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Mad hatter disease, or mad hatter syndrome, is a commonly used name for occupational chronic mercury poisoning among hatmakers whose felting work involved prolonged exposure to mercury vapours. The neurotoxic effects included tremor and the pathological shyness and irritability characteristic of erethism. Use of inorganic mercury in the form of mercuric nitrate to treat the fur of small animals for the manufacture of felt hats seems to have begun in 17th-century France and from there spread to England by the end of the century with the Huguenots. By the Victorian era the hatters' condition had become proverbial, as reflected in popular expressions like "mad as a hatter" and "hatters' shakes". Similar phenomena had been described in St Petersburg, Russia, in 1829. In France, the National Academy of Medicine described the health hazards in 1869, and in 1898 a law was passed to protect hatmakers from the risks of mercury exposure. In Britain, mercury poisoning among hatters had become a rarity by the turn of the 20th century. In the United States, where the occupational illness was thoroughly described in New Jersey in 1860, the practice continued until 1941; mercury poisoning in the hatmaking industries of Danbury, Connecticut gave rise to the expression "Danbury shakes". Hatmakers in Tuscany, Italy, were also affected and exposed workers received financial compensation. Although Lewis Carroll's iconic Mad Hatter character in ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' has often been linked to the occupational hazards of hatmaking, it is thought that the character was directly inspired by the eccentric furniture dealer Theophilus Carter. ==Origins and history== Especially in the 19th century, inorganic mercury in the form of mercuric nitrate was commonly used in the production of felt for hats. During a process called carroting, in which furs from small animals such as rabbits, hares or beavers were separated from their skins and matted together, an orange-colored solution containing mercuric nitrate was used as a smoothing agent. The resulting felt was then repeatedly shaped into large cones, shrunk in boiling water and dried.〔 In treated felts, a slow reaction released volatile free mercury. Hatters (or milliners) who came into contact with vapours from the impregnated felt often worked in confined areas. Use of mercury in hatmaking is thought to have been adopted by the Huguenots in 17th-century France,〔 at a time when the dangers of mercury exposure were already known. This process was initially kept a trade secret in France, where hatmaking rapidly became a hazardous occupation. At the end of the 17th century the Huguenots carried the secret to England, following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. During the Victorian era the hatters' malaise became proverbial, as reflected in popular expressions like "mad as a hatter" (see below) and "the hatters' shakes".〔〔 The first description of symptoms of mercury poisoning among hatters appears to have been made in St Petersburg, Russia, in 1829.〔 In the United States, a thorough occupational description of mercury poisoning among New Jersey hatters was published locally by Addison Freeman in 1860.〔〔 Adolph Kussmaul's definitive clinical description of mercury poisoning published in 1861 contained only passing references to hatmakers, including a case originally reported in 1845 of a 15-year-old Parisian girl, the severity of whose tremors following two years of carroting prompted opium treatment. In Britain, the toxicologist Alfred Swaine Taylor reported the disease in a hatmaker in 1864.〔 In 1869, the French Academy of Medicine demonstrated the health hazards posed to hatmakers. Alternatives to mercury use in hatmaking became available by 1874. In the United States, a hydrochloride-based process was patented in 1888 to obviate the use of mercury, but was ignored. In 1898, legislation was passed in France to protect hatmakers from the risks of mercury exposure. By the turn of the 20th century, mercury poisoning among British hatters had become a rarity.〔 In the United States, the mercury-based process continued to be adopted until as late as 1941, when it was abandoned mainly due to the wartime need for the heavy metal in the manufacture of detonators.〔〔 Thus, for much of the 20th century mercury poisoning remained common in the U.S. hatmaking industries, including those located in Danbury, Connecticut (giving rise to the expression the "Danbury shakes").〔 Another 20th-century cohort of affected hatmakers has been studied in Tuscany, Italy. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mad hatter disease」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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