Zira, you worked in a room like this.
Zira
Bigger, not so pretty.
And there you practiced...?
Zira
Comparative.
Comparative what?
Zira
An, an, an, an...
Anatomy? Whose anatomies did you compare? Apes and humans? Zira, say "Yes" if you mean "Yes".
Zira
Yes.
So you dissected other apes.
Zira
Yes. When they died a natural death.
And humans, too, of course.
Zira
Yes. As they were made available.
Available?
Zira
Gorillas hunted them for sport with nets and with guns. The survivors were put in cages. The army used some of them for target practice. We could take our scientific pick of the rest.
And in the interest of science, you dissected, removed and statistically compared...?
Zira
Bones, muscles, tendons. And veins, arteries, kidneys, livers, hearts. Stomachs, reproductive organs. Nails, tongues, eyes. Noses, nervous systems, the various reflexes.
Reflexes? Of the dead?
Zira
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. Of the living. You can't make a dead man's knee jump any more than you can test a corpse's reaction to a prefrontal lobotomy.
You mean you were advanced enough to perform experimental brain surgery on living humans?
Zira
Oh, yes. We even tried to stimulate their atrophied speech centers.
Did you try to stimulate Colonel Taylor's speech centers?
Zira
Of course not. He could talk already.
When you left, was Colonel Taylor still alive?
Zira
We loved Taylor. We did all we could to help him, Cornelius and I.
