Absence of the Diego Blood Group and Abnormal Hæmoglobins in 92 Maoris

Abstract

RECENT investigations of Mongoloid populations have shown in some of them a high incidence of hæmoglobin E and of the Diego blood group. The highest frequencies of hæmoglobin E have been found in Siamese, Burmese and north-east Malaysians, and the highest frequencies of the Diego blood group in South American Indians, followed by Japanese, North American Indians and Chinese. Hæmoglobin H, although seen in some Greeks and in a Jordanian Arab, has in the majority of the still relatively few observations been found in people of Asiatic Mongoloid origin, notably Chinese and Siamese, and occasionally in Philippinos and Malaysians. Lastly, thalassæmia or Mediterranean anæmia is now known not to be restricted to persons of Mediterranean origin, for the observation of a high incidencein Siamese¹ has been followed by similar reports from other Asiatic populations, both non-Mongoloid and Mongoloid.