Lamarckism

Lamarckism, or Lamarckian inheritance is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime. It is inaccurately named after the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829).

History
The French zoologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck made an important announcement at the Museum of Natural History in Paris on 17 May 1802. In his lecture he set forth a vision of the gradual, successive production of all the different life forms on earth, from the simplest to the most complex, extending the first elaboration of a comprehensive theory of organic evolution.

Epigenetics
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck has been dismissed, when not ridiculed, by Darwinists for many decades but the basic thrust of his idea has recently resurfaced in epigenetics.