88 Dr Bowring on the Boracic Acid Lagoons of Tuscany. 



much land has been brought into cultivation by new directions 

 given to the streams of smaller rivei's. 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 la- 

 goons themselves to be regarded as public nuisances, and gave 

 to the surrounding country a character which alienated all at- 

 tempts at improvement. 



Nor were the lagoons without real and positive dangers, for 

 the loss of life was certain Avhere man or beast had the misfor- 

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

 curred in wliich 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 (^putizze), 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 foot could be withdrawn, the flesh would be separated from the 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 contained 

 in them mines of wealth, is a curious phenomenon ; nor is it 

 less remarkable, that it was left for a man, whose name and 

 occupation are wholly disassociated from science, to convert 

 these fugitive vapours into substantial wealth. 



* So umvilling 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 fre- 

 quently happens that small tracts are cultivated which are particularly fa- 

 voured by water or other advantages, and all the surrounding land left un- 

 touched. As the inhabitants have the primary right, the landlord generally 

 abandons his property to the cliance cultivation of the jjeasant, who leaves 

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

 and cultivators have come to a sensible agreement, by apportioning the lands 

 in equal moieties. 



Many mineral waters lU'e iu the neighbourhood of the lagoons, some of 

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

 ing season. 



