ABSTRACT
A Question of Terminology IT must be admitted that the meaning of torture is not easy to define. Invariably is one likely to formulate a definition which is either too wide or too narrow in its scope. Realizing to the full that a serious error in either direction is bound to detract from the value of any study of torture, I feel it to be essential that I should, at the outset, define with some exactitude what, so far as this book is concerned, the word torture implies. It is important, for instance, to realize clearly that there is no rigid line of demarcation between torture and punishment. Any distinction is dependent largely upon the reaction of the individual victim to physical and mental suffering. It is necessary to consider in what circum~tances the one implies the other. It has always been customary for society and the State, from the beginning of civilization to the present day, to attempt the justification of torture by placing it within the category of punishments, and, further, in this way to deny that any form of torture is used at all. Largely because of this almost universal practice, in which the term punishment is employed as a euphemism for torture, it has never been thoroughly and adequately realized to what extent torture has been employed in past ages, and, additionally, to what extent it is employed to-day.
