The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #77092   Message #1381189
Posted By: GUEST
18-Jan-05 - 01:26 AM
Thread Name: BS: Useless Trivia
Subject: RE: BS: Useless Trivia
Some reports have it that in 1865, Otto von Bismarck challenged Virchow to a duel, but Virchow declined. (This would have given him 12 years to think up what he SHOULD have said, and then actually get the chance to use it in 1877)

(Posting anonymously so as not to appear a would-be know-it-all, trivia-hounding freak, looking for an upset... The Virchow anecdote about trichinosis *is* published, in Bartlett's Book of Anecdotes. This other version (about rearmament and forced unification), I have only seen on the web.)

I leave resolution of the discrepancy to other useless-truth seekers.