John Caius

Infobox Scientist
name = John Caius


birth_date = October 6, 1510
birth_place = Norwich
death_date = July 29, 1573
death_place =
residence =
citizenship =
nationality = English
ethnicity =
field = medicine
work_institutions =
alma_mater = College of Physicians
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students =
known_for = Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
influences =
influenced =
prizes =
religion =
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John Caius (October 6, 1510 - July 29, 1573), was an English physician, and second founder of the present Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. "Caius" is a Latinized version of "Kees" or "Keys" and is thus pronounced /kiːz/.

Early life

He was born in Norwich and admitted as a student at what was then Gonville Hall, Cambridge, founded by Edmund Gonville in 1348, 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 then returned to England.

Medical career

He was a physician in London in 1547, and was admitted as a fellow of the College of Physicians, of which he was for many years president. In 1557, at that time physician to Queen Mary, he enlarged the foundation of his old college, changed the name from "Gonville Hall" to "Gonville and Caius College," and endowed it with several considerable estates, adding an entire new court at the expense of £1,834. He accepted the mastership of this college (January 24 1558/9) on the death of Dr Bacon, and held it till about a month before his own 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 29 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 Cathedral 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.

He is believed to be the inspiration for the character of Dr Caius in Shakespeare's play the "Merry Wives of Windsor".

Works by Caius

His works are:
*"Annals of the College from 1555 to 1572"
*translation of several of Galen's works, printed at different times abroad.
*"Hippocrates de Medicamentis", first discovered and published by Dr Caius; also "De Ratsone Vicius" (Lov. 1556, 8vo)
*"De Mendeti Methodo" (Basel, 1554; London, 1556, Svo)
*"Account of the Sweating Sickness in England" (London, 1556, 1721), (it is entitled "De Ephemera Britannica")
*"History of the University of Cambridge" (London, 1568, 8vo; 1574, 4to, 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.

References

*For further details see the "Biographical History of Caius College", by Dr John Venn (1897).
*1911
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Nutton
first=V
authorlink=
year=1985|month=.

title=John Caius and the Eton Galen: medical philology in the Renaissance
journal=Medizinhistorisches Journal
volume=20
issue=3
pages=227–52
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 11616032
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Nutton
first=V
authorlink=
year=1979|month=Oct.

title=John Caius and the Linacre tradition
journal=Medical history
volume=23
issue=4
pages=373–91
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 390265
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Cooke
first=A M
authorlink=
year=1973|month=Jul.

title=Dr John Caius, 1510-1573
journal=Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of London
volume=7
issue=4
pages=365–71
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 4577633
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=ALBERTI
first=F
authorlink=
year=1961|month=Oct.

title= [Anatomy in London. Anatomic teaching in London and John CAIUS, student of the Padua School before Harvey.]
journal=Minerva Med.
volume=52
issue=
pages=Varia 1893–6
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 13860128
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=O'MALLEY
first=C D
authorlink=
year=1955|month=Apr.

title=The relations of John Caius with Andreas Vesalius and some incidental remarks on the Giunta Galen and on Thomas Geminus
journal=Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences
volume=10
issue=2
pages=147–72
publisher = | location =
pmid = 14367793
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =

doi=10.1093/jhmas/X.2.147
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=WOHLFARTH
first=P
authorlink=
year=1954|month=Dec.

title= [John Caius and his time.]
journal=Deutsches medizinisches Journal
volume=5
issue=23-24
pages=689–93
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 14352903
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =

External links

* [http://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/college/past/ingram/historyjcaius.php John Caius] on the Gonville and Caius College website