a. and sb. [f. Lamarck, the name of a French botanist and zoologist (1744–1829) + -IAN.]

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  A.  adj. Of or pertaining to Lamarck or to his theory respecting the cause of organic evolution, which he ascribed to inheritable modifications produced in the individual by habit, appetency, and the direct action of the environment. B. sb. One who holds Lamarckian views.

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1846.  Dana, Zooph., vii. § 106 (1848), 107. These remarks are intended to support no monad or Lamarckian theory.

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1858.  Darwin, Life & Lett., II. 121. To talk of climate or Lamarckian habit producing such adaptations to other organic beings, is futile.

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1893.  Athenæum, 12 Aug., 220/2. Hegel was a keen enough scientific critic to see the defects of the Lamarckian theory.

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  So Lamarckianism, Lamarckism, the doctrine of the origin of species as laid down by Lamarck. Lamarckite = LAMARCKIAN sb.

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1872.  Pittsburgh Commercial, 6 Feb., 2/4. Darwinism, the doctrine of the equivalence and conservation of forces, Lamarckism, Spinozism, etc., are reviewed and severely handled.

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1884.  Stand. Nat. Hist., I. (1888), I. p. lvi. These views essentially agree with what is known as Lamarckianism.

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1884.  Ray Lankester, in Athenæum, 29 March, 412/2. Lamarckism looks very well on paper, but … when put to the test of observation and experiment it collapses absolutely.

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1890.  Times (weekly ed.), 19 Jan., 7/3. There are [in biology] pure Darwinists, Wallaceists, Weissmannists, Lamarckites, and Romanesists.

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