 It suffices to give an example of a number of which one does not know whether it is algebraic or transcendent in order to give at the same time an example of a number that, until further information comes in, could be neither the one nor the other. But, on the other hand, it would be in vain, it seems to me, to want to define a number that indeed is neither algebraic nor transcendent, as the only way to show that it is not algebraic consists in showing that it is absurd that it would be, and then the number would be transcendent. (Wavre 1926: 66; translation mine)