GORILLA ALMOST MAN? 239 
script before his publishers considered it exciting 
enough to be of general interest. All I want to point 
out is that the gorilla should be judged by what he 
does, not by how the people that hunt him feel. 
And it is of more importance to judge the gorilla 
correctly than any other animal for he is unquestion- 
ably the nearest akin to man. Most scientists agree 
that man and the gorilla had common or at any rate 
similar ancestors. Since that time man has passed 
through the dawn of intelligence and devel-ped the 
power to reason and to speak. But how ne developed 
these powers no one knows. The gorilla has not these 
powers, but he has so many other likenesses to man 
that there is no telling how near he is to the dawn of 
intelligence. 
In the whole doctrine of evolution there is no one 
subject more interesting or likely to be more fruitful 
to study than the gorilla. He presents most impor- 
tant opportunities to the students of comparative 
anatomy, to the psychologists, to the many kinds of 
specialists in medicine, not to mention the students 
of natural history. 
It is very commonly stated, in the Century Dic- 
tionary and Cyclopedia, for example, that the gorilla 
“lives mostly in trees.”” Unquestionably this is true 
of the chimpanzee but I do not think it true of the 
gorilla. I believe that he has nearly passed out of the 
arboreal phase of life and is perhaps entering the 
upright phase and that he is the only animal except 
man that has achieved this distinction. To stand erect 
and balanced, an animal needs heels. The plaster 
