Abstract
Although many investigators have made blood typings on Asiatics in both the Near East and the Far East, no studies have been previously reported on the inhabitants of the Syrian desert. The subjects of this study all belong to the Rwala tribe whose customs and manners have been fully elucidated by Musil. 1 Being entirely nomadic and very powerful, the Rwala penetrate the deepest parts of the desert. Except for some admixture with their negro slaves, the tribe is relatively pure as they retreat into the inner desert in cases of outside invasion. The blood samples were collected and typed on the same day against sera from donors belonging to group A and B. All agglutinations were checked by microscopical observation.
The high percentage of group O among the Rwala is wholly unexpected and most striking. The decrease in O in some of the camps is in direct proportion to the amount of admixture with the negro slaves in those particular camps. Although those frankly negro were excluded from the series, half-breeds were included. No negroes were found in camps 1 and 2, whereas in camp 5, the headquarters of the emir, large numbers of slaves are present.
In surveys of the incidence of blood group frequencies among peoples of the Near East by Parr, 2 , 3 the highest percentages for group O reported for Syrian Arabs is 37.82%; Palestinian Jews, 37.18%; Armenians, 28.14%; Turks, 36.8%; and Egyptians, 24.0%. The handbook of Steffan 4 also shows that all other previously reported Asiatics have a low incidence of group O.
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