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You don’t hear much about the disease beriberi anymore. Part of the reason is that breakfast cereals include a mysterious ingredient called thiamine.
您應該極少聽說一種叫做腳氣病（beriberi）的頑疾吧。可為何如今患有這種病的人已經不多了呢？其部分原因在於，現代人早餐中的穀類食品含有一種名為硫胺（thiamine）的神秘成分。
Thiamine is the vitamin that started it all.
作為vitamin家族的一個成員，硫胺揭開了整個家族的故事。
Beriberi is an illness that attacks the nervous system and makes people weak and listless. Beriberi literally means “weakness weakness.”
腳氣病（beriberi）是一種使人神經係統受損的疾病，其症狀為虛弱、倦怠。而單詞beriberi在字麵上就有“虛弱（weakness）” 的意思。
During the late 1800s the Japanese navy was having a problem with beriberi among its sailors. They cracked the problem when they made the sailors eat brown rice instead of white rice. There was something in that brown rice that seemed to save the day.
在(zai)十(shi)九(jiu)世(shi)紀(ji)末(mo)期(qi)，日(ri)本(ben)海(hai)軍(jun)中(zhong)的(de)水(shui)兵(bing)就(jiu)頗(po)受(shou)腳(jiao)氣(qi)病(bing)的(de)困(kun)擾(rao)。直(zhi)到(dao)水(shui)手(shou)們(men)將(jiang)主(zhu)糧(liang)由(you)普(pu)通(tong)大(da)米(mi)改(gai)為(wei)糙(cao)米(mi)，這(zhe)個(ge)問(wen)題(ti)才(cai)得(de)到(dao)解(jie)決(jue)。看(kan)來(lai)，多(duo)虧(kui)了(le)糙(cao)米(mi)中(zhong)的(de)某(mou)種(zhong)物(wu)質(zhi)，日(ri)本(ben)海(hai)軍(jun)才(cai)轉(zhuan)危(wei)為(wei)安(an)。
A Polish biochemist named Casimir Funk isolated what was in the brown stuff. It turned out to be thiamine.
一位名叫卡西米爾•馮克（Casimir Funk）的波蘭生化學家，從糙米中分離出了一種被後人命名為硫胺（thiamine）的物質。
As its name implies, thiamine is part of a group of chemicals known as amines. Casimir Funk was rightly excited at the isolation of this life-giving chemical and he joined a chorus of other nutritional scientists predicting that with more research other chemicals could be uncovered and found to be essential to our health. There were likely a bunch of diseases that could be prevented if only we could find out the little bit of stuff we needed to eat that would prevent them.
正如它名稱所顯示的那樣，硫胺屬於一種叫做胺（amines）的化學物質。在分離出的這種對生命至關重要的化學物質之後，卡西米爾•馮克十分激動。而隨後，他也加入到一群營養學家的行列——這zhe些xie學xue者zhe預yu測ce，憑ping借jie更geng多duo更geng深shen入ru的de研yan究jiu，其qi他ta對dui人ren類lei健jian康kang起qi到dao舉ju足zu輕qing重zhong作zuo用yong的de化hua學xue物wu質zhi也ye終zhong將jiang被bei發fa現xian。隻zhi要yao我wo們men找zhao到dao了le針zhen對dui某mou一yi些xie疾ji病bing起qi作zuo用yong的de化hua學xue物wu質zhi，並bing按an需xu微wei量liang攝she入ru它ta們men，我wo們men就jiu可ke以yi預yu防fang這zhe些xie疾ji病bing。
In 1912 he coined a new term for these various little bits of stuff: vitamines.
馮克於1912年為這些微量元素造出了一個新名詞：vitamines。
He made up the word based on the Latin vita meaning “life” and amine the class of chemicals that thiamine belonged to.
基於意為“生命”的拉丁語單詞vita以及硫胺所屬的那類化學物質amine（胺），馮克造出了這個新單詞。
Casimir Funk was right about there being all kinds of illness that we could prevent with the right vitamins but he was wrong in supposing that just because thiamine was an amine, all the other vitamins were likely to be amines too.
卡西米爾•馮克是對的：隻要服用正確的vitamins，我們可以預防很多疾病。不過，他的判斷——僅僅由於硫胺是胺的一種，所以其他所有的維生素似乎都是胺——卻並不正確。
And so it was that the word was punished by the removal of its “e” so that people wouldn’t ever be fooled again into thinking that a vitamin needed to be an amine.
因此，他創造出的這個單詞受到了懲罰，其末尾的“e”被刪除。這樣一來，人們應該不會再犯傻，認為vitamin必須是一種胺。
Although thiamine was the first vitamin to be called a vitamin it is also known to us as Vitamin B1. You’d think that the first vitamin might be called Vitamin A1 wouldn’t you.
盡管硫胺是第一種被稱為vitamin的維生素，它卻被人們叫做Vitamin B1。您大概會想，第一種維生素大概會被叫做Vitamin A1，對吧？
Well the reason it’s B1 that as people discovered more of these things that seemed to be so good for us, they began to notice that some of them were soluble in water and others were soluble in fats. A scientist named Elmer McCollum called the fat soluble vitamins A, and the water soluble vitamins B.
其實，它之所以被命名為B1，其原因在於維生素的溶解特性：在發現了更多此類對健康有益的元素之後，科學家們注意到，其中一些元素溶於水，而另一些則溶於油脂。於是，一位名為埃爾默•麥考倫（Elmer McCollum）的科學家便把脂溶性維生素叫做vitamins A，水溶性維生素叫做vitamins B。
The event that caused a C vitamin to be named was the same event that resulted in the word vitamin being punished with the loss of its “e”.
值得注意的是，那件導致單詞vitamin受到懲罰，並最終失去字母“e”的事件，也讓某一種微量元素得到了維生素C的名稱。
A and B were amines, here’s another one that prevents scurvy but it isn’t an amine, better call it C.
A類和B類維生素曾被認為是不同種類的胺。然而，另一種被用來預防敗血症（scurvy）的維生素卻根本不是胺，將它稱為維生素C會更合適一些。
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