万物简史 第626期:神秘的两足动物(4)

（单词翻译）

The next year Dubois's workers found a virtually complete thighbone that looked surprisingly modern. In fact, many anthropologists think itis modern, and has nothing to do with Java Man. If it is an erectus bone, it is unlike any other found since. Nonetheless Dubois used the thighbone to deduce—correctly, as it turned out—that Pithecanthropus walked upright. He also produced, with nothing but a scrap¹ of cranium and one tooth, a model of the complete skull², which also proved uncannily accurate.

第二年，杜布瓦的工人们发现了一根几乎完整的大腿骨，令人吃惊的是，这块骨头看上去与现代人的特点十分相似。事实上，许多人类学家认为他就是现代人，与爪哇人没有任何关系。即使是一根直立人的骨头，它也与已经发现的其他化石不同。杜布瓦据此推论——后来证明是正确的——类人猿是直立行走的。仅仅根据一小块头盖骨和一颗牙齿，杜布瓦还竟然制作成了一个完整的头骨模型，而且后来证明，他的制作也县非常精确。

In 1895, Dubois returned to Europe, expecting a triumphal reception. In fact, he met nearly the opposite reaction. Most scientists disliked both his conclusions and the arrogant³ manner in which he presented them. The skullcap, they said, was that of an ape, probably a gibbon, and not of any early human. Hoping to bolster⁴ his case, in 1897 Dubois allowed a respected anatomist from the University of Strasbourg, Gustav Schwalbe, to make a cast of the skullcap. To Dubois's dismay, Schwalbe thereupon produced a monograph⁵ that received far more sympathetic attention than anything Dubois had written and followed with a lecture tour in which he was celebrated⁶ nearly as warmly as if he had dug up the skull himself. Appalled⁷ and embittered⁸, Dubois withdrew into an undistinguished position as a professor of geology at the University of Amsterdam and for the next two decades refused to let anyone examine his precious fossils again. He died in 1940 an unhappy man.

1895年，杜布瓦回到欧洲，希望赢得一片喝彩声。实际上他遇到的反应几乎恰恰相反。大多数科学家既不赞同他的结论，也不喜欢他摆出的那副傲慢无礼的态度。他们认为，那块头盖骨是猿猴的，很可能是长臂猿的，根本不是什么早期人类的。他于1897年请斯特拉斯堡大学一位有名望的解剖学家古斯塔夫·施瓦尔布制作了一个头盏骨模型。希望支持自己的观点。施瓦尔布据此写了一篇论文，令杜布瓦大吃一惊的是，这篇论文所受到的支持和关注程度远远超过了杜布瓦所写的任何东西。接着，施瓦尔布还作了一系列巡回演讲，受到热烈的赞赏，好像那块化石是他挖到的。杜布瓦既惊又恨，之后他接受了一个平凡的职位，在阿姆斯特丹大学默默无闻地当一名地质学教授。在随后的20年里，他不再允许任何人碰他的宝贝化石。1940年，杜布瓦在郁郁不乐中离开人世。