that. Straightforward applications externally, however, seem to have been
very much an Irish speciality: for easing toothache (all 11 records out of the
total of 112 logged for uses of every kind in Britain and/or Ireland), rheuma-
tism (‘Ulster’,^78 Tipperary^79 ), the inflamed sores on the fingers popularly
known as felons (Wicklow^80 ) and the poulticing of mumps and swellings
round the neck (Galway^81 ). The herb is more effective, though, if crushed or
chewed and digested, for that releases a substance called allicin which has
been found to act against micro-organisms. That would seem to justify the
beliefs in parts of Ireland (Cavan,^82 Louth,^83 Laois,^84 Tipperary^85 ) that garlic
purifies the blood, cures boils (Kilkenny^86 ) and heals sore eyes (Kilkenny
also^87 ). It must also justify in part the plant’s popularity for chest and lung
infections, which together with sore throats, colds and coughs of every kind
account form by far the largest number (75) of uses—if the 9 relating to
asthma are included in that broad category as well. On the other hand, that
explanation will hardly do for the mainly Irish conviction that garlic is good
for indigestion and stomach-ache (Clare,^88 Tipperary,^89 Cork^90 ), nor for its
use to counter intestinal worms in Roscommon^91 or warts and corns in
Offaly,^92 or to alleviate measles in Mayo.^93 But because allicin has been dis-
covered also to lower cholesterol, and more particularly the low-density
lipoprotein, a persistent belief in the Aran Islands^94 that the plant is effective
against blood clots has now received impressive confirmation.
There can be no surprise that the recommendation of garlic by Dios-
corides for the bites of snakes finds no reflection in Ireland, though it has
found some in Cheshire (as ‘churl’s treacle’).^95 This use may well have come
through the herbals, but that seems less likely as regards knowledge of the
plant’s action as a diuretic. Early travellers in the Hebrides found an infusion
of the leaves of wild garlic being drunk there extensively for gravel or the
stone: Martin Martin encountered this in Skye and Harris,^96 and John Light-
foot in Arran,^97 Thomas Pennant adding that the potion was taken in the
latter in brandy.^98 There is a more recent record of employment for kidney
trouble in Shetland,^99 too. Ye t nothing under that head has turned up in the
Irish records, contrary to what one might have supposed—even though the
Highlands have shared with Ireland that faith in the plant’s power to purify
the blood and in its ability to clear infected matter from wounds.^100 The
British also seem to have applied it externally much less widely than the Irish,
aching joints and bruised limbs in Cumbria^101 alone falling into that category.
Pondweeds, Grasses, Lilies and Orchids 329