LIFE OF SIR HANS SLOANE. 9 



with that published after his death, will show that it was constantly 

 increasing. 



Apologizing in 1125 for the delay in publishing the second volume 

 of his Natural History of Jamaica, he says, " The putting into some 

 kind of order my curiosities, numbering them and entering their names 

 in books, which was necessary in order to their preservation and uses, 

 hath taken me up some I have had to spare from the exercise of my 

 profession; and because some people have represented me careless and 

 negligent in not giving this second volume sooner, I think it proper in 

 my own justification to acquaint the reader, that I have entered into 

 books, and numbered these natural and artificial things following." 



The numbers in the first columns are those he there gives ; those 

 in the second column are from the list as transmitted to the British 

 Museum after his death. 



From the comparative statement of its treasures in the years 1125 

 and 1*153 it will easily be perceived that Sir Hans Sloane himself most 

 materially increased every department of this magnificent collection. In 

 January, 1141, he commenced removing them, together with his library, 

 from his house in Bloomsbury, to that at Chelsea ; and having entirely 

 completed the transfer by May following, he retired thither to enjoy 

 the remainder of his life among his books and scientific treasures and 

 the society of the learned. Here, in 1148, he was honoured with a 

 visit from the Prince and Princess of Wales, the father and mother of 

 King George III. Dr. Mortimer, Secretary of the Royal Society, 

 conducted the Prince and Princess into the room where Sir Hans 

 was seated, being aged and infirm. The Prince took a chair and sat 

 down by the good old gentleman for some time, when he expressed the 

 great esteem and value he had for him personally, and how much the 

 learned world was obliged to him, for his having collected such a vast 

 variety of curious books, and such immense treasures of the valuable 

 and instructive productions of nature and art. Sir Hans' house formed 

 a square of about one hundred feet on each side, enclosing a court and 

 three front rooms — had tables set along the middle, which were spread 

 over with cases filled with all sorts of precious stones, in their natural 

 beds or state as they are found in the earth ; except the first, that con- 

 tained stones formed in animals, which are so many diseases of the 

 creature that bears them ; as the most beautiful pearls, which are but 

 warts in the shellfish ; the bezoar, concretions in the stomach, and 



