[3] Neil Arnott was a distinguished graduate of Marischal College, University of Aberdeen (AM, 1805; MD 1814) and subsequently studied in London under Sir Everard Home (1756–1832), through whom he obtained, when only eighteen, the appointment of full surgeon to an East Indiaman.

After making two voyages to China acting as a surgeon in the service of the British East India Company (1807-9 and 1810–11), he settled in London where he practised from 1811–1854, and quickly acquired a high reputation.

[5]" Arnott believed that the four items that needed to be obtained in order to be healthy were fit air, temperature, aliment, and exercise of the mind and of the body, and that if an individual had access to all four of these items, while avoiding violence and poisons (items that Arnott believed caused disease and therefore were to be avoided), that the individual would have no issues when it came to health throughout their life and would be able to live for as long as the body permits one to live, and that by surrounding oneself with the four essential items, the human bodily makeup would slowly become modified by "kindred circumstances not deemed diseases but called temperaments and varieties, compatible with health and long life."

Arnott also referenced the findings of the report made to the Poor Law Commissioners in his paper Sanitary Inquiry-Scotland, and regarded the contents of this report as facts, making note of the claim that malaria was caused by the exhalation released during putrefaction or decomposition of animal and vegetable substances.

From his earliest youth, Arnott had an intense love of natural philosophy, and to this added an inventiveness which served him in good stead in his profession.