among collectors to leave interpretation of their results to others, mainly, I think, for fear of being proved wrong and thus undermining their whole legacy. This is an increasing trend, but even Beddoe was shy of absolute conclusions. None the less he ventured an explanation for the fair-haired people of England, suggesting that ‘the greater part of the blond population of modern Britain . . . derive their ancestry from the Anglo-Saxons and Scandinavians . . . and that in the greater part of England it amounts to something like half’. So there we have it. Beddoe explains the different colouring by a very substantial settlement from Saxon, Dane and Viking. The particularly light colouring in parts of Yorkshire, which we noted previously, he attributes to the impact of the Norman Conquest. However, Normans, as we will later discover, are really no more than recycled Vikings. On Ireland and the Gaelic west generally, Beddoe thought the people to be a blend of Iberians with ‘a harsh-featured, red-haired race’. The Celtic ‘type’, with dark hair and light eyes, he ventures to suggest, may only be an adaptation to the ‘moist climate and cloudy skies’ which they endure.
Beddoe concludes the account of his lifetime’s work with this paragraph:
But a truce with speculation! It has been the writer’s aim rather to lay a sure foundation whereon genius may ultimately build. If these remaining questions are worthy and capable of solution, they will be solved only by much patient labour and by the co-operation of anthropologists with antiquarians and philologists; so that so much of the blurred and defaced prehistoric inscription as is left in shadow by one light may be brought into prominence and illumination by another.
It is as if John Beddoe, criss-crossing the country with card and pencil in hand, calipers and tape in his knapsack, had already anticipated the arrival of genetics. How he would have loved to be alive now.
Beddoe and his contemporaries were the first to substitute observation for deduction and prejudice in exploring the origins of the people of the Isles. But, as he himself freely admits, there was still a strong subjective element in his observations of appearance. After all, our obsession with looks is ample proof of its emotional influence. It must have been almost impossible for Beddoe not to have nurtured some preconceived ideas, which, with the best will in the world, will have influenced his conclusions.
The next stage in the scientific dissection of our origins removed this subjective element completely. It began a long way from England, just as John Beddoe was enjoying a comfortable old age and the flood of honours which acknowledged the fruits of his lifetime’s passion. While he posed for the frontispiece of
The Races of Britain
on thedoorstep of his comfortable mansion in the early years of the last century, a scientist in Vienna was mixing the blood of dogs.
5
THE BLOOD BANKERS
If you have ever been a blood donor, or ever needed a transfusion, then you will know your blood group. You will know whether you belong to Group A, B, O or even AB. The reason for testing is to avoid a possibly fatal reaction if you were to be transfused with unmatched blood. You cannot tell, just by looking, what blood group a person belongs to. Unlike hair and eye colour or the shape of heads, blood groups are an invisible signal of genetic difference which can be discovered only by carrying out a specific test.
Though the first blood transfusions were performed in Italy in 1628, so many people died that the procedure was banned. As a desperate measure to save women who were haemorrhaging after childbirth, there was a revival of transfusion in the mid-nineteenth century. Though some patients had no problems accepting a transfusion, a great many patients died from their reaction to the transfused blood. What caused the reaction was a mystery.
The puzzle was eventually solved in 1900 by theAustrian
Beddoe concludes the account of his lifetime’s work with this paragraph:
But a truce with speculation! It has been the writer’s aim rather to lay a sure foundation whereon genius may ultimately build. If these remaining questions are worthy and capable of solution, they will be solved only by much patient labour and by the co-operation of anthropologists with antiquarians and philologists; so that so much of the blurred and defaced prehistoric inscription as is left in shadow by one light may be brought into prominence and illumination by another.
It is as if John Beddoe, criss-crossing the country with card and pencil in hand, calipers and tape in his knapsack, had already anticipated the arrival of genetics. How he would have loved to be alive now.
Beddoe and his contemporaries were the first to substitute observation for deduction and prejudice in exploring the origins of the people of the Isles. But, as he himself freely admits, there was still a strong subjective element in his observations of appearance. After all, our obsession with looks is ample proof of its emotional influence. It must have been almost impossible for Beddoe not to have nurtured some preconceived ideas, which, with the best will in the world, will have influenced his conclusions.
The next stage in the scientific dissection of our origins removed this subjective element completely. It began a long way from England, just as John Beddoe was enjoying a comfortable old age and the flood of honours which acknowledged the fruits of his lifetime’s passion. While he posed for the frontispiece of
The Races of Britain
on thedoorstep of his comfortable mansion in the early years of the last century, a scientist in Vienna was mixing the blood of dogs.
5
THE BLOOD BANKERS
If you have ever been a blood donor, or ever needed a transfusion, then you will know your blood group. You will know whether you belong to Group A, B, O or even AB. The reason for testing is to avoid a possibly fatal reaction if you were to be transfused with unmatched blood. You cannot tell, just by looking, what blood group a person belongs to. Unlike hair and eye colour or the shape of heads, blood groups are an invisible signal of genetic difference which can be discovered only by carrying out a specific test.
Though the first blood transfusions were performed in Italy in 1628, so many people died that the procedure was banned. As a desperate measure to save women who were haemorrhaging after childbirth, there was a revival of transfusion in the mid-nineteenth century. Though some patients had no problems accepting a transfusion, a great many patients died from their reaction to the transfused blood. What caused the reaction was a mystery.
The puzzle was eventually solved in 1900 by theAustrian
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