BUTION OF PROPERTY.
Exempt personal property--Life insurance--Allowance to widow and
children--Descent and distribution--Personal property--Real
property--Dower--Curtesy--Widow's share not affected by will--Descent to
children--To parents--To wife and her heirs--Illegitimate children
inherit from mother--When they may inherit from father--When father may
inherit from child

CHAPTER IX.

HOMESTEAD AND EXEMPTIONS.
Homestead exempt--Family defined--Conveyance or encumbrance--Liability
for taxes and debts--What constitutes homestead--Exemptions to head of
family--Insurance--Personal earnings--Pension money--Damages producing
death

CHAPTER X.

CRIMINAL LAW--ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN.
Rape--Intent to commit--Compelling to marry--Carnal knowledge--Producing
miscarriage--Enticing female child--Seduction--Marriage a bar to
prosecution--Adultery--Evidence in cases of rape or
seduction--Bigamy--Lewdness--Houses of ill fame--Penalty for
prostitution--Incest--Illegitimate children--Support of--Rendered
legitimate by marriage of parents

CHAPTER XI.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS.
Damages under prohibitory liquor law--Parties in actions for
seduction--In actions for injury to minor child--Married women--When
husband or wife deserts family--Husband or wife as
witness--Communications between husband and wife--Women eligible to
office--Police matrons--Right of suffrage

CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSION.
Common law in Iowa--Law will not always protect married women--It may
cause hardship and suffering--Change or modification needed

Common Law

CHAPTER I.

SYNOPSIS OF COMMON LAW.

[Sidenote: Common law in force.]

Until a comparatively recent period the laws of England in force at the
time of the independence of the American colonies, relating to married
women, the mutual duties of husband and wife, their property rights and
the care and custody of children, were everywhere in force in this
country except in those states which were originally settled by other
nations than the English.

[Sidenote: Changes.]

The agitation of the last fifty years, caused by the demand for equality
in educational opportunities and in professional, business and trade
relations, as well as for the legal and political recognition of women,
has brought about great changes in these laws, until they are in many
instances almost entirely superseded by statutory enactments more in
accordance with the spirit of justice and in greater harmon