DOCTORATE FOR VETERINARIAN

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22432, 20 June 1938, Page 8

DOCTORATE FOR VETERINARIAN

Mr J. F. Filmer’s Thesis

USE OF COBALT IN TREATING STOCK DISEASES ■ ' (press association telegram.) WELLINGTON, June 19. Advice has been received by Mr J. F. Filmer, B.V.Sc. (Melb.), veterinary research officer at the Wallaceville laboratory, that his thesis for a doctorate has been approved by the examiners and that the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Science of Melbourne University will be conferred upon him at the next graduation ceremony. Mr Filmer’s thesis dealt with the use of cobalt in the treatment of deficiency diseases in live stock. He was recently engaged by the Department of Agriculture to take charge of its cobalt research work. Mr Filmer arrived from Australia to take up his New Ze land appointment early this year. After the outbreak of facial eczema among dairy herds and sheep flocks in the South Auckland .district. he took. charge of, the research work at present being carried out in the Waikato into this disease, at the same time supervising the field work with cobalt which was taking place at Mamaku. In collaboration with a research chemist, Mr E. J. Underwood, Mr Filmer discovered that successful results following the administration of iron were due to a trace of the element cobalt. The use of cobalt in New Zealand was the outcome of the discovery by these two workers. Their researches \yere carried out in the main in Western Australia.

From 1925 to 1936 Mr Filmer was a member of the staff of the Department of Agriculture in Western Australia, holding the position of senior veterinary surgeon when he resigned from the department. Before coming to New Zealand this year he was veterinary research officer for the Western District Research Associatipn, Victoria. Mr Filmer served in the army froip 1916 to 1919, and from 1919 to 1925 he was in private practice as a veterinary surgeon. The cobalt work carried out both by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research hr.s followed his pioneering work.