Influenza, like all viruses, is a parasite. Laura Spinney traces its long shadow over human history; records are patchy and uncertain, but Hippocrates’s “Cough of Perinthus” in 412BC may be its first written description. Influenza-shaped footprints can be traced down the centuries: the epidemic that struck during Rome’s siege of Syracuse in 212BC; the febris italica that plagued Charlemagne’s troops in the ninth century. The word “influenza” started being used towards the end of the Middle Ages from the Italian for “influence”—the influence of the stars. That was the state of knowledge then; in some ways at the start of the 20th century it was little better.
流感病毒和其他所有病毒一样，是寄生物。劳拉·斯宾尼追溯了流感在人类历史上的记录，纪录残缺不全，并且不确切。但是公元前412年希波克拉底的《佩琳托斯之咳嗽》可能是世界上第一部记载流感症状的著作。流感可以追溯到几个世纪后：在公元前212年罗马围攻锡拉库扎时，流感就曾经传播过。在九世纪，查理曼大帝的军队很多人都患上了流感。“流感”这个词在中世纪末开始使用，来自于意大利语“influence”，意思是星辰的影响。那是当时人们的理解。在某些方面，20世纪初的人们对流感的了解也几乎不过如此。
Ms Spinney, an occasional
contributor
to The Economist, recreates the world that Spanish flu came into. At the beginning of the 20th century science was on the rise. Scientists had
switched
miasma theory of disease for germ theory: they understood that many diseases were caused not by “bad airs”, but by
microscopic
organisms like bacteria. This led to improvements in hygiene and sanitation, as well as the development of
vaccines
. But viruses were almost unknown. The
magnification
of optical microscopes was too weak to show them up. People could spot bacteria, but not viruses, which are smaller than the wavelength of visible light. Until the
electron
microscope
was invented in the 1930s, influenza was, like the
Higgs boson
before 2012, a theoretical entity: its existence was deduced from its effects. In the face of such uncertainty, public faith in medicine wavered. People reverted to
superstition
: sugar lumps soaked in
kerosene
, and
aromatic
fires to clear “miasmas”.
斯宾尼偶尔给《经济学人》撰稿，她重现了西班牙流感爆发前的世界。在20世纪初科学正处于上升发展阶段。科学家们已经将疾病发生的原因从瘴气转向细菌：他们明白了许多疾病并不是因为“不良空气”而是由细菌等微生物导致。这种转变使得环境卫生条件有所改善，也促进了疫苗的研发。但是当时人们对于病毒几乎毫无了解。当时的光学显微镜的放大率太低以至于无法看到病毒。当时人们可以观测到细菌但看不到病毒，因为病毒比可见光波长还要小。直到1930年代电子显微镜被研发出来之前，流感病毒只是一个理论上存在的实体，就像是2012年前的希格斯玻色子一样：其存在可由其产生的影响推断出来。面对如此的不确定性，公众对于医学的信心动摇了。人们重新选择迷信：将糖块浸在煤油中，焚烧出香气来驱散“瘴气”。
