Rocky Road: Hans Sloane

Hans Sloane

From Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution by Lisa Jardine

The Royal Society of London was established in 1660, with the purpose of engaging in careful, factual observation of the natural world. It's fitting that Hans Sloane should be born the same year. Sloane trained in medicine, pursued his love of botany, established one of the greatest natural history collections in Europe, and in 1727 became both president of the Royal Society and a physician to King George II.

Born in Ireland, Sloane rose from humble origins. He moved to London to study medicine then continued his education in France, at the University of Orange. Back in London he was elected to the Royal Society at the tender age of 25, and elected to the Royal College of Physicians soon afterwards. He got the chance of a lifetime when the Christopher Monk, Second Duke of Albemarle, was appointed governor of Jamaica and invited Sloane to be his personal physician. Sloane spent 15 months in Jamaica, using his personal time to collect flora and fauna samples, and record its natural wonders. He recorded Jamaican animal behavior, too, such as the exasperating behavior of gluttonous ants who ate everything, including the bird specimens he wanted to take home.

Despite Sloane's personal care, the Duke died in Jamaica, and his widow decided to return to England. The sea voyage to Jamaica had been a fairly quiet one, but the voyage home was not; Sloane tried to bring back a crocodile, an iguana and a seven-foot snake. The crocodile died of natural causes, the iguana jumped overboard and somebody shot the snake. Luckily, Sloane's other specimens survived.

From Nature's Treasurehouse by John Thackray and Bob Press

After returning to London, Sloane married well, set up a medical practice, and organized his collections. He published two volumes describing his travels, the first in 1707 and the second in 1725. The volumes boasted illustrations "as big as life," such as the birds shown here (regrettably much littler than life). Sloane also compiled an herbarium of pressed plants accompanied by detailed illustrations. The specimens he personally collected comprised a few volumes, but through purchases and gifts, he acquired enough plants to fill 338 volumes. He also collected fossil bones. For many years, large bones found in Siberia and North America had been attributed to giants, but Sloane collected enough "giant" bones to show that they really belonged to relatives of elephants.

As Sloane's collections grew, they filled his home, forcing him to buy the building next door for additional storage space. Over the years, he acquired animal skins, manuscripts, coins, and more. When he died in 1753, his collection became the basis for the British Museum, which officially opened in 1759.

When the Ashmolean Museum opened at Oxford in 1683, it admitted anyone who could pay the admission fee. The British Museum was far less egalitarian. Would-be visitors had to apply in writing for admission, and only the sufficiently respectable were issued tickets. By 1810, the rules had been relaxed, and "any person of decent appearance" could pass through the museum's doors. The natural history portion of the collections were eventually moved, and now reside in the Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London.

Some of Sloane's interest in collecting probably stemmed from his desire to be a good doctor. Many of the plants may have had medicinal value, and he collected "Peruvian Bark" (quinine) to treat fever. Yet most people today owe Sloane a debt of gratitude for something else, something wonderful he promoted "for its lightness on the stomach and its great use in all consumptive cases": chocolate.

For more information:
Voyages of Discovery by Tony Rice
Nature's Treasurehouse by John Thackray and Bob Press
Ingenious Pursuits: Building the Scientific Revolution by Lisa Jardine
The Great Naturalists edited by Robert Huxley
Plants and Empire by Londa Schiebinger
American Monster by Paul Semonin
Chrysalis by Kim Todd