The Terrible Blight of Cello Scrotum

Yesterday, Elaine Murphy, cross-bencher, Baroness of Aldgate, joined HoL. She found us during a search for pictures of Northumberland House which she wants for a lecture she is giving at the Royal College of Psychiatrists about how Northumberland House and similar asylums were used in the 18th and 19th centuries. Elaine particularly like the set I bought last year and wrote to me asking permission to use one or two.

As one does these days, I checked Elaine out on Wikipedia and stumbled across a wonderful harmless hoax she was involved in with her husband in the 1970s. The hoax was staged through the august British Medical Journal and concerned a previously unheard of condition called Cello Scrotum.

“Cello Scrotum,” J.M. Murphy, British Medical Journal, May 11, 1974, p. 335. The author, in Chalford, Gloucester, U.K., explains:

Though I have not come across ‘guitar nipple’ as reported by Dr. P. Curtis (27 April, p. 226), I did once come across a case of ‘cello scrotum’ caused by irritation from the body of the cello. The patient in question was a professional musician and played in rehearsal, practice, or concert for several hours each day.

After reading that and having quoted her PhD paper in a comment on the post about the photos, there was no question but that Elaine could have whatever photos she wanted!  

Read and hear more about the hoax on the BBC who reported the story  when it was finally uncovered as a hoax in 2008 and on blog site Neatorama.