One of the most important tools in the history of medical diagnosis has been urine. The examination of pee can legitimately be used to figure out whether a person is pregnant, or has diabetes, or kidney failure. For Medieval people, it was also thought to indicate widened “channels” into the kidney, which accidentally let blood in, or maybe that they possessed an imbalance of blood (one of four liquids known as “humors” in the body) — neither diagnosis would be considered valid today. Because cutting open the body was frowned upon in both the Ancient and Medieval Mediterranean cultures, uroscopy (now called urinalysis) was especially important. Whole books were written about the study of pee, such as _De Urinis_, by the 7th-c Byzantine scholar Theophilis Protospatharius: it was the first book entirely on the subject. (The image you are looking at is of Theophilis, hilding a special vessel called a “matula” just for urine analysis.) A famous verse was written in the 12th c called “Poem on the Judgement of Urines,” which medical students memorized as a sort of study aid (That poem is the second photo.) Finally, well into the Early Modern era in Europe, “urine wheels” were set up as medical charts – the color of the pee in each of the jars was matched up with corresponding smells, other symptoms, and potential medical diagnoses. (And that’s the third picture, from a 15thc manuscript.) By the 17th century, uroscopy had become increasingly sloppy – non-professionals were using it to scam patients, even claiming that urine could be used to foretell the future. Eventually, the author Thomas Brian wrote a devastating tract against the study of urine called “Pisse Prophet” that resulted in the curtailment of the practice.
Source(s): See J. Armstrong, “Urinalysis in Western Culture: A Brief History,” in _Kidney International_, vol 71, issue 5, March 2007, pp 384-387 and Harley MS 3140.
