SIR HANS SLOANE. 
31 
successful candidate, being elected by a majority 
of sixteen, the numbers being twenty-five and 
nine. On the 12th of April, 1687, he was chosen 
a Fellow of the College of Physicians. 
Flattering as were his prospects at home at 
this period, he did not hesitate to accept an 
appointment abroad, which promised to afford 
him the means of enlarging his knowledge of 
Natural History and Medicine. The Duke of 
Albemarle having been appointed governor of 
Jamaica, applied to his physician, Doctor Bar- 
wick, to recommend him a proper person to 
accompany him to the colony in a professional 
capacity, who consulted Sloane on the occasion. 
J'his appeared to the latter too tempting an oppor- 
tunity for self-improvement to neglect, and having 
asked a short time to consider the matter, offered 
himself, and was accepted. In a letter to Ray, 
Sloane thus mentions the subject : “ I have talked 
a long while of going to Jamaica with the Duke 
of Albemarle as his physician ; which, if I do, 
next to the serving his grace and family in my 
profession, my business is to see what I can meet 
withal that’s extraordinary in nature in these 
places. I hope to be able to send you some 
observations from thence, God Almighty granting 
life and strength to do what I design,”* to which 
* Ray’s Philosophical Letters, page 206. 
