Urine

Use in the book

In the anatomical account, serum is “the matter of Urine”: the material from which it is made. Urine then appears with other bodily outputs in the description of expulsion. Serum here belongs to the book's account of bodily fluids and digestive processing; its presence does not import the modern laboratory meaning. The new focus is on urine's different uses, not a replacement for the wider articles on water, waste or evacuation.

The symptom catalogue gives a description only to qualify its usefulness. Urine is said to be mostly pale and low-coloured, with the Latin urina pauca, acris, biliosa supplied from Aretaeus and the English “Not much in quantity.” Burton immediately declares this as uncertain as the preceding pulse observation: it changes with persons, habits and other circumstances and should carry little weight in chronic diseases. A reader who extracts only paleness loses the judgement governing the sign.

The attack on medical confidence later calls urine meretrix medicorum, glossed as “the most deceitfull thing of all.” The target is its unreliability as a guide to physicians, not the claim that no one ever passes urine or that its expulsion has no place in the medical system. Burton aligns this judgement with Forestus and other physicians while criticizing elaborate pulse distinctions. The language is satirically forceful but its object is diagnostic authority.

Urine has a further role in the prognosis: it can be the route through which the supposed morbid humour leaves. Burton quotes Rhasis as saying that melancholy purged by stools or urine, among other bodily changes, means the disease is dissolved. This is a reported criterion of resolution, not the diagnostic claim that a urine sample reliably identifies melancholy. The neighbouring dispute about quartan fever also warns against treating every listed bodily event as an uncontested cure. The editor clarifies the shift between melancholy as illness and as morbid humour.

Therapeutic uses remain differentiated. In head melancholy, Burton reports that most recommend provoking urine rather than sweat. A subsequent account offers hot and cold diuretic medicines according to the liver's heat, expressly as prescriptions made by some. In hypochondriacal melancholy, named authorities recommend diuretics, but Bayerus and Hollerius oppose them. Hollerius's reason is selective removal: the finer material leaves while the thicker remains. The universal instruction “All melancholy men” belongs to that reported objection, not a rule silently adopted by the whole book.

Related entries

• Water and springs: water and medicinal waters rather than all bodily fluid.
• Excrements and Evacuation and retention: production and discharge.
• Prognostics: interpreting signs.
• Pulse and pulsation (Pulse and pulsation): the adjacent test whose uncertainty is compared.

Explained vocabulary: Additional Terms.

Places to read

1. Subsection 2. Divisions of the Body, Humours and Spirits · paragraph 34Serum identified as the material of urine.
2. Subsection 5. The Soul and Its Faculties · paragraph 30Urine among the products and routes of expulsion.
3. Section 3. Member 1. Subsection 1. Symptoms or Signs of Melancholy in the Body · paragraph 16Pulse observation preceding the comparison.
4. Section 3. Member 1. Subsection 1. Symptoms or Signs of Melancholy in the Body · paragraph 17Sceptical qualification to which the urine discussion refers.
5. Section 3. Member 1. Subsection 1. Symptoms or Signs of Melancholy in the Body · paragraph 18Colour, amount and express diagnostic uncertainty.
6. Section 4 Member 1 Prognosis of Melancholy · paragraph 8Rhasis’s attributed prognosis: melancholy expelled through stools or urine; distinguish the disputed fever claim and the humour from the disease.
7. Member 1 Subsection 1 Medical Treatment by Medicines · paragraph 19Urine personified as a deceptive guide to physicians.
8. Subsection 4 Remedies That Divert the Humours · paragraph 5Promoting urine rather than sweat in head melancholy.
9. Member 2 Treatment of Melancholy Throughout the Body · paragraph 19Hot and cold diuretic preparations distinguished.
10. Member 3. Subsection 1 Treatment of Hypochondriacal Melancholy · paragraph 39Recommendation and objection juxtaposed in hypochondriacal melancholy.

In this edition

The modern column translates the Latin at the symptom passage more fully than Burton's following English gloss. Its treatment of acris and biliosa must therefore be read as translation of the Latin, not as words that Burton supplied in that English gloss. Likewise, “the physicians' whore” is the modern rendering of meretrix medicorum; the original English explains its deceptive role. “Diureticks” becomes “diuretics,” and “provoke urine” becomes “promote urination,” clarifying action rather than changing the historical dispute into present-day guidance.

matter of Urine

Material from which urine is formed. Matter expresses a relation of material production. The watery serum of this account is not simply modern blood serum.

Original wording: “Serum, which is the matter of Urine”

Modern wording: “serum, the substance from which urine is made”

Lookup: Urine; urine; matter of urine.

urina pauca, acris, biliosa

Urine described in Latin as scanty, acrid and bilious. The original supplies three Latin descriptors but glosses only quantity directly in English. Burton immediately questions the diagnostic reliability of the observation.

Original wording: “urina pauca, acris, biliosa, (Areteus) Not much in quantity”

Modern wording: ““urine scanty, acrid and bilious” (Aretaeus)—not much in quantity”

Lookup: urina; pauca; acris; biliosa.

not to be respected

Not to be accorded diagnostic weight. Respected concerns evidentiary attention, not politeness towards a bodily product. The stated variability limits the preceding description.

Original wording: “not to be respected in Chronick diseases”

Modern wording: “it deserves no attention in chronic diseases”

Lookup: urine: diagnostic uncertainty.

meretrix medicorum

The physicians’ prostitute: a personification of a deceptive diagnostic guide. The Latin personification and Burton’s English gloss work together. The criticism addresses examination of urine as evidence.

Original wording: “meretrix medicorum, the most deceitfull thing of all”

Modern wording: ““the physicians’ whore,” the most deceitful thing of all”

Lookup: meretrix medicorum; physicians’ whore; urine: deceitful sign.

Diuretica

Medicines intended to increase urination. The following hot/cold division concerns humoral qualities and the state of the liver. These are attributed historical prescriptions.

Original wording: “Diuretica or medicines to procure urine”

Modern wording: “diuretics, or medicines to increase urination”

Lookup: Diureticks; diuretics; procure urine.

Further attestation: the passage, “recommend Diureticks” → “recommend diuretics”. The English plural Diureticks is printed here; the primary record retains the Latin Diuretica.

provoke urine

Promote urination. The phrase occurs on both sides of the disagreement: the same action is recommended by several physicians and rejected by Hollerius because he believes it removes the thinner matter only.

Original wording: “such things as provoke urine”

Modern wording: “substances that promote urination”

Lookup: provoke urine; urination; move urine.

purged ... by the urine

Expelled through urination, here of the supposed morbid humour. Rhasis’s reported prognosis treats this discharge as one sign that the disease is resolved. Urine is the route of evacuation, rather than the entire substance being purged or an infallible diagnostic specimen.

Original wording: is purged by stooles, or by the urine

Modern wording: is purged through the stools or urine

Lookup: purged by the urine; urine: evacuation; urine: prognosis.