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美国国家公共电台 NPR Civil War Battlefield 'Limb Pit' Reveals Work Of Combat Surgeons

时间:2018-06-25 01:58:04

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Civil War Battlefield 'Limb Pit' Reveals Work Of Combat Surgeons

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

All right. At a Civil War battlefield in Virginia, scientists have unearthed1 a pit of human bones. These are the amputated limbs of wounded soldiers. NPR's Christopher Joyce was one of just a few journalists given access to these bones. And, as he reports, they reveal the tragedy of battle, the agony of survivors2 and the trials of early combat surgeons.

CHRISTOPHER JOYCE, BYLINE3: At the visitor's center in Manassas, muskets5 stand in glass cases alongside mannequins in uniform. A map shows troop movements and battlefield tactics, the usual kind of Civil War exhibit. But one item alludes6 to what happened after battle. It's a surgeon's kit7 with numerous saws.

BRANDON BIES: We have saws for removing limbs. We have saws for cutting into head wounds, for cutting off fingers.

JOYCE: Archaeologist Brandon Bies is superintendent8 of the National Park Service's Manassas site. Saws like these were used here in some of the first field hospitals for soldiers.

BIES: If you can imagine sitting with a horrific wound of your own and hearing the moans and seeing a growing pile of limbs from the surgeon and knowing that your term was coming. I can't possibly imagine what that would have been like.

JOYCE: Except he can - because in 2014, Bies excavated9 a unique burial site. It was a pit of limbs uncovered accidentally by utility workers. At first, they found bone fragments. They sent them to the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History to some of the world's best anthropologists. At the museum's forensic11 lab in Washington, D.C., bones lie on tables under fluorescent12 lights. Kari Bruwelheide holds up a reconstructed section of a thigh13 bone.

KARI BRUWELHEIDE: And what was apparent when we put all these little pieces together was this very even cut edge.

JOYCE: Like a neatly14 sawed tree branch. They found 11 amputated limbs. All but one were parts of legs. And there were also two almost-complete skeletons, apparently15 soldiers buried along with the discarded limbs. These were casualties from the Second Battle of Bull Run in 1862. They were likely wounded during a charge up to a ridge16 called the Deep Cut held by thousands of Confederates. Bies takes me there.

BIES: As they start to get closer, within 300 yards, 400 yards, they start to receive rifle fire and musket4 fire, and men are dropping left and right.

JOYCE: Shot with muskets like the Enfield that Bies has brought. He prepares a blank charge.

BIES: Pour that black powder...

JOYCE: Down into the barrel.

BIES: Ram17 cartridge18.

JOYCE: He cocks the hammer.

BIES: Prime.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSKET FIRING)

JOYCE: Some of the wounded lay for days before surgeons arrived.

BIES: Over a hundred-thousand soldiers had trampled19, shot, exploded, eaten, burned everything. Every single house, barn, was occupied by wounded soldiers, and the surgeons had very little to work with.

JOYCE: Many soldiers had been hit by a new kind of bullet, a soft, heavy projectile20 called a Minie ball. At the Smithsonian, chief physical anthropologist10 Doug Owsley shows me a bone with the kind of wound a Minie ball would cause.

DOUG OWSLEY: You can see that this right femur, high up it's got a fracture up in the upper thigh.

JOYCE: It's shattered. Looks shattered to me.

OWSLEY: It's shattered, and it's a horrific fracture of that leg.

JOYCE: Antibiotics21 were unknown. Owsley says surgeons had to amputate to save lives. During the entire Civil War, they performed tens of thousands of amputations.

OWSLEY: When you start researching that, you find out what a horrible situation everybody was in.

JOYCE: Owsley says the surgeons at Bull Run were skilled, though. Tiny striations on the cuts show that they sawed swiftly but expertly. Bruwelheide and Owsley say the limb pit is the first ever excavated from a Civil War battlefield.

BRUWELHEIDE: You think you know everything about the Civil War, but then you have a project like this that opens up a whole new area of history, aftermaths of battles.

OWSLEY: It's so much a part of what actually happened during the Civil War as the only way they could really deal with these types of limb fractures, but you never see it. And here it is right in front of us.

JOYCE: The research team may be able to identify some of these soldiers. Owsley says the surgeons recorded patients' names along with the wounds and where they amputated. That might allow the team to match names with bones and perhaps even find out what happened to those who survived.

Christopher Joyce, NPR News.


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 unearthed e4d49b43cc52eefcadbac6d2e94bb832     
出土的(考古)
参考例句:
  • Many unearthed cultural relics are set forth in the exhibition hall. 展览馆里陈列着许多出土文物。
  • Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。
2 survivors 02ddbdca4c6dba0b46d9d823ed2b4b62     
幸存者,残存者,生还者( survivor的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
  • survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者
3 byline sSXyQ     
n.署名;v.署名
参考例句:
  • His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
  • We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。
4 musket 46jzO     
n.滑膛枪
参考例句:
  • I hunted with a musket two years ago.两年前我用滑膛枪打猎。
  • So some seconds passed,till suddenly Joyce whipped up his musket and fired.又过了几秒钟,突然,乔伊斯端起枪来开了火。
5 muskets c800a2b34c12fbe7b5ea8ef241e9a447     
n.火枪,(尤指)滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • The watch below, all hands to load muskets. 另一组人都来帮着给枪装火药。 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
  • Deep ditch, single drawbridge, massive stone walls, eight at towers, cannon, muskets, fire and smoke. 深深的壕堑,单吊桥,厚重的石壁,八座巨大的塔楼。大炮、毛瑟枪、火焰与烟雾。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记
6 alludes c60ee628ca5282daa5b0a246fd29c9ff     
提及,暗指( allude的第三人称单数 )
参考例句:
  • In the vegetable kingdom Mr. Mivart only alludes to two cases. 在植物界中,密伐脱先生仅提出两点。
  • Black-box testing alludes to test that are conducted at the software interface. 黑箱测试是指测试软件接口进行。
7 kit D2Rxp     
n.用具包,成套工具;随身携带物
参考例句:
  • The kit consisted of about twenty cosmetic items.整套工具包括大约20种化妆用品。
  • The captain wants to inspect your kit.船长想检查你的行装。
8 superintendent vsTwV     
n.监督人,主管,总监;(英国)警务长
参考例句:
  • He was soon promoted to the post of superintendent of Foreign Trade.他很快就被擢升为对外贸易总监。
  • He decided to call the superintendent of the building.他决定给楼房管理员打电话。
9 excavated 3cafdb6f7c26ffe41daf7aa353505858     
v.挖掘( excavate的过去式和过去分词 );开凿;挖出;发掘
参考例句:
  • The site has been excavated by archaeologists. 这个遗址已被考古学家发掘出来。
  • The archaeologists excavated an ancient fortress. 考古学家们发掘出一个古堡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
10 anthropologist YzgzPk     
n.人类学家,人类学者
参考例句:
  • The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
  • The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。
11 forensic 96zyv     
adj.法庭的,雄辩的
参考例句:
  • The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
  • The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后,法官于10时30分宣布休庭。
12 fluorescent Zz2y3     
adj.荧光的,发出荧光的
参考例句:
  • They observed the deflections of the particles by allowing them to fall on a fluorescent screen.他们让粒子落在荧光屏上以观察他们的偏移。
  • This fluorescent lighting certainly gives the food a peculiar color.这萤光灯当然增添了食物特别的色彩。
13 thigh RItzO     
n.大腿;股骨
参考例句:
  • He is suffering from a strained thigh muscle.他的大腿肌肉拉伤了,疼得很。
  • The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
14 neatly ynZzBp     
adv.整洁地,干净地,灵巧地,熟练地
参考例句:
  • Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
  • The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。
15 apparently tMmyQ     
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
参考例句:
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
16 ridge KDvyh     
n.山脊;鼻梁;分水岭
参考例句:
  • We clambered up the hillside to the ridge above.我们沿着山坡费力地爬上了山脊。
  • The infantry were advancing to attack the ridge.步兵部队正在向前挺进攻打山脊。
17 ram dTVxg     
(random access memory)随机存取存储器
参考例句:
  • 512k RAM is recommended and 640k RAM is preferred.推荐配置为512K内存,640K内存则更佳。
18 cartridge fXizt     
n.弹壳,弹药筒;(装磁带等的)盒子
参考例句:
  • Unfortunately the 2G cartridge design is very difficult to set accurately.不幸地2G弹药筒设计非常难正确地设定。
  • This rifle only holds one cartridge.这支来复枪只能装一发子弹。
19 trampled 8c4f546db10d3d9e64a5bba8494912e6     
踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 ); 践踏; 无视; 侵犯
参考例句:
  • He gripped his brother's arm lest he be trampled by the mob. 他紧抓着他兄弟的胳膊,怕他让暴民踩着。
  • People were trampled underfoot in the rush for the exit. 有人在拼命涌向出口时被踩在脚下。
20 projectile XRlxv     
n.投射物,发射体;adj.向前开进的;推进的;抛掷的
参考例句:
  • The vertical and horizontal motions of a projectile can be treated independently.抛射体的竖直方向和水平方向的运动能够分开来处理。
  • Have you altered the plans of the projectile as the telegram suggests?你已经按照电报的要求修改炮弹图样了吗?
21 antibiotics LzgzQT     
n.(用作复数)抗生素;(用作单数)抗生物质的研究;抗生素,抗菌素( antibiotic的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • the discovery of antibiotics in the 20th century 20世纪抗生素的发现
  • The doctor gave me a prescription for antibiotics. 医生给我开了抗生素。

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