McGill University Thèses et mémoires publiés en 1963

In recent years there has been much criticism of the teaching of reading and of the materials of instruction. Critics have deplored the high rate of reading failure among high school students. Others claim that there is a lack of interest among adults and youths in good books. It has been alleged that reading materials lack interesting content, have been over-simplified, and are unduly repetitious. A more insistent criticism has been that reading problems and failures can be attributed to the lack of phonetic training in reading instruction. The controversy over the methods of teaching reading probably reached its peak …  Read more

The main features of Scottish history during the eighteenth century consist of the economic revival followed by social changes which in turn precipitated the political awakening of the mass of the people. Prior to the Union and even well into the eighteenth century Scotland remained very poor. This state of poverty to a greater or lesser degree was common to all. If the farmer, the artisan, cottager and labourer suffered poverty the gentry experienced acute and chronic lack of money. In this predominantly agricultural country both the lowly and the high-born concentrated most of their energies to eke out from …  Read more

This study is oriented around the belief that it is the role of mortgage banking to tap the flow of available savings for the purpose of providing an 'adequate' of the flow of mortgage funds. The 'adequacy' of the flow of mortgage funds is tested in this thesis by the following criteria: Do the mortgage lenders supply sufficient funds to finance a new residential construction programme of sufficient size to house the new families continually being formed? Do the mortgage lenders supply sufficient mortgage funds to maintain the position of mortgages in the capital market vis-a-vis other forms of long-term …  Read more

Commercial drying of milk dates back to the midnineteenth century, and since then, much research has aimed at the improvement of the quality of milk powder. This has been especially true since the Second World War, when there was a great demand for dry milk products of high stability and good dispersibility. The process of "instantization" has made possible the production of spray dried skim milk powders which are readily dispersible in cold water. However, little progress has been made towards the production of a readily dispersible whole milk powder. Previous investigations have shown that the wettability of a milk …  Read more

This thesis is a descriptive study of the post-release employment experiences of forty five English-Speaking male parolees in the greater Montreal Area. The objective of this study was to examine various aspects of the parolees' employment experiences, as well as to describe some of the social characteristics which might be related to employment functioning. [...]  Read more

Six exterior-column Slabs of identical sizes and with the identical amounts of longitudinal slab reinforcement and concrete strength and with varying column sections were tested to failure under varying eccentricity of load for the study of the ultimate shearing strength of the slab. The moment reduction factor K, determined by experimental method, was found to be mainly dependent upon the dimensions of the specimens examined. The results gave an average value of the ultimate shear stress of 458 psi., namely 0.1 f'c• which is approximately equal to the tensile trength of concrete. The results were compared with code requirements as …  Read more

Le caractère essentiel de l'Agence pour la sécurité de la navigation aérienne en Afrique et à Madagascar, ASECNA, est la dualité de sa nature. C'est à la fois un instrument d'assistance technique et un organisme de coopération en matière de sécurité aérienne. Historiquement l’ASECNA est le résultat d'une déconcentration de l'administration française de l'aviation civile, le Secrétariat Général à l'Aviation Civile (1). Cette opération fut rendue nécessaire par la décolonisation effectuée par la France en Afrique, à partir de 1956. La décolonisation s'accompagne généralement d'une assistance fournie par l'ex-puissance colonisatrice à l'État nouveau. La collaboration est substituée à la dépendance …  Read more

The present study is concerned with the relation between recall and achievement in a medical school setting. It is part of a general investigation which aims to identify and evaluate factors affecting medical school performance with the ultimate goal of predicting academic standing in medical school applicants. In reviewing the major contributions in this field, Gottheil and Michael (1957) report that premedical grades, and, to a lesser extent, intelligence and aptitude, are associated with medical school achievement. Schwartzman, Hunter, and Prince (1961) have shown, however, that first year medical students who differed significantly in academic rank were similar in intelligence …  Read more

When an animal receives one or more parenteral injection of certain foreign materials - proteins, red blood cells, tissue extracts from another species, bacteria or bacterial products - there generally appears in the serum, within a few days, a substance which possesses the unique property of reacting with the material injected (1). This serum component is termed antibody and the material which stimulated its production is called antigen. The animal which has formed antibodies is said (by convention) to be immunized. The presence of antibodies in the serum of immunized animals may be recognized by the occurrence of certain characteristic …  Read more

A major objective of the Agricultural Sciences is the utilization of' natural resources in such a manner that the effects of factors which reduce the yields of products useful to man, will be minimized. Although nematodes, as parasites of vertebrates and plants, have been recognized as significant factors in reducing agricultural production, they are themselves victims of a number of parasitic organisms. Struggle for existence is universal among living organisms regardless of their biological level, and this competitive relationship between nematodes and other organisms in their environments is by no means unique. Fungi, that prey upon or parasitize microscopic animals, …  Read more

"The main structural principles of Communism are either identical with, or implied in, those of Christianity" said John Macmurray, in a contribution to a symposium on Communism and Christianity published in 1935. The statement sets the problem for this thesis. It is not suggested here merely that there are superficial resemblances in the respective forms of the two movements, but rather that there is an essential similarity, and that this similarity is best seen in a comparison of the Party and the Church. At the same time it is acknowledged that there is an important dissimilarity between the two movements; …  Read more

The man produced radiation had been with us for nearly three-quarters of a century. It represents an element which has significant impact on nearly every phase of human life. In the latter part of last century, the experiments with vaccum dischargers have led to the discovery of X-rays by Roentgen in 1895. This was soon followed by Becherel's (1896) discovery of radiation from radiactive materials. Within months it was recognized that each of these radiation could have injurious effect upon persons exposed to it. The increasing incidence of radiation damage had culminated in the establishment of International Commission of Radiological …  Read more

In 1917 Soddy in discussing his ideas about atomic nuclei conceived the possibility of nuclei having the same charge and mass but being different in their radioactive behaviour. Hahn first discovered this phenomenon of nuclear isomerism in 1921. He found two beta activities of half-lives 1.15 minutes and 6.7 hours in the decay of thorium extracted from natural uranium, both of which activities reverted to uranium. We now know the decay chain to be as follows.  Read more

Mean seasonal cross-sections along 80 degrees west were constructed from daily analysed data. By this procedure it was possible to formulate means and standard deviations with respect to various jet stream cores and selected temperatures as well as the usual geographical means. A set of such sections for the period June 1959 - May 1960 is presented and discussed.  Read more

The following work is based on a study of the trematodes collected from the fishes of Lake Hertel. It deals with the taxonomy of the trematodes and with some of the relationships between the host and the parasite. Lake Hertel is situated at an elevation of 570 feet on Mont St. Hilaire one of the Monteregion Hills in the St. Lawrence Lowlands. The lake measures about 2,000 feet in length and in width. It has a surface area of between 75 and 80 acres and a maximum depth of between 24 and 30 feet depending on the season of the …  Read more

The climate of Knob Lake is analyzed by means of a detailed examination of the eight years’ (1955-1962) meteorological records of the first-order weather station operated by the personnel of the McGill Sub-Arctic Research Laboratory. Chapter II deals with the physical controls of climate and Chapter III the dynamic climatology. The main part of the thesis is Chapter IV, which is concerned with an analysis of the meteorological data. The final chapter offers some suggestions as to the use of the data in the field of applied climatology. It is hoped that the numerous tables and figures will aid future …  Read more

The mathematical framework for statistical decision theory is provided by the theory of probability which in turn has its foundations in the theory of measure and integration. In constructing a probability model for an experiment, the first step is a consideration of what are the possible outcomes of the experiment. We assume that all possibilities for the outcomes can be foreseen, and we refer to this collection of outcomes as the sample space H. An arbitrary outcome or point of this space is designated by x. The events to be studied are aggregates of such outcomes, they are represented by …  Read more

Investigations of the participation of non-endocrine organs in steroid transformations are gaining equal prominence with those studies in which end products of overall steroid metabolism are sought in the excretia. Although the liver probably plays an important role in this regard, the importance of extrahepatic tissues in steroid metabolism is becoming increasingly apparent. In 1948 Werthessen and collaborators (1, 2, 3) reported that incubation of estrone in blood resulted in destruction of the 17-keto function of the steroid accompanied by a loss of biological activity. On the other hand, Bischoff and associates (4, 5) incubated the red cells of rabbit …  Read more

This thesis attempts to assess the contribution of a layman, Henry Balnaves of Halhill, to the success of the Reformation in Scotland. In spite of the tact that numerous authorities have dealt with the history or the Reformation in Scotland in the sixteenth century, very few have written about the people who supported, encouraged, and actively fought for the outstanding figures of the periode There are maey individuals who played important roles in the unt"olding of the events of the times who have been passed over by most authors.. Because so muoh attention bas been directed to the endeavours ot …  Read more

It has been argued that the principles of stimulus generalization (SG) derived from conditioning experiments also apply to human voluntary responses (e.g., Gibson, 1939; Brown, et al., 1951; Andreas, 1954; Mednick & Freedman, 1960). In order to prove this contention empirically, several experiments have been performed on a variety of voluntary responses, such as, verbal, perceptual, conceptual and judgmental. However, a critical survey of these studies, such as that reported in the following pages, reveals that they have failed to demonstrate convincingly any more than superficial similarities between their results and the results reported in conditioning experiments. Furthermore, their authors …  Read more

This study was undertaken to determine the nature of the cell wall of Amoebidium parasiticum Cienk. The walls of most fungi studied up to the present time have contained either chitin or cellulose. In one case, the wall contained both chitin and cellulose (Fuller and Barshad, 1960). Staining tests with the wall of Amoebidium parasiticum failed to reveal the presence of either chitin or cellulose (Schenk, 1858; Whisler, 1961). Therefore it was considered an interesting problem to determine exactly what materials were present in this cell wall.  Read more

Dipole-dipole interactions in various paramagnetic crystals have been studied. Line broadening, an effect caused by dipolar interactions, has been investigated in KJ {Cr Co} (CN)6 and Rb {Cr Al} (SO4). 12H2O as a function of the concentration of Cr3+. In the alum, the theory of line widths based on dipolar interactions agrees well with experimental results. In chromicyanide, the measured widths are greater than the widths calculated from dipolar interactions alone; inhomogeneous broadening is known to take place. Spin lattice relaxation rates in the two mentioned crystals were measured at 4.2°K; the rates are dependent on the concentration of the …  Read more

In the first decades of this century, Professor Werner Sombart was regarded as one of the greatest German economists, but a controversial figure even within his own country. The task of these pages is to analyze his teachings and doctrines, to assess his contributions to economies, and to determine how his approach to economies differed from that of his great western contemporaries. Few economists have been as prolific as Sombart. He wrote many books and treatises and innumerable journal articles. This work, which culminated in his description of the economies of societies in all epochs from the Carolingians to his …  Read more

After a brief discussion of the causes which gave rise to the existing protectionist aviation policies and their consequences in Western-Europe, "the Road towards a European Common Air Market” deals with the development of air law in Europe from the outset of aviation until the present days. Next there follows an analysis of the problems of civil aviation in Europe, emphasizing the need for closer co-operation between both governments and airlines, and of the various forms of collaboration and co-ordination between airlines. Mention is also made of a number of governmental and private efforts to facilitate civil air transport and …  Read more

Anorthosites and their associated rock types have been a subject of controversy for a considerable number of years. Several genetic theories have been suggested to explain the observed field characteristics, but none have been completely accepted by authorities on the subject. Theories on the origin of anorthosite may be classed as magnetic, metasomatic, and anatectic, and all contain useful ideas. Where an aspect of the problem appears to be successfully solved by one genetic theory, another remains embarrassingly unexplained. It is quite possible that a complex series of events is responsible for the formation of the anorthosites and their associated …  Read more

This thesis is concerned with a study of the experiences ten delinquent boys had, in their pre-adolescence, as participants in recreation and informal education agencies. It seeks to explore, by analyzing these experiences, whether the recreation agency can play a role in the prevention and prediction of juvenile delinquency. A sample group of ten delinquents, who had experiences in recreation agencies, were selected from among the residents of the Boys’ Farm and Training School in Shawbridge, Quebec. Records kept at the Boys’ Farm and Training School and interviews with the boys, were the sources of data. In the interviews, questions …  Read more

Spence-Sales, Harold (Supervisor)  Read more

Of all the major vegetational regions recognized on the earth's surface the tropical grasslands are those which most defy definition and on which least agreement has been reached concerning their origin and present environmental controls. The literature on the subject is already extensive, these grasslands having attracted the attention of a large number of natural scientists, in particular botanists, geographers and zoologists, yet almost all this work suffers from 'inadequate field data, and an almost total lack of experimental evidence’. {J. S. Beard, 1953; p. 149.) In consequence, interpretations tend to be highly coloured by, one, the nature of the …  Read more

Phillips, J. (Supervisor)  Read more

Gawain, Arthur's great nephew, can be traced to as remote an antiquity as any other Arthurian knight. He appears in the earliest stages of Arthurian tradition, which long preceded any written records. He was known on the continent as early as the eleventh century. Moreover, he was celebrated, both on the continent and in England, as the nonpareil or Arthur' a knights. He is connected with Arthur from earliest times, and in the oldest romantic stories of Arthur he is shown as the King's constant companion and favourite. Thus, the romantic chroniclers - Geoffrey of Monmouth, Wace and Layamon – …  Read more

This thesis has a threefold purpose: (1) To set forth the value of the currency ratio in Canada from Confederation to the present day, and to examine the historical trend in this ratio (Part Three). (2) To indicate the importance of this ratio as a limit to the expansion of bank credit by presenting a systematic account of the literature on bank credit expansion, (Part Two - A), and to perform actual calculations evaluating bank expansion multipliers tor Canada (Part Five). (3) To examine some of the main causal factors which determine the value of this ratio, and to examine …  Read more

The St. Lawrence Lowlands in the Montreal area are dominated by eight elevated protrusions known as the MONTEREGIAN HILLS. These stretch in a somewhat curved line from Montreal to the Eastern Townships and from west to east are called: Mount Royal, Mount Johnson., Mount St. Bruno, Mont St. Hilaire, Rougemont, Mount Yamaska, Shefford Mountain and Brome Mountain. Their dominant vegetation is forests of the Northern Conifer-Hardwood type. To the northwest of Mount Royal the Laurentian Plateau occurs, and on the southeast, Shefford and Brome Mountains border on the forward thrusts of the Appalachian System. Both of these highlands and the …  Read more

Much of the theoretical foundation of modern organic chemistry is based upon observations of the effect of changing molecular structure upon acid-base equilibria of many types of organic compounds. For many years after Hammett introduced it the concept of the acidity function, Ho, as an unique extension of the pH scale to concentrated acid solutions remained a useful and satisfactory way of treating strong acidic systems. However, evidence has accumulated from recent work to indicate that a single scale probably does not exist even for indicator bases of fairly similar structure. This is corroborated by the present work in which …  Read more

The purpose of this thesis is to introduce a new mathematical approach to the study of evolution by natural selection. Practically all of contemporary mathematical evolution theory is encompassed by the field of population genetics, which takes the empirical facts of Mendelian genetics as given and infers their evolutionary consequences. The writer has approached the subject from the opposite direction. This thesis takes the occurrence of evolution by natural selection as a given fact, and emphasizes that mere chance could not have produced the highly adapted organisms we see around us within the limitations of time and space to which …  Read more

From 1927 to 1930 various groups of investigators demonstrated that adrenal cortical extracts were capable of prolonging the life of adrenalectomized cats (1-4) and dogs (5). Subsequently, Wintersteiner, Vars and Pfiffner (6,7) showed that after the removal of various crystalline substances from adrenal cortical extracts, a non-crystallizable amorphous residue remained which was more active than the separated crystalline components in maintaining the life of an adrenalectomized dog. Kendall, Mason and associates (8) also found that the most physiologically active traction remained in solution and that it was at least ten times more active than compound B. similar findings were reported …  Read more

Since Charles Darwin' s voyage of botanical exploration in H. M. S. "Beagle", the flora of oceanic islands has stimulated a curiosity among biogeographers out of all proportion to their size. Because true oceanic islands in effect represent field laboratories, in which changing ecological conditions may be observed within strict limitations of area, and frequently of time, if the dates of alien introductions are known, much of the interest has focussed upon ecological conflicts between those species which are endemic to the island's flora, and those which have been introduced either accidentally, or purposefully by man. In particular, man's role …  Read more

Throughout the twentieth century there has been a growing awareness of the adolescents' need for realistic guidance in choosing their vocations. Today, the increased educational opportunities extended to the children of all social and economic classes, through compulsory public schooling and scholarship programs, have widened the scope of career choice immeasurably. Undoubtedly, this trend towards equal opportunities is a good thing; however, it contributes towards making the selection of a realistic educational program, and the choice of an ultimate career, a more difficult task. Moreover, as higher learning comes within the means of children of all classes, post-secondary school training …  Read more

It is obvious that while blindness results from bilateral section of the optic nerves, the complex function of vision does not reside in these tracts to the exclusion of all other parts of the nervous system. What can be stated confidently, however, is that the circuitry which is the indispensable anatomical basis of vision does run in these tracts. Similarly, the occurrence of unconsciousness subsequent to a local lesion in the brain does not prove that consciousness resides in that area to the exclusion of any other area, but only that the integrity of the damaged region is essential to …  Read more

Proposed reform plans on the federal level for the West German schools have interested me for some time have often wondered what concept of an appropriate and realisable education system the Germans would formulate themselves once they had regained their independence World War II. [...]  Read more

Jaundice is the clinical manifestation of increased levels of serum bilirubin, and is evident when this level rises above 2 mg%. Jaundice results from a breakdown in either uptake, conjugation or excretion or bilirubin by the liver, and the origin or the symptom can usually be determined by the type of pigment present in the serum. About 50% of all newborn infants exhibit some degree of jaundice, which seldom exceeds 10 mg% and is maximal between the third and fourth days of life. This is generally referred to as “icterus neonatorum” or physiological jaundice. Superimposed on this "icterus neonatorum” are …  Read more

It appears reasonable to assume that measurements and tests in Athletics, Gymnastics and Physical Education in general, developed from athletic contests in which it was, relatively, a simple matter to determine the winner. If we take the flat race as the model, held at one place on one date, then it was not a difficult task to see that the first person who passed a given point was declared the winner. When too many entries precluded the running of the race at one time and at one place, then beats became necessary. At first only winners of beats went forward …  Read more

The main purpose of this work was to determine whether ethanolamine is a precursor of vitamin B6 in the excised tomato root. The suggestion that this might be the case arose from the fact that ethanolamine replaces the vitamin in the nutrition of excised tomato roots grown in sterile culture (Boll, 1954). Analytical data presented by Boll (1959) were interpreted to mean that ethanolamine is not a precursor of vitamin B6 in the excised tomato root. However, it became necessary to reexamine this question because of some recent work by Morris and Woods (1959), who reported that glycoladehyde (GA) gave …  Read more

A study was made in Alberta of the pattern of hailfall from four swath-giving storms, in order to determine whether or not, within the borders of the swath, there existed local hail-free regions. [...]  Read more

In-vivo investigations of renal tubular transport of the imino acids and glycine in man and rat have revealed that these compounds may share a common membrane transfer mechanism. However, the locus of "commonness” cannot be resolved by such techniques. In-vitro studies reported in this communication permit the application of Michaelis-Menten formulation to the kinetics of transport of these compounds in rat kidney cortex slices. The data indicate that L-proline, hydroxy-L-proline and glycine cannot be transported by identical mechanisms but that there is some aspect of these systems which is common. The order of affinity for transport in-vitro is proline > …  Read more

The limitations of the presently available techniques concerning the prediction of frost effects were pointed out. A freezing apparatus was designed and constructed to conduct laboratory freezing tests on Arctic soils. The experimental observations did not agree with predictions based on the currently used grain-size criterion. A new frost-susceptibility concept was introduced end a method of evaluating relative frost-susceptibility was proposed. Predicted values were successfully compared with observed frost effects. The relative importance of external conditions was discussed for the particular case of rapid freezing. Laboratory observations were applied with success to the prediction of frost penetration for Lake Hazen …  Read more

In this thesis, an attempt is made to study the role of the temporal lobe in vestibular function. Vestibular tests were performed on 19 normal adults which made up the control group. 9 Seizure Patients with temporal lobe lesions were also tested. It is thought that lesions of the temporal lobe may produce directional preponderance of nystagmus to calorie stimulation on the ipsilateral side. This means that the homolateral labyrinth is more sensitive to hot water and the contralateral labyrinth to cold water stimulation. In the control series of 19 cases, 63 percent showed directional preponderance in more than two …  Read more

Adsorption is a physical phenomenon which occurs when gas or liquid molecules are brought into contact with a solid surface. It is a result of intermolecular attractive forces of the solid and the substance adsorbed. The attractive forces are different for each system. This variation of attractive forces causes an increased concentration of one molecular type on the solid surface when two different molecules are brought into contact with the solid. The process is reversible. In the chemical engineering sense, adsorption may be defined in terms of a unit operation which deals with the utilization of surface forces and the …  Read more

The title "maker," which Dunbar was to apply again to Chaucer in his ‘Lament for the Makaris’, later drew from Sir Philip Sidney the epithets “high and incomparable.” The very name “poet," he writes, "commeth of this word ‘Poiein’, which is to make: wherein I know not, whether by lucke or wisedome, wee Englishmen have mette with the Greekes in calling him a maker.” Chaucer’s right to this title in the fullest sense of Sidney’s description has long been regarded as indisputable. But to make the term "rethor” virtually synonymous with "makar," as Dunbar seems to do, is to pass …  Read more

The suppression of the formation of corticosterone by the rat adrenal tissue in vivo and in vitro by androgens is reported. There is some evidence that androgens can be converted to more polar compounds by the incubated glands. Two such metabolites of 17α-methyl-Δ5-androstene-3β, 17β-diol (MAD) have been investigated. One is methyltestosterone, probably formed by the oxidation of MAD by the enzyme, 3β-hydroxydehydrogenase. The other may, in addition, contain one or more extra hydroxyl groups. Even more polar compounds have been observed. Whether these originate from the exogenous androgens or arise as a consequence of diversion of corticoid synthesis from corticosterone …  Read more

At the present time our understanding of rock behaviour under mining conditions is largely empirical. Limitations in this approach have been recognized and laboratory testing is gradually being introduced as another source of information. An adequate correlation of laboratory test results with field conditions has not been established but test results are being published, as in the report on mining practices at Elliot Lake (1)*, on the basis of their comparative value. This study aims at establishing some of the physical properties of an andesite rock by conducting tests on specimens cut from diamond drill core. The results may be …  Read more