THE TURF. 
these two persons ever heard of fractional arithmetic, 
they could know no more of it than of the division of 
logarithms. Nevertheless, the probability of events can 
only be found by such help : and even then, as far as 
racing is concerned, although the adept in this part 
of the mathematician's art may be able to ascertain the 
precise odds that may be given or received, so as to 
provide against loss, yet he will find that, to be certain 
to win, advantage must be taken of all chances more 
favourable than the precise odds. In fact, it will be 
by advantageous bets on particular events, that he will 
have a balance in his favour at the winding-up of his 
book, and it would avail him little to work for no 
profit. The main point, however, on which it is indis- 
pensably necessary to keep the eye in betting, is, in 
a series of different events, the exact odds to be readily 
had on evert/ individual event ; and having made a 
round of these engagements, as opinion fluctuates, oppor- 
tunities will offer themselves where great advantage may 
be gained. 
accounts by the means of pebbles, and so does this modern Athenian, 
shifting them from pocket to pocket as events come off; and, although a 
very heavy bettor in the Newmarket ring, he is generally correct Perhaps 
he may have been indebted, for this clever expedient, to some learned 
Cantab, -who may have told him, on the authority of Diogenes Laertius, 
that the bestowing on pebbles an artificial value was even older than 
Solon, the great reformer of the Athenian commonwealth. Eschines, in 
his oration for the crown, indeed, speaking of ballanced accounts, says, 
" the pebbles were cleared away, and none left ;" and his rival, Demos- 
thenes, strikes his balance by the help of counters. Hence the origin of 
the word calculate, from calculus, a pebble; and in popular language of 
the present day, to clear scores, is to settle accounts. 
253 
