Note 19 — Chapter XVII · A CENTURY AND A QUARTER OF DIVORCE LEGISLATION IN THE UNITED STATES, 1776-1903

So by an act of 1870 the decree nisi may in three years and shall in five years be made absolute, upon proof of the parties living separate during the period; if they live together, the decree nisi becomes void: Supp. to Gen. Stat., 1860-72, I, 871. This act was repealed in 1873: Supp. to Gen. Stat., 1873-77, II, 104; but the interval in case of a decree for desertion was then fixed at three years: ibid., 104. In the next year the act of 1867 was amended by adding, "but a decree of divorce when personal service is made on the libellee, or when the libel for divorce shall have been entered at a term prior to the term granting a decree of divorce, shall be a decree absolute, and not nisi": ibid., II, 306 (June 30, 1874). On May 19, 1875, the interval fixed by the law of 1870 was restored: three years on petition of the libellant; five years on petition of either party: ibid., II, 364. But in 1881 it was again made six months on the petition of either party: Acts and Resolves (1881), 563. The next year the law was slightly modified in the details of procedure, the six months' interval being retained: ibid. (1882), 178, 179; amending chap. 146, Pub. Stat. of the Com. of Mass. (1882), 813, 815.