How a Medieval Doctor Diagnosed You Without a Blood Test
Long before blood chemistry panels existed, medieval doctors had their own uniquely central diagnostic ritual in which they used the patient’s urine, examined in a special special clear glass container that became such a symbol of the profession that a physician was almost recognizable by the vessel he carried.
The containers in which the urine was held were called “jordans,” and were made of clear, uncolored glass so that the doctor could clearly see the color of the sample inside. Medical textbooks of the time contained full-color illustrated charts with twenty different recognized colors of urine, ranging from unhealthy colors of blue, black, and dark red, through the healthiest yellows, and down through less desirable pale or clear colors. In addition to color, physicians also examined the sample for visible sediment, smelled and evaluated the texture (was it thin and watery, or thick and greasy?), interpreting these signs in the context of the medical system of humors, determining which bodily humor was imbalanced.
Nestled within the explanations of the bodily humors, however, were some actual observations of symptoms that a modern physician would recognize as indicating specific problems. Some medieval texts specifically mention that a reddish discoloration of the urine is a sign of internal bleeding, and that gritty sediment indicates kidney stones — both valid modern medical observations, though connected to a completely incorrect system of diagnosis based on bodily humors.
A good example of how the medieval understanding of medicine, while largely based on superstition, did not have it all wrong — careful observations made by medieval physicians sometimes led to them recognizing patterns leading to specific symptoms or illnesses, but dressed them up in incorrect explanations based on the theory of bodily humors.
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