Abstract

KRIVOY, Abraham. Serendipity. Gac Méd Caracas [online]. 2002, vol.110, n.1, pp.3-8. ISSN 0367-4762.

An historical review of the serendipity concept is made. Horace Walpole coined the name in a letter to his friend sir Horace Mann in 1754 in relation of the adventures of "the three Princess of Serendip" who were always making discoveries by accident and coming across things which they were not in quest of. General serendipity is briefly describe: Dead Sea scrolls, America and Christopher Columbus, dynamite, teflon, velcro, electromagnetism and Faraday, Kekulé and benzene ring, Newton and gravitational laws, vulcanization and Charles Goodyear, Arquimides and eureka. Medical serendipity as electricity and Galván, Roentgen and x-rays, Fleming and penicillin, neural capillary regulation and Claude Bernard; Laennec and stethoscope; toraco abdominal percussion, dicumarol, Neurosurgical serendipity: ventriculography and Walter Dandy. Egas Moniz ad leukomoty.

Keywords : Serendipity; Chistopher Columbus; Kekulé; Gooyear; Newton; X-ray; Galvani; Percussion; Stethoscope; Ventriculography; Lobotomy.