IN TEA. 245 



I find, by reference to the Grocer of November 8th, that the total 

 deliveries of tea into the port of London during the first ten months 

 of 1872 were 142,429,337 Ibs., and during the corresponding period of 

 1873, 139,092,409 Ibs. Of this about Si millions of pounds in 1873, 

 and 10 millions of pounds in 1872, were green, the rest black. This 

 gives in round numbers about 160 millions of pounds of black tea 

 per annum, of which above 140 millions come from China. As the 

 Russians are greater tea-drinkers than ourselves-- the Americans and 

 British colonists are at least equally addicted to the beverage, and 

 other nations consume some quantity the total exports from China 

 may be safely estimated to reach 400 or 500 millions of pounds. 



Let us take the smaller figure, and suppose that only one fourth of 

 this is adulterated, to the extent of 5 per cent., with iron filings. 

 How much would be required? Just five millions of pounds per 

 annum. 



It must be remembered that coarse filings could not possibly be 

 nsed ; they would show themselves at once to the naked eye as rusty 

 lumps, and would shake down to the bottom of the chest ; neither 

 could borings, nor turnings, nor plane-shavings be used. Nothing 

 but fine filings would answer the supposed purpose. I venture to 

 assert that if the China tea-growers were to put the whole world 

 under contribution for their supposed supply of fine iron filings, this 

 quantity could not be obtained. 



Let anyone who doubts this borrow a blacksmith's vise, a fine file, 

 and a piece of soft iron, then take off his coat and try how much labor 

 will be required to produce a single ounce of filings, and also bear in 

 mind that fine files are but very little used in the manufacture of 

 iron. As the price of a commodity rises when the demand exceeds 

 the supply, the Chinaman would have to pay far more for his adulter- 

 ant than for the leaves to be adulterated. As Chinese tea-growers 

 are not public analysts, we have no right to suppose that they would 

 perpetrate any such foolishness. 



The investigations reently made by Mr. Alfred Bird, of Birming- 

 ham, show that the iron found in tea-leaves is not in the metallic 

 state, but in the condition of oxide, and he confirms the conclusions 

 of Zoller, quoted by Mr. J. A. Wanklyn in the Chemical News of Octo- 

 ber 10th viz. that compounds of iron naturally exist in genuine 

 tea. It appears, however, that the ash of many samples of black tea 

 contains more iron than naturally belongs to the plant ; and, accept- 

 ing Mr. Bird's statement, that this exists in the leaf as oxide mixed 

 with small silicious and micaceous particles, I think we may find a 

 reasonable explanation of its presence without adopting the puerile 

 theory of the adulteration maniac, who, in his endeavor to prove that 

 everybody who buys or sells anything is a swindler, has at once 

 assumed the impossible addition of iron filings as a makeweight. 



In the first place we must remember that the commodity in de- 

 mand is black tea, and that ordinary leaves dried in an ordinary 

 manner are not black, but brown. Tea-leaves, however, contain a 

 large quantity of tannin, a portion of which is, when heated in the 

 leaves, rapidly convertible into gallo-tannic or tannic acid. Thus a 

 sample of tea rich in iron would, when heated in the drying process, 

 become, by the combination of this tannic acid with the iron it con- 

 tains, much darker than ordinary leaves or than other teas grown 

 upon less ferruginous soils and containing less iron. 



