Cliap. 23.J GARLIC. 227 



larly injected, in combination with vinegar and nitre, it arres^ts 

 phthiriasis^^ and porrigo.^^ Boiled wilh milk, or else beaten 

 up and mixed with soft cheese, it is a cure for catarrhs. Em- 

 ployed in a similar manner, and taken with pease or beans, it 

 is good for hoarseness, but in general it is found to be more 

 sernceable 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 w^orms ; 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 per- 

 sons 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 admi- 

 nistered 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^' from the wound. In cases of leprosy, lichen, and 

 eruptions of the skm, it acts as a detergent, and eff'ects a cure, 

 in combination with wild marjoram, or else reduced to ashes, 

 and applied as a liniment with oil and garum.^^ It is em- 

 ployed 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 be- 

 lieved, 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,^" will have the effect of 

 dispelling quartan fever. Garlic cures coughs also, and sup- 



^ The Morbus pedicularis. From the frequent mention of it. Fee savs, 

 it would seem to l;ave been very prevalent in aneient times ; whereas now, 

 it is but rarely known. 



3^ A disease of the skin; supposed by some to be the same as ring- 

 worm. The word is employed in modern medicine to signify skin dis- 

 eases in general, such as itch, lichen, scaldhead, ringworm, &o.' 



^^ Pintianus suggests " hirudines," "leeches," and not '• arundines," 

 arrows. Tlie latter reading is supported, however, by Plinius Yaleriauus 

 and M. Empiricus. 



^ An expensive kind of fish-sauce : for some fajther account of it see 

 B. ix. c. 30. 37 See B. xix. c. 15. 



Q 2 



