“Cicutis Allium nocentius
O dura Messorum ilia!”
The most powerful antidotes to the flavour of this tribe of vegetables are the aromatic leaves and seeds of the Umbelliferæ; thus the disagreeable odour of a person’s breath after the ingestion of an onion is best counteracted by parsley; and if leek or garlic be mixed with a combination of aromatic ingredients, its virulence will be greatly mitigated and corrected, nor does the fact seem to have escaped the observation of the husbandman in Virgil,
“Allia, Serpyllumque, herbas contundit olentes.”
Eclog. 2. line 11.
And the fact itself offers an additional illustration of the important principle of combination, discussed at page 148.
[361]. Taylor’s Remedy for Deafness. Garlic infused in oil of almonds, and coloured by alkanet root.
[362]. Dr. Sibthorpe, in his Flora Græca, states that the Aloe Vulgaris is the true Aloe described by Dioscorides.
[363]. From the action which aloes exercises over the large intestines it has long been supposed that the continued use of it caused the production of hemorrhoids. It would seem hardly possible that an opinion, so generally received, could be without some foundation; and, no doubt, in many cases it may produce such an effect. In my own experience, however, I do not recollect to have met with it in a single instance, even where its use had been continued for several months in succession.
Ed.