CLEAVERS, or Goose-grass, Galium Aparine (natural order Rubiaceae), a common plant in hedges and waste places, with a long, weak, straggling, four-sided, green stem, bearing whorls of 6 to 8 narrow leaves, ½ to 2 in. long, and, like the angles of the stem, rough from the presence of short, stiff, downwardly-pointing, hooked hairs. The small, white, regular flowers are borne, a few together, in axillary clusters, and are followed by the large, hispid, two-celled fruit, which, like the rest of the plant, readily clings to a rough surface, whence the common name. The plant has a wide distribution throughout the north temperate zone, and is also found in temperate South America.
CLEBURNE, a town and the county-seat of Johnson county, Texas, U.S.A., 25 m. S. of Fort Worth. Pop. (1890) 3278; (1900) 7493, including 611 negroes; (1910) 10,364. It is served by the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fé, the Missouri, Kansas & Texas, and the Trinity & Brazos Valley railways. It is the centre of a prosperous farming, fruit and stock-raising region, has large railway repair shops, flour-mills, cotton gins and foundries, a canning factory and machine shops. It has a Carnegie library, and St Joseph’s Academy (Roman Catholic; for girls). The town was named in honour of Patrick Ronayne Cleburne (1828-1864), a major-general of the Confederate army, who was of Irish birth, practised law in Helena, Arkansas, served at Shiloh, Perryville, Stone River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Ring-gold Gap, Jonesboro and Franklin, and was killed in the last-named battle; he was called the “Stonewall of the West.”
CLECKHEATON, an urban district in the Spen Valley parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, 5½ m. S. by E. of Bradford, on the Lancashire & Yorkshire, Great Northern and London & North-Western railways. Pop. (1901) 12,524. A chamber of commerce has held meetings here since 1878. The industries comprise the manufacture of woollens, blankets, flannel, wire-card and machinery.
CLEETHORPES, a watering-place of Lincolnshire, England; within the parliamentary borough of Great Grimsby, 3 m. S.E. of that town by a branch of the Great Central railway. Pop. of urban district of Cleethorpe with Thrunscoe (1901) 12,578. Cleethorpes faces eastward to the North Sea, but its shore of fine sand, affording good bathing, actually belongs to the estuary of the Humber. There is a pier, and the sea-wall extends for about a mile, forming a pleasant promenade. The suburb of New Clee connects Cleethorpes with Grimsby. The church of the Holy Trinity and St Mary is principally Norman of various dates, but work of a date apparently previous to the Conquest appears in the tower. Cleethorpes is greatly favoured by visitors from the midland counties, Lancashire and Yorkshire.
CLEFT PALATE and HARE-LIP, in surgery. Cleft Palate is a congenital cleavage, or incomplete development in the roof of the mouth, and is frequently associated with hare-lip. The infant is prevented from sucking, and an operation is necessary. Cleft-palate is often a hereditary defect. The most favourable time for operating is between the age of two weeks and three months, and if the cleft is closed at this early date, not only are the nutrition and general development of the child greatly improved, but the voice is probably saved from much of the unpleasant tone which is usually associated with a defective roof to the mouth and is apt to persist even if a cleft has been successfully operated on later in childhood. The greatest advance which has been made in the operative treatment of cleft palate is due to the teaching of Dr Truman W. Brophy, who adopted the ingenious plan of thrusting together to the middle line of the mouth the halves of the palate which nature had unfortunately left apart. But, as noted above, this operation must, to give the best results, be undertaken in the earliest months of infancy. After the cleft in the palate has been effectually dealt with, the hare-lip can be repaired with ease and success.
Hare-lip.—In the hare the splitting of the lip is in the middle line, but in the human subject it is on one side, or on both sides of the middle line. This is accounted for on developmental grounds: a cleft in the exact middle line is of extremely rare occurrence. Hare-lip is often associated with cleft palate. Though we are at present unable to explain why development should so frequently miss the mark in connexion with the formation of the lip and palate, it is unlikely that maternal impressions have anything to do with it. As a rule, the supposed “fright” comes long after the lips are developed. They are completely formed by the ninth week. Heredity has a powerful influence in many cases. The best time for operating on a hare-lip depends upon various circumstances. Thus, if it is associated with cleft palate, the palatine cleft has first to be closed, in which case the child will probably be several months old before the lip is operated on. If the infant is in so poor a state of nutrition that it appears unsuitable for surgical treatment, the operation must be postponed until his condition is sufficiently improved. But, assuming that the infant is in fair health, that he is taking his food well and thriving on it, that he is not troubled by vomiting or diarrhoea, and that the hare-lip is not associated with a defective palate, the sooner it is operated on the better. It may be successfully done even within a few hours of birth. When a hare-lip is unassociated with cleft palate, the infant may possibly be enabled to take the breast within a short time of the gap being closed. In such a case the operation may be advisably undertaken within the first few days of birth. The case being suitable, the operation may be conveniently undertaken at any time after the tenth day.