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Abnormal Hemoglobins in Human Populations. A Summary and Interpretation

by Frank B. Livingstone, University of Michigan. ix + 470 pages, illustrated. Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois. 1967. $12.50

The role of malaria in affecting the frequency and distribution of the abnormal hemoglobins over the globe is the central theme of this volume. The author wisely recognizes that while conclusive proof is still lacking, the case for the influence of the falciparum parasite in providing a selective advantage to the heterozygotes of red-cell defects is best established for the most common mutants, hemoglobin S (sickle cell), followed by C and E and the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase enzyme deficiency. In this extensive survey there were few frequencies that did not seem to be explained by this hypothesis. Thalassemia, while similarly affected, may require some other factor for complete explanation of its incidence.

In 107 pages of discussion, the anthropologist introduces the reader to the vast array of hemoglobin variants from J-Toronto to Cyprus I and their amino-acid substitutions, to G-6-P-D, to the interaction of the evolutionary factors controlling these traits, and to their world-wide distribution.