Homeostasis and the F₁ Hybrid

Abstract

THE second paragraph in Brown and Dinsley's communication might be construed to refer to my communication on the effects of strain and group size on the response of mice to ‘Seconal’ anæsthesia. If this is indeed true, I would like to point out that I nowhere suggest that “because results with a particular anæsthetic using two inbred strains and their reciprocal hybrids suggest superior development homeostasis of the heterozygotes all other first crosses will fall into line”. In fact, if Table 1 of that communication is referred to it can be seen that particular environmental conditions can result in equal amounts of variation being shown by both the heterozygote and the homozygote, for example, Part 2, two per cage, all strains, and Part 2, eight per cage CE/CE♂ × CBA♀ F₁.