Sir James Wylie, 1st Baronet (13 November 1768 – 11 February 1854 OS) was a Scottish physician known in 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 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 Russia during the first half of the 19th century, plus transformation of its military medical training."Profile: James Wylie, the Scot who became the Russian army's favourite doctor". The Scotsman: 12 October 2010. Retrieved 3 December 2010 at website www.scotsman.com/news/profile-james-wylie-the-scot-who-became-the-russian-army-s-favourite-doctor-1-824742 but now defunct. He is well known within Russia.
Early life: 1768–1790 Wylie was born on 13 November 1768 at Kincardine-on-Forth,The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, genealogy collection: (a) Microfilm 1040141, Old parochial registers for Tulliallan: baptisms 1673–1777, mortcloth dues 1698. (b) Microfilm 1040193, Tulliallan old parish registers of baptisms 1777–1854, marriages 1673–1854 and deaths 1680–1781, 1807 and 1820–53. a 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; but also dallied around Kincardine's harbour, well on its way to becoming one of Scotland's busiest by the turn of the century, its sailor's stories about a wider world perhaps inspiring him to venture there.
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;Stated within a 2003 speech at Saint Petersburg by Dr Peter d’A Semple (Scottish physician and member of Saint Petersburg Charity Forum, Scotland), as part of celebrations of that city’s 300th anniversary, a copy then presented to a relative of Wylie along with permission that it be posted onto the internet. 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 stating 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". He 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 name 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; receiving 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.Anderson, Peter (1893). Officers and Graduates of University of Kings College Aberdeen, 1495–1860. Aberdeen: New Spalding Club. Wylie's record is given in Latin, with the erroneous forename Joannes [John].
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; her son crowned Tsar Paul I. Wylie's surgical skill, boldness, and good fortune would land 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; 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.Typescript copy of biographical notes, written in 1899 at the request of Rev. Robert Paul, church minister of Kincardine-on-Forth, by Elizabeth Anderson Wylie, a grand-niece of Sir James. The original manuscript is now in the National Library of Scotland. He would become 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.Appleby, John H. (1 September 1987). "Through the Looking Glass: Scottish Doctors in Russia". In The Caledonian Phalanx: Scots in Russia. National Library of Scotland. pp. 59–63. 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: a good-natured, benevolent monarch.
Wylie retained his position; later upgraded to Body Surgeon and Physician. He would become 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 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
Wars of the Third and Fourth Coalitions: October 1805 – June 1807 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.
While operating on a gangrenous wound during 1805, Wylie nicked his finger; ensuing infection necessitating amputation.
His other career battlefield wounds were a dagger plunged mid-thigh and a musket-ball into the shoulder.
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; Wylie even required to attend army deputy-commander Mikhail Kutuzov, his face grazed by a musket shot.
During its 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.
The coalition fell apart when Austria signed a peace treaty with France.
A fourth coalition formed within months (Russia, Prussia, Saxony, Sweden, and Britain). 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.
The campaign ended upon overwhelming Russian defeat at Friedland.
Russia's treaty with Napoleon, and preparation for invasion: June 1807 – June 1812 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.
In 1808, Wylie was appointed manager of all army medicine, Land Forces Ministry; this recast in January 1812 as Director, Army Medical Department, War Ministry. In July, he also became responsible for Russian military medicine training when appointed President of Saint Petersburg's Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy and its Moscow annex; while also still serving as tsar's physician.
That year, he directed medical staff in the Finnish War.
Détente with Napoleon unravelled by December 1810; Russian spies in Paris afterwards uncovering plans for Napoleon's 1812 invasion. The War Ministry immediately commenced massive increases in military capability.
Wylie did likewise for army medical capability, his task quantified to assembling medical services for an army of 300,000 having at least 500 doctors. He included academy pupils graduated ahead of schedule, civilian doctors, and army doctors spared from elsewhere; achieving high sufficiency in field surgeons, ancillary staff, instruments, medications, etcetera.
War of 1812–1814 On 12 June OS, a French force of 200,000 crossed the Neman River into Russian Lithuania, the first of 615,000. Wylie directed the army's medical services in all major battles eastward to Moscow, then westward in pursuit of Napoleon's forces, viz: Vitebsk, Smolensk, Borodino, Tarutino, Maloyaroslavets, Vyazma, and Krasnoi.