Boric acid is obtained
chiefly from Italy. In a tract of country called the Maremma of Tuscany,
embracing an area of about forty square miles, are numerous chasms and
crevices, from which hot vapour and heated gases and springs of water
spurt. The steam issuing from these hot springs contains small
quantities of boric acid, that acid being one of those solid substances
distilling to some extent in a current of steam. The steam vapours thus
bursting forth, owing to some kind of constant volcanic disturbance, are
also more or less laden with sulphuretted hydrogen gas, communicating a
very ill odour to the neighbourhood. These phenomena were at first
looked upon by the people as the work of the devil, and priestly
exorcisms were in considerable request in the hope of quelling them,
very much as a great deal of the mere speech-making at the present time
in England on foreign competition and its evils, and the dulness of
trade, the artificial combinations to keep up prices, to reduce wages,
general lamentation, etc.
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