M BRITISH PHYSICIANS. for seven years and more was president of this royal foundation. He left beliind him a book, written with his own hand, of the College Annals, bearing date 1555, and ending 1572, which was the first book kept of their transactions, and is written in Latin, in a clear style, and with great method. He was always an eminent defender of the college rights and privileges ; and a difference arising between the physicians and surgeons in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, as to whether the latter might administer internal remedies in scia- tica, and various other similar diseases and wounds, Caius was summoned, as president of the college, to appear before the Lord Mayor and others of the Queen's delegates. On this occasion he defended the College rights so learnedly, and so strenuously pointed out the illegality of the practice of the surgeons in the forementioned cases (though they were supported by the Bishop of London, the Master of the Rolls, and others), that it was unanimously agreed, by the Queen's Commissioners, that it was unlawful for the sur- geons to practice in the said cases. This conduct of Caius might make him some enemies, — at all events, it would render him noto- rious, though it appears strange that Shakspeare should have selected his name for the ridiculous French Doctor, in the comedy of the " MeiTy Wives of Windsor." From his celebrity, he might have used it as the generic name of a physician. But Shakspeare was little acquainted with literary history, and might possibly wish to treat him as a foreign quack, because the doctor was handed
