Indignities for divorce: Loathsome Disease?

Cite: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/031010.html

When discussing divorce on grounds of “indignities”, Cecil is asked about what is the “Loathsome Disease” that is a grounds for divorce in Kentucky. His answer:

While it probably did, in olden days, include diseases that made you “unclean”, seeing as how it’s grounds for divorce, could this apply these days as a euphemistic reference to STDs? IIRC early in the 20th Century syphillis control was a big Public Health issue and many states for the longest time made you test for it before marriage.