James Wylie (medic)

Sir James Wylie, 1st Baronet,
engraving by Johann Friedrich Bolt , Berlin 1816 (after a painting by Philipp Franck)

Sir James Wylie, 1st Baronet , in Russia Jakow Wassiljewitsch Willie , ( Russian Яков Васильевич Виллие ; born November 20, 1768 in Tulliallan , Kincardineshire , Scotland ; † March 2, 1854 in Saint Petersburg , Russian Empire ), personal physician to three Russian tsars; Chief and reformer of the Russian military medical service.

Life

The Scot James Wylie had studied in Edinburgh and came to Russia in 1790 as a military doctor. In 1798 he became a doctor at the court of the tsars and in 1799 the personal physician of tsar Paul I , whose body he embalmed after his murder in 1801 and on whose death certificate he stated that the cause of death was "stroke". From 1804 to 1834 Wylie was president of the newly founded Mediko-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg and Moscow (renamed in 1881 to "Military Medical Academy"). In 1806 he became inspector general of the medical services of the Russian army and in 1812 director of the medical department in the Ministry of War.

After the Battle of Borodino (September 7, 1812) Wylie himself performed over 200 amputations; In 1813, after the Battle of Dresden, he amputated the legs of the French General Jean-Victor Moreau , which had been smashed by a cannonball (August 27, 1813). In 1814 he accompanied Tsar Alexander I as a personal physician to England, where the Prince Regent, who later became King George IV , knighted him on June 10, 1814 with the sword of the Cossack hetman Count Matwei Ivanovich Platov and knighted him on July 2, 1814 Baronetage of the United Kingdom bestowed the hereditary title of Baronet , of St. Petersberg in Russia.

Wylie was the holder of several high domestic and foreign orders. He wrote several medical papers in Russian. After his death, a memorial was erected to him in the Mediko-Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. Since he died without descendants, he left his fortune to the tsar, who used it to build a hospital.

Since he had no sons, his title of nobility expired on his death in 1854.

literature

monograph

• McGrigor, Mary: The Tsar's Doctor. The Life and Times of Sir James Wylie. - Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2010. ISBN 9781841588810

items

• Boase, Frederic: Modern English Biography . - Truro: Netherton & Worth, 1892-1921.
• Hutchison, Robert: “A Medical Adventurer. Biographical Note on Sir James Wylie, Bart., MD, 1758 to 1854. “In: Proc R Soc Med. 1928 June; 21 (8): 1406-1408.
• Müller-Dietz, H .: “J. Wylie and the Medical and Surgical Academy in St. Petersburg. On the 200th birthday of Sir James Wylie. ”In: Clio Medica 4 (1969) 99-107.
• Novik, AA; Mazurov, VI; Semple, PA: "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." In: Scottish Medical Journal 1996 Aug; 41 ( 4): 116-120.
• Shabunin, A .; Semple, P. d'A .: “Achievements in Russia of Sir James Wylie Bt, MD. - A Scottish Graduate. "In: Proceedings of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh 1999; 29: 76-82.
• McIntyre N .: "Sir James Wylie (1768-1854)." In: Journal of medical biography 2000 Nov; 8 (4): 243.