In Henry IV, part 2, Falstaff asks a page, “What says the doctor to my water?”

In Twelfth Night, when Malvolio is believed to be mad, Fabbio suggests that they “carry his water to the wise woman” to be diagnosed.

For physicians in Shakespeare’s day, the best indication of a patient’s health was to examine his urine. Often a messenger delivered the urine in a glass vessel (called a urinal) to the physician for examination, without the physician even examining the patient. This type of diagnosis was known as “uroscopy.” People who could not afford the services of a physician generally sought medical counsel from either a wise woman or an apothecary.

source: Liza Picard’s Elizabeth’s London, page 98.

image: Adolf Schrodter, Falstaff (1867) via Wikimedia Commons.