DEMULCENTS. 69 
or boiled, it gives outits mucilage. Take two to four ounces 
of the fresh dug root, wash and cut into small pieces, simmer 
in a quart of water for an hour, strain and sweeten, then you 
have a good demulcent drink, suitable for sore throats, 
soothing the stomach and bowels, and in bladder and urethra 
trouble. 
MARSH MALLOW (Atrpa@a OFFIcINALIs), 
Is a smaller plant than the above, growing about a foot or 
‘eighteen inches high. Its leaves are smaller and harder, 
resembling the ivy. Its flowers, which are a bluish-purple, 
are followed by small button-like capsules containing the seeds. 
The root is white. The virtues of both are similar, and they can 
be used in the same way. ‘The root powdered makes, with 
‘slippery elm, a fine poultice for swellings, also as a healing 
food for internal wounds. For colicky pains mixed with 
calamus it is excellent. 
LINSEED (Lincum Semrna). 
The plant bearing the above seeds is one of the most useful 
we have, giving us food, medicine, and wearing apparel, 
and an oil which forms a most important article of commerce 
and manufacture. Medicinally, the seeds make a good 
demulcent drink. Simmer about one or two ounces in a 
quart of water, strain through a strainer, sweeten, and drink 
freely. If it is for coughs and colds, Spanish juice, or liquorice 
root, should be added, an ounce or two to the quart. The 
crushed seeds containing the oil make the regular poultice of 
the doctors. It is certainly good, but not equal to the slippery 
elm; the two combined sometimes make a desirable change 
for either. The oil is obtained by heating the crushed seed, 
and using hydraulic pressure. After the oil is extracted the 
remaining cake is used as a feed for cattle; it can also be 
eaten by man, but it is not so nutritious without the oil. 
Linseed tea is good in scalding urine, inflammation of the 
bladder, strangury, and as‘a soothing drink to the mucous 
membrane. The seeds taken whole in doses -of teaspoonfuls, 
