A PERFECT FOOD 39 
olate, digestion will be 
perfectly accomplished 
in three hours, and we 
may dine whenever we 
like. Out of zeal for 
science, and by dint of 
eloquence, I have in- 
duced many ladies to 
try this experiment. 
They all declared, in 
the beginning, that it 
would kill them; but they have all thriven on it, and have not failed %. 
to glorify their teacher. PGE 
‘“ The people who make constant use of chocolate are the ones who 
enjoy the most steady health, and are the least subject to a multitude 
of little ailments which destroy the comfort of life; their plumpness 
is also more equal. These are two advantages which every one 
may verify among his own friends, and wherever the practise is in 
use.”’ 
M. Boussingault, a member of the French Institute, in an interest- 
ing paper printed in the ‘‘ Annales de Physique et du Chimie,’ says : — 
‘“‘ 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 advantages, as I have had frequent occasions to 
notice. Humboldt recalls what has 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 
