32 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



a wealthy apothecary, and drew up a curious code 

 of instructions for preserving animals and plants, 

 which he gave to captains of ships, and other per- 

 sons. These formulas, as may be supposed, were 

 very rude, yet they contributed to till the worthy 

 apothecary's museum with a variety of new and 

 curious objects ; which he had engraved, without 

 the least regard to order, and then published. 

 Albin, also, who seems to have been a miniature 

 painter, published in 1731 a quarto volume of 100 

 copper-plates, representing English lepidoptera in 

 their different stages. As a work of art, this was, 

 for the period, a very splendid undertaking ; and, 

 although devoid of any science, it must have 

 materially advanced the cultivation of entomology. 

 From the same hand originated, between 1731 and 

 1738, three volumes upon birds, and one upon 

 British spiders ; yet not of equal merit. We pass 

 over the works of Bradley, Fermin, Klein, Knorr, 

 Renard, Brown, and others of inferior note. But 

 we may pause at the name of Sir Hans Sloane, then 

 the most eminent patron of natural history in 

 Britain ; and holding the high professional station 

 of court physician. A greater lover of natural 

 history could not exist ; for he expended a princely 

 fortune in forming that museum and library which 

 was ultimately purchased by the government, and 

 made the foundation of the present national collec- 

 tion. Sloane, however, unlike the accomplished 

 Willughby, was rather an amateur than a master, 

 and his Natural History of Jamaica*, &c, although 



* A Voyage to the Islands of Madeira, Barbadoes, Nevis, 

 St. Christopher's, and Jamaica, with the Natural History, &c, 

 by Sir Hans Sloane, Bart 2 vols, folio. London, 1728. 



