Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
"The modern advocates of Lamarkism content themselves with such simple cases as the strengthening or enlarging of organs by use, the hardening of the soles of the feet by pressure, or the enlarging of the stomach by the necessity of consuming large quantities of less nutritious food. These, and many other modifications, may doubtless be explained by the direct action of conditions if we admit that the change produced in the individual is transmitted to the offspring. That such changes are transmitted has, however, not yet been proved; and a considerable body of naturalists reject such transmission as improbable in itself, and at all events not to be assumed without full and sufficient proof. But even if accepted it will not help to explain the very great number of important adaptations which, like those already referred to, are quite unrelated to any direct action of the environment".