[The circumstances and background of the discovery of the Rh-factors]

We can hardly meet references in the literature to the various circumstances and factors that played an important role in scientific discoveries, although interesting conclusions could be driven from them. So, e.g., in the case of Landsteiner it is sure, that his idea, to investigate the reason of the mechanism and of the formation of a phenomenon, came from the phenomenon itself: namely, from the agglutination called forth by the fortuitous mixing of the cadavers' blood in the dissecting room. The present paper deals with certain circumstances that played a role in the discovery of the Rh-Factors, resulting not only scientific, but practical consequences as well. The data used here were collected primarily from the memoirs of professors Wiener, Levine, Dahr and from those of Speiser (Vienna). The authors were helped in their research also by their personal contact with professor Dahr (Cologne) established in the sixties. Landsteiner was compelled to emigrate from Austria mainly by the vivid anti-Semitism of the early 20s. Supposedly, without his emigration the Rh Factors would have been discovered much later. Working in the Rockefeller Institute (New York) Landsteiner was provided with everything that was needed for his research. He had organised a team and, helped by his colleagues, he succeeded to open a new field in immunserology. Unfortunately, before he could have completed his scientific project, he had died--already as a Nobel-Prize winner--in 1943. His project was resumed by his colleagues. The method of Rh-examination, exceeding the field of medicine, quickly won a greater significance, in anthropology, genetics and in biology. It is worth to mention, that Landsteiner, had already indicated shortly after his discovery the fields, on which the Rh-examinations later played a significant role.