Conjugial Love (Rogers) n. 470

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470. (7) Just reasons for taking a mistress in such a circumstance are the same as those for separation from the bed. There are legitimate reasons for separation, and there are just reasons. Legitimate reasons are determined by the verdicts of judges, and just ones by the verdicts of a husband acting on his own judgment. Both legitimate and just reasons for separation from the bed (and also from the house) were listed in summary form above in nos. 252, 253. These include:

Impairments of the body, which are diseases by which the whole body is so thoroughly infected as to raise the possibility of death by contagion. Conditions of this sort include: Malignant and pestilential fevers. Leprosies. Venereal diseases. Cancerous sores. Other afflictions are conditions by which the whole body becomes so thoroughly burdened as to make close companionship impossible, or which are accompanied by unhealthy exhalations and noxious vapors, either from the body's surface or from its inner parts, particularly from the stomach and lungs. Conditions involving the surface of the body include: Malignant lesions. Warts. Pustules. Scurvy-like discoloration and swelling of the skin. Virulent scabies. (Especially if the face is disfigured by these afflictions.) Exhalations emanating from the stomach: Constantly offensive, foul-smelling, and rank eructations. Emanating from the lungs: Foul and rancid expirations, issuing from tubercles, ulcerations or abscesses, or from the presence of corrupted blood or serum. In addition to these are also other conditions having various names. For example: Chronic faintness, marked by complete physical languor and loss of strength. Paralysis, which involves a loosening or slackening of the membranes and ligaments required for movement. Epilepsy. Permanent disability due to strokes or apoplexies. Certain other chronic disorders. Intestinal obstruction and suffering (ileus). Hernial protrusion. Besides other diseases, which we learn from pathology. Impairments of the mind which are just reasons for separation from the bed or from the home include: Psychosis. Organic psychosis. Insanity. Actual idiocy or imbecility. Amnesia. And other like things. Reason sees without need of a judge that these instances are just grounds for taking a mistress, because they are just grounds for separation.


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