CAIUS, Hit JOHN, was born at Norwich, October 6, 1510. His real name was Kaye, or Key, which he Latinised by Caine. After receiving the first rudiments of learning in his native city, be was sent to Gonvillo Hall, in the University of Cambridge. He took the degrees of B.A. and M.A. at the usual times, and was chosen fellow of his college in 1533. His literary labours began at the ago of twenty by a translation into English of St. Chrysostom, ' De Modo omndi This was followed by a translation (somewhat abridged) of Erasmus, ' De Ter& Theologia.' His third production was a translation of Eranuma's paraphrase upon the epistle of St. Jude. Ilis excuse for writing in English is curions enough :—" These I did in Englishe the lather because at that tyme men ware not so geuen all to Engliehe, but that they dyd fauoure and mayteine good learning contained in tongues and sciences, and did also study and apply diligently the name them , selves. Therfore I thought no hurt° done. Sence that time diuerse other thynges I haue written, but with entente neuer more to write in the English° tongue, partly because tho commoditie of that which is so written passeth not the compass/a of Englande, but remaineth enclosed within the seas," ('A Connseill against the Sweat,' fol. 4.) It was probably soon after this that he travelled into Italy, where he remained several years. He studied medicine at Padua under Baptista Montanus and Vaseline, and took the degree of Doctor at Bologna. In 1542 he gave lectures at Padua on the Greek text of Aristotle in conjunction with Itcaldus Columbus, the salary being paid by some noble Venetians. The following year he made the tour of Italy, visiting the most celebrated libraries, and collating manuscripts in order to improve the text of Galen and Coleus. At Pisa he attended the medical lectures of Matthmus Curtius, and then returned home through France and Germany. On his return he was incorporated Doctor of Physic at Cambridge, and practised with great distinction at Shrewsbury and Norwich. By the appointment of Henry VIII. he read lectures on anatomy to the Company of Surgeons; but he does not appear to have settled in London till a later period, when he was made physician to Edward VI. He retained his appointment under Mary and Elizabeth.
In 1547 Dr. Caius became a Fellow of the College of Physicians, and was ever a strenuous upholder of its rights and interests. A difference having arisen between the physicians and surgeons in the reign of Elizabeth as to whether the latter might administer internal remedies in cases where their manual assistance was required, Dr. Caius, then president, was summoned to appear before the lord mayor and others of the queen's delegates. On this occasion he pleaded the physicians' cense so ably that, although the snrgeous were supported by the Bishop of London and the Master of the Rolls, it was unanimously agreed by the commissioners that it was unlawful for the surgeons to practise medically in such cases. Dr. Caius was president of the College of Physicians for more than seven years. He left behind him a book of the college annals, from 1555 to 1572, written with his own hand in a clear Latin style. Having obtained permission from Queen Mary, with whom he was much in favour, to advance Gonville Hall into a college, which still bears his name, he accepted the mastership of the college, and passed the last years of his life in it Before his death he was reduced to a state of great weakness ; and it appears from the following quaint passage in Dr. Motiffet's Health's Improvement, or Rules con
cerning Food,' tbst he attempted to sustain his flagging powers by reverting to the food of infancy :—" What made Dr. Caius in his last sickness so peevish and so full of frets at Cambridge, when he sucked one woman (whom I spare to name) froward of conditions and of had diet ; and, contrariwise, so quiet and well when he sucked another of contrary dispositions ? Verily, the diversity of their milks and con ditions, which being contrary one to the other, wrought also in him that (nicked them contrary effects." Dr. Caine died July 29, 1573, in the sixty-third year of his age, and was buried in the chapel of his own college. His monument bears the pithy inscription, 'Fui The most interesting of the works of Dr. Caine is his treatise on the sweating sickness. The original edition is a small black letter and extremely scarce duodecimo of thirty-nine folio,', ' imprinted at London by Richard Grafton, printer to the kynges maiestie. Anne Do. 1552: It is entitled 'A boke, or counseill against the disease commonly called the sweate, or sweatyng eicknesse. Made by Jhou Caine, doctour iu phisicke.' This was intended for the public in general ; but in 1556 the author published it in an enlarged form, and in the Latin language, under the title 'De Ephemera Britannia.' The epidemic described by Caine was that of 1551, the fifth and last of the kind. It was an intense fever, of which the crisis consisted in a profuse perspiration. The death of the patient often followed two or three hours after this symptom, bnt if he survived the first attack of the disease twenty-four hours lie was safe.
The works of Dr. Cajun are exceedingly numerous, and display his talents as a critic, a linguist, a naturalist, and an antiquary, as well as a physician. His original works consist of treatises—'De Medendi Methodo," De Ephemea Britannia," De Ephemer5 Britanitic5 ad Populum Britannicum,' De Antiquitate Cantabrig. Academia,' De II istoriA Cantabrig. Academia," De Canibus Britannicis," De Rariorum Animalium atquo Stirpium Mistorift,' De Symphonic Yocum Britan nicarum," De Thermis Britannicis,"De Maria Galeni qui non extant,' 'De Antiquis Britannia3 Urbibas," De Libris propriie," De Pronun ciatione Gramm et Latina3Lingua3 corn ScriptioneNovli,"De Annalibus Collegii Medicines Loud.; 'De Annalibus Collegii Gooevilli et Cali,' Compendium Erasmi Libri de vent Theologitt: He also edited, translated, and commented upon many pieces of Hippocrates, Galen, and others. During his life, and for many years after his death, the writings of Dr. Caius were regarded with deep veneration. Several of his treatises were reprinted under the superintendence of Dr. Jebb, London, 1729, 8vo ; and his treatise `De Ephemeral. Britannia' was edited by Dr. J. F. C. Hecker, Berolini, 1833, 12mo.
(Hutchinson, Biographia lifedica ; Aikin, Biographical Memoirs of Medicine in Great Britain ; Dr. J. F. C. Hecker, Der Englische &lauds')