According to Schrager, the first references to aberrant thyroids were by von Haller in 1779, Albers in 1839 and Gruber in 1845; the first accurate description was by Porta in 1849, and the first extirpation was by Stanley in 1850.
Hinterstoisser in 1888 described 3 cases of lateral aberrant thyroid tissue, and von Eiselberg in 1901 collected 11 cases. In 1906 Schrager collected 15 cases from the literature of the preceding fifty years and added 2 of his own, and in 1908 McGlannan reported 3 cases. Wohl in 1917 added 4 cases. In 1923 Parcelier, Venot and Bonnin collected 23 cases from the literature and added 2 of their own. These authors noted that the disease becomes manifest most frequently between the ages of 20 and 40.
Billings and Paul in 1925 made a résumé of 34 previously reported cases and added 1 of their own, bringing the total to