[771] Willcox, The Divorce Problem, 37, 38.
[772] Ibid. (2d ed.), 45, 46; Wright, Report, 148, 169.
[773] Wright, Report, 150 ff.
[774] Including the repeal in 1878 of the celebrated Connecticut "omnibus clause" introduced in 1849. On the alleged influence of this clause see Dike, "Facts as to Divorce in New England," in Christ and Modern Thought, 197-202; idem, "Some Aspects of the Divorce Problem," Princeton Review, March, 1884, 170, 171; and especially Loomis, "Divorce Legislation in Conn.," New Englander, XXV, 436 ff., 441, 442, giving a table of Connecticut divorces by counties, 1849-65; and Allen, "Divorce in New England," North Am. Rev., CXXX, 547 ff., giving statistics for the period 1860-78.
[775] For example, Massachusetts created four new causes of divorce in 1870; and in 1873 reduced the time of desertion necessary to constitute a ground of divorce from five to three years. Divorces increased from 337 in 1872 to 611 in 1874. A part of this gain was probably due to the change in law, although in all the entire group of north Atlantic states there was at the same time a large increase which cannot be thus accounted for. The lax law of residence in Utah previous to 1878, and the reduction of the term of desertion from two years to one by the Dakota legislature in 1881, were each responsible for an increase in the divorce rate: compare Wright, Report, 152 ff., 156, 203 ff.; Willcox, A Study in Vital Statistics, 85-90; idem, The Divorce Problem, 41-61; with the criticism of Dike, "Legislation and Divorce," New York Eve. Post, July 2, 1891.
[776] See Bertillon, Note pour l'étude statistique du divorce, 464 ff., 471-73, giving Berlin statistics for 1878 which show that divorced men remarry within the first three years at about the same rate as widowers, while divorced women remarry more rapidly than widows. The results obtained from Swiss statistics are nearly the same: see the table in Bertillon, "Du sort des divorcés," Jour. de la société de statistique de Paris, June, 1884; reproduced by Willcox, The Divorce Problem, 27. On the other hand, Oettingen, Die Moralstatistik, 153-62, on the basis of statistics for Saxony (1834-49) and the Netherlands (1850-54), shows a strong tendency to remarry on the part of divorced persons of either sex, as compared with widows and widowers, the divorced women remarrying much more frequently than the men. Dike, Rep. of the Nat. Div. Ref. League (1891), 18, gives some facts for Connecticut. In 1889, 286 divorced persons were married, "135 men and 151 women, which is a little above one-third of the number divorced in the year. In 1890 there were 477 divorces granted, or 954 individuals divorced: and there were 350 divorced persons"—143 men and 207 women—"who married again." To be of much value these figures should be compared with the number of marriages of widowers and widows for the same period.
[777] Bryce, Studies in Hist. and Jur., 830.
[778] See Wright, Report, 1030, 1033 ff.
[779] "Wenn der andere Ehegatte durch schwere Verletzung der durch die Ehe begründeten Pflichten oder durch ehrloses oder unsittliches Verhalten eine so tiefe Zerrüttung des ehelichen Verhältnisses verschuldet hat, dass dem Ehegatten die Fortsetzung der Ehe nicht zugemuthet werden kann."—Reichsgesetzbuch, Tit. 7, § 1568. For discussion see Kohler, Das Eherecht des bürg, Gesetzbuchs, 42-46.
But the statistics seem to show that the law is conservatively administered. The number of divorces is decreasing. "For the years 1891-95, inclusive, the annual average was 7,258. In 1896 there were 8,601; in 1897 there were 9,005; in 1898 there were 9,143; and in 1899 they had become 9,563. But under the new law in 1900 they dropped to 8,934, and in 1901 they were 8,037."—Dike, Report (1903), 8, 9, on the authority of the Chief of the Statistical Bureau of Berlin.