50 



NATURE 



[May 2 1, 1896 



social process, but also in its consequences with the 

 physical result, namely, the establishment of a moving 

 equilibrium. Both these requirements are met by our old- 

 fashioned friend utility : desires are the psychical causes ; 

 and the maximum satisfaction with the nearest approach 

 to equal conditions, may one day correspond with the 

 nearest approach to equilibrium. No doubt the con- 

 sciousness of kind is a condition of the development of 

 social life, as in the phenomena of sympathy and (to take 

 the social process pretty early) in bise.Kual generation. 

 But it may be presumed that the consciousness of kind, 

 sympathy, and bise.xual generation are all subordinate to 

 objective utility (survival), or they could never have 

 existed at all ; and the connection of subjective with 

 objective utility through the laws of pleasure and pain 

 is well known. 



It is a pleasure to add that this unpromising theory at 

 the outset of the book does very little harm in the sequel, 

 and by no means prevents the author's knowledge and 

 penetration from producing very interesting and in- 

 structive work. Carveth Rp:ad. 



COCOA CONNOTATIONS. 

 Cocoa: All about It. By Historicus. Pp.99. (London 

 Sampson Low, Marston, and Co., Limited, 1S96.) 



IN this book the author has managed to justify his 

 title, for if he has not reproduced all that has been 

 written and said about cocoa, he has strung together a 

 large number of extracts from early records referring to 

 its history, cultivation, and uses. About one-half the 

 book is devoted to these subjects, and the remainder to 

 the manufacture, the value of cocoa as food, its adultera- 

 tions, and finally a few pages to the subject of vanilla as 

 a flavouring agent to chocolate. 



The chief interest of the book, however, will be found 

 in the first two chapters, namely, "The History and 

 Cultivation of the Cocoa Plant," and " History of the 

 Use of Cocoa ''; and we say this advisedly, for the author 

 has apparently been at some pains in collating these 

 extracts, which do not appear in every essay on cocoa, 

 while cocoa manufacture, its value as food, and its 

 adulterations have been the subject of many themes 

 since it has become such a popular and wide- 

 spreading beverage. It may be a surprise to some 

 persons to know that though cocoa is a comparatively 

 modern drink with us, it was well known to the early 

 Mexicans. The author says : " Our knowledge of cocoa 

 as an article of diet dates from the discovery of the 

 Western World in 1494 by Columbus, who, we are told, 

 took home with him samples of the article ; and from 

 the subjugation of Mexico by Cortez in 1521. History 

 informs us that the Spaniards were the first who tasted 

 chocolate, which was part of their spoil in the conquest 

 of Mexico." An additional tribute to the early use of 

 cocoa is gi\-en from a MS. in the British Museum, 

 "written in Old English characters and entitled 'A 

 Voyage to the West Indies and New Spain' (Yucatan) 

 made by John Chilton in the year 1560. He says : 'So 

 we were provided of victualls till we came where Townes 

 were in the province of Soconusco, where groweth 

 Cacau, w^'' the Christianes carrye from thence unto 

 NO. 1386, VOL. 54] 



Nova Hispaniola because y' will not grow in a cold 

 countryc. . . . Their chiefest marchandize is Cacau.'" It 

 is not a little remarkable that one of the finest qualities 

 of cocoa at the present time is produced at Soconusco on 

 the coast of Guatemala. The following extract from an 

 account of the rise and growth of the West Indies, 

 written in 1690, is given as showing an early attempt and 

 failure by the English to cultivate cocoa. 



"Cocoa," it is said, "is now a commodity to be 

 regarded in our colonies, though at first it was the 

 principal mvitation to the peopling of Jamaica, for whose 

 walks the Spaniards left behind them there, when we 

 conquered it, produced such prodigious profit with 

 so little trouble that Sir Thos. Modiford and several 

 others set up their rests to grow wealthy therein, and 

 fell to planting much of it, which the .Spanish slaves had 

 always foretold would never thrive, and so it happened, 

 for though it promised fair, and throve finely for five or 

 six years, yet still at that age when so long hopes and 

 cares had been wasted upon it, withered and died away 

 by some unaccountable cause, though they imputed it to 

 a black-worm or grub which they found clinging to its 

 roots, and did it not almost constantly die before, would 

 come into perfection in fifteen years' growth and last till 

 thirty, thereby becoming the most profitable tree in the 

 world, there having been ^200 sterling made in one year 

 of an acre of it. But the old trees being gone by age, 

 and few new thriving as the Spanish negroes foretold, 

 little or none now is produced worthy the care and pains 

 in planting and expecting' it. Those slaves gave a 

 superstitious reason for its not thriving, many religious 

 rites being performed at its planting by the Spaniards, 

 which these slaves were not permitted to see. But it is 

 probable that where a nation, as they, removed the art 

 of making cochineal and curing vanilloes into their 

 island provinces, which were the commodities of those 

 islands in the Indians' time, and forbade the opening of 

 any mines in them for fear some maritime nation might 

 be invited to the conquering of them, so they might 

 likewise in their transplanting cocoa from the Caracas 

 and Guatemala conceal wilfully some secret in its 

 planting from their slaves, lest it might teach them to 

 set up for themselves, by being able to produce a com- 

 modity of such excellent use for the support of man's 

 life, with which alone and water some persons have been 

 necessitated to live ten weeks together without finding 

 the least diminution of health or strength." 



The \alue in which cocoa is now held as an article of 

 diet, seems from the foregoing paragraph to ha\-e been 

 established so long ago as 1690, and its cultivation and 

 consumption still goes on at a marvellous rate. The 

 processes of collecting the pods, extracting the seeds, 

 fermenting, drying, &c., which are more or less generally 

 known, arc carefully detailed in the succeeding pages, 

 and it is pointed out that if well cured a cocoa-bean 

 should have the outer skin hard, crisp, and separating 

 easily from the seed inside, which should be firm, bright, 

 and should break readily on pressure, forming the 

 familiar cocoa-nibs of commerce. 



On the subject of adulteration, to which cocoa and 

 chocolate lend themselves so readily, and to which so 

 much attention has of late years been drawn, it is curious 

 to note the following paragraph. 



"So far back as 1640 in 'A Curious Treatise of the 

 Nature and Quality of Chocolate,' Ijy Antonio Colmenero, 

 which was translated from the Spanish into English, 

 there are .some remarkable statements as to the value of 

 chocolate, but the writer recognises the mischief that 



