Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 31.djvu/90

  with the straight staff, using only a single knife all through; the success of his operations established his reputation as a surgeon. He gained a large practice, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1825, on the separation of Guy's from St. Thomas's medical schools [see ], Key was appointed lecturer on surgery at Guy's, and his classes were for many years very popular. He resigned the lectureship in 1844. In 1845 he was one of the first elected fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons, and in the same year became a member of its council. In 1847 he was appointed surgeon to Prince Albert. He died of cholera on 23 Aug. 1849, leaving nine children. His son Sir is separately noticed.

Key was a great surgical operator and lecturer, his lectures being largely the results of his own experience. He was not a well-read man nor a scientific pathologist. He was one of the first surgeons in London to use ether as an anæsthetic. His dexterity with the knife was remarkable; he was never known to make a mistake through inattention to details. In person he was of commanding presence, thin, and rather tall, with a slightly aquiline nose.

Key contributed to the ‘Guy's Hospital Reports’ some valuable papers on hernia, lithotomy, and other subjects. He also wrote: and he edited the second edition of Sir Astley Cooper's work on hernia, 1827. 
 * 1) ‘A Short Treatise on the Section of the Prostate Gland in Lithotomy,’ 4to, 4 plates, London, 1824.
 * 2) ‘A Memoir on the Advantages and Practicability of Dividing the Stricture in Strangulated Hernia on the outside of the Sac,’ 8vo, London, 1833;

KEY, JOHN (1794–1858), lord mayor of London, eldest son of John Key of Denmark Hill, Surrey, was born on 16 Aug. 1794. He entered his father's business, that of a wholesale stationer, about 1818. The firm had been established in the last century, and then traded as Key Brothers & Son, at 30 Abchurch Lane. After several changes of abode the business was finally removed to 97 and 103 Newgate Street. Key was elected alderman for the ward of Langbourn on 8 April 1823, and served the office of sheriff of London and Middlesex in the ensuing year. He served the office of master of the Stationers' Company in 1830, and in the same year was elected lord mayor. He was one of the leading supporters of the Reform Bill in the city, and received the unusual honour of re-election to the mayoralty in the following year. During his second mayoralty, when William IV and Queen Adelaide had arranged to visit the city in order to open new London Bridge, Key suffered some loss of popularity by advising the king and his ministers not to come to the city on account of the supposed unpopularity of the Duke of Wellington. The visit passed off satisfactorily, and Key was created a baronet by William IV on 17 Aug. 1831. He was elected member of parliament for the city in 1833. He removed in 1851 from Langbourn to the ward of Bridge Without, which he represented until 1853. In that year he was elected chamberlain of London after a poll, his opponent being [q. v.], who afterwards succeeded him in that office.

Key died on 15 July 1858, leaving by his wife Charlotte, youngest daughter of Francis Green, esq., of Dorking, Surrey, a son, Sir Kingsmill Key, who succeeded him in the baronetcy, and three daughters.



KEY, THOMAS HEWITT (1799–1875), Latin scholar, born in Southwark, London, on 20 March 1799, was the youngest son of Thomas Key, M.D., a London physician, by his second wife, Mary Lux Barry. [q. v.], the surgeon, was his half-brother. The family of Key was an old one, settled for six hundred years at Standon in Staffordshire, and for about two hundred of them at Weston Hall. Thomas was educated for nearly ten years at Buntingford grammar school, Hertfordshire, where, under the Rev. Samuel Dewe, Latin, French, and mathematics were especially well taught. In October 1817 he entered St. John's College, Cambridge, and was elected a scholar, but in the spring of 1819 migrated to Trinity College, where he also obtained a scholarship. He graduated B.A. in 1821 (as nineteenth wrangler), M.A. 1824. At his father's desire Key studied medicine (1821–4) at Cambridge and at Guy's Hospital, London. In July 1824 he met in Praed's rooms at Cambridge an accomplished American, Francis W. Gilmer, who had been deputed to select professors for the newly founded university of Virginia at Charlottesville, U.S.A. Key was induced to accept the professorship of pure mathematics, and entered on his duties 1 April 1825. He taught successfully till the autumn of 1827, when he resigned on account of the unsuitability of the climate, and returned to Eng-