Page:Lives of British Physicians.djvu/31

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15


CAIUS.

John Kaye, or Key, more generally known by his Latinized name of Caius, was born at Norwich, October 6, 1510. He became, like Linacre, a court physician, enjoying that dignity during the successive reigns of Edward VI., Queen Mary, and Queen Ehzabeth; like him, too, he had studied abroad, and travelled over the greatest part of Italy, Germany, and France. On his return to England, Caius settled in the country, and practised at Cambridge, Shrewsbury, and Norwich. From the latter place he was called to court, and appointed physician to Edward VI. Following the footsteps of his great predecessor, he was distinguished for his knowledge of the Greek language, which gave him a superiority over most of his contemporaries; and he imitated the example of Linacre, also, in revising, correcting and translating several of Galen's works, which were printed at different times abroad. But, in addition to these, Caius was an original writer, and the author of some curious books; one of the most singular of which is in English, being designed for the use of the people at large. It is the only work he seems to have composed in his native tongue, (on all other occasions he wrote in Latin;) and the quaint simplicity of the language of that day, now nearly three hundred years ago, sounds strangely in modern ears, and cannot easily be read without exciting a smile. But the treatise