Barnett, Sir Louis Edward

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BARNETT, SIR LOUIS EDWARD

BARNETT, SIR LOUIS EDWARD (1865–1946), New Zealand surgeon and professor. Barnett was born in Wellington, New Zealand, and in 1895 received a permanent lectureship in surgery at Otago University, where from 1905 to 1924 he was professor. He served with the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Australian and New Zealand Medical Corps (1915–17) and was knighted for his overseas war service. Barnett was one of the founders of the Radium Insitute in Dunedin and a pioneer in X-ray and radium research at Otago University. Most of his work was in the fields of cancer and hydatids research, and as a result of his efforts the incidence of hydatids in New Zealand was considerably reduced.

[Maurice S. Pitt]