 Upon his arrival he began practicing medicine part-time, while putting much of his energy in the study of the Chinese and the Foochow vernacular, and very soon he mastered the language.He established the Foochow Medical Missionary Hospital near Ponasang, where he devoted much of his energy.In 1878 a new fifty-bed hospital at the Peace Street was completed with funds contributed by foreign businessmen and Chinese merchants and officials in Foochow, and the old building was turned into an opium asylum.