vermin, but unless they 

 are well fed they are likely to kill and eat the 

 poultry. 



SECRETION, sekre'shun, in physiology, is 

 the process by which various glands or mem- 

 branes of the body separate certain materials 

 from the blood and form them into new fluids. 

 These fluids are called secretions. Examples 

 are bile, secreted by the liver; gastric juice, 

 made by digestive glands ; saliva,, poured from 

 the salivary glands; and the lubricating fluid 

 (synovia) which keeps the joint surfaces work- 

 ing smoothly. The fluids mentioned are known 

 as true secretions, because they each have a 

 special work to do. There are other fluids, 

 known as excretions, which are separated from 

 the blood, but these differ from true secretions 

 in that they are discharged from the body as 

 waste matter and in that they are abstracted in 

 the form in which they are found in the blood. 

 Examples of excretions are urine and perspira- 

 tion. 



Related Subjects. The following articles may 

 profitably be read in connection with this sub- 

 ject : 



Bile 



Digestion 



Kidneys 



Liver 



Membranes 



Mucus 



Pancreas 



Perspiration 



Saliva 



Urine 



.SECRET SERVICE, se'kret ser'vis, the or- 

 ganized system of secret espionage, or active 

 surveillance, which is established by a govern- 

 ment for its protection against violation of na- 

 tional law and against enemies at home and 

 abroad. The officials work in secret, and cer- 

 tain sums of money are placed at their dis- 

 posal, for which they are required to render 

 only a private account to their superiors. 



Such a bureau was established by the United 

 States government in 1860, primarily to detect 

 and arrest counterfeiters of its currency. Dur- 

 ing the War of Secession its operatives were 

 loaned to the War Department in connection 

 with military movements, and they performed 



efficient service in obtaining information relat- 

 ing to the enemy. Inasmuch as the office was 

 intended from the beginning to war on counter- 

 feiters, it was made a bureau of the Treasury 

 Department and has always remained as such. 

 However, other departments of the government 

 are free to call on the Treasury officials for 

 secret-service operatives. 



The bureau is presided over by a chief, 

 whose office is in Washington ; there are twenty- 

 eight branch offices in various cities of the 

 country, each in charge of a chief operative. 

 There are hundreds of operatives in the service, 

 and because of the secrecy necessary to the suc- 

 cessful operation of the bureau few of these are 

 known to each other. 



At no other period in the world's history did 

 the various nations make such extended use 

 of their respective secret-service departments 

 as in the War 'of the Nations. The ramifica- 

 tions of the German service extended to all 

 parts of the globe, and so efficient was the sys- 

 tem developed that the Imperial government 

 obtained the most carefully-guarded news even 

 from countries with which Germany was at 

 war. The United States secret service, after 

 America's entrance into the war, was called 

 upon ' to perform a gigantic task, for the vast 

 extent of country and diversity of nationalities 

 made possible endless forms of plotting against 

 the government. The utmost ingenuity of the 

 British service was demanded to cope with the 

 ' German intrigue, and then not always with 

 success. 



SECRET SOCIETIES. See FRATERNAL SO- 

 CIETIES. 



SEDALIA, seda'lia, Mo., a railroading and 

 manufacturing center and the county seat of 

 Pettis County, situated in the west-central part 

 of the state, 188 miles west of Saint Louis. It 

 is on the Missouri Pacific and the Missouri, 

 Kansas & Texas railroads, both of which have 

 large shops here. In 1910 the population was 

 17,822; it was 19,449 (Federal estimate) in 1916. 

 The area exceeds six square miles. 



Sedalia has the George R. Smith College 

 (colored), the Convent School of the Sisters of 

 Saint Joseph, a Federal building erected in 1896 

 at a cost of $70,000, a county courthouse, Con- 

 vention Hall, Y. M. C. A. building, Carnegie 

 Library, two hospitals and Liberty Park (forty- 

 six acres). The Missouri State Board of Agri- 

 culture conducts an annual state fair in grounds 

 near the city. The industrial establishments 

 include railroad car shops, a meat-packing 

 plant, a candy factory, large clothing factories 



