f tea and
coffee during the same period, the ratio of increase fell far below that
of cocoa. It is evident that the coming American is going to be less of
a tea and coffee drinker, and more of a cocoa and chocolate drinker.
This is the natural result of a better knowledge of the laws of health,
and of the food value of a beverage which nourishes the body while it
also stimulates the brain.

Baron von Liebig, one of the best-known writers on dietetics, says:

"It is a perfect food, as wholesome as delicious, a beneficient restorer
of exhausted power; but its quality must be good and it must be
carefully prepared. It is highly nourishing and easily digested, and is
fitted to repair wasted strength, preserve health, and prolong life. It
agrees with dry temperaments and convalescents; with mothers who nurse
their children; with those whose occupations oblige them to undergo
severe mental strains; with public speakers, and with all those who give
to work a portion of the time needed for sleep. It soothes both stomach
and brain, and for this reason, as well as for others, it is the best
friend of those engaged in literary pursuits."

M. Brillat-Savarin, in his entertaining and valuable work, _Physiologie
du Gout_, says: "Chocolate came over the mountains [from Spain to
France] with Anne of Austria, daughter of Philip III and queen of Louis
XIII. The Spanish monks also spread the knowledge of it by the presents
they made to their brothers in France. It is well known that Linnaeus
called the fruit of the cocoa tree _theobroma_, 'food for the gods.' The
cause of this emphatic qualification has been sought, and attributed by
some to the fact that he was extravagantly fond of chocolate; by others
to his desire to please his confessor; and by others to his gallantry, a
queen having first introduced it into France.

"The Spanish ladies of the New World, it is said, carried their love for
chocolate to such a degree that, not content with partaking of it
several times a day, they had it sometimes carried after them to church.
This favoring of the senses often drew upon them the censures of the
bishop; but the Reverend Father Escobar, whose metaphysics were as
subtle as his morality was accommodating, declared, formally, that a
fast was not broken by chocolate prepared with water; thus wire-drawing,
in favor of his penitents, the ancient adage, '_Liquidum non frangit
jejunium._'

"Time and experience," he says further, "have shown