A swiss artist Arnold Bocklin(1827-1901) painted a portait of a woman who appeared quite depressed. The most striking thing about her appearance was that the front of her neck was swollen. The swelling was so evident that Bocklin drew attention to it with his use of color and lighting. He knew she had a physical illness but it is doubtful that that he made a connection between her physical and mental states because even physicians and psychiatrist did not begin to understand the true reason for this connection until the late nineteenth century. In fact, the chicken or the egg riddle was at work: health care proffessionals did not know whether mood disorders and emotionals and emotional problems were the result of thyroid disease or the cause of thyroid disease.

Before the thyroid gland was shown to be regulating metabolism it was recongized as the "gland of emotions".

Dr. Robert Graves was the first to provide the classic description of what is now known as Graves Disease. He used the term globus hystericus because of the many psychiatric manifestations exhibted by his patients.

For Decades Graves disease was considered to be a mental illness rather than a true thyroid disorder.

Graves disease is known as von basedows disease used in Germany and some other European and African countries.

Dr. William Gull a British physcian was the one who explained the physical and mental consequences of a underactive thyroid which is hypothyroidism.