Urinalysis, Part 2

We started a conversation yesterday on the use of urine by medieval Western European physicians to determine health. I thought today we'd go into exactly how the urine was an indicator of health.Examining sediment in the urine was one case, which was described yesterday in a paragraph from Giles Corbeil's (fl.1200) poem De urinis. Later elaborations on this suggest the urine would settle into layers of different colors. A large layer on top could indicate a problem with the head. Som sediments indicated kidney stones.Smell and taste were also ways to examine urine. Smell was obvious, but taste was also used at times; sweetness was an indication of diabetes.Visual examination was the first and most common method, and was the reason why a glass flask became the symbol in illustrations of a physician. Hippocrates (c.460–375 BCE) started the business of the look of urine having significance. He felt it was the output of all four humors of the body, could indicate which was deficient or…