In 1794, he accepted the command of a company in a regiment of militia, and in 1796 settled at Birmingham, where he was appointed in March 1801 physician to the General Hospital.
Bree published A Practical Inquiry into Disordered Respiration, distinguishing the Species of Convulsive Asthma, their Causes, and Indications of Cure, London, 1797.
"In this work," says Dr. Munk, the author "embodied the numerous experiments in his own case, gave a more full and complete view of asthma and dyspnœa than had hitherto appeared, and laid down some important therapeutic rules, the practical value of which has been universally acknowledged."
Bree contributed two papers "On the Use of Digitalis in Consumption" to the Medical and Physical Journal, 1799.
He was also the author of a paper "On Painful Affections of the Side from Tumid Spleen", read 1 January 1811 before the Medical and Chirurgical Society, of which Bree became a member of council and a vice-president in March following; and of a second paper on the same subject, read 26 May 1812, "A Case of Splenitis, with further Remarks on that Disease".