Garlick

is said to destroy the magnetic power of the loadstone. This notion, though proved to be erroneous, has the sanction of Pliny, Solinus, Ptolemy, Plutarch, Albertus, Mathiolas, Rueus, Rulandus, Renodæus, Langius, and others. Sir Thomas Browne places it among Vulgar Errors (book ii. chap. 3.)

“Martin Rulandus saith that Onions and Garlick … hinder the attractive power [of the magnet] and rob it of its virtue of drawing iron, to which Renodæus agrees but this is all lies.”—W. Salmon: The Complete English Physician, etc., chap. xxv. p. 182.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.