He later sailed to the East Indies and the Cape of Good Hope and was appointed surgeon on the flagship of Sir Robert Stopford aged only 23.

[2] While at the Cape of Good Hope aboard HMS Lion, he performed experiments on the Torpedo electric ray, which were published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.

[1] Todd began experiments on healing using newts at the British Naval base in Naples, and continued when he moved to Brighton.

[4] He conducted a series of experiments on the newts and other animals such as worms to study the processes of healing and regeneration of wounds and amputated body parts.

[8] The slides are considered to be important in the history of medicine, histology and microscopy and they remain in the College's collection today.