Q,N THE COMPOSITION AND USE OF CHOCOLATE. J75 



required. Let, then, this interefted being be at lead attentive 

 to his own benefits and pleafures. Let hitn carefully remove 

 from about the habitations of his bees every fetid or poifonous 

 vegetable, however comely its colour or its form. In particu- 

 lar, let him be careful to remove thofe vegetables which are 

 noxious to himfelf. In place of thefe, let him fpread the 

 " marjoram and thyme/' and other plants, M the love of 

 bees*/' and his labours will be rewarded. He may, then, 

 furnifh his table with an honey not inferior to that of Mount 

 Hermettus, or of Athens; nor to that of Sicily, to which 

 Virgil has fo handfomely alluded in the feventh Eclogue : 



Nerine Galatea, thymo mihi dulcior Hybla, 

 Candidior cygnis, hcderd formofior alb&. 



L. 37, 38. 



V. 



On the Compofition and Ufe of Chocolate^ By Citizen Par- 



MENTIER f. 



^•MONG the fubftances with which the conqueft of the new Preparation of 

 continent has enriched the old, muft be placed the cocoa or chocolate ty the 

 cacao nut. From this fruit, or rather from this feed, it is that 

 the Mexicans have, from time immemorial, prepared their fa- 

 vourite beverage, chocolate: This confifts of cocoa roafted 

 and bruifed, which they mixed by ftirring water, and added 

 the flour of maize to give it confiftency, together with pi- 

 mento to flavour it. The exigence of fugar was unknown to Importation of 

 them, becaufe the cane, which is indigenous to India beyond . tne fugar cane 

 the Ganges, was not brought to Saint Domingo by Defticaca i n( n cs ^^ 

 until 1506; and becaufe Balaftro was the firft who fubmitted America, 

 this plant to the operation of the mill, in America £. 



The Spaniards partook of the enthufiafm of the Mexicans in The preparation 

 the wonderful properties which they afcribed to chocolate ; £J^§ e * i * 

 and its preparation, notwithstanding the little fkill it requires, Spaniards, 

 foon became in their hands an object of fpeculation ; they kept 



* Armftrong. 



f From the Annales de Chimie, No. 134, torn. XLV, 139. 

 X See an excellent fketch of the only hiftory of Sugar, by Dr. 

 Falconer, in our Journal, quarto feries, II, 136. 



4 • it 





