Fontanus - (E-Journal - McGill University)

Oberholtzer, Cath

English

The Legacy of William Bell Malloch, M.D.: The McGill, Moose Factory and McCord Connection

-, -

Complete Vol 11 (2003)

Editors, The

CALL FOR PAPERS 
What do Arabic manu ript , john Humphrey, Hugh MacLennan, james :\4cGill, and Ern t Rutherford 
have in common? They have all been the ubjcct of scholarly articles ba ed on McGill University' · many 
fin collections. 
The editor of FonttlllriS arc currently eeklng article for the next is ue ovember 2003) and future i · ue 
of the journal. The deadline for ubmi ion i june 30, 2003. 
Fontmw is an annual publication devoted to cholarly re earch ba ed principally upon McGill University 
colle tion . The term "collection "i interpreted in the broadest en e, to include books, archive , peel-
men , artifact , building and other form of documentary evidence. 
For more information regarding the submi ion of manu crlpts plea e ee Guidelines for Author on page 
213 of this is ue. 
F.ditor, Fontmm 
c/o Dire<.-tor of Librarie 
McLennan Library Building 
3459 McTavi h St. 
Montreal, QC H3A 1Y1 
http://digital.library. mcgi ll.ca/fontanu 


Call for Papers

Complete Vol 12 (2010)

Groen, Frances

A Tribute to Margery Trenholme

Contributo~ 
Contributors 
Christina-Anne Boyle received a. B.A. and a. laster's degree in Library and Information Studies from 
McGill. Since graduating in 1992, she has been employed as a public librarian, and as a historical manuscripts 
cataloguer for a private collector. She is currently registered in the M.A. program in the Department of 
Hi tory, and is in the final &tages of completing her thesis analyzing the peerage of early modern Scotland 
in the rdgn of King James VI. 
Maria L. Brendel, a Ph.D. candidate at McGill 'Gniversity, is currently completing her the is entitled 
Allegorical '!ruth-telling via the Feminine Baroque: Ruben's Matet'ial Reality. She holds an M.A. in Art 
History (McGill) and a Diploma in Museum tudies ( 'niversity of Southern California, Los Angeles). She 
h< contributed to Fontanus, vol. viii (1995), 'Deluxe Devotional Prayer Books: a. McGill Book of Hours;" 
othl:lr publications include essays for the exhibition catalogue Isaac Cruikshank and The Politics of Parody: 
Watercolors from the Huntington Collection, Huntington Library, San Marino, California (1994)· "Rubens 
paradiso terrestre'' in Post: Nomadi meet Trafic Des Cultures (1996); and two exhibition reviews in Canada's 
contemporary art journal Parachute: "Linda Giles, vol. 2 (1996), and "Uncommon Sense,'' vol. 9 (1998). 
Montague Cohen was born in London, England and obtained his B.Sc. (Physics) and Ph.D. (Medical 
Physics) from London 'niversity. Before coming to Canada in 1975, he worked at The London Hospital in 
London and the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. In 1979 he set up the Medical Physics Unit 
of McGill 'Gniversity and directed the Unit until his retirement in 1991. He now holds a post-retirement 
Professorship in the McGill Physics Department and is also Honorary Curator of the Rutherford Museum. 
He has been a member and/or Chairman of several task groups of the International Commission on Radiation 
{;nits and Measurements (ICRU), and a consultant on radiation safety to the Ontario Government. 
Adam Gacek , a native of Poland, received his M.A. in Oriental Philology from the Jagiellonian University, 
Cracow, and subsequently a post-graduate diploma in Library Science from the Polytechnic of North London. 
He worked at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and the Institute of lsmaili 
tudies, London, and is the author of two catalogues of Arabic manuscripts for the above institutions. He 
is also the author of a growing number of articles on Arabic palaeography and codicology and is a co-editor 
of a unique annual publication, Manuscripts of the Middle East. In 1987 he joined McGill University, where 
he occupies the position of Head Librarian of the Islamic Studies Library. Since then he has contributed 
to three previous issues of Fontanus and has published two catalogues of Arabic manuscripts and Arabic 
lithographed books in the Fontanus Monograph series. 
Herve Gagnon detient des diplome de rnaitrise et de doctorat en histoire ainsi qu'une rnaitrise en 
museologie. Depuis plusieurs annees, il explore l'histoire des musees au Quebec. II s'interesse de pres 
aux ideologies au Quebec au XIXe siecle eta leurs principaux moyens d'expression. II occupe presentement 
le po te de directeur-conservateur du Musee Colby-Curti a Stanstead (Quebec). ll est aussi professeur 
associe au Departement d'histoire et de sciences politiques de l'Universite de Sherbrooke et charge de cour 
a l'Universite Bishops. 
137 
Contributors 
John Hobbins obtained his B.A. (Hons. History, 1966) and hi M.L.S. (1968) from lcGill niversity. 
Since then he has worked for the McGill university Libraries as Reference Librarian, Instructional Services 
Librarian, Head of Interlibrary Loan, Head of Acquisitions, Central Technical Services, and Acting Law 
Area Librarian. He is currently Associate Director of Libraries with a special responsibility for Systems and 
Technical Services. He is a former contributor to Fontanus, including one article based on the Humphrey 
papers. 
Peter F. Me ally is an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Studies 
where he lectures and publishes in the area of Bibliography, Reference Service, and the History of Books, 
Printing and Libraries. He is Executive-Secretary of the James McGill Society, Convenor of the Library 
History Interest Group of the Canadian Library Association, and Presidentrele<:t of the Bibliographical 
Society of Canada. Among his most recent publications are, Readings in Canadian Library History 2, 
(Ottawa, CLA, 1996) , and (with Kevin Gunn) "The McGill University Catalogue of 1876· a Preliminary 
Analysis," Fontanus: from the Collections of McGill University (v. 9, 1996). 
George Thomson was born in Dunblane, cotland, the ancestral nephew of Professor McEachran. He 
graduated in design from Edinburgh College of Art and gained a doctorate in biological ciences from the 
niversity of Stirling. His thesis involved studies in several fields including genetics, z.oological sy tematics 
and computer graphics. This multi-disciplinary approach has been a theme of later research. After several 
years as a lecturer in Graphic Communication at Glasgow School of Art, teaching, lettering, typography 
and information de ign, he was appointed to the staff of Cumbria College of Art and Design, Carlisle, 
England where he is now Leader of Academic Research. Dr. Thomson holds Fellowships of the Society of 
Scribes and Illuminators and the Royal Entomological Society and is an elected member of several other 
learned societies. His publications include many academic papers and several books and thesis in the fields of 
entomology, education, genealogy and local history. He is currently engaged in research on pre-1855lettering 
on cottish gravestones. 
Stephe n J. Toope is Dean of the Faculty of Law at McGill university. A graduate ofHarv-.u-d and McGill, he 
also holds a doctoral degree in international law from Cambridge. His scholarly interests include international 
dispute resolution, international human rights law and international environmental law. Professor Toope has 
served as the Chair of the Board of a Canadian-based relief and development NGO, and regularly serves as 
a consultant to the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and the Canadian International Development 
Agency. His work with Professor Jutta Brunnee on the interplay between international envirownentallaw 
and international relations theory was recently awarded the Francis Deak priz.e of the American Society of 
International Law. 
A li Yaycioglu, born and raised in Ankara, Turkey, is a Ph.D. research student at the Institute of Islamic 
tudie , lcGill university. He has been working on Ottoman legal culture, legal language and manuscript 
tradition, with an emphasis on Ottoman fetva compilations and court registers. This research has resulted 
in a number of articles about to appear in such journals as Kebikec and The Journal of Ottoman Studies. 
ifr. Yaycioglu is also a member of the Research Group based at the ·niversity of Chicago working on the 
history of the Black Sea trade. 
138 


Contributors

McNally, Peter F.

Print Culture and English-Speaking Quebec

Front cover

S.J. Toope, Stephen J.

Cultural Diversity and Human Rights

Cohen, Montague

Figure 1. Ernest Rutherford as a young man, c. 1900. Figure 3. Frederick Soddy 
McGill's Nobel Laureate: 
The Rut herford Centenary 
by Montague Cohen 
1998 marks the centenary of the appointment of Ernest Rutherford as Macdonald Professor of Physics at 
McGill University. This article discusses Rutherford's reasons for accepting the post in Canada, and sum- 
marizes his research achievements during his nine-year tenure, including the enunciation (with R-ederick 
Soddy) of the transformation theory of radioactivity. 
1998 marque le centenaire de la nomination d'Ernest Rutherford ci la chaire Macdonald de physique d 
I'Universite' McGill. Cet article expose les raisons qui ont  pousse' Rutherford ci accepter ce poste au Canada et 
donne u n  apercu des recherches qu'il y a mene'es pendant neuf ans, notamment la formulation (avec Rederick 
Soddy) de la the'orie des transformations radioactiues. 
Arrival in Montreal came a Full Professor at the age of 27, a promo- 
tion virtually impossible in the U.K. (His mentor, 
J.J. Thornson, for example, was 37 when he was 
On September 22, 1898, a young New Zealand sci- appointed Cavendish Professor of Physics at  Cam- 
entist (Fig. 1) landed in Montreal, after a slow and bridge.) Secondly, the annual salary of £500 (or 
stormy voyage across the Atlantic and along the $2,500) was very good, and Rutherford needed the 
St. Lawrence River. Ernest Rutherford, the newly- money since he was engaged to  be married. Thirdly, 
appointed Macdonald Professor of Physics at  McGill the Physics Laboratory at McGill - it was not yet designated a Department - was housed in a new University, was ready and anxious to  continue the re- 
search in the new field of "radioactivity" which he building, opened in 1893, thanks to  the generosity 
had begun as an 1851 Science Scholar at Cambridge of the tobacco millionaire William Macdonald, and 
University. was reputed to be one of the finest science buildings in the world, perhaps even the finest. Furthermore, 
Why did Rutherford agree to come to McGill? 
("Agree" rather than "apply" because the post had 
been offered to  him without a prior application on 
his part.) Nowadays this question would be consid- 
ered strange, even insulting, but in 1898 it posed a 
real problem for a scientist in the early stage of his 
career. The centre of science at  that time was firmly 
in Europe, including the U.K., and communication 
was such that it was a definite advantage for a young 
scientist to  work at or near the centre. 
the building was generously equipped and Macdon- 
ald was willing to finance the purchase of further 
equipment as required - an undertaking he did, in 
fact, fulfil. Finally, the post was essentially a Re- 
search Professorship and this was what Rutherford 
wanted. 
The Chairman of the McGill Physics Laboratory, 
Professor John Cox, was an excellent teacher but 
an indifferent researcher: he was happy to bear the 
brunt of the teaching load.' Nevertheless it is clear 
From Rutherford's point of view the McGill post 'At this time very few Canadian students attended physics 
offered several important advantages. Firstly, he be- courses in order to  become professional physicists. However, 
McGil17s Nobel Laureate: The Rutherford Centenary 
Figure 2. Exponential decrease in ra- 
dioactive emission measured by Ruther- 
ford in 1900' (Curve A ), accompanied 
by corresponding growth in the decay 
product ( Curve B ). 
FROM 
GASOMElFR * U R T H  Figure 4. Apparatus used by 
- 
1 Rutherford and Soddy in 1902~  to 
TE TF I' H study the emanating power of tho- 
rium compounds and to measure the 
I I rate of decay of the emanation 
A k-----bltq 
-L 
U R T H  
Figure 5. Apparatus used Ruther- 
ford in 1903~  to prove that a- rays 
are positively charged particles. 
McGill's Nobel Laureate: The Rutherford Centenary 
from Rutherford's letters t o  his parents and fiancbe 
that he did not intend to  stay a t  McGill for as long 
as  nine years: three or four years certainly, perhaps 
even five, but definitely not nine! 
ical departure from the conviction that the atoms of 
each element are permanent and indestructible (in- 
deed, the word atom means indivisible). During this 
period Rutherford showed that the a-rays are ac- 
tually heavy, positively-charged particles, although 
their precise nature was not elucidated until 1907- 
0 8 . ~  
Research at McGill 
Rutherford's research at  McGill may conveniently 
be divided into four periods, which will be discussed 
briefly as follows: 
Rutherford elucidated the basic properties of ra- 
dioactivity, including the emission during the ra- 
dioactive process of two different kinds of radiation, 
which he termed alpha and beta rays. (There is good 
evidence that Rutherford was aware of the emission 
of a third radiation, the gamma rays, but the formal 
discovery of this radiation is usually attributed to  
the French scientist Paul Villard in 1900.) Ruther- 
ford showed that radioactive emission by a given el- 
ement decreases exponentially with time, while the 
decay product increases according to the same law 
(Fig. 2).' He demonstrated that "emanation," i.e. 
radon, gives rise t o  a radioactive deposit on sur- 
faces with which it is in contact. During this period 
Rutherford also studied the energy and penetrating 
power of the radiations emitted during the radioac- 
tive process. 
In collaboration with the young English chemist 
Frederick Soddy (Fig. 3), who was a demonstra- 
tor in Chemistry at  McGill from 1900 to 1903 - al- 
though the partnership began only in October 1901 
- Rutherford investigated the emanating power of 
thorium compounds and measured the rate of de- 
cay of the emanation (Fig. 4).2 (Thorium was much 
more readily obtained than radium.) Rutherford 
and Soddy studied the nature of radioactivity and 
in September/November 1902 enunciated the trans- 
formation theory of r a d i ~ a c t i v i t i t ~ . ~  This was a rad- 
physics was an integral part of university programs in other 
fields, including medicine, engineering and chemistry. 
In this period Rutherford studied the succession 
of changes which constitute the radioactive series, 
whereby uranium is transformed via radium, into 
lead. In collaboration with his colleague Howard 
Barnes, Rutherford measured the energy associated 
with radioactive transformations5 and - with an- 
other colleague, Arthur Steward Eve - the nature 
of the gamma rays. 
Rutherford's main study during this period was 
the nature and properties of the alpha-particle.6 By 
this time he had acquired a small research group, 
members of which investigated the radioactivity of 
the earth and the atmosphere, and made a detailed 
study of the radioactive series by chemical separa- 
tion and physical measurements. 
Rutherford and the Curies 
Rutherford was not, of course, the only pioneer in 
the field of radioactivity. The other outstanding sci- 
entists were the Curies, Pierre and Marie, but their 
contribution was of a somewhat different nature: 
they were mainly concerned with the isolation and 
identification of the radioactive elements, including 
radium and polonium, whereas Rutherford was in- 
terested in the nature and mechanism of radioactiv- 
ity. Rutherford met the Curies first in 1903 and, 
after Pierre's tragic death in 1906, Rutherford inter- 
acted with Marie on several occasions and assumed 
the role of "a calm, gentle, supportive friend, almost 
fatherly, although he was four years her j ~ n i o r . " ~  
McGill's Nobel Luureate: The Rutherford Centenary 
Figure 6. Apparatus used by Ruther- 
Ford and Barnes in 1904~to measure the 
energy (heat) generated per second by a 
known mass of radioactive material. 
to vacuum pump 
- photographic 
plate 
beam 
of alpha Figure 7. Apparatus used by Rutherford 
rays in 1906' to investigate the properties of 
the a-particle. 
- deflecting 
plates 
McGill's Nobel Laureate: The Rutherford Centenary 
Rutherford leaves McGill 
In 1907 Rutherford was offered, and accepted, the 
post of Longworth Professor of Physics at  Manch- 
ester University in England. In 1908 he was awarded 
a Nobel Prize (in Chemistry, not Physics) for his "in- 
vestigations into the disintegration of elements and 
the chemistry of radioactive substances." Ruther- 
ford commented informally that he had observed 
many transformations with various time periods, 
but none quite as fast as his own from physicist 
to chemist! Although Rutherford was no longer at  
McGill, the research for which the prize was awarded 
was carried out in Montreal and we are justified in 
claiming him as McGill's Nobel Laureate. 
Rutherford remained a t  Manchester until 1919, 
when he was appointed Cavendish Professor of 
Physics at Cambridge, a post he held until his death 
in 1937. Although he carried out, or supervised, 
important research at  Manchester and Cambridge, 
including the development of the nuclear model of 
the atom in 1911-13, there is no doubt that his most 
productive period was that at  McGill. It  can be said, 
without exaggeration, that Rutherford's research a t  
McGill laid the foundation of 20th century physical 
science. 
The Rutherford Museum 
In the period of Rutherford's work at  McGill, sci- 
entific apparatus was usually fairly simple in design 
- although by no means simplistic in concept - and 
was constructed in the machine shop located in the 
Physics building. At the end of the investigation 
the apparatus was returned to the workshop, where 
it would be dismantled so that many of the com- 
ponents could be re-used in subsequent apparatus. 
This was the case with Rutherford's apparatus un- 
til 1900, when his colleague Howard Barnes pointed 
out that Rutherford was a pioneer in a new field of 
science and was already world-famous; it would be 
a crime against posterity t o  destroy his apparatus. 
The equipment was therefore put away in a cup- 
board where it remained, undisturbed, until the late 
1930s. 
After Rutherford's death, in 1937, his friend and 
former colleague, Arthur Stewart Eve, was asked by 
the Royal Society to  write the "official" biography. 
For this purpose photographs of the apparatus were 
taken and the idea of a museum was born. The 
concept lay dormant until 1950, when Dr. Ferdi- 
nand Terroux, a lecturer (subsequently Professor) 
in Physics at  McGill made a formal proposal to 
Dr. Norman Shaw, the Chairman of the Physics De- 
partment, for the construction of a "Rutherford Mu- 
seum and Conference Room." However, no progress 
was made until 1964, when Dr. Shaw bequeathed 
$2,000 to establish the Museum and an additional 
sum was provided by the McGill Graduates' Soci- 
ety. A room was allocated in the Macdonald Physics 
Building and Dr. Terroux undertook the laborious 
work of repairing, cleaning and renovating the items, 
while Dr. Terroux's architect son prepared the dis- 
play graphics. The Museum was opened in October 
1967. 
Acknowledgement 
By kind permission of Multimed Inc., and the Ed- 
itors of Current Oncology, this article is published 
simultaneously in Volume 5 (1998) of the journal 
Current Oncology. 
Notes 
N.B. The papers listed below are only a small frac- 
tion of Rutherford's publications during his 9-year 
tenure at  McGill. The full list comprises 51 full pa- 
pers plus 19 short notes and letters to Nature, to- 
talling over 750 pages of print. 
1. Rutherford, E. A radioactive substance emitted 
from thorium compounds. Phil Mag 1900; ser. 5,49: 
1-14. 
2. Rutherford, E. and Soddy, F. The radioactivity 
of thorium compounds. Part I. An investigation of 
McGill's Nobel Laureate: The Rutherford Centenary 
the radioactive emanation. Trans Chem Soc 1902; 
81: 321-350. 
3. Rutherford, E. and Soddy, F. The cause and 
nature of radioactivity. Phil Mag 1902; ser. 6, 4: 
370-396 and 569-585. 
4. Rutherford, E. The magnetic and electric devi- 
ation of the easily absorbed rays from radium. Phil 
Mag 1903; ser. 6, 5: 177-187. 
5. Rutherford, E. and Barnes, H.T. Heating effect 
of the radium emanation. Phil Mag 1904; ser. 6, 7: 
202-219. 
6. Rutherford, E. The mass and velocity of the a 
particles expelled from radium and actinium. Phil 
Mag 1906; ser. 6, 12: 348-371. 
7. Wilson, D. Rutherford. A Simple Genius. 
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1983; 254. 
Rutherford. Simple Genius, by David Wilson. 
(M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1983.) 
Ernest Rutherford, in Radiological Physicists, by 
Juan A. del Regato, pp. 3 7 4 9  (American Inst. of 
Physics, New York, 1985.) 
My Dear Eve ... The Letters of Ernest Ruther- 
ford to Arthur Stewart Eve, by Montague Cohen. 
Fontanus, 1, 3-37 (1988); 2, 111-138 (1989); 4, 69- 
108 (1991); 5, 123-159 (1992). 
Rutherford's Curriculum Vitae, 1894-1907, by 
Montague Cohen. Medical Physics, 22, 841-859 
(1995). 
Ernest Rutherford and F'rederic Soddy: An His- 
toric Partnership, by Montague Cohen. The Chemi- 
cal Intelligencer, April 1997,33-40 (Springer-Verlag, 
New York.) 
Rutherford and Soddy: The Cause and Nature of 
Radioactivity, by Montague Cohen. Ceramic Trans- 
actions, 87, 149-158 (1998). 
Bibliography 
Rutherford. Being the Life and Letters of the 
Rt. Hon. Lord Rutherford, O.M., by A.S. Eve (Cam- 
bridge Univ. Press, 1939.) 
Lord Rutherford, by Norman Feather. (Priory 
Press, 1940.) 
Rutherford - Recollections of the Cambridge 
Days, by Mark Oliphant. (Elsevier Publishing Co., 
Amsterdam and London, 1972.) 
The Self-splitting Atom. A History of the 
Rutherford-Soddy Collaboration, by Thaddeus 
J .  Trenn. (Taylor and Francis, London, 1977.) 
Rutherford and Physics a t  the Turn of the Cen- 
tury, edited by Mario Bunge and William R. Shea 
(Dawson and Science History Publications, New 
York, 1979.) 


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