Are hatters really mad? [closed]

Solution 1:

We might have lost this idiom if not for the continued popularity of Alice's adventures in Wonderland, : and, Through the looking glass.

Does the term "mad" here apply to derangement or anger management issues?

Hatter as a deranged person:

By far, the most common interpretation is that makers of top hats were subject to mercury poisoning from its use in felt-making. A story passed down in the hat industry gives this account of how mercury came to be used in the process: In Turkey camel hair was used for felt material, and it was discovered that the felting process was sped up if the fibers were moistened with camel urine. It is said that in France workmen used their own urine, but one particular workman seemed consistently to produce a superior felt. This person was being treated with a mercury compound for syphilis, and an association was made between mercury treatment of the fibers and an improved felt. Eventually the use of solutions of mercuric nitrate was widespread in the felt industry, and mercury poisoning became endemic. Milliners making hats from other materials did not suffer this fate, so the Mad Hatter is portrayed as wearing a top hat, a hat like that of Uncle Sam, Abe Lincoln, or a magician. Mercury poisoning causes Korsakoff's syndrome, characterized by tremors, drooling, mood swings and delirium.

This was not only seen in England, but also in Danbury, Connecticut hatmakers. By 1800, Danbury was producing more hats than any place else in the United States. By 1887, some 30 factories which had sprung up in the city were manufacturing five million hats a year. In the US, the symptoms associated with poisoning were referred to as the Danbury Shakes.

The earliest mention of a 'mad hatter' appears to refer to one Robert Crab, a 17th Century eccentric living at Chesham, England. After working as a hatter, he gave all his goods to the poor, wore sackcloth, and lived on dock leaves and grass.

Carroll, however, may have based his character on Theophilus Carter, not a hatter but a furniture dealer, who was known locally as the Mad Hatter, partly because he always wore a top hat, and partly because he was quite an eccentric and produced some wacky inventions. Finally, a preexisting phrase, mad as a March Hare was also used by Carroll; in the book, the Mad Hatter is accompanied by the March Hare.

Hatter as an angry person:

An adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon word atter (meaning poison) closely related to the word adder for the poisonous Crossed Viper. Lexicographers William and Mary Morris in Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins (1977) favor this derivation because "mad as a hatter" was known before hat making was a recognized trade. According to A Dictionary of Common Fallacies (1980), 'mad' meant 'venomous' and 'hatter' is a corruption of 'adder', or viper, so that the phrase mad as an atter originally meant 'as venomous as a viper'." Supporting this use was a phrase known earlier: mad as a wet hen, characterizing anger. Here, the early meaning of mad, meaning venomous, is explored.

An 1842 publication refers to someone being as mad as a striped adder.

Edited to add, in the medical profession, in which mnemonics abound, that for atropine poisoning is: hot as a hare, blind as a bat, dry as a bone, red as a beet, mad as a hatter. 5 idioms in one mnemonic! (Hot as a hare = increased body temperature; blind as a bat = mydriasis [dilated pupils]; dry as a bone = dry mouth, dry eyes, decreased sweat; red as a beet = flushed face; mad as a hatter = delirium.