Aspen

Marked debility with digestive impairment; tenesmic action after urination.

Action and Therapy. A neglected remedy of considerable value in debility of the urinary tract and of the digestive organs. It acts best in small or fractional doses. When so given it is of value in tenesmic action of the bladder immediately following urination. Owing to the salicin and populin present it has had a considerable reputation in malarial fevers and should be more generally employed as a post-febrile tonic.

Therapy. The older writers were enthusiastic concerning the tonic and antiperiodic properties of this drug. They claimed that it would replace quinine in the treatment of intermittency. It has never come into general use.

Properties and Uses. The inner bark is an efficient and pleasant tonic, with a modicum of astringency. From its common name, it is usually confounded, in medicine, with the liriodendron, to which it bears no resemblance, except in being soothing in its action.

Description. Natural Order, Salicaceae. In the same Family with the willows. Genus POPULUS: Trees, with broad-ovate leaves, and dioecious flowers in scaly aments without calyx or corolla. Aments of sterile flowers long and drooping; fertile flowers under the scales of terminal aments called buds, the scales being imbricated and covered with a resinous varnish; flowers appearing before the leaves.