Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/421

ALIMENTARY SYSTEM. ancestors were herbivorous — a fact which the presence of the now degenerating third (hinder- most) molar likewise confirms.

There are certain other appendages of the me- tenteron to which we can only refer. Sueh are the unpaired finger-shaped gland of the dorsal roof of the rectum in sharks, the paired dorsal pockets of Chelonia, and the unpaired bursa Fabricii of birds. The function of the last two organs is doubtful. We will digress to describe the bursa Fabricii. This is a spherical or club- shaped organ lying ventrad to the vertebral col- umn and dorso-caudad to the rectum, to which it is attached posterio-ventrad to the urogenital opening. It arises as a solid mass, in which sec- ondarily cavities appear, lined by epithelium from the mucosa of the mctenteron. They are, therefore, not to be regarded as lymph spaces, nor the organ as a lymph organ. Its develop- ment is, therefore, much like that of the thymus gland. The organ degenerates toward the end of the first year, but persists throughout life in some species as an organ covered with a connec- tive tissue coat, and possessing many elongated follicles lined by epithelium within. The func- tion and phylogenetie significance of this organ are both unclear. Possibly it is homologous with the paired pockets of Chelonia; the ontogeny of these latter organs is, however, yet quite unknown.

AL'IMONY (Lat. alimonia, alimonium, nour- ishment, sustenance, from alere, to feed, nour- ish). In English and American law, the allow- ance which a married woman is entitled to re- ceive out of her husband's estate by decree or or- der of the court on judicial separation or divorce fl mcnsa et thoro. By Scotch legal writers the term is sometimes used as synonymous with aliment. In the United States jurisdiction with regard to alimony is conferred, in gen- eral, by statute on courts of equity. Ali- mony is of two sorts: pendente lite, and per- manent. The object of the first is to en- able a wife to carry on litigation with her hus- band, by securing her support during the pen- denc.v of suit. Should she have sufficient means of her own. no allowance would be made: the amount is fixed at the discretion of the court, and may be changed by the same authority. Per- manent alimony is a periodical allowance from a husband decreed to a wife as the result of litiga- tion in her favor. If the result be against her, no allowance is made. The amount varies with the means of the husband and the needs and position of the wife, but is usually from a third to one-half of his income, and is subject to change from time to time, as the court finds cir- cumstances to warrant. The court may enforce its decree by contempt proceedings, and can pre- vent a husband from leaving the State if he means thereby to avoid payment. In some States alimony becomes a lien on the husband's real estate, or the court may compel him to give se- curity for its prompt payment; or, in proper cases, the husband may be restrained by injunc- tion from so disposing of his property as to place it beyond the reach of the court. See.

ALI PASHA, ii'le pa-shii' (1741-1822). An Albanian ruler, notorious for cruelty, and known as "the Lion of Janina." He was born at Tepeleni, in the Albanian province of Janina. His father, one of the Albanian beys, died in Ali's boyhood, and the rearing of the child was thus left to his

mother, a vindictive and merciless woman, who apparently instilled into him her own spirit. His youth was passed in peril and hardship, seek- ing to recover the possessions of which the neigh- boring pashas had robbed his father. Young Ali at last had to betake himself to the mountains, and even to pledge his sword to save himself from dying of hunger. At length a change came in his fortunes, and he returned to Tepeleni in triumph. On the very day of his return, he mur- dered his brother, and then imprisoned his mother on the charge of poisoning him. He helped the Porte to subdue the Pasha of Scutari and thereby obtained the lands taken from his father and several Greek cities. He also at- tacked and slew (with the permission of the Sul- tan) Selim, Pasha of Delvino, and, as a reward, was appointed lieutenant to the new Pasha of Dervent. He used this office to enrich himself by sharing the profits of brigandage. For this he was deposed, but he bought his way back into favor. For his services in the Turkish military service in the war of 1787 he was named Pasha of Trikala in Thessaly; at the same time he seized Janina and had himself appointed pasha of that province. Having thus won a position of power by the most unscrupulous means, he displayed marked administrative ability. He swept his old friends, the robbers, from the mountain roads, incorporated them into military troops, quelled the wretched factions that prevailed, and every- where introduced order in the place of anarchy by the vigor and vigilance of his administration.

Ali formed an alliance with Napoleon Bona- parte, who sent him engineers. On the collapse of the French expedition to Egypt, he seized the places which the French held in Albania. For sub- duing the Suliotes he was in 1804 made a governor of Rumelia. About this time, he revenged upon the inhabitants of Gardiki an injury done to his mother forty years before, by the murder of 739 male descendants of the original offenders, who themselves were all dead. In the interior of his dominions Ali maintained order and justice. Security and peace reigned, high roads were con- structed, and industry flourished, so that the European travelers, with whom he willingly held intercourse, considered him an active and intelli- gent governor. From the year 1807, when he once more entered into an alliance with Napoleon, the dependence of Ali on the Porte was merely nom- inal. Having failed, however, to obtain through the influence of Napoleon, Parga, on the coast of Albania, and the Ionian Islands, he now en- tered into an alliance with the English, to whom he made many concessions. In return for these, they granted Parga, nominally to the Sultan, but really to Ali. As he now considered his pow- er to be securely established, he caused the com- manders of the Greek armatole (or Greek mili- tia), who had hitherto given him assistance, to be privately assassinated one by one, while at the same time he put to death the assassins, to save himself from the suspicion of having been their instigator. The Porte at length determined to put an end to the power of this daring rebel; and in 1820 Sultan Mahmud sentenced him to be deposed. Ali resisted for a time several pashas that were sent against him: but at last surrendered, on the security of an oath that his life and property would be granted him. Re- gardless of this, he was put to death February 5, 1822. Ali, like many other half-civilized mon- archs and chiefs who have lived within the sphere