Cello scrotum
{{short description|Hoax medical condition}}
Cello scrotum is a hoax medical condition originally published as a brief case report in the British Medical Journal in 1974.{{cite news | title=Peer reveals 'cello scrotum' hoax |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7853564.stm |department=Health|publisher=BBC News Online |date=28 January 2009 |accessdate=2009-01-28}}{{cite news |title='Cello scrotum' exposed as a hoax |url=http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/28/uk.cello.scrotum.hoax/index.html |work=CNN |year=2009 |accessdate=2009-01-28}} As its name suggests, it was purportedly an affliction of the scrotum affecting male players of the cello.
History
File:Official portrait of Baroness Murphy crop 3.jpg
The original letter{{cite journal|journal=The BMJ|last=Murphy |first=John M. |author-link=John Murphy (branding consultant)|title=Letter: Cello scrotum|date=11 May 1974|volume=2|issue=5914|page=335|pmid=4827125|pmc=1610985|doi=10.1136/bmj.2.5914.335-a}}{{Retracted|doi=10.1136/bmj.b379|http://retractionwatch.com/2011/05/27/retraction-of-an-idea-did-picasso-suffer-migraines-do-guitar-nipple-and-cello-scrotum-exist-ask-a-pigeon/ Retraction Watch|http://retractionwatch.com/2013/10/29/off-with-his-paper-some-authors-want-to-retract-claim-to-have-identified-henry-ivs-head/ Retraction Watch|intentional=yes}} was written by Elaine Murphy but signed by her husband John. The journal had printed an earlier report about 'guitar nipple',{{cite journal |last=Curtis | first=P. |title=Letter: Guitar nipple |journal=The BMJ|volume=2 |issue=5912 |pages=226 |date=27 April 1974 |pmid=4857619 |pmc=1610876 |doi= 10.1136/bmj.2.5912.226-a}} a condition said to occur when some styles of guitar playing excessively irritate the player's nipple (a form of contact dermatitis similar to jogger's nipple), which Murphy and her husband believed was likely a joke.
Murphy now points out that even a cursory study of the cellist's posture would show that the 'cello scrotum' complaint would not occur. The unlikelihood of a cellist's posture contributing to scrotal injury was raised back in 1974, but seems to have been overlooked.{{cite journal|journal=The BMJ|last1=Scheuer |first1=P. J.|title=Musical Bumps|date=June 1974|volume=2|issue=5917|page=504|url=http://www.bmj.com/cgi/pdf_extract/2/5917/504-a|doi=10.1136/bmj.2.5917.504-a|last2=Gillingham|first2=J.|s2cid=220229890 }}
Murphy admitted the hoax in 2009 in another letter to the BMJ{{cite journal |last1= Murphy |first1= Elaine |last2= Murphy |first2= John |title= Murphy's lore |journal=The BMJ |volume= 338 |pages= b288 |date=January 2009 |pmid= 19174435 |doi= 10.1136/bmj.b288 |s2cid= 34252130 |url= http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/338/jan27_4/b288?ijkey=d66a81e8bf7a5b950326396c2bf897e38c8b6424&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha }}{{cite news | last = Pavia | first = Will | url = https://www.thetimes.com/culture/classical-opera/article/cello-scrotum-its-a-load-of-nonsense-admits-baroness-murphy-qds2v98q3pk | title = Cello scrotum? It's a load of...nonsense, admits Baroness Murphy | newspaper = The Times | date = January 28, 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250511144824/https://www.thetimes.com/culture/classical-opera/article/cello-scrotum-its-a-load-of-nonsense-admits-baroness-murphy-qds2v98q3pk |archive-date=2025-05-11}} after an article in the 2008 Christmas edition of the BMJ made reference to the complaint.{{cite journal |last1= Bache |first1= Sarah |last2= Edenborough |first2= Frank |title= A symphony of maladies |journal=The BMJ |volume= 337 |pages= a2646 |date=December 2008 |pmid= 19074561 |doi= 10.1136/bmj.a2646 |s2cid= 43774021 |url= http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/337/dec12_1/a2646}} The truth of the case report had already been questioned in the medical literature in 1991.{{cite journal|journal=J. Amer. Acad. Dermatology|last=Shapiro |first=Philip E.|title='Cello scrotum' questioned|year=1991|volume=24|issue=4|page=665|pmid=1827803|doi=10.1016/s0190-9622(08)80178-8|doi-access=free}} (in reference to {{harvnb|Rimmer|Spielvogel|1990}}) Others have cited it,{{cite book | last = Mac Suibhne | first = Seamus | asin = B00A1M5N5Y | title = A Tale of Two Letters: Doctors, The Public, The Media, and The Evidence }} although expressing scepticism.{{cite journal|journal=BMC Dermatology |last1=Gambichler |first1=Thilo | last2= Boms| first2=Stefanie |last3= Freitag| first3=Marcus| title=Contact dermatitis and other skin conditions in instrumental musicians |year=2004 |issue=4 |page=3 |doi=10.1186/1471-5945-4-3 |volume=4|pmid=15090069|pmc=416484 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |journal=J. Amer. Acad. Dermatology |date=April 1990 |volume=22 |issue=4 |last1=Rimmer |first1=Steve |last2=Spielvogel |first2=Richard L. |title=Dermatologic problems of musicians |pages=657–663 |doi=10.1016/0190-9622(90)70093-W |pmid=2138638}}
The implications of this and other hoax medical letters for evidence-based medicine and public understanding of science were discussed by Séamus Mac Suibhne.