McGill University Theses and dissertations published in 1964

The simultaneous and continuous recording of two meteorological parameters, atmospheric pressure in a meso-scale network of microbarographs and precipitation by a 3-cm radar, permitted the study of two pressure phenomena (jump line and pressure dome) in relation to precipitation. The jumps were found to be of two basic types, one followed by a pressure dome and associated with severe weather, and the other showing as a step on the barograph traces and not associated with weather. The pressure domes were found to be closely associated with precipitation, some starting with, some developing towards and others intensifying with the radar echoes. …  Read more

While still in Africa, and nearing the end of an epic expedition that had brought him across the heart of the African continent from Zanzibar to the Congo estuary on the Atlantic coast, Henry M. Stanley wrote the following letter to his co-sponsor, the Daily Telegraph, the letter appearing in that paper on 12 November, 1877. Stanley was indeed showing foresight, both commercial and political, for he was anticipating by only a few years the tremendous 'scramble' for Africa that was to engage the European Powers in the last two decades of the nineteenth century.  Read more

ln May 1962 the McGill University Savanna Research Project wasestablished and has been conducted since that date in the Department ofGeography p McGill University and in the savannas of the Rupununi Di strict pBritish Guiana and the Territorio do Rio Brancop Brazi!.It is generally recognised that although a very wide range of theoryhas been propounded to explain the nature and origin of savannas p no onehas yet brought forward a single convincing viewpoint which has met withuniversal acceptance. One reason for this is that the majority of theoriesextant are based upon inadequate fie ld data with almost a total lack …  Read more

In May 1962 the McGill University Savanna Research Project was established and has been conducted since that date in the Department of Geography, McGill University and in the savannas of the Rupununi District, British Guiana and the Territorio do Rio Branco, Brazil. It is generally recognised that although a very wide range of theory has been propounded to explain the nature and origin of savannas, no one has yet brought forward a single convincing viewpoint which has met with universal acceptance. One reason for this is that the majority of theories extant are based upon inadequate field data with almost …  Read more

Evidence from paleopathology indicates that cancer is a very ancient disease. Preserved relies of prehistoric times reveal wide geographic and zoologic distribution of malignancy. Dinosaurs of the Mesozoic period are said to have shown signs of cancer, and other evidence of its antiquity (Sambon cited by Haddow) (68) are to be found in the treasures of the pyramids, from the Etruscan tombs, from Peruvian mummies and from the cuneiform tablets of the library of Nineveh. The earliest medical record known to man (94) is the "Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus". This anonymous relic of antiquity is generally regarded by historians as …  Read more

Shortly following Berger’s (1929) rediscovery of the electroencephalogram (EEG) and development of the basic techniques involved, several investigators subjected the electric phenomena to the test of conditionability (Durup & Fessard, 1935; Jasper & Shagass, 1941; Knott & Henry, 1941; Loomis, Harvey & Hobart, 1936; Travis & Egan, 1938). Aside from their intrinsic worth as experimental contributions, there are two additional reasons why these pioneering studies are of importance. On the one hand it is interesting to note that the technical developments took place in the heyday of post-Watsonian behaviourism, at a time when Guthrie (1930; 1935) and Hull (1934; 1943) …  Read more

Quantitative determinations were made, by a newly developed method, of p-coumaric, ferulic, sinapic, p-hydroxybenzoic, vanillic and syringic acids which occur as alkali-hydrolyzable derivatives in ethanolic extracts and in ethanol-insoluble residues of wheat tissues. Changes in the ethanol-soluble and ethanol-insoluble derivatives of these acids during growth and development were determined. A new phenolic acid, orthoferulic acid, was isolated from wheat. C14-labeled compounds were administered to wheat shoots and their incorporation into lignin and into hydroxycinnamic acids was measured. Labeled CO2, phenylalanine or tyrosine were incorporated more readily into the insoluble derivatives of hydroxycinnamic acids than into ethanol-soluble derivatives whereas the reverse …  Read more

Soil nitrogen is important from an agronomic viewpoint, because nitrogen is essential in the synthesis of complex organic substances such as proteins, which are an important source of food for man and feed for animals. The total nitrogen present in most soils is relatively small, and is constantly undergoing many transformations, both chemical and microbiological. However, only a significantly small fraction of the total soil nitrogen is in a form that is available to plants. The ease with which available inorganic nitrogen compounds may be lost from the soil through leaching, erosion and crop removal is an indication of the …  Read more

Barbados is a small island some 300 miles north of the closest mainland shore, South America. Its position, 13° North, 59° West, places it to the east of the Antilles, from which it is separated by the Tobago Trench. While located in the North Equatorial Current, it is on the northern edge of the influence of the South Equatorial Current, and is the first island of the West Indian group that these currents pass before entering the Caribbean Sea travelling westward parallel to the shores of South America. The island has an area of 166 square miles, and is roughly …  Read more

The term 'international organization' embraces two quite different kinds of institutions, the 'inter-governmental organization' and the 'non-governmental organization'. [...]  Read more

Seed production areas and seed consuming areas rarely coincide in this era of scientific agriculture and efficient transportation. That it is not necessary for the two to coincide is based on the premise that the performance of a plant is directly associated with its own genotype and not on conditions under which the seed was produced. McFadden (1963) has cast serious doubt on the validity of this premise with the discovery that the same variety of barley would produce different yields in the same yield trial if the seed were grown in different geographical locations. He found, for instance, that …  Read more

In a disjunctive reaction time (DRT) task each class of signals (Sa, sb, etc.) requires a different response (Ra, Rb, etc.). Some interest has recently been shown in disjunctive RT tasks in which successive trials follow each other in a continuous series (Sa-Ra, Sb-Rb, Sb-Rb, Sa-Ra, etc.). This type of experimental paradigm has made it possible to study the way in which various properties of the series affect speed of discriminative responses. Three such serial performance affects on DRT are explored in the present study: (a) vigilance affect, (b) relative frequency effect, and (c) a proactive effect. Some Serial Performance …  Read more

This chapter will be predominantly concerned with the institutional framework of the nationalized industrial sector of the Polish economy in order to throw some light on the setting and constraints which surround a state-owned industrial enterprise. However, prior to the exposition of the present administrative and planning systems we shall attempt to present to the reader the highlights of the evolution of these systems. For that purpose we shall concentrate on some of the aspects of the development of the centralized planning system in Poland after World War II through the Three-Year Plan of reconstruction and the Six-Year Plan of …  Read more

The currently accepted ideas on the formation of the pancreas revolve around the belief the organ developes from two separate primordial which arise from distinctly different points along the longitudinally disposed wall of the foregut. Accordingly it has been contended that certain portions of the duct system in the adult gland are associated with one or the other primordium developmentally. Many variations in the patterns displayed by the intraparenchymal duct system have been described but little attention has been given as to how such a wide range of variation might be explained from a developmental point of view. By studying …  Read more

Rhesus monkeys and chimpanzees that have been separated from their mothers, either at birth or some months later, and raised under restricted conditions in the laboratory, display stereotyped behavior patterns that are not usually seen in primates captured in the field (Davenport & Menzel, 1963; Mason & Green, 1962; Nissen, 1956) or in animals raised by their mothers in the laboratory (Jensen & Tolman, 1962). One of the most commonly observed forms of stereotypy in monkeys and chimpanzees is toe- or thumb-sucking (Masan, 1963); monkeys also display patterns of crouching, self-clasping, and rocking (Bernstein & Masan, 1962). Chimpanzees reared in …  Read more

A recent study of the local union-management relationship in forty-one plants in the United States stated in its conclusions that a number of challenging questions remained to be answered. One of these was identified as the problem of the effect of different collective bargaining structures upon the relationship.  Read more

The scientific principle considered in this thesis is the relation at the surface of the earth, of the amplitude, phase and frequency of orthogonal components of the naturally occurring electric and magnetic field fluctuation to the resistivity profile of the subsurface geology. A method of resistivity profiling, known as magnetotellurics, was presented in a paper by Cagniard, (1953) and extended in later papers by Wait, (1954) Tikhonov and Shakhsuvarov (1956), Cantwell and Madden (1960), Smith, Provazek and Bostick, (1961), Price, (1962), Vozoff, Hasegawa and Ellis (1963) and others. Results obtained by these researchers have shown that the basic theory of …  Read more

In spite of the fact that pulmonary emphysema has been recognized for one hundred and fifty years or more, it has only been in the last fifteen years that extensive efforts have been made by anatomists, pathologists, physiologists, biochemists and clinicians to correlate its various aspects. Unfortunately these efforts have not been completely successful in clarifying the aetiology and pathogenesis of the disease and in fact until recently there was no universally accepted definition of emphysema. The definition that will be used in this study is the one proposed at the Ciba Guest Symposium (1959): “Emphysema is a condition of …  Read more

This study is an inquiry into the problems of selection of two communities of Metropolitan Montreal as a preliminary step to a community organization project the objective of which is to increase the satisfaction of existing community needs from the available, but not fully utilized, community resources. In the first three chapters of this thesis, the rationale for the study is presented and the scientific base of the study is analyzed. In the following two chapters, the methodology of the study is developed and the study process in which the two communities are selected is described. A comparative study of …  Read more

The metal industry supplies its products in a great variety of shapes and conditions for use by the fabricator. One of the most important forms is sheet or strip which may be used as they are, or fabricated further by such processes as drawing and spinning. The manufacturing process for metal sheet is the subject of this work; the metal investigated was copper. The purpose of the study was to measure the mechanical properties of copper sheet produced by two different methods, and to compare the data in order to see if one method had any clear advantages over the …  Read more

Tyrosine, DOPA, DOPamine and N-acetyl DOPamine have been identified as the only phenolic substances occurring in the eggs or the house cricket, Acheta domesticus (L.). This is the first report or 2-diphenols in insect eggs known to the author. The quantitative variation and histochemical location of these substances indicate that they are involved in the formation of the serosal cuticle. N-acetyl DOPamine is probably the precursor of the quinone which tans the serosal epicuticle at the end or water absorption. Free DOPamine has been identified as the only free phenol in the extra embryonic fluid. The chemical identification and estimation …  Read more

Membrane sulfhydryl (SH) groups have been reported to be important for the maintenance of red cell integrity in vivo (Jacob and Jandl, 1962). A technique has been developed for the determination of reactive membrane sulfhydryl content in intact erythrocytes, utilizing subhemolytic concentrations of p-chloromercuribenzoate (PMB). The erythrocyte membrane of 52 healthy subjects contained 2.50 - 2.85 x 10^-16 moles of reactive SH groups (mean 2.50 +/- 0.20) per erythrocyte, when determined by this method. A 27-36% reduction of erythrocyte membrane SH content was observed in various conditions characterized by accelerated red cell destruction, including glucose- 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, drug-induced, …  Read more

Outgoing energy budgets for the sea surface are calculated for various circulation types over the Norwegian Sea, based on daily weather maps of January 1959-62. After a discussion of the various equations used, an analysis of the different energy terms is given, calculated from the available synoptic and upper air observations. The results are presented for each term of the energy budget and for the net outgoing energy flux, in the form of maps. They are then analysed for the main types along an air trajectory; a comparison between the types is made, using areal and latitudinal means of the …  Read more

In 1843 Macaulay, with one of those mistakes that so cheer the student of that infallible dogmatist, proclaimed that one unpardonable fault, the fault of tediousness, pervades the whole of the ‘Faerie Queene’. We become sick of cardinal virtues and deadly sins, and long for the society of plain men and women. Of the persons who read the first canto, not one in ten reaches the end of the first book, and not one in a hundred perseveres to the end of the poem. Very few and very wary are those who are in at the death of the Blatant …  Read more

Fifteen normal subjects were administered two oral doses each of codeine, aspirin, tandearil, placebo, and "double" placebo (DP1). Tolerance levels to experimentally induced pain were assessed predrug and at 1/2, 1-1/2, 2-1/2, and 3-1/2 hours after ingestion. Pain relief under placebo was highly consistent within each day and from one day to the next. Intersubject variation in pain relief under placebo was significantly greater than intrasubject variation. Responses to placebo and DP1 were highly correlated. Situational factors (mood and method of drug administration) were found to be unrelated to placebo response. Six of the 15 subjects were identified as consistent …  Read more

This study describes a new plan of using non-professional staff in a Social Service Department of a metropolitan General Hospital. It aims to determine the types of assignments that can appropriately be undertaken by non-professional personnel without prejudice to the professional statue of the Social Service Department. It examines the assignments undertaken by non -professional personnel in two test periods covering a span of five months. The study includes a description of the research setting, and of the problems that press for the use of non-professional personnel. The work loads and responsibilities of the professional and non-professional staff members who …  Read more

The method of transport, and the emplacement of ores is a problem of great importance to the geologist. If we can improve our understanding of how ore bodies are emplaced, the search for new, and the extension of known deposits will be made very much easier. This thesis is a small contribution towards this end.  Read more

While accurate measurement of the excretory aspect of renal function is clearly a vital part of the assessment and follow-up of many patients with renal or urological disease, this unfortunately is not always easy to obtain. Screening tests such as BUN, serum creatinine and I.V.P. may not become abnormal until 2/3 of renal function has been lost, so that more finite clinical tests are necessary. Those commonly used are the creatinine clearance and the P.S.P. test. It is our experience, considering the overall hospital population, that 1/4 to 1/3 of these tests give inaccurate results when the urine is collected …  Read more

This thesis is concerned with the analysis of soma factors pertinent to the social adjustment in Montreal of fifty Hungarian refugees. The thesis is a by-product of a larger study conducted by three psychiatrists and the present writer in 1961.The study seeks to determine some of the factors that help or hinder the immigrant or refugee in his social adjustment to the host-country. The scope is limited to the exploration of a few major questions, e.g., language ability, employment and economic situation, and social and cultural adjustment. The project is limited by the small number of subjects and by the …  Read more

The most important drawbacks of gastric surgery for peptic ulcer have been: operative mortality, recurrences and the post-gastrectomy syndromes. Technical improvements have diminished the importance of the first two factors, and have focused attention on the post-gastrectomy syndromes. Research in the pathophysiology of the post-gastrectomy syndromes, both by clinical observation and animal experimentation, has served in distinguishing the following distinct entities (1).  Read more

The first significant study of biochemical changes which accompany vomiting or gastric succion in animal or man was made by Gamble in 1925 (31). Although a few predecessors had observed the therapeutic effect of sodium chloride infusions in such experimental situations, (37, 38, 51) Gamble first demonstrated that blood alkalosis was a major alteration secondary to loss of gastric juice and studied the corrective effect of acute sodium chloride infusion. His data have been amply confirmed by certain of his contemporaries and a number of subsequent works (35, 43, 3a, 10, 15, 36, 44, 46, 47, 67, 78, 22).  Read more

Electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) of unanesthetized animals offers a powerful technique for the study of brain structure and function. The method was originally employed by physiologists interested in determining the functional organization of the nervous system (Hess, 1957; Ranson 5 Magoun, 1939). But recently, psychologists have utilized stimulation with the object of determining the role of the central nervous system in the control of behavior. [...]  Read more

Rocks are generally heterogeneous and anisotropic. The development of the geological sciences has required some form of classification. This has been based largely on origin and mineral contents. Such classifications meat geological requirements but, except in an empirical sense, give little indication of rocks reaction to stress. Even at the present time, most operations involving rocks are initiated and conducted more or less on a trial-and-error basis. Research to develop methods of predicting rock behavior under mining conditions is the only alternative to these empirical methods. In a scientific age such research becomes very urgent.  Read more

Previous work in this department by the present author and others, has demonstrated that changes accompanying the acquisition of resistance to chloramphenicol in Salmonella indicate structural changes in the surface of resistant organisms. Similar changes have been reported by other workers investigating both gram-positive and gram-negative chloramphenicol resistant organisms. The additional observation of a simultaneous increase in resistance to other antibiotics such as penicillin implies a possible non-specific mechanism contributing to resistance linked to the relative permeabilities of the cells. Work was therefore continued with a resistant strain of Salmonella typhimurium in an attempt to find out more about the …  Read more

Dés que parurent les premiers livres de Simone de Beauvoir et de Jean-Paul Sartre, une étrange malédiction sembla s'abattre sur les auteurs et leurs disciples les plus sincères. Si "la dérision, en général, fréquente les parvis des dieux", il n'en reste pas moins vrai que la mode de l'existentialisme "la dernière absurdité du siècle" allait jeter la confusion dans les esprits et réduire au bavardage une philosophie "dont tout le sens est de nous arracher au bavardage". En 1943, Simone de Beauvoir ne soupçonnait aucunement l’étrange fortune à venir de l'existentialisme.  Read more

The aim of this study is to examine Galsworthy's portrait of Soames Forsyte through the course of six novels, to interpret the changes in that portrait, and to determine whether Soames really developed, as leading critics suggest, from a villainous to a heroic character. Galsworthy wrote his best novel, The Man of Property, in an uncharacteristically rebellous mood because of the circumstances of his courtship of Ada. As he grew older and more tolerant, as he and his wife were accepted into the society against which they had rebelled, and as his position in literature became firmly established, he looked …  Read more

The purpose of this study is to examine the treatment process at ten plants in the Montreal area, located on the Riviere des Mille Iles and the Riviere des Prairies, treating the water for public water supply. The efficiency and economy of these ten municipal filtration plants have been examined. Field surveys have been made and samples collected over a period of eleven weeks to accumulate data for interpretation. The quality of raw water and its fluctuation, particularly during the spring break-up of the rivers, is considered. The application efficiency and quantity of chemicals employed in water coagulation are investigated. …  Read more

Although the fact that man might produce malformed offspring in animals by altering the maternal environment was stated in the Bible (Genesis 30), when Jacob caused Laban’s sheep and goats to have striped and speckled young by holding striped rods in front of the females at the moment of conception, experimental teratology is a relatively new field. Hale, the first scientific mammalian experimental teratologist, produced a litter of 11 eyeless pigs by feeding the mother a vitamin A deficient diet (1933). At the present time most teratologist, have progressed from merely producing malformations and enumerating them, to making use of …  Read more

Savannas are one of the largest and least known vegetation types on the surface of the earth. They are so poorly known that they have neither been adequately mapped nor has their area been measured. However, the total area of savannas in the world may be almost 1 million square miles. In South America, they cover an area probably larger than any other type of vegetation on the continent. Savannas occupy over 20% of the area of Brazil, as much as 100,000 square miles in Venezuela, and not much less in Bolivia and Columbia (vide Shantz, 1954). Although savannas are …  Read more

This essay does not presume to offer an organic alternative to mechanistic theory in economics but its purpose is to contribute something in this direction. This I have attempted to do primarily by means of an examination of the epistemological basis of existing economic theory. If we can understand clearly the nature of the theory we have we may perhaps be better equipped to make an innovation. [...]  Read more

Industrial estates deal with a very specialized use of land. The 20th century - and especially the post-war period. - has been a period of rapid expansion in all fields of urban growth and change. To accomodate the new growth (and in many instances to encourage new growth) various concepts and new methods of land organization have evolved to facilitate these pressures of rapid expansion. Among these are the shopping centre, the neighbourhood and community unit, the civic centre, the new plaza offices complex, segregated vehicular and pedestrian traffic, and among others the planned industrial estate.  Read more

Subdural haematoma was one of the first neurological lesions to be treated by man. Prehistoric man performed trepanation. Later, Hippocrates and Galen described cases with recovery after evacuation of clot which were probably subdural haematomas. As the science of medicine evolved over the centuries, investigators have argued about the etiology of this lesion. Up to now many questions have been answered. But in spite of modern knowledge of anatomy and physiology, the mechanism of chronic subdural haematoma remains obscure. This study was undertaken to add more basic knowledge to this essential question. Attempts were made to produce experimental subdural haematomas …  Read more

The flow of incompressible turbulent wall jets over curved boundaries is examined in this thesis. The experimental portion is concerned with the flow of the jet on a concave surface of constant radius. The theoretical portion of the investigation considers jets blown over surfaces for which (i) the radius is proportional to the jet thickness; (ii) the radius is constant. The former defines flows for which the form of the velocity profiles will remain unchanged downstream. The solutions for both cases are obtained by neglecting wall friction and by assuming a turbulent shear law which is similar in form to …  Read more

The 3β-hydroxy-Δ5-sterols represent a useful system for the study of homoallylic participation in the solvolysis reactions. Depending on the pH of the medium, the solvolyses of the derivatives of Δ5-sterols may yield the products of kinetic or thermodynamic control (1,2,3,4).  Read more

Isobutylene is a versatile and reactive chemical intermediate of considerable industrial significance. At the present time, its most important use is in the manufacture of butyl rubber and of di- and poly-isobutylenes. Another important product of isobutylene, tertiary butyl alcohol (t-butanol), forms an intermediate in the manufacture of oil soluble phenol formaldehyde resin.  Read more

The family of Ismail Sidky participated in the public affairs of Egypt throughout the mid 19th century. His father was Ahmad Shukri Pasha, and his mother was Fatima Hanum, daughter of Muhammad Sayyid Ahmad Pasha, chief of cabinet to Said Pasha, son of Mehemet Ali Pasha founder of modern Egypt. Sidky's father on the other hand was Governor of Cairo, and after the Mahdi rebellion in the Sudan became the Director of the administration of the main territories of the Sudan and its dependencies. When he retired from this position he became Under-Secretary of the Interior.  Read more

Adipose tissue contains all metabolic pathways associated with somatic cells, but is highly specialized for the synthesis, storage and mobilization of FFA. This part of the thesis will summarize briefly concepts of adipose tissue metabolism as they have evolved during recent years. It will also consider some of the problems arising from the interpretation of the data derived largely by in vitro techniques.  Read more

Vertical profiles of the total precipitation in the area scanned by a radar have been obtained for the first time. Profiles for summer shower situations commonly show an accumulation of precipitation aloft, at a height which is observed to increase with the available energy of convection. This observation has been combined with calculations by ether researchers to give a three-fold relation between mean updraught speed, height of accumulation and energy of convection. Profiles for continuous rain are quite distinct from those of showers, generally showing the greatest amount of precipitation at the base of the storm. Profiles form a useful …  Read more

The necessity for precise and descriptive cardiac anatomy has become most imperative in view of advances in heart surgery. Until recently, emphasis has been directed toward the study of intra-cardiac anatomy only by select theoretical anatomists with no direct practical application to functional medicine; however, with the advent of the heart-lung machines, improved techniques for extra-corporeal circulation and hypothermia, more and more cardiac surgical techniques are being developed and perfected. The potentialities for an increased number of intra-cardiac surgical procedures naturally follows the perfection of the mechanical devises making such surgery possible.  Read more

The basic aim of this study is to describe the existing formal associations of West Indian immigrants in Montreal. This involves presenting first, information on the types of West Indian associations present in Montreal in terms of their ideology and goals, plus information on their organizational structure, hierarchy of offices end roles, formalization of authority and activities, membership base and recruitment policies. Secondly this involves describing the activities of these associations in terms of how these activities meet the needs of West Indian immigrants in Montreal, on the individual and the group level; and how these associations are the expression …  Read more