THE S PORTING DEPARTMENT* 
695 
tlie science *of medicine and surgery we have fully availed our¬ 
selves : into the art and handicraft of the farrier and shoeing- 
smith, we have as fully entered ; nay, we have pried into the 
secrets of the groom, though not sufficiently. But from the 
horseman and the racer—and in particular from the latter—we 
have much, very much, as yet to learn. 
It is this department of our science (if I may so express myself) 
to which I am desirous, gentlemen, to direct your attention. It 
is a fertile field, and one that has, as far as pure racing is con¬ 
cerned, been very highly cultivated. But, racing gentry are not 
persons in quest of science, but of means for making money: 
and though in this search they rake up much useful knowledge, 
yet do they leave it all where they found it, save and except that 
portion which they can any wise turn to their pecuniary account. 
By directing some part of your Journal (already so undeniably 
useful) to this, which I shall, by way of distinction, call “ The 
Sporting Department,” you would not only be augmenting the 
public utility of it, but you would be greatly adding to the plea¬ 
sure of the reader of it: and let me tell you, that is a point 
which he would not think lightly of, however trifling a conside¬ 
ration it may seem to you “ men of science.” An author of a 
single treatise may, if he likes, rigidly confine himself to dry 
scientific detail: but a public journalist—even though he be'a 
professional one—will best study his own advantage, and the 
pleasure and satisfaction of his reader, by affording some amuse¬ 
ment along with his instruction. In making use of this phrase 
“amusement,” let me be understood not to mean any trifling or 
fooleries; but to allude to [accounts and digressions’which, at the 
same time that they entertain the reader, serve as illustrations of 
science, and thus afford him the utile along with the duke . 
Now, gentlemen, in order to give you a specimen of this pro¬ 
posed addendum of mine to your already very commendable 
Journal, I will suppose myself, at the present moment, in the 
place of one about to write, for the ensuing month, the article 
composing 
THE SPORTING DEPARTMENT. 
file month just past will be long held celebrated in the “An¬ 
nals of Sporting,” for being the date of one of the most brilliant 
