SCIENCE IN AUSTRALIA

Taranaki Daily News, 13 August 1930, Page 16

SCIENCE IN AUSTRALIA

| ANIMAL HEALTH PROBLEMS. DR. J. GILRUTH'S RESEARCH WORK. In tlie June issue of the Australian Veterinary Journal there is a reference to the creation of a Division of Animal Health, of which the first chief is Dr. J. A. Gilruth, for many years chief veterinary officer in New Zealand. The journal states:— “An event which is likely to be of far-reaching importance to Australia and the veterinary profession is the creation by the Commonwealth Council for Scientific and. Industrial Research of a Division of Animal. Health! Since' 1926, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has had a number of its officers in different States investigating problems of animal health, and it was soon felt that some means of co-ordin-ating and controlling their activities was urgently needed. The help of Sir Arnold Theiler was solicited to advise the council as to the most effective means of organising and extending research in animal diseases throughout Australia, and the creation of the new dvision is no doubt largely due to recommendations made by Sir Arnold after his most thorough and complete survey of our problems.

‘•Not loss gratifying that the creation of the division itself is the selection, in Dr. J. A. Gilruth, as chief of the division, of one who had long been an outstanding personality not only in veterinary circles but also in public affairs. There is no member of the profession in Austialasia who had had a wider experience of every branch of veterinary science, from private practice to administration, from research work to the creation of tho Melbourne University Veterinary School, while finally he was called to undertake an extremely difficult and onerous task as Administrator of the Northern Territory. “It is fitting that a long career of public service should find its. culmination in the acceptance by Dr. Gilruth of an office in which possibly, to an even greater degree than in those he has filled so ably in the past, lip will find outlet for his unique qualities in the - service of the State..”

One of the problems in Australia which Dr. Gilruth is investigating is that of caseous lymphadenitis in sheep, a disorder that is causing considerable anxiety in this country as well as in tho Commonwealth. There is a certain amount of co-operation now proceeding between the Veterinary Division of the New Zealand Department of Agriculture and the Australian organisation of which Dr. Gilruth is the head.