This was mentioned in the article: > Having spent much of his life in the hat industry, Corbett could have been succumbing to mercury poisoning. The ill effect

This was mentioned in the article: > Having spent much of his life in the hat industry, Corbett could have been succumbing to mercury poisoning. The ill effects of the mercury vapors used in finishing, Corbett’s specialty, had become public by this time, even part of folklore after Lewis Carroll introduced the country to the Mad Hatter in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1865.