Murphy's lore

doi:10.1136/bmj.b288

Published 27 January 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b288
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b288

Letters

Cello scrotum confession

Murphy’s lore

Perhaps after 34 years it’s time for us to confess thatwe invented cello scrotum.¹

Reading Curtis’s 1974 letter to the BMJ on guitar nipple,²we thought it highly likely to be a spoof and decided to goone further by submitting a letter pretending to have noteda similar phenomenon in cellists, signed by the non-doctor oneof us (JMM). Anyone who has ever watched a cello being playedwould realise the physical impossibility of our claim.

Somewhat to our astonishment, the letter was published.³ Thefollowing Christmas we sent a card to Dr Curtis of guitar nipplefame, only to discover that he knew nothing about it—anotherjoke we suspect.

We have been dining out on this story ever since. We were thrilledonce more to be quoted in "A symphony of maladies."¹

Cite this as: BMJ 2009;334:b288

Elaine Murphy, member¹, John M Murphy, chairman²

¹ House of Lords, London SW1A 0PW, ² St Peter’s Brewery, St Peter South Elmham, Bungay, Suffolk NR35 1NQ

murphyel{at}parliament.uk

Competing interests: None declared.

References

Bache S, Edenborough F. A symphony of maladies. BMJ 2008;337:a2646. (12 December.)[Free Full Text]
Curtis P. Guitar nipple. BMJ 1974;ii:226.
Murphy JM. Cello scrotum. BMJ 1974;ii:335.

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