460 
HEMATOLOGY 
J. Moor-Jankowski, New York University- 
School of Medicine, New York : I have a general 
question to ask Dr. Stengle. We have been eval- 
uating in New York the importance of our own 
group in blood groups of nonhuman primates. It 
would help us to have an idea how important in 
scientific research are the blood groups of dogs, 
cattle, and sheep. We know of course that cattle 
and sheep are used for commercial evaluation, 
stock-breeding, and so on. Dogs are used most 
probably for research. But you probably have 
an overview of this and maybe there are other 
people here who would like to know how far in- 
formation which you presented now is being 
used in scientific research. 
Dr. Stengle : I think there are probably sev- 
eral possible answers to it. Dr. Moor-Jan- 
kowski. I think science justifies itself, really, 
and so that's one level of answer; but you're 
asking about perhaps a more practical level. To 
how many people in the scientific communiy is 
it important to know all there is to know about 
dogs, sheep, cattle, and primates blood grouping 
and the problems that will arise as they do 
cross-transplantations or transfusions among 
these species? I don't have a ready answer for 
that. I think it's an area of science which needs 
to be continued. I can't give you any figures. 
C. J. Stormont, University of California, 
Davis, Calif. : I'd like to comment. Dr. Stengle. 
The whole area of animal blood group research, 
especially the larger animals, cattle, sheep, 
horses, goats, pigs, is very poorly supported in 
the United States. In fact, we are being liter- 
ally squeezed out of business by lack of grant 
funds. I can substantiate this in more ways 
than one. Some labs are fortunate ; they seem to 
get continuing NIH support. New labs try to 
obtain support, but they can't because the 
money is all going to one lab. This is really the 
truth. I don't know where we're going to go for 
our money for research on blood groups in large 
animals. It looks to me like we're going to have 
to get our support directly from industry, be- 
cause the U.S. Department of Agriculture 
doesn't seem to have any money, at least to sup- 
port people in this country. They do support 
European investigators. They bring them over 
here to visit our labs even though they never 
seem interested in supporting us. I could go on i 
and on about this thing and really blast. 
So, as I say, it looks as if we're going to have 
to get support directly from industry. You'll 
have to pay for it when you buy beef. It'll 
cost you Vi cent more a pound, or something like 
this. My only support now comes from provid- 
ing services — typing work. I do not get one 
penny of grant money for research on animal 
blood groups. The horse blood typing is now 
being supported by five horse breeder organiza- 
tions, simply because of the importance of the 
blood typing tests in resolving questions of par- 
entage arising in the registration of pure-bred 
horses. This is the main support at the moment. 
In the sheep industry, blood typing costs ^ 
more than some of the larger animals involved ' 
in the parentage cases, so they don't utilize it in 
solving parentage cases. With cattle, they do. 
W. J. DODDS, New York State Department of 
Health, Albany, N.Y. : I want to make a practi- 
cal comment about blood groups in dogs. I'm a 
firm believer that the animal blood groups 
should be studied more from a clinical point of 
view. We have a colony of dogs with hereditary 
bleeding defects, and we have to transfuse them ; 
frequently. Because we have all the typings 
here for dogs, we supply this service free to the 
veterinary industry in the Capitol area. We 
have now been able to type the regular donors. j 
We type all the blood bags before they are used | 
so they know which blood to use for transfusion j 
purposes. We can only do this because our re- i 
search is funded from NIH for another source. ' 
Chairman : I might call your attention, Dr. 
Stormont, to a nice article in the last issue of 
Chemists, a publication of the Institute of 
Chemists, on what kinds of funds ought to be 
made available for research. He makes the point 
that it's silly to ask for a million dollars. Until 
scientists enter the class of big spenders, it's no 
use yelling. The author points out why, and so 
on. 
Dr. Stormont: I'd like to make one other 
comment here. I enjoyed your remarks about 
the high and low potassium being associated 
with the M system of sheep blood groups. This 
is a really remarkable observation. In fact, Aras- 
mus and my former student, Ann King, work- 
ing in Edinborough, made the connection be- 
