Historical_use Garlic

harvesting garlic, tacuinum sanitatis, 15th century (bibliothèque nationale)

the use of garlic in china dates thousands of years. consumed ancient greek , roman soldiers, sailors, , rural classes (virgil, ecologues ii. 11), and, according pliny elder (natural history xix. 32), african peasantry. galen eulogized rustic s theriac (cure-all) (see f. adams paulus aegineta, p. 99), , alexander neckam, writer of 12th century (see wright s edition of works, p. 473, 1863), discussed palliative heat of sun in field labor. garlic placed ancient greeks on piles of stones @ crossroads, supper hecate (theophrastus, characters, superstitious man). according pliny, garlic , onions invoked deities egyptians @ taking of oaths.

in natural history, pliny gives list of scenarios in garlic considered beneficial (n.h. xx. 23). in 17th century dr thomas sydenham valued application in confluent smallpox, , william cullen s materia medica of 1789 found dropsies cured alone.

garlic rare in traditional english cuisine (though said have been grown in england before 1548) , has been more common ingredient in mediterranean europe. when english came america, brought anti-garlic attitude them, , took 3 hundred years - because of continuing puritanism influence - viewpoint diminish, though garlic used folk medicine.

translations of c. 1300 assize of weights , measures indicate passage dealing standardized units of garlic production, sale, , taxation—the hundred of 15 ropes of 15 heads each—but latin version of text refers herring rather garlic.

garlic used antiseptic prevent gangrene during world wars , ii.