Epsom salts

Definition

magnesium sulfate, used as a laxative and in the preparation of tofu as a coagulator, and formerly as a medicated soaking solution.

Etymology

Named after Epsom in Surrey, England; the town had a spring which gave forth bitter saline water containing the compound.

Example Sentences

• "And who but July would know […] that her back needed to be rubbed after she had drank^([sic]) her Epsom salts so as to release, into a belch or fart, the wind that so plagued her."