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文：余小舫 图：徐江涛
  1. A man who writes a book or a man who gives a public lecture is committing his reputation to cold print, or to the ears of critical strangers. He must, above all, be accurate. He cannot give expression to those half-formed ideas that are uppermost in his waking moments, to those dreams that he hopes will one day become realities and shake the world. —— William Heneage Ogilvie, 1887-1971 【译文】写书的人或作公开演讲的人，是把自己的名声托付给了冰冷的印刷品，或那些爱挑剔的陌生人的耳朵。最重要的是，必须准确。他不能表达那些在他清醒时自认为很重要，但尚未成形的一些想法，不能说出那些他希望有一天会成为现实并震撼世界的梦想。 【点评】将未成形的梦想抖出来，只会给人一种吹牛的感觉。此外，也有提前泄露天机的顾虑。 2. To write an article of any sort is, to some extent, to reveal ourselves. Hence, even a medical article is, in a sense, something of an autobiography. —— J Chalmers Da Costa, 1863-1933 【译文】写任何一种文章，从某种程度来讲都是在揭示我们自己。因此，即使是一篇医学文章，在某种意义上讲，也是自传。 【点评】没错，文如其人。 3. I think my cue in writing is to stick to the facts until I reach the point where my speculations will. —— George Crile, Jr, 1907-1992 【译文】在我开始对结果进行解释前，我认为写文章的唯一线索就是坚守事实。4. The meaning of this paper is hidden by the way it was written. —— Mary Evans 【译文】这篇论文所要表达的含义被其（不合适的）写作方式给埋没了。 【点评】可惜了！充分证明“能写”是一名优秀外科医生必不可少的技能。  5. If you are going to peddle bovine shit, at least you should package it well. —— Robert M Zollinger, 1903-1992 【译文】如果你要兜售牛屎，至少你应该包装好。 【点评】话糙理直。 6. I would never use a long word where a short one would answer the purpose. I know there are professors in this country who “ligate” arteries. Other surgeons tie them, and it stops the bleeding just as well. —— Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr . 【译文】能用短词说清楚的地方绝不用长词。我知道这个国家有教授在表达结扎动脉时用“ligate”，另一些外科医生则用“tie”来表达，其实都能很好止血。 7. [The advantages of precise bibliographic citations]: Several of the well known physicians and surgeons to whom I have given my book for proof reading and to edit especially for its prolixity have criticized me for my insistence on stating precisely the sources of my citations of other authors, by giving chapter and verse'. The answer gives my two reasons: （1） To make it easier for scholars to track down the sources. （2） As a result their comprehension of my text is better and clearer. —— Henri de Mondeville, 1260-1320 【译文】[准确引用书目的优点]：我把我的书给了几位著名的内外科医生审读，特别针对受到批评的冗长问题，以及按章节准确标注所引用资料来源等问题。这样做的理由是：（1）方便学者追查到资料来源；（2）有助于他们更好、更清楚地理解书的内容。 8. No iron can stab the heart with such force as a period put just at the right place. —— Isaac Babel, 1894-1941 【译文】应用得当的句号，其穿透人心之力，是任何一根铁杵所不及的。 【考注】后面还有两句：“a comma can let us hear a voice break, or a heart. Punctuation, in fact, is a labor of love. Which brings us back, in a way, to gods.”（逗号能让我们听到声音或心跳的休止。事实上，标点符号是一项奉献爱心的工作。它以某种方式把我们带回到了神的世界）。 9. The writer of textbooks should have a ready imagination and he should understand the child’s mind. —— Charles H Mayo, 1865-1939 【译文】教科书作者要富有想象力，应该了解孩子的心。 【点评】个人非常赞同，别让那教科书永远保持百年不变的风格，医生本来就够累的了。 10. Textbooks must be orthodox; monographs should be heterodox. We should only beware of an orthodoxy that is accepted without thought and without question, for that indicates an extinct faith. —— William Heneage Ogilvie, 1887-1971 【译文】教科书必须正统，专著则应该百家争鸣。需要警惕的是不假思索、不存质疑地接受所谓的正统——这代表的是一种已绝迹的信仰。 11. The papers, which merit attention because they bear the name of a single famous individual, are becoming fewer every year. Instead, every other article in the medical press has as many authors as an all star film has credit titles, and their names are of less significance than the legend “from this Clinic" or “from this Institute". —— Harvey Graham, -1939 【译文】过去，某些论文因某位名人的名字而备受关注，如今这种现象正逐年减少。相反，在医学杂志上，每发表一篇文章，就像一部全明星电影一样，有如此之多的作者冠名助阵，他们的名字也没有传说中的“来自这个诊所”或“来自那个研究所”那般重要。 【点评】这种现象好像越演越烈了。 12. Everything has been written but not everything has been read. —— Bernard Cristalli 【译文】什么东西都被写下来，但不是所有写下来的东西都有人读。 13. The medical journals of this country are flooded, as we all know, with immature and sometimes apparently useless publications, and one is sometimes torn between one's desire to keep it down and to let a pupil have the great value to his personality of publishing something. —— Elliot Carr Cutler, 1888-1947 【译文】众所周知，这个国家的医学期刊充斥着不成熟的，有时显然是毫无用处的论文。面对这种局面，人们有时会左右为难，是撤稿，还是应该让学生因为发表了某些东西而感受到个人的巨大价值呢？ 【点评】在现实，发表某些东西不仅给他带来精神层面的巨大价值，而且能解决技术职称晋升、还能为其带来各种荣誉和金钱。14. For some strange reason the general opinion among doctors is that if one writes a book he must have superior knowledge of the subject. Since no one troubles to read the book the delusion is not discovered. —— Arthur E. Hertzler, 1870-1946 【译文】出于某种奇怪的原因，医生们普遍认为，如果某人写了一本书，他一定对该学科有很高的造诣。由于没人用心读过这本书，所以无人知道这是一种错觉。 【点评】不能一概而论。有些专著的作者的确是该领域屈指可数的权威，但那些靠“一把剪刀、一瓶浆糊”，东拼西凑凑合成一本书的作者究竟对书中所涉及的内容了解多少就很难说了。 |
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