ACTION AND USES.--It is nutrient, tonic, laxative, emollient and demulcent. Linseed meal and the cake are valuable foodstuffs in small quantities. It is two and one-half times as fattening as starch or sugar. It causes the hair of an animal to become slick and glossy and induces shedding in the spring, but is very heating in summer. Linseed gruel is a food, being palatable and easily digested, for horses, cattle and sheep, not only good in health, but in debilitating diseases, also in chronic skin diseases. It acts in such cases both as food and medicine. In febrile diseases horses will often sip or drink cold linseed tea (linseed meal two ounces to one pint of water) when they will not touch anything else. When a patient is exhausted the linseed tea is given with milk, eggs and whisky. Horses that are poor feeders, having harsh scurvy skins, or being affected with roaring, thick wind or heaves, are usually much benefited with linseed in some form. A mucilaginous demulcent in the proportion of about one to two ounces to a pint of warm water, is useful in irritable conditions of the throat, alimentary canal, kidneys and bladder. For linseed poultices, take the best grade of linseed meal, pour hot water over it until it becomes pasty. Charcoal and antiseptics are often mixed with it. When used as a poultice on the foot in nail pricks, always put on a poultice that will cover the whole foot. OLEUM LINI--LINSEED OIL--OIL OF FLAXSEED A fixed oil expressed from flaxseed without the use of heat. PROPERTIES.--A yellowish or yellow, oily liquid, having a slight, peculiar odor and bland taste. Soluble in about ten parts of absolute alcohol and in all proportions in ether, chloroform, benzine or oil of turpentine. Linseed oil for medicine should always be used raw. DOSE.--Horses, 1 to 2 pints; cattle, 2 to 4 pints; sheep and pigs, 5 to 10 ozs.; dogs, ¹⁄₂ to 3 ozs.; cats, ¹⁄₂ to 1 dr.