les, that it requires a great deal
of Labour to separate it, and to make it pure. The three common Ways to
extract Oils, are by Distillation, Expression, and Decoction; we reject
the first as being very imperfect, because the Violence of the Fire
alters the Nature of all Oils that are extracted that way. The Success
will answer no better by Expression, because that which is got will be
very impure and in very small Quantity. There then remains no way but by
Decoction, to draw out this essential Oil that we are in quest of, which
is the true and the only way, for it gives it in its utmost Purity
without any Alteration.

They take Chocolate that is roasted, cleaned, and ground upon the Stone,
they throw the Paste into a Pan of boiling Water over a clear Fire; they
let it boil till almost all the Water is consumed, then they pour more
Water upon it till the Pan is full; the Oil ascends to the Top in
proportion as the Water cools, and grows to the Consistence of Butter.
If this Oil is not very white, it needs only be melted in a Pan full of
hot Water, where it will be disengaged and purified from the red and
terrestrial Particles that remain.

At _Martinico_ this Oil is of the Consistence of Butter, but brought
into _France_, it becomes almost as hard as _Fromage_, or _French_
Cheese, which melts nevertheless, and becomes liquid with a moderate
Heat: it has no very sensible Smell, and has the good fortune never to
grow rank; I have some of it now by me, that has been made this fifteen
Years. One Year, when Oil of Olives failed us, we used that of Chocolate
during the Time of _Lent_. It is very well tasted, and very far from
being hurtful; it contains the most essential and most healthful Parts
of the Chocolate.

I had the Curiosity to examine it by a Chymical Analysis; I put three
Ounces into a little Glass Cucurbit placed in the Heat of Ashes, there
drop'd from it an oily Liquor, which congealed as it fell down, and
which did not differ from the Butter that I have described, but by a
light Impression made upon it by the Fire. I only observed, that there
was at the bottom of the Receiver, two or three Drops of a clear Liquor,
which tasted a little acid, but very agreeable.

As this Oil is very anodyne, or an Easer of Pain, it is excellent, taken
inwardly, to cure Hoarseness, and to blunt the Sharpness of the Salts
that irritate the Lungs. In using, it must be melted and mix'd with a
sufficient Quantity of Sugar-Candy, a