An interminable debate then broke out between believers and skeptics in the scholarly societies and scientific journals. 于是，在学术一团一体里和科学报刊中产生了相信者和怀疑者，这两派人无休止地争论着。
The monster question inflamed all minds.
怪物问题激动着人们。
During this memorable campaign, journalists making a profession of science battled with those making a profession of wit,
自以为懂科学的新闻记者和一向自以为多才的文人开起火来，他们在这次值得纪念的笔战中花费了不少的墨水!
spilling wa一ves of ink and some of them even two or three drops of blood, since they went from sea serpents to the most offensive personal remarks.
甚至有几个人还流了两三滴血，因为有人把针对大海蛇的笔锋移向一些态度傲慢的家伙身上了。
For six months the war seesawed.
在六个月当中，争论继续着。
With inexhaustible zest, the popular press took potshots at feature articles from theGeographic Institute of Brazil,
彼此有理，各执一词。当时流行的小报都兴致勃勃地刊登争论的文章，它们不是攻击巴西地理学院、
the Royal Academy of Science in Berlin, the British Association, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., at discussions in The Indian Archipelago,
柏林皇家科学院、不列颠学术联合会或华盛顿斯密孙学院发表的权威论文，就是驳斥印度一群一岛报、
in Cosmos published by Father Moigno, in Petermann's Mittheilungen,and at scientific chronicles in the great French and foreign newspapers.
摩亚诺神父的宇宙杂志、皮德曼的消息报里面的讨论和法国及其他各国大报刊的科学新闻。
When the monster's detractors cited a saying by the botanist Linnaeus that nature doesn't make leaps, witty writers in the popular periodicals parodied it,
这些多才的作家故意曲解反对派也常引证的林奈的一句话：
maintaining in essence that nature doesn't make lunatics, and ordering their contemporaries never to give the lie to nature by believing in krakens,
大自然不制造蠢东西;恳求大家不要相信北海的大怪鱼、
sea serpents, Moby Dicks, and other all-out efforts from drunken seamen.
大海蛇、莫比·狄克和疯狂的海员们臆造出来的其它怪物的存在，不要因此而否定了大自然。