Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 07.djvu/393

* EXCOMMUNICATION. 345 EXCRETORY SYSTEM. courts of the realm. All these disabilities were removed by statute (53d Geo. III., ch. 127), and the excommunicate were declared no longer liable to any penalty, except "such imprisonment, not exceeding six months, as the court pronouncing or declaring such person excommunicate shall direct." By the laws of the United States, ex- communication cannot be made to involve the loss of civil rights, and the civil courts cannot 1,1 used to enforce the restoration of church membership. Anathema differs from excommunication only inasmuch as it includes certain formal cere- i lies, and requires a solemn reconciliation. There was some doubt on this point until the definition of the Council of Trent. The power of excommunication belongs to those who possess ordinary or delegated jurisdiction in the external forum, but only in regard to those subject to them. Parish priests who have jurisdiction only in the forum internum cannot excommunicate, and the power can never be delegated to laymen. Bishops, within their sees; archbishops, while exercising visitatorial jurisdiction; heads of re- ligious orders, within their own communities, all possess the power to issue excommunication. The Bubjects of excommunication can be only Chris- tians, alive and of sound mind, guilty of a grave offense and persisting in it, and subjects of the judge giving sentence. Neither Jews, nor pagans, nor the unbaptized heathen, nor the dead, can be excommunicated. The supposed excommunication of the dead was merely a declaration that the deceased had, while living, been guilty of some crime to which cicommiinication is attached by the Church Itucs. The sentence of excommunica- tion may be justly inflicted on heretics or schis- matics. Excommunication may be incurred with- out the necessity of formal sentence; this is an important distinction. For some acts a person may be excommunicated., but does not actually incur the sentence unless it is pronounced by a competent judge. For other faults, however, the words of the law are that upon a given act being done the doer of it falls at once under the ban of the Church, the phrase usually employed being "Let him incur excommunication ipso fadto.'' These are the excommunications latw sentential, so called. Absolution from certain excommunica- tions is reserved to the Pope. There are certain regulations with regard to intercourse on the part of the faithful with individuals who have been excommunicated. Those under major ex- communication fall into two classes — the tolerat- ed, whom the faithful are not bound to avoid, and the non-tolerated — that is, those excommuni- cated by name and publicly denounced — with whom the faithful are forbidden to hold either religious or civil communication. The latest Papal deliverance on this subject is the Bull Apnstolicce Sedis, issued by Pius IX., October 12, 1869. This permits civil intercourse, even with persons under major excommunication, for the sake of the faithful themselves, unless in very exceptional circumstances and with regard to specially designated persons. The formula of ex°- communication from the anonymous appendix to Marculphus cited in Tristram Shandy, and often quoted as the actual formula employed by Roman Catholic authorities, is a forgery and has never been employed. Consult: von Kober, Der Kir- chenbann (Tubingen. 1S.~>7 ) ; Schilling. Der Kir- chenbann nach cunonischen Recht (Leipzig, 1859). EXCRETION (Fr. excrdtion, from Lat. cx- cernere, to separate, fr x, away + cernere, to separate). In plant-, the proci es by which ma- terials of no further use in nutrition are iepa rated from the protoplasm and gotten rid of by i lie body. The i | are 1 undamenta llj i be ■ ■ a i bosi "i secrel ion q/ .) . EXCRETION. Set FJECi I kink; SWEAT; v l I EU TIO.N. EXCRE'TORY SYSTEM, COMPARATIVE Anatomy of the. The organs whose function it is to remove from the animal body both the waste products of metabolism and the excess of other substances that occur in the blood. Not only are the products resulting from the metabolism of proteids separated from the blood, but the blood is kepi al its normal -tan, I, ml bj the ex- crel ing organs. They remove both the qualitative and quantitative excess of any substance in the blood. The excretory organ- may be likened to discriminating strainers. Of two substanci equally soluble in the blood, such as sugar and urea, the urea is extruded by them and the sugar retained, while such insoluble substance resin are removed by the vertebrate kidneys. The excretory organs of vertebrates are primarily the kidneys. The skin and lungs likewise func- tion to some extent as eliminating organ-. The lungs, however, are both organs of nutrition and excretion, for while they take in oxygen, so necessary for the animal welfare, they throw out carbonic-acid gas, which is a poison to the ani- mal body, and free the body from other excre- mentitious substances. The whole surface of the skin functions to some extent as an excreting organ, for considerable water, salts, and fats are expelled by the skin. The waste products pro- duced by the breaking down of nitrogenous sub- stances, and which contain nitrogen, such as uric acid and urea, are separated from the blood and discharged from the body by another set of organs, known as the renal organs or kidneys. These organs vary greatly in form and function throughout the animal kingdom. Protozoa. The simplest excretory organ is the contractile vacuole found in the Protozoa, but little is known concerning its function. In cer- tain Infusoria fine lines or spaces radiate out from the central part of the vacuole into the substance of the organism, and through them the waste substances are drained into the vacuole. The contents of the vacuole either burst to the exterior or are cast out forcibly through the body-wall by the contraction of the walls of the vacuole. Fi.atworms. Organs that have an undoubted excretory function are first met with in the flat- worms ( Platyhelminthes). They are known as the water-vascular system. This system consists, in Planaria, of two lateral coiled trunks, one on the right and one on the left side of the body, from which many side branches ramify through the tissues of the body. These tubes open on the dorsal surface of the body by means of several minute pores. The fine lateral branches sub- divide so as to give rise to still finer capillary vessels. Each of these latter may terminate in a flame-cell. The flame-cell is nucleated, and contains a vacuole or space in communication with a capillary. The vacuole contains one or more vibratile cilia, whose flickering motion, like that of a candle-flame, has given rise to the term