经济学人16:小小鱼尾 几掀狂澜

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　　科技。

　　A fishy¹ tale.

　　小小鱼尾，几掀狂澜。

　　This engraving², of a flying fish, almost changed the course of history. It is one of a set from John Ray's and Francis Willughby's book "Historia Piscium", published in 1686 by the Royal Society and recently put online by them for the edification of scholars everywhere. The society, which today proudly describes itself as the world's oldest scientific academy (it was founded in 1660), was almost bankrupted by the expense of the high-quality illustrations in what was regarded at the time as a leading natural-history text, but which unfortunately failed to sell as well as its publishers had hoped. As a result, no money was left over for another publication, "Principia Mathematica", by Isaac Newton. That the most important volume in the history of physics, which described the laws of motion and of gravity, saw the light of day the next year was, in the end, due to the deep pockets of Edmund Halley, of comet fame. Halley was the son of a wealthy soapmaker and he stumped³ up much of the cost himself.

　　这幅飞鱼雕版画几乎转变了历史进程。它是约翰·雷（John Ray）和弗朗西斯·维鲁格比（Francis Willughby）的著述《鱼类溯源》中的组图之一，该书于1686年由英国皇家学会出版，并于近日上传到互联网，以飨五州学者。英国皇家学会始创于1660年，如今自豪地称自己为世界上最古老的科学学会。然而当时，它却几乎面临破产，就是原因上述高质量的插图（当时被认定为顶尖的自然历史文本）耗资甚巨，学会认为插图文本会畅销，而不幸地是，事实证明并非如此。结果，对于另一鸿篇巨著—牛顿的《自然哲学的数学原理》，学会只能爱莫能助了。《自然哲学的数学原理》是一本物理学史上首屈一指的鸿篇巨制，一部描述运动规律和万有引力的鸿篇巨著。为此，艾德蒙德·哈雷（Edmund Halley）给予了鼎力资助，次年这一巨著终于呈现在世人面前。艾德蒙德·哈雷本人因发现哈雷彗星而名垂青史。他是富有的肥皂生产商的儿子，捐助了大部分出版费用。

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