and at the commencement of the Regency was more in vogue than coffee.

Linnæus, as is well known, named the tree "Theobroma," or divine food-an emphatic qualification which some attribute to his excessive fondness for chocolate, others to his desire to please his fatherconfessor, who, like many of the clergy then, used it habitually, and others, again, to his gallantry, because a queen was the first to introduce it.

Time and experience, those two great masters, have proved that, when properly prepared, chocolate is wholesome, nourishing, and

Qualities of choco

late.

easily digested; and also that it is most suitable for those who have much brain work-for clergymen, lawyers, and, above all, for travellers.

After eating a good and hearty breakfast, if you swallow a large cup of good chocolate, all will be perfectly digested in three hours, and still leave a good appetite for dinner. In my zeal for science, and by dint of eloquence, I have had this tested by a good many ladies, who, after declaring it would be the death of them, found themselves all the better for it, and gave me the full praise due to gastronomic skill.

I should here speak of chocolate à l'ambre and its properties, which I take pride in bringing before my readers, because they are fruit of many experi

ments.

Let, then, every man who has drunk too deeply from the cup of pleasure, every man who has devoted to work a considerable part of the time due to sleep, every man of wit who feels that he has temporarily become stupid, every man who finds the air damp, the weather unendurable, or time hanging heavy on his hands, every man tormented with some fixed idea which deprives him of the liberty of thinking-let all such people, we say, prescribe to themselves a good pint of chocolate mixed with amber in the proportion of from sixty to seventy grains to the pound, and they will see wonders.

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Sir," said the Abbess Madame d'Arestrel to me more than fifty years ago, "when you would have good chocolate, get it made overnight in an earthenware coffee-pot, and leave it in it. By resting through the night it becomes concentrated, and acquires a softness which greatly improves it. Le bon Dieu cannot be offended at this nicety, for he himself is all perfection."

VII.

THEORY OF FRYING.

It was a fine day in the month of May. The smoky roofs of the Capital of Pleasure were bathed in pleasant sunshine, and the streets, for a wonder, showed neither mud nor dust. The heavy stagecoaches had for some time ceased to shake the streets, and the huge waggons were at rest. Only open carriages were to be seen, full of fair ladies, native or foreign, shaded under pretty hats, and casting haughty or coquettish looks upon the men who passed, according as they were pitiful or handsome fellows.

In other words, it was about three in the afternoon, when the professor sat down in his reflectingchair, with one leg resting vertically on the floor, and the other stretched diagonally across it, his back comfortably supported, and his hands resting on the lions' heads which terminate the arms of that venerable piece of furniture. His high forehead showed a love of serious study, and his mouth a taste for agreeable recreation; while his thoughtful air and attitude at once suggested experience and wisdom.

When thus established, the professor sent for his head cook, and immediately that servitor appeared, ready to receive advice, lesson, or command.

"Well, Master La Planche!" said the professor, with that serious tone which thrills his hearers; "all who dine at my table declare that none beat you for soups, but I am sorry to see that in frying your results are not so trustworthy. Yesterday, for instance, I heard you groan when that superb sole was served up pale, flabby, and discoloured. My friend R. cast at you a glance of disapproval, Mr. H. turned his gnomonic nose to the west, and President S. deplored the failure as a public calamity.

"This misfortune has befallen you through your neglect of principles of which you do not feel the full importance. Being somewhat self-willed, it has been difficult to make you understand that every phenomenon of your laboratory is in accordance with the eternal laws of nature, and that certain things which you do without reflection, merely because you have seen them done by others, can be traced nevertheless to the highest abstractions of science.

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Listen, then, attentively, and learn, so that you may not have again to blush at your workmanship.

Capacity of heat.

"The liquids which you expose to the action of fire become charged with different amounts of heat, in virtue of some property impressed upon them by nature, the secret of which is yet reserved from us. Thus, you might with impunity dip your finger in spirits of wine when boiling, but you would draw it out quick enough from brandy, and quicker still if it were water, while even a hasty immersion in boiling oil would hurt you cruelly-the capacity of oil for heat being at least three times that of water.

"Hence it is that an alimentary substance in boiling water softens, becomes dissolved, and forms a soup; and in oil, it contracts, assumes a darker colour, and at last has its surface carbonized. In the former case, the water dissolves and draws out the juices contained by the sapid substance; in the latter, the juices are preserved, because the oil cannot dissolve them. It is to the second process, boiling in oil or fat, that the term 'to fry' is properly applied.

"The beauty of a good fry is in carbonizing or browning the surface by sudden immersion-the process known as the 'surprise.' It forms a sort of vault to enclose all that is valuable, prevents the fat from reaching it, and concentrates the juices, so as best to develop the alimentary qualities.