 At the London College of Physicians Barnes delivered the Lumleian lectures "On Convulsive Diseases in Women" in 1873 and was censor (1877–8).He was elected honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1883; of the Medical Society of London in 1893 (he had given the Lettsomian lectures in 1858), and of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society at the centenary meeting of 1905.A leading teacher and gynæcologist in London, Barnes was a rival of James Matthews Duncan both in debates at the Obstetrical Society, and in practice.