(from *suo*, by, and *urine*, urine), medicines which provoke a discharge by urine.

Celsus says every fragrant herb that is cultivated in a garden is diuretic. However numerous diuretic medicines may be, there are none else whose efficacy is so uncertain considered as diuretic. Honey and sugar increase the virtue of diuretics; they should be often used to be effectual, and the body should be kept cool.

—If a medicine is designed to pass off by urine, walking gently in a cool air will assist it; but sweating or considerable warmth directs it to the skin, or at least restrains its efficacy. Medicines of the saline kind are diuretic or peripirative, according as the body is kept cool or warm.

In administering this kind of medicines, they are rarely given with respect to their operation as diuretics, but with respect to the habit or state of the patient's body, as appears from the different classes of medicines that come under this denomination; the chief of which remove impediments to, rather than promote the discharge of, urine.

The following different classes of medicines are used with a view to promote the discharge of urine. 1. Cordial nervous medicines. These accelerate the motion of the blood when too languid, and increase its fluidity, and thus increase this discharge. 2. Emollient balsamics. These relax and lubricate, so obtain a passage for what is too bulky. 3. Substances consisting of salts and mucilages. These guard against stricture in the vessels, and at the same time fit the matter to be discharged for a more easy exclusion. 4. Detergent balsamics. These rarify and scour away viscous or fabulous matter which obstructs the passages. 5. Alkaline and lixivious salts. These keep the fluids at least in a due state of tenacity for being excreted. 6. Acid and nitrous salts. These determine the serum to the kidneys, if not counteracted by heat. 7. Antispasmodics. These relieve by taking off a stricture in the kidneys.