G. Dall'Olio

Laboratorio di Chimica clinica ed Ematologia. Ospedale “S. Bortolo”, Vicenza

1816: Observations in blood and urine in different diseases. “Laboratory Medicine” before the development of chemical methods of analysis. In the early nineteenth century analytical techniques were primitive and chemical analysis of body fluids was not used in medicine for diagnostic purposes. The only aids for practitioners and clinicians were urine visual analysis in the matula and the crude observation of blood drawn from veins and exposed to air. The blood separation pattern into the solid and liquid part in coagulation, the proportion of clot and serum and other characteristics (smell, colour) were regarded as signs of specific diseases. The older practice of uroscopy remained a well established tool of physicians of XIX century for diagnosis and prognosis.