What came first, the chicken or the myth?

Henry Sheldon
Feb 24, 2015
3 min read

For many years now, ancient philosophers, scientists and of course those who believe in creationism have pondered the answer to the debatable conundrum which is “what came first, the chicken or the egg?” Of course if you’ve came here to find that answer, then that will depend on whether you are indeed a philosopher, scientist or creationist. The debate is something that has been catalogued as going as far back as 384BC, where Aristotle made his hypothesis on the resolution to the puzzle. Now, without doing the equivalent of pointing at the bible and running away when your eyes are closed, we at the County Hampshire Egg farming constabulary will have to save that debate for another day.

So, the popular myth we are here to dispel is the “too many eggs will poison you”. Salmonellosis is an infection caused by Salmonella bacteria. Most people infected with Salmonella develop diarrhoea, fever, vomiting, and abdominal cramps 12 to 72 hours after infection. This can happen to anyone regardless of your daily egg intake. Poultry, pork, beef and fish (seafood), if the meat is prepared incorrectly or is infected with the bacteria after preparation can cause what is commonly known as salmonella poisoning. Though Salmonella infection from eggs is frequently the cause of osteomyelitis in sickle-cell anaemia patients, it is not the most common cause; the most common cause remains Staphylococcus infection. So why do eggs always carry the stigma? The chicken was probably domesticated for its eggs from jungle fowl native to tropical and subtropical Southeast Asia and India before 7500 BCE based on publically open databases available in libraries and internet information sites. The first recorded instances of “chicken egg poisoning” date back to France in the 17th century where eggs were scrambled with acidic fruit juices; this may have been the origin of lemon curd. Now, because of the preparation involved, it meant that this ever growing popular dessert was including roughly 8 eggs per portion, a far cry from the modern day dried egg powder and artificial fruit recipe. When you’re looking at a potential 2 daily portions a day for the upper classes, the chance of eating an inseminated fertilised egg were a lot higher. By eating too much yolk there is a small chance you could eat an egg which would later in your stomach form a twin celled fibrosis membrane, identical to that of a baby chick in its youngest form. The yolk in a newly laid egg is round and firm. As the yolk ages, it absorbs water from the albumen, which increases its size and causes it to stretch and weaken the vitelline membrane (the clear casing enclosing the yolk). The resulting effect is a flattened and enlarged yolk shape. But too much in a short period combined with the body heat can create this living organism which some would say looks similar to that of the human embryo in its earliest form (minus the gill slits of course). The way this would be exited from the body is of course in the same way a chicken would lay an egg, only in the depths of our lavitorial systems. In the 17th century with poor drainage systems, meant that the only way of getting rid of our natural wastage was to whisk the faeces in the bucket style toilet at the end of every day before pouring down the street congregational sewerage system. (Later a job employed by the upper classes passed down to the lower classes for a small fee). This is when these tiny 0.5cm long embryos were first detected. Less common these days, with the smaller daily egg intake, what with modern access to more choices of foods and of course the lack of need to recreate the Hindenburg disaster every night, this phenomenon often goes unnoticed, with very minor symptoms.