Finding the life of general practitioner stressful and tiring, he turned instead to chemistry, to which he applied himself with zeal.

He devised or collaborated to produce a number of tools and techniques for which he won repute, including a hydrometer, an oxy-hydrogen microscope (the gasses providing a bright light-source), a baroscope, a refractometer; improvements in electroplating, electric cell design, and microscope mountings.

[1] He was employed as a chemical analyst and appeared at court as an expert witness on a number of occasions.

He provided expert services to a Royal Society and Board of Longitude initiative to improve the optical qualities of glass;[1] and testimonials of the purity of a new line of brandy to its manufacturers for use in its advertising.

He is implicated in the support of a patent for the use of hyposulphite of soda to fix daguerreotype images, despite clear indications that he was aware of prior art demonstrated and published by Sir John Herschel.