23 JUNE 1990, Page 25

Mad French cows

Sir: While the French accuse us of export- ing 'mad cow' disease, they appear to have overlooked its origins in their own country. Your readers are surely familiar with the expression, which I recall from my child- hood days in Paris, manger de la vache enragge — 'to have a hard time'. Is it not all the more piquant that it is the French who have recently been making us 'eat mad cow'?

Jean Gerard Leigh

Hayes, East Woodhay, Newbury, Berkshire