Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/94

 90 COLOMBO a submarine cable from Aspinwall to Carta- gena and Santa Marta. The act amending tbe constitution for the establishment of a federal district, comprising Bogota and its environs, was ratified by the senate Feb. 6, 1872. In December of the same year troubles broke out again in the state of Cauca between the conser- vatives and liberals, the latter led by Gen. Mosquera, who returned from exile in 1870. In 1873 Santiago Perez was elected president of the republic for the term 1874-'6. The interoceanic canal question had not been set- tled in 1873, but explorations were still making in the valley of the Atrato for a feasible route. COLOMBO, or Colombo, a city of Ceylon, the seat of government and principal seaport, on the W. coast ; pop. in 1871, 100,238. It con- sists of an open and a fortified town. The lat- ter stands on a rocky peninsula, jutting out into the sea, and having on the land side a lake, a moat, and drawbridges. The interior Cathedral of Colombo. presents more of the appearance of a Euro- pean town than any other place in India ex- cept Goa, The houses are built after a plain Dutch fashion, and many of the streets are shaded by trees. It is the residence of the civil and military authorities and most of the European families of Ceylon. The climate is humid but salubrious. The temperature in winter is about 79-1 ; in summer, 80*9. East of this portion of Colombo lies the open town, which is inhabited by a mixed population of Dutch and Portuguese descent. The suburbs are peopled by native Cingalese. The princi- pal edifices are the government house, court house, English, Dutch, and Portuguese church- -es, chapels, barracks, a military hospital, and a lighthouse. There are various museums, schools, hotels, and libraries. The harbor, which is small, is defended by several forts. The roadstead is safe only during the S. E. monsoon. Colombo is the entrepot for most of the foreign trade of Ceylon, and has a nuin- COLON ber of commercial houses. It is the seat of an Anglican bishop, and of a Roman Catholic vicar apostolic. The town was occupied by the Portuguese in 1517, taken by the Dutch in 1603, and by the English in 1796. The Na- tande canal, from Colombo to Putlam, was opened Sept. 23, 1856, and the opening of the first railway in Ceylon was celebrated with great pomp at Colombo in 1858. In 1872 the streets were lighted with gas. COLON. See ASPINWALL. COLON, the portion of the large intestine extending from the caecum to the rectum, from the right to the left iliac region. It is divided into four portions : the ascending colon, on the right side, from the caecum to the edge of the ribs ; the transverse, or arch of the colon, from one hypochondrium to the other, below the stomach and above the small intestine ; the de- scending colon on the left side ; and the sigmoid flexure, in the shape of the letter S, in the left iliac region, terminating in the rectum or last portion of the intestine. Along its course it presents prominences of its walls, interrupted by three fleshy longitudinal bands, and many fatty appendages formed in the folds of tho peritoneum. The peritoneal or serous coat, after covering the intestine, fixes it loosely to the ver- tebral column by the folds called mesocolon ; the muscular coat consists of both circular and longitudinal bands, as in the caecum ; the mu- cous coat presents a great number of mucous I follicles. The arteries of the large intestine are I derived from the superior and inferior mesen- teric, proceeding directly from the aorta ; the veins open into the portal vein of the liver ; the nerves are furnished by branches of the solar plexus. The colon in man will average about 4 feet in length, and about 2 inches in diam- eter, being about a quarter as long and twice as wide as the small intestine ; though the ca- pacity is nearly the same, the absorbing surface is scarcely half that of the smaller tube, and this difference is increased by the absence of folds in the large intestine. The ascending colon lies upon the right kidney and quadratus lum- borum muscle; above it is the duodenum, and in front the* folds of the small intestine ; the descending portion is on the left kidney and corresponding muscle, and is also covered by the small intestine. The sigmoid flexure is generally in contact with the abdominal walls, though, from its freedom of movement, it m assume a variety of curvature and positic The whole colon is very liable to displacement by the pressure of its own accumulated con- tents, by tumors from within, and by corset and other articles of dress from without. It retains its sacculated shape throughout, but very gradually decreases in size toward the rectum ; the fatty appendages (appendices ploicm) appear to be small reservoirs of fattj matter, and are sometimes greatly increas : in cases of remarkable obesity. After the fo( has passed the caecum, little is left but exci mentitious matter, which collects in the