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John Snow Defeats “King Cholera”JOHH
约翰·斯诺击败“霍乱王”
John Snow was a famous doctor in London - so expert, indeed, that he attended Queen Victoria as her personal physician.
约翰·斯诺是伦敦一位著名的医生——他的确医术精湛,因而成为照料维多利亚女皇的私人医生。
But he became inspired when he thought about helping ordinary people exposed to cholera.
但当他一想到要帮助那些得了霍乱的普通百姓时,他就感到很振奋。
This was the deadly disease of its day.
霍乱在当时是最致命的疾病。
Neither its cause nor its cure was understood.
人们既不知道它的病源,也不了解它的治疗方法。
So many thousands of terrified people died every time there was an outbreak.
每次暴发霍乱时,就有大批惊恐的老百姓病死。
John Snow wanted to face the challenge and solve this problem.
约翰·斯诺想面对这个挑战,解决这个问题。
He knew that cholera would never be controlled until its cause was found.
他知道,在找到病源之前,霍乱疫情是无法控制的。
He became interested in two theories that possibly explained how cholera killed people.
斯诺对霍乱致人死地的两种推测都很感兴趣。
The first suggested that cholera multiplied in the air.
一种看法是霍乱病毒在空气中腐殖着,。
A cloud of dangerous gas floated around until it found its victims.
像一股危险的气流到处漂浮,直到找到病毒的受害者为止。
The second suggested that people absorbed this disease into their bodies with their meals.
第二种看法是在吃饭的时候人们把这种病毒引入体内的。
From the stomach the disease quickly attacked the body and soon the affected person died.
病从胃里发作而迅速殃及全身,患者就会很快地死去。
John Snow suspected that the second theory was correct but he needed evidence.
斯诺推测第二种说法是正确的,但是他需要证据。
So when another outbreak hit London in 1854, he was ready to begin his enquiry.
因此,在1854年伦敦再次暴发霍乱的时候,约翰·斯诺着手准备对此调研。
As the disease spread quickly through poor neighbourhoods, he began to gather information.
当霍乱在贫民区迅速蔓延的时候,约翰·斯诺就开始收集资料。
In two particular streets, the cholera outbreak was so severe that more than 500 people died in ten days.
他发现特别在两条街道上霍乱流行的很严重,在10天之内就死去了500多人。
He was determined to find out why.
他决心要查明其原因。