Some studies of environmental influence, heredity, correlation and growth, in the white mouse

The Adaptive Significances of Intraspecific Trends of Variation in Wing Length and Body Size Among Bird Species

“…c. The adaptive significance (sensu stricto) of Bergmann's rule is to be found in whether or not slight increases in size or bulk, with concomitant decreases in relative surface area, facilitate development, survival, or achievement of heat economy at low environmental temperatures. Biologists have long thought about this problem, and numerous researchers have noted (see, e.g., Sumner, 1909Sumner, , 1915Sundstroem, 1944;Przibram, 1925;Allee and Lutherman, 1940), that rodents and domestic chickens raised at higher and more humid temperatures tend to be smaller in general body size and to have relatively larger appendages than individuals raised at lower temperatures. No one has demonstrated that these experiments extended over a period of generations will result in genotypic as well as phenotypic shifts (i.e., the Baldwin effect sensu Simpson, 1953a), but this is one possible way (see Ray, 1960) the process of climatic adaptation might occur in nature.…”

The Adaptive Significances of Intraspecific Trends of Variation in Wing Length and Body Size Among Bird Species

“…The adaptive significance (sensu stricto) of Bergmann's rule is to be found in whether or not slight increases in size or bulk, with concomitant decreases in relative surface area, facilitate development, survival, or achievement of heat economy at low environmental temperatures. Biologists have long thought about this problem, and numerous researchers have noted (see, e.g., Sumner, 1909Sumner, , 1915Sundstroem, 1944;Przibram, 1925;Allee and Lutherman, 1940), that rodents and domestic chickens raised at higher and more humid temperatures tend to be smaller in general body size and to have relatively larger appendages than individuals raised at lower temperatures. No one has demonstrated that these experiments extended over a period of generations will result in genotypic as well as phenotypic shifts (i.e., the Baldwin effect sensu Simpson, 1953a), but this is one possible way (see Ray, 1960) the process of climatic adaptation might occur in nature.…”

A Comparative Study of Daily Water-Intake Among Certain Taxonomic and Geographic Groups Within the Genus Peromyscus

“…All comparisons between the two races in a series are based upon the difference between the race-group means within an experiment, these differences being weighted by employing the following formula (Sumner, 1915): All comparisons between the two races in a series are based upon the difference between the race-group means within an experiment, these differences being weighted by employing the following formula (Sumner, 1915):…”