Urology and nephrology: etymology of the terms.

Abstract

Earlier than has been thought, multiple seventeenth- and eighteenth-century authors used the term urologia, perhaps independently, to cover the established science of "the urines". Two early eighteenth-century authors, Schurig and Fezer, seemingly prepared manuscripts, both most probably lost, with the term in the very title. Mid-nineteenth-century uses reflected growing, especially Anglophone, interest in microscopic urinalysis. Only toward the end of the nineteenth century did urology take on the sense of genito-urinary medicine and surgery. This expanded sense of urology may be dated back to 1896, specifically the naming of the Association française d'urologie.