the minutest point, to the benefit of the community; and what can be more necessary or important, than a sufficient supply of properly-qualified medical men? We say emphatically "properlyqualified medical men;" because we would have this department of the Government beyond reproach, and above all cavil; for the situations in which the distant and isolated practitioner may be, and often is, placed, are frequently of the most urgent responsibility. Life and death may depend upon the promptitude and boldness of his decision, and the limbs of His Majesty's lieges are continually at his mercy. From the nature of the men's employment in this Colony, there is, perhaps, no country in the world, where so many accidents are constantly occurring; and, although these accidents may not—if improperly treated-terminate fatally, yet what compensation can the ignorant surgeon render a poor patient-prisoner although he be for the crippling of his body for life? When the matter is considered in this light, the utility-nay, the absolute necessity of some competent tribunal, by which the merits of all candidates for practice may be adjudged and certified, is at once apparent; and we do most sincerely hope, that when the Legislative Council next assembles, it will take this subject into its especial consideration 66 And more especially as regards the private practitioner; for if the government employee is not, in every instance, well and duly qualified, we are quite sure, that the private practitioner is not. When we look at the extraordinary set of beings, who come out here, either as "experienced surgeons" in charge of merchant ships, or as private passengers, we shall see at once the necessity of such a regulation. As the law now stands, any druggist's errand boy may bring out his paraphernalia of gallipots and pill-boxes, and, fixing half-a-dozen coloured bottles in his window, write himself down a surgeon," and kill or cure-as luck will have it -as many patients, as may be foolish enough to trust him. But, it may be said, the public have the remedy in their own hands. Have they? We should like to know how! Why should we distrust any person, who openly and publicly avows a particular call· ing, and stigmatize him at once and off hand, as an actual impostor? True it is, if a grocer offers bad tea and sugar for sale, or a linen-draper damaged diaper or dimity, no person need buy either the one or the other; but how are we to discover the incapability of a professional man, till we find he has half killed us with his ignorance, or lamed us for life with his blundering incompetency? We do not mean to say, that all our private medical men are of the description we have alluded to; but some there are, even in this very town, who would exhibit a most woeful figure before any properly constituted Board of Examiners. On the other hand, there are individuals, who are at once an ornament to their profession, and a great benefit to the community. And, here, we cannot forbear a few remarks on the unfortunate opposition, (we will not give it a harsher term) which exists be tween the several members of the profession in Hobart Town, and particularly between the Government surgeon and the private practitioner. This is to be lamented in every respect, because, not only does it create animosity and schism, where nothing but good fellowship and unanimity should prevail, but it is productive of a positive evil to the public. In a community so contracted as our's is, and, withal, so peculiarly constituted, every kindly-disposed person must deprecate the evil to which we have adverted. In England the members of the medical profession rank highly in the estimation of the public; and, except on occasions of necessary etiquette, where the honour and purity of the profession are concerned, no petty jealousies are allowed to interfere-amongst liberalminded men, at least, for the purpose of subverting the good-fellowship of the professors: every one is anxious, ready, and willing to exert himself to the utmost, to do that good, which is in his power. And why should that not be the case here?-Because there is too much cavilling about qualification-too much stickling at fusty formality, which would be all very well "at home," where the physician is to his kind, and the surgeon to his order, and the apothecary to no order at all-but, here, it is out of place, in every instance, where a man has proved himself possessed of adequate abilities. On this very account, therefore-if on no other-the establishment of a Board of Examiners is highly requisite: its decision would, at once, silence all rumour, and settle all dispute as to qualification and capability. But great circumspection ought to be exhibited in its formation. We would have none but the most able and experienced men as members, men too, whose own professional rank should be indisputable, and irreproachable; and, being formed of such persons, we would like it to have the power of admitting native students, after a proper and adequate course of study here. We may, perhaps, recur to this subject, as we have omitted one or two topics, which might have been advantageously introduced. J. ONE CAN'T BE ALWAYS YOUNG. It really is extremely hard That beauty will not last; The vaunted of the Beau and Bard, The spell o'er woman cast! And harder still to know that charms Which have been loved and sung, Will fade, in spite of cost and care- There's Prince's famed Columbian Balm; They have all failed in their effects, I've tried them o'er and o'er; Pearl-powder, rouge, and dentifrice, I'm wearied of the "artist's craft"- Ten years ago, dear Mr. Browne For I have learnt at last to know There's Mr. Grey who sought my hand, Now says he cannot marry me, For I am grey already! And Mr. Lamb declares his name Would be on every tongue, I've quarrelled with my looking-glass, THE TURF. At the time when expectation is on the tip-toe, and all the sporting world, is anxiously looking forward to the annual New Town Meeting, a few observations on "the Turf may be appropriately introduced in the present number of our work. In the Quarterly Review of July last, is a very learned and a well written critique on a work recently published, entitled "a Treatise on the care, treatment and training of the English race horse." It is not, however, our intention, that our present observation should be merely a criticism on a work published in London, but that which we intend, is the offering our readers a few interesting anecdotes (from the Quarterly) which may tend to further the rational and nåtional amusement of horse-racing. The writer, in speaking of the very rapid progress racing is making in various parts of the world, exclaims with astonishment that racing of no mean order is to be witnessed in Van Diemen's Land. We really, in the name of the sporting gentry, beg most sincerely to return thanks for the compliment, but when we inform the writer that the breed of horses in this Colony is perhaps not inferior to those of Great Britain, his astonishment will be still more encreased; and we might go further, and question whether some of our thorough-breds would not puzzle the knowing ones of Newmarket or Doncaster. As to our method of training, we cannot speak so favorably-training here is but little understood. The climate, however, is so well adapted to that noble animal the horse, that a two-year-old with us, possesses bone and muscle equal to a horse of double its age in England, but let us quote our author: 66 But, of all wonders, who would look for racing in good form in Van Diemen's Land? There, however, it is: we perceive several well-bred English horses in the lists of the cattle at Ilobart's Town, where they have three days' racing for plates, matches, and sweepstakes, (one of fifty sovereigns each,) with ordinaries, and balls, and six thousand spectators on the course! This little Colony is progressing in many odd ways: it turns out, inter alia, as pretty an Annual, whether we look to the poetry or the engraving, as any one could have expected from a place of three times its standing."-p. 438. In speaking of the course at Newmarket, the writer observes, there were formerly six and eight mile races, but that latterly this has been exploded, and the Beacon course, which is four miles in length, is only once used during the seven meetings. "This is an improvement, not only on the score of humanity, but as far as regards sport; for horses seldom come in near to each other after having run that course. Indeed, so much is the system of a four mile heat disliked, that when it does occur, the horses generally walk the first two. The office of judge at Newmarket varies from that of others filling similar situations. He neither sees the jockeys weighed out or in, as the term is, neither is he required to take notice of them or their horses, in the race. He judges, and proclaims the winner by the colour-that of every jockey who rides being handed to him before starting. Indeed, the horses are seldom seen by him until the race begins, as they generally proceed from their stables to the saddling-house by a circuitous rout. The best possible regulations are adopted for the proper preservation of the ground during the running, and we know of nothing to be found fault with unless it be the horsemen being allowed to follow the race-horses up the course, which injures the ground when it is wet. It is true, a very heavy iron roller is employed upon it every evening in the meetings, but this cannot always be effective. The racing ground on the heath has been the property of the Jockey Club since the year 1753. A great advantage is gained here by giving the power of preventing obnoxious persons coming upon it during the meetings; and it would be well if that power were exerted at New Town. Betting posts are placed on various parts of the heath, at some one of which the sportsmen assemble immediately after each race, to make their bets on the one that is to follow. As not more than half an hour elapses between the events, the scene is of the most animated description, and a stranger would imagine that all the tongues of Babel were let loose again. No country under the heavens, however, produces such a scene as this, and he would feel a difficulty in reconciling the proceedings of those gentlemen of the betting-ring with the accounts he might read the next morning in the newspapers of the distressed state of England. What do you bet on this race, my lord?' says a vulgar-looking man, on a shabby hack, with a shocking bad hat.' 'I want to back the field,' says my lord. So do I,' says the leg. I'll bet 500 to 200 yon don't name the winner,' cries my lord. I'll take six, exclaims the leg. 'I'll bet it you,' roars my lord. 'I'll double it,' bellows the leg. 'Done,' shouts the peer. Treble it? No!' The bet is entered, and so much for wanting to back the field ; but in love, war, and horse-racing, stratagem, we believe, is allowed. Scores of such scenes as this take place in those momentous half-hours All bets lost at Newmarket are paid the following morning, in the town, and 50,0007. has been known to change hands in one day. The Quarterly Review proceeds :— 6 "That noble gift of Providence, the horse, has not been bestowed upon mankind without conditions. The first demand upon us is to treat him well; but to avail ourselves of his full powers and capacity, we must take him out of the hands of nature, and place him in those of art; aud no one can look into old works published on this subject, without being surprised with the change that has taken place in the system of training the race-horse. The Gentleman's Recreation,' published nearly a century and a half back, must draw a smile from the modern trainer, when he reads of the quackery to which the race-horse was then subject —a pint of good sack having been one of his daily doses. Again, the British Sportsman,' by one Squire Osbaldiston, of days long since gone by, gravely informs its readers that one month is necessary to prepare a horse for a race; but if he be very fat or foul, or taken from grass,' he might require two. This wiseacre has also his juleps and syrups-' enough to make a horse sick' indeed-finishing with the whites of eggs and wine, internally adminstered, and chafing the legs of his courser with train oil and brandy. On the other hand, if these worthies could be brought to life again, it would astonish them to hear, that twelve months are now considered requisite to bring a race-horse quite at the top of his mark to the post. The objects of the training groom can only be accomplished by medicine, which purifies the system,-exercise, which increases muscular strength,-and food, which produces vigour beyond what nature imparts. To this is added the necessary operation of periodical sweating, to remove the superfluities of flesh and fat, which process is more or less necessary to all animals called upon to engage in corporeal exertions beyond their ordinary powers. With either a man or a horse, his skin is his complexion; and whether it be the prize-fighter who strips in the ring, or the race-horse at the starting-post, that has been subjected to this treatment, a lustre of health is exhibited such as no other system can produce. "The most difficult points in the trainer's art have only been called into practice since the introduction of one, two, and three-year-old stakes, never dreamt of in the days of Childers or Eclipse. Saving and excepting the treatment of doubt |