 In 1877, the two took positions at King's College Hospital, where Cheyne served as an assistant surgeon, and later as surgeon from 1880 to 1917 and also as a professor of surgery from 1891 to 1917.He was a devoted follower of Lister and his antiseptic surgical methods.Cheyne was greatly inspired by the work of German bacteriologist Robert Koch, and translated his work "Untersuchungen über die Aetiologie der Wundinfenktionskrankheiten" (1878) for the New Sydenham Society in 1880, which greatly enhanced the acceptance of bacteriology in Britain.