Sān'a-to-ry, a.

a. [It. sanatorio, healing, from Lat. sanare, to heal. See supra.] Conducive to health; healing; curative; sanative. “Sanatory ordinances for the protection of public health, such as quarantine, fever hospitals, draining, &c.” De Quincey.

Sanatory and sanitary, though both derived from the Latin sanare, to heal, and often used as synonymous, are not properly so, and should not be confounded. Sanatory [It. sanatorio, from sanatore, Lat. sanator, one who heals] is appropriately used to signify conducive to health, while sanitary [Fr. sanitaire, from Lat. sanitas, health] has the more general meaning of pertaining to health.