Abstract
I DO not think we are in any way bound by the terms of the law enunciated by Lamarck. Those laws may be shown to be erroneous in all but the suggestion of a principle which may possibly be developed into an important and far-reaching doctrine, and if so the importance of the doctrine will be in nowise diminished by the crudity of the early suggestion. There is scarcely any scientific generalisation which does not require an amended enunciation in each generation if it is to be in accordance with the contemporary state of knowledge. Nevertheless it seems to me that the second law of Lamarck does not state that a character acquired by individuals for the first time is inherited, or “alters the potential character of the species.” The law states that nature preserves by generation what has been acquired by individuals by the influence of the circumstances to which their race has been long exposed: not by the influence of the circumstances to which they alone have been exposed in their own individual existences.
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CUNNINGHAM, J. “Acquired Characters”. Nature 51, 126 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/051126a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/051126a0
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