[ringu217]

People in the early 19th century who made hats for a living often came down with this disease, commonly referred to today as mercury poisoning. The hatters made hats with high levels of mercury and succumbed to hallucinations, vision and hearing impairment, irritability, depression, lack of coordination, and tremors.

[Jealousmagenta]

That sounds wicked.

[Pelle]

Cool...but something is missing..

[Airbornemama]

Uuummmm........????????

[XZER0]

you forgot

[Darkmist74]

I've heard of that condition. That mercury is bad news!!

[TwistedPrincess]

here is the explanation:

back in the day, hatters made little money and doubled as the town crier weatherman (before the invention of radios). the hatter/ weatherman made many guesses as to the weather forecast (btw it has been clarified, his predictions were 32% more accurate than those made by weathermen today). one of the tricks of the trade was to make a hat with a thermometer inside so as folks walked by, the hatter/weatherman would take his hat off, catch a quick glance inside his hat as he bowed to those walking by and say something like "today it is sunny and 84 degrees. more of the same weather tomorrow." when he was wrong in his predictions and peoples plans were ruined sometimes they got angry at him. sometimes they would exchange words with the hatter/weatherman and end up in a fight causing the mercury of the hidden thermometer to leak onto the head of the hatter and then into his brain.

and here is the other explanation:

A mercury solution was commonly used during the process of turning fur into felt, which caused the hatters to breathe in the fumes of this highly toxic metal, a situation exacerbated by the poor ventilation in most of the workshops. This led in turn to an accumulation of mercury in the workers' bodies, resulting in symptoms such as trembling (known as "hatters' shakes"), loss of coordination, slurred speech, loosening of teeth, memory loss, depression, irritability and anxiety

[tara2]

Thanks for the info Twisted Princess interesting.

[Karma]

Wow, what a fascinating story. I never knew that. Thanks.

[divreaper]

very good post..now wheres my ny baseball cap