laws and sausages; "trichina" = 'trichinosis', not in OED

[Joel S. Berson]

Sam Clements' citation to a message from the archive has addressed
the dating -- although the following from Garson has an even earlier
date, 1869 March 27:
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind1005D&L=ADS-L&P=R2737&1=ADS-L&9=A&I=-3&J=on&d=No+Match%3BMatch%3BMatches&z=4

But James Landau's daughter's friend Jonathan's question about
etymology was not addressed in the archives.  Perhaps it is obvious
to everyone.  However -- possibilities (possibly acting together):

1)  One would be as repelled to see the ingredients of (what's
inside) a law as to see what goes into a sausage.

2)  Garson hints at trichinosis in the late 1860s as a specific
prompter for "laws, like sausages":
>The possibility of food poisoning from sausages is mentioned in news
>accounts in 1867, e.g., trichinae.

That seems possible (although I wonder whether the analogy was really
based upon ill effects as opposed to benign but repelling contents),
considering the following.

The OED2's first cite for "trichinosis" is 1866 (Jan. 18), although
the genus was named in 1835.  "Trichinosis" or "trichina" or
"trichiniasis" appear in about 70 articles between 1866 and 1869 in
19th Century U.S. Newspapers, starting with an outbreak in
Germany.  (I will write a separate message for quotations for
"trichina" and "trichiniasis".)

An early article (1866 Feb. 16) is about the discovery of trichanae
in pork in Illinois.  The article says physicians "on examining the
insect through a microscope, presumed it the same from which so many
deaths occurred in western New York last season".  (It's thus unclear
what the cause was named "last season".)

On 1866 April 14 the Daily Cleveland Herald published an expose of
the wide presence of "[t]he trichinae plague" in America, as
uncovered by a "Commission of experienced medical men" appointed by
the Chicago Academy of Sciences.  The data are quite
repelling.  However, the article continues with the "consoling" --
how to prevent infestation in pigs, and a conclusion by the
Commission that "pork is a good thing after all".

The Milwaukee Daily Centinel reported on 1866 April 18 that this
"committee" had been appointed "in March last".  Given the research
it did and the closeness of March to April 18, "March last" must mean
1865, perhaps prompted by the outbreak in New York.

Perhaps John Godfrey Saxe was prompted by the New York outbreak.  He
was nearby, living in Vermont until the 1870s and summering in
Saratoga.  (Wikipedia)

I can imagine that the immediate post-Civil-War years were a
cornucopia of special interest legislation, with all kinds of schemes
for reconstruction.
-----
Perhaps the "law, like sausages" image is related to
pork-barreling:  the pork (sausage) is "barreled" inside the
law.  Now more euphemistically called "ear-marks" -- although that
too has a porcine (swinish? piggish?) origin.

Joel

At 5/22/2012 09:19 AM, James A. Landau <JJJRLandau at netscape.com> wrote:

>My daughter asked me the following.  Can anyone help?
>
>     - James A. Landau
>
><q>
>Jonathan and I were discussing the behind-the-scenes drama of our
>favorite TV comedy, and I said that I wasn't looking forward to next
>season because I knew too much about how the sausage got made.
>
>
>Jonathan then promptly asked me what the sausage refers to, and when
>its origin is, having heard the phrase but never an explanation. I
>remembered the quote about laws and sausages, but not why they
>referred to sausages as the gross thing. I guessed that it came in
>the wake of "The Jungle", but it sounds earlier than that, and I
>found this citation:
>
>
>Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we
>know how they are made. Though similar remarks are often attributed
>to Bismarck, this is the earliest known quote regarding laws and
>sausages, and is attributed to John Godfrey Saxe in The Daily
>Cleveland Herald (29 March 1869)
>
>
>Apparently the OED doesn't allow searching for idioms. Is this
>correct? Could the ADS list help?
></q>
>
>
>
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