68 HISTORY OF FRUITS. 



ed, and found to be a suitable diet for all ages ; more par- 

 ticularly for infants, old persons, those of consumptive 

 habits, and such as are recovering from sickness : but 

 with all these advantages the author does not know of one 

 chocolate-house now remaining in the vast metropolis of 

 the British Empire. White's chocolate-house near the 

 Palace in St. James's Street, kept by Mr. Arthur, was 

 burnt down on Saturday, 28th April, 1733. 



It is related in Hawkesworth's Voyages, that Commo- 

 dore Byron, in his passage through the South Seas, found 

 plenty of cacao in the island called King George's Island; 

 and that many of his men, who were so afflicted with 

 scorbutic disorders that their limbs were become black as 

 ink, and who could not move without assistance, and suf- 

 fering excruciating pain, were in a few days completely 

 cured by eating these nuts, and able to resume their ac- 

 customed duties. 



The sons of ^Esculapius who wrote on the properties of 

 the chocolate-nut when first known in Europe, recom- 

 mend it strongly to Venus and all her disciples. 



We have often been surprised that the making of the 

 small chocolate cakes for eating should not have been 

 attempted by some persons in London, when they are in 

 such demand at Paris, where a celebrated manufacturer of 

 these chocolate trifles assured us that he had then, in 

 1816, received an order from a late high personage in 

 England that would exceed 500/. 



The oil of the cacao-nut is the hottest of any known, and 

 is used to recover cold, weak, and paralytic limbs. The 

 Mexicans are said to eat the nuts raw, to assuage pains in 

 the bowels. The Spanish ladies make use of the oil drawn 

 from the cacao-nut, as a good cosmetic to soften and 

 smooth the skin, as it does not render it greasy or shining, 

 being a quick drier and without smell. 



Should we ever revive the ancient custom which for* 



