Sweet Urine

In 1647, English physician Dr. Thomas Willis was the first in modern medical literature to discover that urine from those who had diabetes tasted sweet, comparing the flavor to that of honey.

Willis described the flavor as “wonderfully sweet as if it were imbued with honey or sugar.” Although such a discovery is off-putting and disgusting to most, it broke down barriers to the understanding of diabetes. Ultimately, it led to the term “mellitus” as in “diabetes mellitus,” a Latin word for “honey” which Willis coined.