Page:The food of the Gods - A Popular Account of Cocoa.djvu/21

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"THE FOOD OF THE GODS."

stimulating properties cocoa ranks ahead of coffee, though below tea. As a matter of fact, the active principles of all three are alkaloids, practically identical and equally effective.[1] Each derives its value from its influence on the nervous system, which it stimulates, while checking the waste of tissue, but the cocoa-bean provides in addition solid food to replace wasted tissue. It is, indeed, so closely allied in composition to pure dried milk, that in this respect there is little to choose between an absolutely pure cocoa essence and the natural fluid.[2] It

  1. According to Drs. Playfair and Lankester:

    Tea contains 3 per cent, theine.
    Coffee " "caffeine.
    Cocoa " 2 "theobromine.

    Probably the proportion of caffeine in coffee would be more correctly stated as 1¼ per cent. Theine and caffeine are identical, but theobromine (C7H8N4O2) differs from both in the greater proportion of nitrogen which it contains.

  2. Dr. Johnson's analysis:
    Dried milk 35 Flesh formers in each hundred parts.
    Cocoa essence 34¾
    Cocoa-nibs 23
    Best French chocolates 11