The Food of the Gods | Page 5

whole nib, or more than a fifth of the cocoa essence, and
to their presence is due the fact that absolutely pure cocoa is such a
remarkable flesh-former.
[Illustration--Black and White Plate: Cacao Crop, Trinidad.]
The carbohydrates, producing warmth and fat, are also important food
substances, the proportion of which, while forming about a fifth of the
whole bean, rises to close upon a third of the essence.
Cocoa also contains a volatile oil, from which it derives its peculiar and
delicious aroma.
Thus _nearly nine-tenths of the cacao-bean may be assimilated by the
digestive organs_, while three-fourths of tea and coffee are thrown
away as waste. For the same bulk, therefore, cocoa is said to yield
thirteen times the nutriment of tea, and four and a half times that of
coffee. Its value as a substitute for mother's milk has already been
alluded to, but may well be emphasized by a quotation from a paper
read before the Surgical Society of Ireland in 1877 by one of its
Fellows, Mr. Faussett:
"Without presuming to pass any judgment on the many artificial
substitutes which, on alleged chemical and scientific principles, have
from time to time been pressed forward under the notice of the
profession and the public to take the place of mother's milk, I beg to
call attention to a very cheap and simple article which is easily

procurable--viz., cocoa, and which, when pure and deprived of an
excess of fatty matter, may safely be relied on, as cocoa in the natural
state abounds in a number of valuable nutritious principles, in fact, in
every material necessary for the growth, development, and sustenance
of the body."
After giving some remarkable cases of children being restored from
"the last stage of exhaustion" by its use, and "continued through the
whole period of infancy," with the effect of their becoming fine,
healthy children, he concluded by saying:
"I beg therefore respectfully to commend cocoa, as an article of infant's
food, to the notice of my professional brethren, especially those who,
holding office under the Poor Laws, have such large and extensive
opportunities of testing its value."
As a beverage for mothers or nurses cocoa is recommended by Dr.
Milner Fothergill, in his work on "The Food we Eat," in preference to
porter, stout or ale, an opinion now becoming generally adopted. It may,
therefore, be regarded as the indispensable, all-round nursery food, if
not the constant stand-by of the family.
That it is as nutritious for old as well as young we have an interesting
proof in the fact that the first Englishman born in Jamaica, Colonel
Montague James, who lived to the age of 104, took scarcely any food
but cocoa and chocolate for the last thirty years of his life. For athletes
and all who desire the development of the muscular tissues, its use is
most beneficial. Professor Cavill, in his celebrated swim from
Southampton to Portsmouth, and his nearly successful attempt to swim
across the English Channel, considered it to be the most concentrated
and sustaining food he could use for that trying test of endurance.
In his "Treatise on Food and Dietetics," Dr. Pavy remarks that:
"Containing, as pure cocoa does, twice as much nitrogenous matter,
and twenty-five times as much fatty matter as wheaten flour, with a
notable quantity of starch, and an agreeable aroma to tempt the palate,
it cannot be otherwise than a valuable alimentary material. It has been
compared in this respect to milk. It conveniently furnishes a large
amount of agreeable nourishment in a small bulk, and, taken with bread,
will suffice, in the absence of any other food, to furnish a good repast."
Indeed, the value of cocoa as food for ordinary mortals as well as for
mythical beings cannot be better summed up than in the words of

Professor Lankester, Superintendent of the Food Collections at South
Kensington, who declares:
"It can hardly be regarded as a substitute for tea and coffee; it is, in fact,
a substitute for all other kinds of food, and when taken with some form
of bread, little or nothing else need be added at a meal. The same may
be said of chocolate."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] According to Drs. Playfair and Lankester:
Tea contains 3 per cent. theine. Coffee " 1¾ " caffeine. Cocoa " 2 "
theobromine.
Probably the proportion of caffeine in coffee would be more correctly
stated as 1¼ per cent. Theine and caffeine are identical, but
theobromine (C_{7}H_{8}N_{4}O_{2}) differs from both in the
greater proportion of nitrogen which it contains.
[2] Dr. Johnson's analysis:
Dried milk 35 \ Cocoa essence 34¾ \ Flesh formers in Cocoa-nibs 23 /
each hundred parts. Best French chocolates 11 /
[3] Mr. O.L. Symonds, "Commercial Products of the Vegetable
Kingdom."
[4] The Cacao theobroma. There are several