River Colony to the supreme court of the Transvaal, and from that court (whether acting for its own colony or on appeal from the Orange Colony), an appeal to the king in council. In other colonies the provisions as to appeal follow more or less closely the lines of English law and procedure as to appeals, and in all cases the ultimate appeal is to the king in council.
United States.—In the American courts the term “appeal” covers (1) a removal of a cause to a higher court for retrial on all the questions of law or fact involved, or (2) taking up points of law only by proceedings in error, for revision by a higher court. Decrees in admiralty, bankruptcy and equity, in the federal courts, are the subjects of an appeal; judgments in actions at law, of a writ of error. On an equity appeal the evidence taken at the original hearing is reported at length to the appellate court, and it has the right to review the conclusions of fact reached by the court below and come to different ones. This, however, is seldom done, the appeal being almost always decided on points of law based upon the conclusions of fact reached in the original hearing. In admiralty appeals the conclusions of fact reached by the trial court are specially set forth, and are final.
“Appeal” in many of the states is the general term for reviewing any judgment of an inferior court on assignments of error. It is also often used to signify a mode of reviewing proceedings of municipal bodies, affecting the interests of particular persons, e.g. in matters of licences or assessments.
In criminal prosecutions an appeal, or writ of error on points of law, is almost everywhere allowed by statute to the defendant, and often to the state. (United States v. Sanges, 144 United States Reports, 310; State v. Lee, 65 Connecticut Reports, 265.)
By the constitution of the United States the Supreme Court is vested with “appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations, as the Congress shall make.” This provision is held not to create but only to authorize the creation of the jurisdiction. In the words of Chancellor Kent, “If congress had not provided any rule to regulate the proceedings in appeal, the court could not exercise an appellate jurisdiction: and, if a rule be provided, the court could not depart from it.” In pursuance of this principle, the Supreme Court decided in Clarke v. Bazadone that a writ of error did not lie to that court from a court of the United States territory north-west of the Ohio, because the act had not authorized an appeal or writ of error from such a court (Commentaries, i. 324). The appellate jurisdiction of the court is now regulated by title 13 chap. ii. of the Revised Statutes of the United States (1873), §§ 690-710; and by the acts enumerated at p. 901 of the Revised Statutes, United States, 1873 to 1891. Under these statutes the Supreme Court may entertain appeals from the highest court of a state of the Union, but only (1) where the state court has decided against the validity of a treaty or statute of the United States, or of an authority exercised under the United States; (2) where a state court has affirmed the validity of a statute, or of an authority exercised which has been challenged on the ground of repugnance to the constitution, laws or treaties of the United States; (3) where the state court has decided against the existence of a title, right, privilege, or immunity claimed or set up under the constitution of, or under any statute, treaty, commission or authority of the United States.
The appeal from state courts is by writ of error, i.e. on law only; and applies as well in criminal as in civil cases. The Supreme Court will not act unless the federal question was raised in the court below (Chicago U.S. Mail Co. v. McGuire, 1904, 196, U.S. 128). The circuit court of appeals, established in 1891, deals with appeals from the district and circuit courts of the United States, except where other provision is made, e.g. where the jurisdiction of the court appealed from is in question; in prize causes and convictions of capital crimes (U.S. Statutes, 1801, c. 54. § 5); in cases involving the construction or application of the constitution; in cases arising in district or circuit courts involving the constitutional questions already stated as subject of appeal from state courts.
The review by the circuit court of appeals is effected by appeal or by writ of error, and its decision is final, with certain exceptions but with power to certify cases to the Supreme Court for instructions (1891, c. 511, § 6).
The Supreme Court hears appeals from the circuit court of appeals within the limits above stated, and appeals from the circuit and district courts in cases in which an appeal does not lie to the circuit court of appeals, and has power to issue a certiorari to transfer a case from the circuit court of Appeals. (W. F. C.)
APPEARANCE (from Lat. apparere, to appear), in law, the coming into court of either of the parties to a suit; the formal act by which a defendant submits himself to the jurisdiction of the court. The defendant in an action in the High Court of England enters his appearance to the writ of summons by delivering, either at the central office of the Supreme Court, or a district registry, a written memorandum either giving his solicitor’s name or stating that he defends in person. He must also give notice to the plaintiff of his appearance, which ought, according to the time limited by the writ, to be within eight days after service; a defendant may, however, appear any time before judgment. The Rules of the Supreme Court, orders xii. and xiii., regulate the procedure with respect to the entering of an appearance, the giving of notice, the limit of time, the setting aside and the general effect of default of appearance. In county courts there is no appearance other than the coming into court of the parties to the suit. In criminal cases the accused appears in person. In civil cases infants appear by their guardians ad litem; lunatics by their committee; companies by a solicitor; friendly societies by the trustee or other officer appointed to sue or be sued on behalf thereof.
APPENDICITIS, the modern medical term for inflammation of that part of the intestine which is known as the “appendix.” Though not a new disease, there can be no doubt that it is far commoner than it used to be, though the explanation of this increased frequency is not yet forthcoming. Amongst the virulent micro-organisms associated with the disease no one specific germ has hitherto been found. It may be remarked that the theories that influenza, or the use of preserved foods, may be connected with the disease as cause and effect, have supporters. Sometimes the disease is due to the impaction of a pin, shot-corn, tooth-brush bristle, or fish-bone in the appendix, which has set up inflammation and ulceration. In many cases a patch of mortification with perforation of the appendix is caused by the presence of a hard faecal concretion, or “stercolith,” which from its size, shape and appearance has been mistaken by a casual observer for a date-stone or cherry-stone.
Apart from the fact of the more frequent occurrence of appendicitis, the disease is now better understood and more promptly recognized. It was formerly included under the term “perityphlitis”—that is, inflammation connected with the caecum or blind portion of the large intestine. But in the vast majority of cases the inflammation begins in the appendix, not in the intestine proper. It is apt to extend and set up a localized peritonitis, which in the worst cases may become general.
Appendicitis is more often met with in the young than the old, and in boys rather than girls; and in some families there is a strange predisposition towards it. It is often started by a chill, or by over-exertion, and sometimes the attack follows a blow or strain, or some other direct injury, after which the virulent micro-organisms seize on the mucous membrane and involve the appendix in acute inflammation.
The appendix is a narrow tube, about the size of a goose-quill, with an average length of 3 in. It terminates in a blunt point, and from its worm-like shape is called vermiformis. It is an appendage of the large intestine, into which it opens, and is regarded as the degenerate relic, surviving in man and other mammals, of an earlier form of intestine. Foreign bodies passing down the intestinal canal may find their way into the appendix and lodge there. Frequently the diseased appendix is found blocked by hard faeces or undigested particles of food, such as nuts, fibrous vegetable matter, and other imperfectly masticated substances; inflammation may occur, however, without the presence of any impacted material. The appendix may be
