32 
MITCHAM : ITS PHYSIC GARDENERS AND PLANTS. 
The cultivators of the plant, at Mitcham, sell the cucumbers by 
the bushel. Each bushel contains 401bs., and the price ranges 
from 7s. to 10s. Forty-five years ago the price charged to the 
Apothecaries' Company was only 2s. the bushel. In 1820 Dr. 
Clutterbuck states that half a bushel of the fruits cost half a guinea 
in the market. 
Elaterium is manufactured from the cucumbers in London, at 
Mitcham, and at Ampthill. At the time (September 3d) of our 
visit, this year, to the Mitcham physic gardens, the manufacture 
of elaterium had scarcely commenced. Some of the fruits had 
been gathered ; but the chief manufacture of elaterium was ex- 
pected to commence about the 9th or 10th of September. The 
plants, at the time of our visit, bore numerous fruits and were still 
flowering. 
The manufacture of elaterium, as practiced at Mitcham, may be 
divided into four stages or operations ; — 1st. Washing and slicing 
the fruits ; 2nd. Expressing the juice ; 3rd. Straining the juice 
and setting it aside to deposit ; 4th. The collection and desicca- 
tion of the deposit called Elaterium. 
1. Washing is only requisite when the fruits are dirty, not other- 
wise. Each fruit is sliced longitudinally, by which it is divided 
into halves. 
2. The juice is expressed in a common screw-press. The sliced 
or half fruits are wrapped in a hempen cloth and then put into 
the press, which is screwed up with some considerable force. One 
of the men engaged in the manufacture of elaterium told us that 
he used as much force as he was capable of exerting in screwing 
up the press. By some, however, this powerful expression is con- 
sidered objectionable, on the ground of inferior quality of elaterium 
which is in this way obtained. 
3. The expressed juice is then strained. One manufacturer 
merely strains it through a kind of colander (a perforated metallic 
plate.) Mr. Arthur tells us that he strains it through two sieves — - 
one a hair sieve, the other a cypress sieve. Instead of the latter 
a copper wire sieve, having 100 wires to the inch, may be used. 
The colander, above alluded to, cannot, it appears to us, be suffi- 
cient to separate the various shreds and pieces of vegetable tissue 
which escape from the press along with the juice. The expressed 
juice, as it escapes from the press, is usually received in a small 
