LINSEED 657 



occasionally given to horses and other animals to soothe the 

 irritable mucous membrane in chronic catarrh and bron- 

 chitis, and in cases of gallstone and biliary colic on account 

 of its demulcent action in the duodenum, so indirectly 

 lessening the irritation in the bile duct. Not drying or 

 readily becoming rancid, it is a soothing protective for 

 irritable or abraded surfaces, but for such purposes the 

 cheaper rape oil, lard, or vaseline, is usually substituted. 

 Sterilised olive oil is employed in hypodermic injection of 

 camphor. 



LINSEED 



LINUM. Flax or Lint Seeds. The dried ripe seeds of 

 Linum usitatissimum (B.P.). Nat. Ord. Linacese. 



LINUM CONTUSUM. Crushed linseed. Linseed reduced to 

 a coarse powder (B.P.). 



LINSEED OIL. Oleum Lini. The oil expressed from linseed 

 at ordinary temperatures (B.P.). 



LINSEED CAKE. The residue left after expression of the oil. 



LINSEED MEAL. Farina Lini. 



The Linum usitatissimum, or common flax, cultivated in 

 Britain and other European countries, yields several im- 

 portant articles. The stem affords lint and tow ; the seeds, 

 crushed, and subjected to hydraulic pressure, yield linseed 

 oil ; the residual cake is a valuable feeding stuff, and when 

 reduced to powder constitutes linseed meal. 



The fibrous stem is utilised by steeping in water, generally 

 used hot ; starch and cellulose are got rid of by scutching ; 

 the fibres are hackled and carded the shorter, coarser 

 portions forming tow ; the finer, when bleached, are made 

 into linen. Soft, loosely woven linen, when scarified, and 

 the cut fibres scraped into gauzy down, constitutes surgeons' 

 lint. Both lint and tow, as well as jute (the prepared fibre 

 of hemp), are employed as protectives for wounds. When 

 saturated with hot or cold water they prove cleanly sub- 

 stitutes for poultices. For cleansing wounds they are pre- 

 ferable to sponges, which are apt to retain and distribute 

 septic germs, while the rag, lint, or tow is thrown away 

 after use. These fibrous materials, saturated with carbolic 



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