3. The most elaborate Preparations of Steel, are not one jot the better upon that account; the simple Filings have more Vertue than was ever extorted from this Metal by any Preparation: there is nevertheless an Inconveniency in the Use of them, because all the Particles of the Steel uniting together, by their Weight, at the bottom of the Stomach, form a kind of a Cake, which fatigues it, and makes it very uneasy.
To remedy this, after the Filings have been ground into a very fine Powder upon a Porphyry; you must mix it with the Cinnamon, when you make your Chocolate, and it is certain that the Particles of the Steel will be so divided and separated by the Agitation of the Mill, and so entangled in the Chocolate, that there will be no danger of a future Separation. Besides, the aromatick Particles of the Cinnamon, and the alkaline ones of the Chocolate, will not a little add to the Strength and Operation of this Remedy.
4. After this manner may you mix with the Chocolate the Powders of Millepedes, Vipers, Earthworms, the Livers and Galls of Eels, to take away the distasteful Ideas that the Sick entertain against these Remedies.
5. The Use of Milk is a specifick Remedy for the Cure of several Distempers, but by Misfortune there are but few Stomachs that can bear it, and several Methods have been try’d to find out Help for this Inconvenience. Without troubling myself to mention or examine them, will it not be an easy and natural Method, to hinder the Milk from curdling on the Stomach, to pour a hot Dish of Chocolate upon a Pint or Quart of Milk? The butirous Parts of the Milk and Chocolate, are in reality analogous to each other, and very proper to be united for the same Purpose; and what is bitter and alkaline in the Chocolate, ought necessarily to hinder the curdling of the Milk in the Stomach. It is easy to confirm by Experience the Reasoning upon this sort of Chocolated Milk.
[(1)] This, if true, overturns what has been said about the Mechanical Cure of an Ague, by Quincy, who pretends that the Vertue of the Cortex lies in its Texture, which this Preparation destroys.
CHAP. III.
Of the Oil or Butter of Chocolate.
Chocolate Kernels are a Fruit very oleaginous, but the Oil is very closely united with the other Principles, that it requires a great deal of Labour to separate it, and to make it pure. The three common Ways to extract Oils, are by Distillation, Expression, and Decoction; we reject the first as being very imperfect, because the Violence of the Fire alters the Nature of all Oils that are extracted that way. The Success will answer no better by Expression, because that which is got will be very impure and in very small Quantity. There then remains no way but by Decoction, to draw out this essential Oil that we are in quest of, which is the true and the only way, for it gives it in its utmost Purity without any Alteration.
They take Chocolate that is roasted, cleaned, and ground upon the Stone, they throw the Paste into a Pan of boiling Water over a clear Fire; they let it boil till almost all the Water is consumed, then they pour more Water upon it till the Pan is full; the Oil ascends to the Top in proportion as the Water cools, and grows to the Consistence of Butter. If this Oil is not very white, it needs only be melted in a Pan full of hot Water, where it will be disengaged and purified from the red and terrestrial Particles that remain.
At Martinico this Oil is of the Consistence of Butter, but brought into France, it becomes almost as hard as Fromage, or French Cheese, which melts nevertheless, and becomes liquid with a moderate Heat: it has no very sensible Smell, and has the good fortune never to grow rank; I have some of it now by me, that has been made this fifteen Years. One Year, when Oil of Olives failed us, we used that of Chocolate during the Time of Lent. It is very well tasted, and very far from being hurtful; it contains the most essential and most healthful Parts of the Chocolate.
I had the Curiosity to examine it by a Chymical Analysis; I put three Ounces into a little Glass Cucurbit placed in the Heat of Ashes, there drop’d from it an oily Liquor, which congealed as it fell down, and which did not differ from the Butter that I have described, but by a light Impression made upon it by the Fire. I only observed, that there was at the bottom of the Receiver, two or three Drops of a clear Liquor, which tasted a little acid, but very agreeable.