嗯，看完了，挺不錯嘀，作者寫得很睿智很幽默，字裡行間透著科學家的嚴謹、文史家的廣聞博識、傳記作者或故事講述者的流暢自如、還有詩人般的簡練利落及文采斐然，有的地方進行嘲諷或調侃，筆觸或語調非常之「毒舌」…
簡介或導讀部份所引他臨終前所作那首十四行詩(sonnet)非常棒。第一章一上來呢就對現代傳記文學進行了一番調侃… 其後點明了感染或傳染(infection)是一種寄生形式(form of parasitism)，源遠流長也普遍尋常。章末自嘲調侃一番～對「細菌學家如何被高尚情懷所驅動？How could bacteriologists be impelled by noble motives?」即作者選做這一行的動機問題，做了極精妙的回答。第二章先拿自個的生物學家身份窘境開涮來自我調侃，滔滔不絕大論了一番科學與藝術的關係，非常精彩。第三章到第五章從生命起源之謎聊起，串起了顆顆歷史珍珠，聊至寄生現象、新疾病再一直聊到傳染病，處處妙筆生花引人入勝。第六章至第八章作者旁引博征梳理史料並以現代醫學方法去研判診斷歷史上曾經記載的流行病，給俺印象深刻，令吾信服地接納了他的諸如古希臘雅典與斯巴達之戰、羅馬帝國衰亡、基督教崛起、法國大革命成功、海地共和國建國、拿破侖征戰失敗、一戰等等..都跟流行病有著密不可分關係的觀點。第九章至第十一章談論了蝨和鼠，因爲兩者都是斑疹傷寒病毒寄生的重要宿主，通過它們再傳染給人類。尤其寫到蝨子一旦感染了斑疹傷寒則必亡無疑～最終會因腸出血而死，俺讀了對這小生物還真挺悲憫同情呢… 這三章所談及的諸多趣聞軼事也令人讀了不禁莞爾… 第十二章至第十六章縱論了斑疹傷寒病毒，為其編史立傳，讀罷令人掩卷沉思，～以史爲鑒，斑疹傷寒的史記，尤其對當前人們應對Covid-19疫情很富有現實啓發意義。
下邊摘引書中幾段片言以窺斑見豹～
第一章
大自然似乎有意讓她的創造物以彼此為食。無論如何，在大自然的運行中，直接依靠地球母親本身而生存的，僅僅是植物王國中的部分科目。它們將自己的根深深地扎進土壤之中，吸收其中的氮液；它們用寬大的綠葉，擁抱著陽光和空氣。然而，這些植物，除了過於難吃或有毒的以外，都成了野獸和人類的食物，而後者，又成了其他野獸和細菌的腹中餐。在伊甸園裡，一切都是那麼井然有序，彼此相食僅僅發生在壽終正寢之後。如此這般，每一個生物的養分，會再次回歸到大自然之中。從化學的角度來看，這是可能實現的，生命也可以得到延續。在這個和平共存不盡理想、擁擠不堪的星球上，無論生死，相互為食成了習慣，並本能、平靜而無所顧忌地上演著。一頭吞噬傳教士的獅子，和一位正在享用雞肉派的好心老者以及正在這位老者頸脖上生成癤子的葡萄球菌，都沒有進行任何意義上的故意傷害。從廣義上說，獅子寄生在傳教士身上，老者寄生在雞肉派上，而葡萄球菌則寄生於老者體內。
Chapter I
Nature seems to have intended that her creatures feed upon one another. At any rate, she has so designed her cycles that the only forms of life that are parasitic directly upon Mother Earth herself are a proportion of the vegetable kingdom that dig their roots into the sod for its nitrogenous juices and spread their broad chlorophyllic leaves to the sun and air. But these- unless too unpalatable or poisonous - are devoured by the beasts and by man; and the latter, in their turn, by other beasts and by bacteria. In the Garden of Eden perhaps things may have been so ordered that this mutual devouring was postponed until death, by the natural course of old age, had returned each creature"s store of nutriment to the general stock. Chemically, this might have been possible, and life maintained. But in the imperfect development of cohabitation on a crowded planet, the habit of eating one another - dead and alive - has become a general custom, instinctively and dispassionately indulged in. There is probably as little conscious cruelty in the lion that devours a missionary as there is in the kind-hearted old gentleman who dines upon a chicken pie, or in the staphylococcus that is raising a boil on the old gentleman"s neck. Broadly speaking, the lion is parasitic on the missionary, as the old gentleman is on the chicken pie, and the staphylococcus on the old gentleman.
第三章
在有可能成為無腦之人所信奉的哲學信條的格言和諺語之中，有一句最為危險，那就是「眼見為憑」。數千年以來，智者們相信地球是扁平的，太陽圍繞著地球旋轉，這正是因為他們親眼所見便是如此。在某種程度上，正是這種對純粹觀察的信仰，使得幾個世紀以來人類都沒有找到一個科學的方法來解決生命的起源這一問題。蛆生於腐爛的馬肉，蝨子和跳蚤生於人類的汗液；只要一桶水中有一根馬鬃，它很快便會變成一隻蟯蟲。上述這些現象可以被觀察到，因此是真實的。當煉金術士佐西摩斯（Zosimos）在300年宣布成功培育出微型人類的時候，他是何等的得意，其自信程度相當於現代的生物學家以貧乏的證據，宣布其已成功地將超微病毒轉化為細菌一樣。
Chapter III
Among the adages and proverbs which tend to become the philosophy of the thoughtless, one of the most dangerous is: "Seeing is believing."" For thousands of years, wise men believed that the earth was flat and that the sun moved around the earth - because they could see with their own eyes that these things were so. It was, in part, this same faith in pure observation which delayed for so many centuries a sensible approach to the problem of the origin of life. Maggots were engendered from decaying horseflesh, lice and fleas from human perspiration; a horsehair in a bucket of water became a threadworm. These things yld be observed and, therefore, were true. Even the successful production of the homunculus a s announced by the alchemist Zosimos in 300 A.D. with the same confidence and nearly as much authority as some of our modern biologists announce the transformation of ultra-microscopic viruses into bacteria on similar tenuous evidence.
第七章
在早先的時代，瘟疫是神祕的訪客。它們是從無處不在的黑暗之處，迸發出來的更高權力的暴怒之音；它們冰冷無情、陰森可怖，讓人無處可逃。由於恐懼和無知，人類竟做出了一些雪上加霜的事情，從而大大提高了死亡率。為了生存，他們從城鎮和村莊奪路而逃，卻不知死亡早已神祕地跟上了他們的腳步。恐慌使社會和道德陷入了無序的狀態；農所，最終導致了革命的爆發，導致了國內戰爭，甚至在某些情況下，還催生了狂熱的宗教運動，從而在精神和政治領域造成了深遠的變革。
Chapter VII
In earlier ages, pestilences were mysterious visitations, expressions of the wrath of higher powers which came out of a dark nowhere, pitiless, dreadful, and inescapable. In their terror and ignorance, men did the very things which increased death rates and aggravated calamity. They fled from towns and villages, but death mysteriously traveled along with them. Panic bred social and moral disorganization; farms were abandoned, and there was shortage of food; famine led to displacement of populations, to revolution, to civil war, and, in some instances, to fanatical religious movements which contributed to profound spiritual and political transformations.
第七章
此外，在此之前的六百年歷史中也存在數不勝數的例子，這些例子讓我們一次又一次地看到，羅馬帝國的力量和世界政體的前進步伐，都被唯一一股力量——流行病所打斷。在傳染疾病面前，政治上的天賦和軍事上的勇武毫無用處。在現代歷史上，我們找不到類似的案例供我們做出結論，除了1917年到1923年間的俄國。那段時期的俄國，斑疹傷寒、霍亂、痢疾、肺結核、瘧疾等傳染病對政治產生了深遠的影響。對此，我們可以多做一些討論。在那段時期，正是波蘭和南部邊境高度發達的衛生體系，阻止了疾病、苦難、饑荒向整個歐洲蔓延。這種觀點可能會引起爭論，但至少它具有一種合理的可能性。
無論如何，在公元元年之後的最初的幾個世紀裡，傳染病的傳播沒有遇到任何阻礙。它如暴風雨一般，所到之處，萬物驚慌失措。男人們被恐懼壓彎了腰，放棄了他們的爭鬥、事業和雄心，直到這場暴風雨結束。
Chapter VII
Moreover, the history of the preceding six hundred years furnishes any number of examples to show that, again and again, the forward march of Roman power and world organization was interrupted by the only force against which political genius and military valor were utterly helpless - epidemic disease. There is no parallel in recent history by which the conditions then prevailing can be judged, unless it is the state of Russia between 191 7 and 1923. There, too, the unfettered violence of typhus, cholera, dysentery, tuberculosis, malaria, and their brothers exerted a profound influence upon political events. But of this we shall have more to say presently. It was only the highly developed system of sanitary defense on the Polish and the southern fronts that prevented, during those years, an invasion - first of disease, misery, and famine; then of political disruption - from spreading across Europe. This statement may, perhaps, be debatable. But it is, at least, a reasonable probability.
At any rate, during the first centuries after Christ, disease was unopposed by any barriers. And when it came, as though carried on storm clouds, all other things gave way, and men crouched in terror, abandoning all their quarrels, undertakings, and ambitions, until the tempest had blown over.
第八章
重點是，即使在軍事專家看來，戰爭也不過是一種嚴肅的士兵遊戲。實際上，行軍、射擊和作戰策略不過是戰爭這場悲劇中很小的一部分，是僥倖逃出軍營流行病魔掌的殘餘力量所展開的最後行動。事實上，在將軍們還不知道他們要將總部的爛攤子設在哪裡之前，軍營流行病已經決定了戰爭的勝負。
Chapter VIII
The point is that war is visualized - even by the military expert - as a sort of serious way of playing soldiers. In point of fact, the tricks of marching and of shooting and the game called strategy constitute only a part - the minor, although picturesquely appealing part - of the tragedy of war. They are only the terminal operations engaged in by those remnants of the armies which have survived the camp epidemics. These have often determined victory or defeat before the generals know where they are going to place the headquarters" mess.
第八章
但事實並非如此，它直接引導我們回歸了主題：士兵很少贏得戰爭，在傳染病的輪番襲擊之下，他們很少能夠獨善其身，而斑疹傷寒和它的兄弟姐妹——鼠疫、霍亂、傷寒、痢疾等，它們對軍事行動的影響，遠勝於凱撒（Caesar）、漢尼拔（Hannibal）、拿破崙以及歷史上的各位名將。傳染病因戰敗而成為眾矢之的，而將軍因為戰勝而名留青史。實際上，一切本不該如此。
Chapter VIII
But not at all; it leads up to our theme that soldiers have rarely won wars. They more often mop up after the barrage of epidemics. And typhus, with its brothers and sisters, -plague, cholera, typhoid, dysentery, - has decided more campaigns than Czesar, Hannibal, Napoleon, and all the inspector generals of history. The epidemics get the blame for defeat, the generals the credit for victory. It ought to be the other way round.
第十六章
斑疹傷寒並沒有灰飛煙滅，它將繼續存在幾個世紀。只要人類的愚蠢和殘暴給它一個機會，它就會乘虛而入，重整旗鼓。
Chapter XVI
Typhus is not dead. It will live on for centuries, and it will continue to break into the open whenever human stupidity and brutality give it a chance, as most likely they occasionally will.
---
另外呢，
還有一部類似的具有現實啓發意義的回顧1918西班牙流感這一嚴重傳染病的好書《大流感》，
該書在小布希總統當政時出版，還未出版呢樣章便被放置於總統案頭，小布希讀後深受震動和啓發，制定了一份近四百頁的預案。該防大流行病預案政策後來又經歐巴馬更新及完善，這預案後又傳至川普手中而被毀掉了，相關科學團隊也被解散了… ～這等於是：防止流行性傳染病海嘯的防波堤被拆掉了…
詳請參見紀思道(Nicholas Kristof)的文章～
紀思道：數以萬計美國人死亡，是因為他們的政府無能
https://cn.nytimes.com/op-ed/20201023/coronavirus-united-states/zh-hant
America and the Virus: ‘A Colossal Failure of Leadership’ by Nicholas Kristof
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/opinion/sunday/coronavirus-united-states.html
在防疫準備方面，美國曾是領導者
弔詭之處在於，一年前，在應對這種危機方面，美國似乎尤其做好了充分準備。約翰·霍普金斯大學(Johns Hopkins)一項324頁的研究(
https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/02/27/trump-johns-hopkins-study-pandemic-coronaviruscovid-19-649-em0-art1-dtd-health/ )發現，去年10月，美國是大流行應對準備做的最好的國家。
這要歸功於喬治·W·布希(George W. Bush)總統，2005年夏季，他讀到了(
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/george-bush-2005-wait-pandemic-late-prepare/story?id=69979013 )講述1918年流感大流行歷史的《大流感》(The Great Influenza)預覽樣書。深受震撼的布希敦促顧問制定了能為又一場大型傳染病做好準備的戰略，結果便是一份極為出色的396頁(
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pdf/professionals/hhspandemicinfluenzaplan.pdf )的此類衛生危機應對策略。
歐巴馬政府對這份策略進行了更新，在2016年總統交接時，歐巴馬的顧問提醒川普政府，國家安全面臨的一大風險是傳染病。民間專家也多次作出類似警告。「在那些能導致1000萬或更多人死亡的問題中，目前最有可能的就是一場大流行，」比爾·蓋茲(Bill Gates)2015年警告說(
https://www.gatesnotes.com/health/we-are-not-ready-for-the-next-epidemic )。
川普提出，沒人能預見到這場大流行，但這正是布希曾警告過的，是歐巴馬的顧問試圖告訴其繼任者的，也是喬·拜登(Joe Biden)在2019年10月一則直白的推文(
https://twitter.com/joebiden/status/1187829299207954437?lang=en )中，對川普削減衛生安全項目所惋惜的，他在其中還說：「我們沒有準備好迎接一場大流行。」
America Was the Leader in Pandemic Preparedness.
The paradox is that a year ago, the United States seemed particularly well positioned to handle this kind of crisis. A 324-page study by Johns Hopkins found last October that the United States was the country best prepared for a pandemic.
Credit for that goes to President George W. Bush, who in the summer of 2005 read an advance copy of “The Great Influenza,” a history of the 1918 flu pandemic. Shaken, Bush pushed aides to develop a strategy to prepare for another great contagion, and the result was an excellent 396-page playbook for managing such a health crisis.
The Obama administration updated this playbook and in the presidential transition in 2016, Obama aides cautioned the Trump administration that one of the big risks to national security was a contagion. Private experts repeated similar warnings. “Of all the things that could kill 10 million people or more, by far the most likely is an epidemic,” Bill Gates warned in 2015.
Trump has accused the Obama administration of depleting stockpiles of medical supplies so that “the cupboard was bare.” It’s true that the Obama administration did not do enough to refill the national stockpile with N95 masks, but Republicans in Congress wouldn’t provide even the modest sums that Obama requested for replenishment. And the Trump administration itself did nothing in its first three years to rebuild stockpiles.
We in the media also blew it: We didn’t do enough to warn about the risks of pandemics.
Trump argues that no one could have anticipated the pandemic, but it’s what Bush warned about, what Obama aides tried to tell their successors about, and what Joe Biden referred to in a blunt tweet in October 2019 lamenting Trump’s cuts to health security programs and adding: “We are not prepared for a pandemic.”
《大流感》英文版下載連結～
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry
http://libgen.lc/item/index.php?md5=15380CF2FE6DC019889FD7F6861754C5
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