Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 10.djvu/174

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UTAH
144
UTERUS

$5,549,398. There are a State Normal School and a Church Teachers' Summer School, maintained by the Mormons. The institutions for higher education include the University of Utah, State School of Mines, State Agricultural College, Brigham Young University, Brigham Young College, and the Latter Day Saints University.

Churches.—The strongest denominations in the State are the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; Roman Catholic; Methodist Episcopal; Protestant Episcopal; Presbyterian, North; and Congregational.

Railways.—The railway mileage in the State in 1919 was approximately 2,447 miles. The roads having the longest mileage are the Denver and Rio Grande, and the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake railroads.

Finances.—The receipts for the fiscal year 1917-1918 were $8,838,332, and the disbursements $8,556,750. There was a balance on Dec. 1, 1918, of $1,505,512. The assessed valuation in 1919 was about $675,000,000. The bonded debt of the State amounts to about $3,500,000.

Charities and Corrections.—The institutions under State control include a prison in Salt Lake City, Industrial School at Ogden, School for Deaf and Blind at Ogden, and the Mental Hospital at Provo.

State Government.—The governor is elected for a term of four years. Legislative sessions are held biennially and are limited in length to 60 days each. The Legislature has 18 members in the Senate, and 46 in the House. There are two Representatives in Congress.

History.—The region embracing Utah was acquired from Mexico in 1848, and the Territory was organized in 1850, comprising Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and Nevada. The Mormons led by Brigham Young settled in Salt Lake City valley in 1847, and rapidly occupied the fertile valleys of the Territory, few Gentiles settling there till the extension of railroads made it more easily accessible. At a later period the Gentile population rapidly increased, and vigorously opposed the supremacy of the Mormons, who controlled all government positions. A bill passed by Congress in 1882 disfranchised all polygamists and annulled the act of the Territorial Legislature extending the franchise to women. In 1887 a bill was passed, which confiscated the property of the Mormon Church and the perpetual Emigration Fund, with the exception of the church buildings and parsonages, and devoted it to the support of public schools in the Territory. The Mormons renounced polygamy in 1890. For a considerable time previously efforts had been made to have Utah admitted into the Union; but this was not acceptable to Congress till after the abolition of polygamy. A bill was passed in December, 1893, making Utah a State. It was not finally consummated, however, till Jan. 4, 1896, when it entered into Statehood as the 45th State of the Union.

UTAH, UNIVERSITY OF, a coeducational, non-sectarian institution in Salt Lake City, Utah; founded in 1850; reported at the close of 1919: Professors and instructors, 156; students, 1,250; president, John A. Widtsoe, LL. D.

UTAHS, or UTES, a tribe of American Indians of the Shoshone family, living on reservations in Utah and California, having sold most of their lands to the United States Government. They number about 12,000.

UTERUS, in comparative anatomy, a dilation in the walls of the oviduct for the preservation or development of the ova. In birds, although the ova are developed externally, the term uterus is often applied to that cavity where the eggs receive the shell. In most of the viviparous fishes, and in the viviparous lacertilia and ophidia the ova develop within the uterine cavity without any assistance or nourishment from the mother. In the Prototheria (=Ornithodelphia=Monotremata) the oviducts according to some authorities, have no distinct uterine or Fallopian portion, but open directly into a cloacal chamber. Gegenbaur, however, calls the lower end of each oviduct a uterus. In the Metatheria (=Didelphia=Marsupialia) each of the oviducts is differentiated into uterine and Fallopian tracts, opening into a long and distinct vagina. In the Eutheria (=Monodelphia, including all other mammals) the uterus is variously modified. In the Primates it is normally single, though instances of a double uterus occasionally occur; it is two-horned in the Ruminantia, Pachydermata, Equidæ, and Cetacea, and is said to be divided when it has only a very short body, which speedily divides externally and internally, and is continuous with the oviducts (as in most of the Carnivora and Edentata, and some of the Rodentia); it is actually double in some of the Edentata and in most of the Rodentia, including the mouse and the hare, each oviduct passing into an intestini-form uterus, which has two completely distinct openings lying near to each other within the vagina.

In human anatomy, a hollow, muscular organ, with very thick walls, situated in the pelvic cavity, between the rectum and