He left to become professor of chemistry and natural history at Middlebury College in 1838, remaining in that position through 1847.
In 1847, he left Middlebury to become professor of astronomy, zoology, and natural history at Amherst College, a position he retained till his death in 1853, aged 39.
He visited the West Indies several times in the interest of science, and wrote on conchology.
[3] With the assistance of Alonzo Gray of Brooklyn, New York, he published an elementary work on geology.
He was the author of eleven numbers of Contributions to Conchology, monographs on Stoastoma and Vitrinella, and Catalogue of Shells Collected in Panama (New York, 1852).