Sloane, Sir Hans

Sloane, Sir Hans, 1660–1753, British physican and naturalist, president of the Royal College of Physicians (1719–35) and of the Royal Society (1727–40). His collection of botanical specimens (some of which he gathered in the West Indies), as well as collections of books and manuscripts, was purchased by the government following his death; they formed a beginning of the British Museum. Sloane wrote, in Latin, a catalog of the plants of Jamaica, and published an account of his stay there.

See biography by J. Delbourgo (2017).

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