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What was the 19th century belief in heredity?

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In the early 19th cent. Lamarck developed a theory of evolution in which the then current belief in the inheritance of acquired characteristics served as an explanation of its mechanism. The theory of pangenesis, as it was termed in a modified version in Darwinism , was strongly reminiscent of the ideas of Hippocrates and Aristotle. It hypothesized tiny particles called pangens, or gemmules—each bearing the hereditary potential for a specific body part—which circulated in the body and eventually collected in the reproductive cells.

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