OllAP. IV. 
DYEING GREEN TEAS. 
7i 
enough, the Chinese had no objection to supply them, 
especially as such teas always fetched a higher price ! 
" I took some trouble to ascertain precisely the quan- 
tity 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 
quantity of Prussian blue and gypsum they imbibe in 
the course of one year. To l^^lbs. of tea were applied 
8 mace 2^ candareens of colouring matter, or rather 
more than an ounce. In every hundred pounds of 
coloured green tea consumed in England or America, 
the consumer actually drinks more than half a pound of 
Prussian blue and gypsum ! And yet, tell the drinkers 
of this coloured tea that the Chinese eat cats, dogs, and 
rats, and they will hold up their hands in amazement, 
and pity the poor celestials ! 
Two kinds of Prussian blue are used by the tea- 
manufacturers — one is the kind commonly met with, the 
other I have seen only in the north of China. It is less 
heavy than common Prussian blue, of a bright pale tint, 
and very beautiful. Turmeric-root is frequently em- 
ployed in Canton, but I did not observe it in use in 
Hwuy-chow. 
I procured samples of these ingredients from the 
Chinamen in the factory, in order that there might be 
no mistake as to what they really were. These were sent 
home to the Great Exhibition last year (1851), and a 
portion of them submitted to Mr. Warrington, of Apothe- 
caries' Hall, whose investigations in connexion with this 
