In 1543 he visited several parts of Italy, Germany and France and then returned to England. Upon his return from Italy he Latinised his surname which was somewhat fashionable at the time.
Caius 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.[3]
In 1551 he was attending in Shrewsbury when a notable outbreak of sweating sickness occurred in the town; the following year, after his return to London, he published A Boke or Counseill Against the Disease Commonly Called the Sweate, or Sweatyng Sicknesse (1552), which became the main source of knowledge of this disease, now understood to be influenza.[4]
In 1557 Caius, at that time physician to Queen Mary, 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 (equivalent to £681,230 in 2023). He accepted the mastership of the college 24 January 1559 on the death of Thomas Bacon, and held it until about a month before his own death.[3]
He was physician to Edward VI, Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.[3] From this position he was dismissed in 1568 on account of his adherence to the Roman Catholic faith. He was incongruously accused both of atheism, and of keeping secretly a collection of ornaments and vestments for Roman Catholic use. The latter were found and burned in the college court.[citation needed]
He was elected nine times president of the College of Physicians, an account of which, Annales collegii medicorum 1520-1565, he left in manuscript.
He returned to Cambridge from London for a few days in June 1573, about a month before his death, and resigned the mastership to Thomas Legge, a tutor at Jesus College. He died at his London house, in St Bartholomew's Hospital, on 29 July 1573, but his body was brought to Cambridge, and buried in the chapel under the monument which he had designed.[3]
Silver caduceus presented by Caius to the College of Physicians
Caius was a learned, active and benevolent man. In 1557 he erected a monument in St Paul's Cathedral to the memory of Thomas 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.[3]
De antiquitate Cantebrigiensis Academiæ by John Caius
Works
Caius was also a pioneer naturalist, prepared to make his own observations about nature rather than simply relying on accepted authorities. He was ready to make journeys about the country to see and record unusual animals. As such he could be considered also a pioneer of zoology, not yet recognised as a separate science.
He corresponded with the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gesner, with whom he had made friends while returning from Padua. He wrote a study of British dogs to send to Gesner as a contribution (not used) to Gesner's Historiae animalium, and also sent Gesner drawings of dogs, which were printed in later editions of Gesner's work.[6] Caius' Catholic religious convictions did not prevent his friendship with the Protestant Gesner (indeed, the Historiae Animalium, to which Caius contributed, was under Pope Paul IV placed on the Roman Catholic Church's list of prohibited books).[7]
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)
Reprint: Caius, John (1912) [1556]. Roberts, E. S. (ed.). De Mendendi Methodo (in Latin). Vol. Liber I, II. Cambridge: University Press. pp. 1–56. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
A Boke or Counseill against the Disease Called the Sweate, London 1552
Reprint: Caius, John, A Boke or Counseill against the Disease Called the Sweate, London 1552. Facsimile ed., 1937, Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, ISBN978-0-8201-1182-7.
De Ephemera Britannica (Account of the Sweating Sickness in England) (London, 1556, 1721)
Reprint: Caius, John (1912) [1554]. Roberts, E. S. (ed.). De Ephemera Britannica (in Latin). Vol. Liber unus. Cambridge: University Press. pp. 57–115. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
History of the University of Cambridge (London, 1568, 8vo; 1574, 4to, in Latin)
Reprint: Caius, John (1912) [1574]. Roberts, E. S. (ed.). Historiae Cantebrigiensis Academie (in Latin). Vol. Liber I, II. Cambridge: University Press. pp. 1–116. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
De Thermis Britannicis; but it is doubtful whether this work was ever printed
De Rariorum animalium atque stirpium historia, libellus.(Of Some Rare Plants and Animals) (London, 1570)
Reprint: Caius, John (1912) [1570]. Roberts, E. S. (ed.). De Canibus Britannicis (in Latin). Cambridge: University Press. pp. 1–19. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
Of Englishe Dogges: The Diuersities, the Names, the Natures, and the Properties (London, 1576).
De Libris suis: De Libris propriis (London, 1570).
Reprint: Caius, John (1912) [1570]. Roberts, E. S. (ed.). De Libris suis (in Latin). Vol. 1. Cambridge: University Press. pp. 67–111. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
De Pronunciatione Graecae et Latinae Linguae (London, 1574)
Alberti, F (October 1961). "Anatomy in London. Anatomic teaching in London and John Caius, student of the Padua School before Harvey". Minerva Med. (in Italian). 52: Varia 1893–6. PMID13860128.
O'Malley, C D (April 1955). "The relations of John Caius with Andreas Vesalius and some incidental remarks on the Giunta Galen and on Thomas Geminus". Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 10 (2): 147–72. doi:10.1093/jhmas/X.2.147. PMID14367793.
Wohlfarth, P (December 1954). "[John Caius and his time.]". Deutsches Medizinisches Journal (in German). 5 (23–24): 689–93. PMID14352903.
_(C24a27).jpg)
