McGill University Thèses et mémoires publiés en 1959

The oxidation of starch and cellulose with alkaline hypochlorite is of considerable industrial interest. Starches oxidized with this reagent have wide application in the sizing of textile fibers and paper. Alkaline hypochlorite is also widely used in the bleaching of cellulose pulp. In this study, starch rather than cellulose was chosen, as in cellulose the factor of inaccessibility might have introduced unnecessary complications. The first object of this work was the isolation of the oxidized starch and byproducts in highest yields possible, so that most of the oxidant could be accounted for.  Read more

The discovery by Ross and Hill that wood goes quantitatively into solution when treated with aqueous formaldehyde followed by 72% sulphuric acid was rather unexpected, because use of the acid by itself left a high yield of the lignin in an insoluble, discoloured form known as Klason lignin. The generally accepted view is that Klason lignin has undergone a considerable chemical change involving an inner condensation that rendered it incapable of solution in standard solvents for lignin, such as hot sodium bisulphite. Lignin appears to be built, at least to the extent of about 70%, of oxygenated phenylpropane building stones, …  Read more

The significance of creatine and creatinine in the neuromuscular system was suggested by observations which are now over one hundred years old. The substance to which Chevreul (1, 2) gave the name creatine was obtained by him in 1832 from extracts of meat. Within the next fifteen years, Liebig (3) was able to show that creatine is a normal constituent of the muscles of mammals, birds and fishes. He described many of the chemical characteristics of the compound, and made the important observation that creatine, when heated with mineral acids, loses a molecule of water and is converted into the …  Read more

According to modern concepts a polymer is composed of long chain molecules built up from thousands of monomer units linked together by covalent bonds. The structure of the chain is related to the structure of the monomer units and to the configuration they adopt in the chain, and is largely responsible for the physical properties of the bulk polymer. [...]  Read more

The regulation of any fishery depends for its direction upon the knowledge of the biology of the fish involved. The flying fish, Hirundichthys affinis, is the main source of animal protein available to the 210,000 people living on the island of Barbados. This is only the first in a series of studies sponsored by the Barbados Government in the attempt to intelligently regulate this essential fishery. This work deals with the development of the flying fish from the freshly fertilized egg up to the young fish about 10 days old and about 15mm. in length. Methods of identification of the …  Read more

The legislative elections of 1902 had marked the triumph of the Bloc des Gauches, the coalition of the Radicale with the Socialiste and of their ideals of anti-clericalism, anti-militarism, and peace. At that time, these ideals had come to constitute the essence of democracy; tor the Bloc des Gauches had grown out of the Dreyfus crisis, which was caused by the alignment of the conservative Republican government with Church and Army, the declared foes of the Republican regime.  Read more

The Deoband School (India ) has been, throughout its existence, an orthodox religious movement professing its loyalties, with some puritanical tinge, to the Hanafi school of Muslim fiqh. Politically, till 1947 it upheld the tradition of being vehemently anti-British and has been 'nationalist' through and through. Whatever it has done, it claims to have done it for the cause of Islam and the welfare of the Muslim community. [...]  Read more

The dawn of the nineteenth century saw the East India Company emerge as the major political power in India. Not only was the power of the Mughal Empire broken but also most of the independent principalities that had come into existence as a result of its dismemberment were subjugated by the British. In 1799 Tipu Sultan (1750-1799) was defeated and killed and his territory annexed. Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and a major part of the United Provinces had already passed into the control of the foreigners. Oudh was a British ally and Hyderabad was virtually ruled by a British resident.  Read more

The effects of electric shock accompanying correct responses have been studied extensively by Muenzinger (e. g. 1934a; 1934b) and others (e. g. Tolman, Hall, and Bretnall, 1932; Drew, 1938; Wischner, 1947; Prince, 1956). In general, these investigators have found that electric shocks, administered in connection with correct responses, have a facilitating affect on learning. This finding is contradictory to the law of effect and drivereduction theories, which assume that noxious stimuli accompanying a response tend to decrease the probability of occurrence of that response.  Read more

Marriage is one of the time-honoured customs of human society which appears to have developed out of primeval habits of human mating and assumed the shape of custom, regulated later on by law. The norms of this custom and the details of its institutional set-up have varied from one society to another, according to their level of civilization. Having passed through its multifarious phases of evolution, marriage has grown into a social institution whose significance has been acknowledged almost universally. Celibacy has been condemned in China and Japan, among the Semites and many other peoples.  Read more

The study reported here is part of a larger research project on the preservation of blood which has been in continuous progress in the Department of Biochemistry under the direction of Dr. O. F. Denstedt since the outbreak of World War II. During the trial-and-error phase of the research in the early 1940's, it became evident that in order to do anything about the preservation of red cells it was necessary to know what metabolic systems undergo failure, in order to endeavour to prevent or correct the impairment. Accordingly, the emphasis of the programme was diverted to a study of …  Read more

Some years ago it was customary to discuss a nebulous region of the world called "the north" even though this designation suffered from numerous ambiguities. To eliminate confusion and identify a particular northern portion of the earth, the terms "arctic" and "sub-arctic" were introduced. Thus in searching for common denominators by which they could denote the arctic and sub-arctic, geographers have turned largely to climatic factors. One point often stressed is that the defined regional boundaries are not governed by latitudinal considerations.  Read more

The flow properties of a liquid containing particles in suspension differ from those of the pure liquid in a number of ways which depend principally on the characteristics and concentration of the particles. In the presence of velocity gradients the particles undergo translational and rotational motions, and cause disturbances of the field of flow. In laminar shear flow, the disturbances cause local increases in the velocity gradient; these result in an increase in the rate of dissipation of energy and are manifested in an increase in the viscosity of the suspension over that of the pure suspending liquid (without particles).  Read more

"Que sera donc cet enfant?" se demandait-on à la naissance d'un futur grand homme. La mère d'Édouard Estaunié se posa probablement la même question lorsqu'elle découvrit dans un pupitre un cahier d'écolier appartenant à son fils, alors âgé d'à peine sept ans, et dans lequel il avait écrit un petit récit intitulé "L'Orage". Comme pour annoncer sa future production littéraire, le petit garçon avait ajouté sur la couverture du cahier la série d'œuvres "en préparation" du même auteur. La mère dut se sentir fière de son enfant car elle ne trahit point son secret.  Read more

This study attempts to assess the economic consequences of various types of banking operations and transactions. The general problem examined is therefore a broad one, but fortunately it resolves easily into a series of smaller ones, which may be put as follows: 1. How do banks carry out domestic banking operations, and do they affect the stability of the economy? 2. What determines and influences the lending behaviour of the banking firm?  Read more

The earliest successfu1 attempt to isolate and study the properties of atomic hydrogen was the work of Langmuir in 1911 (1,2,3) in which he found that when a wire of tungsten, platinum or palladium, was heated above 1000°C. in an atmosphere of molecular hydrogen under low pressure, hydrogen atoms were produced and diffused away from the hot wire. The presence of hydrogen atoms was shown by their reduction of many metallic oxides and their reactivity with oxygen and phosphorous at room temperature.  Read more

The main constituent s of most plant cell walls are cellulose, lignin and hemicelluloses, all three of which are invariably present in coniferous and deciduous woods. Cellulose is a long-chain polymer, composed exclusively of anhydroglucopyranose units, linked together by B-glucosidic bonds through the 1, 4-positions. Lignin is a three-dimensional polymer based on phenyl propane units which are connected in a number of different ways, the details of which are still not entirely known.  Read more

The author and co-workers (19) have already reported on estrogen excretion in male subjects with and without previous myocardial infarction. These investigations showed that following the administration of estradiol-17B a, subjects with previous myocardial infarction excrete more urinary estriol relative to estrone and estradiol-17B than the control group. This difference was not apparent in the urinary excretion when estradiol-17B was not administered.  Read more

In formal terms, the literature to be surveyed in this section involves a class of behaviour defined partly by inclusion and partly by exclusion. That is, we shall be concerned with behaviour reinforced by changes in sensory stimulation with the exception of those cases where this change is, or has been, associated with the commonly accepted drives requisite to the survival of the species, such as hunger, thirst or sex. This includes a wide range of experiments dealing with exploratory behaviour, the response to novelty, investigatory reflexes and the like. The class of behaviour under discussion has been most commonly …  Read more

Criticism of Lawrence’s writing, particularly in the last ten years, has been remarkably abundant. The novels have received the greatest share of this attention, and have been the subjects of many interesting and valuable studies. However, The White Peacock and The Trespasser, Lawrence's first two novels, have been misunderstood and neglected by a great number of his critics. They have received less attention than any of the novels except The Boy in the Bush, which Lawrence wrote in collaboration with M.L. Skinner.  Read more

Antibody-antigen interactions characterize both the immune and allergic conditions. The antibodies responsible for the allergic condition have been credited with several unique characteristics both to explain the difference in the clinical manifestation of immunity and allergy, and to explain the failure of detecting these antibodies in vitro. The purpose of the present investigation was to develop a simple, quantitative technique for demonstrating the antibodies in allergic sera.  Read more

The chemistry of carbon and to a lesser extent that of silicon has been extensively studied and recent rapid progress in organosilicon chemistry has prompted renewed interest in the properties of tetracovalent germanium compounds. Much of the work has centred on compounds of the type, R4-nGeXn where n = 0 to 4, R is alkyl or aryl and X is a uni- or divalent atom. Since comprehensive reviews on the chemistry of inorganic and organic germanium compounds are available (56, 57), only a brief outline of the more relevant literature will be given here to facilitate discussion of the reactions …  Read more

Primary and secondary aliphatic and saturated cyclic amines as well as primary aromatic and heterocyclic amines react with trichloro-, trifluoro-, and dichloro-acetonitriles to give the corresponding amidines. Sixteen trichloro-, seven trifluoro- and five dichloro-acetamidines were prepared by procedures characterized by their simplicity, the absence of catalysts and the high yields of the reaction products. Experimental evidence was produced to support the reaction mechanism and certain limitations to the above mentioned reactions were defined.  Read more

An analogue computer multiplier provides the means of forming the product of two physical quantities. In electronic multipliers these quantities are voltages and the multiplier output is also a voltage which is proportional to the product of the two input voltages, at any instant. Thus inputs of Vx and Vy volts will give an output K.Vx .Vy volts where K is a constant for the instrument concerned. An ideal multiplier will accept positive or negative voltages for either Vx or Vy, thereby giving four quadrant operation, and will produce an output which is exactly proportional to the instantaneous product of …  Read more

Lignin forms one of the major components of woody materials. It is difficult to define lignin because its structure is still unknown. However the term lignin may be used to designate a group of high molecular weight and chemically related amorphous compounds, predominantly aromatic and mainly built of phenylpropane units (1). It possesses most of the methoxyl of the woody plant. Lignin is unhydrolysed by acids, easily oxidized, soluble in hot alkali and bisulphite and condenses with phenols and thio-compounds (2). The lignin content of wood varies approximately from 18 to 30 per cent, being lower in hardwoods than in …  Read more

During the latter part of the nineteenth century, a number of investigators began to study the electrical excitation of gases at low pressures, generally with electrodeless discharges. Several of them found that certain gases emitted an afterglow for a few seconds after the current was discontinued. However, there was no serious study of the behaviour until Lewis (1), in 1900, discovered that pure nitrogen subjected to a condensed discharge, at low pressure, produced a "chamois-yellow" afterglow with a banded rather than a continuous spectrum. The most conspicuous bands were one red, two yellow and one green which he identified as …  Read more

D'après les saintes Écritures, l'homme est le maitre; l'animal est son serviteur: "... et dominez sur les poissons de la mer, sur les oiseaux des cieux, et sur toute bête qui se meut sur la terre. " Aussi l'homme se sert-il des animaux pour se nourrir, pour se vêtir, pour faire son travail, pour s'embellir, pour s'amuser, -- et pour s'exprimer. Car dès l'antiquité l'animal a sa place dans la littérature; même dans les lettres le maitre trouve utile son serviteur.  Read more

Mutations, in a general sense, are sudden heritable changes in an -organism whereby progeny may exhibit an altered size, form or composition. They have been classified into thoee involving changes in the chemical structure of the gene (point mutations), those involving chromosomal alterations (translocations, deletion~, inversions, duplications), and those involving changes in chromosome number. · Ionizing radiations and mutagenic chemicals increase the speed at which spontaneous mutations are produced. They also increase the number of mutations so that some which might be so rare as not to have come to the notice of geneticists would become apparent. If a specifie …  Read more

This dissertation reports work which is an integral part of a larger project that has been underway in this laboratory, the ultimate goal of which has been the synthesis and structural elucidation of the mononitration products of 2-aminothiazole. The purpose of the present work is an investigation of the problems associated with the synthesis and structure of the 2-nitraminothiazoles containing electronegative substituents. Three aspects are under consideration here; first, to study the methods by which the 2-aminothiazolecarboxylic acids may undergo mono- and di-nitration.  Read more

Trade takes place between countries because "goods can be obtained from abroad that cannot be produced at home. Also goods that could be produced at home can be obtained at lower cost from other countries". Economists since Ricardo have argued that it pays a country to specialize in the production of those commodities in which it has a comparative advantage. Through specialization, then, a country may be able to buy more of a foreign produced good which could have been produced domestically. It may also obtain goods which could not be produced domestically in exchange for its specialized commodities.  Read more

Sulphides can be divided into two major groups, those which are of hydrothermal origin and those which are of sedimentary origin. The sulphides of sedimentary origin are found in greatest abundance in bituminous rocks and it is these sulphides that have been investigated in the present work. A study of the sedimentary sulphides is of special importance with respect to ore deposits because the various chemical and geological conditions present at the time of deposition, compaction, and metamorphism of the sediment can have a profound effect on the mineral associations and metal concentrations of the rocks.  Read more

In this age of industry and mechanization, the production of power plays an important role in the economy of a country. Nearly seventy-five years have passed since the Compression Ignition Engine (Diesel Engine) made its real bid as a source of power. During those years, progressively, more and more research has been done and more improvements were added to better the design and performance of the engine. The detailed assessment of the engine performance is very important in order to ensure economical operation with a minimum of maintenance. This can be done by an examination of the behaviour of the …  Read more

The past two decades have seen the advent of a number of new chemical engineering techniques for the processing of finely-divided solids or liquids. These are in effect contacting techniques, since the solid particles or liquid droplets are invariably dispersed in a continuous gas or vapor phase. Because of the very large surface areas available for heat and mass transfer, which is usually accompanied by reduced internal diffusional resistance, they provide faster rates of treatment - whether evaporation, drying or chemical reaction - than more conventional methods, while generally permitting better control over the operating conditions. They differ from one …  Read more

This paper contains the results of the first study of a series of diabase sills and dikes in the northern Mackenzie Mountains of northwestern Canada. The Mackenzies are, at this time, one of the least known regions of the Canadian Cordillera. [...]  Read more

Pyrochlore has been found in many localities and promises to be an important source of niobium. Betafite is also widespread in occurrence and has been mined intermittently in Madagascar as a minor uranium ore; in other localities it does not seem to occur in economic quantities. Although several independent studies of betafite and pyrochlore have been undertaken, the relationship of the one mineral to the other is not clear. The X-ray powder patterns of pyrochlore and ignited betafite are very similar although usually not identical. However, the chemical compositions are quite different.  Read more

Many rocks have such architectural appeal in both new and aged structures that they are desirable for construction and decoration. Likewise, rocks with unique chemical and physical properties are valuable for the production of manufactured items. [...]  Read more

Elitist theory divides society into two groups: the rulers, or "elite", and the ruled, or "masses". In the words of H. D. Lasswell, "this division into elite and mass can be made whenever there are any differences in the amount of power enjoyed by the various persans" in a group. The only assumption made is that power is not equally distributed; when one says that every people is ruled by an elite, “what is said, in effect, is that every people 2 is ruled by--rulers.“ The term that is used to describe the non-elite is "masses".  Read more

The role of farming in promoting the expansion of the pioneer frontier is today being taken over by the mining industries, which are leap-frogging the present limits of agriculture and establishing small urban communities in otherwise uninhabited landscapes. Nowhere are better examples of this latter type of pioneering to be found than in the Labrador-Ungava section of the Canadian Shield. There, where the northern frontier of successful commercial agriculture is left far to the south, a rich new mining empire is developing in a land formerly thought or as a sub-arctic waste.  Read more

The leakage of neutrons due to streaming in the annular gaps between the fuel rod and calandria tube has been calculated and plotted for various fuel rod/tube diameter ratios and distances along the rod. The exact function has been approximated and used to evaluate the neutron current in the calandria tube. The current for a hollow tube or vanishing fuel rod agrees with the value obtained by numerical integration by Critoph at AECL. [...]  Read more

Homotransplantation or homografting is the transfer of tissue and organs from members of a species to other members of the same species. The "species" is the characteristic background of homotransplantation.  Read more

A series of research workers in the Department of Geography at McGill University have for several years been engaged in a study of the physiography and plant geography of Quebec-Labrador. The principal results of this study up to the present are two series of reconnaisance maps of the physiographic surface-type and the cover-type, usually the plant-cover. [...]  Read more

Since Islam entered Indonesia by way of trade via India, its first contact with the Indonesians was one of a very peaceful kind. Rich Muslim merchants married Indonesian girls of noble descent, and it was then that Islamic marriage law started to operate on the Indonesian soil. The peaceful conversion of the Indonesians to Islam and the tolerant elements of Islam have formed the foundation of an Indonesian Muslim community, in which Islamic law has gained a growing influence and indigenous adat is left undisturbed in so far this is compatible with Islam. Islamic law has succeeded in influencing the …  Read more

Rasjidi, M. (Supervisor)  Read more

The Chibougamau area lies just south of the 50th parallel and approximately 300 miles due north of Montreal. The area covered by map 304A of the Geological Survey of Canada (Mawdsley and Norman 1935) lies between latitudes 49°45'100" and 50°00'00" north and extends from longitudes 74°00'00" to 74°30'00" west.  Read more

La premiere guerre mondiale venait de finir. L'Europe était épuisée. Les années terribles avaient été une rude épreuve pour tous les intellectuels qui n'étaient pas indifférents au sort de l'homme, et il semblait bien qu'il ne fut plus possible désormais de vivre a l'abri des livres. L'engagement dans la lutte sociale prit normalement la succession de cet engagement dans lequel tous s'étaient un jour trouvé pris sans l'avoir choisi. [...]  Read more

This thesis represents an attempt to answer the question: How full and real is the relationship between Theory and Tradition in Waliullah's thought? In its actual formulation, this question has been related to the Hujjat; for that work not only shows Waliullah's tatbigat (syntheses) at their best, but also creates the proper atmosphere in which any such endeavour could be made.  Read more

In recent years, several studies have been made of the reduction of steroidal oximes to the corresponding amino compounds. The first part of this investigation was concerned with the preparation of certain epimeric 6-aminosteroids of the normal and allo series. Their synthesis was achieved by reduction of the corresponding 6-oximino derivatives with lithium aluminum hydride, and sodium in n-propyl alcohol, and by high pressure catalytic hydrogenation of the corresponding 6-nitro-x5-steroids. [...]  Read more

According to Lewis (1924), when Julius Caesar Arantius looked down upon his dissection of the human brain around 1580, this "somewhat dull student of Vesalius" remarked the similarity between a structure located in the temporal lobe and the Mediterranean sea-horse, or hippocampus. Later morphologists, apparently unimpressed with this analogy, proposed other names, such as "cornu fornicis", and, probably through some confusion, even "hippopotamus". [...]  Read more

A language is in canonical form if its basis has the following structure due to Post: (1) There exists a finite alphabet of distinct letters which can be juxtaposed to form strings, ie, any letter is a string, if b and c are strings then bc is a string, nothing else is a string. [...]  Read more

In 1855, Ju1y 13 fell on a Friday. Between six and seven-o'clock of this rainy (1) summer's evening, a 30-gun (2) corvette, showing the colours of the French Imperial Navy, was being towed to her berth under the battlements of Quebec by the sidewheeler (3) tug "Advance". The guns of the vessel were sounding in salute to the British colours flying over the Citadel, whose own cannon were replying in honour of the tricolour of France (4).  Read more