Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 03.djvu/415

DIGBY 361 DIGESTION His father, Sir Everard Digby (1581- 1606) in 1592 came into a large estate, but seven yeai-s later turned Catholic, and was hanged as a Gunpowder conspir- ator. A "Life" of him appeared in 1896. Kenelm himself was bred a Catholic, but in 1618. after a half-year in Spain, en- tered Gloucester Hall. Oxford (now Wor- cester College). At Madrid he fell in with Prince Charles, and, following him back to England was knighted, and en- tered his service. In 1625 he secretly maiTied "that celebrated beautie and courtezane," Venetia Stanley (1600- 1633). With two privateers he sailed in 1628 to the Mediterranean, and on June 11 vanquished a French and Venetian squadron on Scanderoon. On his beloved wife's death he withdrew to Gresham College, and thei'e passed two hermit- like years, diverting himself with chem- istry. Meanwhile he had turned Prot- estant, but, in 1636 he announced to Laud his reconversion; and his tortuous con- duct during the Great Rebellion was dictated, it seems, by his zeal for Cathol- icism. He was imprisoned by the Par- liament (1642-1643), and had his estate confiscated; was at Rome (1645-1647), and thrice revisited England (1649-1651- 1654), entering into close relations with Cromwell. At the Restoration, however, he retained his office of chancellor to Queen Henrietta Maria. He was one of the first members of the Royal Society (1663), and died June 11, 1665. DIGBY, KENELM HENRY, an Eng- lish antiquarian ; bom in 1800, the young- est son of the dean of Clonfert, gradu- ated from Trinity, Cambridge, in 1819, and in 1822 published "The Broad Stone of Honour" "that noble manual for gen- tlemen," as Julius Hare called it. It was much altered in the 1828 and subse- quent editions, its author having mean- while turned Catholic. He died in Lon- don, March 22, 1880. Of 14 other works (32 vols. 1831-1874) eight were poetry. DIGESTION, the change which food undergoes in order to prepare it for the nutrition of the animal frame. It is carried on in the higher animals in the digestive system. In some of the lowest forms of animal life (amoebae) which have no special organs, particles of food are drawn into the body and digested. In higher organisms there is a simple pouch which leads inward from the center of the cluster of tentacles; into this fish and other food are drawn and digested, while the undigested parts are afterward voided through the same aperture by which they entered. In still higher organisms, man himself included, this simple pouch is changed into a complex and greatly elon- gated tube, which is provided with one aperture (the mouth) by which food enters, and another aperture (the anus) through which undigested matter leaves the body. The mouth in most animals is HUMAN ALIMBNTAKY CANAL CEsophagus Stomach Cardiac orifice Pylorus Small intestine Biliary duct g. Pancreatic duct h. Ascending colon 1. Transverse colon j. Descending colon k. Rectum provided with hard tissues — teeth, beaks for the subdivision of food before it is swallowed. Vegetable feeders, eating tough grains, roots and fibers, have large molar or grinding teeth, while the carniv- ora have these same teeth modified so as