514 



Tlie ' Lancet's ' Analytical Sanitary Commission. — Adulteration 



of Teaj 8fc. 



Since these most valuable papers on the adulteration of food were 

 noticed in the ' Phytologist,' a number of other articles in general use 

 have been examined, and the various sophistications practised on them 

 by dishonest traders exposed. We bring the subject forward again, 

 chiefly for the purpose of putting our readers in possession of the facts 

 discovered relating to that all but indispensable article of diet — Tea. 



The subject is treated at such length in the ' Lancet,' that a com- 

 plete analysis of the reports would far exceed our limits. A brief 

 account of the results arrived at is all we aim at giving. 



The adulteration of tea is an art largely practised by the Chinese, 

 the processes employed being similar to those adopted in England. 

 They occasionally make use of the leaves of Camellia Sasanqua and 

 Chloranthus inconspicuus for this purpose. It has been said that 

 the dung of silkworms is sometimes mixed up with tea ; but we hope 

 this trick is rarely performed. In tea of British fabrication leaves of 

 the following trees have been detected : — beech, elm, horse-chest- 

 nut, plane, bastard plane, fancy oak, willow, poplar, hawthorn, and 

 sloe. But a more ingenious fraud is also practised. It is thus de- 

 scribed by a gentleman connected with the Excise Office in London : 

 — " In the year 1843 there were many cases of re-dried tea-leaves, 

 which were prosecuted with vigour by this Board, and the result was, 

 so far as we could ascertain at the time, the suppression of the trade. 

 It was supposed in 1843 that there were eight manufactories for the 

 purpose of re-drying exhausted tea-leaves in London alone, and seve- 

 ral besides in various parts of the country. The practice pursued was 

 as follows : — Persons were employed to buy up the exhausted leaves 

 at hotels, coffee-houses, and other places, at 2^d. and 3d. per pound. 

 These were taken to the factories, mixed with a solution of gum, and 

 re-dried. After this the dried leaves, if for black tea, were mixed with 

 rose-pink and black lead, to face them, as it is termed by the trade." 

 It is probable that this manufacture is extensively carried on at the 

 present day. We extract the following results of three series of ana- 

 lyses, believing that they present us with a very clear and accurate 

 state of the case as regards the purity of black tea. 



Series I. shows : — 



" 1st. That not one of the thirty-five samples of black tea, as im- 

 ported into this country, contained any other leaf than that of the 

 lea-plant. 



