[234] Act of May 13, 1807: _Laws of a Pub. and Gen. Nature_ (1842), 1, 90-92.
[236] _Rev. Stat._ (1835), 225 (Jan. 24). The "indignities" need not be offered to the person: 5 _Missouri_, 278; 19 _Missouri_, 352; 16 _M. A._, 422; 17 _M. A._, 390; but one or two such acts are insufficient: 34 _Missouri_, 211.
[237] According to the code, a "vagrant" is "every person who may be found loitering around houses of ill-fame, gambling houses, or places where liquors are sold or drunk, without any visible means of support, or shall attend or operate any gambling device or apparatus;" and "every able-bodied married man who shall neglect or refuse to provide for the support of his family, and every person found tramping or wandering around from place to place without any visible means of support." Besides being liable to suit for divorce, such a husband may be sentenced to not less than twenty days in the county jail, or to pay a fine of 20 dollars, or both: _Rev. Stat._ (1889), I, 917; _ibid._ (1899), I, 621. On vagrancy as a cause see 26 _M. A._, 647.
[238] Act of March 12: _Laws_ (1849), 49, 50; _Rev. Stat._ (1889), I, 1029-32; _ibid._ (1899), I, 741. The circuit courts have jurisdiction; and process is as in civil suits, except that the answer of the defendant need not be under oath.
In Florida, since 1828, divorce may be sought only by bill in chancery; and, since 1885, the equity courts have had exclusive jurisdiction, granting only complete dissolution of the marriage bond,[239] although in that state separate maintenance is equivalent to separation from bed and board. The causes now sanctioned are: (1) intermarriage within the forbidden degrees; (2) natural impotence of the defendant; (3) adultery in either party; (4) excessive cruelty; (5) habitual indulgence in violent and ungovernable temper;[240] (6) habitual intemperance; (7) wilful, obstinate, and continued desertion for one year; (8) a divorce obtained by the defendant in any other state or country; (9) having a husband band or wife living at the time of the marriage; (10) incurable insanity.
[239] Acts of Oct. 31, 1828, and Feb. 4, 1835, in _Rev. Stat. of Fla._ (1892), 504; or THOMPSON, _Manual or Digest_ (1847), 47, 222-24. Incurable insanity is made a legal ground of divorce by _Acts_ (1901), 118-21.