Thyroidology Travel
through Times

Thyroidology Travel through Time
Although goiter must have been recognized in earlier years, the scientific information regarding the thyroid gland probably dates to the time of Pliny. He was the first to recognize the geographic distribution of goiter in certain districts of Switzerland. The enlargement of the neck was not at first thought to be an enlargement of the thyroid, but Galen suggested that it was due to a hernia of the windpipe. In ancient Rome, any increase in the size of a young girl’s neck measured by breaking a reed indicated the onset of puberty. It was considered by Wharton to lubricate, drain, and warm the larynx. Bartholin later stated that the gland was present to adorn the necks of ladies and Galen considered it to be a buffer between heart and brain.
The gland was named thyroid, not because of its own shape, but because it closely approximated the shield shape of the thyroid cartilage of the larynx.
Paracelsus, Platter, Hoefer, and Curling were among the earliest to recognize clinical myxedema and cretinism and its relationship to goiter, thus recognizing the abnormal function of the thyroid gland. Gull probably presented the earliest striking and complete description of myxedema. However, it was Murray who first treated a patient with myxedema with extract prepared from the thyroid gland and recognized that “the thyroid is purely an internal secretory gland.”
Exophthalmic goiter was actually first described by Parry in 1825 and his name should be attached to the disease. However, Graves in England and von Basedow on the Continent reported on hyperthyroidism and popularized the disease, and today it goes by one or the other’s name. It was von Graefe, the creator of modern ophthalmology, who is remembered for his discovery of the “lid lag” as a very important sign of thyrotoxicosis.

Oliver H. Beahrs, MD
Professor of Surgery Emeritus
Mayo Medical School
Rochester, Minnesota, USSA