MEMOIR 
OP 
SIR HANS SLOANE. 
Whatever may have been the influence of Sir 
Hans Sloane on the progress of Natural History 
in his day, (and we believe it to have been 
considerable,) to the present generation he is 
most advantageously known as the founder of 
the British Museum ; it may not, therefore, be 
uninteresting, before relating his personal history, 
to give some account of the private museums that 
were in existence previous to his time, especially 
as some of them merged into his own splendid 
collection, which ultimately became the property 
of the public. 
The first attempt at forming a Museum in 
Britain, was made early in the seventeenth 
century, by John Tradescant, a native of Holland, 
VOL. XXIII. 
B 
