JOHN etc.] KEYS

See also:

• CAIUS
• JOHN etc.] KEYS CAIUS [Anglice KEES (1510-1573)

CAIUS [Anglice KEES (1510-1573)  , English physician, and second founder of the present Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, was born at Norwich on the 6th of October 1510 . He was admitted a student at what was then Gonville Hall, Cambridge, where he seems to have mainly studied divinity . After graduating in 1533, he visited Italy, where he studied under the celebrated Montanus and Vesalius at Padua; and in 1541 he took his degree in physic at Padua . In 1543 he visited several parts of Italy, Germany and France; and re-turned to England . He was a physician in London in 1547, and was admitted fellow of the College of Physicians, of which he was for many years president . In 1557, being then physician to Queen Mary, he enlarged the foundation of his old college, changed the name from " Gonville Hall " to " Gonville ilnd Caius College," and endowed it with several considerable estates, adding an entire new court at the expense of £1834 . Of this college he accepted the mastership (24th of January x558/9) on the death of Dr Bacon, and held it till about a month before his death . He was physician to Edward VI., Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth . He returned to Cambridge from London for a few days in June 1573, about a month before his death, and resigned the mastership to Dr Legge, a tutor at Jesus College . He died at his London House, in St Bartholomew's, on the 29th of July, 1573, but his body was brought to Cambridge, and buried in the chapel under the well-known monument which he had designed . Dr Caius was a learned, active and benevolent man . In 1557 he erected a monument in St Paul's to the memory of Linacre .

In 1564 he obtained a

grant for Gonville and Caius College to take the bodies of two malefactors annually for dissection; he was thus an important pioneer in advancing the science of anatomy . He probably devised, and certainly presented, the silver caduceus now in the possession of Caius College as part of its insignia; he first gave it to the College of Physicians, and afterwards presented the London College with another . His works are: Annals of the College from 1555 to 1372; translation of several of Galen's works, printed at different times abroad . Hippocrates de Medicamentis, first discovered and published by Dr Caius; also De Ratione Victus (Lov . 1556, 8vo) . De Mendeti Methodo (Basel, 1554; London, 1556, 8vo) . Account of the Sweating Sickness in England (London, 1556, 1721), (it is entitled De Ephemera Britannica) . History of the University of Cambridge (London, 1568, Svo; 1574, 4t0, in Latin) . De Thermis Britannicis; but it is doubtful whether this work was ever printed . Of some Rare Plants and Animals (London, 1570) . De Canibus Britannicis (1570, 1729) . De Pronunciatione Graecae et Latinae Linguae (London, 1574) ; De Libris propriis (London, 1570) .

He also wrote numerous other works which were never printed . For further details see the

Biographical History of Caius College, an admirable piece of historical work, by Dr John Venn (1897) .