landing in the United Kingdom of undesirable alien steerage passengers, called in the act “immigrants,” from ships carrying more than twenty alien steerage passengers, called in the act “immigrant ships”; nor can alien immigrants be landed except at certain ports at which there is an “immigrant officer,” to whom power of prohibiting the landing is given, subject to a right of appeal to the immigration board of the port. The act contains a number of qualifications, and among these empowers the secretary of state to exempt any immigrant ship from its provisions if he is satisfied that a proper system is maintained to prevent the immigration of undesirable persons. The principal test of undesirableness is not having or being in a position to obtain the means of supporting one’s self and one’s dependents, or appearing likely from disease or infirmity to become a charge on the rates, provided that the immigrant is not seeking to avoid prosecution or punishment on religious or political grounds, or persecution, involving danger of imprisonment or danger to life or limb, on account of religious belief. Lunatics, idiots, persons who from disease or infirmity appear likely to become a detriment to the public otherwise than through the rates, and persons sentenced in a foreign country for crimes for which they could be surrendered to that country, are also enumerated as undesirable. Power is also given to the secretary of state to expel persons sentenced as just mentioned, or, if recommended by the court in which they have been convicted, persons convicted of felony or some offence for which the court has power to impose imprisonment without the option of a fine, or of certain offences against the police laws; and persons in receipt of any such parochial relief as disqualifies for the parliamentary franchise, or wandering without ostensible means of subsistence, or living under insanitary conditions due to overcrowding. (Jno. W.)
ALIENATION (from Lat. alienus, belonging to another), the act or fact of being estranged, set apart or separated. In law the word is used for the act of transfer of property by voluntary deed and not by inheritance. In regard to church property the word has come to mean, since the Reformation, a transfer from religious to secular ownership. “Alienation” is also used to denote a state of insanity (q.v.).
ALIEN-HOUSES, religious houses in England belonging to foreign ecclesiastics, or under their control. They generally were built where property had been left by the donors to foreign orders to pray for their souls. They were frequently regular “priories,” but sometimes only “cells,” and even “granges,” with small chapels attached. Some, particularly in cities, seem to have been a sort of mission-houses. There were more than 100 in England. Many alien-houses were suppressed by Henry V. and the rest by Henry VIII.
ALIENIST (Lat. alienus, that which belongs to another, i.e. is external to one’s self), one who specializes in the study of mental diseases, which are often included in the generic name “Alienation.” (See Insanity.)
ALIGARH, a city and district of British India in the Meerut division of the United Provinces. The city, also known as Koil, was a station on the East Indian railway, 876 m. from Calcutta. Sir Sayad Ahmad Khan, K.C.S.I., who died in 1898, founded in 1864 the Aligarh Institute and Scientific Society for the translation into the vernacular of western literature; and afterwards the Mahommedan Anglo-Oriental college, under English professors, with an English school attached. The college meets with strong support from the enlightened portion of the Mussulman community, whose aim is to raise it to the status of a university, with the power of conferring degrees. The population (1901) 70,434, showed an increase of 14% in the decade. There are several flour-mills, cotton-presses and a dairy farm. Aligarh Fort, situated on the Grand Trunk road, consists of a regular polygon, surrounded by a very broad and deep ditch. It became a fortress of great importance under Sindhia in 1759, and was the depot where he drilled and organized his battalions in the European fashion with the aid of De Boigne. It was captured from the Mahrattas under the leadership of Perron, another French officer, by Lord Lake’s army, in September 1803, since which time it has been much strengthened and improved. In the rebellion of 1857 the troops stationed at Aligarh mutinied, but abstained from murdering their officers, who, with the other residents and ladies and children, succeeded in reaching Hathras.
The district of Aligarh has an area of 1957 sq. m. It is nearly a level plain, but with a slight elevation in the centre, between the two great rivers the Ganges and Jumna. The only other important river is the Kali Nadi, which traverses the entire length of the district from north-east to south-west. The district is traversed by several railways and also by the Ganges canal, which is navigable. The chief trading centre is Hathras. In 1901 the population was 1,200,822, showing an increase of 15% in the decade, due to the extension of irrigation. There are several factories for ginning and pressing cotton.
ALIGNMENT (from Fr. à and ligne, the Lat. linea, a line), a setting in line, generally straight, or the way in which the line runs; an expression used in surveying, drawing, and in military arrangements, the alignment of a regiment or a camp meaning the situation when drawn up in line or the relative position of the tents. The alignment of a rifle has reference to the way of getting the sights into line with the object, so as to aim correctly.
ALIMENT (from Lat. aliment-um, from alere to nourish), a synonym for “food,” literally or metaphorically. The word has also been used in the same legal sense as Alimony (q.v.). Aliment, in Scots law, is the sum paid or allowance given in respect of the reciprocal obligation of parents and children, husband and wife, grandparents and grandchildren, to contribute to each other’s maintenance. The term is also used in regard to a similar obligation of other parties, as of creditors to imprisoned debtors, the payments by parishes to paupers, &c. Alimentary funds, whether of the kind above mentioned, or set apart as such by the deed of a testator, are intended for the mere support of the recipient, and are not attachable by creditors.
ALIMENTARY CANAL, in anatomy. The alimentary canal, strictly speaking, is the whole digestive tract from the mouth to the anus. From the one orifice to the other the tube is some 25 to 30 ft. long, and the food, in its passage, passes through the following parts one after the other:—mouth, pharynx, oesophagus, stomach, small intestines, caecum, large intestines, rectum and anus. Into this tube at various points the salivary glands, liver and pancreas pour their secretions by special ducts. As the mouth (q.v.) and pharynx (q.v.) are separately described, the detailed description will here begin with the oesophagus or gullet.
The oesophagus (Gr. οἴσω, I will carry, and φαγεῖν, to eat), a muscular tube lined with mucous membrane, stretches from the lower limit of the pharynx, at the level of the cricoid cartilage, to the cardiac orifice of the stomach. It is about 10 in. long (25 cm.) and half to one inch in diameter. At first it lies in the lower part of the neck, then in the thorax, and lastly, for about an inch, in the abdomen. As far as the level of the fourth or fifth thoracic vertebra it lies behind the trachea, but when that tube ends, it is in close contact with the pericardium, and, at the level of the tenth thoracic vertebra, passes through the oesophageal opening of the diaphragm (q.v.), accompanied by the two vagi nerves, the left being in front of it and the right behind. In the abdomen it lies just behind the left lobe of the liver. Both in the upper and lower parts of its course it lies a little to the left of the mid line. Its mucous membrane is thrown into a number of longitudinal pleats to allow stretching.
The stomach (Gr. στόμαχος) is an irregularly pear-shaped bag, situated in the upper and left part of the abdomen. It is somewhat flattened from before backward and so has an anterior and posterior surface and an upper and lower border. When moderately distended the thick end of the pear or fundus bulges upward and to the left, while the narrow end is constricted to form the pylorus, by means of which the stomach communicates with the small intestine. The cardiac orifice, where the oesophagus enters, is placed about a third of the way along the upper border from the left end of the fundus, and, between it and the
