80 COCOA AND CHOCOLATE. 



abounds is proper to supply the place of 

 that which the blood loses every day 

 through age ; it blunts and sheathes the 

 points of the salts, and restores the usual 

 softness to the blood, like as spirit of wine, 

 united with spirit of salt, makes a soft 

 liquor of a violent corrosive. The same 

 sulphurous unctuosity at the same time 

 spreads itself in the solid parts, and gives 

 them, in some sense, their natural supple- 

 ness. It bestows on the membranes, the 

 tendons, the ligaments and the cartilages, a 

 kind of oil which renders them smooth and 

 flexible. Thus the equilibrium between 

 the fluids and solids is, in some measure, 

 reestablished ; the wheels and springs 

 of our machine mended ; health is pre- 

 served and life prolonged. These are not 

 the consequences of philosophical reflec- 

 tions, but of a thousand experiments which 

 mutually confirm each other; among a 

 great number of which the following alone 

 shall suffice : 



