Copy 2

Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Anon].

  • Lankester, Edwin, 1814-1874.
Date:
1832
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Vegetable substances used for the food of man / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    an unerring test, whether the leaves of green tea contain any impregnation of copper, but in no case has any trace of this metal been detected. The succulent tea-leaves are sometimes twisted into. thin rolls or cords, about an inch and a half or two inches long, and several of these are tied toge- ther by their ends, with coloured silk threads. This is done with both green and black tea. The Chinese do not use their tea until it is about a year old, considering that it is too actively narcotic when new. Tea is yet older when it is brought into consumption in England, as, in addition to the length of time occupied in its collection, and trans- port to this country, the Hast-India Company are obliged by their charter to have always a supply suf- ficient for one year’s consumption in their London warehouses; and this regulation, which enhances the price to the consumer, is said to have been made by way of guarding, in some measure, against the inconvenience that would attend any interruption to a trade entirely dependent upon the caprice of an arbitrary government. The people of China partake of tea at all their meals, and frequently at other times of the day. ‘They drink the infusion prepared in the same man- ner as we employ, but they do not mix with it either sugar or milk. The working classes in that country are obliged to content themselves with a very weak infusion. Mr. Anderson, in his narrative of Lord Macartney’s embassy, relates that the natives in at- tendance never failed to beg the tea-leaves remaining after the Europeans had breakfasted, and with these, after submitting them again to boiling water, they made a beverage which they acknowledged was better than they could ordinarily obtain. . The tea-plant is found in our conservatories, and in such situations has occasionally put forth blossoms