NAT. ORDER. MAGNOLIACEiE. 
57 
regular practice in the United States, and it appears, from the testi- 
mony which has been published in favor of it, to be well entitled to 
the attention of the profession. The name originated from the 
Greek, leirion, a lily, and dendron, a tree. It has been transported 
to Europe, where it is now common, but does not attain the height 
of more than fifty or sixty feet. 
Medical Properties and Uses. This bark possesses considerable 
stimulant properties, but it is chiefly on account of its tonic effects 
that it deserves notice. It acts also occasionally as a diuretic, and 
in general it produces conspicuous diaphoretic effects when largely 
administered. The bark of the root is less stimulant, and more 
purely tonic, than that of the trunk or smaller branches. Given in 
union with dogwood, and the Prinus verticillatus, it has been em- 
ployed with much success in the cure of intermittents. Dr. Rush 
employed it, as he states, " with as much satisfaction as any of the 
common bitters of the shops." 
Dr. J. T. Young, in a letter to Governor Clayton, of Delaware, 
says : " I have prescribed the poplar bark in a variety of cases of 
intermittent fever ; and can declare, from experience, that it is 
equally efficacious with the Peruvian bark, if properly administered." 
As this is, however, considerably stimulant, it should never be given 
where the intermission is marked by symptoms denoting a phlogistic 
tendency in the system. Bleeding and purging were formerly con- 
sidered necessary preliminaries to the employment of this remedy, 
where the habit is inflammatory ; but of late, experience has taught 
us that this practice proves more hurtful than beneficial to the pa- 
tient. 
It has also been much recommended in chronic rheumatism and 
in gout; and from its manifest tendency to produce diaphoresis, to- 
gether with its tonic operation, there can be but little doubt of its 
occasional usefulness in affections of this kind. From these com- 
bined properties it also acts with great advantage in the advanced 
stage of dysentery. In this disease I have repeatedly employed it 
