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The Medieval West
Published in Scott M. Jackson, Skin Disease and the History of Dermatology, 2023
Third, the Middle Ages saw greatly increased use of two diagnostic techniques that were founded by the ancients but became more commonplace in the medieval period: uroscopy and pulse checking. The former involved the close inspection of the urine to assess the patient for disease. Uroscopy became more widely used after the publication of De urinis, “On Urines,” by the Byzantine physician Theophilus in the seventh century, a practice that Constantine the African resurrected in the eleventh century. The urine was placed in a urine flask called a matula, and the patient's diagnosis and prognosis were determined by comparing the specimen to a chart containing 20 different gradations of color. The medieval physician would also inspect the urine for sediment, pus, blood, and other substances. Uroscopy remained a mainstay of diagnostic procedure until the Renaissance, when its value was finally questioned. By the seventeenth century, uroscopy fell completely out of favor with physicians; those who continued to practice it were called charlatans, mountebanks, or quacks.
Pregnancy
Published in Nadia Maria Filippini, Clelia Boscolo, Pregnancy, Delivery, Childbirth, 2020
In medieval times, uroscopy, the observation of urine, used in the diagnosis of other illnesses, developed by the Byzantine school of medicine in the 6th–7th centuries and adopted by the Salerno school, became more established as well.12 From the 16th century, it would be variously questioned in the scientific world: for example, Italian physician Scipione Mercurio, in La comare o ricoglitrice, called it a “false and deceitful (ploy) more suited to quacks than doctors” (Mercurio [1596] 1713: 53), but it would still continue to be used up to the 18th century.
To remedy barrenness and to promote the faculty of generation’: promoting fertility, 1500–1800
Published in Angus McLaren, Reproductive Rituals, 2020
Assuming all went well by the second month of gestation most women would, because of nausea, increased breast size and cessation of the menses, realize they were pregnant. But some authors claimed that at the very moment of conception a woman might know that she had conceived because of a sudden sense of sickness or an unexpected bout of shivering.75 Sermon informed his readers that the man could also tell that conception had occurred by feeling a sucking sensation on the yard.76 From the time of Hippocrates pregnant women were said to lose their sense of smell, failing to recognize, for example, garlic. Stronger indicators of pregnancy were offered by uroscopy. In Owen Wood’s An Alphabetical Book of Physical Secrets (1639) it was claimed that if, after boiling, a woman’s urine was ‘red as gold with a watery circle above’ it ‘shows she is with child’; the same was true if she could see her face in it; if the urine was white the child was dead; if there were clear streaks in it, it was evidence that the ‘childe hath life’.77 Katherine Boyle, however, gave the opposite diagnosis: urine boiled with salt which turned white indicated a pregnancy; a red colour did not.78
Medicinal plants consumption against urinary tract infections: a narrative review of the current evidence
Published in Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 2021
Efthymios Poulios, Georgios K. Vasios, Evmorfia Psara, Constantinos Giaginis
Many in vitro or ex vivo studies have presently assessed the health benefits of medicinal plants extracts in UTIs treatment. Nickel reviewed UTIs medical history from its first description in ancient Egyptian papyri since today [38]. According to Nickel, the Ebers papyrus suggested herbal treatments to improve urinary symptoms without providing pathological mechanisms insights. Hippocrates supposed that disease was induced by conflicts of the four humors and accordingly diagnosed urinary complaints. Roman medicine further extended the conventional approach supported by Greek physicians, while also refining invasive methodologies. The Arabian physician Aetius developed uroscopy and formed a thorough taxonomy and elucidation of urinary disease based on this technique. Moreover, Ayurveda, a traditional medicine healthcare system, has been developed in India since ancient times. This time old approach is based on plant-derived treatment of different illness in humans, including infection diseases. During the Middle Ages, no major improvements arisen, however, prevailing therapies were improved and gonococcal urethritis treatments were well defined. The early 19th century presented in-depth UTIs descriptions without the information that they were induced by microorganisms. The finding of microorganisms as the etiological infectious diseases agents in general and in inflammation urinary diseases provided a motivation for physicians to scrutinize management tactics and improve evidence-based strategies for UTI treatment. Many antibacterial agents, such as hexamine and mercurochrome, supporting promising laboratory results, however, their efficiency in clinical practice was inadequate [38].