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Show Advice on Your Health By Morris Fiihbein, Editor, Journal American Medical Association i Again and again th court of ths United States and of other countries have been asked to pass on th paternity of a child whoa mother la known. For many year physicians were compelled to aay that there was no known method by which any really scientific sci-entific light could be cast on this problem. But the gradual development of ' our knowledge of the so-called blood groups haa led us to a point at which th expert I abl to provide a considerable amount of important Information. Of course, the anthropologist by studying the shaps of the skull, th measurements of 'th body, th character of th eyes, the ear and the formation of the teeth is able to find evidence that la useful. However, even such evidence I not as certain aa that provided by a study of the groups within the blood. Briefly, the evidence now available avail-able indicates that in every human hu-man being there are in the red blood cells different combinations of certain specific substances which have the power to clump together the red blood cells of other individuals. These substances sub-stances are present at birth and are constant in the Individual concerned. con-cerned. There are other substance of thl type which are also present - . VI-.1. I . i : i . a . j, Now there are many circumstances circum-stances in which the paternity of a child can become of great importance from a legal point of view. Already the courts in several sev-eral atate have permitted evidence evi-dence regarding the substances to be introduced Into the court. In some instance children -have been substituted for other children. In other cases a woman wom-an has exhibited as her own a child belonging to emu other woman. Very rarely the claim ' ha been made that children have 1 been mixed in the nursery ef a hospital. Moat often, however, at th charge by a woman that a child born to her out of wedlock la the 1 child of a certain Individual In many cases it la now possible by the use of these blood tests to prove with certainty that a certain cer-tain man could not possibly be ' the father of a certain child. These test can never be of much value in aiding the mother. They establish es-tablish th fact that a certain , man could not possibly be the father, and In a genuine case the mother has nothing to fear. If, however, the man involved ia falsely accused, or if there have been possible relationship with other men, the test may prov very serious aa far a th woman , la concerned. i UIUU, UUfc WI1IVI1 IBIIU LU UIIII1I1- lah from that time on. It haa been established by the experts In the field of heredity that there ia a tendency to inherit in-herit theae agglutinating or clumping substances, and. moreover, more-over, that they are inherited according ac-cording to well-established laws. For instance, there are two such substances which are called M and N. The authorities have found that M and N aubstances cannot can-not appear In th flood of a child unlea they are present In the blood of one or both parent.' par-ent.' A parent with type M cannot can-not have a child with type N, and a parent with type N cannot have a child with type M. |