In 1810 he was appointed superintending surgeon, the court of directors having approved his motives in drawing up a scheme to improve the health of the troops in India, whilst rejecting the plan proposed.
He was named superintending surgeon of the southern division of the army (Madras) in 1814, and two years later the sum of six hundred guineas was awarded to him as a mark of the estimation in which his services were held by the court of directors.
During his residence in India he seems to have published the joint report mentioned below, a ‘Treatise upon Edible Vegetables,’ and the Materia Medica of Hindostan (1813) which was expanded into a two volume work in 1826.
[4] Keeping in view the miasma theory of his time, he wrote on the relations between climate and health.
He died in London but is buried in the Grant-Duff mausoleum in the small churchyard of King Edward, Aberdeenshire.