Laboratory medicine began 6000 years ago with the analysis of human urine, which was called uroscopy until the 17th century and today is termed urinalysis. Today physicians use urine to diagnose selective conditions but from ancient times until the Victorian era, urine was used as the primary diagnostic tool. Physicians spoke of urine as a ‘divine fluid’, or a window to the body.

^{J.A.Armstrong Urinalysis in Western culture: A brief history Kidney International Volume 71, Issue 5, 1 March 2007, Pages 384-387 doi 10.1038/sj.ki.5002057}