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Insipid diabetes
A disease of 1769 becomes a treatment in 2015The Edinburgh physician William Cullen described the difference between ‘sweet’ diabetes (mellitus = honey), and rare cases where the urine tasted ‘insipid’, in 1769. There were no dipsticks then, so the basis of distinction was indeed taste. There is huge variation in how much people drink. But…
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Lithotomists: the first nephro-urological specialists
A sound has been passed from the penis into the bladder. With the genitalia held out of the way, and the patient strapped firmly to the table and held down by strong men, the surgeon cuts down onto the sound through an incision in the perineum. The incision is then widened a little, and the stone grasped…
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Proteinuria: a bad thing since 400 B.C.
Indicates risk of renal failure and death Isaac Sarrabat 1600; Physician examining a urine flask. (US National Library of Medicine) Hippocrates (400 B.C.) described bubbles on the surface of the urine as indicating kidney disease and a long illness. Inspection of the urine (uroscopy, Fig 1) was a major part of the art of the…