660 LINSEED 



bruised linseed cake is cheaper, less apt to become rancid, 

 and equally effectual in retaining heat and moisture. The 

 common mass employed for making up balls and pills 

 usually consists of equal quantities of linseed meal and 

 treacle. 



LINSEED OIL has been used dietetically ; but neither for 

 cattle nor sheep does it serve so well as properly prepared 

 linseed or linseed cake. It has the disadvantage of being 

 too laxative, and it increases rather than diminishes the 

 quantity of ordinary food consumed. As an adjuvant feed- 

 ing stuff for animals in health, I have found it inferior to 

 linseed cake, beans, or oats. One to two ounces repeated 

 daily are, however, often beneficial, in sore-throat and 

 bronchitis in horses, and especially for subjects that will 

 not take linseed gruel or mashes. 



Linseed oil, in quantity too large to be digested, acts as 

 a cathartic ; it is also emollient. It closely resembles rape- 

 seed, almond, and other fixed oils ; but is scarcely so actively 

 cathartic as castor oil. 



As a laxative it usually produces tolerably full and 

 softened evacuations, without nausea, griping, or super- 

 purgation. It is prescribed for young and delicate horses, 

 and pregnant mares, and for all subjects in influenza, pur- 

 pura, and other debilitating disorders ; in diarrhoea, hernia, 

 and irritable states of the intestine, as well as in overloaded, 

 torpid bowels, where aloes and other active purgatives, 

 especially if repeated, might cause dangerous symptoms. 

 It is serviceable in warding off attacks of lymphan- 

 gitis, haemoglobinuria, cedema and itching of the limbs, 

 which are liable to occur when hard-worked horses have 

 several days' rest. In the treatment of colic it is generally 

 combined with a stimulant and anodyne. A draught in 

 common use consists of one pint of linseed oil with an ounce 

 each of ether and laudanum, both being doubled in acute 

 cases and in large horses. In colic, aloes, however, generally 

 acts better than linseed oil ; but for laxative enemas the 

 oil is preferable. 



Two or three ounces of linseed oil, or of a mixture of 

 equal parts of linseed and olive oils, given daily in mash, 

 often suffice, with the use of enemata, to maintain the bowels 



