- Erethism
Erethism or erethism mercurialis is a symptom complex of mercury poisoning, presenting with excessive
shyness , timidity and social phobia [WHO (1976) Environmental Health Criteria 1: Mercury, Geneva,World Health Organization , 131 pp.] [WHO. Inorganic mercury. Environmental Health Criteria 118. World Health Organization, Geneva, 1991.] . This was common among hat makers of old England who used mercury to stabilize the wool in a process called felting. The character the Mad Hatter inLewis Carroll 'sAlice in Wonderland is often believed to be an example of someone suffering from erethism, but this account is apocryphal. The character was almost certainly based on Theophilus Carter, an eccentric furniture dealer who was well known to Carroll [cite journal |journal= British Medical Journal |date=1983 |volume=287 |issue=6409 |pages=1961 |title= Did the Mad Hatter have mercury poisoning? |author= Waldron HA |pmid=6418283 |url=http://pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=1550196&pageindex=1] .References
External links
* [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/er/erethism.html Dictionary entry for 'Erethism']
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