万物简史 第505期:丰富多彩的生命(1)

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Here and there in the Natural History Museum in London,  在伦敦自然史博物馆的很多地方，

built into recesses¹ along the underlit corridors or standing² between glass cases of minerals and 在灯光昏暗的走廊里，在陈列矿物和

ostrich³ eggs and a century or so of other productive clutter⁴, are secret doors 鸵鸟蛋以及一个多世纪的其他生产性杂物的玻璃柜之间，幽深之处建有秘密的门，

at least secret in the sense that there is nothing about them to attract the visitor's notice. 说秘密，至少是在这样的意义上：那里没有什么值得引起参观者注意的地方。

Occasionally you might see someone with the distracted manner and interestingly willful hair that mark the scholar emerge from one of the doors and hasten down a corridor, 偶尔你会看到一个人从一扇门里走出来，一副想着什么事的样子，乱蓬蓬的头发，看上去像个学者。他脚步匆匆地顺着走廊走去，

probably to disappear through another door a little further on, but this is a relatively⁵ rare event. 很可能消失在前面另一扇门里。但是，这种事情是很少发生的。

For the most part the doors stay shut, giving no hint that beyond them exists another, 在大多数情况下，那些门一直关着，看不出里面还有一个，

a parallel — Natural History Museum as vast as, and in many ways more wonderful than, the one the public knows and adores. 一个相似的——同样庞大的，在许多方面比之公众知道和热衷的那个博物馆还要精彩的自然史博物馆。

The Natural History Museum contains some seventy million objects from every realm of life and every corner of the planet, 自然史博物馆里存放着大约7000万件物品，涵盖生命的每个范畴，这颗行星的每个角落，

with another hundred thousand or so added to the collection each year, 每年还向这些收藏品里增添l0万件左右。

but it is really only behind the scenes that you get a sense of what a treasure house this is. 但是，实际上你只有看一眼不对外展出的东西，你才会知道这确实是个宝库。

In cupboards and cabinets and long rooms full of close-packed shelves are kept tens of thousands of pickled animals in bottles, 在大柜小橱里，在设有一排排架子的长长的房间里，瓶子里浸泡着成千上万件动物标本，

millions of insects pinned to squares of card, drawers of shiny mollusks, bones of dinosaurs⁶, skulls⁷ of early humans, endless folders⁸ of neatly⁹ pressed plants. 方方的卡纸本里别着几百万只昆虫，抽屉里塞满了亮闪闪的软体动物、恐龙骨头、早期人类的颅骨，以及无数被夹子压得很平整的植物。

It is a little like wandering through Darwin's brain. 你简直有点像在漫游达尔文的电脑。

The spirit room alone holds fifteen miles of shelving containing jar upon jar of animals preserved in methylated spirit. 光贮藏室里就有20多公里长的架子，上面放着一罐接一罐的动物，保存在甲基化酒精里。

 

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