Urine Analysis, 1519

A 16th-century engraving of a doctor examining a glass vessel containing a sample of a patient's urine. In medieval medicine, uroscopy was an important diagnostic tool, urine having 29 attributes to be observed. From this the physician deduced the supposed levels of a patient's four humors (bodily fluids): blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm. Illness was thought to be due to an imbalance in these fluids. It was thought that the imbalance could be redressed by changing the patient's diet, prescribing medicine, by bleeding the patient, or by surgery. Image drawn by Lorenz Fries of Colmar, Germany, in 1519

Restrictions Only for Ireland and United Kingdom

1500s 1519 Analysis Diagnosis Diagnostic Urine Uroscopy

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