Cacao is not only a stimulant beverage, but a food as well; about one-half its weight is fat, and about one-third consists of starch and flesh-making substances. The stimulant principle is the same as that occurring in tea and coffee, but the proportion is considerably less. In preparing the cocoa for the market, much of the fat is intentionally withdrawn. The fat, commercially known as "cocoa-butter," and "oil of theobroma," does not turn rancid. Chocolate consists of cocoa ground to a paste with sugar and flavoring matter, and then cast in moulds to harden. It is used mainly in the manufacture of confectionery. Most of the chocolate is made in France, Spain, and the United States. More than forty million pounds of cocoa are yearly consumed in the United States. =Mate.=--Mate, yerba mate, or Paraguay tea, is the leaf of a shrub, a species of holly, growing profusely in the forests of Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay. In many instances, the shrub is cultivated. The leaves are prepared in much the same manner as tea-leaves are, but instead of being rolled, they are broken by beating. The mate of commerce has a stimulant principle identical with that of tea and coffee, which is the only reason for its use. The consumption, about fifteen thousand tons a year, is confined almost wholly to the countries named. =Tobacco.=--The tobacco of commerce is the prepared and manufactured leaf of several species of plant, belonging to the nightshade family. Most of the product is derived from the species known as Virginia tobacco (_Nicotiana tabacum_) and the Brazilian species (_Nicotiana rustica_). The former is cultivated in the United States, West Indies, the Philippine Islands, and Turkey; the latter has been transplanted to central Europe and the East Indies. The use of tobacco was prevalent in the New World at the time of Columbus's first voyage, and was quickly introduced into Europe. The prepared leaf contains a substance, nicotine, which is one of the most deadly of poisons when swallowed, and an intense narcotic stimulant when inhaled. On account of the evil effects arising from its introduction, its use was forbidden by the Church and also by sovereigns of several European states. The latter, however, finding that its use was becoming general, made it a Crown monopoly. In Great Britain its cultivation was forbidden in order to encourage its cultivation in Virginia.