He became a surgeon in the army, and after serving for several years, resigned his commission and took a house in London in 1817.
He received the then easily obtained medical degree of the university of Aberdeen, 26 September 1823, and became a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London 22 December 1823.
He gave up all practice but midwifery, became physician to the British Lying-in Hospital, and was also for some years lecturer on midwifery and the diseases of women and children in the medical school of St. George's Hospital.
His additions are marked by his initials, but they are rarely of much value, while he has spoiled the simplicity of the original work by numerous interpolations from other authors.
Deafness incapacitated him from practice in 1851, and he retired into the country, but returned to London in a year, and there died 9 January 1862.