History
There are several findings that evidence a great interest for thyroid disorders just in the Medieval Medical School of Salerno (12th century). Rogerius Salernitanus, the Salernitan surgeon and author of "Post mundi fabricam" (around 1180) was considered at that time the surgical text par excellence all over Europe. In the chapter "De bocio" of his magnum opus, he describes several pharmacological and surgical cures, some of which nowadays are reappraised quite scientifically effective.
In modern times, the thyroid was first identified by the anatomist Thomas Wharton (whose name is also eponymised in Wharton's duct of the submandibular gland) in 1656.
Thyroxine was identified only in the 19th century.
In 1909, Theodor Kocher from Switzerland won the Nobel Prize in Medicine "for his work on the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid gland".
Read more about this topic: Thyroid
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