Garlic
3 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Garlic. All 3 are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a small, bulbous plant closely related to the onion. Garlic is a garden vegetable much used by the people of Southern Europe in soups and other cooking. A "garlic breath" is even more pronounced than that produced by eating onions. The juice of garlic makes a cement for mending glassware. The juice is used as an ointment in case of fever. A wild garlic found in woodland pastures is eaten by cows in the springtime. It ruins the milk. The name is from an old Saxon word, gar, meaning a spear, having reference to the spear-like shape of the leaves. The same syllable appears in garfish. See Onion ; Leek
An Encyclopaedia of Occultism (1920)
A species of onion, cultivated throughout Europe, to which is attributed certain occult properties. It is believed by the Greeks and the Turks that the use of this vegetable, or even the mention of its name, is a sure charm against the evil eye," and against vampires (q.v.). New-built houses and the sterns of boats belonging to Greece and Turkey, have long bunches of garlic hanging from them as a preventive against the fatal envy of any ill-disposed person.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in botany, Allium sativum, a perennial plant with a compound bulb composed of 10 to 12 smaller ones, called cloves, flat, narrow, erect, and pointed leaves, flowers akin to those of the onion, whitish or pinkish. It is used in Sicily, and some parts of Provence. It is cultivated in Portugal and other parts of the continent. The peasantry eat their bread with slices of it. In pharmacy, garlic, like other species of Allium, is stimulant, diuretic, and expectorant.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote in 1921 that garlic was eaten "in Sicily, and some parts of Provence," it was still a marker of Mediterranean and immigrant cooking that mainstream Anglo-American kitchens largely avoided; today it is one of the world's most widely used seasonings, with China alone growing roughly three-quarters of a global crop of more than 25 million tonnes a year. The chemistry behind Aiton's "garlic breath" was pinned down in 1944, when allicin, the sulphur compound released when a clove is crushed, was isolated and named. The old medicinal claims have fared less well: modern trials support at most a small effect on blood pressure and cholesterol, and garlic is no treatment for fever. The Occultism volume's vampire charm survives only in fiction and folklore, though its account of Greek and Turkish evil-eye beliefs was accurately reported, and Aiton's etymology from Saxon gar, "spear," plus leac, "leek," still stands.
Written for this edition, 2026.