Paul from Belgium keeps telling me that eggs are dangerous. I never believed him, as he enjoys crepes and cakes of all kinds.
However, the following story from 1897 (printed in the St. Louis Republic in and reprinted in the Norfolk Virginian) proves that, in 19th century America at least, eating eggs could be deadly.
Don’t eat Eggs when Angry.
“Never eat eggs while you are angry,” A.E. Stewart, of Boston, wrote to the St. Louis Republic in 1897. “My attention was first called to this strange fact by the tragic and sudden death of a lady acquaintance in Boston several years ago. I accepted her husband’s invitation to dine with them.”
Sure you did Mr. Stewart. Go on.
“Just as we were going in to dinner a servant did something that caused the lady to fly into a terrible rage. She had been irritable from some minor complaint for several days, and her husband calmed her ruffled feelings sufficiently for the dinner to be eaten in good temper. I noticed that she ate an unusually large amount of soft scrambled eggs.”
Paul from Belgium would be shocked. He often says more than one egg a day could kill you. Well, what happened to the lady?
“Fifteen minutes after we left the dining room she was a corpse. She died in frightful convulsions before the nearest doctor reached the house. The doctor was unable to ascribe the cause.”
Of course, Paul from Belgium knows exactly what this cause was. Is that it, just one death from eggs? Or were there more?
” A few months later I was visiting a brother in Connecticut, and one of his sons died under similar circumstances. Before breakfast one morning the boy, who was about 15 years old, had a fight with a neighbor’s boy. Before his anger had subsided my nephew was called to breakfast. He ate four soft boiled eggs.”
You see that Paul, four eggs. The boy ate four eggs.
“Had I known as much then as I do now I would have prevented it. In less that a half hour after breakfast the boy died with exactly the same symptoms that were present when my friend’s wife died. This set me to thinking about the matter.”
Has me thinking too. So, A.E. Stewart, what did you do about it?
“It was not long after this before a Beacon Hill friend of mine expired suddenly after a meal. The doctors, as usual, were divided in opinion on the cause of death. Some of the contended that it was heart failure, whatever that is, and others are still holding out that [it] was apoplexy.”
Well, even if it was apoplexy or heart failure, what caused it?
“Inquiry developed the fact that my friend was very angry when he sat down at the table, and that he ate five eggs. With these developments I searched no further for the cause of his death. He was angry, he at eggs and he died.”
Did you read this story Paul?
“If these are not links in the chain of cause and effect the human intelligence is incapable of logical thinking.”
So there you have it. Friends don’t let friends eat eggs while angry. Neither scrambled, nor soft boiled is safe. Just ask A.E. Stewart of Boston. (If he’s still around.)