Dodd, Sydney, BVSc 1910, DVSc 1910
SYDNEY DODD
To have laboured ceaselessly in the pursuit of truth and in the cause of Science, handicapped though he was by ill health, confronted even by threatening death; to have deserved well of his profession and the State, such is the enviable record of Dr. Sydney Dodd.
Sydney Dodd for the past twenty years had held an honoured position amongst the scientists of Australia, but his connection with Veterinary Science commenced long ere this. After a brilliant course at the Royal Veterinary College, London, he graduated with Honours in 1902 and was admitted to membership of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Almost immediately he left for South Africa as Veterinary Officer to the Tenth Hussars, with which famous regiment he travelled extensively, and witnessed the dreadful ravages of the epidemic diseases of animals which flourished in the unsettled period following the termination of the Boer War.
Becoming imbued with enthusiasm for the opportunity which existed for work and research in the then little explored field of veterinary research, he returned to England and spent some years in teaching and research in the Pathological Laboratory of the Royal Veterinary College. In 1905 he again left for Africa and entering the Civil Service worked in association with Sir Arnold Theiler, gaining a wide experience of the complex bacteriological and protozoological problems with which that country was so grievously afflicted, and by the quality of his painstaking and thorough work he laid the foundation of a reputation to which time served but to add fresh lustre.
In 1907, on submitting a thesis of great merit, he was admitted to a Fellowship of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. In search of fresh fields of endeavour he now decided to come to Australia and in the same year he was appointed Chief Veterinary Bacteriologist to the Government of Queensland. In this position he acquired that extensive knowledge of Australian conditions and diseases of animals peculiar to this country, which was soon to stamp him as one of the foremost bacteriologists in the Commonwealth, and to bring him well merited recognition in the form of the Doctorate of Veterinary Science of the University of Melbourne.
On retiring from the service of the Queensland Government in 1909 he was appointed Acting Professor of Veterinary Pathology in the University of Melbourne and was at the same time acting Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Science. In 1911 he joined the staff of the newly established School of Veterinary Science of the University of Sydney and in the service of this institution he remained till the time of his death.
Though his researches covered a wide and varied field his name will perhaps be especially associated with the protozoan diseases of domesticated animals and black disease, to which latter problem the last years of his life were largely devoted. Not only among his fellow veterinarians was his name known and respected, but also among his brother bacteriologists of the medical profession his breadth of outlook and erudition found ready acknowledgment.
So it was that from the inception of the Diploma in Public Health at the University of Sydney his assistance was sought, and in 1926 in recognition of his services he was appointed Honorary Lecturer in the Diseases of Animals Communicable to Man. A thorough and painstaking lecturer he was regarded not only with admiration but also with a very real affection by his students whether present or past, to whom at all times was he readily accessible and to whom he gave freely of his wide knowledge and experience. Shy and reserved, that which was sometimes misinterpreted as coldness by the unseeing, was but a mask which hid a nature at once sensitive and kindly.
Like all true veterinarians, a lover of animals, he treated even the lowliest of them with consideration and many a guinea pig or rabbit escaped an inoculation which the callous might have inflicted because "the doctor" feared to cause unnecessary pain. Perhaps as unexpected to those who knew him not, were the many kindnesses shown to the dogs whether aristocratic or plebeian who passed through the Veterinary Clinic, many of whom came to wait expectantly for the delightful additions to the necessarily somewhat monotonous institutional dietary which almost daily they received at his hands.
His death coming when at last there is an evident appreciation of the need for increased veterinary research in the Commonwealth, an appreciation largely born of the work of such men as Sydney Dodd, has indeed robbed the profession and the State of one they could ill spare. The sympathy of all members of the veterinary profession in Australia has been extended to Mrs. Dodd.