Blue Mass

[Eva Elisabeth]

(05-07-2014 01:42 PM)LincolnMan Wrote:  "Mercury as a stimulant to purge morbid excitement from the brain"- What???
Dr. Rush was a brillant man- and if I recall correctly- a signer of the Declaration- but his assessment of the work of mercury sounds fanciful. Yet, I suppose, that it was thought to do just that back in his day.

Obviously Dr. Rush had neither ever heard the phrase "mad as a hatter" (the earliest mention of which was in the 17th century) or of the "Danbury Shakes" (Danbury, Connecticut, was the hat making capital of the 19th century world).

The origin of the phrase is as follows: To soften and mat the hair, mostly rabbits hair, former hatmakers used a heated solution of mercury (II) nitrate. Prolonged exposure to the mercury vapors caused mercury poisoning, resulting in symptoms like muscular tremors and twitching limbs, called 'hatter's shakes', distorted vision and confused speech, erratic, flamboyant behavior, mood swings, hallucinations, and other psychotic symptoms. The most famous Mad Hatter is probably the one of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, although his "model" most likely was not a hatter, but a local furniture dealer, Theophilus Carter, who was nicknamed "Mad Hatter", because he always wore a hat, he was eccentric, and he made crazy inventions.
   
BTW#1: Pliny the Elder (23-79) had already reported about mercury poisoning of miners. (As you may remember from school days, the chemical symbol, Hg, stands for hydrargyrum, "water silver." This -Greek!- name was given by Pliny since it looks like silver and is liquid at room temperature.) The WHO stated in 1976 that long-term, low-level exposure has been found to be associated with less pronounced symptoms of erethism, characterized by fatigue, irritability, loss of memory, vivid dreams, and depression.

BTW#2: One chapter of Wild Bill Richter's "Last Confederate Heroes" is entitled "Madder than a Hatter". It is about Junius Booth the elder, and tells one story I absolutely loved for several reasons (beginning with the narrative style itself): How "Booth asked a clergyman to officiate in the burial of ...friends", and these were quite peculiar friends...

[LincolnMan]

Eva: I have read your post three times and have to say I really enjoyed it. Thanks for such a great response. I don't have Wild Bill's book and have never read it (sorry Wild Bill!). As so many on this Forum have praised it- I'm going to add it to my must-reads. Good thing my wife Donna is okay with more books in the house!

[Eva Elisabeth]

Thanks Bill! I highly recommend LCH!

[Gene C]

Found this interesting article about Lincoln and Blue Mass. Scroll down a little further and find out about Lincoln and Smallpox

https://drloihjournal.blogspot.com/search?q=blue+mass

[RJNorton]

If you follow Gene's link you will see that Neil Gale writes:

"One story of Lincoln's angry outbursts claims that during one of the famous 1858 Senate debates between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, in response to an accusation by Douglas about Lincoln's record in Congress, Lincoln furiously grabbed the collar of a former congressional colleague who, Lincoln said, knew the charge was false, shook the man violently "until his teeth chattered."

IMO, this story of Lincoln's violence toward Ficklin is doubtful. As far as I know the sole source is Ward Hill Lamon. I do think anyone else described the incident like Lamon.

Here is what the Fehrenbachers have to say in their Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln:

"Lamon's account of the public exchange between Lincoln and Ficklin is so inaccurate as to cast added doubt of his recollection of their ensuing private conversation, if they had one.

For example, Lamon did not name the town where the exchange with Ficklin took place, but he said it was down in "Egypt" and that on this occasion, Lincoln spoke first. Thus he mistakenly associated the incident with the third debate at Jonesboro, instead of the fourth debate at Charleston. His account of what happened conflicts in several ways with contemporary newspaper reports. See the Chicago Press and Tribune in Collected Works,III, 182-183, and the Chicago Times account in Holzer, 229-230."

[LincolnMan]

Great link Gene. I like the picture of the bottle of Blue Mass-made in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

[Anita]

(05-22-2019 03:10 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  If you follow Gene's link you will see that Neil Gale writes:

"One story of Lincoln's angry outbursts claims that during one of the famous 1858 Senate debates between Lincoln and Stephen Douglas, in response to an accusation by Douglas about Lincoln's record in Congress, Lincoln furiously grabbed the collar of a former congressional colleague who, Lincoln said, knew the charge was false, shook the man violently "until his teeth chattered."

IMO, this story of Lincoln's violence toward Ficklin is doubtful. As far as I know the sole source is Ward Hill Lamon. I do think anyone else described the incident like Lamon.

Here is what the Fehrenbachers have to say in their Recollected Words of Abraham Lincoln:

"Lamon's account of the public exchange between Lincoln and Ficklin is so inaccurate as to cast added doubt of his recollection of their ensuing private conversation, if they had one.

For example, Lamon did not name the town where the exchange with Ficklin took place, but he said it was down in "Egypt" and that on this occasion, Lincoln spoke first. Thus he mistakenly associated the incident with the third debate at Jonesboro, instead of the fourth debate at Charleston. His account of what happened conflicts in several ways with contemporary newspaper reports. See the Chicago Press and Tribune in Collected Works,III, 182-183, and the Chicago Times account in Holzer, 229-230."

Here's another account of the exchange between Lincoln and Ficklin along the lines of the Fehrenbachers.

http://www.mrlincolnandfriends.org/the-p...o-ficklin/