Which preposition to use with purgatives
Simon Paulli relates some instances of the good effects of this purgative in dropsies: but cautions practitioners not to have recourse to it till after milder medicines have proved ineffectual; to which caution we heartily subscribe.
ALOE, a genus of succulent plants embracing 200 species, the majority natives of S. Africa, valuable in medicine, in particular a purgative from the juice of the leaves of several species.
The same physician used hellebore as a purgative on the daughters of King Proteus, who were labouring under hypochondriasis or melancholy.
Thus Plato has called Mathematical Demonstrations the Catharticks or Purgatives of the Soul, as being the most proper Means to cleanse it from Error, and to give it a Relish of Truth; which is the natural Food and Nourishment of the Understanding, as Virtue is the Perfection and Happiness of the Will.