Kent --
This might be a tangent, but consider:
"We may be likened to two scorpions in a bottle, each capable of killing
the other, but only at the risk of his own life."
J. Robert Oppenheimer, "Atomic Weapons and American Policy," _Foreign
Affairs_, July 1953, p. 529, quoted in Suzy Platt, ed., Respectfully
Quoted (Washington: Library of Congress, 1989)
In LEXIS-NEXIS lawrev;allrev I found other instances of the two-scorpion
metaphor. I found more instances in the Congressional Record
(genfed;record), plus a four-scorpion allusion and a "bunch of scorpions"
reference.
The two-scorpion model nicely evokes a standoff with fatal consequences
for either aggressor. I wonder if it was around first, and then someone
increased the number of scorpions to nine to evoke the Court -- and,
lacking a firm source, chose Holmes because he was the source of so many
bons mots it wouldn't hurt to give him credit for one more.
Good luck with your quest.
-- Mary
Mary Whisner, Head of Reference
Gallagher Law Library, University of Washington
whisner@u.washington.edu
On Thu, 27 Mar 1997, Kent Olson wrote:
> The source of the phrase "nine scorpions in a bottle" to describe the
> Supreme Court has got me stumped. I can find nothing in the Oxford
> Dictionary of American Legal Quotations. Nor do I see any source mentioned
> in Max Lerner's posthumous _Nine Scorpions in a Bottle: Great Judges and
> Cases of the Supreme Court_ (1994).
>
> The popular winner in law review and newspaper references is O. W. Holmes,
> but nobody cites a specific source. The references I have found (excerpted
> in chronological order below) show the gradual transition from "the
> justices have often been called" to "Holmes or somebody described" to "it
> was Holmes who described" to "Holmes's classic phrase."
>
> Any help would be appreciated.
>
> Kent Olson
> University of Virginia Law Library
> kolson@virginia.edu
>
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