[f. prec. + -NESS.] The quality of being cleansing or purgative.
1657. G. Starkey, Helmont’s Vind., 327. The Abstersivenesse of the Saline Elixir promotes the cure for the Nephritis.
1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), III. 203. The abstersiveness of this water, keeping a wound clean, till the balsam of nature doth recover it.
1759. Martin, Nat. Hist., I. co. Surrey, 144. It [Epsom water] was at first applied to sores, which from its Abstersiveness [pr. Abstensiveness] it soon healed.
