Obituaries Australia

Professor Thorburn Brailsford Robertson, distinguished as a scientist and scholar, died at Glenelg yesterday. The chair of Bio-Chemistry, which Professor Robertson occupied at the Adelaide University, was previously held by Sir Edward Stirling, whose daughter he married in 1910. Professor Robertson's experiments in bio- chemistry attracted attention throughout the world. In 1924, when supplies of insulin were not available, he was responsible for the manufacture of 40,000 doses of insulin from pancreas provided by the Metropolitan Abattoirs Board. He was recognised as one of the foremost authorities in the world on animal nutrition, and he was chief of the Animal Division of the Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. Professor Robertson discovered and patented a substance known as tethelin, which has a quick effect in stimulating growth and healing wounds. The invention was not patented for his own profit, but was placed in the hands of a trust at the University of California, and the proceeds of its sale are devoted to scientific research. Tethelin has been used with success in America.