Sir James Wylie, 1st Baronet (13 November 1768 – 11 February 1854 OS) was a Scottish physician widely known today within Russia as Яков Васильевич Виллие (Yakov Vasil'evich Villie). From 1790 to 1829, he served in the Imperial Russian army as a battlefield surgeon in more than 50 battles, in the final 40 of those concurrently directing all battlefield medicine. He held that role from 1806 until 1854; also from 1798 until 1854 the physician to three tsars; and from 1808 to 1838 the president of Saint Petersburg's Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy. His name is inseparably connected with the creation of both battlefield medicine and a national corps of Russian-born military doctors within the Imperial Russian army during the first half of the 19th century, plus transformation of its military medical training.
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Early life: 1768–1790
Wylie was born on 13 November 1768 at Kincardine-on-Forth, a major Scottish seaport, one of eight children, he and four brothers surviving infancy. His parents were Janet (née Meiklejohn) and William Wylie, a carrier, Forth cargo transporter and farmer.
He excelled at school. His ambition in medicine, he was apprenticed to the local doctor. Completing this, he gained admittance to the University of Edinburgh. He completed three years there from 1786, during a gilded era for the university's medical school, it arguably providing Europe's best medical instruction. He was taught by acclaimed professors William Cullen (clinical medicine and physiology), Joseph Black (chemistry), Francis Home (materia medica) and James Gregory; also likely by doyens of anatomy and botany. Discovering an aptitude for surgery, he undertook personal anatomy and surgery lessons.
He left the university without graduating, probably through poverty. He stated during an 1823 chat that "in youth he was so very poor, as to be unable to pay for all the classes at college, and, therefore, was frequently obliged to bribe the doorkeepers", and added that a passer-by had once paid his fee and "he regrets most exceedingly, that in spite of every inquiry, he has never been able to find him out and evince his gratitude".
Battlefield surgeon: 1790–1795
At the suggestion of John Rogerson, physician to Empress Catherine II, he moved to Russia in September 1790, passed the State Medical Collegium's examination for the right to practise medicine, and became physician to Prince Galitzin. Finding his surname impossible to pronounce, Russians named him Villie.
In December 1790 he was appointed Surgeon-in-Ordinary within the 33rd Eletsky regiment, stationed in Lithuania.
He participated in the 1792 Polish-Russian War and 1794 Kościuszko Uprising. He battled "intermittent fever" (malaria), common among the troops; he received high commendation in 1793 after formulating an effective pharmaceutical. He became well known for surgical skills, extracting an unusually-large bladder stone, and performing a particularly rare extraction of a musket ball embedded in a lumbar vertebra. He was promoted to Staff Physician.
In December 1794, he received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from King's College, Aberdeen, this commonly awarded there in recognition of general and professional attainments.
After five years in the army, he resigned when appointed physician to Count Stroganov, meanwhile also undertaking private practice, initially at Moscow, then at Saint Petersburg.
During 1797, a former major-general approached Wylie about a bullet painfully lodged in his thighbone, surgery repeatedly rebuffed beyond a decade. Wylie operated, returning the man to such rude health that he re-enlisted following Napoleon's 1812 invasion.
Doctor to Tsar Paul I: 1798–1801
Empress Catherine II died in November 1796 and her son was crowned Tsar Paul I. Wylie's surgical skill, boldness, and good fortune landed him within the tsar's Court.
He had reacquainted himself with Rogerson, who remained a physician within the new Court. Rogerson later contacted him when in difficulty using a catheter to remove a urinary bladder stone for the tsar's friend, the Danish ambassador. Wylie successfully performed a life-saving lithotomy using a trocar improvised from the catheter; he was afterwards appointed Court Surgeon (February 1798).
He was soon tackling technically complex surgeries. Reluctantly brought in by older surgeons unwilling to operate, he unhesitatingly performed a procedure unheard of in Russia (tracheotomy) on a man about to asphyxiate. This was Pavel Kutaisov, the tsar's closest confidant. Upgraded to the tsar's Surgeon-in-Ordinary (June 1799), Wylie was provided rooms within the palace and appointed physician to the tsesarevic.
He became a close companion of the tsar.
In 1800, the Medical Collegium awarded him Doctor of Medicine and Surgery based on his 1794 qualification from Aberdeen University.
In March 1801, Tsar Paul was assassinated. Wylie participated in the autopsy. When asked to prepare the death certificate, he would have foreseen turmoil on the streets if the facts of the tsar's demise surfaced, potentially diminishing the incoming tsar's standing. He certified the cause of death as apoplexy. He also embalmed the tsar's distorted facial features to be presentable for public viewing, thereafter never mentioning the marks of violence.
Doctor to Tsar Alexander I: 1801–1825
Tsar Paul's son was crowned Alexander I.
Wylie retained his position, became a close confidant of the tsar, and at Maria Feodorovna's insistence travelled everywhere with him.
In 1804, he was granted lifetime feudal ownership of a village and its serfs. It was named Vileiskoye after his Russian name. This was the first of four or more grants. For at least one of these, he is known to have arranged annual bank deposits of five roubles per serf: army recruits among them receiving their full share upon demobilisation, others receiving their full share as needed. Two grants near Saint Petersburg were still in place when he died, his will releasing those serfs from villeinage.
Russia at war: October 1805 – March 1814
Wylie had begun guiding Medical-Surgical Academy students in surgery on cadavers and live patients, and almost daily was participating in patient care and teaching doctors at a military hospital. He also proved a proficient administrator; and after concerns about Napoleon re-emerged in Russia, the tsar appointed him Medical Inspector of the Imperial Guard. This established a pattern of him teaching military medicine and personally directing it on the battlefield; meanwhile serving as tsar's doctor.
In early 1805, Russia, Austria and Britain formed a coalition against French encroachment into Europe; with battles in November between French and Russian forces in Austria. At Wischau, Wylie was assigned to direct the entire Russian medical services despite having no authority other than with the Imperial Guard. He came close to death when his horse was shot, and again when a cannonball landed two steps away.
The decisive battle of the campaign took place on 20 November 1805 OS at Austerlitz: Russian and Austrian forces against Napoleon's force. The coalition force was comprehensively defeated; casualties extraordinarily high and most artillery lost; During the retreat, an artillery shell detonated just behind the tsar's horse. Just paces away, Wylie's horse was killed by grapeshot, and further on, a cannonball landed in front of the tsar, showering them with earth.
During 1805, Wylie nicked his finger while operating on a gangrenous wound; ensuing infection necessitating amputation. His other army service wounds would be a dagger plunged mid-thigh and a musket-ball into the shoulder.
The coalition fell apart when Austria signed a peace treaty with France.
A fourth coalition formed within months (Russia, Prussia and others). Beforehand (January 1806), Wylie had been appointed Chief Military Medical Inspector. He accordingly directed Russia's medical team at coalition battles; meanwhile tending wounded men of all ranks on the battlefield under cannon fire. This campaign ended upon overwhelming Russian defeat at Friedland.
The tsar and Napoleon met shortly afterwards at Tilsit to sign peace terms; meeting again the following year for the Congress of Erfurt. There Napoleon thanked the tsar for Russian doctors' attentions to French wounded.
Awards at Paris and London: March–July 1814
Paris capitulated on 31 March 1814.
There, tsar Alexander was warmly thanked by allied sovereigns for Wylie treating their wounded. Following reinstatement of Louis XVIII, he awarded Wylie the Legion of honour for his doctors treating wounded Frenchmen.
The tsar then visited England. In June; Wylie was knighted at Ascot races by the Prince Regent at the tsar's request. Nobody at the impromptu ceremony had a sword needed for the accolade except General Platov who offered his handsome scimitar. Platov presented this to Wylie, it now displayed within the Kremlin Armoury.
Later, while visiting a British warship, the tsar mentioned to the regent that he had made his own physician a baronet; whereupon the regent replied: "Well, I will make yours one"; telling Wylie to consider himself a baronet as a patent would be ordered. The tsar, who was designing a coat of arms for Wylie, sought permission to include supporters. Although baronets are not entitled to this, his request was granted. Back in Paris in July, Wylie was delivered the patent creating him a baronet, with specific permission for supporters on his coat of arms.
The coat of arms is indicative of the bearer's love of Russia, particularly its Cossacks. Above the shield is a galloping Cossack and the eagle from Imperial Russia's coat of arms. Its Semyonovsky supporters at attention beside the shield feature the tsar's favourite regiment. The shield bears a noble's open-faced helmet, the optional baronet's red left hand, the fox typically included on Wylie coats of arms, and Wylie's motto: Labore et Scientia.
Wylie had remained a British subject; barring him from receiving Russian nobility. Nevertheless, in 1816 the tsar ordered that a Diploma of Nobility of the Russian Empire be confirmed, with Wylie's British coat of arms annexed. This took time. His baronetcy received State Council recognition in 1824 (Russia's sole baronet). The Diploma of Nobility was approved in 1847.
Final years attending the tsar: 1814–1825
The following nine years occupied the tsar (with Wylie) at meetings with alliance partners about restoring European stability, viz: Second Treaty of Paris, Congress of Vienna, Quadruple Alliance, Quintuple Alliance, Congress System, and Congress of Verona.
Wylie's bond with the tsar was manifest when badly injured in an August 1823 carriage rollover. He was afterwards visited by a nephew who later recounted Wylie's comments about the tsar's response to the accident: " ...The attentions of H.I.M. to Sir James upon this occasion were ...really those of a brother to a brother".
It was the same in June 1824 when chosen by senior staffer, Volkonsky, to advise the tsar about the death of his last surviving daughter.
That year, Wylie's clinical judgement and resolve were tested when erysipelas in the tsar's leg, injured in his own carriage rollover in 1818, began spreading; gangrene apparent. Court advisers and doctors insisted on amputation, fearing riots if the tsar died without any prior action; even given passports for their escape in that event. Resolutely opposed; Wylie eventually healed the tsar.
In late 1825, Wylie was within the tsar's unusually-small entourage during an informal stay at remote Taganrog when the tsar died from 'fever'. Circumstantial evidence and undeniable facts suggest Wylie's participation in a ruse; enabling the tsar to escape his autocrat's burdens; becoming priestly hermit Fyodor Kuzmich.
Doctor to Tsar Nicholas I: 1826–1854
Tsar Alexander's brother was crowned Nicholas I. Wylie retained his positions; forging a close bond with Nicholas; this likely deepened by having healed the Empress's mother in 1808.
Around 1826, Wylie inherited oversight of minister Arakcheyev's poorly-run crux of tsar Alexander's 1816 plan to dramatically downscale Russia's army. Most demobilised men had been serfs when recruited; being freed from villeinage upon demobilisation. The tsar's plan relied on housing them and their future families within self-contained "Military Settlements" constructed at locations where employment would suit their free status. Wylie's settlements accommodated 750,000 people.
As the Academy was graduating highly competent doctors, he lessened his involvement in the 1828–1829 Russo-Turkish War to oversight of medical teams in place during sieges at Silistra, Shumen and Varna, performing challenging surgeries there, combating devastating typhus and cholera outbreaks, and repatriating Russian casualties after Varna taken.
His doctors treated and hospitalised wounded Turks.
A cholera pandemic passed westward through Russia between 1829 and 1832. Little was known about cholera; causing needless deaths. When it reached Saint Petersburg, Wylie routinely assembled Guards doctors for visits to Saint Petersburg's primary hospital assigned to cholera patients. There, he would closely examine each patient, drawing the doctors' attention to manifestations of the disease, and requiring each to likewise endanger himself. Searching for cures and palliatives, he conducted 19 clinical trials of natural medications, minerals, external treatments, etcetera, involving 1,639 cholera patients from Saint Petersburg's military hospitals. In 1832, he inspected more than 25 hospitals in Russian Poland; providing advice and suggesting improvements.
Wylie's busy schedule prevented him from regularly attending the Academy, but he remained fully aware of matters there; intervening whenever necessary. However, in 1838, he overlooked major trouble there. Considering himself ultimately responsible, he resigned.
Achievements
Leadership of the creation of Russian battlefield medicine
Early 19th century Russia had little organised medical profession, its upper echelon hiring doctors from abroad. Battlefield medicine was likewise meagre. The entire army had only 200 doctors, mostly foreigners; some inadequately qualified, too old, or having inadequate Russian language.
Upon joining the army, Wylie found that battalions generally had a sole foreign doctor without auxiliaries; absence of regulations leaving him to act on his own initiative and in accord with his own comfort. Officers were priority: doctors often removing them far from the battlefield and continuing treatment there for as long as they liked. Lower ranks received little treatment; thereby more likely to succumb to wounds and diseases. Ambulance services and first-aid posts did not exist; the wounded abandoned on the battlefield.
Wylie always treated rank-and-file soldiers whenever possible, resolving to mandate this.
A key role of his 1806 appointment as Chief Military Medical Inspector was to transform battlefield medicine; his authority reinforced in 1808 when appointed manager of all army medicine; immediately dividing that role among four assistants. To this role he brought considerable battlefield experience; a "real genius for administration", and according to colleagues, a practical and scientific approach.
Wylie's team created the prototype for today's system, viz:
Irrespective of rank, wounded soldiers were carried to battlefield dressing stations deployed immediately adjacent to the fighting troops, for triage and initial attention by regimental medics.
Then, if required, the wounded were forwarded for treatment/evacuation along an echelon of increasingly-large hospitals.
Each regiment had 20 non-combatants undertaking stretcher transfers from battlefield to dressing station and from there to regimental infirmary:
Enhancement of Russian military medical training
The Medical-Surgical Academy was Tsar Paul's 1800 amalgamation of existing training centres; intended as Russia's principal institution for high-capacity training of military physicians. It remains to this day at its purpose-built premises; being renamed Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy (1808), Imperial Military Medical Academy (1881), and S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy (1835).
Initially, the Academy "resembled a noble aristocrat in rags"; lacking instructional literature and statutes defining its functions, and its classrooms poorly equipped. When teaching there, Wylie had observed ineffective teaching regimes. Teaching was often based on translations of outdated foreign manuals or instructors' personal notes. Translation had never been done for many manuals; some instructors simply reading out the Latin or German text.
A recognised expert, Johann Frank, was recruited in 1805 as Academy rector, and his draft regulations were approved in 1806.
Wylie then set down some remarks on Franks' regulations, suggested a high-level review of them, and drafted a counter-proposal. Ignoring the review, the tsar approved Wylie's counter-proposal and declared Frank's invalid. After fine tuning, Wylie's regulations were adopted in July 1808; and he appointed inaugural President of the Academy and its Moscow annex.
Frank's plan envisaged the Academy becoming a high-profile university. In an era of continuous warfare, Wylie's proposal better suited supplying Russia's armed forces with ample physicians and veterinarians; particularly field surgeons. His initiatives nevertheless transformed the Academy into Russia's foremost educational institution.
With far-reaching powers; and reporting directly to the tsar (until 1823); Wylie vigorously developed the Academy; its arrangements mirroring Edinburgh medical school. It developed a singularly-military character, its pupils imbued with concern for soldier welfare.
New regulatory framework:
Creation of a national corps of Russian military doctors
In both army and Academy roles, Wylie gave Russian doctors preference over foreigners.
He favoured Russians when selecting Academy instructors and departmental heads.
Rejecting Frank's proposed instruction in Latin and German; he mandated instruction in Russian; where possible via teaching resources written in Russian; later (1822) mandating translation of all foreign manuals or creation of Russian-language manuals where suitable foreign ones non-existent.
When addressing army doctor shortages and inadequacies. He proactively fostered development, promotion, and awards for Russians; guiding one to become the first Russian royal physician.
A letter from Wylie to War Minister Chernyshyov in 1841 outlining his vision for this Russian doctor corps stated his intention to donate 100,000 roubles towards its attainment.
Once sufficient Russians began graduating, he discontinued army recruitment of foreign doctors.
Published works
Books
Concerning American Yellow Fever (1805).
Brief Manual about the Most Important Surgical Operations (1806), the first Russian-language military surgery manual.
Manual for Physicians Performing Recruit Selection (1806, 1810, 1812).
Manual to Guide Designating Lower Ranks Leaving Hospital as Unfit (1808).
Pharmacopoeia Castrensis Ruthena (1808, 1812, 1818, 1840).
Practical Recommendations Concerning Diseases (1828).
Practical Recommendations Concerning Plague (2nd ed. 1828).
Infectious Diseases from the Viewpoints of Medicine and Police (1829).
Practical Observations on Diseases Related to Tropical Climates (1829), his translation of an Englishman's work.
Practical Observations about Intermittent Fevers and Remittent Fevers (1829).
Description of Indian Cholera for Army Doctors (1830).
Report about Therapeutic Methods Used Against Cholera in the St. Petersburg Military Hospitals, with Practical Observations about the Nature of this Disease (1831).
Description of Ophthalmia Afflicting Troops (1835).
Essays
Awards and honours
Russia
Diploma of Nobility of the Russian Empire 1847. Baronetcy 1824. Coat of Arms 1825.
Court Councillor 1798. Actual State Councillor c. 1807. Privy Councillor 1823. Actual Privy Councillor 1841.
Order of Saint Vladimir: 4th class 1804; 2nd class 1807; 1st class 1840.
Order of Saint Anna: 1st class 1814; with diamond badges 1821.
Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky: 1828; with diamond badge 1838.
Military Council: member from 1812.
Gold medal: 50 years' service to Russian medicine 1840.
Silver medals: 1792–1794 Polish Wars; 1812 War; Capture of Paris; 1828–1829 Russo-Turkish War.
Brass medal: 225th anniversary of birth 1993.
State Medical Collegium: Honorary Member (1800) and Dean (1810–1813).
Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy: Academician 1814.
Russian Academy of Sciences: Honorary Member 1814.
Other countries
Austria. Order of Leopold: Commander's Cross.
Baden. Order of Merit.
Bavaria. Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown: Commander.
Personal life
Tall and strongly built, Wylie enjoyed vigorous sports: gymnastics; swimming; fencing; skating; bear and boar shooting, and the hunt.
He is also described as "one of the most cultured people of his era, a polyglot, a bibliophile, and lover of literature"; on good terms with prominent figures in Russian literature and culture, authors, and journalists; dining with them each Wednesday.
Although twice venturing marriage, he remained a bachelor. Marriage to an Englishwoman recommended by the tsar in 1815 did not eventuate after declining relocating to England. Wedding arrangements in 1823 collapsed after injuries from a carriage rollover required his protracted recovery in bed.
He remained on excellent terms with his family. His mother visited Saint Petersburg, causing astonishment back home when appearing in church wearing his gifts of Indian shawl and gold spectacles. A brother, Walter, was a shipowner whose journeys routinely included Saint Petersburg. Once introduced to Tsar Alexander, Walter found himself having dinner on gold plate at the Winter Palace with brother, tsar, and nobles.
Wylie's health remained sound until his last days; with excellent memory and lively interest in literature and current affairs. Despite his elevated status, he preferred the company of his circle of Russian doctors, and for his last 15 years a routine of regular informal lunches had been established at his suggestion.
He died at Saint Petersburg on 11 February 1854 OS; being interred at Saint Petersburg's Volkovo Lutheran Cemetery with full imperial honours; attended by tsar Nicholas and the entire Court.
Extremely wealthy; his 1852 will advised that liquidated assets remaining after " ...erecting a monument to me ...the sums which will thus remain undisposed of by me, I most humbly lay at the feet of His Imperial Majesty ...and I venture to express the wish that this sum may he employed ...for some establishments of public or charitable benefit which shall bear my name".
Memory
Statue
Regarding the will's first request; approval was given for his stature in front of the Military Medical Academy.
Completed in 1859, a bronze sculpture rests upon a pedestal of black Finland marble, a grey marble sculpture of Hygeia at each corner. The sides of the pedestal feature bronze panels showing: his coat of arms; he presiding at the academy's Conference; he and other doctors on the battlefield.
At its inauguration, Wylie's executors presented 1,000 roubles from his estate to be shared among needier academy students.
In 1948, during Joseph Stalin's anti-cosmopolitan campaign, the Academy was ordered to remove it and schedule its destruction. This was backed by a smear campaign declaring Wylie an English spy, all duly reported by communist party mouthpiece Leningradskaya Pravda One individual wrote that Wylie was never able to speak Russian, surrounded himself with incompetent foreign careerists, oversaw a run-down in military medicine, and drove Russian doctors from his hospitals.
At huge personal risk, Academy head Orbeli had the monument dismantled and hidden within crates. Reassembled in 1964 and placed within the academy's park, it was later decreed cultural heritage.
Mikhailovskaya Baronet Wylie Clinical Hospital
Regarding the will's second request; a clinical hospital beside the Military Medical Academy was opened in 1873 in the presence of Alexander II. Its buildings, assembled in Wylie's honour into a W shape, provided 150 beds; 120 free. Five Academy clinics were immediately relocated there.
Other
In a nod to Wylie's motto, the Academy's is Labore et Scientia, Arte et Humanitates. Inside hang two paintings of him and his stylised torso drawn in profile on painted glass separating adjacent rooms.
His sarcophagus at Saint Petersburg's Volkovo Lutheran Cemetery features his portrait, plus inscriptions on its sides describing his services to Russia. Declared a federal heritage site, 2001.
At Kincardine-on-Forth, a plaque was unveiled in 2004 honouring its famous son.
In 1809, Wylie purchased a home on Saint Petersburg's English Embankment; rebuilding it and residing there from 1838. Now decreed national architectural heritage, with information panel affixed. Its history includes residency of Academy graduate and obstetrician Alexander Blank and his family for some years from 1832; a daughter born there in 1835 becoming Maria Alexandrovna Ulyanova, mother of V.I. Lenin.
Wylie is briefly mentioned as "Villier" in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace.