Adultery

— [Lat. adulterium.] Criminal conversation between a married person and one of the opposite sex, whether married or single, being in the former case sometimes called double, and in the latter, ainple adultery.* In England, it was anciently punished as a crime, but is now left to the coercion of the spiritual courts, the temporal courts taking no cognizance of it, otherwise than as a private injury;

— for which, in the case of adultery by a wife, the husband may have an action of trespass against the adulterer.

4 BL Com. 65. 3 Id. 139.

In the United States, it is generally punished as a public offepce, by fine and imprisonment. See Laws of the several states. United States Digest, Adultery.