1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Mucilage
MUCILAGE (from Late Lat. mucilago, a mouldy juice, from mucere, to be mouldy), a term which denotes a viscid or glutinous mixture of water and any gummy vegetable substance (see Gum). Mucilages are useful in medicine as vehicles for various insoluble and other drugs, and in the arts as thickeners (in calico-printing, dyeing, &c.) . The British pharmacopoeia contains the mucilages of acacia and tragacanth.