988 FOODS AND FOOD ADULTERANTS. 
not so pronounced, are sufficiently high to cause suspicion of the use of 
alkalis. 
A determination of the fat shows the amount of this important food 
material in the preparation, and is of value in determining the extent 
of adulteration with other substances. The amount of fat was not suf- 
ficiently inconsistent with the amount of the other ingredients to 
attract suspicion to any one of the samples. Time did not permit a 
qualitative examination of the fat from each sample. 
Sugar and starch are used to a most deplorable extent, as the results 
in the table show. The quality of the sugar used is generally good, 
however, as is shown by the somewhat rare occurrence of reducing 
sugars. 
A determination of theobromine is of very little value, since it has no 
commercial importance to tempt its removal, as is the case with cocoa 
butter. Its determination can, therefore, only be of value for judging 
the extent of adulteration with other substances, for which purpose a 
nitrogen determination would serve just as well (in the absence of nitrog- 
genous adulterants), and is much more easily made. 
A fiber determination is of value for the detection of the presence of 
husks and other substances rich in cellulose, and for judging the extent 
to which these substances have been added. The value of the deter- 
mination is greatly reduced, however, by the variation in the result 
that follows the degree of fineness of the powder. It is very difficult 
indeed to produce a sample by laboratory means that will give results 
that are comparable with those obtained with samples ground in choco- 
late works. Our comparisons must be, therefore, between commercial 
samples of known purity and those of questionable purity. 
In adding “phosphates as found in wheat,” the manufacturers of sam- 
ple No. 50 seem to have overlooked the fact that the husked cocoa 
bean is fully as rich in phosphoric acid as is wheat. 
Beef tea was once considered to be a very concentrated and easily 
digestible food, and was given to invalids in small quantities with full 
confidence in its great, almost miraculous, nourishing power. It has 
long since been degraded very nearly to the rank of a mere stimulant 
and is never intelligently administered except when accompanied by 
an ample. amount of nourishing food. Asa concentrated and easily 
digestible food for invalids cocoa preparations are already beginning 
to share the same fate; as material for the preparation of pleasant, ex- 
hilerating, and slightly nutritive beverages for both weak and strong, the 
-areer of cocoa preparations is only just begun. Moreover, their progress 
in popular favor will keep pace with the manufacturers’ appreciation of 
this fact. 
For a study of the nutritive value of cocoa, the following data can be 
taken as fairly representative of cocoas from which a part of the fat has 
been removed, and to which no foreign substances have been added: 
