capitol ; and Nero ordered the amphitheatre to be adorned with curtains of a sky-blue, spangled with stars. 
Spain was celebrated for her manufacture of linen as early as the birth of Christ; and, subsequently, it was 
made in France, Holland, and Germany. The people of the last-mentioned country carried on the spin- 
ning and weaving of linen in vaults and caves under ground. The fine muslins of India were also made by 
persons thus entombed, who were never allowed to see the light. Even children were imprisoned from 
their infancy in these dark abodes, in order to produce a finer thread than it was thought could be drawn by 
the eye which was blessed with the light of day. 
The art of weaving then practised is happily lost ; and none can wish its revival. The first person who 
wore a linen shirt was the Emperor Alexander Severus, who was murdered A. D. 235 ; but the general 
use of such a garment did not take place till long after that period. The making of linen cloth was probably in- 
troduced by the Romans, who certainly cultivated flax in this country. Before Britain had attained its pre- 
sent eminence, each town or village had its weaver ; the daughters of farmers were early instructed in this 
art ; their female domestics filled up all their vacant hours at the distaff or wheel ; and every good mother 
was expected to supply her family with linen of her own spinning. A friend of mine, in a recent visit to 
Scotland, saw a singular specimen of ingenuity — a man’s shirt wrought in a loom, about a hundred years 
ago, by a weaver in Dunfermline, named Inglis ; it has no seam ; and every thing was completed without 
aid from the needle, excepting a button for the neck. 
At Cambray, a city of France, the beautiful linen called cambric was first manufactured ; and, for many 
years, England spent in its purchase not less than £200,000 per annum. From this vegetable, too, the lace 
of Brussels, Valenciennes, Lisle, Mechlin, Normandy, &c., has been obtained. 
Qualities and Chemical Properties. — The cuticle of the seeds of flax, commonly called linseed, 
yields a mucilage to boiling water, which is inodorous, and has but little taste. By expression, a bland, in- 
odorous, sweetish oil is obtained from the nucleus of the seed, the specific gravity of which is 939. It is 
much more soluble in alcohol than olive-oil ; and as it is one of the dry ing oils,* it loses its unctuosity after 
proper preparation, and is used for varnishes, and printer’s ink. It is not congealed excepting by a cold 
below 0° of Fahrenheit, and boils at 600° of the same scale. Although the pharmacopoeia orders this oil to 
be obtained by simple expression, heat is generally employed, which renders it disagreeable both in taste 
and smell ; it is therefore seldom employed as an internal remedy. Linseed contains about one-fifth of mu- 
cilage, and one-sixth of oil. The cake remaining after the expression of the latter, is used for fattening 
cattle, by the name of oil cake. 
Medical Properties and Uses. — Woodville asserts that linseed affords but little nourishment, 
and that when taken as food it is found to injure the stomach. These circumstances were noticed by Galen, 
Ray also adverts to them ; and Professor Fritze, in his Medical Annals, states, that vegetable mucilage, 
when used as a principal article of diet, relaxes the organs of digestion, and produces a viscid, slimy mucus, 
and a morbid acid in the primes viee — effects which may be obviated, as Dr. Paris has well shown, b by the 
addition bf bitter extractive. 
As we have already stated, the oil is little used as a demulcent ; but when it can be obtained good, 
it may be given with advantage in doses of a table-spoonful as a corrector of habitual costiveness ; 
and if a drachm of tincture of rhubarb be added to it, it will generally agree with the most fastidious sto- 
machs. The decoction of the seeds contains a portion of oil diffused in the mucilage ; it is, therefore, a 
useful ingredient for injections, when there is abrasion or ulceration of the mucous membrane of the intes- 
tines : and the infusion is a valuable drink for persons who are suffering from irritation of the fauces. 
We need scarcely state, that one of our most useful and common poultices is made with linseed-meal 
and boiling water. 
a When fixed oils are exposed to the open air, or to oxygen gas, they undergo different changes according to the oil. All of them, as 
far as experience has gone, have the property of absorbing oxygen ; and by uniting with it, they become more and more viscid, and ter- 
minate at last in a solid state, being apparently saturated with oxygen. Some retain their transparency after they have become solid ; 
while others become opaque, and assume the appearance of tallow, or wax. Those that remain transparent are called drying oils, while 
those that become opaque are called fat oils. 
1 Plinrmacologia. Edit. 5. vol. i. p. 144. 
