"IRON FILINGS" IN TEA. 229 



as oxide mixed with small siliceous 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 demand 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 contains, 

 much darker than ordinary leaves or than other teas grown 

 upon less ferruginous soils and containing less iron. 



This being the case, and a commercial demand for Uack 

 tea having become established, the tea-grower would natu- 

 rullyseek to improve the color of his tea, especially of those 

 samples naturally poor in iron, and a ready mode of doing 

 this is offered by stirring in among the leaves while drying 

 a small additional dose of oxide of iron, if he can find an 

 oxide in such a form that it will spread over the surface of 

 the leaf as a thin film. Now, it happens that the Chinaman 

 has lying under his feet an abundance of material admirably 

 adapted for this purpose viz., red haematite, some varieties 

 of which are as soft and unctuous as graphite, and will 

 spread over his tea-leaves exactly in the manner required. 

 The micaceous and siliceous particles found by Mr. Bird are 

 just what should be found in addition to oxide of iron, if 

 such haematite were used. 



The film of oxide thus easily applied, and subjected to 

 the action of the exuding and decomposing extractive mat- 

 ter of the heated leaves, would form the desired black dye 

 or "facing." 



The knotty question of whether this is or is nofe-an adul- 

 teration is one that I leave to lawyers to decide, or for 

 those debating societies that discuss such interesting ques- 

 tions as whether an umbrella is an article of dress. If it 

 is an adulteration, and, as already admitted, is not at all in- 



