Obscure objects of desire

Sloane was born to Scottish parents in Co Down, Northern Ireland; “Hans”, oddly enough, was a Scottish name at the time, and did not imply any German connections. He was a studious child, and once he moved to London to study botany, chemistry and anatomy it was obvious that he would becomeecomebecome a physician, and a learned one,o one, too. He got a doctorate in med medicinedicine in France, and then, as a you young ung man, had a lucky break: in 16877 he was sent tt to J Jamaicai as th the personal rsonal l physician of its new governor,ernor, the Duke of Albemarle.

Many other doctors would ould have thought their luck had run out. Jamaica, won from om the Spanish by Oliver Cromwell’s well’s navy, was a rackety place, e, much-visited by pirates, with a coarse-living, hard-drinkingking planter class; mortality from rom tropical illnesses (and alcohol)cohol) wass was high. But for Sloane it was a dreamm come true: he could collect specimens of unknown species of plants, shells, insects and other animals, and gather all kinds of other information, too.

When, after less than a year, the e Duke died – from a combination, itt seems, of tropical disease and claret – Sloane’s first duty was to supervise the eviscerating and embalming of his corpse, a process s Delbourgo describes in stomachchurning detail. But on the voyageage e back to England the ducal coffin n was accompanied by crates of specimens, many volumes of pressed dried plants, an iguana (which unfortunately jumped overboard) and an affectionate seven-foot-long yellow snake, which, Sloane wrote, “followed me as a dog would his master”.

(One day, alas, instead of following him, it found its way to the Duchess’s quarters, where her terrified servants shot it dead.) That year on a Caribbean islandd

Why have we forgotten Hans Sloane,e, the enigmatic founder of the British Museum? Noel Malcolm finds out

artist Maria Sibylla Merian: Hans Sloane was an admirer of Merian and acquired many of her works. Below left, two of Sloane’s chocolate cups, with figures in Chinese and European dress painted over the glaze. Left, an impression of the British Museum...

The sheshell of the NautiluNautilus pompilius, above, carved by Dutch aartist JohannJohannes Belkien in the late 1600s and a key objeobject in the Sloane collection.col Below, SuriSurinam sshaddock fruitf with mmoths, caterpillarcate and cchrysalis,...