On the Absence of Isoagglutinins in Mice 93 



46 (2006) 



On the absence of isoagglutinins in mice. 

 By E. C. MacDOWELL and J. E. HUBBARD. 



[From the Station for Experimental Evolution, Cold Spring Har- 

 bor, Long Island, New York.] 



The number of units of inheritance, or genes that are known 

 in mice, is already so much in excess of the number of those 

 known in any other mammal that there is offered a strong in- 

 ducement to make intensive studies in order to increase the num- 

 ber of genes to the point where the deeper study of the genetic 

 mechanism of a mammal may be undertaken. A possible field 

 for the search for new characters was suggested by the claims 

 of Von Dungern and Hirschfeld 1 , Learmonth 2 , and Ottenberg 3 

 that blood groups in man depend in their inheritance upon simple 

 Mendelian factors. Besides being of interest from the stand- 

 point of mouse genetics and of the technique of experimental 

 transplantations, the discovery of blood groups in mice would 

 lead to a genetic investigation that could provide an experimental 

 basis for the study of the inheritance of blood groups in man. 



The tests made upon rabbits and steer by Ottenberg and Fried- 

 man 4 are said to reveal the presence of blood groups in these 

 animals. On the other hand, other investigators (Hektoen 5 , In- 

 gebristen 6 , Fischbein 7 , and Rohdenburg 8 ), using a variety of 

 animals (cats, dogs, sheep, swine, cattle, horses, rabbits, guinea- 

 pigs, rats, and frogs), have failed to find any evidence of blood 

 groups. In certain cases agglutinations were found, but these 

 did not appear to be grouped. 



Such negative results did not promise well for the discovery 

 of blood groups in mice, but the availability of a greater number 



1 Von Dungern and Hirschfeld, Zeit. f. Immunitatsforschung, 1910, vi, 284. 



2 Learmonth, J. E,, Jour. Genetics, 1920, x, 141. 



3 Ottenberg, E., Journ. Immunology, 1921a, vi, 363; Journ. Am. Med. Asso., 

 1921, lxxvii, 682, and 1922, lxxviii, 873. 



4 Ottenberg and Friedman, Journ. Exp. Med., 1911, xiii, 531. 

 s Hektoen, Journ. Infect. Dis., 1907, 297. 



6 Ingebristen, Miinchener med. Woch., 1912, lix, 1475. 



7 Fischbein, Journ. Infect. Bis., 1913, xii, 133. 



8 Eohdenburg, G. L., Pkoc. Soc. Exp. Biol, and Med., 1920, xvii, 82. 



