Upon his return, he practised physick in London; was made physician first to Charles the second, and afterwards, in 1682, to St. Bartholomew’s hospital.  About the same time, he joined his name to those of many other eminent men, in a translation of Plutarch’s lives.  He was first censor, then elect, and treasurer of the college of physicians; of which, in 1705, he was chosen president, and held his office till, in 1708, he died, in a degree of estimation suitable to a man so variously accomplished, that king Charles had honoured him with this panegyrick, that “he was as learned as any of the college, and as well bred as any of the court.”

Of every great and eminent character, part breaks forth into publick view, and part lies hid in domestick privacy.  Those qualities, which have been exerted in any known and lasting performances, may, at any distance of time, be traced and estimated; but silent excellencies are soon forgotten; and those minute peculiarities which discriminate every man from all others, if they are not recorded by those whom personal knowledge enables to observe them, are irrecoverably lost.  This mutilation of character must have happened, among many others, to sir Thomas Browne, had it not been delineated by his friend Mr. Whitefoot, “who esteemed it an especial favour of providence, to have had a particular acquaintance with him for two-thirds of his life.”  Part of his observations I shall therefore copy.

“For a character of his person, his complexion and hair was answerable to his name; his stature was moderate, and a habit of body neither fat nor lean, but [Greek:  eusarkos].

“In his habit of clothing, he had an aversion to all finery, and affected plainness, both in the fashion and ornaments.  He ever wore a cloak, or boots, when few others did.  He kept himself always very warm, and thought it most safe so to do, though he never loaded himself with such a multitude of garments, as Suetonius reports of Augustus, enough to clothe a good family.

“The horizon of his understanding was much larger than the hemisphere of the world:  all that was visible in the heavens he comprehended so well, that few that are under them knew so much:  he could tell the number of the visible stars in his horizon, and call them all by their names that had any; and of the earth he had such a minute and exact geographical knowledge, as if he had been by divine providence ordained surveyor-general of the whole terrestrial orb, and its products, minerals, plants, and animals.  He was so curious a botanist, that, besides the specifical distinctions, he made nice and elaborate observations, equally useful as entertaining.

“His memory, though not so eminent as that of Seneca or Scaliger, was capacious and tenacious, insomuch as he remembered all that was remarkable in any book that he had read; and not only knew all person’s again that he had ever seen, at any distance of time, but remembered the circumstances of their bodies, and their particular discourses and speeches.