a. [f. as prec. + -AL.] = prec.
1656. H. More, Antid. Ath. (1712), Gen. Pref. 8. Not only to a Political degree of vertue, but Cathartical.
1680. Boyle, Scept. Chem., V. 336. Scarce any Elementary Salt is in small quantity Cathartical.
1822. Blackw. Mag., XI. 117. A leading article … To Tories and to Whigs alike cathartical.
Hence Cathartically adv., Catharticalness.
1816. T. Taylor, in Pamphleteer, VIII. 48. Or it [the soul] lives cathartically, the exemplar of which is the Saturnian kingdom.
1730–6. Bailey, Catharticalness … purging Quality.
Hence in Johnson and in mod. Dicts.
