Sloane, Sir Hans, Baronet  ( born April 16, 1660 , Killyleagh, County Down, Ire.—died Jan. 11, 1753 , London, Eng. )  British physician and naturalist whose collection of books, manuscripts, and curiosities formed the basis for the British Museum in London.

As a child Sloane possessed a strong curiosity of nature, and he developed a particular interest in plants. After studying medicine in London, Sloane traveled in France, taking his an M.D. degree at the University of Orange in 1683. During a visit to Jamaica (1687–88) he collected about 800 new species of plants, of which he published an elaborate catalog in Latin in 1696. Sloane was In 1685 he returned to London and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He proceeded to practice medicine as an assistant to British physician Thomas Sydenham. Sloane was made a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in 1687. That same year he accepted an opportunity to visit Jamaica, traveling as personal physician to the 2nd duke of Albermarle, Christopher Monck, who had been appointed to govern the island.




Sloane also made important contributions to medicine. He was physician to Queen Anne, King George I, and King George II. He was created a baronet in 1716, being becoming the first medical practitioner to receive a hereditary title. He became first physician to King George II and president of the Royal Society in 1727. His great stroke as a collector was to acquire the cabinet of William Courten (1642–1702), who had made collecting the business of his lifeSloane was relatively progressive as a physician, and, while serving George I, he adopted the practice of inoculation against smallpox for members of the royal family. In 1719 Sloane was elected president of the Royal College of Physicians, a post he served until 1735. In 1727 he became president of the Royal Society, succeeding physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton; he held the position until 1741. Sloane earned a reputation as a specialist in eye diseases, and he eventually published Account of a Medicine for Soreness, Weakness and Other Distempers of the Eyes (1745).

