有关万圣节的传说似乎总是和神秘、恐怖等字眼沾边:嗜血如命的吸血鬼,尖嘴獠牙的狼人,骑着扫帚、擅用巫术的女巫,死而复生、以跳代步的僵尸……这些传说背后的科学依据是什么呢?
For modern, rational1) people, Hallowe'en is just a bit of fun. Few nowadays actually believe in vampires, werewolves, witches (the broomstick-propelled variety, rather than the non-flying, new-age nature priestesses2)) or zombies3). But nothing comes of nothing, and the truly rational might be forgiven for asking if there are any scientific explanations lying behind the myths.
对于理性的现代人而言,万圣节仅仅是找点乐子而已。现在很少有人真的相信有吸血鬼、狼人、女巫(骑着扫帚柄腾云驾雾的那种,而不是那些飞天无术的新时代自然女祭祀)或僵尸。但是无中不能生有,所以真正理性的人探寻神话背后是否存在科学解释也无可厚非。
There are certainly plausible4) speculations5). The first scientific hypothesis6) for vampirism7), proposed in 1985 by David Dolphin, a chemist at the University of British Columbia, was that those thought to be suffering from it were actually the victims of a genetic disease called porphyria8). This illness—one of whose more famous victims may have been King George Ill—makes the skin sensitive to sunlight. That is why sufferers tend to avoid the sun. Porphyria can also cause retraction of the gums, making a person's teeth appear longer than normal. And it frequently results in red urine9), which might, in a convoluted10) way, have led to the notion11) of drinking blood.
的确有一些看似有理的推测。1985年,英属哥伦比亚大学的化学家戴维·多尔芬首次提出了有关吸血症的科学假设,他认为患有吸血症的人实际上是得了一种叫卟啉症的遗传病。这种疾病——其中一个著名的患者可能是乔治三世——使得皮肤对阳光很敏感,这便是患者倾向于避开太阳的原因。卟啉症还会导致齿龈收缩,使人的牙齿显得比正常情况要长。它还经常导致尿液变红,这一现象经过复杂的演绎,可能引发了有关饮血的联想。
A competing idea, published by Juan Gomez-Alonso, a Spanish neurologist12), is that the vampire legend was inspired by rabies13). The symptoms of rabies include insomnia14), an aversion15) to mirrors and strong smells (though not specifically to garlic16)). And rabies, of course, is transmitted by biting.
西班牙神经学者胡安·戈麦斯-阿隆索发表了一个与之相反的观点,认为吸血鬼的传说源自狂犬病。狂犬病的症状包括失眠、厌恶镜子和刺激性味道(不仅仅是对大蒜),而且狂犬病当然是通过口咬传播的。
Rabies is probably also the explanation for lycanthropy17)—the apparent tendency of some people to turn into wolves from time to time. Like vampirism, lycanthropy is transmitted by biting. But in this case the resemblance to the real disease is even stronger, for the biting is done by a wolf (albeit18) one with distinctly human overtones19)), and wolves do carry rabies, which they may have sometimes passed on to people. Since the madness that accompanies late-stage rabies could easily appear bestial20) to an uneducated eye, the idea that a wolf-bite may sometimes infect a victim with wolf-like characteristics might not have seemed all that farfetched21) a few hundred years ago.
狂犬病或许还能解释变狼症——有些人时不时有着变成狼的明显倾向。像吸血症一样,变狼症也是通过口咬传播的。不过,变狼症与真正的疾病更像,因为它是狼咬所致(尽管是带着明显人类特征的狼),而且狼的确携带狂犬病源,有时候可能传染给人类。狂犬病后期的癫狂状态在未受教育的人看起来很容易显得兽性十足,因此几百年前的人认为狼咬有时可能使人染上狼性的想法也不是那么不着边际。