510 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1937 



which are ethnically very different — Hungarians from the east; 

 Gipsies, probably of BGindu origin; and Gennans of a date before the 

 eighteenth century — the study of their blood shows, in the plainest 

 possible fashion, that the Germans of Hungary react like those of 

 Germany, whilst the Gipsies are of the same type as the Hindus, and 

 that the Hungarians come close to the Turks — results agreeing entirely 

 with what we know from other sources. 



We may conclude that blood properties provide us with a genuinely 

 valuable means of reveaUng the purity of a race, and that they owe 

 their importance to the fact that they are at once strictly hereditary 

 and as independent as possible of environmental influences. 



Certain anthropologists have gone further and tried to extract from 

 serology information about the origin of races. The first theory of this 

 kind is that of Hirszfeld, who was struck by observing that, as one 

 passes from western Europe to eastern Asia, the proportion of A 

 diminishes and that of B increases. The fact is indisputable. A passes 

 from 45 percent amongst the Norwegians to 27 amongst the Manchus. 

 In the case of B, the change is particularly striking. One meets in turn 

 with 12 to 14 percent in western Europe; 20 to 23 percent in the 

 Balkans; 25 percent in the Turks and Arabs; 34 to 49 percent 

 amongst the Indo-Chinese; Chinese and Hindus. Hirszfeld thought 

 that from these facts he could infer a dual origin for the human race. 

 There would have existed, according to liis ideas, two human stocks, 

 one having group A in its blood and coming from northern and western 

 Europe, the other, with group B, coming from the east, perhaps from 

 India. The two stocks having mingled in the regions where they came 

 in contact would have given birth to an intermediate tjrpe; the B 

 element having, for instance, been introduced into Europe with the 

 different oriental and Mongol invasions. This view is entirely hypo- 

 thetical. And while most anthropologists at the moment beheve that 

 the agglutinogens A and B meij well have come into existence sepa- 

 rately and in different regions of the earth, they will not admit a dual 

 origin for the human race. It is known, in fact, that entirely new 

 morphological, physiological, or chemical characteristics may, in con- 

 formity with the laws of heredity, appear quite suddenly in a species. 

 The phenomenon is caUed mutation, and numerous instances have 

 been recorded in animal breeding. According to Bernstein and 

 Snyder, the serological properties of the blood might thus have ap- 

 peared as a mutation, and the human species be derived from a single 

 stem which originally lacked both agglutinogens and agglutinins. 

 One of the principal arguments in favor of this view is that the hving 

 representatives of races regarded as pure, but on the way to extinction, 

 have group either exclusively or at least dominant. Thus out of 

 112 Navahos examined by Rife, 111 belonged to group and only 

 1 to group A. It would seem then that we may regard this group 



