_Cathartics_, or _Purgatives_ are medicines which act upon the bowels
and increase the secretions and evacuations. In many parts of the
country, these agents are known as purges, or physics. They have been
variously divided and subdivided, usually with reference to the energy
of their operations or the character of the evacuations produced.

_Laxatives_, or _Aperients_, are mild cathartics. Purgatives act with
more energy and produce several discharges which are of a more liquid
character and more copious than the former.

_Drastics_ are those cathartics which produce numerous evacuations
accompanied by more or less intestinal irritation.

_Hydragogues_ are those purgatives which produce copious, watery
discharges.

_Cholagogues_ are those purgatives which act upon the liver, stimulating
its functions. Cathartics constitute a class of remedies which are
almost universally employed by families and physicians.

JALAP (_Ipomoea Jalapa_). The root is used. It is a drastic and a
hydragogue cathartic. Formerly it was combined with equal parts of
calomel. From this fact it received the name of "ten and ten."
_Dose_--Of the powder, five to twenty grains; of the fluid extract, ten
to fifteen drops; of the solid extract, two to four grains; of the
concentrated principle, Jalapin, one-half to two grains.

[Illustration: Fig. 126.