The Blood Groups of the Basques

Abstract

The linguistic uniqueness of the Basque people and their physical resemblance to some of the late palæolithic inhabitants of Europe have long been known. As Boyd and Boyd¹ have shown for the Spanish Basques and as Vallois² has shown for French populations with a large Basque element, they have a high frequency of group O persons. In this they resemble the Icelanders, the Scots, the Irish, the northern Welsh and the Sardinians. They differ from these and from all the other peoples of Europe yet examined in their very low frequency for the B gene. The facts so far cited tend to show that the Basques are a relict population which at least in Spain has suffered no significant admixture of elements akin to the general western European population. It remains to be determined whether, on the other hand, a race akin to the Basques forms a significant element in the population of western Europe.