WI: ancient people knew mercury was toxic

What if instead of thinking the extremly toxic liquid metal was a good thing to drink, ancient people understood that mercury was dangerous?
 
We would lose the phrase "Mad as a Hatter" as it would stop being used by every day people.

It is useful however to refine gold, so still going to be useful as a resource.
 
I have to dig up the exact quotes from sources but ancient people did know mercury was dangerous, well at least they did in the begining of the eneolithic.
 
Just because a few people in the past knew how dangerous mercury was, doesn't mean that this information was evenly shared along with the rest of the world. Nor that others even agreed with them. Plus, dangerous or no, it was still a useful substance for other purposes. It was known as far back as the First Century BCE that lead was poisonous, but the Romans still used it to make pipes for water.
 
Just because a few people in the past knew how dangerous mercury was, doesn't mean that this information was evenly shared along with the rest of the world. Nor that others even agreed with them. Plus, dangerous or no, it was still a useful substance for other purposes. It was known as far back as the First Century BCE that lead was poisonous, but the Romans still used it to make pipes for water.
The Romans tried not to if it could be avoided.

“This may be verified by observing the workers in lead, who are of a pallid color; for in casting lead, the fumes from it fixing on the different members, and daily burning them, destroy the vigor of the blood; water should therefore on no account be conducted in leaden pipes if we are desirous that it should be wholesome.”

--Vitruvius

They did however use lead to make that sweet wine sauce. As you said, it's still useful. No different than our own use of leaded gasoline and paint long past the time when we knew it was quite toxic. Sometimes people think things are worth the risks and sometimes people don't know all the risks.
 
Also, lead pipes tended to get lined with mineral deposits quite quickly, which limited leaching of lead into the water.
 
What if instead of thinking the extremly toxic liquid metal was a good thing to drink, ancient people understood that mercury was dangerous?
Drinking metallic mercury isn't very dangerous since very little of it gets absorbed. It was used as a laxative in the US until fairly recently. Most of the problems that come from handling metallic mercury are the result of breathing in mercury fumes, which is what gave rise to the phrase "mad as a hatter" due to the mercury used in the felting process. Cinnabar (mercury sulfide), on the other hand, is much more toxic when ingested and the risks of handling it were understood by the Romans. However, it is not water soluble and does not cause the neurological problems seen in inhalation mercury or methylmercury poisoning. Methylmercury is what poses the greatest risk to human health, but it was not present in high enough concentrations in the environment to cause problems until after the Industrial Revolution.
 
Also, he'd be a hell of a lot less paranoid in the later years of his reign.
His paranoia would most likely not have been due to drinking mercury or swallowing mercury compounds. If he was constantly around mercury fumes, on the other hand, they may have caused neurological problems.
 
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