a of study and experiment for new types of social work. Among these are suggested vocational laboratories, through whose skilled advice the laborer may undertake work suited to his powers and capacity; schools of training for social workers, a class hitherto unknown in Italy." THE GENETIC FOUNDATION. Italy has been promised for a period There has been recently organized of three years." Besides the antiin Colorado "The Genetic Founda- venereal work which will constitute tion." An interested and philanthrop- its principal activities, the Institute ic individual has contributed $1,000 will make an effort to serve as "center to start a sustaining fund for such a foundation with the hope that other contributions will be made from time to time as the work of the foundation progresses. The directors of the foun dation are: Dr. C. P. Gillette, head or the Experiment Station, Colorado Agricultural College, Fort Collins president; Dr. T. D. A. Cockerell, head of the zoology department, University of Colorado, Boulder, vice-president; Mr. Henry W. Toll, attorney, Denver, secretary-treasurer; Ellsworth Bethel, president of the Colorado Academy of Sciences; Dr. Ira A. Cutler, head of the biology department, University of Denver; Dr. Ralph J. Gilmore, head of the biology department, Colorado College; Dr. Clarence B. Ingraham, professor of obstetrics, University of Colorado. The work of the Foundation will be chiefly researches and propaganda that have a direct bearing upon human heredity and betterment. THE POPULATION OF ALASKA. Alaska has been peopled by persons who move readily from place to place. This, together with a variation in her attractiveness to the adventurer, has caused the great fluctuations in her total population, which in 1900 was 63,592, in 1910, 64,356 and in 1920, 55,036. There has, however, been a stabilization in the Territory's population which is reflected in the the number of males to 100 females. continually approaching balance in In the total population this ratio has moved as follows: In 1900, 258.9, in 1910, 247.9, in 1920, 168.5. Among SOCIAL WELFARE IN ITALY. the Indians the ratio between the two Under the direction of Professor sexes has been of the normal sort, Ettore Levi, there has recently been but among the whites, to 100 females, organized in Rome the Italian Insti- there were in 1900, 852.9 males; in tute of Hygiene, Prevention and Social 1910, 500.1; and in 1920, 282.1. InRelief, the address of which is Via dustrially, eugenically and sociall”, Condotti 33, Rome. Professor Levi the great need of the territory is writes that the new Institute will con- settlers who move into the region cern itself with the physical, moral with their families. Perhaps the disand economic welfare of the nation, tribution of age groups with sex-rathat the details of the activities of tios indicate the approaching stabilithe Institute have been established, zation of the Territory's populaand its organization is already at tion. In 1920 the sex-ratios by age work, the initial funds having been groups were: 40 and more years of provided by the generosity and fore- age, 304.5 males to 100 females; 20 to sight of a well-known business firm 39 years of age, 171.1 males to 100 of Genoa, while the collaboration and females; under 20 years of age, 100.7 support of the principal banks of males to 100 females. NATURAL IMMUNITY OF WILD RATS TO PLAGUE. Reprint No. 709, from the Public Health Reports of the United States Public Health Service, describes the experiments conducted by R. R. Spencer, Passed Assistant Surgeon, United States Public Health Service, during the fall of 1920 at the plague laboratory at Pensacola, Florida. "Cutaneous inoculations with plague, of 57 rats from a non-infected territory, showed 43.8 per cent. to be immune. Subcutaneous inoculation with plague, of 377 rats from a non-infected locality, showed 30.2 per cent. to be immune. A total of 434 rodents from a non-infected locality showed 32 per cent. to be immune." The conclusion reached is that "a very considerable percentage of the wild M. norvegicus from a non-infected locality has been found to be immune to plague." HUMAN THOROUGHBREDS. Charles F. Dight, M.D., of Minneapolis, has issued a small pamphlet under the title: "Human Thoroughbreds-why not?" He promises that this is the forerunner of a book on eugenics. This will be awaited with interest. The pamphlet tells of his "plan to make Minneapolis a center for the study and promotion of advanced knowledge of eugenics." CITIZENSHIP OF FOREIGN-BORN The blending of races takes place races come in contact regardless of na On January 12, 1922, the Bureau of the Census issued a statement showing the citizenship status of foreignborn white population 21 years of age and over, by country of birth. It says: "The total foreign-born white population of the United States, which numbered 13,712,754 in 1920, included 12,498,720 persons 21 years of age and over, of whom 6,208,697, or practically half, were naturalized. Wide differences in citizenship status appear among the natives of the various foreign countries, the proportions naturalized among those 21 years of age and over ranging from 74.4 per cent. for the Welsh, to 5.5 per cent. for the Mexicans. For the five countries which contribute numbers of immigrants, the percentages naturalized were as follows: Natives of Germany, 73.6; of Ireland, 66.1; of Russia, 42.1; of Italy, 29.8; and of Poland, 28.9." It is quite clear, to one who reads between the lines, that Dr. Dight is the "unnamed Minneapolis man" who has left his estate in trust to secure the desired results. The purposes of the fund are stated to be: To inform the general public by various educa- "Of the total white population 21 tional means about the laws of years of age and over, 22.7 per cent. heredity; to teach eugenics; to give were immigrants and 11.3 per cent. instruction in psychology, with special were naturalized immigrants. Thus reference to vocations, and to provide in the white population of voting age, there were 166 naturalized immigrants to every 1,000 natives." a place for consultations and eugenic advice. DR. ALBERT GOVAERTS OF BELGIUM. GERMANY AND FRANCE. According to recent newspaper dispatches, the figures for the first half Dr. Albert Govaerts, who is Secreof 1921 show an excess of births over tary of the International Eugenics deaths in France of 72,851. For the Commission and of the Société Belge same period Germany shows an excess d'Eugénique, and who has been carryof 358,712 (for the first three months ing on eugenical researches at the Euof 1921 the German figures were genics Record Office since September, 179,356. This figure was doubled for 1921, finished his American studies the six months' estimate). Germany early in April, and thereafter visited has a population one and three- eugenical and medical centers in New quarter times that of France, but has York City, Princeton, Philadelphia, five times the increase in population. Baltimore, Washington and Boston. (Abstract from the N. Y. Times, February 26, 1922.) "KITH AND KIN." Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, in the October, 1921, issue of the Journal of Heredity, presents a paper on the subject of "Kith and Kin" in which he says: Dr. Govaerts' principal studies while at Cold Spring Harbor consisted of investigations into "The Hereditary Factor in the Etiology of Tuberculosis." His paper under this title will be published in the American Review of Tuberculosis. The statistical tables which he compiled are on file at the Eugenics Record Office, and those which are not printed with the manuscript may be consulted by persons especially interested in them. "In dealing with genealogical subjects I am much surprised at the poverty of the English language in words expressive of relationship. We On his return to Belgium, Dr. Gohave no general term, irrespective of vaerts will seek both private and sex, for the relationship indicated governmental support in organizing by the words 'uncle and aunt,' nor an Eugenics Record Office for the have we any other word than cou- Kingdom of Belgium. He sailed for sin' to express collateral relationship, Antwerp from New York City on the and we use the term in the most vague" Kroonland" on May 6th. His permanent address will be: 22 Rue de l'Ermitage, Ixelles-Bruxelles, Belgium. way. MENDEL CENTENNIAL. A call has been issued for the celebration of the centennial of the birth of Gregor Mendel, to held at Brünn, Sept. 22d-24th. The celebration will be in the garden where stands the monument to Mendel that was erected by subscriptions made by geneticists "We often allude to our 'kith and kin.' We all have a pretty definite idea of what we mean by 'kin,'-relationship through a common ancestor, our own kindred, our blood relatives; but what do we mean by 'kith?' The word by itself is obsolete. Web ster defines it as 'acquaintance, intimate acquaintance and relationship. I think it would be a good plan to revive the term 'kith' and give it the special meaning of relationship in 1910. A special invitation is exthrough a common descendant. Kin: Persons who have a common ancestor are kin. Kith: Persons who have a common descendant would be kith." tended to Americans to participate. Professor Dr. Hugo Iltis of 10 Bäckergasse, Brünn, Tschechoslowakei, has the matter in charge. VOL. VII. JUNE, 1922 NO. 6 ON THE PRESENT STATUS OF THE | agglutinate and may hemolyze the INHERITANCE OF THE BLOOD GROUPS. DR. FREDERICK L. REICHERT, corpuscles of members of any other group except those of Group IV. A table of this relationship is shown. CORPUSCLES SERA. Group I II III IV I + II 0 0 + III 0 + +++ The variety of influences that may set free the hemoglobin from the red blood corpuscles are termed hemolysins. Likewise corpuscles agglutinate under a variety of influences, and these agglutinating factors are called The normal agglutinins. human blood serum contains iso agglutinins and iso hemolysins, that is, a variety of agglutinins and hemolysins, occurring naturally in the serum, which are I effective against the red blood cells of another individual. These antibodies, as they are sometimes called, are important in connection with blood transfusion, and it is necessary, before using a donor, to make sure that his serum does not agglutinate or cause hemolysis of the corpuscles of the patient, and vice versa. Curiously the accompanying table. enough, according to their possession of these so-called iso anti-bodies, human beings fall into four groups which are believed to be inherited according to Mendelian laws. Group III is the rarest, with Group but little less infrequent, while Group II and Group IV are about equally common, each occurring in about 40 per cent. of individuals. Moss (1) in 1910, independently of Jansky, found that there are at least three different iso agglutinins occurring in the serum of over 90 per cent. of adult human beings, and three iso hemolysins in about 25 per cent. of adults. He divided human beings into four groups, according to the ability of their serum to cause iso agglutination and of their corpuscles to be iso agglutinated. The serum of members of any one group will not agglutinate or hemolyze the corpuscles of other members of the same group, but will a single drop of blood in salt solution the medico-legal application of human for corpuscles in order to determine the group of an individual. Moss gives the details and simple technic for securing the sera and for doing the determination in a hanging drop, the latter requiring only a few minutes to set up, and the presence or absence of agglutination is observed under the microscope. blood grouping states that in 1908 he noticed that the groupings were hereditary and followed Mendel's law, but was unable to work out the mechanism of inheritance. He, too, uses Landsteiner's postulation of two different agglutining and employing Jansky's classification of the four groups (which differs only from Moss' classi A Mendelian interpretation was re-fication in that his Group I correcently suggested by Hirschfeld and sponds to Moss' Group IV, and vice Hirschfeld (3) to the classification of versa) he proceeds to develop an human sera in the four groups al- elaborate mechanism of inheritance, though Von Dungern and Hirschfeld which, however, seems only a hypothe(4) in 1911 considered its familial sis not based on any field studies as tendency. far as can be ascertained from the J. R. Learmonth (5) in 1920 pub- article, and in which no definite con lished an article on the inheritance of sideration is taken of the hypothetical specific iso. agglutinins in human possibilities arising from matings of blood in which he bases his interpreta-hybrids. tion upon the conclusions of Land- Buchanan (8) in a subsequent numsteiner (6) that there are at least ber of the same journal rightly attwo kinds of agglutinins present in tacks Ottenberg's paper for advocatthe serum of his cases which he had ing the application of blood grouping divided into three groups, the one in in medico-legal cases where there is his so-called Group A, the other in disputed paternity or maternity or of Group B, and both in Group C. Moss alleged substitution of one child for (1), however, in 1910 showed that another, without further investigathere were really three agglutinins, tions into its inheritance. He shows the third being different and not com- the great necessity for further field posed of the effects of the two others. studies and these to be carried to Learmonth, using Landsteiner's postu- three generations. lation of only two kinds of agglutinins, It appears then, as in a number of proceeds to analyze the investigations other subjects, for instance, the enhe has made in forty families but his docrinopathics, that conclusions have tables and statistics cover only two been arrived at, and applications generations and the attempt at the made, without sufficient investigadetermination of a duplex or simplex possibility is quite inconclusive, being based on what seems to be a faulty premise. He concludes that it is permissible to deduce that the iso agglutinins present in human blood are inherited and that as a general rule the inheritance follows Mendelian laws. tions and it is quite evident that although the investigations made are quite suggestive and important, there still remains a need for a thorough and extensive field study, carried beyond two generations. Then, with the data findings, a more authoritative and convincing hypothesis as to the mechanism of the inheritance of Ottenberg (7) in a recent paper on blood grouping could be advanced. |