萬物簡史 第107期:勢不兩立的科學(15)

Owen had grown up in Lancaster, in the north ofEngland, where he had trained as a doctor. He was aborn anatomist and so devoted to his studies thathe sometimes illicitly borrowed limbs, organs, andother parts from cadavers and took them home forleisurely dissection.

歐文在英格蘭北部的蘭開斯特長大，受過訓練準備當醫生。他是個天生的解剖學家，對研究工作不遺余力，有時候非法取下尸體上的四肢、器官和別的部位，拿回家里慢慢地解剖。

Once while carrying a sack containing the head of a black African sailor that he had justremoved, Owen slipped on a wet cobble and watched in horror as the head bounced away fromhim down the lane and through the open doorway of a cottage, where it came to rest in thefront parlor. What the occupants had to say upon finding an unattached head rolling to a halt attheir feet can only be imagined. One assumes that they had not formed any terribly advancedconclusions when, an instant later, a fraught-looking young man rushed in, wordlessly retrievedthe head, and rushed out again.

有一回，他用麻袋搬回剛從一具非洲黑人水手的尸體上取下的頭，不慎絆著濕漉漉的石頭滑了一跤，驚慌地望著那個頭從身邊一蹦一跳地順著小巷滾去，鉆進一戶人家開著的門洞里，在前廳里停了下來。至于那戶人家的主人見到一個頭滾到自己的腳邊會說些什么，我們只能想像了。有人講，他們還來不及搞清是怎么回事，突然間一個焦急萬分的年輕人沖進來拾起那個頭，又沖了出去。

In 1825, aged just twenty-one, Owen moved to London and soon after was engaged by theRoyal College of Surgeons to help organize their extensive, but disordered, collections ofmedical and anatomical specimens. Most of these had been left to the institution by JohnHunter, a distinguished surgeon and tireless collector of medical curiosities, but had neverbeen catalogued or organized, largely because the paperwork explaining the significance ofeach had gone missing soon after Hunter's death.

1825年，歐文21歲，他搬到了倫敦，不久就被英國皇家外科學院聘用，幫助清理又多又亂的醫學和解剖標本。其中，大部分是杰出的外科醫生、醫學珍品的孜孜不倦的收藏家約翰·亨特留給這個學院的，但從來沒有分過類和清理過，很大程度上因為亨特死后不久，說明每件物品的意義的文字材料丟失了。