ALLIUM, (from allia, to avoid or shun, because many shun the smell of it), GARLIC; a genus of the mo-
nogynia order belonging to the hexandria class of plants. Of this genus no fewer than 33 different species are enumerated by LINNAEUS, among which he includes the cepa and porrum; but as these are so generally known by the names of onions and leeks, we have given the description of them under these words CEPA and PORRUM.
The roots of garlic are of the bulbous kind, of an irregularly roundish shape, with several fibres at the bottom; each root is composed of a number of lesser bulbs, called cloves of garlic, inclosed in one common membranous coat, and easily separable from one another. All the parts of this plant, but more especially the roots, have an acrimonious, and almost caustic taste, with a strong offensive smell, which has induced those who preferred some of the species in gardens on account of their yellow flowers, to eradicate them.
Culture. All the species of Garlick are very hardy, and will thrive in almost any soil or situation. They are easily propagated either by the roots or seeds. If from the roots, they ought to be planted in autumn, that they may take good root in the ground before the spring, which is necessary to make them flower strong the following summer. If they are propagated by seeds, they may be sown on a border of common earth, either in autumn, soon after the seeds are ripe, or in the spring following; and will require no farther care than to keep them clear from weeds. In the following autumn, they may be transplanted into the borders where they are to remain.
Medicinal Uses. This pungent root warms and stimulates the solids, and attenuates tenacious juices; for which it is well adapted, on account of its being very penetrating; inasmuch, that, when applied to the feet, its scent is soon discovered in the breath; and, when taken internally, its smell is communicated to the urine, or the matter of an issue, and perspires through the pores of the skin. Hence, in cold leucophlegmatic habits, it proves a powerful expectorant, diuretic, and emmenagogue; and, if the patient is kept warm, sudorific. It is also of great service in humoral asthma and catarrhous disorders of the breast, and in other disorders proceeding from a laxity of the solids, and cold sluggish indisposition of the fluids. It is also frequently of service in the dropsy; in the beginning of which it is particularly recommended by SYDENHAM, as a warm strengthening medicine. By him it is also recommended as a most powerful revellent; for which purpose he was led to make use of it in the confluent small-pox. His method was to cut the root in pieces, and apply it, tied in a linen cloth, to the soles of the feet, about the eighth day of the disease, after the face began to swell; renewing it once a-day till the danger was over. When made into an unguent with oils, and applied externally, garlic is said to resolve and disclude cold tumours, and has been by some greatly celebrated in cutaneous disorders.
The acrimonious qualities of this root, however, render it manifestly improper on many occasions.—Its liberal use is apt to occasion headaches, flatulencies, thirst, febrile heats, inflammatory distempers, and sometimes discharges of blood from the hemorrhoidal vessels. In hot bilious constitutions, where there is already a degree of irritation, where the juices are too thin and acrimonious, or the viscera unfound, it never fails to aggra-
vate the distemper. See MATERIA MEDICA, n° 85.