ABSTRACT
Large consequences flowing from small causes are well known, proverbial even. The butterfly causing a hurricane in the popular mythology of chaos theory has an ancestor in the Mother Goose rhyme:
For want of a nail the shoe was lost, For want of a shoe the horse was lost, For want of a horse the rider was lost, For want of the rider the battle was lost, For want of the battle the kingdom was lost, And all for the want of a nail.
