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Mon 28 Apr, 2014 01:24 am
What does the Edict of Fontainebleau have to do with the expression "as mad as a hatter"?
@Lady Lingiton,
The Edict of Fontainebleau led to persecution and emigration of
Huguenots from France.
Quote: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 the hatters' shakes
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