gaged to
construct a system of waterworks and sewers in the municipality, which
had been practically completed in 1907. The United States government has
also opened a port at Cristobal, within the Canal Zone.

COLON, a town of Matanzas province, Cuba, on the railway between
Matanzas and Santa Clara, and the centre of a rich sugar-planting
country. Pop. (1907) 7124.

COLON, (1) (Gr. [Greek: kolon], miswritten and mispronounced as [Greek:
kolon], the term being taken from [Greek: kolos], curtailed), in
anatomy, that part of the greater intestine which extends from the
caecum to the rectum (see ALIMENTARY CANAL). (2.) (Gr. [Greek: kolon], a
member or part), originally in Greek rhetoric a short clause longer
than the "comma," hence a mark (:), in punctuation, used to show a break
in construction greater than that marked by the semicolon (;), and less
than that marked by the period or full stop. The sign is also used in
psalters and the like to mark off periods for chanting. The word is
applied in palaeography to a unit of measure in MSS., amounting in
length to a hexameter line.

COLONEL (derived either from Lat. _columna_, Fr. _colonne_, column, or
Lat. _corona_, a crown), the superior officer of a regiment of infantry
or cavalry; also an officer of corresponding rank in the general army
list. The colonelcy of a regiment formerly implied a proprietary right
in it. Whether the colonel commanded it directly in the field or not, he
always superintended its finance and interior economy, and the
emoluments of the office, in the 18th century, were often the only form
of pay drawn by general officers. The general officers of the 17th and
18th centuries were invariably colonels of regiments, and in this case
the active command was exercised by the lieutenant-colonels. At the
present day, British general officers are often, though not always,
given the colonelcy of a regiment, which has become almost purely an
honorary office. The sovereign, foreign sovereigns, royal princes and
others, hold honorary colonelcies, as colonels-in-chief or honorary
colonels of many regiments. In other armies, the regiment being a
fighting unit, the colonel is its active commander; in Great Britain the
lieutenant-colonel commands in the field the battalion of infantry and
the regiment of cavalry. Colonels are actively employed in the army at
large in staff appointments, brigade commands, &c. extra-regimentally.
Colonel-general, a r