Authorities.

From the Dispensatory of the United States of America (Philadelphia: Fifteenth Edition, 1884).

Chocolate is differently prepared in different countries. On the continent of Europe, sugar is generally incorporated with the paste, and spices—especially cinnamon—are often added. Vanilla is a favorite addition in South America, France and Spain. Cacao, called Cocoa, is often sold in powder; in this state it is much employed as a drink at breakfast and tea, and serves as a substitute for coffee in dyspepsia. It is also a good article of diet for convalescents.

From the National Dispensatory (Philadelphia, 1884).

The Cacao is often incorrectly called Cocoa or Chocolate tree; the proper name is Cacao, from the tree Theobroma Cacao.

OIL OF THEOBROMA, BUTTER OF CACAO.

In the manufacture of chocolate a portion of the cacao seed are deprived of their fat by removing the shells, heating the kernels to about 70° C. (158° F.), and pressing them between hot iron plates. The yield from different varieties of cacao is from 35 to 45 per cent.

The dietetic use of chocolate does not require any detailed notice in this place. Prepared with water or milk, it is employed as a substitute for coffee in southern Europe, South America, Mexico and West India, and to a less degree in other civilized countries. It is to be preferred to the other agents mentioned when a nutritive rather than an excitant operation is desired; and hence it is familiarly employed during convalescence from acute disease, and as a substitute for tea or coffee in the diet of persons whose nervous system is liable to be deranged by them.

The English name cocoa, which is used to designate the product of the highly-prized cocoa bean (Theobroma Cacao), is improperly applied to that fruit; for, according to Webster’s Dictionary (Edition of 1884), cacao is the proper term to use; cocoa should only be employed to designate the fruit or nut of the Cocoa-nut tree.

From A Manual of Practical Hygiene. By Ed. A. Parkes, M.D., F.R.S. (London, 1878).

Although the theobromine of cocoa is now known to be identical with theïn and caffeïn, the quantity of fat is large. It varies even in the same sort of cocoa, but usually from 45 to 50 per cent.

The large quantity of fat and albuminoid substance make 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).

By roasting, the starch is changed into dextrin, the amount of manganic acid increases, and an empyreumatic aromatic substance is formed.

According to the celebrated French chemist, Payen, the alimentary properties of chocolate are fully proved. The cacao bean contains twice as much azotic matter (nitrogen) as the best flour, about twenty-five times more fatty matter, a notable portion of starch and a very agreeable aroma, whilst the theobromine which it contains produces appetite and facilitates digestion. This analysis of ingredients proves effectually that it is endowed with nutritive power in an eminent degree.

Chevalier, member of the Academy of Medicine and of the Board of Health of Paris, in his treatise on Chocolate, declares that cacao and chocolate are a complete food, and adds that “coffee and tea are not food, but cacao gives one-third of its weight in starch and one-half of its weight in cacao butter, and, converted into chocolate by the addition of sugar, it realizes the idea of a complete aliment, wholesome and eminently hygienic.

“The shells of the cacao bean contain the same principles as the kernels, and the extract, obtained by infusion of the shells in sweetened milk, forms a mixture at once agreeable to the taste and an advantageous substitute for tea and coffee at the breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper table.”

In a recent work by the chemist Boussingault (April, 1883), we read: “Chocolate possesses an essential quality—that of comprising in a small bulk a large portion of nutritive matter.

“In Africa, rice, gum and shea butter help the Arab to cross the desert; in the New World, cacao and chocolate make the heights of the Andes and the vast American forests accessible to man.”

This is at once a perfect food and a most energetic tonic. There is in fact in cacao, legumine, albumine and vegetable meat, associated with fat, starch and sugar, which maintain respiratory combustion; phosphates, the material of the bony system; and lastly, a precious substance, Theobromine.

Huffeland, physician to the King of Prussia, said: “I recommend good chocolate to nervous, excitable persons; also to the weak, debilitated and infirm; to children, to women; I have obtained excellent results from it in many cases of chronic diseases of the digestive organs.”

The celebrated Humboldt, in his narrative of travels, affirms that chocolate possesses an essential quality, viz., that of containing in a small compass a large proportion of the elements necessary to good and healthy feeding.

Fernando Cortez, conqueror of Mexico, probably exaggerated its value when he said: “He who has drunk a cup of Mexican chocolate, can march all day without further nourishment,” but it is quite certain that for long expeditions, as also when hunting, fishing or traveling, especially when it is desirable to reduce the bulk and the weight of the rations, chocolate offers incontestable advantages.

Baron Liebig, the great chemist and physician, said of chocolate: “It is a perfect food, as wholesome as delicious, a beneficent restorer of exhausted power, but its quality must be good, and its culinary preparation must be careful; chocolate is a substance extremely nourishing and easily digested, it is fitted to repair wasted strength, to preserve health and prolong life. This salutary food agrees with dry temperaments and convalescents; with mothers who nurse their children, and with those whose occupations oblige them to undergo an extensive strain of mind; with public speakers and with all those who give to work a 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 literary men.”

Voltaire, in his Encyclopædia, calls chocolate “milk for the aged.”

Broussais, a celebrated physician, said: “Chocolate of good quality, well made, and 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.”

Brillat-Savarin, the master of gastronomy, said: “Time and experiment have demonstrated that good chocolate, well-prepared, is an aliment as salutary as it is agreeable; that it is nourishing, of easy digestion and is free from the objections found against coffee; that it is very suitable to persons mentally overworked, to journalists and travelers; it agrees with the most feeble and the most delicate stomachs. A few persons complain of their inability to digest chocolate; good and well-prepared chocolate should agree with any stomach however weak might be its digestive power.”

During the wars of the French Empire the great Napoleon and many of the officers of his staff passed entire days on horseback without other nourishment than a tablet of good chocolate.