Lesson 17

A man-made disease

In the early days of the settlement of Australia, enterprising settlers unwisely introduced the European rabbit.
在澳大利亚定居的早期，有进取心的定居者不明智地引入了欧洲兔。
This rabbit had no natural enemies in the Antipodes, so that it multiplied with that promiscuous abandon characteristic of rabbits.
这只兔子在澳洲没有天敌，因此它以兔子所特有的那种肆无忌惮的放纵方式繁殖。
It overran a whole continent.
它横跨了整个大陆。
It caused devastation by burrowing and by devouring the herbage which might have maintained millions of sheep and cattle.
它通过挖掘和吞噬本可供养数百万牛羊的草本植物，造成了破坏。
Scientists discovered that this particular variety of rabbit (and apparently no other animal) was susceptible to a fatal virus disease, myxomatosis.
科学家们发现，这种特定的兔子品种（显然没有其他动物）容易感染一种致命的病毒性疾病——粘液瘤病。
By infecting animals and letting them loose in the burrows, local epidemics of this disease could be created.
通过在洞穴中感染动物并让它们散布，可以制造出这种疾病的局部流行病。
Later it was found that there was a type of mosquito which acted as the carrier of this disease and passed it on to the rabbits.
后来发现，有一种蚊子充当了这种疾病的携带者，并将其传播给了兔子。
So while the rest of the world was trying to get rid of mosquitoes, Australia was encouraging this one.
因此，当世界其他地方都在试图消灭蚊子时，澳大利亚却在鼓励这种蚊子。
It effectively spread the disease all over the continent and drastically reduced the rabbit population.
它有效地将这种疾病传播到了整个大陆，并大幅减少了兔子种群。
It later became apparent that rabbits were developing a degree of resistance to this disease, so that the rabbit population was unlikely to be completely exterminated.
后来人们发现，兔子对这种疾病产生了一定程度的抵抗力，因此兔子种群不太可能被彻底消灭。
There were hopes, however, that the problem of the rabbit would become manageable.
然而，人们曾希望兔子的问题会变得可控。
Ironically, Europe, which had bequeathed the rabbit as a pest to Australia, acquired this man-made disease as a pestilence.
讽刺的是，曾将兔子作为害虫遗赠给澳大利亚的欧洲，却遭遇了这种人造疾病带来的瘟疫。
A French physician decided to get rid of the wild rabbits on his own estate and introduced myxomatosis.
一位法国医生决定清除他自己庄园里的野生兔子，并引入了粘液瘤病。
It did not, however, remain within the confines of his estate.
然而，它并没有保持在他的庄园界限之内。
It spread through France, where wild rabbits are not generally regarded as a pest but as a sport and a useful food supply, and it spread to Britain where wild rabbits are regarded as a pest but where domesticated rabbits, equally susceptible to the disease, are the basis of a profitable fur industry.
它在法国传播，在那里野兔通常不被视为害虫，而是被视为一项运动和有用的食物来源；它也传播到了英国，在那里野兔被视为害虫，但同样易感该疾病的家兔却是当地有利可图的皮草工业的基础。
The question became one of whether Man could control the disease he had invented.
问题变成了人类是否能够控制他所发明的疾病。