This exposure to the German style of practical, experimental work in the then-emerging field of physiology would shape his future career as an educator.

Porter's experiences in Germany led him to promote practical experimental work for students.

In 1901, then-president Charles W. Eliot financed Porter's founding of the Harvard Apparatus Company to sell the improved equipment.

[1][2] The company was converted to a non-profit organization in 1934 and its financial surplus was used to found a fellowship at Harvard in Porter's name.

[1][2][4] The result was a years-long "breach" between the two;[1][2] however, Cannon supported numerous honors for Porter from the APS, including the honorary presidency at the society's 50th-anniversary celebration in 1937.

In addition to his teaching duties, Porter occasionally wrote for the general public, as in his series of dispatches on combat trauma among soldiers in World War I, published in the Atlantic Monthly and later compiled as Shock at the Front.