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Darwin and Inheritance: The Influence of Prosper Lucas

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Abstract

An important historical relation that has hardly been addressed is the influence of Prosper Lucas’s Treatise on Natural Inheritance on the development of Charles Darwin’s concepts related to inheritance. In this article we trace this historical connection. Darwin read Lucas’s Treatise in 1856. His reading coincided with many changes concerning his prior ideas on the transmission and expression of characters. We consider that this reading led him to propose a group of principles regarding prepotency, hereditary diseases, morbid tendencies and atavism; following Lucas, he called these principles: laws of inheritance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departamento de Biología Evolutiva, Facultad de Ciencias, UNAM, 04510, México, D. F., México

    Ricardo Noguera-Solano & Rosaura Ruiz-Gutiérrez

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  1. Ricardo Noguera-Solano
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  2. Rosaura Ruiz-Gutiérrez
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Correspondence to Ricardo Noguera-Solano.

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Noguera-Solano, R., Ruiz-Gutiérrez, R. Darwin and Inheritance: The Influence of Prosper Lucas. J Hist Biol 42, 685–714 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10739-008-9175-7

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