Hi Paul, This is fascinating! I had no idea that he had an interest in science. Spurred on by your pointer to the JCS pdf, I searched further and found another reference to him in the February 1862 where he referred to as 'J R Husband' and providing reports from the 'Florence Nightingale'.
Please feel free to include any information that I provide in the account that you are writing. I would be really interested to see it when finished. My email is 'simon' 'at' 'simonknights' 'dot' 'org' 'dot' 'uk'. Not sure if that will be enough to defeat the email harvesters...but worth a try!