A QUARTERLY JOURNAL, OF SCIENCE, LITERATURE, NATURAL HISTORY, AND THE FINE ARTS. VOL. V. London: SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, & CO. CURRY, JUN. & CO., DUBLIN; BARLOW, BIRMINGHAM. 1836. cont. Schwort 3-27-45 52152 THE ANALYST. MEMOIR OF SIR HANS SLOANE, BArt., FOUNDER OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. A SKETCH of the useful life of this illustrious physician and naturalist, cannot but be acceptable to our readers, at a time when the proposed improvements in the British Museum, detailed in the recent report of the committee of inquiry, form the general topic of conversation in the scientific and literary circles of the day. It has been compiled principally from contemporary writers whose authenticity may be relied on. Sir Hans Sloane, Bart., was the son of Alexander Sloane, who was placed at the head of a colony of Scots which James I. settled in the north of Ireland, and the subject of this biographical sketch was born, on the 16th of April, 1660, at Killileagh, in that district. He discovered a strong inclination for natural history, even in his infancy, and devoted those hours generally employed by young persons in trifling pursuits, to the study of nature, and the admiration of her multiform and attractive productions. At the age of sixteen, he was seized with a spitting of blood, which interrupted the regular course of his studies, and confined him to his chamber for three years. He had already acquired enough of the healing art to know that such a malady was not to be suddenly cured; and his prudence directed him to abstain from any stimulant that might tend to increase the disorder. By a strict regimen adopted at this time, and which he afterwards always observed, he was enabled to prolong his life beyond the ordinary bounds assigned to the age of man; being himself an example of the truth of his |