The answer is Syphilis
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say the mind altering substances Oscar Wilde accidentally consumed pale in comparison to the ones he knowingly consumed.
Yeah most of these poisons people were being exposed to were in trace dosages. Enough to slowly kill you over time but not enough to notice. Unless you were an actual hatter, then the chemicals you would get from hats would not be in trace amounts
Yeah, the Victorian’s came up with “Too beautiful to die”, “Life from other pieces”, and “Death ages a picture, but the model lives” - the entire periods fiction becomes about survival as a fun treat like being fabulously wealthy is to generations after Boomers.
a fun treat like being financially solvent is to generations after Boomers.
FTFY
And don’t forget everybody’s favorite seasoning, lead!
Sweet sweet lead.
What’s that about hats?
Mercury was used to stiffen hats for a long time. That is also the background for the “mat hatters”.
Bow do you stiffen something with mercury?
Very carefully.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury(II)_nitrate specifically.
Mats with hats?
I know Poe wrote on a writing desk. Which is why a raven is like one.
Especially if it a bloody cursed hat made of witch skin.
I kinda wish we could still get opium and laudenum at the corner drug store. That must have been nice.
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