The first description of symptoms of mercury poisoning among hatters appears to have been made in St Petersburg, Russia, in 1829.[1] In the United States, a thorough occupational description of mercury poisoning among New Jersey hatters was published locally by Addison Freeman in 1860.[18][3] Adolph Kussmaul's definitive clinical description of mercury poisoning published in 1861 contained only passing references to hatmakers, including a case originally reported in 1845 of a 15-year-old Parisian girl, the severity of whose tremors following two years of carroting prompted opium treatment.[18] In Britain, the toxicologist Alfred Swaine Taylor reported the disease in a hatmaker in 1864.[18]