The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1874-03-12
Authorizations of Food in England.

The practice of cOlOring or facing tea
is so notorious that it ought to deceive no
body. Habit and Imagination enable us
| to perceive that a peculiar and grateful fla
vOr is impaired to ordinary black tea by an
! infusion of green tea at a higher price.
! Speaking generally, the true green tea
comes from Shanghai and the false from
/ Canton. DIR. Hassall gave lately an analy-
| sis of an article which, with commendabie
! honesty, was announced as "handSOme
made Canton gunpowder, to initiate true
! Shanghai Ping Suey gunpOwder." This
sample was Every strongly magnetic, "
containing 4S.46 per cent. of lie tea
''earthy matter partly in the folded leaves -
| 1t was faced with turmeric, PruSsian blue,
and white mineral powder. The ash of
the tea was 23.69 per cent. whereas the ash
of good tea is less than per cent; so that
! eXtraneOus matter must have been largely
! introduced into it. DR.. Hassall mentions
/ in the same number Of his journal dust or
| siftings, which he says is usually genuine.
and is sold at a very low price. 1t is not
! known to the public at large, and is much
used for mixing. The public, if they were
sensible, would infinitely prefer this mean
| looking tea-duSt to handsome made Cam
| ton gunpOwder. 1t is an interesting ques-
! ton whether China ana other accessible
| countries can grow enough tea to supply
| the world. If they can, we should prefer
/ to receive their tea and leave their dirt, OF
which we have an adequate provision at
home. If they cannot, we had better
adopt Cobbett's principle and stick to beer.
At present one analyst tells us that our tea
is faced - another finds ''living organ
isms" in the water with which we fill our
kettles; and third suggests that our milk
may have been adulterated with water
drawn from a well polluted by infiltratiOn
of sewage. Our beef is probably horse
flesh, and our mustard is flour colOred
with turmeric and seasoned with capSicum.
\ few years ago, says DR.. Hassall, genuine
mustard was scarcely to be met wiFsaR the
market. The manufacturers fiade
three qualities of mustard, distin-
guished as fine, " superfine, "
and " double superfine. - They all
consisted of the above-named ingredients,
] and the first named contained the least
mustard, while even the double super
fine" contained a good deal of flour. The
value which all trades attach to names is
remarkable. considering that neither deal
erS nor customers expect realities to cor
respond to them. The cOmmOnest kind
of sherry must be marked "N. 5. o., "
and mustard largely composed of colOred
flour ranks as - double supertine." Per-
haps the reason why genuine articles are
hardly ever sold in England is that the
language has no epithets sufficiently mag
niticent to apply to them. II was alleged
by correspondent of the Times that
wheat flour improves mustard, on which
DIR. HaSsall observes that in the "fine' az
ticle of commerce which contains least
mustard, there is most flour, which seems
to him extraordinary if the flour is only
used to improve the mustard. \ practice
analogous to that of facing" tea is
whitening bread by means of alum. If a
West End baker made bread from tie best
wheat flour and used no whitening matter
the bread would be yellOwish. like the
homemade bread of country-hOuse, and
his customers would reject it. An exam
pie somewhat similar is that of putting
sulphate of iron into beer to give it
head" Ii is to be feared that our grand
mothers We're addicted to what they called
greening'' pickles by putting them into
copper vessel. We need not dwell on
tue familiar atrocities of cOlOred cOnfec-
tOnery nor upon the use of red lead in
cheese. But a new horror has been added
| to the list by the author of little book or
Adulterations of Food, who has discover
ed that mushroom ketchUp is adulte,ated
by the juice expressed from the livers of
purifying horses After this il Is almost
a relief to revert to the older theory that
ketchup was made out of crushed black
beetles. Among the probable ingredients
of butter is "rag-pulp," and straw-pulp is
largely used in making jam. We do not
find that this author sanctions the popular
idea that cal's-fOot jelly recommended
for its strengthening qualities to invalids)
is made out of old combs. He tells us
that ''plain spirit is produced from grains
at the diStillery. and it becomes gin,
brandy, or rum, at the pleasure of the rec
tifier. Many sO-called wines, he says, con-
tain the genuine article in only a homeo-
pathic proportion. This statement is in
disputably true, and it leads us to inquire
whether the wine merchants are TO be
treated OH the same principle as the tea
dealers. If they are, the unluclly grocer
who sells both articles is likely to be doubly
puniShed.-SaturdGy ReUiel0.