丹麥一所大學的圖書館發現了三本有毒的善本書籍。英語讀頭條

A university library in Denmark has found three of its rare books were poisonous

丹麥一所大學的圖書館發現了三本有毒的善本書籍

THREE rare historic books on the shelves of a Denmark university library have been found to be poisonous. But it wasn』t because the texts were considered toxic.

有三本放在丹麥一所大學的圖書館的書架上的罕見的歷史書籍被發現有毒。但這可不是說它們的內容有毒。

OLD books contain many secrets. Myths. Legends. Plots. Scandals. But researchers in Denmark seeking invisible writings found something completely unexpected: poison.

University of Southern Denmark researchers have published an article in The Conversation detailing the deadly discovery.

舊書有著很多秘密、謎團、傳奇、劇情和醜聞。但丹麥的尋找古書中隱形字跡的研究者們卻有著一個出人意料的發現：毒藥。

丹麥南方大學的研究者們在「談話」雜誌上發表了一篇文章，詳細描述了這一致命的發現。

The three rare books from the 16th and 17th century were undergoing x-ray fluorescence analysis. The idea was the radiation from the x-ray could discern different chemicals in their pages and bindings — and hopefully uncover lost texts.

對這三本來自16和17世紀的善本書籍正在進行X射線熒光分析。這一想法是想用射線的輻射來分辨書頁中和封皮中的不同的化學成分，沒準兒還能發現些失蹤的內容呢。

Other books in the library had previously been found to have used recycled fragments of much older parchments — such as Roman and canonical law — in their bindings. So the university was looking for more.

圖書館裡的其它書籍以前就發現過使用了了更古老書籍的羊皮紙的回收碎片，如羅馬法和典範律的書籍，都在封皮中發現的。因此大學就想找更多這樣的書籍。

「We tried to identify the Latin texts used, or at least read some of their content,」 the researchers write. 「But then we found that the Latin texts in the covers of the three volumes were hard to read because of an extensive layer of green pigment which obscures the old handwritten letters.」

「我們想試著辨別出那些拉丁文內容，或至少能讀出一些內容，」研究人員寫到。「但然後我們發現這三本書的封面上的拉丁文無法閱讀，因為有一大層綠色顏料遮蓋住了那些舊的手寫筆跡。」

The books were taken to the lab for more intensive analysis intended to peer through the paint to find the chemicals of the print below.

But the analysis threw back an unexpected result. The green stains were arsenic. And it was as toxic as the day it was put there.

這些書後來被帶到實驗室以進行進一步的分析，並想因此透過油漆找出下面文字的化學成分。但獲得的分析結果出乎意料。那綠色顏料是砒霜，而且它現在與當時放上去時的毒性一樣厲害。

「This chemical element is among the most toxic substances in the world and exposure may lead to various symptoms of poisoning, the development of cancer and even death,」 the researchers write.

研究人員寫到：「這種化學元素是世界上最毒的物質之一，碰上它將會導致各種中毒癥狀，癌變的發生，甚至死亡。」

Arsenic was a common component of the 『Paris green』 paints and lacquers of the 19th century.

砒霜是十九世紀『巴黎綠』顏料和漆料的常見成分。

「In its heyday, all types of materials, even book covers and clothes, could be coated in Paris green for aesthetic reasons. Of course, continuous skin contact with the substance would lead to symptoms of exposure.」

「在其全盛時代，各種各樣的材料，甚至是書籍的封面和衣服，都會因審美的原因而塗上『巴黎綠』顏料。當然，皮膚持續接觸有毒物質就會導致中毒癥狀出現。」

每天學點英語，其實很有必要

喜歡這篇文章嗎？立刻分享出去讓更多人知道吧！