It's easy to believe that the practice of medicine in the middle ages was cloaked in ignorance and the ministrations of a doctor usually resulted in a painful death. Some of this belief is true. War was brutal and battle injuries were horrific. Anyone wounded in battle would have to wait for the battle to be over before they could expect treatment, and the treatment when in came rarely resulted in a cure. As knights and soldiers wrapped themselves in more and more armor, swords were discarded and battle tactics consisted of finding new ways to make piercing wounds. Lances, pikes and especially arrows inflicted severe internal injuries for which medieval medicine had no cure.
But life was not all battles, and anyone who could avoid battles and childbirth could expect to live a long lie. From earliest times, healers had been coming up with ways to treat ordinary everyday afflictions, and the treatment of choice was often urine. The healing properties of urine were first recorded by the Roman naturalist, Pliny the Elder, who recommended the use of fresh urine to treat sores, burns and scorpion stings. Stale urine mixed with wood ash was a preferred treatment for diaper rash, although it is hard to imagine how a rash that was caused by urine in the first place, could be cured by urine however stale, and however much wood ash was mixed in. Pliny's famous statement "in vino sanitas" (in wine there is health) sounds much better than his second not so famous statement "in urinae sanitas"
By the middle ages, doctors had devised the urine wheel to assist in their diagnosis. This chart contained 20 possible colors of urine ranging from "white as wellwater," to "rudy as pure intense gold," and "black as very dark horn." The popular image of a doctor holding a round bottom flask is a depiction of the flask that was invented specifically so the doctor could examine the urine. Incidentally the urine of mad King George III of England (the king who lost the American Colonies) was reported to be colored purple. This is a classic symptom of porphyria, a disease causing intermittent dementia.
We have a report that in 1550 the
Italian doctor Leonardo Fioravanit saw a man's nose sliced off in an argument, and promptly urinated on the fallen organ before stitching it back on. Henry VIII's surgeon recommended that all battle wounds should be washed in urine; and others advised the same for potentially gangrenous ulcers, or poisonous bites and stings. Being sterile when it leaves the body, urine was then a far safer cleaning agent than the kind of water typically available.
Medieval women were advised to apply their own urine, or puppy urine, to their faces to produce a pleasing "glow". Although the treatment sounds bizarre, modern day analysis reveals that urine contains 95 percent water (purer than any water then available) , 2.5 percent urea, and the rest is a combination of salt, various minerals, enzymes, and hormones that contain essential nutrients. Urine therapy is still practiced in some parts of the world, and therapists claim that urine, when applied onto the skin with a clean, damp cloth, can clear up psoriasis, eczema, and acne overnight,
Italian doctor Leonardo Fioravanit saw a man's nose sliced off in an argument, and promptly urinated on the fallen organ before stitching it back on. Henry VIII's surgeon recommended that all battle wounds should be washed in urine; and others advised the same for potentially gangrenous ulcers, or poisonous bites and stings. Being sterile when it leaves the body, urine was then a far safer cleaning agent than the kind of water typically available.
Medieval women were advised to apply their own urine, or puppy urine, to their faces to produce a pleasing "glow". Although the treatment sounds bizarre, modern day analysis reveals that urine contains 95 percent water (purer than any water then available) , 2.5 percent urea, and the rest is a combination of salt, various minerals, enzymes, and hormones that contain essential nutrients. Urine therapy is still practiced in some parts of the world, and therapists claim that urine, when applied onto the skin with a clean, damp cloth, can clear up psoriasis, eczema, and acne overnight,
Too squeamish to drink urine? How about just using it to clean your teeth. Medieval women used it as a tooth whitener. Incidentally, skeletons of the period reveal that the average person had excellent teeth. This is probably because of the unavailability of refined sugars, and the lack of Coca Cola.
Returning to the subject of urine, how about urine to bleach cloth, and urine to clean hats? And for pure romance, urine makes an excellent invisible ink. Did Guinevere write secret love notes to Lancelot with urine? Well, she couldn't use lemon juice, no lemons available in England, so perhaps she improvised with what was to hand, so to speak.
Returning to the subject of urine, how about urine to bleach cloth, and urine to clean hats? And for pure romance, urine makes an excellent invisible ink. Did Guinevere write secret love notes to Lancelot with urine? Well, she couldn't use lemon juice, no lemons available in England, so perhaps she improvised with what was to hand, so to speak.
Before we squeal in horror at the whole idea of relying on urine as a medicine or as a diagnostic tool, let's consider what we do today. How do we test for pregnancy? Urine. How do we test for kidney disease? Urine. How do we test for illegal drug use? Urine. These are just a few examples. So, if you are interested in do it yourself urinalysis, here is a medieval urine wheel or you can try this link for a modern day description of the same thing.
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