Dr E. F. D’Ath was pathologist of note

Press, 19 June 1979, Page 3

Dr E. F. D’Ath was pathologist of note

PA Dunedin A man who gained an international reputation for his work as a pathologist, Dr Eric Frederick D’Ath, died in Dunqdin yesterday. He was 82. Dr D’Ath, professor of pathology and medical jurisprudence at the Otago University School of Medicine for 34 years, was recognised as a leading figure in New Zealand medicine and was associated, as police pathologist, in the investigation of many criminal cases.

Evidence presented by Professor D’Ath was vital in solving the Flaxman murder at Moa Flat, where a man murdered his wife then set fire to the house to destroy evidence. But for the evidence Professor D’Ath gained from an on-the-spot postmortem examination, the police said, the case might have remained unsolved. He was also involved in investigating the. “sheep dip” case at Wanganui during the

19505. This resulted in a man’s being convicted of murdering his wife by poisoning her with arsenic-based dip.

Dr D’Ath was born in Patea, in Taranaki, and enrolled as a student at the Otago School of Medicine in 1916. He succeeded Professor Drennan to the chair of pathology at the University of Otago in 1929, after spending some years practising and lecturing in pathology in Sydney. During his tenure, which extended until 1962, he won a reputation for his legal work in medical jurisprudence, and served as president of the New Zealand branch of the British Empire Cancer Campaign and chairman of its medical research committee.

His distinguished contributions to pathology were recognised by his election to a fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians. He was also awarded the C.B.E.