In his China's Place in Philology (1871), he tries to show that the languages of Europe and Asia have a common origin by comparing the Chinese and Indo-European vocabulary.

Sent by the London Missionary Society, he arrived in China on 22 July 1848 at Hong Kong, and reached Shanghai on 2 September.

During this period of time, he collaborated with Li Shanlan, Wang Tao and others to translate many Western scientific works into Chinese.

Besides this, he was involved in Bible translation and an active member of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.

He also was involved in direct evangelism, and accompanied Hudson Taylor on some of his first canal-boat travels in China, distributing portions of Scripture and Christian tracts.

He made several contacts with the leaders of the "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" in an effort to determine the precise beliefs of this movement.