The Uppsala anatomist Ivar Sandström and the parathyroid gland

Abstract

The discovery of the parathyroid gland by the Uppsala anatomist Ivar Sandström (Figure 1) is often called the last anatomical discovery. That remarkable discovery was made in 1877 at the Anatomical Department in Uppsala. At that time Sandström was a young medical student, who had worked as an assistant at the department since 1873. His discovery was published in Upsala Läkareförenings Förhandlingar, in 1880 (1). His publication was in Swedish, and the paper was entitled ‘On a New Gland in Man and Several Animals’. The article comprised 30 pages, and in the introduction Sandström writes:

Almost three years ago I found on the thyroid gland of a dog a small organ, hardly as big as a hemp seed, which was enclosed in the same connective tissue as the thyroid, but could be distinguished therefrom by the light colour