66 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. 



Its infusion is an exciting beverage, which 

 does not agree with every one, and which 

 may, when used to excess, cause serious 

 consequences, decidedly affect the health, 

 and even disturb the intellectual faculties. 

 Coffee, moreover, easily becomes a pretext 

 for debauch. It is consumed in the most 

 respectable houses ; but also in cafes, liquor 

 saloons and disreputable places, with the 

 accompaniments of alcoholic liquors, to- 

 bacco-smoke, coarse words, and unlawful 

 games. 



" It is impossible to impute the like effects 

 to chocolate. Its use can never degenerate 

 into abuse, and it can never, like coffee, 

 become a poison, even a slow poison. And 

 then, whatever certain casuists may say, 

 chocolate is decidedly a food, not a bever- 

 age. More, it is, above all, the food of 

 sober, orderly, and peaceable folk. It is 

 found only on the family table, at parties 

 of good society, or in public establishments 

 frequented either by well-bred people or 



