The Principles and Practice of Medicine

No attempt has been made since before World War II to bring together available knowledge of the distribution of human blood groups. The reasons are clear. There has been a continual increase in the number of known blood group systems and the steady accumulation of information about their distribution. The complexities of serology and the mathematical difficulties in interpretation of the data have determined that few men are equipped to present the problem. Such men tend to be busy, and it is a most remarkable tribute to Dr. Mourant's industry that he has managed by work over several years to produce this fine book, especially as there has been a torrent of new information through the period. The plan of the book is that the genetical basis of each of the blood group systems is briefly explained in five chapters. Some other sharply segregating traits in man are similarly discussed and thereafter the available knowledge on the distribution of these characteristics is considered, in successive chapters in North and Central Europe, the Mediterranean area, Africa South of the Sahara, Asia, Indonesia, Australia, and the aborigines of America. In each chapter the frequencies of the various genes is considered against the background of history and external "social" characteristics. The information surveyed is tabulated in a series of appendices which are quite invaluable as a source of reference. There follows an excellent review of the techniques of discovering the blood groups in tissue and bone specimens and an account, particularly valuable in that the sources of information are so scattered, of the available knowledge of blood groups in the lower animals and their relationships to human groups. There is much practical information in later chapters on techniques of taking and preserving specimens and on the methods of calculation of gene frequency which are relevant to all the evolutions and anthropological implications of blood grouping. There are over 1,700 references. Although the information considered and interpreted in this book is enormous, skilful and discriminating writing have avoided this being a ponderous and monumental type of book, while containing all the information required of it as a standard book of reference. It is impossible to commend this book too highly to all anthropologists, geneticists, and clinical pathologists. A. C. S.