Duncan's critique of Matsuda

摘要: Although Duncan (K. W. Duncan. 1985. Can. J. Zool. 63: 2230–2232) holds, "there can be little point in taking Matsuda's thesis seriously," this author argues that some of the ideas found in Matsuda's paper (R. Matsuda. 1982. Can. J. Zool. 60: 733–749) are actually a refinement of Waddington's notion of "genetic assimilation" by means of "canalization." The latter term implies not only the rigidity of the genotype but also its flexibility; it was this quality, plasticity, that Matsuda laboured to examine but that Duncan failed to appreciate.