Perplexing Proverb

[Laurence Horn]

On Aug 4, 2011, at 9:24 PM, Ben Zimmer wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 4, 2011 at 10:08 AM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:
>> 
>> A reader of my weekly "column" about quotations on the Freakonomics blog
>> has asked a question that has long perplexed me.  How did the strange proverb
>> "It's always darkest just before the dawn" arise?  We all understand the point of
>> the proverbial metaphor, but such metaphors are usually based on an underlying
>> commonly accepted reality.  It's just not scientifically true that it's always darkest
>> just before the dawn.  Can anyone help me to understand this?
> 
> Perhaps we could classify this as a "frog-boiling proverb," since it
> resembles the equally untrue cliche that a frog will allow itself to
> be boiled if placed in a pot of gradually heated water.
> 
> Language Log discussion here:
> http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=1764
> 
Actually the links (especially with reference to the Goltz studies reported in Beitrage zur Lehre von den Functionen der Nervencentren des Frosches; Berlin: August Hirschwald, 1869) make it clear that a frog will indeed allow itself to be boiled when placed in a pot of gradually heated water, IF (and apparently only if) it is a decerebrated frog.  And decerebrated frogs probably have an equally hard time figuring out whether or not it's darkest just before the dawn.

LH

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