R&S: Mad as a hatter
The expression “mad as a March hare” refers to the frenzied antics of the male hare during March, its mating season, but what about the March hare’s companion, the Mad Hatter - was his reputation as a lunatic justified?
"“In that direction,” the cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a hatter: and in that direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.”
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
“How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
“You must be,” said the cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.” "
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
S - I always wanted to be Alice in the school play but I ended up as a playing card. It just wasn’t the same. I suppose at least I didn’t end up as the dormouse at the tea party, having to listen to the mad hatter.
R - I don’t think I would have liked to have sat by the Mad hatter either. But to be fair it wasn’t his fault that he was mad. Did you know that the phrase “mad as a hatter” actually came about because hatmakers really did go mad?
S - Why on earth did hatmakers go mad? Was it because making hats was so boring it drove them round the bend?
R - Not quite, but it may have had something to do with it! One of the initial processes of hat making was known as carrotting - no, nothing to do with the March hare and his carrots! Carrotting was in fact the washing of animal furs with an orange solution containing mercury nitrate, to separate the fur from the pelt. Long-term exposure to the mercury vapours led to mercury poisoning.
S -
That’s awful. Mercury poisoning causes terrible symptoms as it attacks the nervous system. I cannot believe that nobody made the connection between that and hat making. Surely people must have thought it odd that all hatmakers were drooling, balding men who permanently seemed to stumble about in a confused state, slurring their speech?!
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R - Isn’t that the state of the majority of men in the world anyway? No wonder nobody noticed! However, mercury did cause severe mental problems including extreme hallucinations, hence the term “mad as a hatter”.
S - Mmm, harsh but probably fair. There is a school of thought that says madness makes way for creative genius. I wonder if there is any way that madness could be advantageous? I know when Newton was characterising elements back in the late 1600s, one of the remarks he noted was on taste. He described mercury as having a “strong, sourish, ungrateful,” taste. Do you think it is possible that ingesting mercury actually aided his genius rather than hindering it?
R - Newton was indeed a genius, whether it was down to the mercury I doubt anyone will ever know. He was interested in alchemy for quite a while and investigated various heavy metals; including iron and arsenic - quite often as you say by taste - I’m surprised that the arsenic didn’t kill him even if that falling apple failed!
S - There must be a moral in there somewhere. Stay away from mad hatters, heavy metals and apple trees!
R - Well we’ve ascertained why the mad hatter was mad, but what about the hare?
S - Ah, I know this one! The saying refers to the hare’s behaviour at the beginning of the long breeding season, which lasts from February to September, when unreceptive females use their forelegs to repel over-enthusiastic males. If only we had such useful forelegs!
R - That’s why women carry handbags. Very useful for walloping over-enthusiastic men!
"Alice waited a little, half expecting to see the cat again, but it did not appear, and after a minute or two she walked on in the direction in which the March hare was said to live. ‘I've seen hatters before,’ she said to herself; ‘the March hare will be much the most interesting, and perhaps as this is May it won’t be raving mad - at least not so mad as it was in March.’ "
Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
