428 MEALS MEDICINAL. 
patients. If Linseed is ground into meal, and macerated in 
boiling water, the abundant mucilage to be obtained from the 
outer skins makes a poultice as prepared therefrom, emollient, 
and soothing when applied very hot. The Linseed oil has 
laxative properties as a medicine; furthermore, when mixed 
with lime water, it makes an admirably protective covering for 
recent burns, and scalds. A more elaborate Linseed tea may 
be thus concocted : Wash two ounces of linseed, putting it into 
a small strainer, and pouring cold water through it, then pare 
off as thinly as possible the yellow rind of half a lemon; to the 
linseed and lemon rind add a quart of cold water, and allow them 
to simmer over the fire for an hour and a half; strain away the 
seeds, and to each half pint of tea add a teaspoonful of sugar, 
or sugar candy, with scme fresh lemon juice, in the proportion 
of the juice of one lemon to each pint of the tea. Powdered 
sugar-candy with white of egg, as an emulsion, is used remedially 
in Germany. To make sugar-candy thin strings are suspended 
in a very strong solution of sugar, which is then left standing 
in a cool place until the candy forms as crystals about the strings 
(also on the sides of the vessel.) 
After the linseed oil has been expressed from the seeds, then 
their refuse is oil cake, a well known fattening food for cattle. 
Linseed (linum usitatissimum) was taken in cookery by the 
ancient Greeks and Romans, but it is difficult of digestion, and 
affords but little proteid nourishment, whilst provoking trouble- 
some flatulence. In the sixteenth century, during a scarcity of 
wheat, the inhabitants of Middleburgh had recourse to linseed 
-for making cakes, but the death of many citizens was caused 
thereby, bringing about in those who partook of the cakes dreadful 
swellings on the body and face. In Dundee, a hank of (flax) 
yarn is worn round the loins as a cure for lumbago, and girls 
may be seen with a single thread of this yarn round the head as 
an infallible specific for tic doloureux. Linseed oil is substituted 
for lard on fast days by Italian peasants and labourers. 
LIQUEURS. 
During the middle ages liqueurs were supposed to be medicinal 
remedies for universal use, but their modern employment is 
almost wholly for pleasing the palate. As such they follow 
substantial meals of meat and drink, pour Ja bonne bouche, so 
