萬物簡史 第112期:勢不兩立的科學(20)

By this stage, however, Owen's transgressions werebeginning to catch up with him. His undoing beganwhen a committee of the Royal Society—a committeeof which he happened to be chairman—decided toaward him its highest honor, the Royal Medal, for apaper he had written on an extinct mollusc calledthe belemnite. "However," as Deborah Cadbury notesin her excellent history of the period, Terrible Lizard, "this piece of work was not quite as original as itappeared."

不過，到這個時候，歐文的壞事快干到頭了。他的垮臺之日到來了。英國皇家學會的一個委員會——歐文恰好是該委員會的主席——決定授予他最高的榮譽：英國皇家勛章，表彰他寫的一篇關于一種名叫箭石的、已經(jīng)絕種的軟體動物的論文。“然而，”德博拉·卡德伯里在《可怕的蜥蜴》里對那段歷史有絕好的記述，“這項成就并不像看起來那么有創(chuàng)意。”

The belemnite, it turned out, had been discovered four years earlier by an amateur naturalistnamed Chaning Pearce, and the discovery had been fully reported at a meeting of theGeological Society. Owen had been at that meeting, but failed to mention this when hepresented a report of his own to the Royal Society—in which, not incidentally, he rechristenedthe creature Belemnites owenii in his own honor. Although Owen was allowed to keep the RoyalMedal, the episode left a permanent tarnish on his reputation, even among his fewremaining supporters.

結果發(fā)現(xiàn)，箭石已經(jīng)于4年前由一位名叫查寧·皮爾斯的業(yè)余博物學家發(fā)現(xiàn)，而且在地質學會的一次會議上已經(jīng)充分發(fā)表。歐文出席了那次會議，但他向皇家學會提交自己的報告的時候沒有提及這個情況。在那份報告里，他把那種動物重新命名為“歐文的軟體動物”以紀念他自己，這不是偶然的。盡管歐文被允許保留英國皇家勛章，但這件事使得他永遠名聲掃地，即使在他剩下的為數(shù)不多的支持者中間也同樣如此。

Eventually Huxley managed to do to Owen what Owen had done to so many others: he had himvoted off the councils of the Zoological and Royal societies. As a final insult Huxley became thenew Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons.

最后，赫胥黎以其人之道還治其人之身：他通過投票使歐文在動物學會和皇家學會的許多委員會里落選。最后，赫胥黎成為英國皇家外科學院亨特博物館的新一任教授，結束了對歐文的懲罰。