His father acquired a large practice, and was particularly successful in the treatment of chronic ulcers and of diseased joints.
He was admitted a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries on 29 April 1819, and a member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England on 2 June 1820.
He practised with his father at Bromley for a short time, but after marrying he came to London, and was living in New Broad Street in 1824.
On 24 November 1826 he was elected surgeon to the Ophthalmic Hospital in Moorfields in succession to [Sir] William Lawrence.
His method, however, was distasteful to his contemporaries owing to the unnecessary complications with which he surrounded it; but stripped of these, his principle remained a potent factor in surgery.