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Scientists discover truth in medieval belief in urine
timesonline.co.uk — Medieval physicians believed that they could diagnose disease by holding up a flask of the patient ’s urine to the light and squinting at it. According to scientists at Imperial College London they could have been on to something.
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- UncleCrapper, on 04/21/2008, -3/+26Well, as the saying goes, even a broken clock is right twice a day. Medieval "physicians" may examined urine for signs of disease, but they were just guessing as to what it all meant.
- swr1ght, on 04/21/2008, -0/+5Unless it is one of those darn 24 hour clocks. When broken those are like half as reliable.
- jamesdew, on 04/21/2008, -1/+0like this one
http://www.jwodcatalog.com/imgLg/6645013425313.jpg
- jamesdew, on 04/21/2008, -1/+0like this one
- warriorscot, on 04/21/2008, -0/+10There was allot of wisdom built up over thousands of years, it couldn't all be wrong now we understand why things happen but even without understanding you could make deductions based on repeated patterns. Urine tells allot about the body several common diseases can have an effect on a persons urine, we test it chemically now but your eyes and nose can detect allot of things as well certainly not anywhere near as accurately but its not exactly guess work if a specific combination of smell and a appearance was common with a particular disease just observation.
People do the best with the tools they have, all they had back then was themselves and their wits, its easy to look back and be condescending but you couldn't have done any better and they were laying the first steps to modern medicine and yes they got some things wrong but they got some things right as we see. - canUdi9it, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1If you think they were ignorant, urine for a big surprise.
- swr1ght, on 04/21/2008, -0/+5Unless it is one of those darn 24 hour clocks. When broken those are like half as reliable.
- sutech, on 04/21/2008, -1/+1well, you can diagnose porphyry this way... but it has to be a sunlight I guess..
- RobotLeAwesome, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2I'm squinting at this article as hard as I can and it's doing nothing for me.
- pilgrim3970, on 04/21/2008, -3/+6"Studying the colour, smell and even the taste of urine was once the primary means of diagnosis for physicians "
"EVEN THE TASTE".... that's just nasty- RobotLeAwesome, on 04/21/2008, -1/+13hmm tastes like syphilis
- hakz, on 04/21/2008, -1/+2comment of the day :D
- Jus2Gud, on 04/21/2008, -0/+5Well you could test for diabetes by tasting the urine
- Altotus, on 04/21/2008, -0/+7In fact, that's how they did it. The ancient greeks coined the term diabetes, referring to the way people walk when they need to pee really badly (excessive urination is a sign). They'd slosh it around in the mouth, and if it was sweet and you peed a lot, that's what you had.
That knowledge had been around for centuries before "diabetes" had the term "mellitus" appended to the end (now "diabetes mellitus"), wheich meant "honey flavored". A little later, they also identified another kind, "diabetes insipidous" -- funny walk, no taste -- which a few hundred years later was found to be cause by kidney damage or pituitary gland abnormalities.
I wish I could say that's the most disgusting diagnostic from ancient medicine, but ... well, let's just leave it at pee tasting.- talonstriker, on 04/21/2008, -0/+6what has been read cannot be unread....
- Altotus, on 04/21/2008, -0/+7In fact, that's how they did it. The ancient greeks coined the term diabetes, referring to the way people walk when they need to pee really badly (excessive urination is a sign). They'd slosh it around in the mouth, and if it was sweet and you peed a lot, that's what you had.
- johnjenin, on 04/21/2008, -1/+1taste??? :-o
- Necoras, on 04/21/2008, -0/+3Actually urine was historically used as a whitening mouthwash. The amonia whitens the teeth... while destroying them of course. There are some poems in Latin mocking people for how white their smiles are. Ahhhh, minty fresh?
- Mootabolife, on 04/21/2008, -1/+3 If anyone wants some sweet urine, I eat bananas all day long.
- RobotLeAwesome, on 04/21/2008, -1/+13hmm tastes like syphilis
- Mawds, on 04/21/2008, -1/+6This is just taking the piss
- Gloony, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2Imperial College of Science, Technology, Medicine and Optical Urology?
- smacksaw, on 04/21/2008, -1/+2That'll take the piss out of modern doctors!
- anteyekon4myst, on 04/21/2008, -1/+5And this whole time I thought urine was a myth....at least this explains my wet sheets.
- pudgyv, on 04/21/2008, -0/+3May be nasty but that is exactly how the ancients diagnosed diabetes. Sweet urine.
- halligan00, on 04/21/2008, -1/+2Mmmmmm.....sweet sweet urine......
- Barbrady, on 04/21/2008, -5/+6No *****?
- ssn697, on 04/21/2008, -1/+2Whomever is digging you down has no understanding of true humor ;-)
- 1timeuser, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2I see what you did there.
- deadlift, on 04/21/2008, -1/+1I'm not your friend, buddy
- Murdats, on 04/21/2008, -0/+5of course, all this time we have been using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy when we could just squint at a flak, those medieval scientists, always one step ahead.
- itsthebrod, on 04/21/2008, -1/+3Perhaps R Kelly descended from one of these great urine physicians.
- mjolner88, on 04/21/2008, -1/+0I guess race isn't just a social construct after all & is genetic... according to this article they can tell a persons race by their urine
- fr3ddie, on 04/21/2008, -0/+1diet and drinking have something to do with disease?? no kidding.
- edebolt, on 04/21/2008, -1/+1how about urine after eating asparagus? Drinking that would be worthy of Jackass or Fear Factor
- AlpineStars777, on 04/21/2008, -0/+4diabeetus
- einstevo, on 04/21/2008, -0/+0wilford brimly ftw
- rblancarte, on 04/21/2008, -6/+1Uh, duh. Haven't we been doing urine tests for a while to detect things? This is somehow news in 2008?!?!?
- mpfarmer, on 04/21/2008, -1/+0When I looked at the link description, I thought "eh, it's The Onion."
I was wrong. :( - BXRWXR, on 04/21/2008, -1/+1Is it bad when it's lumpy?
- captric, on 04/21/2008, -1/+2What if your piss looks like a pint of Guiness???
- zaf43, on 04/21/2008, -1/+1they were close
everything comes down to poo - BeardedRooster, on 04/21/2008, -1/+0Its not just middle age doctors. Tibetans did and still do this type of testing in their traditional medicine
- hasslinthehoff, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2Patches O'Houlihan... vindicated.
- VitriolAndAngst, on 04/21/2008, -0/+4Well. There is probably a lot we can learn from the past in medicine. For instance, most of modern "western" medicine's success can be seen from immunizations. Where did the get that? From the Homeopath's. "Like heals like" meaning, by having a weak version of the same thing informing your immune system, your body can repel the real disease or virus later. The Homeopath's were the demonized competition for the Medieval doctors, so they called them and their potions signs of witchcraft and killed off the competition.
Fly maggots are also great for cleaning out wounds. Apparently, these disgusting creatures only eat dead flesh and exude a powerful anti-bacterial agent.
I don't think anyone is going to find a good use for injected mercury, however.- canUdi9it, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2"I don't think anyone is going to find a good use for injected mercury, however."
Mercury is a powerful antibiotic, but it's also a deadly poison/neurotoxin. Today we still use mercury in dental fillings and vaccines. We also use another deadly poison, chemotherapy, to fight cancer. Have we really progressed that far?
- canUdi9it, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2"I don't think anyone is going to find a good use for injected mercury, however."
- dilbert, on 04/21/2008, -0/+2Shouldn't that be: Scientist REDISCOVER truth in medieval belief in urine?
- vcleniuk, on 04/21/2008, -1/+1I have to go...
- jedmed, on 04/21/2008, -1/+1This explains why my dog goes on a drinking frenzy every time I take a leak and forget to flush.
- ogden, on 04/21/2008, -1/+0How is this news? As early as 400Bc diabetes was diagnosed by tasting urine (for sweetness).
- replaysMike, on 04/21/2008, -1/+1I dunno about all that scientific mumbo jumbo - my pee tastes like pee.
- JustSmurfy, on 04/22/2008, -0/+1Ugh. This article exemplifies what is wrong with contemporary mass media science journalism. The scientists are using NMR spectroscopy to examine metabolites in urine. So, what does the journalist conclude? Oh, those medieval doctors must have been on the right track because they also examined urine, albeit in a completely different way that has absolutely nothing to do with NMR spectroscopy. Here's a novel idea: maybe journalists who write about science ought to take some science classes so they have a clue about what they're talking about. If the scientists were obtaining useful information by photometric methods, then you could reasonably say that medieval doctors were onto something. NMR spectroscopy is not a photometric method. They're doing a disservice to the public understanding of science by making such an apples vs. oranges comparison.
- scb0825, on 04/22/2008, -0/+1Ahhh yes, the Piss Gazers of yore. I once heard about these fellows while in a pub... many tales to be told about these people....
- whalt, on 04/22/2008, -1/+1Was there a time in the past when people didn't believe in urine?
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