Note 1 — REMY DE GOURMONT
William Aspenwall Bradley translation
Communication à l'Académie des Sciences (13 Avril 1896), certified and rendered more precise by later investigations which M. Quinton has explained to me. Here, without scientific apparatus, is what, as a result of precious conservations, would appear to be the general order in which the animals appeared, beginning with the fishes, and taking account only of those which have yet been covered:
I. Fish IV. Mammals V. Birds II. Batracians a. Monotremata x. Primates: III. Reptiles b. Marsupials (Lemurs, Monkeys, c. Edentates Men) d. Rodents y. Carnivora: e. Insectivora (latest arrivals: f. -- -- -- blue fox, white g. -- -- -- bear) h. -- -- -- z. Ruminants: -- -- -- (last arrival: -- -- -- reindeer)
The bearing of this list upon any question whatsoever of general philosophy is evident for all who know how to disassociate ideas. It would have thrilled Voltaire. For the rest, I claim the honour of having been the first to announce to the larger public these new scientific views, which will, logically, have a magnificent wealth of consequences. I have already made a less precise allusion to them, notably in the Wiener Rundschau, May 1899.