GARLIC (O. Eng. gdrledc, i.e. "

See also:

• SPEAR (O. Eng. spere, O. H. Ger. sper, mod. Ger. speer, &c., cf. Lat. sparrs; probably related to " spar, " a beam)

spear-

See also:

• LEEK

leek "; Gr. oKbpolov;

See also:

• LAT

Lat.

See also:

• ALLIUM (Lat. for " garlic ")

allium; Ital. aglio; Fr. ail; Ger. Knoblauch)  , Allium sativum, a bulbous perennial plant of the natural order Liliaceae, indigenous apparently to south-west Siberia . It has long, narrow, flat, obscurely keeled leaves, a deciduous spathe, and a globose umbel of whitish flowers, among which are small bulbils . The bulb, which is the only part eaten, has membranous scales, in the axils of which are 10 or 12 cloves, or smaller bulbs . From these new bulbs can be procured by planting out in February or March . The bulbs are best preserved hung in a dry place . If of fair size, twenty of them weigh about 1 lb . To prevent the plant from running to leaf, Pliny (Nat . Hist. xix . 34) advises to bend the stalk downward and cover with earth; seeding, he observes, may be prevented by twisting the stalk . Garlic is cultivated in the same manner as the shallot (q.v.) . It i$ stated to have.been grown in England before the year 1548 . The percentage composition of the bulbs is given by E .

Solly (Trans .

Hort . Soc . Lond., new ser., iii. p . 6o) as water 84.09, organic matter 13.38, and inorganic matter 1.53—that of the leaves being water 87.14, organic matter 11.27 and inorganic matter 1.59 . The bulb has a strong and characteristic odour and an acrid taste, and yields an offensively smelling oil, essence of garlic, identical with allyl sulphide (C3H5)2S (see Hofmann and Cahours, Journ . Chem . Soc. x. p . 320) . This, when garlic has been eaten, is evolved by the excretory organs, the activity of which it promotes . From the earliest times garlic has been used as an article of diet . It formed part of the food of the Israelites in Egypt (Numb. xi .

5) and of the labourers employed by

Cheops in the construction of his wraaritilaad is still grown in Egypt, where, however, the Syrian s the kind most esteemed (see Rawlinson's Herodotus, ii . 125) . It was largely consumed by the ancient Greek and Roman soldiers, sailors and rural classes (cf . Virg . Ecl. ii . If), and, as Pliny tells us (N.H. xix . 32), by the African peasantry . Galen eulogizes it as the rustic's theriac (see F . Adams's Paulus Aegineta, p . 99), and Alexander Neckam, a writer of the 12th century (see Wright's edition of his works, p . 473, 1863), recommends it as a palliative of the heat of the sun in field labour . " The people in places where the simoon is frequent," says Mountstuart Elphinstone (An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul, p .

140, 1815), " eat garlic, and rub their lips and noses with it, when they go out in the heat of the summer, to prevent their suffering by the simoon." " O dura messorum ilia," exclaims

Horace (Epod. iii.), as he records his detestation of the popular esculent, to smell of which was accounted a sign of vulgarity (cf . Shakespeare, Coriol. iv . 6, and Meas. for Meas. iii . 2) . In England garlic is seldom used except as a seasoning, but in the southern countries of Europe it is a common ingredient in dishes, and is largely consumed by the agricultural population . = Garlic was placed by the ancient Greeks on the piles of stones at cross-roads, as a supper for Hecate (Theophrastus, Characters, Aeun&atuovias); and according to Pliny garlic and onions were invocated as deities by the Egyptians at the taking of oaths . The inhabitants of Pelusium in lower Egypt, who worshipped the onion, are said to have held both it and garlic in aversion as food . Garlic possesses stimulant and stomachic properties, and was of old, as still sometimes now, employed as a medicinal remedy . Pliny (N.H. xx . 23) gives an exceedingly long list of complaints in which it was considered beneficial . Dr T . Sydenham valued it as an application in confluent smallpox, and, says Cullen (Mal .

Med. ii. p . 174, 1789), found some dropsies cured by it alone . In the

United States the bulb is given in doses of 2-2 drachms in cases of bronchiectasis and phthisis pulmonalis . Garlic may also be prescribed as an extract consisting of the inspissated juice, in doses of 5-10 grains, and as the syrupus allii acelicus, in doses of 1-4 drachms . This last preparation has recently been much extolled in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis or phthisis . The wild " crow garlic " and " field garlic " of Britain are the species Allium vineale and A. oleraceum respectively .