A professor of medical education offended by scientific standards in alternative medicine has had a paper accepted at an ‘integrative medicine’ conference describing a homunculus — a representation of the human body — on the buttocks.
In response to an invitation for conference presentations, Professor John McLachlan from Durham University in the UK sent some “invented nonsense”, claiming that he discovered the homunculus during his work as an embryologist.
The homunculus was inverted, so the head was in the inferior position, and the lateral aspect was represented medially.
“As with reflexology, this ‘map’ responds to needling, as in acupuncture, and to gentle suction, such as cupping,” he told the organisers.
To his surprise, the proposal was accepted. He was asked to develop an abstract,...
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