Nothing is so great an Argument that Wheat, Rice, Millet, and Manioc, are salutary and temperate, as their being used by whole Nations together. If any of these Substances had any predominant evil Quality, it would soon appear to the Prejudice of the Health of Numbers; the People who subsist upon it, would soon leave it off as a very dangerous and hurtful Aliment.
One may reason much after the same manner with respect to Chocolate. The Natives of New-Spain, and of a great part of the Torrid Zone of America, have always used it as a Delicacy; and at this day all the European Colonies which are establish’d in those Countries, make a Consumption of vast Quantities of it: These People use it at all Times, and in all Seasons, as constant daily Food, without regard to Age, Sex, Temperament, or Condition, without Complaint of having received the least Prejudice from it; they find on the contrary that it quenches Thirst, is very refreshing and feeding; that it procures easy quiet Sleep, and produces several other good Effects, to say nothing of those we are going to treat of in the following Sections. I could produce several Instances in favour of this excellent Nourishment, but I shall content myself with two only, equally certain and decisive in the 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 any thing solid, and not rich enough to live upon Jellies and nourishing Broths. In this Strait she determined 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 Cocao Kernels dissolved in hot Water, with Sugar, and season’d with a Bit of Cinnamon.) This new way of Life succeeded so well, that she has lived a long while since, more lively and robust than before this Accident.
I had the second Relation from a Gentleman of Martinico, and one of my Friends, not capable of a Falsity. He assured me, that in his Neighbourhood, 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.
The Inferences that may be drawn from these two Histories are evident, and demonstratively prove that Chocolate has neither any intemperate nor hurtful Quality; I shall therefore say no more upon them, leaving every one to make his own proper Reflections.
Sect. II.
Chocolate is very nourishing and of easy Digestion.
This Proposition is a necessary Consequence of the foregoing, established by Facts which I have just related; and we have Experiments as convincing of its easy Digestion, and the Goodness of the Chyle that it makes; but it needs no other Proof than the good Condition it puts those in, who ordinarily make use of it.
A learned Englishman has carried his Commendations so high concerning this particular Property of Chocolate, that he has not scrupled to affirm in a Dissertation that he has publish’d upon this Subject, That one Ounce of Chocolate contains as much Nourishment as a Pound of Beef. As much out of the way as this Assertion seems to be, one may easily conceive, that any Aliment is capable of yielding more plentiful Nourishment, if compar’d with any other, not only in respect to the Quantity, but also with relation to the Time that the Stomach takes to digest it.
Physicians are not agreed about the Causes of Digestion, but are divided into two Opinions, each of which is supported by the Writings of very eminent Authors; convinced of my own Inability to decide the Controversy, which also requires a large Field to expatiate in, I shall not undertake to defend either Fermentation or Trituration: But it will be sufficient to say, in two Words, that these Opinions are not absolutely incompatible [(1)]: it perhaps will not be difficult to make a sort of an Alliance or Agreement between them, by uniting whatever is plain and evident in the two Systems, and rejecting what is otherwise; and from hence form a third, which will be nothing but the Union of the uncontested Parts of the other two.
These two Causes undoubtedly concur in the Alteration that the Aliment undergoes in the Mouth; for the Saliva that mixes with it in Mastication, and dilutes it, cannot be deny’d to be an admirable Ferment [(2)]; and the Tongue which moves it, and the Teeth which grind it, and break it, must be own’d to be the first Instruments of Trituration.
Now since Nature is commonly uniform in her Operations, and since there is a great deal of reason to suppose that Nature compleats Digestion by the same means that she has begun it, let us suppose it is really so for a Moment, and apply it to the present Subject, and then we shall see by what Evidence Chocolate ought to be of an easy Digestion.