253. XVII. THAT THE SECOND CAUSE OF LEGITIMATE SEPARATION IS A BLEMISH OF THE BODY. By blemishes of the body are not meant accidental diseases which befall one or the other married partner during the time of marriage and which pass away. What are meant are incurable diseases which do not pass away. Pathology teaches what these are. They are multifarious, such as diseases by which the whole body is infected to a degree which may lead to fatal results by contagion. Such diseases are: 1. Malignant and pestilential fevers, leprosy, venereal diseases, gangrenes, cancer, and other like maladies. 2. Also diseases by which the whole body becomes so weighed down that no consociation is possible, and from which hurtful effluvia and noxious vapors are exhaled, either from the surface of the body or from its inner parts, especially the stomach and lungs. From the surface of the body; Malignant pox, warts, pustules, consuming scurvy, virulent itch, especially if by these diseases the face is made loathsome. [2] From the stomach: Eructations, foul, rank, fetid and crude. From the lungs: Fetid and putrid exhalations, exhaled from tumors, ulcers, abscesses, or from vitiated blood or vitiated lymph therein. 3. In addition to these, there are also other diseases of various names, such as lipothymy, which is a total languidness of the body and lack of vital forces; paralysis, which is a loosening and relaxation of the membranes and ligaments that serve for motion; certain chronic diseases arising from loss of tensibility and elasticity of the nerves or from an excessive density, tenacity, and acidity of the humors; epilepsy; permanent infirmity arising from apoplexy; certain wasting diseases by which the body is consumed; the iliac passion;* the celiac affection;** hernia and other like diseases.
* Iliac Passion. A dangerous disease characterized by deep-seated pain in the abdomen, stercoraceous vomiting and obstinate constipation. It is often caused by hernia or obstructing the passage of the faeces (Dunglison, Medical Dict.).
** Celiac Affection or flux, a species of diarrhea in which food is discharged by the bowels in undigested condition (ibid.)