General interest, scientific, and religious periodicals responded to the theory of evolution in 1925 with the same opinions but slanted their coverage to appeal to different readerships. "Scientific American" and "Current History" differed only stylistically in their coverage of the "Australopithecus africanus" discovery. Articles and editorials in the three types of periodicals defended evolutionary theory and freedom of rational thought from fundamentalist opposition in the months prior to and during the Scopes trial, but the non-scientific magazines did not expand their coverage to challenge their readers to explore evolution on their own. (Thirty-two notes are included, and a 15-item bibliography is attached.) (Author/RS)