Old News-The Naked Duelist (non-sensual)

In 1808, before a planned pistol duel, Humphrey Howarth (MP for Evesham) stripped stark naked. A former army surgeon, he knew that wounds were often made worse by the shot getting fragments of clothing getting in the body and infecting the victim.

(If this sounds strange to you, that’s because we have better antibiotics today.)

According to one account, his adversary, Lord Barrymore, declared …”That fighting with a man in puris naturalibus would be quite ridiculous”, and they parted without further discussion (or exchange of shots.)

(Source-The Duel: A History)-Robert Baldick. (Copywrite 1965)