The Scottish Physician in Russia
Autograph Letter, signed ("AW Crichton") to M. de Jordan, inviting him to spend the evening.
[St. Petersburg? 23 Sept., 1844.
Price: $300.00
About the item
One page, in ink, on the first page of a single bifolium. In French. 1 vols. 12mo. The Scottish Physician in Russia. Fine. With envelope.
Item #238162
"Monsieur -
"Comme Monsieur votre père a eu la bonté de nous promettre de venir passer la soirée avec nous aujourd'hui, ce serait très aimable à vous de vouloir bien l'accompagner ... "
Sir William Alexander Crichton (1791-1865) was born and educated in Edinburgh, where he received his MD in 1810. Through the influence of his uncle, Sir Alexander Crichton (1763-1856), who was the Tsar's personal physician, "Crichton obtained in May 1811 the post of medical supervisor, responsible for developing a mineral spa resort in the Caucasus mountain area, and his success in controlling a plague outbreak earned him the knight cross of the order of St Vladimir (fourth class). Following Napoleon's abortive invasion of Russia, he volunteered for army service and in 1813 became physician to a hospital for French prisoners at Riga. Transferred at his own request to his uncle's headquarters by his compatriot James Wylie, the tsar's physician and inspector-general of the military medical department, Crichton took part, as a member of the tsar's suite, in two battles for the French capital. On Napoleon's withdrawal from Paris, the British hosted a dinner in April 1814 for their Russian allies. It was attended by Wylie, Crichton (now promoted to physician-in-chief of the Russian hospitals in the city), Count Platov, generals Chernikov and Barclay de Tolly, and many other senior officers. In 1814 Crichton was awarded the campaign medal and the knight cross of the order of St Anne (second class), as well as the Légion d'honneur by Louis XVIII. After a short period as regimental surgeon to the renowned Preobrazhensky guards, in 1816 he was appointed physician-in-ordinary to Grand Duke Nicholas, who became tsar in 1825." - ODNB.