The state of physick: and of diseases

Medical controversies in the 18th century occasionally took on a virulent character. On the evening of June 10, 1719, in the quadrangle of Gresham College, Richard Mead and John Woodward began a duel with swords about their views on the treatment of smallpox, which was stopped by bystanders and terminated in a war of words. -- H.W. Orr.