Sir James Wylie, 1^st Baronet (Russian: Я́ков Васи́льевич Ви́ллие, Yakov Vasilyevich Villiye; 13 November 1768 –2-March 1854), was a Scottish physician who served as a battlefield surgeon and as a court physician in the Russian Empire from 1790 until his death in 1854, and as president from 1808 to 1838 of both the Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy at Saint Petersburg and its annex at Moscow. He is considered one of the foremost contributors to the development of military medicine in Russia by some by whom the role of the indigenous Russian Nikolay Ivanovich Pirogov as the "father of combat medicine"^[1] may appear to be less valued.

James Wylie was born on 13 November 1768 at Kincardine-on-Forth, a Scottish seaport.^[2][3] His parents were Janet (née Meiklejohn) and William Wylie, he a carrier, Forth cargo transporter and farmer.^[2][4] James was the second of eight children, he and four brothers surviving infancy.^[2]

Inevitably, young James would have spent much time around Kincardine's busy harbour, well on its way to becoming one of Scotland's busiest by the turn of the century,^[5] and he would likely have listened to many stories about distant, exotic places from encounters with the sailors there.^[6] Nevertheless, after leaving school, James had an ambition to study medicine and he was therefore apprenticed to the local doctor, although this didn't start well as "being rather hardly used he ran off to sea" according to a grand-niece.^[6][7] Upon learning of this, his mother walked 20 miles to the small seaport of Cramond-on-Forth, retrieved James from a sloop lying at anchor there and escorted him the 20 miles back to Kincardine, after which James returned to his apprenticeship, completed it, and thereby gained admittance to the University of Edinburgh.^[6]

Wylie successfully completed his studies at the university between 1786 and 1789, despite at times finding it difficult to pay for the lectures that he needed to attend there. These years coinciding with a golden era of that medical school's history, during which it arguably provided Europe's best medical instruction.^[6] Wylie would likely have encountered the university's foremost clinical teachers of their day in anatomy, in clinical medicine and physiology and in chemistry. This, together with acquired knowledge of the medical school's teaching methods and his observations of the advanced structure and layout of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary^[6] were major influences on Wylie and doubtless instrumental in his subsequent work in expanding and improving medical instruction in Russia, in expanding and improving military & civilian medical services there, and in his major contribution to Russian pharmacology.^[8]

Wylie left the university without graduating, not uncommon in those days, and in 1790, at the suggestion of John Rogerson, from Dumfries, a physician to Catherine the Great, he moved to Russia. To the Russians, who found his name impossible to pronounce, he was known as Villie.^[9]

Until well into the 19^th century Russia had little in the way of an organised profession of medicine. Treatment for the Imperial Court and nobility was hired from abroad, and for the lower classes it was mainly in the hands of the clergy.^[10]

In accordance with Russian requirements he sat, and passed, the Russian State Medical Board examination for the right to practise medicine there, then worked for a time as medical attendant to the family of Prince Galitzin.^[11] He later enlisted in the Russian military and was appointed in December 1790 a Battalion doctor^[12] within the elite Eletsky regiment, stationed at that time in Lithuania.^[9][13][14]

Wylie was surprised that only officers received medical assistance, with lower ranks thus more likely to succumb to their wounds, infections and diseases. He resolved to expand battlefield medicine to include the enlisted men as well,^[15][16] something unheard of in the Russian army at that time.^[17] He would later enforce this once he was in a position to do so.

Wylie's surgical operations were particularly numerous during the regiment's participation in the Polish–Russian War of 1792, and during the extremely bloody Kościuszko Uprising in 1794 that culminated in the Battle of Praga,^[15] and he soon attracted attention by his surgical successes and the improvements that he had brought to battlefield medical treatment. One of those attracted was a Colonel Fenshaw who employed Wylie as a tutor to one of his sons, and it was over this period that Wylie became fluent in Russian.^[18]

What particularly made Wylie's reputation was his treatment for malaria, known then as intermittent fever, common then among soldiers and officers.^[19] For this, he devised his own medication, this recognised in January 1793 with a special award by the commanders of the regiment.^[9]

One of his operations during this early military service involved a lithotomy, involved extracting an egg-sized bladder calculus, this receiving high praise from his Headquarters Physician. Wylie also successfully performed a particularly-rare operation to extract a bullet embedded in a soldier's lumbar vertebra.

In December 1794, Wylie finally received the degree of Doctor of Medicine, this by King's College, Aberdeen, in those days the degree of Doctor of Medicine being generally awarded there "in recognition of general and professional attainments".^[20]

He resigned from the army in November 1795 upon appointment as family physician to Count Boris Stroganov at the Count's country house near Saint Petersburg. He also commenced private practice nearby the Imperial Court, his reputation growing quickly and attracting many society clients.^[21]

One year later, Catherine the Great died and the Russian crown passed to her son Paul who became Tsar Paul I^st. Wylie's surgical skill, boldness and determination would soon land him important appointments at this tsar’s imperial Court.

Wylie having made a re-acquaintance with Dr Rogerson, Rogerson would afterwards contact his compatriot when he and a German surgeon were in despair about needing to use a catheter to remove a stone from the urinary bladder of Baron Otto von Blom, the Danish ambassador to the Russian court. Wylie performed the lithotomy with a trocar improvised out of the catheter, thereby saving the life of a friend of Tsar Paul, and Wylie was duly appointed Court Surgeon in February 1798.^[14][22] In July 1799 be became both Tsar Paul's Surgeon-in-Ordinary and Physician to the heir apparent (Grand Duke Alexander) and appointed rooms within the Imperial palace^[7] when, being the only surgeon with enough courage to perform the first laryngotomy operation in Russia, it being previously unheard of there^[7], he saved the life of a man about to suffocate.^[11][14][23] This was Count Ivan Kutaisov who was the tsar's barber, closest confidant and fixer, and been ennobled by him with the title of Count.^[21][22][24] Wylie's position nevertheless remained very insecure for his good fortune would have aroused much jealousy in a Court where intrigue and violence were no strangers.^[10]

Throughout Tsar Paul's reign Wylie enjoyed his absolute trust, being awarded by him in early 1800 with the title "Doctor of Medicine and Surgery ... for his skills and knowledge in medical science and for his success in the treatment of diseases". Accordingly, Wylie would accompany the tsar on a formal visit by him to exotic and Islamic Kazan in remote Tatarstan.

After Paul I was murdered by a group of disaffected military officers on 23 March 1801, Wylie was the first doctor on the scene.^[9] Later, Paul's body was handed over to Wylie and two other Scots doctors to dissect. Thereafter, Wylie never mentioned whether or not he had found marks of violence on the body.^[25] He diplomatically certified the cause of death to be apoplexy.^{[21][9][22][24]} The next day he embalmed Paul's distorted facial features to make them presentable for a public viewing prior to burial.^[9] Wylie's wise judgement and medical skills in this matter were welcomed across the Imperial Court.

The death of Tsar Paul ushered in the reign of his eldest son Grand Duke Alexander who became Tsar Alexander I^st. This did not affect Wylie's position at the Court, Alexander appointing him as his personal Body Surgeon and Physician and Wylie retaining his influence among the courtiers, along with many privileges. In time, Wylie would become a favourite confidant of this benevolent monarch, accompanying him on all his travels, very many of these across vast distances.^[9] He was to remain Alexander's Body Surgeon and Physician until the tsar's death in 1825.^[9]

Early in Alxander's reign, despite Wylie's lofty role for the tsar he nevertheless showed a strong interest in also teaching students at Saint Petersburg's Medical-Surgical Academy which had been formed in 1798 from four existing training centres for army and fleet physicians. After obtaining permission from the academy's Council, he taught there on anatomy and instructed students in how to perform operations, using both cadavers and living patients. According to Chistovich, "there was seldom a day when Wylie did not visit the Central Hospital of the Land Corps and did not watch treatment of patients, especially surgical ones". Later (in 1808), he was to become responsible for this medical training when elected president of both the academy and its annex in Moscow.^[26]

In September 1804 Wylie was awarded the Order of Saint Vladimir 4^th class, the first of many awards received in his service to Russia.

Around this time, concerns had re-emerged in Russia about the stability of Europe posed by Napoleon. In 1804 Tsar Alexander invited Wylie into military service, already familiar to him, appointing him Medical Inspector of the Imperial Guard.^[23] From this point, the tsar would routinely detach Wylie from his Court duties to enable him to participate in Russia's military conflicts whenever they might occur. The additional experience in military medicine thereby gained by Wylie was to prove invaluable during his most definitive future test, Russia's bloody 1812-1814 war against Napoleon. It was also the start of a pattern of Wylie's concurrent involvement in the academic teaching of military medicine and personal in-field application of military medicine bundled together with his responsibilities as the tsar's Body Surgeon and Physician. Wylie would continue this pattern for the remainder of his long, busy career.

In early 1805, Russia, Austria and Britain formed a coalition against further French encroachment within Europe, with war then breaking out in October that year. Ten or so indecisive actions in Austria that month between Austrian and French forces were followed during the following month by battles in Austria between French and incomplete Russian forces at Schöngrabern and Wischau. In September 1805, Tsar Alexander joined the campaign in Austria, and he was accompanied, as always, by Wylie. At Wischau, Wylie was on the field of battle directing the Russian medical field services there. He great courage there, nearly losing his life when his horse was shot, and again when a cannon ball landed two steps away from him.

The decisive battle of the Austrian campaign took place on 2 December when combined Russian and Austrian forces engaged Napoleon's entire force at the Battle of Austerlitz, north of Vienna. Tsar Alexander personally led the Russian forces. Wylie accompanied him throughout, and it was later noted that he was one of the few that had remained with the tsar in the heat of the battle.^[27] As dusk was approaching the battle ended in a comprehensive defeat of the combined Austrian/Russian forces.

There followed a stampede of departing Austrian and Russian regiments. To calm down this movement, the tsar had to rejoin his army command as soon as possible, but it had disappeared. The tsar, who's carriage had also disappeared, headed to the south west towards the meeting place that had earlier been agreed upon in the event of the battle being lost. His entourage was solely Wylie, a coachman, an equerry and two Cossacks.^[19][27] This journey became an ordeal for them. They soon came under French fire, with cannon balls whistling overhead. Then, just paces away, Wylie's horse was wounded by grapeshot. Casting a glance around him, the tsar saw that his retinue had been dispersed: accompanying him now were just Wylie, who had changed his horse, and the equerry. An enemy cannonball then landed close by, covered him with earth, and shortly afterwards his small group was swept along with a disorderly crowd of runaways, with them ending back on the abandoned battlefield where their horses trod mainly on corpses. They were later interrupted at a ditch which the tsar, a mediocre horseman, hesitated to leap. The equerry spurred the tsar's horse, to help him to cross to continue their search. Now weary and having difficulty holding himself in the saddle, he dismounted in a quite spot to sit on the grass. There, high emotions became evident on his face, perhaps his mind now at liberty to reflect on all the unnecessary deaths among his troops. They passed villages crammed with drunken soldiers who didn't recognise their tsar. Late at night they arrived at large market town where Emperor Francis of Austria had already found refuge. There, they eventually found an empty hovel where the tsar slept on a litter of straw.^{[27][28][29][30]} Later, with the tsar awakened by a stomach disorder, Wylie went in search of some wine to ameliorate the tsar's condition. Being unable to get any from the Austrian emperor's contingent, he begged some as a last resort from friendly Cossacks bivouacked along the roadside. Returning to the hovel, he soothed his patient's condition with an oft-used preparation of hot wine containing drops of opium.^[29] The remainder of the tsar's retinue only rejoined them late in the night.^[19][28][31]

The allied coalition subsequently fell apart as a result of Austria entering into a formal peace treaty with France. However, a new coalition against France involving Russia, Britain, Prussia, Saxony, and Sweden was formed within months. There followed three indecisive battles involving Russian and French forces in Poland between December 1806 and May 1807 at Pultusk, Eylau and Heilsberg, these setting the stage for a major engagement on 14 June 1807 at the battle of Friedland in East Prussia. This battle inflicted an overwhelming defeat on the Russian forces, leading to the signing of a Franco-Russian peace treaty at Tilsit, this generally considered these days as the pinnacle of Napoleon's power. Wylie had attended all but one of the Russian army's battles under this coalition and also attended the tsar at Tilsit.

In March 1807 the tsar had appointed Wylie to the position of Inspector General for the Army Board of Health, thus enabling Wylie to formally submit for the tsar's endorsement his suggestions for changes to army medicine. The Battle of Friedland had taken place shortly after this appointment, and it became the first occasion that Russian wounded were to be dressed in the field of battle, this necessarily taking place under the fire of cannon,^[9][32] and the doctors often treating the enemy's wounded as well as their own.^[9]

For his efforts during 1806 and 1807, Wylie was decorated by General Benningsen, the army's commander. The tsar also awarded him another Order of Saint Vladimir, this one being of the 2^nd class.^[33]

Wylie's successful management of all parts of the medical service during these campaigns and his development of several organisational documents together with his participation on the fields of battle had also attracted the attention of Russia's allies Austria and Prussia who then applied Wylie's successful methods in their own armies medical corps.

Between 1805 and 1808, Wylie published the following four books at Saint Petersburg, this work on these facilitated by the year-long break between the hostilities within Austria and those within Poland: Concerning American Yellow Fever published in early 1805, A Brief Manual of Most Important Surgical Operations and A Manual for Physicians Performing Recruit Selection, both published in 1806, and Russian Field Pharmacopoeia (Pharmacopoeia Castrensis Ruthena) first published in 1808:

• Concerning American Yellow Fever was a small book dedicated to Tsar Alexander, written in Russian and primarily directed at military physicians. It stemmed from a request from the tsar to Wylie in 1805 asking him to prepare instruction for the prevention and cure of this disease in Russian soldiers stationed on the Greek islands who were badly exposed to it there.^[22]. It gives a history of the disease plus a comprehensive account of its characteristics and symptoms, ways to prevent and treat it. It also notes where these characteristics, treatments and preventions differ to those of other diseases.^[22][23]
• A Brief Manual of Most Important Surgical Operations. This 100-page field surgery manual was the first published in Russia.^[23] The number printed included sufficient for a copy to be provided free-of-charge to every Russian military doctor, and "More than one generation of Russian military surgeons followed it and was raised on it".^[34] The manual included descriptions of the main surgeries conducted at military hospitals and listed the surgical instruments and associated items needing to be included within individual kit types to be supplied at the corps, battalion and headquarters levels.^[34]
• A Manual for Physicians Performing Recruit Selection gives recommendations for evaluating recruits' fitness for miliary service. It lists the diseases, the physical and psychiatric illnesses and the deformities that can render recruits unfit for army service, and describes methods for their diagnosis. A separate section describes the detection of feigned diseases, especially relevant during annual conscription of 'recruits' into a mandatory 25-year term of army service.^[35] Heavy demand for the manual necessitated the printing of a 2nd edition in 1810.^[34]
• His voluminous work in Latin: Pharmacopeia castrensis ruthena (Russian field pharmacopoeia). It was intended primarily for use by military physicians and pharmacologists, although highly relevant beyond that sphere. It was described by the Russian medical scholar Andrei Shabunin as "a unique codification of the production, testing, storage and function of medicinal preparations".^[14] The initial 500-page work was reprinted in 1812, 1818 and 1840,^[8] each of these an expansion and improvement upon its forerunner,^[8] and remained the standard Russian pharmacopoeia until succeeded by a new Russian-language military pharmacopoeia in 1866.^[23]

On 31 July 1808, Wylie became responsible for all academic training of military medicine within Russia as a result of his election as president of both Saint Peterburg's Medical-Surgical Academy (renamed that year as Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy) and its annex that was to be established in Moscow, positions he held until 1838.^[26] At the Medical-Surgical Academy Wylie urged that medical students be taught solely in Russian rather than the existing practice of falling back on the Latin or German languages of many of the academy's old textbooks.

The period of Franco-Russian collaboration lasted until Dec. 31, 1810, when the tsar broke one its terms by opening Russian ports to neutral ships.^[35] From that point Russia's key government departments began preparing for a renewal of hostilities. In time, a small but highly skilled Russian spy cell in Paris and the astute Russian ambassador there were able to provide the tsar with early warning to indicate that Napoleon was planning to invade Russia during summertime in 1812.^[35] Russia's Imperial Ministry of War immediately commenced arrangements for massive increases in, inter alia, recruitment and training for reserve army battalions and militia units, cavalry horses, artillery pieces and shells, rifles and bullets, uniforms, stored rations, wagons and animals to haul the army's field equipment and rations.^[35]

The Army Medical Department also lost no time in bringing the army's medical services to a high state of efficiency, especially in regard to ensuring sufficient: trained field surgeons and medics; medical instruments and medications; material for the assembly of battlefield hospitals; ancillary army staff, carts and horses needed to transfer wounded soldiers to battle-site hospitals or further afield, plus all manner of other supplies. Wylie personally directed the Medical Department's preparations from his appointed as its Director in 1812, a position he held until his death in 1854.

When added to his election as president of the Medical-Surgical Academy in 1808, his concurrent involvement in both the academic teaching of military medicine and the personal in-field application of military medicine of his earlier years had now become substantially magnified into concurrent oversight of all academic teaching of military medicine throughout Russia and responsibility for the in-field application of military medicine throughout all of Russia's armies. These dual responsibilities continued for most of his remaining career in Russia.

A noteworthy outcome of Wylie's appointment as director of the Medical Department, was that in every possible way he supported and advanced Russian doctors, and for this he obtained their appreciation and respect.^[14] Then later, once he could see that it had become possible for Russia to effectively train its own sons, he discontinued all recruitment of foreign doctors and surgeons into Russia's armed forces.^[9][17]

On 24 June 1812, a French force of about 200,000 crossed the Nemen river into Russia, the initial wave of about 615,000 troops in total by the end of the French campaign within Russia.^[35] This ushered in an unrelenting period of repeated deadly battles until the remaining French forces, just 18% of those who had entered Russia, scrambled back across the Nemen in mid-December 1812 just beyond Vilnius, Lithuania.^[35]

Tsar Alexander commanded the Russian 1^st and 2^nd Armies in their initial responses to the invasion, then returned to St. Petersburg leaving Wylie in the field augmented with any other doctors that could be spared from elsewhere, including civil hospitals.^[36] At the battle of Smolensk and thereafter he was free to direct his entire efforts to wounded soldiers and officers, he accompanying the Russian army on all of its remaining journey eastward to a camp nearby Moscow. After the French retreat from Moscow, Wylie accompanied the Russian army via carriage or sledge, on horseback or on foot as dictated by the terrain and weather, on its westward pursuit of Napoleon's forces all the way to Vilnius just short of the Neman river.

Of the battles that took place within Russia, those at Smolensk (16-18 August), Borodino (7 September) and Maloyaroslavets (24 October), all had high-stakes strategic implications and they were all particularly bloody.^[35]

The Borodino battle, with Moscow at stake, was the deadliest single-day battle of the Napoleonic Wars and one of the bloodiest single-day battles in military history until the First Battle of the Marne in 1914. More than a quarter of a million took part, the entire French force being pitted against the combined Russian 1^st and 2^nd armies. The battlefield, about 88 miles west of Moscow was almost the last realistic terrain for Russia's army to make a stand in defence of that city.^[35] Accompanying the battle until petering out towards its end was a non-stop, thunderous roar of discharges from some 1,224 artillery pieces in place there, ^[35] the air thick with the smoke from that. The battlefield was left littered with dead horses, bloodstained corpses, abandoned cannon and wounded men in agony.^[37] The French had fired off 90,000 artillery rounds that day, leaving them enough for just one more battle, and on the following day Napoleon ordered his soldiers to collect all of the cannon balls scattered there.

About 44,000 Russian soldiers were killed or wounded in this battle. Wylie had arranged to have multiple tents set up^[37] beyond the battlefield to serve as a central surgical operations centre staffed with surgeons, nurses, and support staff. He is said to have personally performed a remarkably large number of operations there without differentiating between wounded friend and foe.^[38] It quickly became crowded outside the tents, with large numbers of Russian and French wounded being carried in all day, and at any time hundreds of others prostrate on the grass there recovering from surgery.^[37] Wylie also attended the battlefield, as when seeing to the mortally wounded General Prince Pyotr Bagration, the commander-in-chief of 2^nd Army.

After the exhausted opposing forces had come to a standstill^[37] in the late afternoon, Wylie later took up an opportunity to ride in darkness with General Platov and his force of Cossack horseback skirmishers on a bold extended foray across the French front lines.

Twenty seven years later, almost to the day, during inauguration ceremonies at the Borodino battle site for a monument built there to honour the Russian army's efforts during 1812, Tsar Nicholas presented Wylie with a signed document in high praise of him. The document stated in Russian: "TO THE PRIVY COUNCILLOR, SIR JAMES WYLIE, BART. Engaged at present in the solemn inauguration of a monument erected on the plains of Borodino, and destined to perpetuate the memory of the glorious exploits by which the Russian army distinguished itself in the national war of 1812, I cannot but call to mind the services which you rendered at that memorable epoch, when, at the head of the corps of medical and surgical officers of the army, you yourself ceased not to give a grand example of zeal and self-denial for the welfare and relief of the suffering warriors. It gives me pleasure to renew to you at this time my sincere acknowledgements of your past and present praiseworthy services, and to assure you of the especial good will with which I am always your affectionate (signed) NICHOLAS". "Given at the camp of Borodino, August 30, 1839".^[39] (NB: dated 11 September 1839 in Britain's Gregorian calendar).

The Russian force withdrew from the Borodino battlefield on the day after the battle, but did so as major strategic victors. They re-assembled at Mojaisk further east toward Moscow. Many of the Russian wounded had been conveyed in carts to places of safety during the battle, with all wounded then borne with the army to Mojaisk.

At a famous high-stakes meeting involving the army's Commander-in-Chief Mikhail Kutuzov and his primary generals, held in a shack just west of Moscow six days after the Borodino battle, it was decided to abandon that city without a fight because it would be significantly more disadvantageous to Napoleon if the Russian army was preserved for the time being. After passing through Moscow, the Russian army, initially feigned retreat on the main road to its south-west but doubled back across county to a hidden encampment set up off one of the main roads heading to the city's south.^[35]

On September 14, Napoleon arrived in Moscow expecting to be met by a city representative offering him the keys to the city, and to also to find supplies there. Instead, he found almost the entire population evacuated and the Russian army apparently still in retreat.^[35] Early the next morning, fires set broke out throughout the city, destroying any possibility that the French force could have winter quarters there. Napoleon nevertheless prolonged their stay, expecting a message from Tsar Alexander seeking terms that never came, and with snowflakes heralding the oncoming winter he eventually decided to order a retreat commencing 19 October, this proving to be disastrously late.^[35]

The impact of the fires upon Napoleon's forces was strategically very beneficial to the Russian army. Initially no one admitted responsibility. Whatever he knew or suspected about the fires, the tsar spoke publicly of them as a tragedy, this allowing suspicion to fall upon Napoleon for the deed and aligning with his existing strategy of fostering fury at Napoleon within his Imperial Court, his army and wider Russia. About 12 years after the fires, Count Rostopchín, Governor-General of Moscow at the time of the fires, admitted responsibility for it. He later also set alight his palace at Tarutino. [ NB: in a memoir written 45 years later, its subject mentions visiting Paris in May 1814 when Tsar Alexander and Wylie were there after its capture some weeks beforehand. He described his becoming on good terms with Wylie who joked, in the company also of Rostopchin's son, how he, Rostopchin, that son, General Platov and Sir Robert Wilson (a British officer attached to the Russian army) had been breakfasting together for a final time at Rostopchin's palace but upon seeing a French force coming up the road they had hurriedly set fire to it.]^[40]

Anxious to avoid mass starvation in his army on its westward retreat out of Russian territory, Napoleon planned to avoid the now devastated route on which it had travelled to that point. He planned to move south east, eventually turning northwest onto a route beyond Maloyaroslavets that would provide his forces with both sustenance and an eventual return to the former route fairly close to the point of his army's entry into Russia. Advised of this movement by army scouts, Kutusov, who to this point had been content for the Russian army to await replenishment of his army with new inductees and demolishing minor French ventures out of Moscow, now ordered the Russian army to race south to block further French movement in that direction.^[35] The armies came together at the savage, high-stakes Battle of Maloyaroslavets, during which the town changed hands at least eight times. The French force achieved a short-lived tactical victory. At two in the morning after the battle Kutuzov retired his entire army further south, positioning it astride the road and blocking any French movement past that point other than via another Borodino-like battle. This being out of the question for them, the French headed back to the devastated route westwards.^[35] Wylie was with the Russian army during these events.

The outcome of the pre-war efforts of the Medical Department of the Imperial Ministry of War was impressive. Russian military doctors had worked throughout this campaign as part of a coherent system to evacuate the wounded from the battlefield for recuperation or for surgery at field hospitals. This complex mechanism was set up by Wylie. Of Wylie's personal battlefield performance, the army's commander-in-Chief Mikhail Kutuzov wrote in a letter to the tsar dated 20 December 1812: "The military medical inspector-in-chief of the Army, actual state councillor Wylie during all of the campaign was engaging in the overall management of his unit with tireless activity. In particular, he showed ardent diligence in administering medical aid and bandaging the wounded on the battlefields of Borodino, Tarutino, Maloyaroslavets, Krasnoe, and before that — at Vitebsk and Smolensk. In all these battles Mr Wylie, being there in person, was an example to all the doctors, and we can say that because of the skilled operations that were performed under his supervision, as well as because of his care of all patients, a great number of wounded officers and enlisted men were saved. All this obliges me to introduce him to the most merciful consideration and ask a benevolent rescript for him".^[34]

With the departure of French forces from Russian territory, Tsar Alexander felt that Europe's chance to finally be rid of Napoleon would slip away unless the Russian army pursued them. Brushing aside considerable commentary that Napoleon would no longer be any threat to Russia, in early 1813 he formed a coalition with Prussia (this eventually including, inter alia, Austria, Sweden, Württemburg , Baden, Saxony and Mecklenburg-Schwerin), and hostilities against French forces were resumed through Poland, Prussia and eventually into France.^[35] Apart from a nine-week mid-year truce, this campaign entailed unrelenting minor and major battles and numerous skirmishes involving small detached army units until the tsar's coalition forces stormed into Paris on 31 March 1814.^[35]

Resuming his journey when the pursuit resumed in 1813, and continuing until the tsar's coalition forces entered Paris,^[14] Wylie is said to have accompanied the main Russian force for the entire journey from Borodino to Paris, being present at all of their battles other than numerous skirmishestaking place between army detachments.^[14]

During all of the battles attended by Wylie to that point in time, he had been wounded three times and travelled 150,000 miles.^[18]

Particularly bloody were the battles at Dresden and Liepzig.

At the battle of Dresden on 26 and 27 August 1813, the alliance forces of Russia and Prussia together with those of recent alliance partner Austria were pitted against those of France and Saxony. Austrian general, Karl von Schwartzenberg was in overall command of the alliance forces. The battle ended with a conclusive victory to Napoleon, leaving about 15,000 coalition soldiers wounded or killed. Tsar Alexander and Wylie were there, Wylie likely sharing with his coalition counterparts the oversight of medical attention to those soldiers not killed outright. He personally amputated both legs of the mortally wounded allied general Jean Moreau, these shattered by a cannonball as he was standing next to Tsar Alexander.^[9][41][42]

At the battle of Liepzig that took place from 16 to 19 October 1813, the entire complement of the armies allied at that point in time (those of Russia, Prussia, Austria, Sweden and Mecklenburg-Schwerin) amassed outside the city to strike a decisive blow against the French forces, the alliance forces boosted during the battle by Napoleon's conscripts from Saxony defecting en-mass to the allied forces. Total defeat of the French forces was clear by early on the fourth day of battle, the French then commencing a chaotic retreat and the alliance armies battling their way through the city's gates into the city centre in an attempt to forestall that retreat.^[35]

While on a visit to Saint Petersburg, an American physician George Bacon Wood met and conversed at length with Wylie some years prior to the latter's death. In talking about the battle, Wylie told him that on that last day of the battle he took charge of 40,000 wounded, these not just wounded alliance soldiers but also wounded French soldiers left by Napoleon to die on the battlefield.^[43]

Later (1814) after re-instatement of the monarchy in France, the new king would award Wylie the Legion of honour for he and other Russian field medics and surgeons treating wounded French soldiers along with their wounded countrymen, as had notably taken place at this battle and at the battle of Friedland in 1807.^[44]

Tsar Alexander and his army remained in Paris until Napoleon had been exiled to Elba in April 1814 and the accession of Louis XVIII to the throne of France shortly thereafter. The tsar was then free to leave Paris and make a celebratory visit to England. Wylie was included within the Tsar's extensive retinue^[12], and on 10 June at the Ascot races he was knighted at Alexander's request by the Prince Regent, becoming Sir James Wylie, a Knight of the United Kingdom.^[45] No one at this impromptu ceremony had a sword needed for the traditional accolade except for General Platov who offered his.^[12] This handsome scimitar of the ataman of the tsar's Cossack forces, its handle and sheath decorated with jewels was then presented to Wylie by Platov as a keepsake, and it is these days displayed within the Kremlin Armoury.^[34]

During a visit on the Royal Navy's warship Impregnable a few days after Wylie had received his knighthood, Tsar Alexander mentioned to the Prince Regent that he had made his own physician a baronet, upon which the regent said, “Well, I will make yours one;” then asked Wylie to consider himself a baronet as a patent was to be immediately ordered. The tsar, who was at that time designing a coat of arms^[22][38] for Wylie, requested of the Prince Regent if those arms could be permitted to include supporters, and although baronets, as such, are not entitled to have supporters on their arms, this request was granted in appreciation of Wylie's services.^[46]

Tsar Alexander had intended to then travel within Britain as far north as Edinburgh, returning directly to Saint Petersburg from Edinburgh's adjacent port Leith.^[6] This would have enabled Wylie to visit his home town, but the tsar was forced change his plans and the chance was lost.^[6]

The patent creating Wylie a baronet in the name and on behalf of the Prince Regent was duly delivered to Wylie in July that year at Paris, to where they had returned from London, with the permission for Wylie's coat of arms to have supporters specifically mentioned therein.^[12][45][47]

.In designing Wylie's coat of arms, the tsar took account of an incident where, in dressing a soldier's wound on the field of battle, Wylie had pricked his own finger, which led eventually to its amputation. The tsar suggested to Wylie “therefore, you must have two of the guards to support you; a Cossack for your crest, that he may defend you, and an eagle introduced in your shield, that if the other two cannot protect you, it may fly away with you, and bear you clear of all your enemies”.^[46]

The coat of arms is indicative of the bearer's great love of Russia. Above the shield, a Don Cossack holding a lance gallops at full speed to the right. Below that, the upper torso of a knight wearing an open-faced helmet signifies the bearer as being a baronet or knight. At the top of the shield is the double-headed Russian eagle, this also being the badge of the Imperial Russian army. Below that, is a blood stained glove and the fox that is typically present on Wylie coats of arms, finishing with two five-pointed stars further down. Below the shield, Wylie's motto, is written in Latin as 'Labore et Scientia', or 'By Work and Knowledge',^[12][18] this described incisively by Vasiliev as "a motto that accurately conveys the character and activities of the bearer".^[12] The supporters, Life Guards of the Semenovsky Regiment stand at attention, one on each side of the shield.

Because Wylie had never relinquished his allegiance as a British subject, he had never become the subject of any of the tsars he had worked so closely with and this fact should have barred him from receiving any Russian title of nobility.^[43] Such was Tsar Alexander's regard for Wylie that in early 1816 he ordered that the diploma of nobility of the Russian Empire be made out to him and that his British coat of arms to be annexed to it.^[48] More was required to achieve this, and in February 1824 his title as a British baronet was recognized by the State Council of the Russian Empire, making him the only baronet in the country's history.^[49] A final approval then occurred in August 1847 when the ruling senate affirming the distinction of baronet for privy councillor Wylie, "with inclusion into part V of the Genealogical Books".

Around this time he also became an honorary member of the Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences.^[22]

From September 1814 to June 1815, Wylie attended Tsar Alexander at the Congress of Vienna, a tortuous series of convoluted, high-level meetings between key envoys of the primary coalition partners and of France to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order in the wake of Napoleon's downfall. With each party there having its own vested interests to maintain, their quest for inside knowledge on the positions to be taken by other parties led to a great deal of spy activity. Wylie himself became the target of intensive spying by the Austrian secret police, mainly directed at his informal chats at social functions associated with the congress.^[50]

After Waterloo, with Napoleon no longer a threat, Wylie was now able to press ahead in developing his academy and reforming the military medical service in accord with his entire intentions for each.

Wylie attended the tsar at the nine-week Congress of Verona in late 1822 for discussions between leaders and foreign ministers of Russia, Austria, Prussia, France and England aimed at determining each party's stance concerning the revolutionary situation in Spain, a recent outbreak of a Greek war of independence from the Ottoman Empire and Austrian rule in Northern Italy.

Wylie's standout achievement of this period was his founding of the Voenno-Meditsinskii Zhurnal (Journal of Military Medicine) in 1823, this becoming one of Russia's most significant journals, and nowadays Russia's oldest peer-reviewed scientific journal.^[21]

A view into the strong relationship between Wylie and the tsar was manifest in August that year when Wylie was badly injured in a carriage rollover near the small town of Novomyrhorod, south of Kyiv. He was afterwards visited there by a nephew (another James Wylie at Saint Petersburg's imperial court, he the personal physician to Grand Prince Michael) and in a subsequent letter to his father in Scotland he recounted, as follows, what Sir James had told him about the tsar's care for him: "The attentions of H.I.M. to Sir James upon this occasion were such as can be forgotten neither by him nor me — they were really those of a brother to a brother. He remained in Novomirogod three days after the accident, gave every direction for the comfort and care of Sir James, repeatedly sat with him himself, and when obliged to continue his journey, there were by his order couriers sent off every day to him with reports 'till the danger had gone by".^[51]

In early 1824, Wylie's shrewd clinical judgement and boldness were never more obvious than when discolouration accompanied by severe pain appeared in the emperor's leg, this being a major recurrence of erysipelas that had occasionally come and gone since the tsar had injured the leg in his own carriage rollover while visiting the lands of his Don Cossacks in 1818.^[36][15] This time, the erysipelas appeared to have spread to the rest of his body, and signs of gangrene appeared.^[18] Advisers and other doctors within the imperial court were pressing for amputation of the leg, no doubt aware of possible murderous mob reaction to them in the streets if the tsar were to die without them having taken any prior action. The doctors were even provided with passports to facilitate their escape in that event.^[36] But despite the danger, Wylie remained resolute in advising against amputation. Slowly, the complaint yielded to cautery and the lancet, and the leg was saved.^[9][36][15]

Wylie was with the Tsar during his last tour to the South of Russia, which was ended by the tsar's death at Taganrog on 1 December 1825.^[52]

After a delay stemming from confusion about the legitimate heir to the crown and the resulting Decembrist revolt, the deceased tsar's brother, Nicholas, was finally crowned on 3 September 1826 as Tsar Nicholas I^st.

Important elements of the new tsar's character were quite contrary to those of his predecessor. He was both an authoritarian and quite uninterested in Alexander's enlightened but shelved plans to initiate Russia's transition to representative government and to abolish serfdom. [NB: Around the year 1809, Alexander had made a start on these plans alongside his powerful Interior Minister Speranski but was left with no choice but to make the grim decision to bench both them and Speransky as a result of immediate, strong opposition to the plans within the Imperial Court and outright hostility to the tsar among the masses, both groups being concerned about the spread French revolutionary concepts across Europe and the threat to the continuation of existing monarchies stemming from Napoleon's past rhetoric and actions there.]

Despite the dissimilar characteristics of the new tsar, the Scottish doctor quickly forged a close relationship with him and continued to enjoy imperial confidence under him until his death exactly one year prior to the tsar's.^[10] He was one of the individuals honoured at the tsar's coronation by a notice from the emperor, being presented by him with a valuable snuff-box accompanied by a rescript, expressing his acknowledgement of Wylie's services as Chief of the Medical Staff.^[53]

In 1828 during the Russo-Turkish War, Wylie, by then aged 60, again saw service.

In April 1841, Wylie received the highest honour given to any military doctor, Actual Privy Councillor 2^nd grade.^[34]

Wylie had been highly valued by all of the Russian emperors with whom he had closely worked – Paul I, Alexander I and Nicolas I – and valued also by, inter alia, the famous Russian generals M.I. Kutuzov, P.M. Bagration, M.B. Barklay de Tolly and N.V. Repnin.^[13]

Wylie remained a lifetime bachelor, although he had twice considered marriage. A marriage to an Englishwoman living in Saint Petersburg recommended to him in 1815 by Tsar Alexander I^st did not eventuate as Wylie would not give up his high position and relocate to England, as was required by the bride.^[38][34] Then, in August 1823, during a courtship at the small town of Novomyrhorod, south of Kyiv, his wedding arrangements fell through after he was badly injured in the carriage rollover mentioned earlier in this narrative, his injuries confining him to bed for a prolonged period of time after surgery for a compound fracture of the knee and smashed fibula became dangerously gangrenous beneath the plaster cast.^[51][34]

When younger, the tall, well built, strong and invariably healthy Wylie was very active.^[34] He would enjoy vigorous sports such as gymnastics, swimming, fencing and ice skating, and, being an outstanding rider, he also passionately loved the hunt with his pointer dogs.^[38][34] He also liked playing billiards.^[38] And until his last days his physical and mental health remained sound, being characterised by excellent memory and lively interest in both current affairs and literature.^[23][34] His home was open to guests at any time and he remained always busy.^[34] Despite his elevated status and collaboration with Saint Petersburg's upper echelons, he always preferred his circle of Russian doctors, and for the last 15 years of his life a routine of regular informal lunches at his home or at theirs had been established at his suggestion.^[34] In Saint Petersburg or when travelling he would rather have dinner with a senior army doctor than with the city government or other notables. With the young, he listened without interrupting, was strict but fair, and helped where he could.^[34]

He died at Saint Petersburg on 2 March 1854, aged 85.^[15] From shortly after his arrival in Russia aged 21, 63 years had been spent within a whirlwind of historic European crises during which the performance of his multiple responsibilities was not found wanting.

He had still been reading and signing official papers on the day of his death.^[34] He was buried at Saint Petersburg's Volkovo Lutheran Cemetery, with full imperial honours, attended by Tsar Nicholas and all of the members of the court.^[15] Befittingly, he was spared the personal tragedy of his country of birth joining on 28 March the Ottoman Empire in its war against his beloved adopted country (this later known as the Crimean War).

• On the American yellow fever (1805). St. Petersburg: Medical Printing House. In Russian. Included within the holdings of the British Library.
• A brief manual on the most important surgical operations (1806). St. Petersburg: Medical Printing House. In Russian.
• Manual for physicians performing recruit selection. (1806, 2nd edn. 1810). Saint Petersburg. In Russian.
• Pharmacopeia castrensis ruthena – transl. as Russian military pharmacopoeia (1808, later editions 1812, 1818, 1840). Saint Petersburg: Medical Printing House. Wylie's voluminous book, printed in Latin. NB: a copy at the National Library of Scotland.
• Prakticheskie zamechaniia o chume – transl. as Practical observations on the plague (1829). Saint Petersburg. In Russian.
• Wylie's translation into Russian of a work written in English by James Johnson: Practical observations on diseases related to tropical climates (1829). St. Petersburg, ^[38] the original 1813 work published in London having been under the title: An essay on the influence of tropical climates, more especially the climate of India on European constitutions &c.
• Practical observations about intermittent fevers and weakening fevers (1829). St. Petersburg. In Russian.
• Official report to His Imperial Majesty on the comparative value of the therapeutic methods applied in the military hospitals and at Saint Petersburg to subjects struck with the epidemic disease known as Cholera Morbus, with practical observations to the nature of the plague and what one learns by opening the corpses (1831). St Petersburg. In French.
• Description of the conjunctivitis that prevailed among the troops (1835). Saint Petersburg. In French.

Wylie had become a very wealthy man before he died and had asked three Russian doctors, all close friends, to be executors of his Russian will (I.V. Yenokhin, V.S. Sakharov and N.P. Yevfanov).^[34]. The will was challenged by his family, and a lengthy legal battle was finally decided at Britain's House of Lords where it was held that he had died intestate in relation to funds that he had invested in British public funds, as naming a foreign power in one's will was illegal at that time.^[54][55] Some £50,000 was shared among his wider family as he had no wife nor direct heirs.

But Wylie had successfully bequeathed a considerable fortune of 1.5 million roubles for the construction of a hospital next to the Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy. This cluster of five 3-story buildings, assembled in his honour into the shape of a W, was opened in 1873,^[15] providing 150 beds allocated as 40 each for surgical and medical services, 30 for gynaecological and obstetric services, and 20 each for ophthalmic services and diseases of children.^[56]

Before the October Revolution of 1917 it was known as the Mikhailovskaya Baronet Wylie Clinical Hospital in recognition of Grand Duke Michael Pavlovich, youngest brother of the former tsar, Alexander I^st. As of 2014, the hospital housed clinics of the S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy: the Intermediate-level Therapy & Military Field Surgery clinics and the Clinic for Child Diseases.^[34]

In regard to Wylie's will, serfdom still existed across Russia when it was written shortly before his death. An insight into Wylie's enlightened view on this practice is provided in his instructions about the sale of his properties which stated: "also my property or estate situated ... in the districts of New Ladoga and Schlusselburgh, in different villages, with the peasants, (excepting those of my serfs who for their faithful and zealous service to my person shall be set free)".^[57] [This enlightened view had been demonstrated much earlier, around 1806, when the tsar, hearing of a noble woman badly neglecting the sustenance and welfare of her serfs, had sent him to examine the situation and to act accordingly. Following his inspection, Wylie sent for flour, wheat and wine to a great distance, obliging the offender to incur heavy expense said to have "cured her of again exercising a cruel economy".]^[32][36]

In 1859 a large monument in to him created under the collaboration of architect Andrei Stakenschneider, sculptor David Jensen and rock master G. A. Balushkin was erected adjacent to the Medical and Surgical Academy in Saint Petersburg.^[14] Sculpted in grey marble, the sculpture rests upon a massive stepped pedestal formed from a granite monolith. Wylie is depicted in military uniform bearing his medals while sitting on a cliff and reading his reformed statutes of the Academy, his pharmacopoeia laying at his feet. The corners of the pedestal feature four identical figures of Hygeia, Goddess of Health. The sides of the pedestal feature a panel with the dedicatory inscription carved in large gold lettering and three bronze panels showing: (a) his baronet's coat of arms designed personally for him by Tsar Alexander I, (b) a session of the academic council of the academy under his chairmanship, and (c) he and other doctors rendering aid to the injured on the battlefield.^[13][14][15]

For 90 years the monument stood in its assigned place. Then in 1948 during Joseph Stalin's anti-cosmopolitan campaign with its dictum that foreign models were not to be unthinkingly emulated, the Medical and Surgical Academy leadership was ordered to have the monument removed, perhaps even destroyed.^[13][14][34] This decision was backed up with a smear campaign involving pliable soviet historians who declared that Wylie had been an English spy. One of the historians even went to the extent of writing that Wylie was never able to learn to speak Russian, was haughty and tolerated no criticism, surrounded himself with incompetent foreign careerists, oversaw a run-down in military medicine, drove Russian doctors out of his hospitals and had fierce quarrels with the Russian surgeon N.I. Pirogov.^[58] All of this was being duly notified to readers of the local daily newspaper Leningradskaja Pravda (Leningrad Truth), a mouthpiece for the Soviet Union's communist party.^[13] Tellingly, this denunciation had occurred just two years after Russia's Military Medical Encyclopaedic Dictionary had described him as "A man of great gifts and talents, a good surgeon, talented administrator and organiser who enjoyed great authority in the country".^[21]

This led to a special conference being held at the Military Medical Museum in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg's name between 1924 and 1991) chaired by the lieutenant-general of the medical service. The majority of the conference participants rejected the charges against Wylie. Accordingly, in 1949, the monument was dismantled and for 14 years it's separate parts were hidden, buried within wooden boxes, until being re-assembled in 1964 and placed in the depths of the Academy's park.^[13][14]

More drama ensued when two of the monument's bronze panels were stolen in 2002. Nothing was heard about them until August 2009 when news outlets reported on a badly damaged panel (that of Wylie chairing a session of the Academy's academic council) being recently purchased at a Saint Petersburg reception point for nonferrous metals, whereupon one of the purchasers, a metal artist himself, recognised its value and restored it personally before giving it to Saint Petersburg's State Museum of Urban Sculpture on 5 August 2009, after which it was returned home.^[59] The other panel (that of Wylie and other doctors rendering aid to injured soldiers on the battlefield), is also now in place, having either been found or reconstructed.

Wylie's well-preserved gravesite in Saint Petersburg's Volkovo Lutheran Cemetery features a massive black sarcophagus placed upon a podium of granite flagstones. Its rear face features a modern (2014) enamelled photograph of a portrait of Wylie. On a polished white marble plate attached to the front face of the sarcophagus the following inscription in four lines of English is carved: "Sir James Wylie Baronet 1766–1854". The sides of the sarcophagus each feature a large panel with relief inscriptions in Russian about Wylie's life and his services to Russia, these translating as:

• "Matters of administration and assistance to the suffering did not divert baronet Yakov Vasilyevich Villie from service to science: he wrote essays about yellow fever, plague, cholera, diseases typical of hot climates, a military pharmacopoeia, the management of operational surgery, the first in the Russian language, and he founded the first Russian medical journal, which is published to this day. Having warmly fallen in love with Russia and in his will naming it his second fatherland, he allotted his entire inheritance, more than a million roubles, for the benefit of medical education in Russia and for good works. Passed away 11 February 1854". [NB: Wylie’s date of death was based on the Julian Calendar used by Imperial Russia."
• "Baronet Jakov Vasil'evich Villie, doctor of medicine and surgery, physician-in-ordinary, actual privy councillor, born in 1768 in Scotland, moved after completion of medical training at the University of Edinburgh in 1790 into the Russian service as a physician in the Eletsky infantry regiment. He participated in the wars of 1805, 1807, 1812-1814 and 1826 and reached in his official career the positions of chief inspector of the medical professionals of the army and director of the medical affairs of the Court".^[38]

A Russian-language information panel is fixed upon the front face of Wylie's Saint Petersburg palace at 74 English Embankment (called by the French term, Promenade des Anglais during his tenure there). Opposite the Bolshaya Neva River, this location would have given Wylie the option of an attractive 20-minute walk along the river to the Winter Palace and a further 30 minutes beyond there to get to his Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy. The panel reads: "18^th century architectural monument. House of Y.V. Villie (N.A. Demidova. A.F. Ghausha) built in 1737-1739 and rebuilt in the late 1820s. Protected by the state."

At a ceremony held in 2004 at High Street in Wylie's home town Kincardine-on-Forth, a plaque was unveiled to celebrate the memory of one of the town's most distinguished sons: It reads: "Sir James Wylie, Bart. Born Kincardine 1768 - A pioneering medical Scot - Honoured by Russia ,Britain, France and Prussia - Founder of the Medico-Chirurgical Academy of St Petersburg where his generous bequest endowed a clinic - Died St Petersburg 1854. Labore et Scientia by Work and Knowledge - Erected by Kincardine Community Council."^[60][17]

Wylie was briefly mentioned at Borodino in Leo Tolstoy's epic novel War and Peace,^[17] being named within the novel's English-language version as Doctor Villier, an anglicized version of the Russian name Villiye.

Wylie's government roles, honours and memberships are well summarised in a dedication to him given in a mineralogical book published by Gotthelf Fischer at Moscow in 1816.^[61] The author spent most of his adult life in Russia, in 1837 becoming President of the Moscow branch of the Medical-Surgical Academy.^[62] This dedication reflects a general admiration of Wylie among men of science within that country.

In 1840, Wylie received a striking 64mm diameter gold medal for his 50 Years of service to Russian medicine together with a gorgeous silver vase made specially for him.^[34]

The obverse side of the medal has a bust of him together with his name and the titles of his principal roles stated in Russian around the rim. The reverse side has twelve lines of Latin, the translation stating: "To the most distinguished gentleman under the auspices of the triumphant Emperor. Dedicated to the most outstanding gentleman in the field of Medicine in Russia exercising the healing art for fifty years. Respectfully the doctors of Russia congratulate him at St Petersburg 9-12-1840".

The medal was presented to him by Grand Duke Michael at a jubilee held in his honour at Saint Petersburg in December 1840^[34][63][64], translation of a French description of the event reading as: " ... details of the half-century jubilee of doctor James William Baron Wylie, doctor and privy councillor to the emperor, grand cross of several orders, etc. All of the most distinguished within Russia were associated with this festival. From the early morning a great number of people had gathered in Mr. Wylie's house; at ten o'clock, the members in charge of the provisions of the festival presented their congratulations to the honourable doctor and invited him to a banquet … the heir grand-duke Alexandre Nicolavitsch condescended to go in person to the illustrious old man to congratulate him. At a quarter hour past mid-day the banquet room began to fill with those who had been invited, among whom could be found the grand-duke Michael, the ambassador of England, Lord Klanricard, field-marshal prince de Varsovie, prince Volkonsky, minister for the court, the minister for war count Tchernicheff, the vice-chancellor of the empire count de Nesselrode, the minister of the interior, count Strogonoff, the minister for justice, count Panin, the director-general of communication, count Toll, the controller of the empire Chitrovo, the marshal of the nobility, the grand-equerry, prince Dolgorouki, Blondoff, president of the department of the laws of the council of the empire, the auditor-general, prince Schackousky, general of the general staff of the Russian armies, count de Kleinmichael. At half past four doctor Wylie appeared. The minister for war complimented him in the most flattering terms, and on behalf of the emperor presented him with the grand cross of the order of St. Vladimir, whose star and ribbon were placed on the doctor by grand-duke Michael. At the end of the meal, which was the most brilliant, they presented to Baron Wylie a silver vase of very great value and an immense gold medal, struck in his honour".^[63][64] NB: some copies of the medal were subsequently minted in bronze; the order of Saint Vladimir received by Wylie was his third, this one being the highest (1^st) class.

Russian Empire:

• Monogrammed diamond ring of Alexander I (1804)
• Order of Saint Vladimir, 4^th class (1804)
• Order of Saint Vladimir, 2^nd class (1807)
• Order of Saint Anna, 1^st class (1814, since 1821 with diamonds)
• Honourary Member, Russian Imperial Academy of Sciences (May 1814)
• Diploma of nobility of the Russian Empire, and approval of annexed coat of arms (1816)
• Baronet of the Russian Empire (February 1824)
• Snuff-box with diamonds and the emperor's monogram (1826)
• Snuff-box with the emperor's enamelled portrait (1828)
• Decoration "For Impeccable service – XXXV years" (1828)
• Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky (1828, since 1838 with diamonds)
• Decoration "For Impeccable service – XL years" (1834)
• A signed document in very high praise of him publicly presented by Tsar Nicholas I^st during inauguration ceremonies at the Borodino battle site of a monument built there to honour the Russian army's efforts during the war of 1812, (1839)
• Medal and valuable silver vase for 50 years of service to Russian medicine (1840)
• Order of Saint Vladimir, 1^st class (1840)
• Actual Privy Councillor, 2^nd grade (1841)

Austria: Order of Leopold (Austria), 2^nd class

Bavaria: Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown, Commander

France: Legion of honour, Chevalier (1814)

Prussia: Order of the Red Eagle, 2^nd class

United Kingdom: Knighthood (10 June 1814), Baronetcy (2 July 1814) and a coat of arms designed for him by Tsar Alexander I that includes a Latin inscription of the holder's motto Labore et scientia, i.e. By lwork and knowlege.^[45]

United States: An international member, of the American Philosophical Society [NB: at https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:International_members_of_the_American_Philosophical_Society&pagefrom=Richter%2C+Gerhard%0AGerhard+Richter#mw-pages ]

Württemberg: Order of the Crown (Württemberg), Commander, (1818)

Books:

• Appleby, John H. (1 September 1987). "Through the looking glass; Scottish doctors in Russia". In The Caledonian Phalanx: Scots in Russia. Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland. pp. 59-63.
• Beveridge, David (1885). Culross and Tulliallan: or Perthshire on Forth: Its History and Antiquities, with Elucidations of Scottish Life and Character from the Burgh and Kirk-session Records of That District. Edinburgh and London, W. Blackwood and Sons. pp. 226-228, 352-354, Vol. 2.
• Boase, Frederick (1901). Modern English Biography. Truro, Netherton and Worth. pp. 1534-1535 of Vol. 3.
• Burgon, Rev. John W. M.A. A Memoir of Patrick Fraser Tyttler. London, John Murray. pp. 92-110.
• Cate, Curtis (1985). The War of the Two Emperors: The Dual between napoleon and Alexander: Russia 1812. New York, Random House. 487 pages.
• Channing, Walter (1856). Physician's Vacation; or A Summer in Europe. Boston, Tichnor and Fields. pp.185-192. A PDF is available at Wikimedia Commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/A_physician%27s_vacation%3B_%28IA_physiciansvacati00chan%29.pdf
• Churilov, L.P., Stroyev, Y. I., Tyukin, V. P. (2012). "Hero of the Patriotic War of 1812, Baronet Iakov Vasil'evich Villiye and Russian medicine". In Health – The Basis of Human Potential: Problems and Solutions, 2012; 7 (2): 974-995. Printed in Russian. A PDF is available at Lenin Cyber Library: https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/geroy-otechestvennoy-voyny-1812-g-baronet-yakov-vasilievich-villie-i-russkaya-meditsina/viewer.
• Comrie. John D. (1932). History of Scottish Medicine. Baillière, Tindal and Cox. pp. 767-768 of Vol. 2. A PDF is available at the Wellcome Collection, London: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/p3bwpd8b
• Gordon, T. Crouther (1960). Four Notable Scots. Stirling, Aneas Mackay. pp. 101-126.
• Lieven, Dominic (2009). Russia Against Napoleon, the Battle for Europe, 1807 to 1814. London, Allan Lane. 672 pages.
• McGrigor, Mary (2010). The Tsar's Doctor: The Life and Times of Sir James Wylie. Edinburgh, Birlinn Limited. 220 pages.
• Mieklejohn, William, Rev, M.A. (1990). Four Lads o' Pairts: Sir James Wylie, Sir James Dewar, Robert Maule J.P., Sir Robert Maul. Berwik-upon-Tweed, How and Blackwell. Edited for electronic publishing by Colin Anderson in 2014. pp. 1-23.
• Manceron, Claude (1966). Austerlitz: the story of a Battle. London, Allen and Unwin. 316 pages.
• Materials on the History of the Baronet Villie's Mikhailovskaya Clinical Hospital. Saint Petersburg, Typography of Ministry of Internal Affairs. 1899. pp. 1-24. In Russian. A PDF is available at the Wellcome Collection, London: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/r8hyyqrb
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford, Oxford University Press. 2004. pp. 648-649, Vol 60.
• Palmer, Alan W. (1974). Alexander I: Tsar of War and Peace. London, Weidenfeld and Nicholson. pp. 43-48, 108-112, 154-155, 388-409.
• Schnitzler, Johann H (1854). Histoire Intime de la Russie Sous les Empereurs Alexandre et Nicolas. [Secret History of Russia Under Emperors Alexander and Nicholas.]. Paris: Garnier frères. pp. 116, 124-133, 160, 441 of Vol. 1.
• Strakhovsky, Leonid Ivan (1947). Alexander I of Russia: the Man who Defeated Napoleon. New York, W.W. Norton & Co. 253 pages.
• Tchulkov, G. I. (1928). Les Derniers Tsars Autocrates: Paul I^er - Alexandre I^er - Nicholas I - Alexander II - Alexander III (The Last Autocratic Tsars: Paul I^st - Alexander I^st - Nicholas I^st - Alexander II - Alexander III). Paris, Payot. 376 pages.
• Troubetzkoy, Alexis (2002). Imperial Legend, The Mysterious Disappearance of Tsar Alexander I. New York, Arcade Publishing. 300 pp.
• Troyat, Henri (1980). Alexandre I^er: Le Sphinx du Nord (Alexander I^st: The Northern Sphinx). Paris, Flammarion. In French. pp. 126-127, 387-393, 404
• Wood, George Bacon (1859). Introductory Lectures and Addresses on Medical Subjects: Delivered Chiefly Before the Medical Classes of the University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, J. P. Lippincott & Co. pp. 318-324.
• Zamoyski, Adam (2004). 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow. London: Harper Collins.

Journals:

• Berman, Alex. (April 1960). "Early Russian military and naval formularies 1765-1840". American Journal of Hospital Pharmacy. 17:210-218.
• Hutchison, Robert (June 1928). "A medical adventurer. Biographical note on Sir James Wylie, Bart., M.D., 1758 to 1854". Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine. 21(8):1406-1408.
• Fisun, A.Ya., Porokhov, S. Yu. (2018). "Yakov Vasilyevich Willie over half a century serving Russian military medicine and the Imperial Medical-Surgical Academy (on the 250th anniversary of his birth)". Journal of the S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy. 20(4):300-304. In Russian. NB: a PDF available at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/367893737_Yakov_Vasilyevich_Willie_-_more_than_half_a_century_in_the_service_of_military_medicine_The_Russian_Empire_and_the_Medico-surgical_Academy_to_the_250th_anniversary_of_the_birth
• Lefevre, George M.D. (April 1836) "Sketch of the Origin and present State of Medicine, and of Medical Institutions in Russia". British and Foreign medical Review. 1(4) from pp. 597.
• McIntyre, Neil (1 November 2000). "Medical statues – Sir James Wylie (1768-1854)". Journal of Medical Biography. 8 (4): 243.
• Müller-Dietz, H. (1969). "J. Wylie and the Medico-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. On the 200th anniversary of Sir James Wylie's birth". Clio Medica. 4: 99-107. In German. NB: a copy held at the Wellcome Collection, London.
• Novik A. A., Mazurov, V. I., Semple P. A. (August 1996). "The life and times of Sir James Wylie Bt., MD., 1768-1854, body surgeon and physician to the czar and chief of the Russian Military Medical Department". Scottish Medical Journal. 41(4):116-120.
• Shabunin, A., Semple, P. d'A. (1999). "Achievements in Russia of Sir James Wylie, Bt., MD. – a Scottish graduate". Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. 29:76-82.
• Tyukin, V. P., Churilov, L. P. (2006). "Yakov Vasilyevich Wylie: half a century at the head of Russian medicine", Medicine in the 21st Century. 4(5): 100-107. In Russian.
• Wilson, John B. M.D. (April and May 1973). "Three Scots in the service of the czars". The Practitioner. 10: 572-574 (Part I) and 10: 706-708 (Part II).
• Zaytsev, E. I. (2009). "Yakov Vasilyevich Wylie (1768–1854)", The I. I. Grekov Journal of Surgery. 168(4):9-10. In Russian.

Newspapers:

• MacPherson, Hamish (2 March 2020). "Back in the day: the Scottish doctor who treated the czars". The National.
• Nicholson, Stuart (20 April 2004). "Doctor to the czars; Scots surgeon became a legend in Russia, but is still almost unknown in the land of his birth". Daily Mail.

Web pages and newsletters:

• Vasiliev, Konstantin (8 December 2014). "Яков Виллие: личный медик Александра I и единственный русский баронет Источник" ("Yakov Villie: Alexander I's personal physician and the only Russian baronet"). Журнал История Петербурга, N1, 2014. (History of Saint Petersburg Magazine, No. 1, 2014) https://statehistory.ru/4781/YAkov-Villie-medik-Aleksandra-I-i-edinstvennyy-russkiy-baronet/
• Vershinin, Alexander (2 December 2014). "Russia's giant leap forward in military medicine". Russia Beyond (a website launched in 2007 by Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a newspaper published by the government of Russia) https://www.rbth.com/arts/2014/12/02/russias_giant_leap_forward_in_military_medicine_40071