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Article: Merton, Robert K., and Elinor Barber. The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity: a Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- International Social Science Review
- Article date:
- September 22, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Pi Gamma Mu. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Merton, Robert K., and Elinor Barber. The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity: A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004. xxv + 313 pp. Cloth, $29.98.
In The Way of an Investigator (1945, pp. 68-78), physiologist Walter B. Cannon, one of the earliesi to use the word "serendipity" in science, tells us that it was coined in 1754 by Horace Walpole, fourth earl of Oxford. In a letter to his good friend Horace Mann, Walpole recounted this excerpt from a fairy tale, The Travels and Adventures of Three Princes of Serendip (the name for ancient Sri Lanka): " ... [A]s their highnesses traveled, they ...