And on 12 January 1793, Wylie (known in Russia as Yakov Viliye) was given a special commendation for his treatment of the (malaria) fever "with great success using the pharmaceutical he himself had invented and named Solution Mineralis," which contained small below toxic doses of arsenic.

His reputation grew quickly and he attracted many society clients, and made a re-acquaintance with Dr Rogerson, now English (sic) Physician to Her Majesty.

[1] Successful operations on the Danish ambassador, Baron Otto von Bloom, and later an emergency tracheotomy[1] saving the life of Count Ivan Kutaisov, the Tsar's closest confidant and cousin, Paul I made him Surgeon-in-Ordinary in 1799.

On 27 August 1813 at Dresden he amputated the mortally wounded General Moreau's legs, which were shattered by a cannon shot as he was talking to the Tsar.

[7] Wylie had become a wealthy man when he died at Saint Petersburg on 2 March 1854, and was buried at the Volkovo Lutheran Cemetery, with full imperial honours.

During the Napoleonic Wars in 1812, Russian military doctors worked as part of a coherent system, with a high level of organization in evacuating the wounded from the battlefield to field hospitals for operations and recuperation.

Wylie made it his personal goal to ensure that enlisted men as well as officers received medical treatment for wounds instead of being left to die on the battlefield.

Through concerted efforts on his part, the number of non-combat losses in peacetime in the Russian army fell to ten per cent by the mid-19th century.

[1] But Wylie had successfully bequeathed a considerable fortune of 1.5 million roubles for the construction of a hospital attached to the Imperial Medical and Surgical Academy.

A monument to Sir James Wylie designed by architect Andrei Stakenschneider and sculptor David Jensen was erected in 1859 in front of the main building the Medical and Surgical Academy in Saint Petersburg.