A pot of urine can tell a lot about your diet and health.
It can tell whether you are adequately hydrated, or how well your kidneys are functioning.
It can tell if you are suffering from jaundice, or if you have high blood sugar.
Modern chemical analysis of urine can reveal a wide range of afflictions.
It was transparent, had different colors and sediments.
It had a unique smell, and it could even be tasted.
The diagnosis required taking a noxious drink.
Indeed, diabetes was one of the first diseases to be described.
The term diabetes was first coined by the Greek physician Apollonius of Memphis, in the third century BCE.
It means to pass through, referring to the tendency of a diabetic patient to pass urine frequently.
The term mellitus or honey sweet, was added to diabetes by the English physician Thomas Willis in 1674.
The chart became a big hit among medieval physicians.
Aside from diseases, urine was also used to determine pregnancy.
Some doctors added wine to the urine for diagnostic purposes.
When alcohol in the wine reacted visibly with protein in the urine, the test was deemed a positive.
Since urinary protein excretionincreases substantiallyduring pregnancy, the test might actually have worked.
A handy guide to urine-based diagnosis that can be conducted at home, circa 1920.
But some physicians stubbornly held onto them, and they became known as piss prophets.
Others saw signs of the heaven in the urines color and taste.
