OCR Text |
Show 342 COMMON CULTIVATED GARLIC. In fevers of the typhoid type, and even in the plague itself, its virtues have been muchcelebrated. Garlic has been said to have sometimes succeededin curing obstinate quartans, after cinchona hadfailed. In catarrhal disorders of the breast; asthma, both pituitous and spasmodic; flatulent colics;. hysterical and other diseases, proceeding from laxity of the solids, it has generally goodeffects : it has likewise been found serviceable in some hydropic cases. Sydenhamrelates that he has known the dropsy cured bythe useofgarlic alone; he recommends it chiefly as a warm strengthening medicine in the beginningofthe disease. It is much recommended by some as an anthelmintic, and has been frequently applied with success externally as a stimulant to indolent tumours, in cases of deafness proceeding from atony or rheumatism, andin retention of urine, arising from debility of the bladder. Garlic may either be exhibited in substance, and in this way several cloves may be takenat a time without inconvenience, or the cloves cut into slices may be swallowed without chewing. ‘This is the common mode of exhibiting it for the cure ofinter- ONION. 343 proved effectual in producing a discharge of urine, when retention has arisen from a want of due action in the bladder. Sydenham assures us, that among all the substances which occasion a derivation or revulsion from the head, none operates more powerfully than garlic applied to the soles of the feet: with this intention he used it in the confluent small-pox, about the eighth day, after the face began to swell; the root cut in pieces, and tied in a linen cloth, was applied to the soles, and renewed once a day till all danger was over. ONION. This is also a perennial bulbous-rooted plant. The root is a simple bulb, formed of concentric circles. It possesses in general the same properties as the garlic, but in a much weaker degree. Neumann extracted from 480 parts of the dryroot, by means of alcohol, 360, and then by water 30; by water applied first 395, and then by alcohol 30: the first residuum weighed56, and the second 64. By distillation the whole flavour of the onions passed over, but no oil could be obtained. MEDICAL USE. mittents. The expressed juice, when giveninternally, must be rendered as palatable as possible, by the addition of sugar and lemon juice. In deafness, cotton moistened with the juice is introduced within the ear, and the application renewed five or six times in one day. Infusions in spirit, wine, vinegar, and water, although con- Onions are considered rather as anarticle of food than of medicine: they are supposed to yield little or no nourishment, taining the whole of its virtues, are so acrimonious as to be unfit and when eaten liberally produce flatulencies, occasionthirst, headachs, and turbulent dreams; in cold pblegmatic habits, where viscid mucus abounds, they doubtless have their use; as by their stimulating quality they tend to excite appetite, and promote the secretions: by sometheyare strongly recommended for general use; and yet an infusion of an ounce of bruised garlic in a pound of milk, was the mode in which Rosenstein in suppressions of urine, and in dropsies. ‘The chief medicinal use of onions in the present practice is in external applications, exhibited it to children afflicted with worms. But by far the most commodious form for administering gat lic, is that of a pill or bolus conjoined with some powder, co! responding with the intention of givin g the garlic. In dropsy as a cataplasm for suppurating tumours, &c. Yet it must be allowed by all, that onions made into sauce, or taken roasted for supper, area very useful diet in cases of calomel forms a most useful addition. It mayalso sometimes be exhibited with advantage in the form of a clyster. Garlic made into an ointment with oils, &c. and applied externally, is said to resolve and discuss indolent tumours, and has been by some greatly esteemed in cutaneous diseases. It has lied likewise sometimes been employed as a repellent. Whenapp sometimes has under the form of a poultice to the pubis, it water in the chest, as in general dropsy. |