Solly was educated under Eliezer Cogan of Higham Hill, Walthamstow, where Benjamin Disraeli, Dr. Renn Hampden, afterwards bishop of Hereford, and Russell Gurney, were among his schoolfellows.

He commenced practice in his father's premises at St. Mary Axe in 1831, moving to St. Helen's in 1837, to Aston Key's house, on the death of that surgeon, in 1849, and afterwards to Savile Row.

Solly was a skilful operator, a florid lecturer, and a good clinical teacher; his opinion was specially sought in cases of injuries to the head and in diseases of the joints.

He had a taste for art, and was skilful in the use of brush and pencil; his watercolour pictures more than once adorned the walls of the Royal Academy (Graves, Dict.

After his death a marble bust was presented to St. Thomas's Hospital, and a Solly prize and medal in the medical school was established from the proceeds of a public subscription in his memory.