686 
LINUM U S IT ATI S SI MUM. 
BY GEORGE MEE. 
The business of a pharmaceutical chemist comprehends so many forces, and 
so many diverse aggregations of atoms, that the conductor needs the eyes of 
Argus and the keen sense of smell and taste bestowed on the so-called lower 
animals. 
In all my speculations I never dreamed it would fall to my lot to have to ex- 
.pose the fiery furnace that oft doth dwell in the emollient (?) poultice. For a 
long time I have regarded linseed meal as a substance rather too heating to in¬ 
flamed surfaces common to suffering humanity, and for whitloes especially I 
have been very chary of permitting linseed poultices to be applied ; the inflam¬ 
mation did not subside so kindly as under the cataplasma panis, or familiar 
bread poultice. 
Some years ago, when Prof. Tomlinson brought before the notice of the So¬ 
ciety some very interesting experiments as to the mode in which oils comport 
themselves when placed on the surface of water, Mr. Deane sent a communi¬ 
cation in the Socratic form: he put his note in the form of a question, and 
asked for information (if I remember rightly) as to how linseed oil behaved it¬ 
self ; his curiosity being excited by the very common admixture of other seeds, 
even in the best samples of linseed. 
Linseed meal, P.B., crushed linseed, equal parts of crushed linseed and cake, 
or ground linseed,—a sample of which I now send,—is used as a poultice, mixed 
with mustard, as an application to the chest, and alone to inflamed surfaces. 
A gentleman, a short time ago, consulted me (as people will so long as 
chemists display their cabalistic signs and showy bottles, and doctors boast of 
their knowledge of disease and their ignorance of cure) about a little boil he 
had on the forehead between the eyes; he had used linseed poultice, but that 
made it worse. I directly advised a small bread poultice, remarking that I had 
found linseed disagreeably heating in such cases. He said the linseed caused 
considerable swelling. He followed my advice, and, without consulting me as 
the affair got better, again applied linseed meal (this time a mixture of the cake 
and crushed linseed), and on going into the City, was met by a friend who, 
judging by the puffing of the features, exclaimed, “You have been poisoned.” 
This gentleman was a genius. He masticated some of the meal, and a minute 
afterwards felt an acrid, burning sensation in the throat and mouth; others 
tasted it, with the same result. He communicated the fact to me. I at once 
obtained some crushed linseed from a neighbouring corn-chandler. I still found 
the same acridity. I instantly thought of Mr. Deane’s question ; and on ex¬ 
amining a sample of linseed I had by me, and of which I send some for inspec¬ 
tion, and picking out one or two of the dark round little seeds (wdiich I believe 
to be charlock seeds), discovered the cause of this, and many other cases in 
which fingers have been poulticed, and, I expect, the inflammation kept up till 
one or two joints have been removed by the surgeon to save further mischief. 
1 trust I have long been preceded in this discovery ; but as I have obtained 
many excellent hints at our evening meetings, I think this sufficient excuse for 
taking up the time of the meeting, and that it will lead to a discussion as to 
what the British Pharmacopoeia should order. The crushed linseed was ordered 
in the first edition, and revised into the powdered cake in the present. It 
enters into five poultices ordered in the Pharmacopoeia, and linseed itself, as an 
infusion. The cake, as I found it years ago as a child, I now remember was 
oiten rather warmer than was pleasant. Even in the “ sweetest cake ” I have 
not been able hitherto to obtain meal, which, on being masticated and the air 
afterwards drawn into the mouth, does not produce the coldness, though in a 
less degree than that experienced in the same manner with peppermint. 
