Paul was the first Ceylonese to deliver the Hunterian Oration at the Royal College of Surgeons of England on three occasions - The Surgical Anatomy of the Spermatic Cord (1950), Congenital Abnormalities of the Midline Abdominal Wall (1953) and Haemorrhages from Head Injuries (1955).
In 1861 he was Hunterian professor of comparative anatomy and physiology, and in 1863 delivered the Hunterian oration, in which he strongly put forward the neglected claims of William Hewson and John Quekett as discoverers.