James Key Caird 1st Baronet 1837 – 1916

James Key Caird 1st Baronet 1837 – 1916 was a jute baron and mathematician. Born in Dundee, he was one of the city’s most successful entrepreneurs, who used the latest technology in his Ashton and Craigie Mills.

James Key Caird was the brother in law of John Everett Millais 1st Baronet (1829-1896), as his wife was Sophy Gray (1843-1882), the muse of John Everett Millais, and the sister of John Everett Millais’s wife Effie Millais (1828-1897). James Key Caird and Sophy married on 16 July 1873.

James Caird was a staunch advocate of homeopathy, and in 1866, James Caird was  the Vice Chairman of the Association for the Trial of Preventative and Curative Treatment in the Cattle Plague by the Homeopathic Method, and on 17.10.1866 (Anon, The Journal of the British Homeopathic Society, Volume 4, (1866). Page 305), he wrote to The Times from the Hague to draw attention to the Association, and to the benefits of homeopathy.

James Caird was the chief sponsor of Ernest Henry Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition of 1914 to 1916 on the Endurance, and Ernest Henry Shackleton’s open boat the James Caird (Ernest Henry Shackleton’s father was a homeopath (Roland Huntford, Shackleton, (Atheneum, 1986). Page 11)).

In 1902, James Caird gave £90,000 to erect a cancer hospital in Dundee, and in 1914, James Caird donated £30,000 to an extension to the Asylum in Wiltshire, his donations totalled £270,000 - equivalent to £20 million or so today (?maybe more?)

In 1866, James Caird was the Vice Chairman of the Association for the Trial of Preventative and Curative Treatment in the Cattle Plague by the Homeopathic Method, with William Pitt Amherst 2nd Earl Amherst, Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset 8th Duke of Beaufort, Ralph Buchan, William Alleyne Cecil Lord Burghley 3rd Marquess of Exeter, George Thomas Keppel 6th Earl of Albemarle, William Coutts Keppel Viscount Bury 7th Earl of Albemarle (the Earl of Albemarle’s son), Colonel Challoner, George Grimston Craven 3rd Earl of Craven, Henry William Dashwood 5th Baronet, Patrick Dudgeon, Robert Grosvenor 1st Baron Ebury, Francis Richard Charteris 10th Earl of Wemyss Lord Elcho, Arthur Algernon Capell 6th Earl of Essex, Richard Grosvenor Earl Grosvenor 2nd Marquess of Westminster, Philip Howard Frere, Edward Kerrison, Henry Charles Keith Petty Fitzmaurice 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, Lord Llanover, Colonel Farnaby Lennard, George Loch, Archibald Keppel MacDonald, Arthur de Vere Capell Viscount Malden, John Winston Spencer Churchill 7th Duke of Marlborough (Chairman), Frederick Francis Maude, William Miles, James Moore, Charles Gordon Lennox 5th Duke of Richmond, Charles Marsham 3rd Earl of Romney, Sir Anthony Rothschild, John Villiers Shelley, John Robert Townshend 1st Earl Sydney, Lt. Colonel Charles Towneley, Augustus Henry Vernon, William Warren Vernon, Arthur Richard Wellesley 2nd Duke of Wellington (1807-1884), William Wells,

In 1866, the Treasury placed rooms at Adelphi Terrace at the disposal of John Winston Spencer Churchill 7th Duke of Marlborough, who was the Chairman of the Association for the Trial of Preventative and Curative Treatment in the Cattle Plague by the Homeopathic Method, based on the research done in Belgium by Edward Hamilton, with John Winston Spencer Churchill 7th Duke of Marlborough overseeing the work of Edward Hamilton, George Lennox Moore, James Moore and Alfred Crosby Pope.

William Coutts Keppel Viscount Bury 7th Earl of Albemarle issued an address or report for the Association for the Trial of Preventative and Curative Treatment in the Cattle Plague by the Homeopathic Method in 1866. Bury reported that the Dutch had experienced such success with homeopathy against that cattle plague, that they had authorised Edward Hamilton to visit Holland to investigate this.

Edward Hamilton discovered that the Dutch had treated 4798 cattle, 1031 were destroyed = 3767 were treated (with a mixture of allopathic and homeopathic treatments), the survival rate for the beasts treated was 45%, and the survival rate for the beasts treated only by homeopathy was 72-5%.

The Dutch Government had agreed to allow E Seutin, a homeopathic chemist, the total control of infected cattle in Matterness, and initially, E Seutin saved 70% of the cattle, though latterly, he had saved 9 out of every 10 beasts brought to him for treatment, and E Seutin’s use of homeoprophylaxic treatment of unifected beasts brought the epidemic under control entirely within four weeks. Matterness was pronounced free from infection and it has remained thus ever since. The remedies used were arsenicum, phosphorus, phos ac, rhus tox and sulphur.

In 1866, George Lennox Moore became involved with Association for the Trial of Preventative and Curative Treatment in the Cattle Plague by the Homeopathic Method, alongside Edward Hamilton and Alfred Crosby Pope, and overseen by John Winston Spencer Churchill 7th Duke of Marlborough.

George Lennox Moore wrote a detailed report on these trials, including a refutation of the falsities published in _The Lancet_regarding the homeopathic treatment of the cattle plague, attacking William Coutts Keppel Viscount Bury 7th Earl of Albemarle and accusing him of ‘being completely misinformed on this matter‘, and inventing a trail of misleading mistruths about the situation.

The orthodox statistics of this clinical trial revealed 8640 cases, 8% killed, 77% died and 15% recovered, though John Winston Spencer Churchill 7th Duke of Marlborough subsequently issued the interim homeopathic results claiming up to 50% recovery rates with arsenicum, belladonna, phosphorus, rhus tox and turpentine as the main homeopathic remedies used.

The Times wrote an article wishing the homeopaths success in these homeopathic trials, but they also made a pithy comment that the allopaths would probably rather see all the cattle die than have homeopathy proved successfull.

The final report on the homeopathic trials in the treatment of cattle plague was issued by John Winston Spencer Churchill 7th Duke of Marlborough. The orthodox statistics of this clinical trial revealed 8640 cases, 8% killed, 77% died and 15% recovered, though John Winston Spencer Churchill 7th Duke of Marlborough subsequently issued the interim homeopathic results claiming up to 50% recovery rates with arsenicum, belladonna, phosphorus, rhus tox and turpentine as the main homeopathic remedies used.

Of course, the ‘valuable and so far successful’ results of the homeopathic trials so far outstripped orthodox treatments, the homeopathic trials were immediately postponed by ‘orthodox sources’.

James Key Caird became head of the family firm in 1870. He made a substantial fortune, and gifted both the Caird Hall, which dominates City Square, and Caird Park in the north of the city. The Marryat Hall, gifted by his sister Mrs Emma Grace Marryat, links to the Caird Hall. His donations totalled £270,000 — equivalent to £20 million. He was created Baronet in 1913.

Caird funded Ernest Henry Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition of 1914 to 1916 on the Endurance, and Ernest Henry Shackleton’s open boat the James Caird, in which six of the Endurance’s crew made the epic open boat voyage of 800 miles (1,300 km) from Elephant Island to South Georgia, was named in appreciation of Caird’s contribution.

Caird held an honorary degree from the University of St. Andrews.

He died at Belmont Castle, Dundee.

Of interest:

Robert Henryson Caird **1850 - was **Chairman of the House Committee of the London Homeopathic Hospital since 1908, and a Member of the Board of Management since 1904. Chairman of the Building Committee for the building of the Sir Henry Tyler Wing and the New Nurses Home, 1908-1911.

Mona Caird 1854 – 1932, sister in law of **Robert Henryson Caird, **was a Scottish novelist and essayist whose feminist views sparked controversy in the late 19th century. Mona Caird wrote for the wrote for the _Westminster Review_ and was a friend of John Chapman.

Sophy Grey (1843-1882) Sophy Gray became far too close to** John Everett Millais, such that it was rumoured that her sister Effie Millais had to send Sophy away because of concerns that she and John Everett Millais were growing too close. In 1868, Sophy was ill, probably suffering from anorexia, and she was eventually sent to the Manor Farm House asylum in Homerton (moved to Chiswick in 1893) under the care of [Thomas Harrington Tuke (1826-88)**](http://brentfordandchiswicklhs.org.uk/local-history/people/the-tuke-family-and-their-chiswick-asylums/), a leading practitioner in lunacy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophy\_Gray\_(Pre-Raphaelite\_muse)).

Thomas Harrington Tuke had studied under John Conolly (1794-1866) at Hanwell Lunatic Asylum, and Thomas Harrington Tuke married John Conolly‘s elder daughter, Sophia Jane, in 1852 (http://www.citizendia.org/John\_Conolly). John Conolly** *was a friend and supporter of homeopathy, and John Rutherford Russell wrote a moving Obituary tribute to John Conolly (John James Drysdale, Robert Ellis Dudgeon, Richard Hughes, John Rutherfurd Russell, [The British journal of homoeopathy, Obituary of John Conelly, Volume 24,* ](http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0LP_RhAVucIC&pg=PA342&dq=hanwell+The+British+Journal+of+Homeopathy&hl=en&sa=X&ei=54AJUPu2DMXH0QXImdXMCg&sqi=2&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false)(Maclachlan, Stewart, & Co., 1866). Pages 342-343) in which he praised John Conolly for his ‘unusual liberality’ towards homeopathy.

Thomas Harrington Tuke had previously treated John Everett Millais‘ friend Edwin Henry Landseer, who was an advocate and supporter of homeopathy (Anon, The journal of the British Homeopathic Society, Volume 9, (1882). Page 97), a patient of Frederick Hervey Foster Quin, and a friend of William Hering. (http://groups.google.com/group/alt.health/browse\_thread/thread/9086b56aad29c969/c7f801f22e0e6e3f?lnk=raot&pli=1, A History of Homeopathy in Britain by Peter Morrell, Honorary Research Associate in the History of Medicine, Staffordshire University, UK).

Nonetheless, the rumours are that James Key Caird 1st Baronet, who had courted her for several years before 1873, was disliked by Sophy’s family, possibly because he tried to keep her away from the Millais family?

John Everett Millais painted Sophy again in 1880, which showed how close these two people had remained all their lives. Sophy died at Thomas Harrington Tuke‘s asylum in 1882, from ‘… exhaustion and atrophy of nervous system, 17 years…’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophy\_Gray\_(Pre-Raphaelite\_muse))