A breed apart: Sir Hans Sloane (1660-1753)

by Steven Moore

The next time you unwrap a bar of milk chocolate remember it was an Ulsterman who came up with the  idea.

 Sir Hans Sloane was an outstanding character - physician to the Royals, a scientist of world renown and the owner of a collection so vast and varied as to be the basis of both the British Museum and Natural History Museum.

 Yet, it was his dislike of cocoa, served to him as a drink while in Jamaica, that prompted him to create milk chocolate. He found by mixing in milk the beverage was much more palatable - and possibly good for you.

 Apothecaries made it initially and sold it as a medicine until, in the 19th century, Cadbury fell back on Sloane's recipe to create  their milk chocolate!

 Born at Killyleagh, Co Down, in 1660, Sir Hans Sloane, even as a young boy, was determined to gather information on everything around him, be it plants, animals or cures for illness - such as why dulse was thought to combat scurvy.

 In his late teens, he moved to London to study chemistry and botany then headed off to France on a two-year tour to learn about anatomy, medicine and botany from some of the brightest minds in Europe.

 Sir Hans was made a Fellow of the Royal Society - founded in the year of his birth and which he was to serve as president between 1727-1741 - on his return to England in 1685 and two years later was admitted to the Royal College of Physicians.

 He sailed to Jamaica to take up the post as physician to the Governor and spent much of his time there studying the local fauna and flora and collecting samples. In addition, Sir Hans secured specimens of insects, fish and anything else which took his fancy - some 800 items in total - and made extensive notes on Jamaican customs and the general environment.

 It was the beginning of what was to become one of the greatest collections of plants, animals, antiquities and coins of its day.  Indeed, his London home became so filled with items that he had to employ a full-time curator to look after them and to attend to the visitors, many of who where the celebrities of their day.

 Not everyone fully appreciated what they were seeing mind - with the composer Handel apparently causing great consternation by using Sloane's manuscripts as a makeshift plate for his buttered muffin.

 Sir Hans also published a series of works in which he described in great detail his many plant finds, as well as insect and animal studies. These, along with the specimens he accumulated, are still often consulted by scientists because of their clarity and exactness.

 His career as a doctor also blossomed. Having married Elizabeth Langley in 1695, at the age of 35, he set up a medical practice in central London with many prominent people on his books.

 It wasn't long before Queen Anne had appointed him as her physician, a role he continued to fill for George I and George II. Sir Hans, who had been in ill-health for some considerable time, died in 1753 and was buried at Chelsea Old Church, London.

 His collection, amounting to some 71,000 objects and 50,000 books, was left in his will to King George II initially, but Parliament intervened to secure it for the State, with £20,000 divided between his two daughters, Sarah and Elizabeth.

 He is still remembered today in London through place names such as Sloane Square and Hans Crescent in the Chelsea area, to which he had moved late in life in order to properly house his collection.