Ca·thar·tic, n.  Med. A medicine that promotes alvine discharges; a purge; a purgative of moderate activity.
 Note: ☞ The cathartics are more energetic and certain in action that the laxatives, which simply increase the tendency to alvine evacuation; and less powerful and irritaint that the drastic purges, which cause profuse, repeated, and watery evacuations.
 -- Ca*thar*tic*al*ly, adv. -- Ca*thar*tic*al*ness, n.

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