OF WILD ANIMALS 95 



comfortable apartments. John was seriously ill. He was in 

 a "rickety" condition, and he weighed only 32 pounds. With 

 a pure atmosphere, kept at 65 degrees only, and amid good sur- 

 roundings, he soon became well. He attained such robust 

 health and buoyant spirits that in March, 192 1, he stood 40K 

 inches high and weighed 112 pounds. 



At my solicitation Miss Cunningham wrote out for me the 

 very remarkable personal history of that wonderful animal, — 

 apparently the most wonderful gorilla ever observed in cap- 

 tivity. It is a clear, straightforward and convincing record, 

 and not one of its statements is to be for one moment doubted. 

 While it is too long to reproduce here in its entirety, I will 

 present a condensation of it, in Miss Cunningham's own words 

 that wfll record the salient facts, — with no changes save in 

 arrangement. 



Miss Cunningham says: 



Loneliness. "We soon found it was impossible to leave 

 him alone at night, because he shrieked every night, and nearly 

 all night, from loneliness and fear. This we found he had done 

 in the store where he lived before coming to us. He always 

 began to cry directly he saw the assistants putting things away 

 for the night. We found that this loneliness at night was trying 

 on his health and appetite. As soon as possible my nephew 

 had his bed made up every night in the room adjoining the 

 cage, with the result that John was quite happy, and began to 

 grow and put on fat. 



Treatment. " I fed him, washed his hands, face and feet 

 twice a day, and brushed and combed his hair, — which he would 

 try to do himself whenever he got hold of the brush or comb. 

 He soon got to like all this. 



Training. "My next idea was to teach him to be strictly 

 clean in his habits. It was my ambition to be able to have him 

 upstairs in our house as an ordinary member of the household. 

 I taught him first as a child is taught and handled. This took 

 some time. At first I could not make him understand what we 



