SIR HANS SLOANE 49 



In 1716, George I made him a baronet 

 the first physician to receive that honour. In 

 1719 he was elected President of the College of 

 Physicians, and held the office for fifteen years. 

 Among other benefactions he gave the college 

 a donation of 100. Sir Isaac Newton dying 

 in 1727, Sir Hans Sloane succeeded him as 

 President of the Royal Society, retiring after 

 fourteen years to the regret of the Committee. 

 In 1712, Sir Hans Sloane purchased the 

 Manor of Chelsea and with it the Physic 

 Garden, which had taught him botany, and 

 which he presented to the Apothecaries in 

 1722 but he continued to live and practise in 

 Bloomsbury. It was not until 1742 that he ' 

 moved with his vast collections to the Manor 

 House in Chelsea. 



His practice became large and fashionable, 

 but every morning until 10 he saw patients 

 gratuitously. He was a generous benefactor 

 to many hospitals. He believed in the virtue 

 of Peruvian bark, and invested the money he 

 received for the Jamaica expedition in pur- 

 chasing it, and has the credit of making that 

 important medicine popular ; but he was 

 cautious in the use of drugs, and like Sydenham, 

 seems to have been successful chiefly from his 

 own powers of observation at the bedside. 



Sloane has been ridiculed for using in his 

 practice an ointment of viper's fat, but that 

 must have been only a small part of his treat- 

 ment. Every generation, too, must inherit 

 (in other matters than in medicine) imperfect 

 truths from earlier generations. These well- 

 worn clothes it seems sometimes better to 



