In which Dr Aust gets a bit poetic
Today the Prince of Wales’ Foundation for Integrated Health (FIH) announced that it was to close its doors.
(There is some suggestion that if you look at the logo for long enough the feathers will start to droop.)
The announcement follows recent revelations about the FIH’s finances, sources of income for at least one of their more notorious projects, and the police investigation into allegations of serious fraud at the charity, including the arrest of at least one ex-staffer.
Though the announcement states that the closure of the charity was “already planned”, it acknowledges that it has been brought forward by the ongoing police investigation.
The story has already attracted coverage in the media – both mainstream and scientific/medical – and on the blogs. Some links are at the end.
However, as yet, no-one has penned a valedictory poem.
Though I suppose it is possible Poet Laureate Carole Ann Duffy will rise to the challenge in due course, in the meantime I thought I would have a go.
So, with apologies to E.J. Thribb, I give you:
————————————————————————————————————
POETRY CORNER
In Memoriam
Prince of Wales’ Foundation for Integrated Health
So. Farewell
Then. The
Prince of Wales’ Foundation
for Integrated Health
As it so
Happens a
Much disputed term
“Integrated Health”
You said.
“Quack nonsense” said
The scientists.
“Achieve optimal health
and wellbeing”
You said.
“If you buy this Duchy dodgy
Herbal potion”
They mocked.
But of course now
That all the
Money has disappeared
It might
Appear rather
Quackademic.
—————————————————————————————————————-
I have also been trying to come up with a suitable epitaph for the FIH
So far my favourite is:
Requiescat in ridiculo
or perhaps:
Requiescat in ridiculo (a)eterno
Which latter version would have the neat acronym – at least for anyone who has ever studied French at school – RIRE.
—————————————————————————————————————-
More coverage:
From Pulse (with quotes from FIH’s Dr Micharl Dixon and Edzard Ernst)
From Nature (with comment from Edzard Ernst)
From David Colquhoun’s blog (with updates promised)
Google collection of news stories
Dr Aust's Spleen 
April 30, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Haha very good!
Here’s my appropriately mocking limerick
There once was a princely foundation
deserving of skeptics’ damnation
while propping up woo
it lost money too
– there are few that will mourn its cessation ;-)
Epitaph: argumentum ad ignorantiam
Come to think of it Resqui-thingy in ignorantiam (ignorantio?) would work quite nicely, as a sort of ‘remain in ignorance’ phrase.
April 30, 2010 at 10:37 pm
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Stephen Curry, Alan Henness, Dr Aust, Dr Aust, David Briggs and others. David Briggs said: Ashes to Ashes, Flunk to Flunky. RT @Dr_Aust_PhD: In memoriam: http://wp.me/p7r3S-hu […]
April 30, 2010 at 11:51 pm
Welcome, Jo.
I like the limerick. And the epitaph. From my admittedly rather rusty Latin, it would be:
Ignorantia (rather than ignorantiam) because it is “in” (position) which takes the ablative case (ending in a long -a) when implying position not motion (and resting is definitely not moving!) . “Ad” is a preposition usually denoting “movement” (to, toward) and therefore takes the accusative case (-am). So “ad ignorantiam” but “in ignorantia” . Somewhat confusingly, “in memoriam” literally translates as “into the memory of”, hence the -am.
More fascinating Latin grammar boredom here.
I suppose I’m probably from one of the last generations to have been forced to do Latin O-level back in the mists of time. Oddly, it proved quite useful when learning Spanish in evening classes about ten years ago – not so much because the words are similar, but more because having learnt Latin means one learnt about the grammar underlying languages.
May 1, 2010 at 6:58 am
The notion of Herr Professor Sir Drippy Draust, Scientist to the Stars, now seems a tad tenuous.
May 1, 2010 at 9:07 am
[…] Dr Aust’s Spleen 30 April In memoriam. In which Dr Aust gets a bit poetic […]
May 1, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Don’t get the last comment at all, Shabby. I will be a Professor approximately when Hell Freezes Over – that is my estimate, and that of my scientific friends, not to mention the bosses. And I’ve never suggested anything else… so what’s your point?
May 2, 2010 at 10:12 pm
So, you’re a shabby scientist, eh, Drippy? Who’d have guessed?
May 3, 2010 at 11:56 am
* bemused expression *
* yawn *
See the blog’s opening statement for info on Dr Austs’s scientific “unremarkability”.
May 3, 2010 at 12:40 pm
Interesting to see criticisms about about your science from somebody who I would guess believes in fairies and magic beans.
May 3, 2010 at 12:55 pm
Hi Diego
I’m never quite sure what ShabbyTabby believes. He really is a GP, of course, so in some ways it is a surprise just how enthusiastic he seems to be about Magic Beans. Though he is not the only one, see e.g. Dr Michael Dixon, or Dr Sarah Myhill, or Prof George Lewith, or even Prof Karol Sikora.
A lot of these people seem to object to either the idea that science actually has useful things to say about medicine, or that clinical trial evidence rather than personal experience and belief should be a starting point for thinking about decisions.
I see from your nascent blog that you’re reading Cronin’s The Citadel. Is that the one where he describes working in Harley St in the 30s, and delivering placebo therapies (including dramatic ones, like saline injections in the backside) to upper middle class patients with vague complaints like “neurasthenia”?
Plus ca change, and all that.
May 3, 2010 at 7:55 pm
Yes it is, but it also describes providing desperately needed healthcare to the deprived in the Welsh valleys. In the end the hero comes back from Harley Street to proper medicine.
May 3, 2010 at 8:00 pm
Thanks. Mainly asked because I remembered seeing an extract from the Harley St bit in Michael O’Donnell’s Medicine’s Strangest Cases, but have never actually read the Cronin book. Must try and get hold of a copy.
May 3, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Jo Brodie,
That limerick is marvelous.
I can’t help, though, but suggest that “that will mourn” in the last line be changed to “who will rue” which I think scans a bit better.
But it is wonderful as it is. I intend to commit it to memory.
Mike
May 15, 2010 at 11:01 pm
[…] the meantime, and following the acclaim for our resident bard’s recent Memorial Poem on the demise of the Prince’s Foundation for Integrated Health, he has been persuaded to pen […]