Historical label: “Purging” in the 1850 edition’s “A List of the Principal Diseases”.
Modern reading: purging. Searched in PubMed as each plant’s Latin name with laxative OR purgative OR cathartic OR constipation. The counts and papers are on the Concordance page.
A note on the heading
Plain sense
To purge is to empty the body of a humour by stool, or by vomit (“purging and vomiting medicines”): the standard treatment of the humoral scheme. The heading gathers the plants that do it and the humour each carries off.
What the entries treat
13 claims: 12 with a sentence, 1 from the index alone. Not a complaint but a remedy class, and the sentences say what purges and of what. The humours are named: the Black Alder’s inner bark “purges downwards both choler and phlegm, and the watery humours of such that have the dropsy”; the Dwarf-Elder is “more powerful than the common Elder in opening and purging choler, phlegm, and water”; Dodder’s sentence opens “Purging the veins of the choleric and phlegmatic humours”; Fumitory is taken “with some other purging or opening herbs and roots to cause it to work the better (itself being but weak)”; Bastard Rhubarb’s roots go in “opening and purging diet-drinks”; Monk’s Rhubarb is a dock “bearing the name of Rhubarb for some purging quality therein”. Roses’ electuary is dosed by strength, “a purge sufficient for a weak constitution”; the Quince is made purging, “put honey to them instead of sugar”; Masterwort gargled “draws down much water and phlegm, from the brain, purging and easing it”. Under Asarabacca Culpeper gives his own view: “I fancy purging and vomiting medicines as little as any man breathing doth, for they weaken nature, nor shall ever advise them to be used, unless upon urgent necessity.” The Yellow Water-flag is an index name with no sentence.
Where the word comes from
Middle English purgen, Old French purgier, Latin pūrgō “to make pure, to cleanse”, from pūrus “clean, pure” + agō “to make, to do”. The medical noun is in Arbuthnot (1722), “he prescribes a Purge or a Vomit”.
Today’s words
(none; search aids only) laxative; purgative; cathartic (the older medical word); emetic (the vomiting kind); constipation — no modern condition corresponds; the words are search aids only.
How it reads today
Purging belonged to the humoral scheme, in which purges were “aimed at expelling a surplus of a humor”; what remains today is the laxative, taken for constipation, which none of these sentences mention. In the dictionary a purge is “a medicine that evacuates the intestines; a cathartic”. No modern condition answers to the heading, so the words offered are search aids; Culpeper’s own sentence under Asarabacca is his caution against the class.
References
Wiktionary, s.v. “purge” (accessed 2026-10-28): from Middle English purgen, Old French purgier, Latin pūrgō “to make pure, to cleanse”, pūrus “clean, pure” + agō “to make, to do”; verb sense “(medicine) to evacuate (the bowels or the stomach); to defecate or vomit”; noun sense “something which or someone who purges; especially, a medicine that evacuates the intestines; a cathartic”, Arbuthnot 1722 “he prescribes a Purge or a Vomit”. Wikipedia, “Humorism” (accessed 2026-10-28): “Methods of treatment like bloodletting, emetics and purges were aimed at expelling a surplus of a humor.”
ThinkDeep333, 2026-10-28 · draft, not yet checked. Offered beside Culpeper’s heading, never in its place; nothing here says whether a plant works.
Old claims, quoted verbatim: not medical advice. A warning sits above the claims and never hides them; no warning does not mean safe, only that no source here has flagged the plant.
13 claims: 12 with a sentence, 1 from the index alone
The truth is, I fancy purging and vomiting medicines as little as any man breathing doth, for they weaken nature, nor shall ever advise them to be used, unless upon urgent necessity.
It is very good to help digestion, and open obstructions of the brain, and hath so much purging quality in it (saith Avicen) as to expel those melancholy vapours from the spirits and blood which are in the heart and arteries, although it cannot do so in other parts of the body.
The juice or syrup made thereof, or the decoction made in whey by itself, with some other purging or opening herbs and roots to cause it to work the better (itself being but weak) is very effectual for the liver and spleen, opening the obstructions thereof, and clarifying the blood from saltish, choleric, and adust humours, which cause leprosy, scabs, tetters, and itches, and such like breakings-out of the skin, and after the purgings doth strengthen all the inwards parts.
_Descript._] THIS is a Dock bearing the name of Rhubarb for some purging quality therein, and grows up with large tall stalks, set with somewhat broad and long, fair, green leaves, not dented at all.
The roots of this Bastard Rhubarb are used in opening and purging diet-drinks, with other things, to open the liver, and to cleanse and cool the blood.
But briefly, the Electuary is purging, whereof two or three drams taken by itself in some convenient liquor, is a purge sufficient for a weak constitution, but may be increased to six drams, according to the strength of the patient.
The inner yellow bark hereof purges downwards both choler and phlegm, and the watery humours of such that have the dropsy, and strengthens the inward parts again by binding.