180  London  Botanic  Gardens.  {A%JP°rnr;i9oh6arm* 
William,  Lord  Cheyne,  and,  as  the  Society's  garden  formed  part  of 
this  estate,  a  deputation  from  the  Society  waited  upon  its  new  owner 
in  1 7 14  to  confer  with  him  respecting  the  affairs  of  the  garden. 
The  immediate  result  of  this  conference  is  not  known,  but  it  can  be 
safely  surmised  that  the  events  which  we  are  about  to  describe  were 
the  ultimate  outcome  of  the  interview.  A  second  conference  with 
Sir  Hans  Sloane  took  place  in  171 8,  in  which  the  affairs  of  the  gar- 
den were  again  discussed,  and  within  a  few  weeks  after  the  event 
Sir  Hans  Sloane  intimated  that  he  was  prepared  to  transfer  the 
property  to  the  Society  on  certain  conditions.  In  conformity  with 
his  promise  he  conveyed  the  garden  to  the  Apothecaries'  Society 
by  deed  in  1722.  It  was  stated  in  this  deed  that  the  conveyance 
was  made  "  to  the  end  that  the  said  garden  might  at  all  times  there- 
after be  continued  as  a  physick  garden,  and  for  the  better  encour- 
aging and  enabling  the  said  Society  to  support  the  charge  thereof, 
for  the  manifestation  of  the  power,  wisdom,  and  glory  of  God  in  the 
works  of  the  creation,  and  that  their  Apprentices  and  others  might 
better  distinguish  good  and  useful  plants  from  those  that  bore 
resemblance  to  them,  and  yet  were  hurtful,  and  other  the  like  good 
purposes."1  These  objects  had  already  been  aimed  at  by  the  Society, 
but  the  garden  had  also  been  utilized  up  to  this  time  for  the  culti- 
vation of  medicinal  plants  to  be  converted  into  drugs  for  the  Society's 
use.  By  the  present  deed  the  latter  practice  was  prohibited. 
Among  the  other  important  conditions  of  the  grant  were  the  fol- 
Royal  Society  in  1693,  a  vice-president  in  17 12,  and  president  in  1727  ;  was 
created  a  baronet  in  1716  ;  became  president  of  the  Royal  College  of  Physi- 
cians in  1719  ;  and  was  appointed  Physician  to  the  King  in  1727.  Sir  Hans 
Sloane  continued  as  president  of  the  College  of  Physicians  until  1735,  and  died 
in  1753.  At  his  death  his  collections  of  plants  and  other  objects  of  Natural 
History,  together  with  his  library  and  MSS.,  were  purchased  by  the  nation  for 
^20,000.  These  collections  formed  the  nucleus  of  the  British  Museum,  opened 
in  1759.  Sloane  was  the  author  of  a  work  entitled  the  "  Natural  History  of 
Jamaica,"  in  which  he  adopted  the  classification  of  Ray.  He  also  con- 
tributed several  papers  to  the  "  Philosophical  Transactions."  Sloane  had  four 
children  ;  two  of  these,  both  daughters,  "survived  their  parents,  and  carried 
their  wealth  to  the  noble  families  of  Stanley  and  Cadogan."  For  a  critical 
estimate  of  this  remarkable  man,  who  was  at  once  a  fashionable  physician  and 
scientific  dilettante,  see  "Encyclop.  Brit.,"  9th  Ed.,  Vol.  XXII,  p.  160. 
1  This  passage,  although  placed  in  inverted  commas,  has,  for  convenience, 
been  transferred  from  the  present  to  the  past  tense. 
