Editing Thyroid (section)

===Antiquity===
The presence and diseases of the thyroid have been noted and treated for thousands of years.<ref name="timeline">{{cite web |title=Thyroid History Timeline – American Thyroid Association |url=http://www.thyroid.org/about-american-thyroid-association/clark-t-sawin-history-resource-center/thyroid-history-timeline/ |access-date=13 November 2016 |website=www.thyroid.org |archive-date=3 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803202257/https://www.thyroid.org/about-american-thyroid-association/clark-t-sawin-history-resource-center/thyroid-history-timeline/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>  In 1600 BCE burnt [[sponge]] and [[seaweed]] (which contain iodine) were used within China for the treatment of goitres, a practice which has developed in many parts of the world.<ref name="timeline" /><ref name=":2" /> In [[Ayurveda|Ayurvedic medicine]], the book [[Sushruta Samhita]] written about 1400 BCE described hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism and goitre.<ref name=":2">{{cite journal | vauthors = Niazi AK, Kalra S, Irfan A, Islam A | title = Thyroidology over the ages | journal = Indian Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism | volume = 15 | issue = Suppl 2 | pages = S121-6 | date = July 2011 | pmid = 21966648 | pmc = 3169859 | doi = 10.4103/2230-8210.83347 | doi-access = free }}</ref> [[Aristotle]] and [[Xenophon]] in the fifth century BCE describe cases of [[diffuse toxic goitre]].<ref name=":2" /> Hippocrates and Plato in the fourth century BCE provided some of the first descriptions of the gland itself, proposing its function as a salivary gland.<ref name=":2" /> [[Pliny the Elder]] in the first century BCE referred to epidemics of goitre in the [[Alps]] and proposed treatment with burnt seaweed,<ref name="timeline" /> a practice also referred to by [[Galen]] in the second century, referred to burnt sponge for the treatment of goitre.<ref name="timeline" /> The [[Chinese language|Chinese]] [[pharmacological|pharmacology]] text ''[[Shennong Ben Cao Jing]]'', written ca. 200–250, also refers to goitre.<ref name="timeline" /><ref name=":2" />