JMS Pearce
Hull, England

Serendipity has featured as an important factor in many discoveries and investigations in both medicine and science. Artists too, often refer to happy accidents that appear in their paintings. Amongst many well known medical examples of serendipity are: Fleming’s discovery of penicillin; Wilhelm Röntgen’s observations while studying cathode rays that the X-rays could penetrate human tissues, such as his wife’s hand; and Warren and Marshall’s discovery of Helicobacter pylori as a cause of peptic ulcer.¹

The word “serendipity” was based on a charming Persian fairy tale. It is defined as the faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident. Horatio (Horace) Walpole (1717–1797), fourth Earl of Orford, son of Prime Minister Robert Walpole, was an author and politician who introduced the word serendipity in 1754. Walpole, in a letter to a friend, Horace Mann, said he had “once read a silly fairy tale, called ‘The Three Princes of Serendip’ [the old Persian name for Ceylon, now named Sri Lanka]… they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of.”

The tale was supposedly derived from Amir Khusraw’s “Hasht-Bihisht” of 1302. It was later adapted in Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo (1557) by Michele Tramezzino. It was adapted in Voltaire’s 1747 novel Zadig and has been retold in many cultures.

In Serendip lived a great king named Giaffer.^2,3 He had three sons whom he was determined to educate, not only with knowledge and power, but also with varied virtues which princes need. When their tutors were satisfied, the king told his sons that he would retire, bequeathing his regal role to them; however, each prince declined, feeling unequal to the king’s renowned wisdom and prowess. Consequently, the king feared that his sons’ education had been too sheltered and sent them away to seek their independence and to discover the ways of the world.

They arrive in the foreign land of a great and powerful emperor named Beramo. On the road a camel driver stopped them and asked if they had seen one of his camels. Although they had not seen it the princes astounded the driver by describing the lost camel: lame, blind in one eye, missing a tooth, carrying honey on one side and butter on the other, also carrying a pregnant woman. Their account was confirmed when the camel was found.

The driver was amazed and brought the princes to face the emperor, who enquired how they could give such an accurate description of a camel they had never seen. They then recount their careful observations, which led to the camel’s eventual discovery. This was their explanation:

As the grass had been eaten only on one side of the road where it was less verdant, the princes deduced that the camel was blind to the other side.

Because there were lumps of chewed grass on the road the size of a camel’s tooth, presumably they had fallen through the gap left by a missing tooth.

The tracks showed the prints of only three feet, the fourth drag marks, indicating that the animal was lame.

That butter was carried on one side of the camel and honey on the other was clear because ants had been attracted to melted butter on one side of the road and flies to spilled honey on the other.

“I guessed that the camel must have carried a woman,” said the second brother, “because I had noticed that near the tracks where the animal had knelt down the imprint of a foot was visible. Because some urine was near by, I wet my fingers [in it] and as a reaction to its odor I felt a sort of carnal concupiscence, which convinced me that the imprint was of a woman’s foot.”

“I guessed that the same woman must have been pregnant,” said the third, “because I had noticed nearby handprints which were indicative that the woman, being pregnant, had helped herself up with her hands while urinating.”⁴

The princes successfully solved further knotty problems presented to them by Emperor Beramo, who was mightily impressed. He offered them senior positions as diplomats and government advisers. The princes declined and continued on their travels, meeting other challenges, which they solved with their skills in observation and deduction.

In a variation of the camel story, the princes deduced that a mule had been blind in one eye, because it grazed only on one side of the path. In another tale the princes exposed by questioning and deduction a treacherous scheme by a dishonest jeweler who tried to swindle someone. Eventually they returned home, and their father King Giaffer was delighted with their acquired knowledge, experiences, and the help they had given to people in need. In time the three wise sons became three wise rulers.

Walpole’s meaning of serendipity deviates from the legend. The princes weren’t making discoveries by chance; they were using logical deduction, much in the later style of Sherlock Holmes. In modern common usage, sagacity has been replaced by the idea of happy accidents.

References

1. Pearce JMS. Serendipity in science and medicine. Hektoen International Winter 2022.
2. Remer TG, ed. Serendipity and the Three Princes: From the Peregrinaggio of 1557. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman: 1964.
3. Glover JMP. The History of Serendipity: The Lost Dictionary of Clichés. Oxford University Press, 2010.
4. Richard Boyle. Part One, “The Three Princes of Serendip.” 2000. https://www.memoriedalmediterraneo.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/three-princes-of-serendip.richard-boyle.pdf