 Johannsen’s experiments on inbred lines produced repeatable outcomes and illuminated hidden processes: traits acquired during development in certain conditions were not transmitted to offspring, that is, the nature or constituents of the genotype were shielded from most of the interactions within the organism and with the environment that occur during the organism’s lifetime. Even if the reactions of different genotypes under various conditions resulted in “differences between the phenotype-curves [that] may vary considerably or may even vanish entirely” (Johannsen 1911: 145), a specific “genotypical constitution always reacts in the same manner under identical conditions” (1911: 146). Mendelian experiments crossing inbred lines extended this genotype-conception of heredity. Hidden processes were exposed in the sense that sexual reproduction involves joining together of pairs of factors—for which Johannsen coined the term genes.  That meant the reappearance in F2 of traits not visible in F1 could be explained without any ancestral influence. The rest of his goals were also fulfilled: The dichotomous nature of Mendel’s traits afforded Johannsen the distance he desired from the analysts of continuous variation who had entertained ancestral influences. Mendelian researchers had a method to remove the ambiguity of appearance so genotypes could be distinguished from each other (and their constituents shown to be stable). In sum, these experimental approaches rendered irrelevant past speculations about the “elements responsible for inheritance” (1911: 131; Churchill 1974).