As a student he had given some evidence of his quality in a paper on the "Sham-death reflex in spiders", published in the Journal of Physiology for August 1904, and in a remarkable paper, "An Outline of a Theory of the Genesis of Protoplasmic Motion and Excitation", read at a meeting of the Royal Society of South Australia on 4 April 1905 and published in its Transactions and Proceedings, vol.

Robertson had been very interested in the work of Professor Jacques Loeb of the University of California, one of the ablest biochemists of his time, and immediately after graduation obtained a position in his laboratory.

There he worked for five years, contributing during this period around 40 papers to leading scientific journals, and establishing a reputation as an authority on proteins.

In 1919 the death of his old teacher, Sir Edward Stirling, led to his return to Adelaide, where he became professor of bio-chemistry and general physiology in 1920.

He was one of the earliest in Australia to investigate the use of insulin for diabetes, and in 1923 he discovered tethelin, a growth controlling substance which has been found of great value in the treatment of slow-healing wounds and ulcers of long standing.

In 1927 Robertson was asked by the Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial Research to take charge of investigations into the nutrition of animals.

[1] He was working with great energy, with much mapped out for the coming years, when he contracted pneumonia and died after a short illness on 18 January 1930.

He was the virtual founder and was managing editor of the Australian Journal of Experimental Biology and Medical Science from its beginning until his death.