ABSTRACT
The origin and progress of flagellation is involved in obscurity, and it is unnecessary to say that no means exist of tracing out the first whipping that was inflicted, or the name and address of him or her who administered or received it; but it may be shrewdly guessed that the population of the world would not be very numerous when the practice was instituted. We shall not venture here on an inquiry into antediluvian discipline, preferring to confine ourselves, in the meantime, to the subject in its comparatively modern aspect.
