34. Prescribing Pee for Anus Infections
In addition to dental hygiene, industrial, and commercial uses, the ancient Romans also used pee for medicinal purposes. Pliny the Elder, for example, praised stale urine as being highly effective in treating diaper rashes. He also wrote that fresh urine was good for treating “sores, burns, infections of the anus, chaps and scorpion stings“.
To modern sensibilities, such remedies might come across as gross and disgusting. However, considering urine’s sterile properties – or more precisely the sterile properties of the ammonia contained in urine – such medicinal applications might have actually had something going for them.