304 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 



BLOOD GROUPS. 



Report of Committee on the Blood Grouping of Primitive Peoples (Prof. 

 H. J. Fleure, F.R.S., Chairman ; Prof. R. Ruggles Gates, F.R.S., 

 Secretary ; Prof. J. H. HuTTON, CLE., Mr. R. U. Sayce). 



During the past year over 400 natives have been tested at Kohima and 

 Mokokchung in the Naga Hills, Assam, under the general direction of the 

 Honorary Director of Ethnography, with serum supplied by the Haflfldne 

 Institute in Bombay. Many of these belong to the related tribes, Angamis, 

 Lhotas, Semas and Rengmas. Many are Konyaks, while others belong to 

 the Aos and the Thado Kuki. Significant differences in blood grouping 

 already appear, and the work is being continued until larger numbers are 

 available, in order to distinguish between the various tribes and groups 

 tested. Mr. S. S. Sarkar, of the Bose Institute, Calcutta, is testing aboriginal 

 tribes, the Male and Santal, in the Santal Perganas district of Bihar. Dr. 

 Eileen W. Macfarlane has been continuing her blood grouping in India, 

 combining it with anthropometric measurements. Two papers are in the 

 press. 



Serum was sent to the Canadian Governnient Expedition which spent 

 the years 1934-36 studying the Eskimos in the area west of Hudson Bay. 

 One hundred and twenty-six ' natives ' were tested, but the results are not 

 being published until fuller information can be obtained from another 

 Expedition this year. 



Nearly 300 Micmac Indians were tested with the help of Prof. Ralph 

 Smith, Pathologist, Halifax, N.S. These included nearly 100 children 

 from the Indian school at Shubenacadie, the remainder being mainly adults 

 from two Indian reservations on Cape Breton Island. A paper on the 

 Micmac Indians, who are even more mixed with white blood than the 

 British Columbian Indians, is now in course of publication. 



A satisfactory arrangement for blood grouping the Iroquois and Ojibway 

 Indians of Canada has not yet been reached. 



Prof. W. R. Morse, Dean of the College of Medicine in Chengtu, 

 Western China, has succeeded in obtaining the blood groups of many Chwan 

 Miao, as well as of 1,312 Szechwanese. A short paper on this subject is in 

 the press. 



A small pamphlet has been produced, pointing out the significance of 

 the blood groups and the method by which they can be taken and recorded. 

 This is available for distribution to local medical practitioners who may be 

 interested and who reside in parts of the British Isles with pockets of popu- 

 lation which may show peculiar blood group percentages combined with 

 other physical differences. In this way it is hoped to initiate local blood 

 group surveys in some of the more isolated parts of the country. 



