[449] Act of Dec. 29, 1838: _Laws of Ia._ (1838-39), 179, 180.
[450] Act of Jan. 17, 1840: _Laws of Ia._ (1839-40), 120-22.
[451] Act of Jan. 20, 1843: _Rev. Stat. of Ia._ (1843), 237-41.
[452] Act of Jan. 17, 1846: _Laws of Ia._ (1845-46), 23.
Thus matters stood until 1855, when the worthy legislators managed to put the law in a curiously awkward shape. It was then decreed that "hereafter no divorce otherwise than from bed and board shall be granted except" (1) where either spouse shall commit adultery; (2) be convicted of felony; (3) was impotent at the time of the marriage; or (4) wilfully deserts the other for the space of three years. "In all other enumerated causes heretofore deemed sufficient"--continues the statute--"no divorce otherwise than a divorce from bed and board shall be granted."[454] This scheme was short-lived. An act of 1858 revives the law as it stood in 1851, except that the term of wilful desertion was extended to two years and the omnibus clause was omitted, thus leaving seven grounds of petition in force.[455]
[454] Act of Jan. 24, 1855: _Laws of Ia._ (1854-55), 112, 113.
[455] Act of March 15: _Laws of Ia._ (1858), 97, 98.
The present law of Iowa governing the causes of divorce took its rise in the code of 1873. The district court in the county where the plaintiff or defendant resides still has jurisdiction. Limited divorce is not recognized, but "it appears that courts of equity will grant alimony without divorce to a wife where she is separated from her husband because of his misconduct, though no express statutory provision is found authorizing such proceeding."[456] A full divorce may be decreed against the husband (1) when he has committed adultery subsequent to the marriage; (2) when he wilfully deserts his wife and absents himself without reasonable cause for the space of two years; (3) when after marriage he is convicted of felony; or (4) becomes addicted to habitual drunkenness; or (5) when he is guilty of such inhuman treatment as to endanger the life of his wife; and against the wife, for the five causes just enumerated, and also (6) when at the time of the marriage she was pregnant by a man other than her husband, unless the husband then had an illegitimate child or children living and the fact was unknown to her.[457]