mulder's analysis of tea. 271 



this analysis of tea is the best that has yet been 

 made. And I believe the same degree of merit is 

 awarded to it in this country. There are, however, 

 errors resulting from information derived from 

 questionable and imperfect sources, for which this 

 able chemist can hardly be deemed responsible. 



It shall be my endeavour then to reconcile the 

 facts of the analysis with the account here given 

 of the manufacture of tea in China, and to show 

 that though the explanations and deductions 

 therein laid down are erroneous, because grounded 

 on false assumptions ; yet that these erroneous 

 deductions in no way detract from the merits and 

 accuracy of the analysis itself: nor do the results 

 of this analysis tend to contradict any of the facts 

 and principles developed in the course of this in- 

 quiry. 



First, it is treated as a fact well established, 

 though Mulder * gives no authority for this belief, 

 that black tea is roasted and dried at a higher 

 temperature than green ; and that this is the cause 

 of its blackness of colour. 



But it has been shown that the difference of 

 colour of black and green tea does not depend on 

 any due management of the heat, but on mani- 

 pulation ; since both teas have been made from 

 leaves out of the same parcel, simultaneously in 

 the same vessel and at the same temperature, 



* lb. B. 43. S 161. 



