Mad as a Hatter

by Clio

When Alice fell down the rabbit hole following that famous White Rabbit, she entered an unfamiliar world filled with characters and situations that could only be described as mad. At one point she ended up at a very odd tea party with the Rabbit, the March Hare, the sleepy Dormouse and the Hatter. Never in the chapter did Lewis Carroll use the term Mad Hatter or even use the word mad, but the term Mad Hatter pops into many minds when thinking about this scene. 

Lewis Carroll lived in a time when the phrase “mad as a hatter” was familiar to everyone. It had been in use and in print for many years. People who worked in the hat making industry in the nineteenth century frequently did exhibit symptoms of madness. In fact we now refer to a certain medical condition as Mad Hatter’s Disease. 

Beaver hats had become a fashion necessity in Europe during the seventeen century, but as the beaver population was killed off only the rich could afford these hats. A market developed for inexpensive beaver-like hats that could be afforded by the common man; hatters made those knock-offs from felt made from cheaper, more plentiful rabbit fur. 

However, rabbit fur did not turn to felt in the same way that beaver did, and hatters had to develop new ways to process the fur. That involved the use of mercury which was brushed on the pelts before the fur was removed, turned into felt and then steamed and shaped into a hat. Every time the hatter worked with the felt, he breathed in mercury fumes, and mercury accumulated in his body. Hatters were affected by mercury poisoning. 

Today we know that mercury causes brain and kidney damage. Victims might have slurred speech, drooling, loss of memory, anxiety, loss of co-ordination and depression. They might also tremble or shake—something known as hatter’s shakes. Many hatters in Europe and in the United States developed eccentric behavior and even dementia as a result of their working environment. The use of mercury in the process of creating felt has been outlawed in the United States since December 1941. 

One legend in the hat making industry describes how Turkish hat makers used their own urine to speed of the process of turning camel fur into felt for hats. Word of this spread to France where hat makers began to copy this practice. One man always seemed to produce exceptional quality felt, and it was discovered that he was being treated with a mercury compound because of his syphilis. According to this story, his competitors began using mercury nitrates instead of their own urine. 

Whether Lewis Carroll’s Hatter was mad or not, he is a memorable character in a remarkable book.