1855.] 



FOOD AND ITS ADULTERATIONS. 



281 



articles of food, that a prejudice has existed against it ever 

 since — and a more senseless prejudice could not be. Goldner's 

 process, since adopted by Messrs. Cooper & Aves, is simple and 

 beautiful. The provisions, being placed in tin canisters having 

 their covers soldered down, are plunged up to their necks in a bath 

 of chloride of calcium (a preparation which imbibes great 

 heat without boiling), and their contents are speedily cooked; 

 at the .same time, all the air in the meat, and some of the water, 

 are expelled in the form of steam, which issues from a pin-hole 

 in the lid. The instant the cook ascertains the process to be 

 complete, he drops a plug of solder upon the whole, and the 

 mass is thus hermetically sealed. Exclusion of air, and coagu- 

 lation of the albumen, are the two conditions, which enable us 

 to hand the most delicate flavoured meats down to remote 

 generations, — -far as long, in fact, as a stout painted tin canister 

 can maintain itself intact against the oxidating effect of the 

 atmosphere. We have ourselves partaken lately of a duck 

 that was winged, and of milk that came from the cow as long 

 as eight years ago. Fruit which had been gathered whilst the 

 free trade struggle was still going on, we found as delicate in 

 flavour as though it had just been plucked from the branch. 

 Out of the many cases of all kinds of provisions opened and 

 examined by Dr. Ha.ssall, scarcely any have been found to be 

 bad. In the preserved meats, which are made up with potatoes 

 and other vegetables, the needful potass exists, and such food 

 may be forwarded to the Crimea as cheaply as the pernicious 

 salt junk which is patronised by the Government, 



When we see a loaf marked under the market-price, we may 

 rest assured that it is made from flour ground from inferior and 

 damaged wheat. In order to bring this up to the required 

 colour, and destroy the sour taste which often belongs to it, 

 bakers are in the habit of introducing a mixture called in the 

 trade ' hards ' and ' stuff,' which is nothing more than alum 

 and salt kept prepared in large quantities by the druggists. 

 The quantity of alum necessary to render bread white is cer- 

 tainly not great — Mitchell found that it ranged from 116 grains 

 to 3-1 J grains in the four-pound loaf — but the great advantage 

 the baker derives from it, in addition to improving the colour 

 of his wares, is, that it absorbes a large quantity of water, which 

 he sells at the present time at the rate of 'Id. per pound. Out 

 of twenty-eight loaves of bread bought in every quarter of the 

 metropolis. Dr. Hassall did not find one free from the adultera- 

 tion of alum, and in some of the samples he found considerable' 

 quantities. As a general rule, the lower the neighbourhood, 

 the cheaper the bread, and the greater the quantity of these 

 ' hards ' or ' stuff' introduced. 



TEA AND COFFEE. 

 Our succeeding remarks will fall, we fear, like a bomb upon 

 many a tea-table, and stagger teetotalism in its stronghold. A 

 drunkard's stomach is sometimes exhibited at total-abstinence 

 lectures, in every stage of congestion and inflammation, painted 

 up to match the fervid eloquence of the lecturer. If tea is our 

 only refuge from the frightful maladies entailed upon us by 

 fermented liquors, we fear the British public is in a perplexing 

 dilemma. Ladies, there is death in the teapot ! Green-tea 

 drinkers, beware ! There has always been a vague idea afloat in 

 the public mind about hot copperplates — a suspicion that gun- 

 powder and hyson do not come by their colour honestly. The 

 old Duchess of Jlarlborough used to boast that she came into 

 the world before ' nerves was in fashion.' We feel half 

 inclined to believe this joke had a great truth in it; for since 

 the introduction of tea, nervous complaints of all kinds have 

 greatly increased ; and we need not look far to find one at least 



of the causes. in the teapot. There is no such a thing as pure 

 green tea to be mot with in England. It is adulterated in 

 China; and we have lately learnt to adulterate it at home 

 almost as well as the cunning Asiatic. The pure green tea 

 made from the most delicate green leaves grown upon manured 

 soil, such as the Chinese use themselves, is, it is true, wholly 

 untainted ; and we are informed that its beautiful bluish bloom 

 like that upon a grape, is given by the third process of roasting 

 which it undergoes. The enormous demand for a moderately- 

 priced green tea which has arisen both in England and China 

 .since the opening of the trade, has led the Hong merchants to 

 imitate this peculiar colour ; and this they do so successfully as 

 to deceive the ordinary judges of the article. Black tea is 

 oiDenly coloured in the neighbourhood of Canton, in the most 

 wholesale manner. 



Mr. Robert Foi-tune, in his very interesting work, ' The 

 Tea Districts of China and India,' gives us a good description 

 of the manner in which this colouring process is performed, as 

 witnessed by himself. 



' Having procured a portion of Prussian-blue, he threw it 

 into a porcelain bowel, not unlike a chemist's mortar, and 

 crushed it into a very fine powder. At the same time a 

 quantity of gypsum was produced and burned in the charcoal 

 fires which were then roasting the teas. The object of this 

 was to soften it, in order that it might be readily pounded into 

 a very fine powder, in the same manner as the Prussian-blue 

 had been. The gypsum, having been taken out of the fire after 

 a certain time had elapsed, readily crumbled down, and was 

 reduced to powder in the mortar. These two substances, hav- 

 ing been thus prepared, were then mixed together in the 

 proportion of four parts of gypsum to three parts of Pnissian- 

 blue, and formed a light blue powder, which was then ready 

 for use. 



'This colouring matter was applied to the teas during the 

 process of roasting. About five minutes before the tea was 

 removed from the pans — the time being regulated by the 

 burning of a joss-stick — the superintendent took a small por- 

 celain .spoon, and with it he scattered a portion of the coloring 

 matter over the leaves in each pan. The workmen then turned 

 the leaves round rapidly with both hands, in order that the 

 colour might be equally diffused. During this part of the 

 operation the hands of the workmen were quite blue. I could 

 not help thinking if any green-tea drinkers had been present 

 during the operation their taste would have been corrected and 

 I believe improved. 



' One day an English gentleman in Shanghac, being in con- 

 versation with .soma Chinese from the green-tea country, asked 

 them what reason they had for d_ying the tea, and whether it 

 would not be better without \indergoing this process. They 

 acknowledged that tea was much better when prepared without 

 having any .such ingredients mi.xed with it, and that thiy ncter 

 drank dyed teas themselves, but justly remarked, that, as 

 foreigners seemed to prefer having a micture of Prussian-blue 

 and (ji/psum with their tea to make it look uniform and pretty, 

 and as these ingredients were cheap enough, the Chinese liad 

 no objection to supply them, especially as such teas always 

 fetched a higher price. 



' I took some trouble to ascertain precisely the quantity of 

 colouring matter used in the process of dyeing green teas, not 

 certainly with the view of assisting others, either at home or 

 abroad, in the art of colouring, but simply to show green-tea 

 drinkers in England, and more particularly in the United States 

 of America, what quantil;/ of Prussian-blue and gypsum they 



