ubstance, 1. Very temperate.
2. Very nourishing, and of easy Digestion. 3. Very proper to repair the
exhausted Spirits and decayed Strength. 4. _Lastly_, Very suitable to
preserve the Health, and prolong the Lives of old Men. These four
Articles shall be sufficiently demonstrated in the four following
Sections.

SECT. I.

Chocolate is very Temperate.

Nothing is so great an Argument that _Wheat_, _Rice_, _Millet_, and
_Manioc_, are salutary and temperate, as their being used by whole
Nations together. If any of these Substances had any predominant evil
Quality, it would soon appear to the Prejudice of the Health of Numbers;
the People who subsist upon it, would soon leave it off as a very
dangerous and hurtful Aliment.

One may reason much after the same manner with respect to Chocolate. The
Natives of _New-Spain_, and of a great part of the Torrid Zone of
_America_, have always used it as a Delicacy; and at this day all the
_European_ Colonies which are establish'd in those Countries, make a
Consumption of vast Quantities of it: These People use it at all Times,
and in all Seasons, as constant daily Food, without regard to Age, Sex,
Temperament, or Condition, without Complaint of having received the
least Prejudice from it; they find on the contrary that it quenches
Thirst, is very refreshing and feeding; that it procures easy quiet
Sleep, and produces several other good Effects, to say nothing of those
we are going to treat of in the following Sections. I could produce
several Instances in favour of this excellent Nourishment, but I shall
content myself with two only, equally certain and decisive in the Proof
of its Goodness. The first is an Experiment of Chocolate's being taken
for the _only_ Nourishment, made by a Surgeon's Wife of _Martinico_: She
had lost by a very deplorable Accident her lower Jaw, which reduced her
to such a Condition, that she did not know how to subsist; she was not
capable of taking any thing solid, and not rich enough to live upon
Jellies and nourishing Broths. In this Strait she determined to take
three Dishes of Chocolate, prepared after the manner of the Country, one
in the Morning, one at Noon, and one at Night. (There, Chocolate is
nothing else but _Cocao_ Kernels dissolved in hot Water, with Sugar, and
season'd with a Bit of Cinnamon.) This new way of Life succeeded so
well, that she has lived a long while since, more lively and robust than
before this Accident.

I had the sec