CHOCOLATE 



purities, for burnt sugar, biscuits, locust-beans, date-stones, 

 rye, malt, and other substances are ground up and mixed 

 with coffee. 



The use of chicory is, however, more or less recognized. 

 It is the roots which are ground up and mixed with it. 

 They contain no caffeine^ which is the active part of the 

 coffee bean, and are quite harmless. At one time chicory 

 was grown in Essex and other English counties, and was a 

 distinctly profitable crop. 



Here again come in the mysterious ways of the British 

 Government. The cultivation of chicory was absolutely 

 forbidden by the Inland Revenue Department ; but a 

 considerable amount is still grown in Belgium and is im- 

 ported to this country. Those who prefer chicory with their 

 coffee have to pay a heavy duty ; but the Belgian farmer is 

 allowed and the British farmer is forbidden to take up a 

 paying and profitable industry ! The plant is allied to the 

 dandelion. It occasionally occurs in this country as a weed, 

 and is a rather striking plant with bright blue flowers. 



Another of these useful productions which also suffers from 

 a heavy duty is Cocoa or Chocolate, There are a great many 

 different plants called Co Co, or by some name very similar to 

 it. The Cocoanut Palm furnishes not only the nuts but the 

 fibre or coir enclosing them, as well as a great many other 

 useful substances. The cocaine used by dentists, and 

 which deadens or stupefies the nerves of the teeth, is de- 

 rived from the leaves of a Peruvian shrub, " Coca " {Ery- 

 throocylan Coca), These leaves are chewed in the mouth 

 and have very extraordinary effects, especially on the Indian 

 labourers. They are a strong nerve stimulus and take away 

 any feeling of hunger or fatigue. It was by the use of coca 

 leaves that the postmen of the Inca emperors in Peru were 



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