t the decoction
shall be drank regularly afterwards in the Springtime.

Dr. Quinlan, at St. Vincent's Hospital, Dublin, successfully
employed poultices made with the fresh juice, and applied three
times in the day, to heal chronic ulcers on the legs. Its effects, he
says, in the most unlikely cases, were decisive and plain to all. He
gave directions that whilst a bundle of ten or twelve stalks is
grasped with the left hand, this bundle should be cut into pieces of
about half-an-inch long, by a pair of scissors held in the right hand.
The segments are then to be bruised thoroughly in a mortar, and
applied in the mass as a poultice beneath a bandage.

Dr. Thornton, in his excellent _Herbal_ (1810), says: "After some
eminent surgeons had failed, he ordered the juice of Cleavers, mixed
with linseed, to be applied to the breast, in cases of supposed cancer
of that part, with a teaspoonful of the juice to be taken every night
and morning whilst fasting; by which plan, after a short [233] time,
he dispersed very frightful tumours in the breast."

The herb is found, on analysis, to contain three distinct acids--the
tannic acid (of galls), the citric acid (of lemons), and the special
rubichloric acid of the plant.

"In cancer," says Dr. Boyce, "five fluid ounces of the fresh juice of
the plant are to be taken twice a day, whilst constantly applying the
bruised leaves, or their ointment, to the sore."

Some of our leading druggists now furnish curative preparations
made from the fresh herb. These include the _succus_, or juice, to
be swallowed; the decoction, to be applied as a lotion; and the
ointment, for curative external use. Both in England and elsewhere
the juice of this Goosegrass constitutes one of the Spring juices
taken by country people for scorbutic complaints. And not only for
cancerous disease, but for many other foul, illconditioned ulcers,
whether scrofulous or of the scurvy nature, this Goosegrass has
proved itself of the utmost service, its external application being at
all times greatly assisted by the internal use of the juice, or of a
decoction made from the whole herb.

By reason of its acid nature; this Galium is astringent, and therefore
of service in some bleedings, as well as in diarrhoea, and for
obesity.

Gerard writes: "The herb, stamped with swine's grease, wasteth
away the kernels by the throat; and women do usually make pottage
of Cleavers with a little mutton and oatmeal, to cause leannes