A urinal (pee glass) was filled with the patient's urine and taken in a basket to the doctor, who then made his diagnosis on the basis of uroscopy (looking at urine). Uroscopy was anything but simple. Attention had to be paid to colour, consistency, smell and sediment. As many as twenty shades of colour were distinguished.
A Physician Examining Urine, after David Teniers the Younger (1610−1690), Wellcome Library