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SELECTED ARTICLES. 
atmosphere has, however, some influence on the result. In 
bright clear weather, whether in winter or summer, the vapors 
are less dense, but the deposition of boracic acid in the lagoons 
is greater. Increased vapors indicate unfavorable change of 
weather, and the lagoons are infallible barometers to the neigh- 
borhood, even at a great distance, serving to regulate the pro- 
ceedings of the peasantry in their agriculture pursuits. 
It has been long supposed that the boracic acid was not to 
be found in the vapors of the lagoons; and when it is seen 
how small the proportion of the acid must originally be, it 
will not be wondered at, that its presence should have escaped 
detection. In the lowest of the lagoons, after five, six, and 
in some cases a greater number of impregnations, the quantity 
of boracic acid given out does not exceed one-half per cent; 
thus, if the produce be estimated at 7500 pounds per day, the 
quantity of saturated water daily discharged is a million and 
a half of Tuscan pounds, or five hundred tons English. 
The lagoons are ordinarily excavated by the mountaineers 
of Lombardy, who emigrate into Tuscany during the winter 
season when their native Appenines are covered with snow. 
They gain about one Tuscan lira per day. But the works are 
conducted, when in operation, by natives, all of whom are 
married, and who occupy houses attached to the evaporating 
pans. They wear a common uniform, and their health is ge- 
nerally good. 
A great improvement in the cultivation, and a great increase 
in the value of the neighboring soil has naturally followed the 
introduction of the manufacture of the boracic acid. A rise of 
wages has accompanied the new demand for labor ; much land 
has been brought into cultivation by new directions given to 
the streams of smaller rivers. Before the boracic acid 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 
which superstition invested them,* made the lagoons them- 
* So unwilling were the peasants to settle in these districts, that very 
extraordinary encouragements were held out to them. In the commune 
