Mad Hatter

I m one of those uptown ladies, she said. I avoid Bourbon Street. My friend, instead, detailed the Mad Hatters Luncheon, an annual event sponsored by the Women s Guild for the benefit of the New Orleans Opera Association. 

Figure 1.7 The Mad Hatter s Tea Party. (From Lewis Carroll s Alice in Wonderland.)...

Excessive exposure to inorganic mercury, particularly in its elemental form, creates a psychological condition called erethism. Victims suffer from excessive timidity and self-consciousness, inability to concentrate, loss of memory, and other psychological changes. From at least the seventeenth and well into the nineteenth century, mercury was used to cure felt, and workers exposed during that process could acquire erethism. Lewis Carroll s character the Mad Hatter was no doubt based on the fact that hatters exposed to mercury could in fact go mad. The phrase mad as a hatter was in common use at the time Alice s Adventures in Wonderland was written. 

The principles of toxicology, dose - response and individual sensitivity, are well illustrated by the metals. Historically, most of the interest and concern was with the obvious effects of metal toxicity such as colic from lead or symptoms of the Mad Hatter from mercury. The emphasis has changed to the more subtle and long-term effects and concern for potentially sensitive individuals. It is now well documented that children exposed to even low levels of lead will have a lowered IQ and other learning difficulties. This knowledge has resulted in significant changes in our use of metals. 

Mercury - inorganic (Hg) Tremor, excitability, memory lose, the "Mad Hatter" Thermometers, switches, fluorescent lights... 

Ancient Worldwide Mercury Mine workers poisoned 1930s hat industry (the Mad Hatters) 1950s Japan, mercury in fish 1970s mercury in seed grain acceptance of mercury as a developmental neurotoxicant released from coal-fired electrical plants ongoing contamination of fish... 

Lewis Carroll s fictional Mad Hatter could well have been based upon some real people. In those days the felt used for hatmaking was made from rabbit, hare, or beaver fur, which the hatter would mat by treating it with hot mercuric nitrate. Erratic behavior, along with swollen gums and tremors, became the recognized consequences of hatting. 

Even though we still use light-sensitive silver salts in film to produce an image and sodium thiosulfate to preserve the image, we do not encourage iodine and mercury vapor use for film development. In hat making, mercury vapor was commonly used for felt enhancement. Constant inhalation of mercury vapor is not good for brain cells, as is evidenced in the Mad Hatter s story in Alice in Wonderland. Chapter 10 addresses the issue of chemical hazards in art. 

Each element has a story of its own, and these stories are part of the fabric of history and literature. The Mad Hatter in Lewis Carroll s Alice in Wonderland was likely mad because of the mercury used in the hat-making industry. As scientists began to realize that there must be a connection between hatters working conditions and the unusual incidence of mental illness among hatters, mercury came to the fore as an environmental hazard. Lead has had a similar toxic past and has even been implicated in the decline of the Roman Empire. Ancient Romans were fond of boiling wine in lead bowls in order to produce syrup that was used as a sweetener. As science evolved, it became known that part of the sweetness was caused by a lead compound formed during this process. 

Mercury (Hg) is a toxic metal—it is one of the so-called heavy metals. Hg is a neurotoxin that causes damage to the central nervous system (CNS), which consists of the brain and associated parts. Hg is active at about 50pg/100mL of blood (500 ppb). Central nervous system damage manifests itself as quarrelsome behavior, headaches, depression, and muscle tremors. The classic example of mercury poisoning is the mad hatter, caused by mercury exposure during the felt-making process. 

The Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. The character in the cartoon reflects the fact that hatters at one time suffered damage to the nervous system as a result of working with mercury... 

The Mad Hatter from Lewis Carroll s Alice in Wonderland Gin Lane (1751), by William Hogarth The effects of excess alcohol on the human liver CNRI/Science Photo Library... 

Because the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland exhibited some of the symptoms of erethism, he is sometimes held to be a model for the afflictions suffered by workers in the hat industry whether Lewis Carrol intended such a parallel is still disputed, but the resemblances are uncanny. Even in the absence of identifiable symptoms, psychological testing has revealed what could be called nascent erethism in workers exposed to mercury vapor but showing no overt signs of toxicity. Tests of coordination and reaction time reveal differences between exposed and unexposed workers. Performance on elements of adult intelligence tests, such as the ability to repeat strings of digits, also shows differences. 

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