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From the PREFACE ...
This small Treatise is nothing but the Substance and Result of the
Observations that I made in the American Islands, during the fifteen
Years which I was obliged to stay there, upon the account of his
Majesty’s Service. The great Trade they drive there in Chocolate,
excited my Curiosity to examine more strictly than ordinary into its
Origin, Culture, Properties, and Uses. I was not a little surprized when
I every day discover’d, as to the Nature of the Plant, and the Customs
of the Country, a great Number of Facts contrary to the Ideas, and
Prejudices, for which the Writers on this Subject have given room.
For this reason, I resolved to examine every thing myself, and to
represent nothing but as it really was in Nature, to advance nothing but
what I had experienced, and even to doubt of the Experiments themselves,
till I had repeated them with the utmost Exactness. Without these
Precautions, there can be no great Dependance on the greatest Part of
the Facts, which are produced by those who write upon any Historical
Matter from Memorandums; which, from the Nature of the Subject, they
cannot fully comprehend.
The whole Cultivation of the Cocao-Tree may then be reduced to the
Practice of two Things.
First, To over-look them during the first fifteen Days; that is to
say, to plant new Kernels in the room of those that do
not come up, or
whose Shoots have been destroy’d by Insects, which very often make
dreadful Havock among these Plants, even when one would think they are
out of danger. Some Inhabitants make Nurseries a-part, and transplant
them to the Places where they are wanting: but as they do not all grow,
especially when they are a little too big, or the Season not favourable,
and because the greatest part of those that do grow languish a long
time, it always seem’d to me more proper to set fresh Kernels; and I am
persuaded, if the Consequences are duly weighed, it will be practised
for the future.
Secondly, Not to let any Weeds grow in the Nursery, but to cleanse it
carefully from one end to the other, and taking care, above all things,
not to let any Herb or Weed grow up to Seed; for if it should happen so
but once, it will be very difficult thenceforwards to root those
troublesome Guests out, and to keep the Nursery clean, because the Cold
in this Country never interrupts Vegetation.
Sect. II.
Chocolate is very nourishing and of easy Digestion.
This Proposition is a necessary Consequence of the foregoing,
established by Facts which I have just related; and we have Experiments
as convincing of its easy Digestion, and the Goodness of the Chyle that
it makes; but it needs no other Proof than the good Condition it puts
those in, who ordinarily make use of it.
A learned Englishman has carried his Commendations so high concerning
this particular Property of Chocolate, that he has not scrupled to
affirm in a Dissertation that he has publish’d upon this Subject, That
one Ounce of Chocolate contains as much Nourishment as a Pound of Beef.
As much out of the way as this Assertion seems to be, one may easily
conceive, that any Aliment is capable of yielding more plentiful
Nourishment, if compar’d with any other, not only in respect to the
Quantity, but also with relation to the Time that the Stomach takes to
digest it.
Physicians are not agreed about the Causes of Digestion, but are divided
into two Opinions, each of which is supported by the Writings of very
eminent Authors; convinced of my own Inability to decide the
Controversy, which also requires a large Field to expatiate in, I shall
not undertake to defend either Fermentation or Trituration: But it will
be sufficient to say, in two Words, that these Opinions are not
absolutely incompatible: it perhaps will not be difficult to make a
sort
of an Alliance or Agreement between them, by uniting whatever is
plain and evident in the two Systems, and rejecting what is otherwise;
and from hence form a third, which will be nothing but the Union of the
uncontested Parts of the other two.
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