Medieval doctors often made their diagnoses by examining stools, blood and especially urine. Numerous manuscripts from this period include images of doctors holding flasks of urine up to the light. Some medical treatises, such as this one, contain illustrations showing urine in different colours.
The fermentation of urine by bacteria produces a solution of ammonia; hence fermented urine was used in Classical Antiquity to wash cloth and clothing, to remove hair from hides in preparation for tanning, to serve as a mordant in dying cloth, and to remove rust from iron.
Ammonia in water acts as a caustic but weak base. Its high pH breaks down organic material, making urine the perfect substance for ancients to use in softening and tanning animal hides. Soaking animal skins in urine also made it easier for leather workers to remove hair and bits of flesh from the skin.
Urine was a particularly useful tool for diagnosing leprosy, because the immediate physiological cause was thought to be a malfunctioning liver — an organ which was central to the digestive process, and thus any problems would be visible in the urine.
To piss derives ultimately from the Vulgar Latin verb pissiare. The proper Latin verb meaning to urinate was mingere, which gives us medical words like micturition. Via the medieval French verb pissier (12th century), to piss crops up in many medieval English texts.
The armour is put on immediately just before the battle. And yes, relieving yourself is still an issue to the re-enactors today. The thing is to detach your cuisses, then loosen your braies and pull them down with your hosen. Once you are done, pull up your braies and hosen, tie them and reattach your cuisses.
Laboratory medicine began 6000 years ago with the analysis of human urine, which was called uroscopy until the 17th century and today is termed urinalysis. Today physicians use urine to diagnose selective conditions but from ancient times until the Victorian era, urine was used as the primary diagnostic tool.
Diabetes: Its Beginnings
Centuries later, people known as "water tasters" diagnosed diabetes by tasting the urine of people suspected to have it. If urine tasted sweet, diabetes was diagnosed. To acknowledge this feature, in 1675 the word "mellitus," meaning honey, was added to the name "diabetes," meaning siphon.
Medieval monks did, however, establish the technique of examining a patient's urine (uroscopy, pictured). The color, smell, and even the taste, of urine were thought to be important and a number of simple diagnoses (e.g. diabetes) could be made on this basis. Astrology was also an important part of Medieval medicine.
As unpleasant as it may sound, the ancient Romans used urine for teeth whitening. The ammonia found in urine acts as a bleaching agent because of the acidic content. During the 16th century, barbers got into the act. After a shave and a haircut, the barber would file down the surface of the teeth before applying acid.
The Romans used to buy bottles of Portuguese urine and use that as a rinse. GROSS! Importing bottled urine became so popular that the emperor Nero taxed the trade. The ammonia in urine was thought to disinfect mouths and whiten teeth, and urine remained a popular mouthwash ingredient until the 18th century.
No, urine does not help heal wounds.
In this new study, researchers have shown that the practice of “aging” collected urine in sealed containers over several months effectively deactivates 99% of antibiotic resistant genes that were present in bacteria in the urine.
Humans have known for thousands of years that their urine is an excellent fertilizer for crops. It contains phosphorus, nitrogen and potassium—many of the same ingredients as commercial fertilizers.
Seventeenth century alchemists thought urine, with its golden color, might help them turn other substances into gold. When they boiled off the liquid, they got a white glow-in-the-dark substance: phosphorus. The element is a key component of organic molecules and of modern products such as matches and fertilizers.
Ancient Romans used to use both human and animal urine as mouthwash in order to whiten their teeth. The thing is, it actually works, it's just gross. Our urine contains ammonia, a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, that is capable of acting as a cleansing agent.
The ancients were not acquainted with soap,b but they used in its stead different kinds of alkali, by which the dirt was more easily separated from the clothes. Of these, by far the most common was the urine of men and animals, which was mixed with the water in which the clothes were washed (Plin. H. N.
The taste of urine varies from watery to slightly biter, sour and even sugary. Normal urine is usually salty and somehow bitter. A sweet tasting urine may be the first sign we have of diabetes. Jaundice makes urine taste as bitter as gall.
High sodium levels in the urine could indicate: Use of water pills. Too much salt in your diet. Low function of the adrenal glands, which are in your kidneys.
Years later, the medieval scholar Moises Maimonides (1138-1204) described in detail diabetes, including the symptoms of acidosis[6]. Ancient Egyptians, Indians, Chinese and Arabs tried to describe the clinical signs and symptoms of diabetes mellitus.
Before insulin was discovered in 1921, people with diabetes didn't live for long; there wasn't much doctors could do for them. The most effective treatment was to put patients with diabetes on very strict diets with minimal carbohydrate intake. This could buy patients a few extra years but couldn't save them.
Dr. Newton says a pigment called urochrome, or urobilin, causes the yellow color in urine. Your kidneys filter out this byproduct from your bloodstream and it exits your body in urine. The more fluids you drink, the lighter the color of the pigment in your urine. The less you drink, the stronger the color.
As you age the bladder wall can become stiffer and not able to hold as much urine as before. You become less able hold it and may have to urinate more frequently. You also have a higher risk of urinary tract infections.
Regular urine color ranges from clear to pale yellow. But certain things can change the color. Foods such as beets, blackberries and fava beans can turn urine pink or red, for example. And some medicines can give urine vivid tones, such as orange or greenish-blue.