A DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIST

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 21988, 12 January 1937, Page 10

A DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIST

MUCH VALUABLE

RESEARCH

AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES AND

PNEUMONIA

[THE PRESS Special Service.]

... AUCKLAND, , January 11. ; One of the .'most prominent Australian delegates to the Congress for Advancement of Science, is a New Zealander who'has the distinction of b - ing youngest Knight • Bachelor m the Commonwealth. At the age of 44, Sir Stanton Hicks, who was born atMoseiel and educated, at the Otago Boys High School and the' o Otago before leaving New Zealand, has wen for himself a wic(e reputation as a physiologist and pharmacologistAfter serving with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force Medical Corps. S r Stanton Hicks established a clinical pathology laboratory at the Otago Medical School in 1922. and was appointed clinical pathologist f°r the Otago Hospital and , the Medical School. In 1920 he was one of those responsible, for initiating the research into endemic goitre in New Zealand, a study which no longer occupies so much of his attention- because there is no goitre of this nature in South Australia. Sir Stanton also lectured in chemistry, at the University, of Otago and in pathology at the Otago Medical School, before leaving the country m 1923 to pursue his studies in England. Sir Stanton Hicks was at Cambridge University until the middle of 1926, and at the end of that year went to Adelaide University as Professor of human physiology and pharmacology, and Sheridan Research Fellow. In 1929 he returned to Cambridge, and also studied in Vienna, going back to Adelaide in 1930. He continued with his duties until he was invited to assist with the work of the first inedicsl clinic in Venna. In 1935 he was back in Adelaide, and last year he was created Knight Bachelor, his research and other work by this time having become very widely known. To-day, Sir Stanton expressed considerable gratitude to the authorities of the University of Adelaide, in having allowed him almost two years’ leave since his appointment as professor to continue his studies abroad One of his particular interests is the study of the Australian aborigine in central and tropical Australia, in an attempt to discover the causes of the onset of pneumonia. Sir Stanton said that although the aborigine was the only naked human being who In the normal routine of life did not construct any habitation or shelter, he was not subject to the onset of pneumonia. Research into the habits and physiology of the aborigine was being carried out. parallel with work in Adelaide to determine the causes of pneumonia in the civilised white man.

Sir Stanton, who is ! the only New Zealander to have pursued such a work to so great detail, is to deliver several papers at the Congress. His last visit to New Zealand’ was six years ago, and when the congress is completed he will spend a short holiday travelling in the Dominion.