poe ———™~ D COCOA AND Sree er iox TE A SHORT HISTORY OF THEIR PRODUCTION AND USE WITH A FULL AND PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THEIR PROPERTIES, AND OF THE VARIOUS METHODS OF PREPARING THEM FOR FOOD PUBLISHED BY WALTER BAKER & COMPANY DoRCHESTER, Mass., U.S.A. 17S0-1886 SS abl bes CoryRiGurt, 1886, By WALTER BAKER & CO. PRESS OF Rockwell and Churchill, BOSTON. CONTENTS. +e Page SOURCES OF INFORMATION . A C . Wid i INTRODUCTION — SHOWING THE REMARKA— BLE INCREASE IN THE CONSUMPTION OF COCOA AND CHOCOLATE IN GREAT BRIT— AIN AND THE UNITED STATES. 3 ; 10% THE CACAO-TREE— WHERE AND HOW CUL-— TIVATED — METHOD OF CURING THE FRUIT, ETC. : . a 5 a 5 1001 EARLY USE OF COCOA AND CHOCOLATE IN MEXICO, EUROPE, ETC. . : : - MINE PROPERTIES OF THE DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE FRUIT, AND OF ITS PRODUCTS . : 26 45 1V CONTENTS. Page Vs VALUE OF COCOA AND CHOCOLATE AS AR- TICLES OF FOOD, WITH OPINIONS OF THE MOST EMINENT PHYSICIANS . . oh VI. CocoA-BUTTER — ITS PURITY, HEALING QUALITIES, ETC. : : : : - 82 VIL. RECEIPTS . . . : : : - Of Different methods of preparing drinks, 91 Plain chocolate. . : : - 94 Frothed chocolate . : ; - - 96 Milled chocolate . : : : & Vy Baker’s Premium No. 1 : : - 98 Baker’s vanilla chocolate. : - 98 Baker’s Breakfast cocoa . : ; - 99 Baker’s Cocoa-paste . 2 5 2 199 Baker’s Eagle French chocolate . 5 G0) German sweet chocolate < 5 - 100 Baker’s Racahout des Arabes : - 100 Baker’s broma 2 - : : - 100 Baker’s Cocoa-shells. - ; . IO1 Baker’s prepared cocoa . - ; - IOI Baker’s Premium cracked cocoa . Ss 1Or CONTENTS. RECEIPTS, continued. Chocolat au lait (French) Chocolat 4 Yeau . Spanish chocolate . 3 Egg chocolate : : German egg chocolate . Parisian egg chocolate . oD Wine chocolate A Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate wine : puddings mixture. cake - cakes macaroons tartlets . filling for cake WLeLS |i. jumbles. éclairs . cream puffs . blanc-mange . custards. 3 Chocolate Bavarian cream Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate souffiés . méringue creams Cream chocolates . vi CONTENTS. Page RECEIPTS, continued. Chocolate fondant . : - : » 138 Chocolate Charlotte Russe . . 139 Chocolate custard pies . : 3 - 140 Chocolate pie (rich) . : : AO Chocolate ice cream. s 5 - 141 Chocolate cream drops . : : = 14g Chocolate caramels : : : » 144. Cream chocolate caramels . : eas Chocolate candy . : : : - 146 Creme de cacao. : : : a) Ay Chocolate parfait amour : : aay Bavaroise au chocolat . - : - 148 Chocolate syrup. : : 245 Chocolate syrup for soda water . - 149 Chocolate icing or coating . é . 150 Chocolate whip. : : : 450 Chocolate drops, with nonpareils . - 151 SOURCES OF INFORMATION. ‘¢A New Survey of the West Indies,” etc., by Thomas Gage. 2d edition, London, 1655. “The Natural History of Chocolate,” by a French Officer; translated by Dr. R. Brookes, and printed in London, 1730. ‘‘Foods”: (International scientific series), by Dr. Edward Smith, London, 1873. “The Beverages we Infuse”: Blackwood’s Magazine, v. 75, 1854. «Physiologie du Gott,” by J. Anthelme Bril- lat-Savarin. New edition, 2 v., Paris. ‘‘TLe Cacao et le Chocolat, considerés aux points de vue botanique, chimique, physiolo- gique, agricole, commercial, industrial et eco- nomique.” Par Arthur Mangin, Paris, 1862. “A Practical Treatise on the Analysis of Tea, Coffee, Cocoa, Chocolate, etc.,” by J. Alfred Wanklyn, Public Analyst, etc., London, 1874. Vili SOURCES OF INFORMATION. “‘McCulloch’s Dictionary of Commerce and Commercial Navigation,” London, 1882. ‘¢ Spon’s Encyclopedia of the Industrial Arts,” etc., Div. II., London, 18So. ‘Encyclopedia Britannica,” gth edition, Arti- cle ‘* Cocoa.” Lecture on ‘‘ Chocolate,” before the Sheffield Scientific School, New Haven, 1881, by Pro- fessor Daniel C. Eaton. «© A Manual of Hygiene,” prepared especially for use in the medical service of the army, by Edmund A. Parkes, M.D., F.R.S., London, 1864. ‘© A Treatise on Hygiene and Public Health,” edited by Albert H. Buck, M.D., New York, 1879. The ‘‘Cantor” Lectures on Food, by H. Letheby, Londen, 1872. “Cocoa,” by John R. Jackson. ‘‘ Nature,” v. 2, 1870. ‘“‘Adulterations of Food,” by Rowland J. Atcherly, Ph.D., London, 1874. “Lectures on Diet and Regimen,” by A. F. M. Willick, M.D., 3d edition, London, 1801. Paper on ‘‘ Chocolate,” in the ‘‘ Annales de Physique et de Chimie,” by M. Boussingault, member of the French Institute. ‘* History of American Manufactures,” by J. L. Bishop. SOURCES OF INFORMATION. ix Reports on Commerce and Navigation, and Consular Reports, United States and Great Britain. Works on Cookery, by Maria Parloa, Pierre Caron, Pierre Blot, Mrs. M. F. Henderson, Marion Harland, Flora Neely, Matilda Lees Wodsy ivics. Blairs Saray 2. > Paull; ‘also, the **Confectioner’s Journal,” ‘* The Dessert Book,” s@hoice Receipts, etc: COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. Tr CONSUMPTION. URING the last half-century the con- sumption of cocoa in various forms has increased to an extraordinary extent, both in this country and Great Britain. This is due to several causes, among the most prominent of which are, (1) a reduc- tion in the retail price, which brings it within the means of the poorer classes ; (2) a more general recognition of the value of cocoa as an article of diet, and (3) im- provements in methods of preparation, by which it is adapted to the wants of difier- ent classes of consumers. 2 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. There is no doubt that, if it had not been for the monopoly of the production which Spain long possessed, and which kept the price, on its first introduction into England, at a point where only the rich could afford to buy it, cocoa would have come into as general use there as it did in Spain, and would, perhaps, have been received with more favor than tea or coflee, which were introduced about the same time. It appears that, in the time of Charles II., the price of the best chocolate (very crude, undoubtedly, as compared with the present manufactures), was 6s. 8d. a pound, which, if we take into account the greater purchasing power of money at that time, would be equal to at least $5 a pound at this time for a coarse compound. Humboldt estimated the consumption of cocoa in Europe, in 1806, at 23,000,000 pounds per annum, of which from 6,000,000 to 9,000,000 were supposed to be consumed CONSUMPTION. g in Spain. From the latest official returns of imports and consumption in the principal countries it appears that over 70,000,000 pounds are now used. France heads the list with 26,750,250 pounds; Spain comes next, with 16,450,000; England consumes 13,906,512; the Netherlands, 5,475,000; Germany, about 3,250,000, and Belgium, 1,245,000. ‘The United States stands next to Great Britain in the list of consumers, the amount of crude cocoa entered for con- sumption last year being about 8,500,000 pounds. ‘The returns of exportations from the countries in which the article is pro- duced are so incomplete that it is im- possible to state definitely the total amount exported; but it is probably not far from 80,000,000 pounds per annum. Reckoning the consumption in the coun- tries where it is raised at not less than 20,000,000 pounds, it may safely be as- sumed that the total annual product does not fall short of 100,000,000 pounds. 4 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. While the average price of the raw prod- uct has steadily increased during the last thirty years (from 47s. per cwt., between 1854-60, to 74s. between 1881-84"), the retail price of the prepared cocoa has fallen. This is due to improvements in machinery and methods of handling, and to the sharp competition between the lead- ing manufacturers. In 1820 the quantity of cocoa entered for home consumption in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was only 267,321 pounds; in 1884 it amounted to 13,966,512 pounds of crude cocoa, and 1,033,173 pounds of chocolate, —in all about 15,000,coo pounds, an increase of 5,500 per cent. in sixty-four years. The population, in the meantime, had increased only 7334 per cent. ; the use of tea had in- creased only 457 per cent., and of coffee only 356 percent. During the last twenty- 1 Mulhatl’s (English) Price Lists. CONSUMPTION. 5 five years the consumption of cocoa and its products in the United Kingdom has in- creased about 230 per cent. The con- sumption per inhabitant is about 6°/5 oz. In the United States the increased con- sumption in recent years has been no less striking. The amount of cocoa retained for home consumption in 1860 was only 1,181,054 pounds ; in 1885 it was 8,426,787 pounds (that is, cocoa, crude cocoa and shells, not including chocolate, which is classed, in the official returns of imports, under the general head of ‘ farinaceous articles”), — an increase of 614 per cent. in twenty-five years. The population in- creased during that period less than 60 per cent. The consumption of tea increased 153 per cent., and of coffee 196 per cent. In view, therefore, of the great and constantly increasing use of this product, its properties and supply become questions of the highest economic and hygienic im- portance. For the purpose of satisfying 6 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. the desire for information upon a subject which is of such general interest we have collected, from the most authentic sources, such facts in relation to the growth of the cacao-tree, the preparation of its fruit for the market, and the value of the different preparations for dietary purposes, as may serve to increase the common stock of knowledge in regard to one of the staple articles of food. THE CACAO-TREE. 7 II. THE CACAO-TREE. HE term ‘‘ Cocoa” isa corruption of ** Cacao,” but is almost universally used in English-speaking countries. The cacao-tree belongs to the natural order of Sterculiacez, —a family of about 41 gen- eraand 521 species, inhabiting the warmer regions of the world. None of them grow naturally in our climate, or in Europe, and, excepting the little yellow-fiowered Mahernie, they are very seldom seen in our conservatories. The cacao-tree can be cultivated in suit- able situations within the 25th parallels of latitude. It flourishes best, however, with- in the 15th parallels, at elevations varying from near the sea-level up to about 2,000 feet in height. The following table con- 8 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. tains the principal species, the places where grown, and the commercial name : — Botanical Name. Where Grown. Commercial Name. Theobroma angustifolia . Mexico. nN : 2 Maranhan. Ite locollorr 5g 8 | 1Bhrewaill 8 aaa Bahia. New Granada, Magdalena. T. Cacao (sati- Va)is bao» 15.) PAUStralia. ce 8) Bourbon, Ceylon, The name of Cuba, each country. Dominico, ere Guatemala. . Central Amer- ican. Guinea”. >. " Afmcan: Hayti, India, Jamaica, Java, Madagascar, Martinique, The name of Mauritius, each country. Philippines, . Sta Groin St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Trinidad, J) THE CACAO-TREE. 9 Botanical Name. Where Grown. Commercial Name. . Cacao (sati- M ibo. T. Cacao ( Venezuela . . 9 Maracaibo va.) Caracas. T. glauca. T. Guyanensis, Cayenne . . Berbice. Surinam. <> ~:~ Surinam. Ecuador . . Esmeralda. Be ee) iera. 3.4. 0: Guayaquil. T. ovalifolia . Mexico. . . Soconusco. aerspeciosa, .—2- Brazil’ + -.~. Para. T. sylvestris . Brazil Jamaica. . . Besides the above-mentioned species, distinguished by botanists, Z. Cacao, which is the most widely and largely cul- tivated, is divided by cocoa-planters into several varieties, the differences observed being due to the long-continued influences of varied climates, soils and modes of cult- ure. The best of these is the Creole (or Créollo of the Spanish inhabitants of South America). The pods are small; but the nuts are thick, short, and almost globular, pale crimson in color, and of slightly bitter but agreeable flavor. This variety is 10 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. becoming scarce, chiefly through the bad policy of replacing decayed trees by in- ferior specimens. The next variety is the frorastero, the best kinds of which are the Cundeamar, of two descriptions, one with yellow, the other with red pods. The former is the better, containing large seeds which, in color and the ease with which they are fermented, resemble the Crzodlo. The third variety is the Aseclonado; and the fourth and lowest is the Ca/abaczllo, whose seeds are small, bitter, and of a dark crimson color. All the varieties except the Crzollo, which is probably confined to Venezuela, are known collectively as Z7rzxztaréo, or *¢ Trinidad,” — the best being but little in- ferior to Crzolo in the matter of quality, and superior on the score of fruitfulness. Hence Trinidad forms the principal nursery from which plants or seeds are procured for new plantations. The various kinds of cocoa may be THE CACAO—-TREE. 11 placed in about the following order of merit : Soconusco (Mexico) and Esmeralda, (Ecuador), mostly, it is said, consumed at home ; Caracas and Puerto Cabello (Vene- zuela) ; Trinitario; Magdalena and Car- thagena, New Granada; Para; Bahia.! The British West Indies appear to take the lead among the producers for exporta- tion; Ecuador stands second, Venezuela third, and Brazil fourth. The larger part of the Brazilian crop goes to France; and the larger part of the LTcuadorian to Spain. A French officer who served in the West Indies for a period of fifteen years, during the early part of the last century, wrote, as the result of his personal observations, a treatise on ‘‘The Natural History of Choco- late, being a distinct and particular Account of the Cacao-Tree, its Growth and Culture, 1Spon’s Encyclopedia, etc., Div. II. 12 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. and the Preparation, Excellent Properties, and Medicinal Virtues of its Fruit,’? which received the approbation of the Regent of the Faculty of Medicine at Paris, and which was translated and published in London in 1730. From this rare and valuable little work the following extracts are made: — ‘“The cacao-tree almost all the year bears fruit of all ages, which ripens suc- cessively, but never grows on the end of little branches, as our fruits in Europe do, but along the trunk and chief boughs, which is not rare in these countries, where several trees do the like. Such an unusual appearance would seem strange in the eyes of Europeans, who have never seen any- thing of that kind; but, if one examines the matter a little, the philosophical reason of this disposition is very obvious. One may easily apprehend that if nature had placed such bulky fruit at the ends of the branches their great weight must necessa- THE CACAO-TREE. 13 rily break them, and the fruit would fall before it came to maturity. ‘¢ The fruit is contained in a husk, or shell, which, from an exceedingly small begin- ning, attains in the space of four months to the bigness and shape of a cucumber. The lower end is sharp, and furrowed length- wise like a melon. This shell in the first months is either red or white, or a mixture of red and yellow. This variety of colors makes three sorts of cacao-trees, which have nothing else to distinguish them but this. . . . If one cleaves one of these shells lengthways it will appear almost half an inch thick, and its capacity full of choco- late kernels; the intervals of which, before they are ripe, are filled with a hard white substance, which at length turns into a mucilage of a very grateful acidity. For this reason it is common for people to take some of the kernels with their covers and hold them in their mouths, which is mighty refreshing, and proper to quench thirst. 14 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. But they take heed of biting them, because the films of the kernels are extremely bitter. ‘¢ When one nicely examines the inward structure of these shells, and anatomizes, as it were, all their parts, one shall find that the fibres of the stalk of the fruit pass- ing through the shell are divided into five branches; that each of these branches is subdivided into several filaments, every one of which terminates at the larger end of these kernels, and altogether resembles a bunch of grapes, containing from twenty to thirty-five single ones, or more, ranged andsplaced in an admirable order. When one takes off the film that covers one of the kernels the substance of it appears, which ~is tender, smooth, and inclining to violet color, and is seemingly divided into several lobes, though in reality they are but two; but very irregular and difficult to be disen- gaged from each other.” An interesting supplement to this de- THE CACAO—TREE. 15 scription of the product in the West Indies, written more than acentury and a half ago, will be found in the following report, made last year to the State Department at Wash- ington, by the U.S. Consul at La Guayra, in relation to the cultivation of cocoa in Venezuela, where the choicest variety of the exported product, the Caracas, is raised : — ‘¢ The tree grows to the average height of thirteen feet, and from five to eight inches in diameter, is of spreading habit and healthy growth, and, although requiring much more care and attention than the cofiee-tree, yet its equally reliable crops require comparatively littie labor in prop- erly preparing for the market. sc. . . There are two varieties of the cocoa-tree cultivated in Venezuela, known as El Criollo and El Trinitario, respec- tively, the former of which, though not so prolific nor as early fruiting as the latter, is yet superior to it in size, color, swect- 16 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. ness, and oleaginous properties of the fruit, and in the fact that it always finds ready sale, while the latter is often dull or neg- lected. The difference in price of the two varieties is also marked, the former being quoted at $28 to $30 per fanega (110 pounds), while the latter commands ap- proximately half that price. ‘¢ While coffee can be successfully culti- vated under a temperature of 60 degrees F., the cocoa-tree, for proper development and remunerative crops, requires a tem- perature of 80 degrees F.; hence the area of the cocoa belt is comparatively re- stricted, and the cocoa-planter presumably has not to fear the fierce competition that he has encountered in the cultivation of cotton and coffee. Besides the condition of temperature above stated, this crop needs a moist soil and humid atmosphere, and so the lands along the coast of the Caribbean sea, sloping from the mountain- tops to the shore, bedewed by the exha- THE CACAO-TREE. 1b lations of the sea and irrigated by the numerous rivulets that course down the valleys, are found to be, in all respects, well adapted to the profitable cultivation of cocoa. And while the lands in the interior possessing facilities for irrigation may be said to be equally as good for the purpose, yet the absence of roads, and the consequently difficult transportation of produce on the backs of donkeys over rugged mountain paths, materially reduce the profits on the crop before it reaches the market. ‘« A cocoa plantation is set in quite the same manner as an apple-orchard, except that the young stalks may be transplanted from the nursery after two months’ growth. No preparation of the soil is deemed neces- sary, and no manures are applied. The young trees are planted about fifteen feet equidistant, which will accommodate two hundred trees to the acre. Between rows, and at like spaces, are planted rows of the 18 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. Bucare, a tree of rapid growth, that serves to shade the soil as well as to shield the young trees from the torrid sun. Small permanent trenches must be maintained from tree to tree throughout the entire length of the rows, so that, at least once in the week, the stream, descending from the mountains, may be turned into these little channels and bear needful moisture to trees and soil. At the age of five years the plantation begins to bear fruit, and annually yields two crops, that ripening in June being termed the crop of San Juan, and that maturing at Christmas being known as the crop of La Navidad. ‘The average age to which the trees attain, under proper care, may be estimated at forty years, during which period it will give fair to full crops of fruit; but of course it must be understood that, as in our fruit-orchards, a new tree must be set from time to time to replace one that may be decayed or blighted. After careful THE CACAO-TREE. 19 inquiry it may be safely stated that the average crop of the cocoa plantation at ten years of age, and under a proper state of cultivation, will amount to five hundred or six hundred pounds per acre. ‘6 The fruit or seed of the cocoa, in form, size, and color, is quite similar to the almond. These seeds, to the number of sixty or eighty,' are encased in a pod, 1This statement is incorrect. The average number is about twenty-five; the maximum number would not exceed forty. It is curious to note the different statements of those who are regarded as authorities on the subject. Dampier («A New Voyage round the World’’) says there are com- monly near a hundred; Thomas Gage (‘* New Survey of the West Indies ”’) says there are from thirty to forty; Colmenero (‘‘ A Curious Discourse upon Chocolate”) says ten or twelve; Oexmelin (‘* The History of Adventures ”) says ten to fourteen. The French officer, in his “ Natural History of Chocolate,” says (and says truly), “ I can affirm, after athousand trials, that I never found more nor less than twenty-five. Perhaps, if one were to seek out the largest shells in the most fruitful soil and growing on the most flourishing trees, one might find forty kernels; but as it is not likely one would ever meet with more, so, on the other hand, it is not probable one would ever find less than fifteen except they are abortive, or the fruit of a tree worn out with age in a barren soil, or without culture.” 20 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. which, except in color, is the counterpart of a young muskmelon, being elongated and ribbed in the same manner. Its color, when green, is like that of the egg-plant, but, on ripening, it assumes a reddish hue. | 1.92 manvome Acid CO; <4 \. 3). '0:98 Pea Oa ah cia ielh me “eh, 645.00 Semen al eh kl ites ek pal ia’ RD Bees 99-86 50 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. ‘¢ From this analysis it is apparent that the main constituent of the ash is phos- phate of potash, and that there is almost total absence of carbonates. The ash of the shell being, as has been said, highly charged with carbonates, it follows that, in obtaining the ash of the entire seed, we cause the phosphates of the nib to decom- pose the carbonates of the shell, and so ob- tain an ash devoid of carbonates. ‘¢ The large proportion of phosphate of potash in cocoa (certainly not far from one per cent. in the seed of good quality) is worthy the attention of the physician, and no doubt gives an especial value to a dietary consisting largely of cocoa. It will further be observed that the fine kinds of cocoa-seeds are rich in phosphate of pot- eiSHicn cyte cet = ‘¢ Mixtures of cocoa with starch and sugar have long been perfectly legitimate, provided no deception as to the strength in cocoa be practised.” PROPERTIES, ETC. 51 In conclusion he says: ‘** The prepara- tions of cocoa constitute food rather than drink, being highly nutritious in every sense of the term. The fat present in cocoa — viz., the cocoa-butter — appears to be of a particularly available description. It is said never to become rancid, and merits an elaborate examination. Whether it be owing to peculiarities in the fat of cocoa, or whether it be the theobromine that is particularly efficient, certain it is that cocoa will sometimes nourish when nothing else will, and cocoa is occasionally invaluable to the physician.” 52 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. Vv. VALUE AS FOOD. R.. EDWARD “SMITH, LEE-BS F.R.S., in his valuable work on ‘* Foods,” for the International Scientific Series, says: — ‘¢ These well-known substances (cocoa and chocolate) are valuable foods, since they are not only allied to tea and coffee as respiratory excitants, but possess a large quantity of fat and other food mate- rials. “‘s ‘©The following is the analysis of the cocoa-bean, from various localities, by Tuchen : — Surinam. Caracas. Para. Trinidad. Theobromine, per. ct. 0.56 0.55 0.66 0.48 Cocoa, red. = 12 = 6.61 “6 s1G) Oslonmoree Cocoa-butter . . . 36.97 35.08 34.48 36.42 VALUE AS FOOD. 53 Surinam. Caracas. Para. Trinidad. PEM eniier tes yell 3200 9.21 2.60" 15.15 SASH ‘is oe) a tn Oth 5. O02) 0.23) 0, 55 ee ta) a) (ay 0,00. LTT, O76. x61 Extractive matter . 4.14 6.22 6.02 5.48 Flume acid.) . . 7:25) 9-28 3.67 9.25 Cellulose . . . . 30.00 28.66 30.21 29.86 SIESIe sea) 2.2 s)-) «1. 3:00). 2.01 +3100 2208 Meeeg wedi, O50 5259.--5.55 34.88 ‘* This substance,” he goes on to say, ‘¢in its action is less exciting to the ner- vous system than tea or coffee, and at the same time it contains a much larger pro- portion of nutritive material. Moreover, its flavor is not lessened by the addition of milk, so that it can be boiled in milk only, and thus produce a most agreeable and nutritious food. ‘There are, therefore, many persons, states of system and cir- cumstances, in which its use is to be pre- ferred to either tea or coffee.” 54 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. A writer in Blackwood’s Magazine (1854, V. 75) says: ‘* Of all the varieties of ordinary human food cocoa has the closest resemblance to milk;” and he gives the following analyses of dried milk and the dried kernel of the cocoa-bean : — Cocoa-Beans. Dried Milk. Glutenjor(@aseme yi 717-7 10; Lee es Starchior Sugar |.) 1}. 23 ae. seas Bat acy hie renin, eon te ibe 55k tee eee Mineral matter ay. A.) cr eae ae eet ‘¢ These numbers show,” he says, ‘‘ that the bean is rich in all the important nutri- tious principles which are found to coexist in our most valued forms of ordinary food. It differs from milk chiefly in the larger proportion of fat it contains, and hence it cannot be used so largely without admixt- ure as the more familiar milk. When mixed with water, however, it is more properly compared with milk than with VALUE AS FOOD. 55 the infusions of little direct nutritive value, like those of tea and coilee; and, on the other hand, it has the great advantage over milk, over beef-tea, and other similar beverages, that it contains the substance theobromine and the volatile empyrematic oil,— both possessed of very valuable properties. Thus it unites in itself the exhilarating and other special qualities which distinguish tea, with the strengthen- ing and ordinary body-supporting qualities of milk.” Brillat-Savarin, from whose work we have already quoted, says : — ‘* Chocolate has given rise to profound dissertations, whose object has been to de- termine its nature and properties, and to place it in the category of hot, cold, or temperate foods; and it must be confessed that these learned writings have contributed but very slightly to the demonstration of the truth. 56 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. ‘¢ But it was left for those two great mas- ters, time and experience, to decide that chocolate, carefully prepared, is an article of food as wholesome as it is agreeable ; that it is nourishing, easy of digestion, and does not possess those qualities injurious to beauty with which coffee has been re- proached ; that it is excellently adapted to persons who are obliged to a great concen- tration of intellect in the toils of the pulpit or the bar, and especially to travellers ; that it suits the most feeble stomach; that excellent effects have been produced by it in chronic complaints, and that it is a last resource in affections of the pylorus. ‘¢ The various properties are due to the fact that,.chocolate being, strictly speak- ing, only an elzosaccharum (oil of sugar), there are few substances which contain in an equal volume more nourishing par- ticles, — the consequence being that it is almost entirely assimilated. ‘¢ During the war (of the Spanish Suc- VALUE AS FOOD. V4 cession) cocoa was scarce, and very dear. It was attempted to find a substitute, but all efforts were in vain; and one of the greatest benefits of the peace was the re- lieving us of the various brews, which it Was necessary to taste out of politeness, but which were no more like chocolate than the infusion of chiccory was like Mocha coflee. «¢ Some persons complain of being unable to digest chocolate; others, on the con- trary, pretend that it has not sufficient nourishment, and that the effect disappears too soon. It is probable that the former have only themselves to blame, and that the chocolate which they use is of bad quality or badly made; for good and well- made chocolate must suit every stomach which retains the slightest digestive power. ‘¢In regard to the others the remedy is an easy one; they should reénforce their breakfast with a Zaté, a cutlet, or a kid- ney; moisten the whole with a good 58 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. draught of soconusco chocolate, and thank God for a stomach of such superior ac- tivity. ‘* This givesme an opportunity to make an observation whose accuracy may be depended upon. ‘* After a good, complete and copious breakfast, if we take in addition a cup of well-made chocolate, digestion will be perfectly accomplished in three hours, and we may dine whenever we like. Out of zeal for science, and by dint of eloquence, I have induced many ladies to try this experiment. They all declared, in the be- ginning, that it would kill them; but they have all thriven on it, and have not failed to glorify their teacher. ‘¢ The people who make constant use of chocolate are the ones who enjoy the most steady health, and are the least sub- ject to a multitude of little ailments which destroy the comfort of life; their plump- ness is also more equal. ‘These are two VALUE AS FOOD. 59 advantages which every one may verily among his own friends, and wherever the practice is in use. ‘¢ This is the place to speak of the prop- erties of chocolate with amber, —properties which I have proved with many experi- ments, and the results of which I am proud to offer to my readers. ‘¢ Let every man, then, who has drunk too deep of the cup of pleasure ; every man who has spent in work the time which should be devoted to sleep; every man of wit who feels himself temporarily growing stupid; every man who finds the air damp, the time long, and the atmosphere difficult to endure; every man who is tor- mented with a fixed idea which takes away from him the liberty of thought, — let ali these, I say, administer to themselves a good half-litre of amber chocolate, in the proportion of sixty or seventy grains of amber to the pound, and they will see wonders. 60 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. ‘¢In my particular way of specifying things I call amber chocolate chocolate Jor the afiicted, because each one of these various conditions which I have designated has something in common which resembles afiliction.” M. Boussingault,! a member of the French Institute, in an interesting paper printed in the ** Axzales de Physique et du Chimie,” says:— ‘¢ Chocolate contains a very large pro- portion of nutritive matter in a small vol- ume. Inan expedition to a great distance, where it is imperatively necessary to re- duce the weight of the rations, chocolate offers undeniable advantages, as I have had frequent occasions to notice. Hum- boldt recalls what has been said with reason, that in Africa rice, gum, and 1Jean Baptiste Joseph Dieudonné Boussingault, French chemist, served in his youth on the staff of Bolivar, the liberator of South America. VALUE AS FOOD. 61 butter enable men to cross the desert; and he adds that, in the New World, chocolate and corn-meal render the plateaus of the Andes, and the vast, uninhabited forests, accessible to man. ‘¢In Central America, when they organ- ize a river expedition, or traverse the for- ests, they prepare chocolate for provision with eighty parts of cocoa to twenty of coarse sugar, the composition being as fol- lows: — Seg ctr al teh 5. laser’ ais fol Lic bap aye’) S2OO CCI ages Bir SD Ge eeSie Sse) (RU KS olen ATO AN ouimae abet" Ge Ee Ce ee eee 100 Eaosphates, and salts. o> >5 4o0 % )% 30 Miner matter. +e cost. Be eo cescee Sd 2OO 1,000 ‘¢ Each man receives 60 grammes (about 2 ounces) of this chocolate per day, in which there are 12 grammes of sugar, 26 of butter, 62 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. and 6 of albumen. It is a useful addition to the ration formed of beef slightly salted and dried in the air, of rice, of corn bis- cuit, or of cassava muffins. ‘¢ The infusion of tea, mate (Paraguay tea), and coffee are not, of course, to be con- sidered as food. The amount of solid matter in them is very slight, and their effects are due only to their alkaloids. ‘¢ This is not true of chocolate, which is at the same time complete food and an active excitant, since it approaches in com- position that model food, milk. In fact we have seen that in cocoa there is legu- mine and albumen, associated with fat, sugar to sustain respiratory combustion, phosphates, which are the basis of the bones, and—what milk does not have —theobromine and a delicate aroma. Roasted, ground and mixed with sugar, cocoa becomes chocolate, the nutritive properties of which astonished the Spanish soldiers that invaded Mexico.” VALUE AS FOOD. 63 A competent writer, in the last edition of the ‘‘ Encyclopedia Britannica,” says : — ‘¢ The constitution upon which the pecul- iar value of cocoa depends is the theobro- mine, an alkaloid substance, which till re- cently was supposed to be distinct from, though closely allied to, the theine of tea and coffee. It isnow, however, known that the alkaloid in these, and in two or three other substances similarly used, is identical, and their physiological value is consequently the same. The fat, or cocoa-butter, is a firm, solid white substance, at ordinary temperature, having an agreeable taste and odor, and very remarkable for its freedom from any tendency to become rancid. It consists essentially of stearin, with a little olein, and is used in surgical practice, and in France as a material for soap and pomade manufacture. ‘¢The starch grains present in raw cocoa are small in size,and of a character so peculiar that there is no difficulty in dis- 64 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. tinguishing them under the microscope from any other starch granules. As an article of food cocoa differs essentially from both tea and coffee. While only an in- fusion of these substances is used, leaving a large proportion of their total weight unconsumed, the entire substance of the cocoa-seeds is prepared as an emulsion for drinking, and the whole is thus utilized within the system. While the contents of a cup of tea or coffee can thus only be re- garded as stimulant in its effect, and almost entirely destitute of essential nutritive prop- erties, a cup of prepared cocoa is really a most nourishing article of diet, as, in addi- tion to the value of the theobromine it con- tains, it introduces into the system no incon- siderable portion of valuable nitrogenous and oleaginous elements.” M. Arthur Mangin, in his valuable work, ‘* Ze Cacao et le Chocolat,” pub- lished in 1862, gives some very good VALUE AS FOOD. 65 reasons for promoting the use of cocoa. He says :— *¢ Cocoa cannot be considered in any re- spect an article of luxury. It is nota dainty; its hygienic and nutritive prop- erties are unquestionable and unquestioned, and its being endowed with an aroma and flavor which please the sense of smell and the palate is no reason at all for its not being reckoned among articles of food, properly so called. Its cultivation, trans- port and preparation furnish occupation and support to a multitude of laborers, and its consumption should be respected and encouraged by all wise governments, not only because it is physically beneficial, but, and we do not hesitate to say it, because it is moradly salutary. ‘¢ Coffee, of which much good can hon- estly be said, is, however, open to much criticism, as well on account of its physio- logical effects as its influence on public morals. It can be abused and misused. 66 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. Its infusion is an exciting beverage, which does not agree with every one, and which may, when used to excess, cause serious consequences, decidedly affect the health, and even disturb the intellectual faculties. Coffee, moreover, easily becomes a pretext for debauch. It is consumed in the most respectable houses ; but also in cafés, liquor saloons and disreputable places, with the accompaniments of alcoholic liquors, to- bacco-smoke, coarse words, and unlawful games. ‘¢ Tt isimpossible to impute the like effects to chocolate. Itsuse can never degenerate into abuse, and it can never, like cofiee, become a poison, even a slow poison. And then, whatever certain casuists may say, chocolate is decidedly a food, not a bever- age. More, it is, above all, the food of sober, orderly, and peaceable folk. It is found only on the family table, at parties of good society, or in public establishments frequented either by well-bred people or VALUE AS FOOD. 67 hard-working mechanics. We do not play cards or smoke while we drink chocolate, and after it we take no brandy; we drink, perhaps, a glass of cold water, and go peaceably back to our work or to look after our aflairs. ‘¢ The well-known proverb, ‘ People are known by the company they keep,’ would lose none of its force if altered to read: ‘Tell me what you eat and drink, and I will tell you who you are.’ Breakfast, especially, is the characteristic repast, which gives the surest indications as to the morality of civilized men. The man who eats a substantial meat breakfast, and fol- lows it up with coffee and liquors, may certainly be a very honest man, but he is not a temperate man, and one might wager that after such a repast he will do very little. Be assured, on the contrary, that he who breakfasts on milk, coffee, or choco- late has few physical wants; that his sen- suality, if he be sensual, is mild and 68 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. moderate, and that the man in him has the mastery over he animal. Let govern- ments load with high duties all spirituous liquors, — luxurious beverages for the rich, but utter poison for the people, — agents of depravity, demoralization, and degenera- tion, equally fatal to public morals and public health; let them impose an arbi- trary tax on tobacco, and even monopolize the sale at fictitious prices; let them do likewise with playing-cards and _ other articles which supply merely imaginary wants, —these are measures whose political legitimacy or economic utility may be at- tacked, but which cannot be contested as contrary to the popular interest, or to the increase of its comfort or its moral im- provement. ** Cocoa is, on the contrary, among the few articles—it is perhaps the only one —whose sale should be not only released from all constraint, but encouraged and extended, because it is the only article of VALUE AS FOOD. 69 food to which may be applied the appar- ently strange and paradoxical qualification — morally improving food. We have just shown that this qualification suits it in all respects. It is proved, beside, that cocoa enters too largely into popular consump- tion, that it forms too great an addition to the sum of the food substances already ex- isting, for it to be reckoned henceforth among luxuries subject to sumptuary laws.” Dr. Edmund A. Parkes, F.R.S., in his *¢ Manual of Practical Hygiene, prepared especially for use in the Medical Service of the Army” (London, 1864), says: — ‘¢ Although the theobromine of cocoa is now known to be identical with theine and caffeine, the composition of cocoa removes it widely from tea and coffee. The quan- tity of fat varies even in the same sort of cocoa. The ash contains a large quantity of phosphate of potash. The larger quantity 70 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. of fat makes it a very nourishing article of diet, and it is therefore useful in weak states of the system, and for healthy men under circumstances of great exertion. It has even been compared to milk. In South America cocoa and maize cakes are used by travellers, and the large amount of agreeable nourishment in small bulk enables several days’ supplies to be easily carried. By roasting, the starch is changed into dextrin, the amount of margaric acid increases, and an empyrematic aromatic substance is formed.” Baron von Liebig, the famous chemist, says :— **It is a perfect food, as wholesome as delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power ; but its quality must be good, and it must be carefully prepared. Itis highly nourishing and easily digested, and is fitted to repair wasted strength, preserve health, and prolong life. It agrees with dry tem- VALUE AS FOOD. 7A peraments and convalescents ; with moth- ers who nurse their children; with those whose occupations oblige them to undergo severe mental strains; with public speak- ers, and with all those who give to worka portion of the time needed for sleep. It soothes both stomach and brain, and for this reason, as well as for others, it is the best friend of those engaged in literary pursuits.” Francois Joseph Victor Broussais, a celebrated physician and member of the French Institute, says : — *¢ Chocolate of good quality, well made, properly cooked, is one of the best aliments that I have yet found for my patients and for myself. This delicious food calms the fever, nourishes adequately the patient, and tends to restore him to health. I would even add that I attribute many cures of chronic dyspepsia to the regular use of chocolate.” 72 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland, the dis- tinguished German physician, says : — ‘¢T recommend good chocolate to ner- vous, excitable persons; also to the weak, debilitated, and infirm; to children and women. I have obtained excellent results from it in many cases of chronic diseases of the digestive organs.” Dr. Karl Ernest Bock, of eipsie; author of a ‘‘ Trazté de Pathologie et de Diagnostic,” says :— ‘¢’The nervousness and peevishness of our times are chiefly attributable to tea and coffee; the digestive organs of con- firmed cofiee-drinkers are in a state of chronic derangement, which reacts upon the brain, producing fretful and lachry- mose moods. Cocoa and chocolate are neutral in their physical effects, and are really the most harmless of our fashionable drinks.” VALUE AS FOOD. CB: Jean Baptiste Alphonse Chevalier, in his treatise on chocolate, says :— ‘‘Cocoa and chocolate are a complete food ; coffee and tea are not food. Cocoa gives one-third its weight in starch and one- half in cocoa-butter; and, converted into chocolate by the addition of sugar, it real- izes the idea of a complete aliment, whole- some and eminently hygienic. The shells of the bean contain the same principles as the kernels, and the extract, obtained by an infusion of the shells in sweetened milk, forms a mixture at once agreeable to the taste, and an advantageous substitute for tea and coffee.” Mme. de Sevigné, in one of her letters to her daughter, says : — ““T took chocolate night before last to digest my dinner, in order to have a good supper. I took some yesterday for nour- ishment, so as to be able to fast until night. What I consider amusing about chocolate 74 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. is that it acts according to the wishes of the one who takes it.” It will be observed that Brillat-Savarin corroborates this statement as to the value of chocolate as an aid to digestion. ‘¢'The cocoa-nut,” says M. Payen, in ‘© Des Substances Alimentatres,” ** has in its composition more azote than wheat flour, about twenty times as much fatty matter, a considerable proportion of starch, and an agreeable aroma which excites the appetite. Weare entirely disposed to admit that this substance contains a remarkable nutritive power. Besides, direct experience has proved this to be the case. In fact, cocoa, closely combined with an equal or two-thirds weight of sugar, forming the article well-known under the name of chocolate, constitutes a food, substantial in all respects, and capable of sustaining the strength in travelling.” And, a little farther on, he adds: — VALUE AS FOOD. wo ** Cocoa and chocolate, in consequence of their elementary composition, and of the direct or indirect addition of sugar before their consumption, constitute a food, res- piratory, or capable of maintaining animal heat, by means of the starch, sugar, gum, and fatty matter which they contain; they are also articles of food favorable to the maintenance or development of the adipose secretions, by reason of the fatty matter (cocoa-butter) belonging to them; and, finally, they assist in the maintenance and increase of the tissues by means of their congeneric azote substances, which assimi- late therewith.” Etienne Francois Geoffroy, the distin- guished I’rench physician and professor of medicine and pharmacy in the College of France, says, in his ** Zrazté de Matiére Médicale” : — ‘¢The drinking of chocolate, especially of that made with milk, is recommended 76 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. to persons affected with phthisis or con- sumption; and, in fact, it supplies a juice which is nourishing, substantial, and smooth, which deedens the acrimony of the hunors ; provided, as we have said, that the cocoa is properly roasted, and mixed with a very small quantity of spices.” The French officer, from whose work on the ‘* Natural History of Chocolate” we have already quoted, after describing the differ- ent methods of raising and curing the fruit and preparing it for food (which it is not worth while to reproduce here, as the methods have essentially changed during the last fifty years), goes on to demonstrate, as the result of actual experiment, that chocolate is a substance ‘* very temperate, very nourishing, and of easy digestion; very proper to repair the exhausted spirits and decayed strength; and very suitable to preserve the health and prolong the lives of old men.” VALUE AS FOOD. 77 *¢T could produce several instances,” he says, ‘‘in favor of this excellent nourish- ment; but I shall content myself with two only, equally certain and decisive, in proof of its goodness. ‘The first is an experiment of chocolate’s being taken for the only nourishment, — made by a surgeon’s wife of Martinico: she had lost, by a very deplorable accident, her lower jaw, which reduced her to such a condition that she did not know how to subsist. She was not capable of taking anything solid, and not rich enough to live upon jellies and nourishing broths. In this strait she de- termined to take three dishes of chocolate, prepared after the manner of the country, one in the morning, one at noon, and one at night. There chocolate is nothing else but cocoa kernels dissolved in hot water, with sugar, and seasoned with a bit of cin- namon. This new way of life succeeded so well that she has lived a long while since, more lively and robust than before this accident. 78 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. ‘¢T had the second relation from a gen- tleman of Martinico, and one of my friends not capable of a falsity. ‘¢ He assured me that in his neighborhood an infant of four months old unfortunately lost his nurse, and its parents, not being able to put it to another, resolved, through necessity to feed it with chocolate. The success was very happy, for the infant came on to a miracle, and was neither less healthy nor less vigorous than those who are brought up by the best nurses. ‘¢ Before chocolate was known in Europe good old wine was called the milk of old men; but this title is now applied with greater reason to chocolate; since its use has become so common that it has been perceived that chocolate is, with respect to them, what milk is to infants. In reality, if one examines the nature of chocolate a little, with respect to the constitution of aged persons, it seems as though the one was made on purpose to remedy the de- VALUE AS FOOD. 79 fects of the other, and that it is truly the panacea of old age. ‘* Our life, as a famous physician observes, is, as it were, a continual growing dry; but yet this kind of natural consumption is imperceptible to an advanced age, when the radical moisture is consumed more sensibly. The more balmy and volatile parts of the blood are dissipated by little and little; the salts, disengaging from the sulphurs, manifest themselves; the acid appears, which is the fruitful source of chronic diseases. ‘The ligaments, the ten- dons, and the cartilages have scarce any of the unctuosity left, which rendered them so supple and so pliant in youth. The skin grows wrinkled as well within as without; in a word, all the solid parts grow dry or bony. ‘¢ One may say that nature has formed chocolate with every virtue proper to remedy these inconveniences. *¢ The volatile sulphur with which it 80 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. abounds is proper to supply the place of that which the blood loses every day through age; it blunts and sheathes the points of the salts, and restores the usual softness to the blood, like as spirit of wine, united with spirit of salt, makes a soft liquor of a violent corrosive. The same sulphurous unctuosity at the same time spreads itself in the solid parts, and gives them, in some sense, their natural supple- ness. It bestows on the membranes, the tendons, the ligaments and the cartilages, a kind of oil which renders them smooth and flexible. Thus the equilibrium between the fluids and solids is, in some measure, reéstablished; the wheels and springs of our machine mended; health is pre- served and life prolonged. These are not the consequences of philosophical reflec- tions, but of a thousand experiments which mutually confirm each other; among a great number of which the following alone shali suffice: — VALUE AS FOOD. 81 *¢ There lately died at Martinico a coun- sellor, about a hundred years old, who, for thirty years past, lived on nothing but chocolate and biscuit. He sometimes, in- deed, had a little soup at dinner, but never any fish, flesh, or other victuals. THe was, nevertheless, so vigorous and nimble that at fourscore and five he could get on horse- back without stirrups. ‘¢ Chocolate is not only proper to pro- long the life of aged people, but also of those whose constitution is lean and dry, or weak and cacochymical, or who use violent exercises, or whose employments oblige them to an intense application of mind, which makes them very faintish. To all these it agrees perfectly well, and becomes to them an altering diet.” 82 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. VAG COCOA-BUTTER. ee S the oil (or butter) of cocoa is very anodyne, or an easer of pain, it is excellent, taken inwardly, to cure hoarse- ness and to blunt the sharpness of the salts that irritate the lungs. In using it must be melted and mixed with a sufficient quantity of sugar candy and made into lozenges, which must be held in the mouth until the substance melts quite away, so that it can be swallowed gently. Taken season- ably the oil is also a wonderful antidote against corrosive poisons. ‘It is the best and most natural pomatum for ladies to clear and plump the skin when it is dry, rough, or shrivelled, with- out making it appear either fat or shining. The Spanish women at Mexico use it COCOA—BUTTER. 83 very much, and it is highly esteemed by them. ‘¢ The leaving off the practice of anoint- ing the body with oil can be attributed to nothing else but the ill smell and other disa- greeable efiects that attended it ; butif oil of chocolate was used instead of oil of olives those inconveniences would be avoided, because it has no smell and dries entirely into the skin. Nothing certainly would be more advantageous, especially for aged persons, than to renew this custom, which has been authorized by the experience of antiquity. “* Apothecaries ought to make use of this, preferably to all others, as the basis of their balsams, because all other oils grow ran- cid, and this does not. ‘¢ There is nothing so proper as this to keep arms from rusting, because it con- tains less water than any other oil made use of for that purpose. ‘¢In the West Indies they make use of 84 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. this oil to cure the piles. Others use it to ease gout pains, applying it hot to the part, with a compress dipped in it, which they cover with a hot napkin. It may be used after the same manner for the rheu- matism.”’ M. Arthur Mangin says: — ‘© When pure and freshly extracted cocoa-butter is of a pale yellow color; its consistency is about that of tallow. Its odor is faint, but sweet, and its taste pleas- ant. When thoroughly purified, and pro- tected from heat, air, and dampness, it may be preserved, without perceptible altera- tion, for several years. ‘¢ Tt is insoluble in water, hardly soluble in alcohol, completely soluble in sulphuric ether and the essential oil ofturpentine. Its density is 0.91. Itsoftens perceptibly at 24° or 25° (Centigrade; ¢.e., 56 or 57 Lah- renhett), but melts only at: 29°, and be- comes entirely liquid only at 35° to 4o°. It cannot boil without being decomposed. COCOA—BUTTER. 85 It contains, according to M. Boussingault, carbon, .766 ; hydrogen, .119 ;oxygen, .I15. Cocoa-butter formerly played a tolerably important part in medicine, by reason of the numerous properties attributed to it. It was called a pectoral, an expectorant, a humective, a demulcent, an emollient, a refrigerative, etc., etc. It was prescribed for persons suffering from or suspected of chest diseases, nervous coughs, bronchitis, etc., and it was combined with kermes, ipecacuanha, etc., to make pills, emulsions, opiates, and other remedies. ‘¢ At present it is no longer prescribed for internal use; but pharmacists, as well as perfumers, make it the basis of many po- mades and ointments, whose use is, we are assured, most beneficial, and, at all events, most agreeable. Cocoa-butter, pure or simply combined with an oil which renders it more or less unctuous, is one of the smoothest, most fragrant, and, if we may be allowed the expression, most savory, 86 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. pomades which can be used for the hair or skin, and it is astonishing that there should be preferred to it so many equivocal com- pounds whose exorbitant price is justified by not one of the properties claimed for them by the puffs of perfumers.” ‘¢This concentrated oil,” says M. Del- cher, ‘‘ is the best and most natural of all the pomades which ladies, who possess a too dry skin can use to make it smooth, soft, and polished, without any greasy or shining appearance, which is produced by most of the pomades advertised for the purpose. ‘‘T agree,” continues the same author, ‘¢ with the opinion of M. Plisson, who ad- vises the use of cocoa-butter pomade for women who suffer from acrid eruptions, cracked lips, breast, etc. The Spaniards of Mexico understand the value of these preparations ; but, as in France, this con- centrated oil hardens too much, it is neces- sary to mix it with the oil of the ben-nut, COCOA—BUTTER. 87 or of sweet almonds. If the ancient cus- tom of the Greeks and Romans should be revived, of anointing one’s self with oil to give suppleness to the limbs and to guard against rheumatism, the oil of cocoa should be chosen for the purpose. ‘* Considered as food, and asa medicinal substance, cocoa-butter possesses the same fundamental property as other fat. It sup- plies to respiration the necessary combus- tible elements, and renders it, in conse- quence, more easy and active. It may, therefore, be administered with advantage to persons suffering from affections of the chest, and possesses the advantage, in com- mon with only a very small number of substances of the same kind, that the most fastidious and obstinate patient may take it for the whole of his life without disgust.” RECEIPTS: as - Ap Gun _) mena aii hey ares rls of, ny tet | , ) : a = me - ; we a 'e ¥e 1