322 FLAX. 



garments, hemp and flax were assiduously cultivated. In the 

 present day, very little is grown in England, as it exhausts the 

 soil more than any other crop, and wheat is much more profitable. 

 The seeds are chiefly imported from the Baltic. The cortical 

 fibres or boon, separated from the woody matter, by maceration 

 in water and various processes, forms the lint and tow which is 

 spun into yarn and woven into linen cloth. The seeds bruised 

 and mixed with honey, are used as food in some parts of Asia, 

 and in times of scarcity have been employed in Holland for 

 the same purpose ; but they afford little nourishment, and are 

 very difficult of digestion. The expressed oil is applied to 

 many useful purposes, and the refuse or paste, called oil-cake, is 

 a valuable food for fattening cattle, and for manure. The water 

 in which the plant is immersed previous to separating the fibres 

 has also a fertilizing effect upon the soil, but this water is of so 

 poisonous a nature to animals, that the practice of macerating 

 or steeping flax in any pond or running stream is, by the 32d 

 Henry VHI. c. 17, prohibited under severe penalties. 



The seeds are inodorous, insipid to the taste, and abound m 

 mucilage and fixed oii ; the latter resides in the integuments, 

 and is easily extracted by boiling water. M. Vauquelin found 

 it to contain gum combined with an azotized matter, acetic acid, 

 acetate and muriate of potass, with other salts, to which he 

 attributes the diuretic properties of the seed. One hundred 

 parts of linseed yield about twenty-two of oil, which for medi- 

 cal purposes should be expressed without heat. 



Medicinaf. PRorERTiES AND UsES. — The demulcent and pur- 

 gative properties of linseed are mentioned by Hippocrates * 

 and most of the other ancient writers. The aqueous infusion 

 of the seeds has been much used to diminish the irritation 

 of the urinary organs, also in angina, dysentery, pulmonary 

 catarrhs, pleurisies, &c. It has been strongly recommended in 

 calculous affections accompanied with strangury or heat and 

 frequency of urine, gonorrhoea, tenesmus, and other similar 

 affections. Externally we find it administered with advantage 

 as a lavement in colics and inflammation of the intestines and 

 bladder ; as a gargle in sore throat and in aphthous ulcers and 

 ptyalism. The seeds bruised, or linseed meal as it is called, 



• De Diseta, lib. ii. p. 356, et De Morb. Mul. lib. i. p. 003. 



