pact foodstuff, which is
easily preserved. Dr. Gastineau Earle, lecturing for the Institute of
Hygiene in 1915 on "Food Factor in War," said: "Chocolate is a most
valuable concentrated food, especially when other foods are not
available; it is the chief constituent of the emergency ration." Its
importance as a concentrated foodstuff was appreciated in the United
States, for every "comfort kit" made up for the American soldiers
fighting in the war contained a cake of sweet chocolate.

There are a number of records of people whose lives have been preserved
by means of chocolate. One of the most recent was the case of Commander
Stewart, who was torpedoed in H.M.S. "Cornwallis" in the Mediterranean
in 1917. He happened to have in his cabin one of the boxes of chocolate
presented to the Army and Navy in 1915 by the colonies of Trinidad,
Grenada, and St. Lucia, who gave the cacao and paid English
manufacturers to make it into chocolate. He had been treasuring the box
as a souvenir, but being the only article of food available, he filled
his pockets with the chocolate, which sustained him through many trying
hours.[3]

[3] See _West India Committee Journal_, p. 55, 1917.

We have already seen the high food value of the cacao bean: what of the
sugar which chocolate contains? Sugar is consumed in large quantities in
England, the consumption per head amounting to 80-90 lbs. per year. It
is well known as a giver of heat and energy, and Sir Ernest Shackleton
reports that it proved a great life preserver and sustainer in Arctic
regions. Our practical acquaintance with sugar commences at birth--milk
containing about 5 per cent. of milk sugar--and when one considers the
amazing activity of young children one understands their continuous
demand for sugar. Dr. Hutchison, in his well-known _Food and the
Principles of Dietetics_, says: "The craving for sweets which children
show is, no doubt, the natural expression of a physiological need, but
they should be taken with, and not between, meals. Chocolate is one of
the most wholesome and nutritious forms of such sweets."

Both the constituents of chocolate being nourishing, it follows that
chocolate itself has a high food value. This is proved by the figures
given below.

As with cocoa, we have first to know the composition before we can
calculate the food value. The relative proportions of nib, butter and
sugar, vary considerably in ordinary chocolate, so that it is difficult
to