20 JUNE 1998, Page 27

Clean bill of health

Sir: I was interested to read A.A. Gill's arti- cle, 'Every man a Bond' (30 May). I wonder whether Jake of Harrogate was invented by the magazine Esquire in an attempt to inform the men of Britain of the necessity of washing their foreskins. I am a school doctor and I can assure Mr Gill that well over half the mothers of the five-year- old boys that I examine have never heard of any kind of personal hygiene for men. They are amazed when I recommend such a strange practice. Joan N. Horton

1 Tyrone Drive, Rochdale