ON THE BORACIC ACID LAGOONS OP TUSCANY. 43 
selves to be regarded as a public nuisance, and gave to the sur- 
rounding country a character which alienated all attempts at 
improvement. 
Nor were the lagoons without real and positive dangers, for 
the loss of life was certain where a man or beast had the mis- 
fortune to fall into any of these boiling baths. Cases frequent- 
ly occurred in which cattle perished; and one chemist of con- 
siderable eminence, met with a horrible death by being pre- 
cipitated into one of the lagoons. Legs were not unfrequenl- 
ly lost by a false step into the smaller pits, (putezzi,) where, 
before the foot could be withdrawn the flesh would be sepa- 
rated from the bone. 
That these lagoons, now a source of immense revenue, 
should have remained for ages unproductive; that they should 
have been so frequently visited by scientific men, to none of 
whom (forages at least) did the thought occur, that they con- 
tained in them mines of wealth, is a curious phenomenon ; 
nor is it less remarkable, that it was left for a man, whose 
name and occupation are wholly disassociated from science, to 
convert these fugitive vapors into substantial wealth. 
Though to the present proprietor (the Chevalier Larderel*) 
the merit attaches of having given to the boracic lagoons the 
of Monte Cerboli any inhabitant of the town may sow and reap whatever 
he pleases, without requiring the consent of the owner of the soil ; so it 
frequently happens that small tracts are cultivated which are particularly 
favored by water or other advantages, and all the surrounding land left 
untouched. As the inhabitants have the primary right, the landlord gene- 
rally abandons his property to the chance cultivation of the peasant who 
leaves fallow nine-tenths of the land. In the district of Riparbella the 
landlords and cultivators have come to a sensible agreement by apportion- 
ing the lands in equal moieties. 
Many mineral waters are in the neighborhood of the lagoons, some of 
which possess medical virtues, and are visited by the Tuscans in the 
bathing season. 
* While these sheets have been passing through the press, the Grand 
Duke of Tuscany has conferred on M. Larderel the title of Count de 
Pomeranco. 
