萬物簡史 第110期:勢不兩立的科學(18)

He did not hesitate to persecute those whom hedisliked. Early in his career Owen used his influenceat the Zoological Society to blackball a young mannamed Robert Grant whose only crime was to haveshown promise as a fellow anatomist. Grant wasastonished to discover that he was suddenly deniedaccess to the anatomical specimens he needed toconduct his research. Unable to pursue his work, hesank into an understandably dispirited obscurity.

他毫不猶豫地迫害他不喜歡的人。早年，他利用自己在地質(zhì)學會的影響排斥一位名叫羅伯特·格蘭特的年輕人，而格蘭特惟一的罪過就是顯示出他很有希望成為一名解剖學家。格蘭特吃驚地發(fā)現(xiàn)自己突然被剝奪了使用解剖標本的權利，而這是他進行研究所必不可缺的。由于無法再從事他的工作，他變得灰心喪氣，默默無聞，這是可以理解的。

But no one suffered more from Owen's unkindly attentions than the hapless and increasinglytragic Gideon Mantell. After losing his wife, his children, his medical practice, and most of hisfossil collection, Mantell moved to London.

歐文如此不客氣，受到傷害最大的要算是越來越悲慘的倒霉蛋吉迪恩·曼特爾。在失去妻子、子女、醫(yī)生職業(yè)和大部分化石收藏品以后，曼特爾搬到了倫敦。

There in 1841—the fateful year in which Owen would achieve his greatest glory for namingand identifying the dinosaurs—Mantell was involved in a terrible accident. While crossingClapham Common in a carriage, he somehow fell from his seat, grew entangled in the reins,and was dragged at a gallop over rough ground by the panicked horses. The accident left himbent, crippled, and in chronic pain, with a spine damaged beyond repair.

1841年是決定性的一年，歐文在倫敦將獲得命名和發(fā)現(xiàn)恐龍的殊榮——而曼特爾遇上了一場可怕的事故。當馬車穿過克萊翰公地的時候，他不知怎的從車座上掉下來，纏在韁繩中間，被受驚的馬匹飛快拉過粗糙的地面。這起事故造成他背部彎曲，走路跛腳，常年疼痛，脊椎受損，再也無法恢復。