Friday, November 16, 2012

Does that taste bad? - Part 2

Following on from yesterday's post about turtles who may have a taste of urine in their mouths, here's an interesting historical diversion about doctors who, in the past, intentionally drank urine to diagnose disease. An article in Scientific American gave us this picture of a "urine wheel" which, by correlating the taste, smell and appearance of the urine, was a valuable diagnostic tool in the 16th century. The classic diagnosis associated with tasting the urine was of course diabetes but it is by no means the only one. 

Edible geography collected various other urine wheels.

Picture originally from Nature.

No comments: