(This article is based upon information derived from a German Source).

These days a great deal of publicity is given to the so-called "wonder drugs"; but as unforeseen detrimental side-effects be­come apparent and prove most disconcerting to those of the medical profession who use them, the qualifying word "wonder" loses its potency. Not so, however, with garlic.

The excellent effect of this wonder herb has been known by folk medicine for a very long time. Its splendid therapeutic reputation is extremely old. Garlic is mentioned no less than twenty-two times in the medical prescriptions of the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus 2000 B.C.

The workmen who built Cheops' pyramid over a period of many years received garlic regularly in their food on the advice of Egyptian physicians.

From the 12th to the 17th century it certainly could not have been omitted from any book on herbs.

Only in the 19th century did the doctors cease to consider it to be an essential remedy. As against this view, however, the French Academy of Science in Paris recommended the use of garlic in 1925 as a preventative against artery-sclerosis. It is considered that the main sphere of use of garlic is in the calcifica­tion of the arteries and in high blood pressure.

As long ago as 2000 B.C. (Ebers Papyrus) it was employed in intestinal complaints, an indication which holds good right up to the present day, and this is confirmed by modern pharmacology.

Loeper, Marcorici and Leclerc recommend garlic in acute and chronic dysentery and intestinal catarrh. Roos recommends it for pin worms and Leclerc for maw worms, especially in children.

E. Meyer looks upon garlic as a specific where there were symptoms of nicotine poisoning. Smoker's catarrh and diarrhea are due to nicotine indulgence. The beneficial effects of garlic in diseases of the respiratory tract have been written about by various authors.

In bronchial catarrh and emphysema garlic facilitates breath­ing, and in T.B. of the lungs it aids expectoration. Minchin is of the opinion that garlic has even a kind of specific effect upon Koch's tubercle bacillus. Also its good effect upon gangrene of the lungs is reported by four French doctors.

Leclerc maintains that garlic is a prophylactic against influenza.

Such a variety of indications is really astonishing and it is worth while to summarize the beneficial results of garlic: it re­duces blood pressure, it fosters digestion and elimination, it purifies the blood and controls diarrhea.

One may well begin to ask what are the constituents of garlic that bring about such far-reaching beneficial effects!

Garlic certainly does not stick its "light"—or should I say "odor"—under a bushel! The odor is caused by the oil of garlic, which is volatile and a product of decomposition of the sulfur-containing glycoside alliin. Also worthy of note is the fact that the constituents of garlic are also bound with organic iodine, which hastens the metabolism of the body, speeding up the exchange of cells that have become inefficient in their function. It also lowers the viscosity of the blood.

Furthermore, garlic is rich in secretion, which stimulates the secretion and elimination of the glands. Thus are its disinfect­ant, bacteriological and ant parasitic properties explained. It rids the body of intestinal parasites (pin and maw worms) and of the minute germs of dysentery, typhoid and paratyphoid, and influ­enza; and it even enhances the defenses of the body against cholera.

The action of garlic upon the digestive system is described by W. Kretschmar as follows:

"Garlic is passed to the bile from the stomach via the liver. It stimulates the secretion of bile, concentrating itself in the gall bladder. At the same time it stimulates also the other digestive ferments, thus intensifying the whole of the digestive process. Finally, garlic exercises a favourable influence upon the intestinal flora, which enhances the resistance of the body to disease bacteria such as typhoid, dysentery, etc."

The favorable action of garlic upon the circulation (it is a prophylactic against high blood pressure, calcification of the arteries of the kidneys) is due to various causes. For one thing garlic restricts disease putrefactive processes in the intestines and facilitates the movement of the blood in the body, which could otherwise be upset by such intestinal toxins. Furthermore, garlic distends the small arteries and capillaries, and it appears to en­hance the energy of the heart. It is even included in the latest publications in the group of mild heart remedies.

The favorable action of garlic in diseases of the upper air passages is due to its loosening and liquefying properties, also its ability to improve the circulation of the blood as well as to its attested bactericidal power.

Wasiky showed experimentally that a very high dilution of garlic oil, viz., 1:50,000 acted restrictively on the development of proteus bacilli, whilst with the powerful disinfectant phenol a much stronger concentration, viz., 1: 400 is necessary to achieve the same result.

These many-sided and changing effects of garlic seem to ex­plain the fact that cancer diseases very seldom occur where a considerable amount of garlic is consumed, i.e., during the whole of a person's lifetime.

Possibly the various intestinal toxins, which are removable by garlic, possess cancer-inducing properties.

From what has been said it will be seen that to-day, and in the past, garlic can be considered to be a genuine remedy; but like every other remedy it must be prescribed individually, as it can act in an irritating and harmful way when taken in excess. In this respect Lohner, for exzimple, warns against the use of garlic compresses and enemas containing strong garlic when treating infants and small children for worms, as very severe ulceration can be caused.

As a spice it suffices to use garlic sparingly. Too much of any good thing is bad.

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