ANovemb4rPhi9™' )     Pharmacy  in  the  Russian  Army.  749 
as  well.  The  Russian  Army  of  this  period  was  a  remarkable  body. 
It  consisted  chiefly  of  professional  soldiers  or  musketeers,  who  lived 
in  a  special  suburb  of  Moscow  called  after  them.  These  musketeers 
followed  various  trades  in  peace  time,  but  received  subsidies  from 
the  Court  and  brought  up  their  sons  as  hereditary  soldiers  of  the 
Tsar.  Like  all  privileged  classes,  they  became  inefficient  and  mutin- 
ous, and  were  ruthlessly  wiped  out  by  Peter  the  Great,  who  estab- 
lished an  army  and  an  Army  Medical  Service  on  the  European 
model.  The  pharmaceutical  council  became  the  medical  council, 
and  a  State  Department  under  a  Scotsman  named  Erskine,  who 
was  the  Tsar  Peter's  personal  physician.  Owing,  no  doubt,  to  the 
influence  of  Dr.  Erskine,  Peter  the  Great  spent  large  sums  in  the 
importation  of  medical  and  pharmaceutical  educational  material 
and  in  the  equipment  of  hospitals  and  schools  of  medicine  and 
pharmacy.  In  Peter  the  Great's  army  there  were  two  apothecaries 
on  the  staff  of  every  general,  corresponding  to  our  divisional  com- 
manders, and  each  division  had  two  dispensaries,  one  for  cavalry 
and  one  for  infantry.  Each  dispensary  had  an  apothecary-in- 
charge,  with  two  apothecary's  assistants  and  four  pupils  to  assist 
him.  There  were  also  field  hospitals  for  each  division,  and  each 
had  a  field  dispensary  under  the  charge  of  apothecaries.  After  the 
death  of  Peter  the  Great  pharmacy  and  medicine  passed  through 
many  phases,  and  had  numerous  "  ups  and  downs  "  until,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  medical  service  of  the  army 
had  been  organized  into  a  definite  military  department,  with  another 
Scot,  Sir  James  Wyllie,  at  its  head.  Even  Wyllie's  influence,  which 
was  great,  was  not  sufficient,  however,  to  prevent  the  dual  control 
of  hospitals  and  dispensaries  that  had  crept  in  during  the  period 
between  the  death  of  Peter  the  Great  and  the  accession  of  the 
Tsar  Paul.  In  Wyllie's  organization  was  founded  the  position 
which  still  obtains- — directors  or  commissaries  of  hospitals  who  are 
combatant  officers,  and  directors  of  medical  service  who  are  medical 
men.  The  former  are  in  charge  of  all  economic  and  disciplinary 
matters,  whereas  the  latter  are  merely  responsible  for  professional 
and  technical  duties.  On  paper  the  organization  of  the  Russian 
Medical  Service  during  the  Crimean  War  was  excellent,  but,  like 
our  own,  it  broke  down  completely  during  that  campaign.  The 
experience  gained,  however,  led  not  merely  to  radical  changes  in  the 
Russian  Army  as  a  whole,  but  also  to  a  peaceful  revolution  in  the 
