The inheritance of acquired characteristics is a hypothesis that physiological changes acquired over the life of an organism (such as the enlargement of a muscle through repeated use) may be transmitted to offspring. It is also commonly referred to as the theory of adaptation equated with the evolutionary theory of French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck known as Lamarckism.
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Famous quotes containing the words inheritance of, inheritance and/or acquired:
“Late in the afternoon we passed a man on the shore fishing with a long birch pole.... The characteristics and pursuits of various ages and races of men are always existing in epitome in every neighborhood. The pleasures of my earliest youth have become the inheritance of other men. This man is still a fisher, and belongs to an era in which I myself have lived.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Say not you know another entirely till you have divided an inheritance with him.”
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801)
“The actor can be compared to the soldier. The former dazzled by his triumphs, sighs continually for the struggles of stage- life; the latter filled with the glory he has acquired on the battlefield, cannot resign himself to peace.”
—Adelaide Ristori (1822–1906)