Cathartics

Cathartics (Gr. kathairō, 'I purify'), a name originally for all medicines supposed to purify the system from the matter of disease (matrices morbi), which was generally presumed by the ancients to exist in all cases of fever and acute disease, and to require to be separated or thrown off by the different excretions of the body. Ultimately the term cathartics became limited in its signification to remedies acting on the bowels, which are popularly called Purgatives (q.v.)—a mere translation of the Greek word. See also CONSTIPATION.