Arthur Ernest Mourant FRS (11 April 1904 – 29 August 1994) was a British

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

hematologist Hematology ( spelled haematology in British English) is the branch of medicine concerned with the study of the cause, prognosis, treatment, and prevention of diseases related to blood. It involves treating diseases that affect the production ...

and

geneticist A geneticist is a biologist or physician who studies genetics, the science of genes, heredity, and variation of organisms. A geneticist can be employed as a scientist or a lecturer. Geneticists may perform general research on genetic process ...

who pioneered research into biological anthropology and its distribution, genetics, clinical and laboratory medicine, and geology. Mourant graduated from the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

with honours in chemistry and a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

in geology in 1931. He was an early advocate of the then discredited Wegener theory of

continental drift Continental drift is a highly supported scientific theory, originating in the early 20th century, that Earth's continents move or drift relative to each other over geologic time. The theory of continental drift has since been validated and inc ...

, which subsequently gained acceptability as

plate tectonics Plate tectonics (, ) is the scientific theory that the Earth's lithosphere comprises a number of large tectonic plates, which have been slowly moving since 3–4 billion years ago. The model builds on the concept of , an idea developed durin ...

. When he left Oxford he failed to find a position in his chosen discipline and returned to his childhood home of Jersey, where he set up a

pathology Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...

laboratory. He later studied medicine and surgery at St Bartholomew's Medical College, London, joining the

Galton Laboratory The Galton Laboratory of National Eugenics was a laboratory established for the research of eugenics, later to the study of biometry and statistics, and eventually human genetics based at University College London (UCL) in London, England. The ...

Serum Unit in 1946 and then founding the Blood Group Reference Laboratory in London, where he was director for 20 years. He pioneered a study of hematology of the worldwide distribution of blood groups. This work help build the genetic map of the world by studying and classifying blood groups across many populations and ethnic groups. His book, ''The Distribution of the Human Blood Groups'', definitively drew together current knowledge on

blood groups The term human blood group systems is defined by the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) as systems in the human species where cell-surface antigens—in particular, those on blood cells—are "controlled at a single gene locus or b ...

and their distribution. It launched

anthropology Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...

on a new scientific basis as it described the genetic evidence for biological relationships, and allowed theories of population genetics to be developed and examined. This had far-reaching effects on medicine, research into genetic diseases,

blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's Circulatory system, circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used ...

, and public health. Mourant also studied the new blood group antigens of the

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * " Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohe ...

, Henshaw, Kell, and Rhesus systems, biological polymorphisms, and animal

serological Serology is the scientific study of serum and other body fluids. In practice, the term usually refers to the diagnostic identification of antibodies in the serum. Such antibodies are typically formed in response to an infection (against a given mi ...

characteristics for fish stocks and cattle breeds. Amongst his many honours and recognitions, he gained a Fellowship of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

, the Huxley Memorial Medal of the

Royal Anthropological Institute The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

, Landsteiner Memorial Award of the American Association of Blood Banks and honorary member of the Human Biology Council.

References

Bibliography

* The Distribution of the Human Blood Groups and Other Polymorphisms, 1954, updated 1976. * The ABO Blood Groups, 1958 * Blood Groups and Disease, 1978 * The Genetics of the Jews, 1978 * Blood Relations 1983 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mourant, Arthur 1904 births 1994 deaths Jersey academics British geneticists Fellows of the Royal Society Alumni of Exeter College, Oxford