Blood group research in Great Britain, France, and the United States between the world wars

Abstract

Over a thousand articles of original research plus several archival sources were studied for the period before 1940 in this examination of the history of serological research in physical anthropology. One goal was to study the spread and adoption of new discoveries and techniques by scientists. In addition, to look more closely at possible social or cultural influences, the work of researchers in three countries was examined more closely: Great Britain, France, and the United States. The anthropological uses of the serological discoveries began in most countries as an effort to find a more “scientific” definition of race based on differing distribution of blood types. By 1940 and after several hundred studies that tested over a million subjects, researchers failed in achieving this goal. The data produced, how ever, were largely the basis for the development of human population ge netics in the late 1930s and 1940s which redefined humans into gene pools instead of races. Two common features of the conduct of this research were the predominance of one school or individual in a given country, and the extension of studies to exotic and overseas locales. The United States was an exception to the centralization of research because interest and resources were so extensive. Research in Great Britain was unusual in the relative lack of interest in the new blood group discoveries until late in the period. French research was both centralized, thanks to the Pasteur Institute, and extended to colonial possessions in Africa and Asia. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.