McGill University Theses and dissertations published in 1947

The composition of the top few inches of the soil, with which the agriculturist is mainly concerned, consists of a mineral framework of inorganic particles varying in degree of subdivision and in chemical composition. These particles are coated with a hygroscopic layer of organic matter in the colloidal state, in various stages of decomposition, the whole in close association with inorganic aggregates in a similar state. The spaces between the particles are occupied by the soil atmosphere and the soil solution. The soil is biologically very active and provides the habitat for an extensive microbial population, comprising bacteria, actinomycetes, fungi, …  Read more

The commercial importance of the Yellowtail Flounder (Limanda ferruginea Storer) in recent years has greatly increased, partly because of the greater use of otter trawlers in North American waters, and also as a response to the unprecedented demand for fish products during the war. This is particularly true in the case of Canada where, until recently, the traditional method of fishing was line trawling, a method which prevented the capture of yellowtails since its mouth is so small that one is rarely caught on the large hooks used for cod, haddock, and pollock. These factors have led to an extensive …  Read more

Of the gases occurring naturally in the earthfs atmosphere carbon dioxide and water vapour are the only ones which absorb infra red light. [...] Interest, therefore, attaches to a simpler infra red total absorption method of measuring carbon dioxide in small concentrations, developed in England by Dingle and Pryce [...] The purpose of the work presented in this thesis was thus twofold: first, to improve the method of Dingle and Pryce, and second, to illustrate as strikingly as possible its applications and place in the study of plant physiology. Due to the somewhat unusual nature of the problem, the standard …  Read more

Grading of flax fibre in Canada, and in all other flax-producing countries, is done by professional graders who judge the flax by appearance (cleanness, glossiness, length of fibre, colour), by handle or feel (weight, softness), and by strength (breaking a few strands of fibre in the hands). Because this method is based on human judgment, two graders may award different grades to samples of the same fibre. It was felt that if some scientific method for ascertaining grades could be obtained, it would be a valuable contribution. Hence, a series of chemical determinations was made on flax fibre of various …  Read more

This paper is a presentation of the more important aspects of power system stability. The power-angle curve is derived, and the criterion of equal areas used to show the effects on stability of faults, switching and sudden load increases. Those synchronous machine constants which are involved in stability studies are discussed, and an outline, illustrated by experimental results, given of methods of determining them. A short chapter is included on transmission line and transformer impedances. The paper shows how these various constants are used to determine whether a system will retain stability under certain conditions. The step-by-step procedure for calculating …  Read more

It is shown in the map-area that several causes of deformation of the crustal rocks in southern British Columbia existed. Regional deformation by horizontal compressive forces of unknown origin has occurred from Upper Jurassic to Eocene times in different parts and ao different times. [...]  Read more

In our society a man’s occupation is of prime importance in his life. It determines his social and economic status, his associates, his leisure activities, hie entire mode or life. Discrepancy between the kind of job a person has and the kind of job he would like to have, tends to lead to job dissatisfaction and frequent shifting of jobs which may seriously affect personality and emotional adjustment. Since occupational aspirations are salient factors in job satisfaction, and thereby in the total adjustment of the individual, studies of the level of aspiration of job applicants have important implications for vocational …  Read more

The research reported in this thesis on the chemical reduction of trimethyl gallic acid, (XLVI), is part of a larger project concerned with the nuclear hydrogenation of polyhydric phenols which is being carried out in the laboratories of the Division of Industrial and Cellulose Chemistry. Others (147, 148, 149) have worked on the catalytic hydrogenation of pyrogallol and gallic acid (XLV) and have successfully isolated some of the stereoisomers of the cyclohexane analogs of these aromatic compounds. the object of the present work is to study the chemical reduction of gallic acid (XLV) and trimethyl gallic acid (XLVI) by means …  Read more

[...] A departmental interest in the subject or experimental diabetes had been hitherto somewhat discouraged by the usual obstacles. A surgical approach to the problem was known to be impractical in small laboratory animals, because it was technically difficult to excise sufficiently large proportions of the pancreatic tissue, and because the subsequent results were usually uncertain. Nor did the newer endocrine approach using anterior pituitary hermone completely solve the problem because it was known that the smaller laboratory animals such as the rabbit and the rat were refractory to its diabetogenic action. Consequently, when we used Alloxan and found that …  Read more

In 1927 Aschheim and Zondek announced their discovery of a gonadotrophic substance in the urine of pregnant women; and based on this finding they established their well known test for pregnancy. They described three reactions which followed its administration to immature female mice or rats: I. Development of follicles, and resulting oestrus changes in the vagina and uterus. II. Hemorrhage into the follicles. III. Formation of corpora lutea. They maintained that conclusive demonstration of the presence of this substance, which they termed prolan, demanded the production of reactions II and/or III. [...] However this substance is found in body fluids …  Read more

The ultimate objective in this research was to determine quantitatively the individual amounts of primary and secondary alcohol groups in an alkali soluble , commercial hydroxyethyl ether of cellulose. The methods proposed for this study had previously been perfected on various other derivatives of cellulose, starch and sugars (1, 2, 3, 4). These methods depended on the fact that the p-toluene sulfonyl (tosyl) esters of primary, as opposed to secondary, alcohols gave quantitative yields of alkyl iodide when treated with sodium iodide in a ketone solvent. However, it was considered advisable first to apply the same techniques to simpler compounds …  Read more

The light sources chosen for special study were arc tubes through which a condenser was discharged. The discharge was initiated by an external control electrode. Tubes were made of Pyrex or quartz and had cathodes of mercury or nickel. Work was first done with mercury tubes at low pressures. Later, tubes were made having nickel cathodes and filled with argon. Tubes were tested to see at what voltage they discharged spontaneously one hence if they could be used with the 20,000 V power supply available. A 2500 V power supply was obtained for use with low voltage tubes. An integrating …  Read more

As a preliminary to the study of the reactions involved in the bleaching of chemical wood pulps, it seemed desirable to investigate the action of alkaline chlorine on various phenols analogous to those which have been isolated in degradative studies of lignins. For example, catechol and guaiacol have been obtained by zinc dust distillation (1), protocatechuic and veratric acids by alkali fusion (2, 3, 4) and vanillin and syringaldehyde by nitrobenzene oxidation (5, 6) of lignins. Accordingly, pyrogallol and, later, vanillin were chosen as simple analogs of the phenolic substances which are normally bleached. Since hypoiodite is a milder oxidizing …  Read more

During the last few years, G.W.H. Norman of the Department of Mines and Resources, Mines and Geology Branch, Ottawa, mapped in detail an area extending from Malartic on the west to Louvicourt Township on the east. This work yielded so much information, and prospecting was so extensive in this area, that the Geological Survey extended the work eastward from Norman’s sheet. Three parties were organized in 1946 each to map one township at a scale of 1000 feet to one inch. One party under H.C. Norman mapped Vauquelin Township, the writer mapped Pershing Township, and the third party under K. …  Read more

Depuis le début de la première guerre mondiale, un fait n’a cessé de piquer la curiosité de nombreux observateurs de la vie intellectuelle en Amérique, à savoir, la vogue extraordinaire que l’oeuvre d’Anatole France connut aux Etats-Unis. Il est en effet tort curieux que cet auteur,qui, de l’aveu de plusieurs critiques, possède des qualités essentiellement françaises et latines, ait pu susciter chez ses lecteurs anglo-saxons un intérêt aussi vif. Henri Peyre, un des étudiants les plus avisés de la question, nous dit: L’immense succès d’Anatole France dans les pays anglo-saxons et nordiques est un des phénomènes littéraires les plus surprenants …  Read more

Maass, O. (Supervisor)  Read more

Aluminum bronzes comprise that group of copper-aluminum alloys containing from very small amounts up to approximately l6 per cent aluminum by weight. Appreciable quantities of iron, manganese, nickel, and other elements are frequently added which results in complex alloys where more than one of the above elements are added to the bronze.Considered in the light of properties obtainable by heat treatment these alloys represent some of the most versatile non-ferrous alloys in wide use today. They combine the property of great strength, which can be altered as required by proper heat treatment, with excellent corrosion resistance. The alloys can be …  Read more

For the purpose of this report, adsorption may be defined as that process whereby the molecules of a gas or vapor, when that gas or vapor is placed in contact with a previously evacuated solid, become attached to the surface of the solid. An adsorption isotherm expresses the quantity adsorbed as a function of the pressure at constant temperature.[...] Information necessary to a full understanding of the phenomenon of adsorption cannot be obtained from the measurement of adsorption isotherms and heats of adsorption. For this reason, within recent years, work has been done on the determination of the structure of …  Read more

The ridge of Ordovician rocks at St. Dominique, Quebec, abounds in problems of stratigraphical, paleontological and structural importance, yet, in spite of its nearness to Montreal, it has so far received only cursory attention from geologists. Because of these features the present writer considers himself fortunate to be able to devote himself to this nearby though practically untouched field.[...]  Read more

The Canica-Cawatose area is from 47° 15' N to 47° 30 1 N latitude, and from 76° 55' w to 77° 20' w longitude, and is thus between the gold bearing district of the Abitibi and the Grenville subprovince as characteristically exposed near Mount Laurier. G.K. Lowther has mapped Keewatin-type and Temiskaming-type rocks characteristic of the Abitibi zone in the Villebon-Denain area at a locality only twenty miles north of the northern boundry of the map area here described.  Read more

Exact knowledge of the morphology and behaviour of gliomas is a relatively recent acquisition for it depended upon the development of neurosurgery. Two decades have passed, however, since the publication of the main body of this knowledge and there remain many unsettled details of the morphology of these growths. [...]  Read more

La «légende» de Voltaire semble de tous temps avoir dépassé la simple vérité sur l’homme et l’oeuvre. En effet, lorsqu’on lit ses ouvrages, rien ne porte à croire que l’écrivain cynique, le terrible critique de l’ancien régime, l’apôtre de la tolérance, dont la sonorité sut tenir l’Europe en éveil pendant une grande partie du 18e siècle, avait cependant un véritable fonds de bonté, de compassion, et même, au sens restreint du mot, de sensibilité. Le Voltaire aimable, poli, sympathique, cependant, se retrouve presque à chaque page de sa Correspondance, qui comprend plus de 12,000 lettres - la plus volumineuse que …  Read more

Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is oxidized reversibly to dehydroascorbic acid and irreversibly to 2:3-diketo-l-gulonic acid. Ascorbic acid and dehydroascorbic acid are biologically active but 2:3-diketo-l-gulonic acid is inactive. During the study of the stability of ascorbic acid in fortified apple juice as compared to unfortified tomato juice and other juices, the methods of determining vitamin C have been thoroughly investigated. The most serious criticism of the methods studied is that in Roe’s 2:4-dinitrophenylhydrazine method, 2:3-diketo-1-gulonic acid is included in the values for dehydroascorbic acid so that inaccurately high antiscorbutic potencies are indicated in extracts analyzed by this widely used …  Read more

“It would seem a truism that the less a subject is understood, the more is written about it. This is natural as theories and counter-theories with hypothesis upon hypothesis are put forward to attempt to ellucidate an unknown or but little understood phenomenon.” (1) This statement applies precisely to the problem at hand. Experimental cancer research had its real conception approximately 50 years ago. The problem has turned out to be a large one - larger than anyone knew. The exact nature of the neoplastic process is still unknown today. Shimkin (2) in his consideration of the cancer problem emphasized …  Read more

A growing accumulation of experimental evidence indicates that lignin is a polymerization product of polyfunctional phenolic bodies. One of the most characteristic properties of phenols is the Kolbe reaction, whereby they are carboxylated by treatment of the alkali metal salts with carbon dioxide. If carboxyl groups could be introduced into the aromatic nuclei of lignin by the same method, it might\ be expected that the lignin would oe solubilized; hence the Kolbe reaction might function as an effective method for the delignification of wood. A series of spruce wood cooks with aqueous sodium bicarbonate and carbon dioxide under pressure were …  Read more

Microchem1cal analysis 1s one of the many methode used in the chemical examonat1on of minerale. This method requires a petrigraphie microscope and also a knowledge of optical moneralogy. Since the mocrochemical method requires only a small sample, it is preferable to other methods in determinative mineralogy. The purpose of this paper 1s to present a dascr1pt1on ot the character1st1c reactions and of the optical properties of the resultant crystalline precipitates of certain common elements. The optical constants are worked out in detail, in so far as the technique used permits. It will be noted that a number of these are …  Read more