Perdita
28-01-2009, 17:44
Baroness Murphy and her husband have admitted to making up the medical condition cello scrotum.
Rumours about the fake musical-related injury, which supposedly creates intense irritation around the genitals, have persisted for 35 years.
Murphy, who is one of the country's leading experts on mental health, invented the ailment as a joke with her partner John.
The pair sent a prank letter to the British Medical Journal in 1974 discussing the fake illness after reading about the condition "guitar nipple", which is caused by vibrations from the instrument's sound box.
"We thought it highly likely [that guitar nipple was] a spoof, and decided to go one further by submitting a similar phenomenon in cellists," they said in the current edition of the journal.
"Anyone who has ever watched a cello being played would realise the physical impossibility of our claim. Somewhat to our astonishment, the letter was published."
They added: "We have been dining out on the story ever since."
I don't expect the medical profession to make up illnesses as a joke :angry:
Rumours about the fake musical-related injury, which supposedly creates intense irritation around the genitals, have persisted for 35 years.
Murphy, who is one of the country's leading experts on mental health, invented the ailment as a joke with her partner John.
The pair sent a prank letter to the British Medical Journal in 1974 discussing the fake illness after reading about the condition "guitar nipple", which is caused by vibrations from the instrument's sound box.
"We thought it highly likely [that guitar nipple was] a spoof, and decided to go one further by submitting a similar phenomenon in cellists," they said in the current edition of the journal.
"Anyone who has ever watched a cello being played would realise the physical impossibility of our claim. Somewhat to our astonishment, the letter was published."
They added: "We have been dining out on the story ever since."
I don't expect the medical profession to make up illnesses as a joke :angry: