Chicken stock used for soup began in a rather disgusting way. A disease swept through the chicken population in 1768 causing the chickens to melt into puddles. Hungry people would scoop up the liquid and add vegetables to it and cook it in a pot.
No one became ill from it, so Alistair Cambell, a resourceful fellow, hired laborers to gather up all the puddles and haul them to a processing plant. He named the product soup and sold it in stores.