The colour, smell, and even taste of urine was used to both identify particular illnesses and provide patient prognoses, from Hippocrates to the Victorian era.

The practice, called uroscopy or uromancy, was, according to the Doctor’s Review, “once the number-one way to diagnose disease — and predict the future”.

Uromancy? Uromancy? If I hadn’t double-checked the date and cross-referenced this, I would think I was being tragically punked like the time I fell for the medieval recipe for unicorn.

(Okay, that one was pretty good…)

Via edible geography for the full article and more images.