Note 155 — Chapter LIII · RABBIT DOWN

To the above a note might be added, bearing upon the dangers to health in the manufacture of felt hats from the prepared fur. In the process of manufacture known in the trade as “carotting,” i.e., where the rabbits’ skins are brushed with a solution of nitrate of mercury, the workmen are exposed to the inhalation of mercurial and nitrous vapours (a point alluded to by Dr T. M. Legge, p. 442), and as a consequence the teeth become blackened and fall out early. The men who are employed in the post-carotting processes, and who are designated cutters, blockers, and pelt-shakers, often suffer from muscular tremors (hatters’ shakers). In the British Medical Journal, February 15, 1902, Dr Charles Porter, formerly Medical Officer of Health for Stockport, and at present County Medical Officer of Health for Shropshire, describes the processes of manufacture and hygiene of felt hat making, and gives illustrations of the rugged, loosened, and discoloured finger nails of plaukers and blockers, as well as of the callosities which form upon the thenar and hypo-thenar eminences of the hands.

T. O.