CHAP. 23.—GARLIC: SIXTY-ONE REMEDIES.
Garlic
1 has very powerful
2 properties, and is of great
utility to persons on changes of water or locality. The very
smell of it drives away serpents and scorpions, and, according
to what some persons say, it is a cure for wounds made by
every kind of wild beast, whether taken with the drink or food,
or applied topically. Taken in wine, it is a remedy for the
sting of the hæmorrhoïs
3 more particularly, acting as an
emetic. We shall not be surprised too, that it acts as a powerful remedy for the bite of the shrew-mouse, when we find
that it has the property of neutralizing aconite, otherwise
known as "pardalianches."
4 It neutralizes henbane, also,
and cures the bites of dogs, when applied with honey to the
wound. It is taken in drink also for the stings of serpents;
and of its leaves, mixed with oil, a most valuable liniment is
made for bruises on the body, even when they have swelled
and formed blisters.
Hippocrates
5 is of opinion also, that fumigations made with
garlic have the effect of bringing away the after-birth; and
he used to employ the ashes of garlic, mixed with oil, for the
cure of running ulcers of the head. Some persons have prescribed boiled garlic for asthmatic patients; while others,
again, have given it raw. Diocles prescribes it, in combina-
tion with centaury, for dropsy, and to be taken in a split fig,
to promote the alvine evacuations: taken fresh, however, in
unmixed wine, with coriander, it is still more efficacious for
that purpose. Some persons have given it, beaten up in
milk, for asthma. Praxagoras used to prescribe garlic, mixed
with wine, for jaundice, and with oil and pottage for the iliac
passion: he employed it also in a similar form, as a liniment
for scrofulous swellings of the neck.
The ancients used to give raw garlic in cases of madness,
and Diocles administered it boiled for phrenitis. Beaten up,
and taken in vinegar and water, it is very useful as a gargle
for quinsy. Three heads of garlic, beaten up in vinegar, give
relief in toothache: and a similar result is obtained by rinsing
the mouth with a decoction of garlic, and inserting pieces of
it in the hollow teeth. Juice of garlic is sometimes injected
into the ears with goose-grease,
6 and, taken in drink, or simi-
larly injected, in combination with vinegar and nitre, it arrests
phthiriasis
7 and porrigo.
8 Boiled with milk, or else beaten
up and mixed with soft cheese, it is a cure for catarrhs. Employed in a similar manner, and taken with pease or beans, it
is good for hoarseness, but in general it is found to be more
serviceable cooked than raw, and boiled than roasted: in this
last state, however, it is more beneficial to the voice. Boiled in
oxymel, it has the effect of expelling tape-worm and other
intestinal worms; and a pottage made of it is a cure for te-
nesmus. A decoction of garlic is applied topically for pains
in the temples; and first boiled and then beaten up with
honey, it is good for blisters. A decoction of it, with stale
grease, or milk, is excellent for a cough; and where persons are troubled with spitting of blood or purulent matter,
it may be roasted in hot ashes, and taken with honey in
equal proportions. For convulsions and ruptures it is administered in combination with salt and oil; and, mixed with
grease, it is employed for the cure of suspected tumours.
Mixed with sulphur and resin, garlic draws out the humours
from fistulous sores, and employed with pitch, it will extract an
arrow even
9 from the wound. In cases of leprosy, lichen, and
eruptions of the skin, it acts as a detergent, and effects a cure,
in combination with wild marjoram, or else reduced to ashes,
and applied as a liniment with oil and garum.
10 It is employed in a similar manner, too, for erysipelas; and, reduced
to ashes, and mixed with honey, it restores contused or livid
spots on the skin to their proper colour. It is generally believed, too, that taken in the food and drink, garlic is a cure
for epilepsy, and that a clove of it, taken in astringent wine,
with an obolus' weight of silphium,
11 will have the effect of
dispelling quartan fever. Garlic cures coughs also, and sup-
purations of the chest, however violent they may be; to obtain which result, another method is followed, it being
boiled with broken beans, and employed as a diet till the
cure is fully effected. It is a soporific also, and in general
imparts to the body an additional ruddiness of colour.
Garlic acts as an aphrodisiac, beaten up with fresh coriander, and taken in pure wine. The inconveniences which
result from the use of it, are dimness of the sight and flatulency; and if taken in too large quantities, it does injury to
the stomach, and creates thirst. In addition to these particulars, mixed with spelt flour, and given to poultry in their
food, it preserves them from attacks of the pip.
12 Beasts of
burden, it is said, will void their urine all the more easily,
and without any pain, if the genitals are rubbed with garlic.