From JOHN ASHBY
In the 1912 edition of Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (E. Cobham Brewer,
Cassell and Co., London) appears the following:
‘To eat the mad cow. A French phrase, implying that a person is reduced
to the very last extremity, and is willing to eat even a cow that has died
of madness . . . (‘Il mangea de cette chose inexprimable qu’on appelle de
la vache enragee’ – Victor Hugo: Les Miserables.)’
Not only does this imply folk memory of a hazard associated with eating
the flesh of a mad cow, but it suggests that our Continental colleagues
know more of this matter than they are currently admitting. Unless, of course,
cows in France succumb to madness for different reasons than British cows.
In which case, vive la difference.
John Ashby Cheshire
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