SODOMY, the unnatural crime of buggery, thus called from the city of Sodom, which was destroyed by fire for the same. See BUGGERY.
The Levitical law adjudged those guilty of this execrable crime to death; and the civil law assigns the same punishment to it. The law of England makes it felony. There is no statute in Scotland against Sodomy; the libel of the crime is therefore founded on the divine law, and practice makes its punishment to be burned alive.