we have to realize that if you were to go back,

当你阅读那时的资料
say, to reading The lancet,

比如《柳叶刀》
one of the major medical journals of the nineteenth century,

它是十九世纪的主流医学期刊之一
or say the Proceedings of the French Academy of Medicine,

或是《法国医学院的进程》
you would see that they were--

你会发现它们...
one of the leading issues that was being hotly debated

包含一项激烈的争论
was the rights and wrongs,

即分辨对错
the scientific evidence for and against,

用科学的方法支持或反对
the idea of contagionism, and its opponents,

传染论和它的对手
the idea of anticontagionism.

反传染论
So this was really a hot-button topic in nineteenth century medicine.

它是十九世纪医药学的热门话题
It consumed the middle decades of the century.

在十九世纪中期盛行一时