I may as well take this opportunity of replying to another of your Caledonian correspondents, respecting the origin of the word _nugget_. The Persian derivation is simply ridiculous, as the word was not first used in Australia. I am then perfectly well aware that this term has long been in use in Scotland and the north of Ireland as _i. q._ lump, as a _nugget_ of bread, of sugar, &c. But an _ingot_ is a lump also: and the derivation is so simple and natural, that in any case I am disposed to regard it as the true one. May not the Yankee term have been made independently of the British one?
_Another odd Mistake_ (Vol. vii., p. 405.).--On page 102. of _Last Glimpses of Convocation_, by A. J. Joyce, 1853, I read of "the defiance thrown out to Henry III. by his barons, _Nolumus leges Angliæ mutare_." I have never read of any such defiance, expressed in any such language, anywhere else.
_Spontaneous Combustion_ (Vol. vii., pp. 286. 440.).--I have somewhere read an account of a drunkard whose body was so saturated with alcohol, that being bled in a fever, and the lamp near him having been overthrown, the blood caught fire, and burst into a blaze: the account added, that he was so startled by this occurrence, that on his recovery he reformed thoroughly, and prolonged his life to a good old age. Where is this story to be found, and is the fact related physically possible? It seems to bear on the question of spontaneous combustion.
_Erroneous Forms of Speech_ (Vol vii., p. 329.).--E. G. R. will find, on farther inquiry, that he is in the wrong as regards the mode of writing and speaking _mangold-wurzel_. The subject was discussed in the _Gardeners' Chronicle_ in 1844. There (p. 204.) your correspondent will find, by authority of "a German," that _mangold_ is field-beet or leaf-beet: and that _mangel_ is a corruption or pretended emendation of the common German appellation, and most probably of English coinage. Such a thing as _mangel-wurzel_ is not known on the Continent; and the best authorities now, in this country, all use _mangold-wurzel_.
P.S.--Since writing the above, I have seen MR. FRERE's note on the same subject (Vol. vii, p. 463.). The substitution of _mangel_ for the original _mangold_, was probably an attempt to correct some vulgar error in orthography; or to substitute a word of some significance for one of none. But, as Dr. Lindley has said, "If we adopt a foreign name, we ought to take it as we find it, whatever may be its imperfections."