may in the, let us hope, near future develop into a sure technique. Owing to the limitations of space and the present confused state of the subject, it is of necessity only possible here to indicate the lines which such a development must follow. It is my desire to confine this work to a purely practical consideration of the subject, and to make it a handbook in the hope that my students and those who come after me will be the better able to add to the body of our observed knowledge of seduction and to indicate the more clearly for my shortcomings along what lines improvement is required. WHAT IS SEDUCTION? In the first place, the word itself is unfortunately obscure, possessing an ambiguity which we must resolve before we can proceed. I have assembled an assortment of representative definitions, which follows: Se-duce (se-dus) _v.t._; SE-DUCED (se-dust); SE-DUCING (-dusing). [L. _seducere, seductum; se-aside_—_ducere_ to lead. See DUKE.] I. To lead aside or astray, esp. from the path of rectitude or duty; to entice to evil; to corrupt. “For me, the gold of France did not _seduce_.” —_Shakespeare_ —_Webster’s New International Dictionary_ Seduce, _v.t._ Lead astray, tempt into sin or crime, corrupt; persuade (woman) into surrender of chastity, debauch. —_Concise Oxford Dictionary_ Seduire: _v.a._ (du lat. _seducere_, conduire à l’écart. Se conj. comme _conduire_). Faire tomber en erreur ou en faute par ses insinuations, ses exemples. —_Larousse_ Seduccion: Acciôn y effecto de seducir. Seducfr: Engañar con are y maña, persuadir suavemente al mal. —_Enciclopedia Universal Illustrada_. Sedurre (Seduzione, n) Ridurre con vane o false apparenze al nostre valere e al male. —_Dizionario Universale delta Lingua Italiana. Petrocchi_ Verfiihrung; in geschlechtlicher Beziehung ein Mädchen verführen. —_Deutsches Wörterbuch ... Heynes_ It is obvious that these interpretations all suffer from a common fault: they fail to reflect the modern ramifications of the word. As a matter of fact, seduction is undergoing a great change. The rudiments of the custom may be observed in the remnants of primitive society that we are able to study. Certain aboriginal tribes practise polyandry as an economic adjustment to the surplus of males.[1] With the development of civilization we find that adaptation tends to take the form of matriarchy, as in the United States.[2] In the early days of our culture, seduction was practised upon certain species of recognized placer in the social system, and thus attained a certain grade of standardization. There were the seduced (always the feminine sex) and the seducers (masculine). It would appear that with the aforementioned rise of matriarchy this state of affairs is changing. The predatory instinct of humanity is not confined to the male. However, the line of reasoning suggested is too vast to follow in the limits of a small volume, and I mention it merely that the student may think about it at his leisure as he peruses the forthcoming chapters. The extraordinary development of prostitution in the nineteenth century prefaced the present phase with a last manifestation of the old social attitude. Relying upon the assumption that the male seduces the female, we are faced in this modern world with the undeniable fact that the ranks of the seduced—i.e., the unprotected young women of society—are also shifting and changing. The orderly arrangement which we have been led to expect is breaking up. In former times our women were divided into two main classes, or groups: (a) Professionals (those who made a vocation of being seduced)[3] (b) Amateurs (those to whom the process of being seduced was a side line).[4] However in late years there has grown up among...