292 ON THE BORACIC ACID OF CENTRAL ITALY. 



engaged in his scientific labours to carry out his idea, for which he even 

 obtained a patent during Napoleon's rule in Italy ; he therefore ceded 

 his right to Fossi, to whom he communicated his proposition for placing 

 cauldrons of the solution of acid in the lagoons, as in a water bath, in 

 order to concentrate it. Fossi was the first to obtain boracic acid in any 

 quantity from Monte Eotondo ; and we learn from the At Li dei Georgofil 

 (torn, xvii., Firenze, 1839), that he exhibited white glass in Florence as 

 early as 1818, prepared with borax made from these lagoons. Messrs. 

 Gazzeri and Brouzet worked the lagoons of Monte Rotondo from 1815 to 

 1818, employing as their engineer Sig. Ciaschi, who made further im- 

 provements by constructing artificial lagoons rouud the dry soffioni, to 

 utilize the hitherto waste vapours. The poor fellow was one day super- 

 intending an operation of this nature, in 1816, when he fell into a 

 fissure : he was dragged out half dead, and only Lingered for a few days? 

 during which time he suffered the most excruciating torture from violent 

 spasms and frightful burns. Gazzeri and Brouzet with great difficulty 

 managed to export to France 3 tons 5^ cwt. of very impure crude boracic 

 acid in the nine and a half months ending April 1, 1818. A small 

 quantity of these mineral waters had been for many years employed in 

 pharmacy, under the name of Sale Sedativo di Hombourg, borax being 

 considered to possess calming properties. 



Thus, for 40 years, little or nothing was done, when in 1818, M. 

 Francois Lardarel, a French gentleman, then staying in Italy, re- 

 solved on the formation of a small establishment for the collection and 

 extraction of the boracic acid. For many years his labours were attended 

 with small success. The sale of the acid was steady, but the profits were 

 inconsiderable. He was thus induced to study a more economical means 

 of evaporation, the expense of firewood used for that purpose up to 

 1827 having swallowed up the greater part of his proceeds, the more so 

 as it was particularly scarce in that neighbourhood, where not a blade of 

 grass was to be seen, and road communication for bringing it had all to 

 be made by the proprietor of the works. 



After much thought the brilliant idea struck M. Lardarel that by 

 some method he might take advantage of the natural steam jets or 

 soffioni arising so plentifully from the soil ; and at the period I have men- 

 tioned he devised the plan for imprisoning and turning them to account, 

 which I shall describe. The process was a triumph for those days, when, 

 let us remember, steam was little known as an element in manufacturing 

 industry. From that moment the produce of the works rapidly increased, 

 and the uses to which the boracic acid was applied became equally 

 numerous. 



At the present time there are no less than nine separate establish- 

 ments belonging to Count Lardarel, all situated within a few miles of 

 Castelnuovo (Leghorn), a little town half-way between Volterra and Massa 

 Marittima (Grosseto), viz. : Lustignano, Lardarello, Lago, Sasso, Monte 



