BY DR. DERHAM. 



41 



ally, some way or other, aiding to the completion of the 

 heavy work. 



Neither did Mr. Ray take care only of his own books, 

 but he continued to be mindful of what Mr. Willughby 



duke on September 12, 1687, and after touching at many of the Caribbee 

 islands, reached Port Royal on the 19th of December in the same year. The 

 death of the duke soon after his arrival diminished Sloane's resoui'ces, and 

 compelled him to hasten his return, though he did not leave Jamaica till he 

 had formed in that and the neighbouring islands an immense collection of 

 plants. He arrived in England on the 29th of May 1689, after a residence 

 in Jamaica of only fifteenth months. 



The plants which he brought with him amounted to 800 species. Of 

 these he gave his friend Mr. Courten whatever he wanted to complete his 

 collection, and the remamder, with other objects of natural history, formed 

 the nucleus of his museum. He was appointed physician to Christ's Hos- 

 pital in 1694, and held the office for thirty years ; and in 1695 he married a 

 lady of considerable wealth, EHzabeth, daughter of Alderman Langley, by 

 whom he had four children, two of whom died young, while two daughters 

 survived their parents, and carried their wealth to the noble families of 

 Stanley and Cadogan. 



In 1693 he was chosen secretary to the Royal Society, and in 1712 was 

 elected one of the vice-presidents. The Academy of Sciences in Paris had 

 conferred on him the title of a foreign associate in 1708. George I created 

 him a baronet in 1716, and appointed him physician-general to the forces ; 

 he was elected president of the College of Physicians in 1719, and held the 

 office tiU 1735. In 1727 he was appointed physician to the king, and in the 

 same year had the honour of succeeding Newton in the president's chair of 

 the Royal Society. He had purchased an estate at Chelsea in 1720, and 

 retired thither in 1710, when eighty years old. His time was now passed 

 in entertaining scientific men, and in examining the treasures he had col- 

 lected. He died, after a short illness, on January 11th, 1753, in the ninety- 

 third year of his age. 



Sir Hans Sloane dnected that at his death his museum should be offered 

 to the nation for 20,000/., a sum which he says, in a codicil to his ^viU, dated 

 July 20th, 1749, did not amount to a fourth part of its real value. Tliis 

 collection, in the purchase of which by government the British Museum ori- 

 ginated, was not altogether accumulated by Sir H. Sloane, but had been 

 greatly increased by the bequest, in 1702, of the museum of his friend, Mr. 

 Courten. At the time of his death. Sir H. Sloane's cabinet contained 200 

 volumes of dried plants, and 30,600 other specimens of objects of natural 

 liistory, besides a library of 50,000 volumes and 3566 manuscripts. His 

 fame however does not rest merely on his collection ; he contributed many 

 papers to the ' Philosopliical Transactions.' Before he was appointed secretary 

 to the Royal Society, the publication of these Transactions had been suspended 

 for six years ; he resumed their publication, and continued to superintend 

 it till 1712. His great work was the ' Natural History of Jamaica,' which 

 appeared in two volumes folio, with many plates, of which the first volume 

 was published in 1707, and the second twenty years after. The first volume 

 contains an introduction comprising a description of the island, its cUmatc, 

 products, and the diseases of its inhabitants, followed by an account of the 

 plants indigenous there and in other of the West India islands ; the trees 



