From Marie-Paule Spinette
Debora MacKenzie reports the discovery of a spontaneous “mad cow disease” in cattle that might have given rise to BSE (17 March, p 11).
A few years ago, while reading my 1936 Gaffiot Latin-French dictionary, I was surprised to find the word mania translated as (1) madness and (2) a bovine disease (maladie du boeuf) – with a citation from Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus, author of Digesta Artis Mulomedicinae, a guide to veterinary medicine, in the 4th or 5th century AD. So mad cow disease – of some kind – was already known back then.
Morlanwelz, Belgium
