CHOCOLATE. 121 



added. It is then made into cakes, cut into small pieces, 

 or scraped to a powder, and boiled with milk or milk and 

 water, when it forms a thick, gruel-like drink, which is 

 highly nutritive, and has some of the exhilarating properties 

 of coffee and tea. Beside containing a large proportion of 

 iiitrogenized matter resembling albumen, the cocoa-seed is 

 particularly rich in fatty matter, and contains a peculiar 

 principle, theobromine, analogous to caffeine and theine, 

 which is supposed to possess similar physiological properties. 

 The following is a late analysis by Payen 1 of the cocoa- 

 seeds freed from the husks, but not roasted. Torrification 

 has the effect of developing the peculiar aromatic principle, 

 and moderating the bitterness, which is always more or less 

 marked : 



Composition of Kernels of Cocoa. 



Fatty matter (cocoa-butter) 48 to 50 



Albumen, fibrin, and other nitrogenized matter 21 " 20 



Theobromine 4 " 2 



Starch (with traces of saccharine matter) 11 " 10 



Cellulose 3 " 2 



Coloring matter, aromatic essence traces. 



Mineral substances 3 to 4 



Hygroscopic water 10 to 12 



100 100 



It is evident, from the above table, that cocoa with milk 

 and sugar, the ordinary form in which chocolate is taken, 

 must form a very nutritious mixture. Taken with a little 

 bread, it readily relieves hunger, and supplies nearly all the 

 principles absolutely necessary to nutrition. Its influence as 

 a stimulant, supplying the place of matter which is directly 

 assimilated and retarding destructive assimilation, is depend- 

 ent, if it exists at all, upon the theobromine ; but its- stimu- 

 lating properties are slight as compared with coffee and tea. 



A drink called cocoa is sometimes made of the seeds 

 roasted entire and mixed with a little starchy matter, but 



1 Ibid., p. 400. 



