APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS 210 AFPENISICIXI9 APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS (ap- pa-la'-che-an), also called Alleghenies, a vast mountain range in North America, extending for 1,300 miles from Cape Gaspe, on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, S. W. to Alabama. The system has been divided into three great sections: the northern (including the Adirondacks, the Green Mountains, the White Mountains, etc.), from Cape Gaspe to New York; the central (including a large portion of the Blue Ridge, the Alleghenies proper, the numerous lesser ranges), from New York to the valley of the New river ; and the southern (including the continuation of the Blue Ridge, the Black Mountains, the Smoky Mountains, etc.), from the New river southward. The chain con- sists of several ranges generally parallel to each other, the altitude of the individ- ual mountains increasing on approaching the South. The highest peaks rise over 6,600 feet (not one at all approaching the snow level), but the mean height is about 2,500 feet. Lake Champlain is the only lake of great importance in the system, but numerous rivers of considerable size take their rise here. Magnetite, hema- tite, and other iron ores occur in great abundance, and the coal measures are among the most extensive in the world. Gold, silver, lead, and copper are also found, while marble, limestone, fire clay, gypsum, and salt abound. The forests yield large quantities of valuable timber, such as sugar maple, white birch, beech, ash, oak, cherry tree, white poplar, white and yellow pine, etc. APPALACHICOLA (-chi-co-la), a river of the United States, formed by the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers, which unite near the northern border of Flor- ida; length, about 100 miles; flows into the Gulf of Mexico, and is navigable. APPABITION, according to 9 brief held by some, a disembodied spirit mani- festing itself to mortal sight; according the common theory an illusion invol- antarily generated, by means of which fig- ures or forms, not present to the actual sense, are nevertheless depictured with a vividness and intensity sufficient to create a temporary belief of their reality. Such illusions are now generally held to result from an overexcited brain, a strong imagination, or some bodily mal- ady. This theory explains satisfactorily a large majority of the stories of ap- paritions. Belief in spirits, visible and invisible, still persists, and an increase in the followers of spiritualism has been noted since the European War of 1914- 1918. APPEAL, an application for the trans- fer of a cause or suit from an inferior to a superior court or judge. It differs from a writ of error in two respects: (1) That an appeal may be brought on any interlocutory matter, but a writ of error only on a definite judgment. (2) That on writs of error, the superior court pro- nounces the judgment, while on appeals it gives directions to the court below to rectify its decree. (Blackstone's "Com- mentaries," book iii, ch. 4.) In the United States, the distinction between an appeal, which originated in the civil law, and a writ of error, which is of common law origin, is that the for- mer carries the whole case for review by the higher court, including both the facts and the law; while the latter removes only questions of law. An act of Con- gress of 1875 provides that the judg- ments and decrees of the Circuit Courts of the United States shall not be re-ex- amined in the Supreme Court unless the matter in dispute shall exceed the sum or value of $5,000, exclusive of costs. No judgment, decree or order of a circuit or district court, in any civil action at law or in equity, shall be reviewed in the Su- preme Court on writ of error or appeal, unless the writ of error is brought, or the appeal is taken, within two years after the entry of such judgment, decree, or order; save in the case of infants, insane persons, and imprisoned persons, when the period is two years, exclusive of this term of disability. An appeal from a district court to a circuit court of the United States must be taken within one year. An appeal from the district coui't in admiralty to the circuit court must be made immediately after the decree, in open court, before the adjournment sine die; and it should be taken to the next succeeding circuit court. An appeal may be taken from the State courts to the Supreme Court of the United States, in cases involving the validity of a treaty or statute of, or authorized under, the United States; on the ground of repug- nance to the constitution, etc. APPENDICITIS, a disease caused by inflammation, suppuration, and conse- quent gangrene in the tissue of the ver- miform appendix, usually due to insufii- cient circulation of blood in the part itself. The interior of the appendix is big enough to admit only a medium sized darning needle. The interior caliber of the ap- pendix is, however, often found dilated and containing foreign material. The common belief that appendicitis is caused by the introduction of a grape or orange seed or some other seed into the appendix is practically erroneous, since such causes are extremely rare. It is true, nevertheless, that occasionally seeds, bits
