Author Archives: Lawrence Banks

“Mad as a hatter. “

You might think the phrase was coined by Lewis Carroll in his 1865 release of Alice in Wonderland, but actually “mad as a hatter” originated because of mercury toxicity and felt hats, like the top hat.

Beaver fur with its serrated edges, easily mats into felt fabric, but hatters treated less expensive furs, like rabbit, with mercury nitrate to roughen them and make the fur fibers more easily mat into felt. Later in the process, hats were steamed, vaporizing the mercury, a process that released it into the air and consequently into the hatter’s lungs.

Accumulations of the heavy metal caused kidney and brain damage. Hatters displayed both physical and mental symptoms of mercury toxicity including tremors (hatter’s shakes), loss of coordination, slurred speech, irritability, loss of memory, and depression. This condition was called “the mad hatter syndrome”.

Although hatters no longer use mercury, mad hatter syndrome is still a common description of the symptoms of mercury toxicity and mercury is still widely used today in the manufacture of many common products.

• Thermometers
  
• Barometers

The Egyptians described aloe vera as the “plant of immortality” and incorporated it into their funeral offerings and was often buried with the pharaohs. In the last ten years, medical research has corroborated and broadened many of the health claims for these dagger-shaped leaves.

This wonderful “potted physician” as it is sometimes called made its way from Africa to North America in the sixteenth century. We are talking about aloe vera, in case you have not figured it out yet. The name aloe vera actually means “shining bitter substance,” and was highly regarded as a master healing plant long before it came to us.