SLOANE, SIR HATS (166o—1753), British collector and physician, was born on April 16, 1660, at Killyleagh in County Down, Ireland, where his father had settled at the head of a Scottish colony sent over by James I. He spent four years in the study of medicine in London, and then travelled through spending some time at Paris and Montpellier, taking his M.D. degree at the University of Orange in 1683. He returned to Lon, don with a considerable collection of plants And other curiosities, of which the former were sent to John Ray and utilized by him for his History of Plants. Sloane was elected into the Royal Society, and attracted the notice of Thomas Sydenham, who gave him valuable introductions to practice. In 1687 he went to Ja maica as physician in the suite of the duke of Albemarle. The duke died soon after landing, and Sloane's visit lasted only fifteen months; but during that time he got together about 80o new species of plants, the island being virgin ground to the botanist. Of these he published an elaborate catalogue in Latin in 1696; and at a later date (1707-25) he added two folio volumes. He became secretary to the Royal Society in 1693, and edited the Philosophical Transactions for 20 years.
In 1716 Sloane was created a baronet, being the first medical practitioner to receive an hereditary title, and in 1719 he became president of the College of Physicians, holding the office 16 Years. In 1722 he was appointed physician-general to the army, and in 1727 first physician to George H. In 1727 also he succeeded Sir Isaac Newton in the presidential chair of the Royal Society; he retired from it at the age of 8o, Sloane's memory survives more by his judicious investments than by anything' that he contributed to the subject-matter of natural science or even of his own pro fession. His purchase of the manor of Chelsea in 1712 has perpet
uated his memory in the name of a "place," a street and a square. His great stroke as a collector was to acquire (by bequest, conditional on paying off certain debts) in 17or the cabinet of William Courten, who had made collecting the business of his life. When Sloane retired from active work in 1741 his library and cabinet of curiosities, which he took with him from Blooms bury to his house in Chelsea, had grown to be of unique value. On his death on Jan. i 1, 1753, he bequeathed his books, manu scripts, prints, drawings, pictures, medals, coins, seals, cameos, and other curiosities to the nation, on condition that parliament should pay to his executors L20,000, which was a good deal less than the value of the collection. The bequest was accepted on those terms, and went to form the collection which was opened to the public at Bloomsbury as the British Museum in 1759 (see MusEums). Among his other acts of munificence was his gift to the Apothecaries' Company of the botanical or physic garden, which they had rented from the Chelsea estate since 1673.
See Weld, History of the Royal Society, i. 450 (1848) ; and Munk, Roll of the College of Physicians, 2nd ed. i. 466 (1878).