He was born at Old Aberdeen in 1817, and after education at the grammar school, entered the university, graduated M.A., and was created an honorary M.D.
He studied medicine at St. George's Hospital in London, and at a school in Kinnerton Street, from 1835 to 1838.
While in India, he published Statistics of Dysentery, 1850; Insanity among Europeans, 1853; Report on Native Lunatic Asylums, 1855; On Antiperiodics, 1856; and on his return, Cholera in its Home, 1866; Our Baths and Wells of Europe, 1871; Annals of Cholera up to 1817, 1884; and a privately printed Essay on Celtic Names.
He travelled much in the British islands and on the continent, making the observations recorded in his books on Baths and Wells.
He lived in London, in Curzon Street, and there died after a long illness on 17 March 1890.