The Inheritance of Acquired Characters and the Provisional Hypothesis of Pangenesis

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Abstract
Belief in the inheritance of acquired characters is much older than Lamarck. In fact it can be traced back to the time of Hippocrates (400 B.C.) and for at least 2200 years before Lamarck it was accepted by most of the philosophers and naturalists as a matter of course. Among those who definitely indorsed the belief are Hippocrates, Aristotle, Galen (?), Roger Bacon, Jerome Cardan, Levinus Lem-nius, John Ray, Michael Adamson, Jo. Fried. Blumen-bach and Erasmus Darwin. Likewise the belief in pan-genesis is much older than Darwin. Among those who described the derivation of semen from the entire body are Hippocrates, Democritos, Galen (?), Clement of Alexandria, St. Isidore of Seville, Batholomaeus Anglicus, St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas of Aquinas, Peter of Crescentius (?), Paracelsus, Jerome Cardan, Levinus Lemnius, Venette, John Ray, Buffon, Bonnet, Mauper-tius, von Haller and Herbert Spencer.

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