Possible Relation of Blood Groups to Age and Longevity

Abstract

The writer's purpose is to point out hitherto unrecognized possibilities of blood-group investigations in relation to the problems of human constitution.Landsteiner found that blood-group formation is physiological, independent of pathological processes.1 This discovery and the findings of von Dungern and Hirszfeld2 that groups A and B are transmitted as dominants, stimulated much additional research on the problems of serology, heredity, anthropology, paternity and constitution. Hirszfeld3 has stressed the importance of further research on the relation of blood groups to the problems of human constitution.The problems of constitution deal primarily with those innate characters which largely preserve individual identity; therefore only those characters which are classifiable into discernible types in the living, and which, after type differentiation, remain permanent, or relatively so, throughout the life span, may be useful in these problems. The results of all investigations show that blood groups are i...