| In the Years | To Population. | To Marriages. |
| 1881-1885 | 8,410 | 1,430 |
| 1886 | 7,585 | 1,283 |
| 1887 | 7,261 | 1,237 |
| 1888 | 6,966 | 1,179 |
| 1889 | 7,155 | 1,211 |
According to Dr. S. Wernicke, there were to every 1,000 marriages, divorces in:
| Years. | Belgium. | Sweden. | France. |
| 1841-1845 | 0.7 | 4.2 | 2.7 |
| 1846-1850 | 0.9 | 4.4 | 2.8 |
| 1851-1855 | 1.0 | 4.4 | 4.0 |
| 1856-1860 | 1.4 | 4.3 | 4.9 |
| 1861-1865 | 1.6 | 4.8 | 6.0 |
| 1866-1870 | 1.9 | 5.0 | 7.6 |
| 1871-1875 | 2.8 | 5.8 | 6.5 |
| 1876-1880 | 4.2 | 7.1 | 9.0 |
It would be an error to attempt to arrive at any conclusion touching the different conditions of morality, by deductions from the large discrepancy between the figures for the different countries cited above. No one will dare assert that the population of Sweden has more inclination or cause for divorce than that of Belgium. First of all must the legislation on the subject be kept in mind, which in one country makes divorce difficult, in another easier, more so in some, less in others. Only in the second instance does the condition of morality come into consideration, i. e., the average reasons that, now the husbands, then the wives, consider determining factors in applying for separation. But all these figures combine in establishing that divorces increase much faster than population; and that they increase while marriages decline. About this, more later.
On the question how the actions for divorce distribute themselves among the several strata of society, there is only one computation at our disposal, from Saxony, but which is from the year 1851.[77] At that time, to each 100,000 marriages, there were actions for divorce from the stratum of
| Domestic servants | 289 or 1 application to 346 marriages |
| Day laborers | 324 or 1 application to 309 marriages |
| Government employes | 337 or 1 application to 289 marriages |
| Craftsmen and merchants | 354 or 1 application to 283 marriages |
| Artists and scientists | 485 or 1 application to 206 marriages |
Accordingly, the actions for divorce were at that period in Saxony 50 per cent. more frequent in the higher than in the lower social strata.
The increasing number of divorces signifies that, in general, the marriage relations are becoming ever more unfavorable, and that the factors multiply which destroy marriage. On the other hand, they also furnish evidence that an ever larger number of spouses, women in particular, decide to shake off the unbearable oppressing yoke.
But the evils of matrimony increase, and the corruption of marriage gains ground in the same measure as the struggle for existence waxes sharper, and marriage becomes ever more a money-match, or be it, marriage by purchase. The increasing difficulty, moreover, of supporting a family determines many to renounce marriage altogether; and thus the saying that woman's activity should be limited to the house, and that she should fill her calling as housewife and mother, becomes ever more a senseless phrase. On the other hand, the conditions can not choose but favor the gratification of sexual intercourse outside of wedlock. Hence the number of prostitutes increases, while the number of marriages decreases. Besides that, the number increases of those who suffer from unnatural gratification of the sexual instinct.
Among the property classes, not infrequently the wife sinks, just as in old Greece, to the level of a mere apparatus for the procreation of legitimate offspring, of warder of the house, or of nurse to a husband, wrecked by debauchery. The husbands keep for their pleasure and physical desires hetairae—styled among us courtesans or mistresses—who live in elegant abodes, in the handsomest quarters of the city. Others, whose means do not allow them to keep mistresses, disport themselves, after marriage as before, with Phrynes, for whom their hearts beat stronger than for their own wives. With the Phrynes they amuse themselves; and quite a number of the husbands among the "property and cultured classes" is so corrupt that it considers these entertainments in order.[78]