The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-03-02
lFrom the Saturday Review.
AdulteratiOns Of Food.

THE TRICKS OF TRADE AS PRACrIcEp I'M
.- ENGLAND.
b The practice of coloring or facing tea /,
SO notorious that it ought to deceive nobody
Habit and imagination enable us to perceive
that peculiar and grateful flavor is impa,ted
10 ordinary black tea by an infusion of green
tea at higher price. Speaking generally.
the true green tea comes from Shanghai and
.he ia'se nom Canton. DIR. Hassall gave late
ly analysis of an article which, with com
mendable honesty, was announced as hand
some made Canton gunpowder, to initiate
true Shanghai Ping Suey gunpowder, This
sample was very strongly magnetic con-
tanning AZ, 40 per cent. of lie tea-seartblv
matter partly in the folded leayes.~ II was
faced with turmeric, Prussian blue, and a
white mineral powder. The ash OF the tea
was $3.50 per cent, whereas the ash of good
Tea Is less than per cent; SO that extraneous
matter must have been largely introduced In
70 II; Dr: Hassall mentious in the same
plumber OF his journal dust or sftings, which
he says is usually genuine, and is sold At a
very low price. 1t is not known to the pub.
lie at large, and 10 much used for mixing Tho
puDlit, II they were sensible, would infinitely
piefer TINS mean-looking tea-dust to hand
some made Canton gunpowler. 1t is an in.
teresting question whether China and other
countries can grow enough tea to supply the
world: II they can, We should prefer TO re-
ceive their tea and leave their dirt, of which
We have an adequate provision at home. III
they cannot we bad better adopt Cobbett's
principle and stick to beer At present one
analyst tells us that our tea is faced :nauoth-
er nnds living organisms In the water with
which we fill our kettles; and thirl suggests
that our milk may have been adulterated with
water drawn from wel-polluted by inflira-
ton OF sewage. Our beef is probably horse
flesh, and our mustard is flour coIored with
turmerc aud season ed with capsicum. A few
years ago, says DIR. Hassall. genuine mustard
was scarcely to be met with in the market
The manufacturers made three qualities OF
mustard, distinguished as '.fine,' super
fine" and "douole snperfne." They all con-
sisted OF the above-named ingredients, and
the flrst named contained the least mustard.
| a good deal of -four.
| The value which all trades attach to names
Is remarkable, consid' ring that neither deal
| ers nor customers expect realities to corre-
spond to them. The commonest kind of sber-
ry must be marked ''V, S. o. - and mustard
largely composed of colored -four ranks as
double superhne." Perhaps the reason why
genui-e articles are hardly ever sold in Eng.
land IS that the language has no epithets suf.
nclentiy magnificent TO apply to them. 1t
was alleged by correspondent of the Times
mat Wheat Hour improves mustard, on which
Dr Hassall observes that in tho ''fine' arti-
cles OF commerce which contains least mus
tard, there is most -four, which seems to him
extraordinary if the -four is only used to i'm
prove the mustard. A practice analogous to
That OF facing tea is whitening bread by
| means OF alum. If West End baker made
bread from the best wheat flour and used no
whitening matter the ,read would be yellow
lsh, like the homemade bread of a country
mouse, and his customers would reject it. An
example somewhat similar is that of putting
suphate OF iron into beer to give il "head y
1t is TO be feared that our grandmothers
were addicted to what they called green
ing pickles by putting them into a cop
per vessel. We need not dwell on the
familiar atrocities of colored confectionery
nor upon the use of red lead in cheese. But
new horror has been added to the list by
OF Food who has discovered that mushroom
ketchup is adulterated by ''the Juice ex-
pressed from the livers of purifying horses ;,
After this It is almost a relief to revert to the
older theory that ketchup was made out Of
crushed black beetles Am, ng the proba-
Die ingredients of butter is "rag-pulp,,' and
straw-pulp is largely used in making lam.
we DO no; find that this author sanctions
the popular idea that calf's foot jelly tree.
commended for its Strengthening qualities t,
lnvallds is made out Of old combs. He tells
us that ''plain spirit' is produced from grains
at the dlstillery, and it becomes gin, brandy.
or rum, at the pleasure of the rect. fer.
Many so-called wines, he says, contain the
genuine article in only homeopathic pro-
portion. This statement Is indisputably
true, and it leads US to inquire whether the
wine merchants are to be treated ON the
same principle as the tea dealers. II they
aIe, the unlucky grocer who sells both artf
cles is likely to be doubly punished.