128 
M. de Quatrefages confirmed the remarks of M. Gratiolet touching the 
first ideas of Blainville on the animal series. 
M. Pouchet considered that the idea of a linear series on the ensemble 
of the animal kingdom was now abandoned, and justly so, because there 
existed an impassable abyss between the vertebrates and invertebrates. But 
in confining ourselves to the vertebrata we may imagine a series resembling 
the branching off from an arborescent trunk, many of the branches repre- 
senting as many extinct species being wanting. He therefore believed with 
Mr. Darwin that we are the remote cousins of the gorilla by the intermedi- 
ation of a vertebrate, the type of which is now lost. 
M. De Quatrefages would not admit the ideas of Darwin as regards 
species, but admitted them with respect to races, which are daily formed under 
our own eyes. 
M. Sansen could not allow this observation to pass without contradiction. 
M. Quatrefages would be much embarrassed to name one single race per- 
fectly new. 
M. Quatrefages replied that the number of esculent vegetables had, 
independent of new importations, remarkably increased since the time of 
Louis XIII., and he cited the sheep of Manchamp, Malnegree, Charmoise, as 
examples of new races produced within a few years by the crossing of dis- 
tinct races. The difference between him and M. Sansen consisted only in 
the definition of the word race. 
M. Sansen said it was quite true that he differed with M. Quatrefages 
as to the definition of race. In his opinion race is a group of individuals 
presenting an ensemble of similar forms and capable of being transmitted ; 
homogeneity of typical character, and hereditary transmission, being the 
necessary attribute of race. And here he must remark that the term of 
race had not yet been defined in the Society, and an understanding on that 
subject became requisite. As regards the examples invoked by M. Quatre- 
fages, they cannot be considered as new races, the sheep of Manchamp are 
Merinos differing only from the mother race by their silky wool. This is 
not a race character, the same wool being found in perfectly distinct races. 
As to the sheep of the Charmoise, he could show him two distinct types. 
They only resemble each other by their aptitude for fattening, which is not 
a race character. And as regards some esculent vegetables they had become 
so by culture. When they are left to nature their characters disappear, which 
does not prove that they constitute new races. 
