The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-09-30 00:00:00

214.

ilheei sboalesers• t (Inside of Masai It)
-411. e • 1 Meath,' on interesting insure, as eenneeted with
Ilk tewaeh of Vide, toot piste on Monday last, in the
Revisionist Court. The Commander of a Chinese junk
had imputed a large quantity of tee, 537 quartet. chests of
which ha bad sold to our of the resident Chinese merchants
at she rare of three Spanish dollars. A muster.of the cont..
*Wiry was exhibited-10 chews were delivered as an
Ninon of the bargain. and a written engagement was en-
Ord into. The put chaser kept the ten cheats of tea in his
possession for two days, at the end of which he made an
experiment of the quality of the article, which he found
ellevokl altogether of the flavour of tea, and of' a hitter and
supalatable mute. Ile consequently refused to complete
his bargain, and was accordingly prosecuted by the vender
tee breach of contract. Specimens of the commodity in
Oration, with a great variety of other teas, were exhibited
iet the Court, and several Chinese were examined who had
been engaged in the trade or culture of tea, while botanical
descriptions and drawings of the tea-plant, with fresh spe-
(amens from the Governinent garden, were exhibited. It
is well known that botanists have not yet entirely agreed
whether the genus tea consist of several or one species
only, varied by climate, soil, culture, and preparation, so
as to produce in commute as many sorts and qualities as
the same circumstances superinduce in the case of the vine.
're. latter opinion, however,. prevails, and appeared to be
corroborated by the testimony of the Chinese now examined.
was stated by them that they recognised three distinct
plant, under the generic name of tea (te and chs), one oft
which is the Camellia Japonica, the external resemblance
of which to the tea-plant is suftieiently obvious, and which
is in fact of the same natural family with it, and the other
the Camellia Sesangue, occasionally, as we are told, used
ist China as tea. One Character of the tea leaf appeared to
be generally admitted by the Chinese who were examined,
sad was in particular strongly insisted upon by the defend-
ant—its serrated margin. All the genuine teas that were
examined, including the fresh specimens from the Govern-
ment garden, possess this character invariably, but the
disputed tea as invariably wanted it, and was therefore
adjudged to be spurious. Neither could it have been ei-
ther-of the Camellias, beesuce the leaves of these are ser-
rated also. It appeared, however, that a similarcommo-
dtty had long been imported by the Chinese, and sold to
their own countrymen, and no charge of fraud or adulte-
ration lay with the plaintiff'. Under all the circumstances
of the case, therefore, the Court decreed to him moderate
damages for his loss of market. The leaves of this spu-
rious commodity, independent of wanting the serrated
edge, and the sensible qualities of tea, were generally much
larger than the genuine leaf, of a paler green and more
oistinctly veined. In the elliptical form, they bore an en-
tie* resemblance to the tea-leaf, and both in this respect,
and in the mode of preparation, the article had a much
closer resemblance to tea than the sloe-leaves, which are
passed off for it in England. The very low price to which
the commodity now alluded to was sold, it may be sup-
posed would be rcas ,nably accounted for by its being spu-
rious, but this was flat the case, fox it appeared in evidence,
during the trial, that 350 quarter chests of tea, coarse in-
deed, but genuine, had been sold at the same time, at a
much cheaper price. This parcel, originally from Fo-
'Lien was imported into this place from Sai-gun, in Cochin,
China. The first price for which it sold here was some-
thing short of three-pence per pound, but it was imme-
diately re-sold for exportation to Batavia, at an advance of
too per cent.

YE t,LOIV FEVER.

DISCUSSION OF THE FRENCH PHYSICIANS IN THE

ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.

An eye witness of the yellow fever of Barcelona, in
MN, °Errs the following refutation of the assertions re-
cently hazarded by Dr. Pariset, in the Academy of
Sciences of Paris. flaying taken for granted, contrary to
sill the facts of the case, that contagion existed in
the epidemic of Barcelona, Dr. Pariset alleges (also
by assumption) that it was conveyed to Tortetsa,
Palma, and other places, from that city. Now without
dine* on the absurdity of supposing it possible
shit epidemic, which commences and terminates
at
pietig.
periods, and runs a similar course, in the various
wbieb it afecta, being in, or nearly in the same la-
titude, can depend upon a specific contagion, it is an un-
dutiable fact, ascertained on the spot, that the first person
ibo sickened of the malady at Tortosa viz. Buenaventura
Puicb, had not been at Barcelona at all. And what was
*a treatment of the unfortunate man, under the base
system of sanitary laws, for having been the firet person
*ha was seirlal with the epidemic? He was dragged from
hove on the night of the 13th of August, by four armed
soldiers, with a rope round his neck, to a lazaretto in
the country, at which lie arrived after a march of three
hours. The lazaretto, being unoccupied, was forced open,
and the unhappy and helpless victim, without assistance,
IX even water to allay his thirst, was left to his fate the
remainder of the night, without a bed on which to repose,
Eithout an individual to whom he could speak, and with-
out
nourishment of any kind. Ile died on the 15th.
The truth is, that Dr. Pariset knew nothing at all of the
fever of Tortosa, but from the assertions contained in the
report of the Spanish contagionist physicians, who were
sent from Barcelona, as commissioners, to that place--
amnions which were fully refuted in the Barcelona ma-
nifesto of the fifteen foreign and native physicians pre-
sented to the Cortes. One fact, from among many, will
suffice :—ln the villages of Jesus, liaquitas, and Regens,
IliA the opposite bank of the Ebro, and in sight of Tortosa,
to which the inhabitants, both sick and well, of that unfor-
tunate city resorted, at the height of the pestilence, and of
whom many died, nut a ri sidcit t was afF,fctcd who had not vi-
sited Tortosa, although in ft e,.! cem in et nica tion with the sick,
the dying, alrcl t:i..: di ail. This single fact, which is not dis-
puted, is coaclusive respect r..i. rot tofa. Now, with respect
to Pen, and the other places alluded to by Dr. Parini, it
will tie sufficient to observe that no contagion could have
been Imported into any of these places from Barcelona, fur
the best of all possible reasons, because it is distinctly
proved that at Barcelona no contagion existed. The
proofs consist in the following facts, some of which were
known to Dr. Pariset, and all of which he might have
been acquaintd with from the various publications to
which the epidemic of Barcelona gave rise.
An Italian refugee labouring under yellow fever, in the
house of Mr. Sinillach, in the valley of San Gervasio, was
atterd,ed by fourteen of his countrymen and some servants
without their being injured by the communication. He
was visited by Dr. Pariset. He alio, it was stated, bad
knowledge of the case of a Mrs. Demestres, who died of
the yellow fever in the village of Saris, wheec twenty-six
persons, inchailiry ten children, who were constantly at her
bed side, rectlvcd no injury front the communication.
Of fifty peria-s, who were constantly employed in
transporting and burying the dead in Barcelona, only two
died.

In the Lazaretto, called Marine, situated at a distance of
une mile iron the city, thirty-two persons who were in
mustn't au:Aida:lee on the sick net one contracted the
disease.

In the hospital called Vereyna, distant one mile from
Barcelona, of thirty-two attendants on the sick only four
were affected with fever, which, according to the testimony
of Dr. Calopmani, the attending physician, they contracted
in Barcelona.

In the Seinhiario llnspital, where 1,293 persons died of
yellow fever, of ninety attendants three only were affected
with the malady.
In the epidemic al Seville, in the year Isoo, when 15,000
persons died of yellow fever, Alcala de law Panaderoa, a
neighbouring village, in which the bread for the city was
baked, continued healthy. Besides fugitive., to the number
of In, from Seville, died in the village;without communi-
cating the disease to the inhabitants.
In the vear 1800 sixteen person% labouring under the
epalcmic lever which raged in Catlin, clandestinely inuo-
Ott,.:ed ti.eruseives into the valve of Burnes, where they
did. The disease did not propagate.

A iter the town of Espexit bid-been almost depopulated
by the yellow fever, the clothes of huesdteds of the unfor-
tunate yictims were introduced sod sold in Burnes,
without infecting ao individual.
In the general hospital at Xeres, the year 1800
(distant half a league from )he town). from thirty to forty
persons died daily, and the disease was hot communieAtcd
Is any of the attendants.—Soria, ittperpre.—Gluic