Dr. Bowring on the Boracic Acid Lagoons of Tuscany. 23 



season, wlien their native Apennines are covered witii snow. 

 They gain about one Tuscan lira per day. But the works 

 are conducted, when in operation, by natives, all of whom are 

 married, and who occupy houses attached to the evaporating- 

 pans. They wear a common uniform, and their health is ge- 

 nerally good. 



A great improvement in the cultivation, and a great increase 

 in the value, of the neighbouring soil has naturally followed 

 the introduction of the manufacture of the boracic acid. A 

 rise of wages has accompanied the new demand for labour; 

 much land has been brought into cultivation by new direc- 

 tions given to the streams of smaller rivers. Before the boracic 

 lakes were turned to profitable account, their fetid smell — 

 their frightful appearance, agitating the earth around them 

 by the ceaseless explosions of boiling water, and not less the 

 terrors with which superstition invested them*, made the 

 lagoons themselves to be regarded as public nuisances, and 

 gave to the surrounding country a character which alienated 

 all attempts at improvement. 



Nor were the lagoons without real and positive dangers, for 

 the lossof life was certain where manor beast had the misfortune 

 to fall into any of those boiling baths. Cases frequently oc- 

 curred in which cattle perished ; and one chemist, of consider- 

 able eminence, met with a horrible death by being precipitated 

 into one of the lagoons. Legs were not unfrequently lost by 

 a false step into the smaller pits {puiizze), where, before the 

 foot could be withdrawn the flesh would be separated from 

 the bone. 



That these lagoons, now a source of immense revenue, 

 should have remained for ages unproductive; that they should 

 have been so frequently visited by scientific men, to none of 

 whom (for ages at least) did the thought occur that they con- 

 tained in them mines of wealth, is a curious phaenomenon; 



* So unwilling were the peasants to settle in these districts, that very 

 extraordinary encouragements were held out to them. In the commune 

 of Monte Cerboli any inhabitant of the town may sow and reap whatever 

 he pleases without requiring the consent of the owner of the soil ,• so it 

 frequently happens that small tracts are cultivated which are particularly 

 favoured by water or other advantages, and all the surrounding land left 

 untouciied. As the inhabitants have the primary right, the landlord ge- 

 nerally abandons his property to the chance cultivation of the peasant, who 

 leaves fallow nine-tenths of the land. In the district of Riparbella the 

 landlords and cultivators have come to a sensible agreement, by appor- 

 tioning the lands in equal moieties. 



Many mineral waters are in the neighbourhood of the lagoons, some of 

 which possess medical virtues, and are visited by the Tuscans in the bath- 

 ing season. 



