On Cilric Acid:. 59 



ceedecl to pack it in large casks, to be ready for shipping. 

 However, at the expiration of two or tliree days, when I began 

 to fill up and cooper the casks, I found the article so heated that 

 I was obliged imniediatelv to turn it all out again to dry it bet- 

 ter. The cistern'^' in which I work is capable of containing 12 

 pipes; but notwithstanding the large size of the apparatus, the 

 effervescence occasions me much trouble ; and this J attribute to 

 the chalk being sifted to so fine a powder. Neither the monks 

 nor anv of tlie inhabitants seem to have the slightest curiosity to 

 know what the article is, although, until it is dry, it continually 

 occasions a most agreeable odour." "According to your direc- 

 tions, I have made inquiry respecting the fruit which grows on 

 the coasts of Barbary, and I find there is a considerable quantity 

 of lemons, but they yield very little juice, being of the bergamot 

 species, and have very thick rinds f." 



June 22, 1809. — " The storing of lemon -juice is here a most 

 difficult and expensive thing, since the soldiers occupy all the 

 places formerly uied for this purpose, and also many of the con- 

 vents X, which have all very large repositories." 



July 4, 1809. — " I have been under the necessity of hiring a 

 large room, formerly the refectory of the convent, the door of 

 which opens on the terrace where I dry. This serves also to 

 store the citrate when dry, and at times, when the weather looks 

 squally, to i)ring it under cover ; a very necessarv precaution in 

 this climate, as the rain descends in torrents unknown to us in 

 England, and would very soon wash away every thing ; so that 

 you see, this business, when conducted on a large scale, require* 

 plans and precautions which nothing but actual operations can 

 point out to us. With each shipment I have furnished the mea- 

 sures of the juice I have used, and the exact quantity of chalk 

 employed in each batch, from a book I keep fcr this purpose ; 

 and the measuring, the weighing, and the wiiole process has 

 been constantly under my own inspection ; for without my pre- 

 sence the men will do nolhing. This hot country destroys in a 

 ^reat measure the energies of mind and body." 



* In another letter iie says, " It is impossible at any price to procure a cistern 

 of wood in this place capable of holding the necessary quantity. There is no 

 vfood to be obtained in the island fit for it, and much less could a workman be 

 found who would be capable of jjutling' it together. Even baskets for draining 

 must be sent from England, as none but very small ones are to be had in Sicily, 

 and those very poor and slender." 



f The Baron Lahontan relates that there are citrons in some parts of Canada, 

 which instead of a rind have only a single skin, and that the fruit is as wholesome 

 as the root is dangerous, the juice of the latter being- a subtile poison. He pro- 

 ceeds to say that in the year l(j84 he saw an Ii oqnoise woman, who was following- 

 her deceased husband, swallow a portion of this juice, which produced instant 

 death. See Laliontau's Voyiges to North America, 8vo, 1735, vol. i. p. 2Sa 



t These are chiefly decayed establishments, which derive a considerable part of 

 t!)eir revenues from letting out large apartments for storehouses aad other pur- 

 poiics. 



June 



