"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 practice is in use."

In corroboration of M. Brillat-Savarin's statement as to the value of
chocolate as an aid to digestion, we may quote from one of Mme. de
Sévigné's letters to her daughter:

"I took chocolate night before last to digest my dinner, in order to
have a good supper. I took some yesterday for nourishment, so as to be
able to fast until night. What I consider amusing about chocolate is
that it acts according to the wishes of the one who takes it."

Chocolate appears to have been highly valued as a remedial agent by the
leading physicians of that day. Christoph Ludwig Hoffman wrote a
treatise entitled, "Potus Chocolate," in which he recommended it in many
diseases, and instanced the case of Cardinal Richelieu, who, he stated,
was cured of general atrophy by its use.

A French officer who served in the West Indies for a period of fifteen
years, during the early part of the last century, wrote, as the result
of his personal observations, a treatise on "The Natural History of
Chocolate, Being a distinct and Particular Account of the Cacao Tree,
its Growth and Culture, 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. After describing the different methods of
raising and curing the fruit and preparing it for food (which it is not