Of Garlick.
The description.
The bulbe or head of Garlicke, is couered with most thin filmes or skins, of a very light white purple colour, consisting of manie cloues seuered one from another; vnder which in the grounde belowe groweth a tassell of threddes in steede of rootes: it hath long greene leaues like those of the Leeke, among which riseth vp a stalke at the end of the second or third yeere, whereupon doth grow a tuft of flowers couered with a white skinne, in which being broken when it is ripe appeareth round blacke seeds.
The place.
Garlick is seldome sowen of seede, but planted in gardens of the small cloues in Nouember and December, and sometimes in Februarie and March.
The names.
It is called in Latine Allium: in Greeke σκοροδον: the apothecaries keepe the Latine name: the Germanes call it Knoblauch; the low Dutch Look: the Spaniards Aios, Alho: the Italians Aglio: the French Ail or Aux: the Bohemians Czesnek: the English Garlicke and poore mens Treacle.
The temperature.
Garlick is very sharpe, hot, and drie, as Galen saith, in the fourth degree, and exulcerateth the skin by raising of blisters.
The vertues.
Being eaten it heateth the bodie extremely, attenuateth and maketh thin, thicke and grosse humors; cutteth such as are tough and clammie, digesteth and consumeth them, also openeth obstructions, is an enimie to all colde poisons, and to the bitings of venemous beasts: and therefore Galen nameth it Theriaca rusticorum, or the husbandmans Treacle. It yeeldeth to the body no nourishment at all, it engendreth naughtie and sharpe blood. Therefore such as are of a hot complexion must especially abstaine from it. But if it be boiled in water vntill such time as it hath lost his sharpnes, it is the lesse forcible, and retaineth no longer his euill iuice, iuice, as Galen writeth. It taketh away the roughnes of the throte, it helpeth an old cough, it prouoketh vrine, it breaketh the stone, and consumeth winde, it is a remedie for the dropsie proceeding of a colde cause. It killeth wormes in the belly, and driueth them foorth. The milke also wherein it hath been sodden, is giuen to yoong children with good successe against the wormes. It helpeth a colde stomacke, and is a preseruatiue against the contagious and pestilent aire. The decoction of Garlicke vsed for a bathe to sit ouer, bringeth downe the flowers and secondines or afterburthen, as Dioscorides saith. It taketh away the morphew, tetters or ringwoormes, scabbed heads in children, dandrafe and scurfe, tempered with hony and the parts annointed therewith. With figge leaues and cummin it is laide on against the bitings of the mouse, called in Greeke μυγάλη: in English a Shrew.
Text in Gerard's own spelling (the long s is printed as s), transcribed by the Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0). A chapter may run onto pages not yet transcribed. Gerard wrote within Galenic medicine; nothing here is advice.