The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-11-24 00:00:00

THE NEW TEA COMPANY.

When we contemplate the extent to which the nefariotw
practice of adulteration in the article of tea has been carried,
we know of no establishment to which the public in general
are more essentially indebted, than to one which has for its
object to furnish a genuine article, from which all those fee..
titious ingredients, which make it so injurious to healthma
utterly excluded. IVhen we recollect that illicit cata..
blishments for the manufacture of imitation tea-leaves have
not only been detected but publicly brought to justice, and
that bags and barrels of imitation tea have been produced,
and the offenders, in various instances, prosecuted to con-
viction, the extreme importance of obtaining it in its ge.,
nuine imported state, and before it has been subjected to
any of that counterfeit process which it is so generally
made to undergo, is manifest. Mr. Accum, in his Treatise
on the Adulteration of Food and Culinary Poisons, has
pointed out the following method of detecting the adulte..
ration of tea:—

" Spurious black tea, slightly moistened, when rubbed
on a sheet of white paper, immediately produces a blueish.
black stain; and speedily affords, when thrown into cold
water, a blueiish-black tincture, which instantly becomes
reddened by letting fall into it, a drop or two of sulphuric
acid.

" Two ounces of the suspected leaves should be infused in
half-a-pint of cold, soft water, and suffered to stand for
about an hour. Genuine tea produces an amber-coloured
infusion, which does not become reddened by sulphuric
acid.

"All the samples of spurious green tea wore minaret]
with carbonate of copper (a poisonous substance), and pot
by means of verdigris or copperas. The latter substances
would instantly turn the tea black ; because both the*
metallic salts being soluble in water, are acted on by le
astringent matter of .the leaves, whether genuine or sp.
rious, and convert the infusion into ink. _

" Tea, rendered poisonous by carbonate of copper, speed..
ily imparts to liquid ammonia a fine sapphire blue tinge.
It is only necessary to shake up in a stopped vial, for a
few minutes, a tea-spoonful of the suspected leaves, with
about two table spoonfuls of liquid ammonia, diluted with
half its bulk of water. The supernatant liquid will ex-
hibit a fine blue colour, if the minutest quantity of copper
be present.
" Green tea, coloured with carbonate of copper, when
thrown into water impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen
gas, immediately acquires a black colour. Genuine green
tea suffers no change from the action of these testa.
" The presence of copper may be further rendered ob.
vious, by mixing one part of the suspected tea-leaves, re-
duced to powder, with two or three parts of nitrate of pot..
ash (or with two parts of chlorate of potash), and project.
ing this mixture by small portions at a time, into a pieties
or porcelain-ware crucit,le, kept red-hot in a coal fire; the
whole vegetable matter of the tea leaves will thus become
destroyed, and the oxide of copper left behind, in combina-
tion with the potash, of the nitrate of potash (or saltpetre),
or with the muriate of potash, if chlorate of potash has been
employed.
" If water, acidulated with nitric acid, be then poured
into the crucible to dissolve the mass, the presence of the
copper may be rendered manifest by adding to the solution
liquid ammonia, in such quantity that the pungent odour
of it predominates."
. .

These fraudulent practices it was that gave rise to the
New Tea Company ; and never was such an establishment
snore strongly called for, or one the success of which pre.
mises to be more eminently serviceable to the public.

BULL BAITING.—The attention of the University of O.
ford has been drawn to the subject of bull-baiting, in con.,
sequence of the late baiting which took place within a few
miles of that city, when a monster in human shape tore
from the root the tongue of his pitiable victim, and handed
it about the ring. In consequence of this barbarity, we are
told that a petition to Parliament is now in preparation,
praying that bear-baiting, badger-baiting, dog-lighting,
and similar cruel sports, may be prohibited, under suitable
penalties.
Thursday morning some suspicion having been mita
by the smell proceeding from four tierces which bad arrivedt
in this city the preceding day from Liverpool, on their way
to Edinburgh, they were opened, and found to contain a
dozen of bodies of men, women, and children; it is sup.
posed that they originally came from Ireland. The
Magistrates ordered that the whole should be immediately
buried in the High Church-yard. It was a most horrid
spectacle. The tierces were addressed to respectable pet.
sons in Edinburgh, wh CO could not possibly have any thing
to do with the business.—Glargron, Parr.