London, May 25.
Lawyers and tors, taking notes, crowded the Divorce Court yesterday to hear the first batch of insane ity cases under the recent, Herbert Act, which, among other thini extends the grounds for dissolution of marriage by including desertion for three years, cruelty and habitual drunkenness, and incurable insanity of at least five years' duration Difficulties arose from "the unwillingness of doctors to testify that patients were incurably insane, They preferred to phrase a case "irrecoverable" instead of "incurable."
In contr. fire' divorces, the Presi r Boyd Merriman, took two hours to the first case, and then congratulated the official solicitor on the way he had safeguarded the interests of an allegedly insane wife, he last case of the day was a petition by the octogenarian ex-Colonial administrator, Sir Frank Swettenham, who is seeking a dissolution of his 60-year-old marriage. The hearing of the suit, which is being defended, will take place today.—Reuter.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.