The oration was titled "The Comparative Anatomy and Physiology of the Respiratory Tract in Relation to Clinical Problems". Ten years later, towards the end of his life, Negus published "The Biology of Respiration" (1965). Negus's legacy in this field was assessed in 1986 by the British surgeon and comparative anatomist Sir Donald Frederick Norris Harrison, himself an expert on the mammalian larynx. Writing further on the subject in 1995, Harrison states that Negus's "pioneer research into the mechanism of the animal larynx [...] established him as a unique comparative anatomist." Harrison quotes from the Scottish anatomist Sir Arthur Keith's preface to "The Mechanism of the Larynx". In this preface, Negus's 1929 work is described as showing "the same patient power of assembling observation after observation as Darwin had and some of the hot pursuit of function as urged by Hunter". As one of the leading practitioners in his speciality, Negus served in many roles in its organisation and administration at both a national and international level. In particular, he worked closely with the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the body responsible for the accreditation and representation of surgeons practising in England and Wales, and also the organisation that supported him in his researches in comparative anatomy. The Royal College of Surgeons is located in London, and from 1939 to 1941 he was President of its Listerian Society. In 1942, Negus was President of the Section of Laryngology at the Royal Society of Medicine. When Negus had been training as a surgeon, laryngology, rhinology and otology had been part of general surgery, but this was changing with the advent of ENT (ear, nose and throat) medicine as a combined and specialised discipline. Negus and colleagues attempted to set up the necessary structure within the Royal Society of Medicine to represent their profession as an emerging speciality, but the regulations in place would not allow the type of organisation they had planned. This led them, in 1943, to found the British Association of Otorhinolaryngologists which would be able to represent ENT surgeons through the Royal College of Surgeons. Following the war, Negus was co-opted to the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1947, and was the first to represent otolaryngology at that level. He was also a member of the college's Court of Examiners, and worked to set up the first examination in otorhinolaryngology that could be taken for the FRCS diploma.