CULTURE  AND  PRODUCTION  OF  ELATERIUM.  165 
the  cost  of  obtaining  and  preparing  elaterium.  It  is  customary 
to  employ  boys  to  gather  the  cucumbers,  and  they  are  obliged  to 
be  very  careful  in  handling  the  plants  for  the  purpose  of  doing 
so,  as  otherwise  the  fruit  frequently  discharges  its  contents,  and 
if  this  should  reach  the  eye  or  other  sensitive  parts,  serious  con- 
sequences might  ensue  from  the  irritation  thus  occasioned.  To 
show  the  injurious  effects  that  sometimes  result  from  careless- 
ness in  handling  the  fruits,  it  may  be  stated  that,  about  two 
years  since,  some  of  the  boys  employed  in  gathering  them  began 
to  play,  and  whilst  doing  so  one  of  them  squirted  the  juice  into 
another's  eye,  and  the  inflammation  excited  thereby  was  so  great, 
that  the  sight  was  for  some  time  almost  lost,  in  fact,  it  was  more 
than  a  twelvemonth  before  it  was  entirely  restored. 
All  the  cucumbers  produced  at  Hitchin  are  employed  there 
for  the  preparation  of  elaterium.  The  process  adopted  (at  leasi 
so  far  as  can  be  ascertained  by  us,  for  there  are  certain  peculi- 
arities connected  with  the  mode  of  collecting  and  manipulating 
the  elaterium  which  are  kept  secret)  is  as  follows  : — As  the 
cucumbers  are  brought  in  from  the  field,  they  are  at  once  washed 
to  free  them  from  adhering  dirt  and  other  foreign  matters.  This 
process  of  washing  is,  we  are  informed,  always  resorted  to,  but 
it  becomes  more  necessary  when  the  fruits  are  very  dirty.  Each 
cucumber  is  then  cut  lengthwise^  so  as  to  divide  it  into  halves. 
This  operation  is  usually  performed  by  boys,  and  as  the  fruit  is 
thus  cut,  the  halves  are  received  into  glazed  earthenware  pans. 
The  divided  cucumbers  are  then  placed  as  soon  as  possible  in  a 
hempen  cloth,  and  the  wdiole  afterwards  placed  in  a  common 
screw-press.  A  moderate  pressure  is  now  employed  to  press-  out 
the  contained  juice,  which  is  allowed  to  run  into  a  glazed  earth- 
enware vessel  placed  ready  for  the  purpose,  and  at  the  top  of 
which  a  sieve  is  put,  so  that  the  expressed  juice  is  strained  as  it 
runs  from  the  press,  and  thus  before  any  deposit  can  have  taken 
place,  which  we  regard  as  a  very  desirable  mode  of  procedure. 
Mr.  Ransom  informs  us  that  he  is  very  careful  not  to  have  much 
pressure  exerted,  for  otherwise  the  elaterium  is  much  deteriorated 
in  quality,  and  as  we  have  had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  the 
cucumber  after  having  been  submitted  to  pressure,  we  observed 
that  they  were  but  moderately  crushed,  and  hence  the  pressure 
employed  could  not  have  been  very  great,  or  they  would  have 
been  reduced  to  a  more  pulpy  condition.    The  juice  as  it  runs 
