Emollient, demulcent, pectoral. The crushed seeds or linseed meal make a very useful poultice, either alone or with mustard.
In ulceration and superficial or deep-seated inflammation a linseed poultice allays irritation and pain and promotes suppuration.
The addition of a little lobelia seed makes it of greater value in cases of boils. It is commonly used for abscesses and other
local affections.
Linseed is largely employed as an addition to cough medicines. As a domestic remedy for colds, coughs and irritation of
the urinary organs, linseed tea is most valuable. A little honey and lemon juice makes it very agreeable and more efficacious.
This demulcent infusion contains a large quantity of mucilage, and is made from 1 OZ. of the ground or entire seeds to 1 pint
of boiling water. It is taken in wineglassful doses, which may be repeated ad libitum.
Linseed oil, mixed with an equal quantity of lime water, known then as Carron Oil, is an excellent application for burns
and scalds.
Internally, the oil is sometimes given as a laxative; in cases of gravel and stone it is excellent, and has been administered
in pleurisy with great success. It may also be used as an injection in constipation. Mixed with honey, linseed oil has been
used as a cosmetic for removing spots from the face.
The oil enters into veterinary pharmacy as a purgative for sheep and horses, and a jelly formed by boiling the seeds is
often given to calves.
Linseed is often employed, with other seeds, as food for small birds.
Plantain seeds, also a favourite food of small birds, can, it is said, be used instead of linseed in making poultices,
as they contain much mucilage, though not so much oil.
Linseed has occasionally been employed as human food - we hear of the seeds being mixed with corn by the ancient Greeks
and Romans for making bread - but it affords little actual nourishment and is apparently unwholesome, being difficult of digestion
and provoking flatulence.
The meal has sometimes been used fraudulently for adulterating pepper.
