12 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. 



and the Preparation, Excellent Properties, 

 and Medicinal Virtues of its Fruit," which 

 received the approbation of the Regent of 

 the Faculty of Medicine at Paris, and 

 which was translated and published in 

 London in 1730- 



From this rare and valuable little work 

 the following extracts are made : 



" The cacao-tree almost all the year 

 bears fruit of all ages, which ripens suc- 

 cessively, but never grows on the end of 

 little branches, as our fruits in Europe do, 

 but along the trunk and chief boughs, 

 which is not rare in these countries, where 

 several trees do the like. Such an unusual 

 appearance would seem strange in the eyes 

 of Europeans, who have never seen any- 

 thing of that kind ; but, if one examines 

 the matter a little, the philosophical reason 

 of this disposition is very obvious. One 

 may easily apprehend that if nature had 

 placed such bulky fruit at the ends of the 

 branches their great weight must necessa- 



