<P> The perceived perversity of the universe has long been a subject of comment, and precursors to the modern version of Murphy's law are not hard to find . The concept may be as old as humanity . Recent significant research in this area has been conducted by members of the American Dialect Society . Society member Stephen Goranson has found a version of the law, not yet generalized or bearing that name, in a report by Alfred Holt at an 1877 meeting of an engineering society . </P> <P> It is found that anything that can go wrong at sea generally does go wrong sooner or later, so it is not to be wondered that owners prefer the safe to the scientific...Sufficient stress can hardly be laid on the advantages of simplicity . The human factor cannot be safely neglected in planning machinery . If attention is to be obtained, the engine must be such that the engineer will be disposed to attend to it . </P> <P> Mathematician Augustus De Morgan wrote on June 23, 1866: "The first experiment already illustrates a truth of the theory, well confirmed by practice, what - ever can happen will happen if we make trials enough ." In later publications "whatever can happen will happen" occasionally is termed "Murphy's law," which raises the possibility--if something went wrong--that "Murphy" is "De Morgan" misremembered (an option, among others, raised by Goranson on the American Dialect Society list). </P> <P> American Dialect Society member Bill Mullins has found a slightly broader version of the aphorism in reference to stage magic . The British stage magician Nevil Maskelyne wrote in 1908: </P>

Murphy's law anything that can happen will happen