McGill University Thèses et mémoires publiés en 1956

The present investigation is an attempt to gain an insight into the problem of the formation of the carbohydrate moiety of tissues of mesenchymal origin using radioautographic and histochemical methods. Various tissues and organs of the growing rat were studied, but dentin was chosen as the organ most suitable for detailed study, for reasons which will be stated in a later part of this presentation.  Read more

So much has been written about conversion, both from the theological and psychological point of view, that this study might appear to be superfluous. Some of the psychologists, in their attempt to describe and explain the experience, explained away the essential religious aspect of it. The author studied Pratt's discussion on conversion while he was sailing from Bombay to London. [...]  Read more

Suivre a travers l'oeuvre de plusieurs genérations littéraires l'évolution d'une vieille légende: tel a été notre but premier. Nous nous proposions de considérer le mythe d'Orphée comme un thème fixe, et les oeuvres centrées sur lui comme les variations de ce thème. Ainsi conçu, le sujet allait donner lieu avant tout à des analyses littéraires comparées, permettant de dévoiler les formes et les significations divergentes que des écrivains aux gouts, aux tempéraments artistiques et aux idées différentes avaient imposé à un même sujet. [...]  Read more

Fuer die Wahl des vorliegenden Themas waren zwei Faktoren von ausschlaggebender Bedeutung: Zunaechst das Interesse des Verfassers fuer Lyrik, in Sonderheit fuer Rainer Maria Rilke als hervorstechendsten Dichter in moderner Lyrik. Dann der Vorteil einer guten, bis ins einzelne gehenden Rilke-Bibliothek, der die Entscheidung nicht mehr schwer fallen liess. [...]  Read more

Red clover, recognized as the corner stone of agriculture, is one of the most widely distributed of all cultivated clovers. The production of red clover and other forage crop seed in Canada today is a very important business and various organizations are interested in the different phases which allow the farmers to obtain good material for seeding. Among those organizations the Canadian Forage Seeds Project must be mentioned.  Read more

Laboratory methods of measuring the radiation characteristics of microwave antennas were investigated at a wavelength of 1.25 cm. The methods consisted of rotating the antenna in question in a microwave beam issuing from a collimating lens made from polystyrene plastic. With uniform illumination of the lens, diffraction from its edge caused severe departure of the beam from the plane wave desired for antenna measurements; inaccuracies in the measured antenna characteristics resulted. [...]  Read more

This work began as a clinical analysis of patients who suffered unexplained hemipareses following temporal lobectomies. A preliminary survey suggested that the site of disturbance was the internal capsule and that the cause was vascular interference. Further study confirmed this impression and produced strong clinical evidence that the disability was caused by spasm of the capsular arteries in response to mechanical irritation. [...]  Read more

Toward the end of the 19th century an unusual and new microscopic change was observed in the epithelium of the renal tubules in persons who had died in diabetic coma. The alteration consisted of marked swelling and almost complete cytoplasmic vacuolization of the involved epithelial cells. From the time of its early descriptions the lesion has been most widely known under the eponymic designation of the Armanni-Ebstein lesion, being named after its first describers. [...]  Read more

The present paper was started as an investigation into the parallel variability of two species of Entodinium related to E. caudatum. It has shown, that all these species produce sets of forms with the "caudatum", "loboso-spinosum" and "dubardi" types of the caudal spination. It became obvious, that in the literature the specific names of E. caudatum, E. loboso-spinosum and E. dubardi were used to designate assemblages of parallel forms belonging to different species of Entodinium.  Read more

Loose smut of barley- Ustilago nuda (Jens.) Rostr. is a disease that becomes most evident after heading of the host. The spikes of infected plants emerge from the boot slightly earlier than those of healthy plants. Powdery masses of spores are formed in place of kernels. These masses of spores are covered at first with a membrane, which ruptures early to expose the dark brown spores. The mycelium remains dormant, chiefly in the scutellum, until the following growing season. [...]  Read more

A B.B.C. musical critic, reviewing an interpretation of an Elgar symphony, stated that "with Elgar, one travelled". He was pleasantly rebuked by a colleague who reminded him that people nowadays did not want to travel; they wanted simply to "get there". Fifty three years after the Wright Brothers demonstrated at Kitty Hawk that it was possible to fly heavier-than-air machines, the jet age is making its full impact upon us. Plans are vigorously afoot to transport the travelling public from one side of the Atlantic to the other in super swift aircraft, capable of carrying 100/120 passengers, at the approximate …  Read more

Quartz suitable for glass-making and as a source of silica for other industrial uses is being mined at St. Donat, Quebec, (frontispiece) by Dominion Silica Corporation. The writer undertook a field and laboratory study of the quartz deposits and surrounding rocks, the results of which are set forth below. The following problems were studied in detail; 1.the rocks present, their composition, distribution, and structure, 2. the genesis of the quartz deposit, 3• the source of the associated kaolin.  Read more

Since approximately the turn of the 20th century the scheme most commonly used by animal nutritionists on the North American continent to describe quantitatively the useful or available energy of a feeding stuff to an animal has been that of Total Digestible Nutrients (TDN). The calculation of a TDN value involves the following steps: l) fractionation of a dry feed by the Weende analysis into crude protein, ether extract, carbohydrate and ash, of which all but ash are potential energy sources; 2) the application of appropriate digestion coefficients to determine digestible nutrients; 3) and finally a weighting of the digestible …  Read more

The most widely used colorimetric method for the determination of pteroylglutamic acid (PGA) in pharmaceutical preparations is that developed by Hutchings et al. (1947). This method is based on the colour reaction for free amines as reported by Bratton & Marshall (1939). Various modifications of this method have been suggested but all of them may be criticized on similar grounds. In order to apply the procedure, a sample must contain at least 2 per cent PGA. Interference due to ferrous sulphate and liver concentrates must be removed.  Read more

Probably no single protein has been the subject of as many chemical investigations as has casein. This is to be expected since casein is the main protein constituent of the milk of all mammals and because it can be readily isolated in a more or less pure state and with reasonably reproducible properties. For one hundred years following Mulder’s discovery that casein may be precipitated from milk by the addition of acid, casein was considered the typical example of a homogeneous protein. It was not until the classical solubility studies of Linderstrom-Lang were published, that casein was definitely shown to …  Read more

At the outbreak of World War II, work was initiated in the Department of Biochemistry at McGill University, under the direction of Dr. O. F. Denstedt, on a study of the means whereby the then existing methods of blood preservation might be improved. Similar investigations were undertaken in many other laboratories throughout the world, particularly in the United States and Great Britain. The availability of blood and plasma for prompt treatment of the wounded at the fighting front accounted for the tremendous saving of lives in World War II as compared with World War I.  Read more

The recent development of rich iron ore deposits in the heart of the Labrador-Ungava peninsula, with the subsequent construction of a 350 mi. railway connecting the deposits to the St. Lawrence River, has opened the door to the exploration of a vast region rich in indications of iron and base metal mineralization. Systematic exploration of this hitherto inaccessible territory has revealed that potentially economic concentrations of iron, copper and nickel lie within the “Labrador Trough”, a belt of ancient, more or less deformed sediments, which stretches at least five hundred miles from Menihek Lake in the south, northwestward to Payne …  Read more

The airborne magnetometer was developed during World War II as a submarine detector, and is now a standard tool of modern geophysics. Since its development, the airborne magnetometer has helped locate valuable ore deposits, it has aided to decipher geological structures, and it has been used to investigate the possible future activity of volcanoes. Airborne magnetic surveys are not essentially different from land magnetic surveys: aeromagnetic data are obtained and compiled along a continuous line, whereas ground magnetic surveys are made at separate points.  Read more

The primary object of the survey was to provide a Photographic Terrain Interpretation Key, and the organisation of field work was directed to that end. As the terrain characteristics of the survey region bad to be analysed during the preparation of the key it was also possible to prepare a geographical outline at the same time. Owing to the need for minute detail in the widespread photographs chosen for keying, a good deal of time was spent on purely photographic work at the expense of other aspects, notably the detailed geomorphology.  Read more

Taurins, A. (Supervisor)  Read more

The construction of a microwave spectroscope is described and the results of the first investigations using this instrument given. Details of a frequency standard for operation in the 40,000 mc/s region are included. Carbonyl sulfide has been studied to gain familiarity with and confidence in the instrument as well as to resolve minor disagreements. The magnitude of the Fermi resonance and the vibration-rotation interaction constants have been determined. The spectrum of cyanogens chloride is somewhat complicated by nuclear electric quadrupole-quadrupole interactions as well as Fermi resonance.  Read more

Hoffman, M. (Supervisor)  Read more

The Labrador-Ungava Peninsula, until post-war years relatively unknown, has taken on a new significance recently due to the development of vast iron ore deposits and the present threat to world peace. Since the war, the Goose Bay Air Base, carved out of the wilderness, has made Labrador the front entrance to Canada for many who arrive here from abroad. In 1954, since this study was begun, the author had the pleasure of opening the McGill Sub-Arctic Research Building at Knob Lake which will act as a centre for field research into this remote area.  Read more

Most strains or Escherichia coli have simple nutritional requirements. This fact indicates that these organisms are able to synthesize all their requirements tor amino acids, purines, pyrimidines, vitamins and other substances necessary for growth in a mixture or a few inorganic salts and glucose. Davis and Mingioli (8), however, have isolated mutant strains or E. coli that require either methionine or vitamin B12 tor growth.  Read more

C'est avec un humour féroce que M. Sartre exprime une impression que tout lecteur n'a pas manqué de ressentir une fois ou l'autre en face d'un texte de Giraudoux. Mais le lecteur, qui n'a pas des lunettes de philosophe, a l'avantage de pouvoir se divertir A ce que nous avons appelé dans notre étude " le jeu de l'illusion et de la réalité ", et même se plaire aux surprises que lui réserve une manière inusitée de voir et de peindre le monde. Cette manière, nous la retrouverons partout dans l'œuvre de Giraudoux.  Read more

The product of independent random variables is studied through products of Mellin transforms. Although the frequency function tor the product had often been calculated, the use of Mellin transforms was first introduced by Epstein. In the present essay the theory of this application is developed and many examples are discussed. The theory, originally developed for positive random variables only, is made to include any real variable.  Read more

The use of P32 in biological investigation has contributed greatly to the knowledge of phosphorus metabolism. Soon after this isotope became available in the late 1930’s, many investigators studied the absorption, distribution and excretion of radiophosphorus in plants and animals. A large number of these studies were concerned with the identification and turnover rate of phosphorus compounds as they occur in tissue homogenates or various cellular fractions prepared by centrifugation.  Read more

This is a study of the social adjustment of schizophrenic patients in an eighteen-month period following treatment and separation from a mental hospital. Comparisons will be made between social adjustment after hospitalization, and estimated social adjustment in the period preceding the illness. Some interest will be focused on the development or standardized research instruments which will assess various types of social adjustment. The family environment from which this diagnostic population originated, and to which they will return, is also a subject of interest and a subject of study in this thesis.  Read more

This study has been undertaken on a region undergoing an accelerating degree of change. Since the situation is not static and there being little possibility of it being so for the next decade a work of this kind dealing with the regional aspect of Canada’s newest major seaport will go rapidly out of date. However, a glance in retrospect, an account of the present and a forecast for the future should prove valuable. If the facts are not examined until the changes cease, a great deal of the action will have been missed and interest irretrievably lost.  Read more

Since the beginning of the twentieth century, plant breeders have been working with the aim of improving red clover. This plant Trifolium pratense L. belongs to the Leguminosae family and is one of the most important plants used as forage. Not only is it of consequence for animal nutrition, but it plays a valuable role in soil improvement by merit of the Rhizobium trifolii bacteria that live in nodular structures in the roots of this legume. Red clover is dependent on insects for pollination and is almost, if not entirely, crosspollinated and therefore exists in a heterozygous state.  Read more

The influence of stress and adrenalin, and later, of adrenal steroids on thyroid function in man and in experimental animals has interested investigators for many years. This interest arises from the requirement to elucidate and clarify physiological functions of the thyroid gland, the regulation of these functions, and the role of the thyroid in the homeostasis of the body and its reactions to stress. In addition the possible role of stress in the etiology and pathogenesis of diseases of the thyroid gland has been suspected for many years (1) and is currently the subject of several experiments.  Read more

Vitamin A is commonly determined by spectrophotometry or by measurement of the colour produced by its reaction with antimony trichloride. The complex nature of many vitamin A preparations makes it necessary to evaluate these physical and chemical methods against biological assays. Many such comparisons have been reported in the literature but the work carried out before 1948 is subject to the errors arising from the lack of a pure, stable, standard preparation. It is somewhat astonishing, therefore, to find that a comparatively limited use has been made of the biological assay since crystalline vitamin A became available. [...]  Read more

When a beam carries a load, which does not act through its shear center, torsional stresses are introduced along with the flexural stresses. Torsion may be a serious factor in producing beam failures. Rib reinforcement can reduce torsional stresses and angles of twist. The purpose of this investigation was to determine the influence web stiffeners have on these stresses and twist angles.  Read more

In this thesis we will study the emergence in the work of Edmund Spenser of an idea originally Greek but primarily mediaeval. This is an examination of Spenser's view, not of nature, but of creation, for Spenser's feeling that this world is the work of a divine Creator contributes greatly to his view of nature and consequently to his poetry.  Read more

James Denney was born at Paisely, Scotland on February 5th, 1856. We know very little of his childhood except for the fact that he attended the Highlanders' Academy at Greenock for his early education.  Read more

The laws which govern the flow of fluids in regular conduits have been extensively studied and definite patterns of behaviour have been resolved. However, there is still much work to be carried out before the principles underlying the flow of fluids through irregular channels--such as those formed between the particles in a packed bed--are thoroughly understood. The problem is admittedly difficult, not so much because of the large number of variables involved, but rather because of the complex nature of some of the latter. [...]  Read more

The need to revise the provisions of Swedish Public air law became urgent when, on September 27, 1946, Sweden ratified the Convention on International Civil Aviation, signed at Chicago on December 7, 1944. In November, 1946, the King ordained that such a revision should now be made, and that the work should, as far as possible, be carried out in co-operation with the other Scandinavian States. An expert was charged with making a preparatory analysis, and a secretary was appointed to assist him in this task. The secretary's duties were entrusted to the present writer. [...]  Read more

It has been most unfortunate that nearly all the research that has been done on cold injury has been under the driving urgency to find a method of treatment or prevention, and the fundamental work that might have contributed to our understanding of the nature of cold injury has been lacking because there was not time for it.  Read more

To both English and French Canadians, Bourassa is best known as the leader of French Canadian opposition to the Boer War and to the conscription policies of the First World War. Only slightly less famous is the orator who defended the language rights of French Canadians in 1910 against the attack of a dignitary of the Church itself. His career was the stuff of which myths are made, and even in his lifetime, he was more of a symbol than flesh and blood reality. [...]  Read more

In sharp contrast to the wealth of chemical knowledge of the nature of the lipids of mycobacteria (Anderson 1940, 1942, Siebert 1950) is the scarcity of facts available to indicate the routes by which fats are metabolized by these organisms. One of the most distinctive features of the Mycobacteriaceae is the ability to attack a wide range of fatty acids and this trait is found both in the highly virulent and in the saprophytic members.  Read more

The bias in the development of biochemistry to which Baldwin (1940) drew attention in 1937 has not been remedied in the last two decades. Despite the tremendous advances in our knowledge of the biochemistry of mammals and unicellular organisms made during this period, relatively little has been added to our understanding of most other forms of life. The work reported here was undertaken because helminths are no exception, the parasitic nematode, Ascaris lumbricoides, being chosen because of its ready availability and the large size of its reproductive system.  Read more

The fertilized hen's egg consists of shell, shell membrane, albumen and yolk. A diagrammatic representation of the fertilized hen's egg and its constituents is given on page 2. From this it may be seen that the yolk floats in the albumen with a whitish disc, the blastoderm, on its upper surface. It is from the blastoderm that the embryo and all its membranes are formed. [...]  Read more

The heat transfer from water to a bed of spherical Alundum pebbles is investigated. From fundamental principles it is shown that for the same bed the heat exchange is governed by the dimensionless groups Pr, Re and [...]  Read more

The work of the plant-breeder has made available a great number of varieties of agricultural plants, many of them specially adapted to different climates, soils, markets and conditions of disease and insect infestation. It is obviously important, once the character of a variety has been fixed by the breeder, that the seed be kept pure, that is (from a practical standpoint) free from detrimental admixture and reasonably uniform in the important varietal characteristics. [...]  Read more

An apparatus has been developed to study entrance region heat transfer in circular pipes and tubes. Previous work on entrance region heat transfer by J. T. Rogers showed that for a given Reynolds number, higher heat transfer coefficients are obtained with increasing bulk temperatures. Present work confirma Rogers' findings and shows that a temperature correction factor is necessary to account for this increase in the value of heat transfer coefficients with increasing temperatures. [...]  Read more

Let X1, X2, . . . ., Xs be s independent sample values drawn from a population of normally distributed values with zero mean and unit variance. [...]  Read more

This thesis studies the growth of the John Howard Society of Quebec from its inception as a voluntary Anglican prisoners' aid association in 1892 to its present position in the community as a professional casework agency and member of Welfare Federation of Montreal.  Read more

The symmetric pseudoscalar meson field is applied to the calculation of the radiative effects of the meson field in the nucleus in an attempt to explain the appearance of "forbidden" magnetic radiations. The adiabatic approximation is used in quantizing the meson field with static point nucleons as sources.  Read more

The literature on the enzyme tyrosinase is extensive and to a large extent contradictory. No attempt will be made to give a complete coverage of the publications on this subject. Because of the confusion in the nomenclature and classification of the various enzymes that oxidize phenols, as to properties and function, it is expedient to confine the survey to the relevant details. [...]  Read more

Even in ancient times it was noted that films of oil could affect the nature of water surfaces, for example, breaking up waves in stormy seas. But quantitative studies of films of oil on water were not really made until the middle of the 19th century when it was found (Quincke, 1869) (1), (Plateau, 1873) (2) that measurements of the surface tension of water were poorly reproducible. In 1890, Agnes Pockels (3) made an important contribution to the study of surface oil films. [...]  Read more