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SELECTED ARTICLES. 
great importance they now possess, a succession of adven- 
turers had made many experiments, and had produced a con- 
siderable quantity of boracic acid, but at a cost (from the ex- 
penditure of combustible) which left little profit.* The small 
value which was attached to them may be seen in the fact, 
that the largest and most productive district of the lagoons, 
that of Monte Cerboli, was offered in perpetuity, so lately as 
1818, at an annual ground rent of £6. ISs. 4d. per annum, though 
it now produces several thousand pounds sterling. The im- 
mense increase in their value arose from the simplest of im- 
provements, the abandonment of the use of charcoal, and the 
application of the heat of the lagoons, or soffioni to the evapora- 
tion of their own waters. Improvements, however, and very 
important ones, particularly by subjecting the waters to a 
succession of impregnations, had been gradually introduced 
by a Signor Ciaschi, and the importation of boracic acid from 
Tuscany into France, before 1817, had been between 7000 
and 8000 pounds, of a quality gradually increasing in purity; 
6ut Ciaschi perished miserably, in consequence of falling into 
one of the lagoons which he himself had excavated, leaving 
his family in a state of extreme poverty. His death (which 
happened in 1816) naturally threw a damp upon adventure. 
The experiments were resumed in the following year, and in 
the midst of violent claims and controversies, M. Larderel 
has become the monopolist of the boracic productions of Tus- 
cany. 
With the increased production of boracic acid, has arisen 
an increased demand, growing out of the more extensive ap- 
plications of it to manufacturing purposes. In about four 
years, the quantity has been quadrupled by superior modes 
of extraction, and by greater care employed in collecting the 
boracic vapor. In 1833, about 650,000 Tuscan pounds were 
obtained. In 1836, two millions and a half. 
* Hoefer first announced the presence of boracic acid in the Maremman 
districts, and Mascagni in his commentaries suggests the manufacture of 
borax as an object worthy of attention. Professor Gazzeri,in 1807, made 
experiments, which, however, seemed to show the quantity of boracic acid 
contained in the waters was too small to promise much success. 
