914 THE HEREDITY OF THE BLOOD GROUPS 



As Table V indicates, and as more complete studies have corroborated, the fact 

 seems to be that there is a definite frequency distribution among the various peoples 

 which is related to their geographical distribution. It seems that the peoples of the 

 north and west (English, French, German, Swedish, etc.) have more A individuals 

 than B, while the peoples of the south and east (Indians, Japanese, Koreans, Chinese) 

 on the contrary have more B individuals and fewer A. The so-called "primitive 

 races" — American Indians, Filipinos, Eskimos, and Australian aborigines — show a 

 very high percentage of group O as compared to the European and Asiatic peoples. 



The conclusion has been drawn that humans may be divided into various an- 

 thropological categories on the basis of their blood group frequencies. Various formu- 

 lae have been proposed for determining these categories and different names assigned 

 to them, but there has been no general acceptance of any formulation. 



The high percentage of group individuals in the so-called "primitive races" has 

 led Hirschfeld, Bernstein, and others to conclude that man originally was a pure 

 recessive made up entirely of individuals of group O, and that A and B arose as 

 recent mutations: the former in the north and west of Europe, the latter in the 

 south and east, probably India. The American Indians and polar Eskimos are 

 assumed to have separated from the rest of the humans before the mutations arose, 

 and their few A and B individuals are taken to indicate later cross-breeding with 

 Europeans and Asiatics. 



But a number of considerations arise which require conciliation before these con- 

 clusions can be accepted. Foremost among these are the findings of Landsteiner and 

 Miller,' who demonstrated the existence of the human blood groups in the primates. 

 Of twelve chimpanzees examined, the red cells of nine showed agglutinogen A. Of 

 five orangs, two showed A and three B. The only gibbon blood examined showed ag- 

 glutinogen A. These facts make it difiicult to accept the conclusion that the factors A 

 and B are recent mutations. Landsteiner expresses as more probable the h^-pothesis 

 that "the group specific factors appeared in the phylogeny of the primates prior to the 

 genesis of man." It is furthermore noted that peoples certainly of different anthro- 

 pological categories, as the Hungarians and the South Chinese, have similar group 

 frequencies, while within the same race differences have been found as great as those 

 which are supposed to be significant of racial differences. The latter observation was 

 made especially by Grove^ in a recent study of the Ainu. 



THE THEORY OF BERNSTEIN 



The statistical data outlined above have been accepted by Bernstein-' and made 

 the basis of a mathematical analysis from which the conclusion was reached that the 

 blood groups are inherited, not according to two independent pairs of genes as de- 

 scribed by von Dungern and Hirschfeld, but according to three multiple allelomorphs 

 lying in the same chromosome. 



According to Bernstein, the human race began as pure recessive or group with 

 a genetic formula which he gives as RR. The gene R then mutated to A, giving in- 



' Landsteiner, K., and JMilkr, P.: J. Expcr. Med., 42, 863. 1925. 



^ Grove, E. F.: J. Immunol., 12, 251. 1926. 



3 Bernstein, L.: loc. cit. 



