A PERI'KL'T FOOD. 



37 



"Chocolate contains 

 a very large proportion 

 of nutritive matter in a 

 small volume. In an 

 expedition to a great 

 distance, where it is im- 

 peratively necessary to 

 reduce the weight of 

 the rations, chocolate 

 offers undeniable ad- 

 vantages, as I have had 

 frequent occasions to notice. Humboldt recalls what lias been said 

 with reason, that in Africa rice, gum, and butter enable men to cross 

 the desert ; and he adds that, in the New World, chocolate and corn 

 meal render the plateaus of the Andes and the vast, uninhabited forests 

 accessible to man. 



" In Central America, when they organize a river expedition, or 

 traverse the forests, they prepare chocolate for provision with eighty 

 parts of cocoa to twenty of coarse sugar, the composition being as fol- 

 lows : 



Sugar 



Butter 



Albumen 



Phosphates and Salts . 

 Other Matter 



200 



4' 



IOO 



3 



, 260 



1,000 



" Each man receives 60 grams (about 2 ounces) of this chocolate 

 per day, in which there are 12 grams of sugar, 26 of butter, and 6 

 of albumen. It is a useful addition to the ration formed of beef slightly 

 salted and dried in the air, of rice, of corn biscuit, or of cassava muffins. 

 "The infusion of tea, mate (Paraguay tea), and coffee are not, of 

 course, to be considered as food. The amount of solid matter in them 

 is very slight, and their effects are due only to their alkaloids. 



