Horace Wells’ Top Hat

Origins
Horace Wells was a dentist that used nitrous oxide, better known as laughing gas, as an anesthetic. He began using it on his own clients, until one day a demonstration went wrong; the gas didn’t work, and he was ridiculed in the medical community. He gave up dentistry, becoming a travelling salesman for a while until he became addicted to chloroform. He became increasingly insane until he one day threw sulfuric acid onto two women in the street. He was supposed to be thrown in prison, but when the daze wore off, he realized what he had done and committed suicide.

Effects
Anyone who dons the tattered hat will quickly spiral into insanity. The user smells like chloroform, ether and other anesthetics, even after the person has taken off the hat. In their delirious state, the affected can pose a danger to everyone around them.