Ihe adulteration of to, and paid it was with great difficulty 
that be obtained any adulterated sample?. He exhibited 
four, obtained by a friend of bis frono the bottoms of some 
tea-chests in London. The first sample contained black- 
lead ; a second, indig© blue; a third, French chalk and Prus- 
sian blue ; and a fourth, verdigris. The chemical tests of 
these substances were shown and explained— it being under- 
stood that ihef-e were not such samples as could be bought 
at a retail shop. One sample, however, purchased at a huck- 
ster's shop in St. Philip's, contained a great number of leaves 
besides tea— among them being those of the hawthorn, elm, 
birch, willow, domestic plum, and others — the botanical dis- 
tinctions between these and true tea being pointed out. In 
conclusion, Mr. Stoddart urged most emphatically that it 
was usually the consumer's fault, in not giving a fair price, 
if the article he obtained was adulterated. In the course of 
a conversation which ensued, Mr. Stoddart stated that the 
tea-improvers, &c., commonly sold, were either carbonate ot 
soda, which facilitated the extraction of the tannic acid in 
the tea, or else catechu, which was nearly pure tannic acid. 
WM. LANT CARPENTER, 
Hon. Reporting Secretary. 
