Scrotumgate: Live from the UK
Elaine Murphy, a Baroness and doctor from the House of Lords in Britain, and her husband, John Murphy, have admitted to submitting a fake medical journal article to the British Medical Journal in 1974, says Fox News.
The two created a false medical condition, later to become known as "guitar nipple", when they "described three young classical-guitarists who had inflamed nipples because the edge of the guitar was consistently pressed against their chests", says Fox. The article was submitted to BMJ as correspondence about unusual cases.
The report was signed and submitted by John Murphy, who was not a doctor, on behalf of himself and his wife Elaine Murphy who was a physician, professor, and member of an oversight board of Britain's National Health Service. It was meant to be a prank, but when it was accepted the couple let it slide.
According to Fox, "Last month, "guitar nipple" was dubbed "cello scrotum" in a reference paper about music-related disorders, so the Murphy's decided it was time to come clean. The Journal has dubbed the scandal "Scrotumgate."
To think, for all time, classical guitarists could have lived in fear of getting the dreaded "guitar nipple". Thank goodness for Scrotumgate.
Summer Johnson, PhD
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