among physicians, remedies which evacuate a large quantity of water in dropsies.

Quincy observes, that the strongest cathartics chiefly answer to the character of hydragogues, in that by their forcibly shaking and vellicating the bowels and their appendages, they squeeze out water enough to make the stools appear little else.

The principal hydragogues, in the common opinion, are the juices of elder, of the root of iris, of foldea-nella, michoacan, jalop, &c.