"WEIGHING THE SOUL."

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12867, 27 July 1907, Page 7

"WEIGHING THE SOUL."

So much has been pniMisihed in. the daily Press regarding tho experimcntf* described under this sensational title, that it is a relief to -see a definite and authoritative statement regarding these experiments—in what they consisted, where and when thoy were performed, ar.d by whom, and how his results are explained by the ©x-poriimwrnter. These fadts, in which the newspaper accounts were sin-gulaily deficient, are furnished by an article written by the experimenter, Dr. Duncan MacDaugall, of Haverhill, and published eimvu'llt-Mie-ously in "American Medioine" and tihe 'Journal of tho American Society for Psj-chical Research"' (New York: May), and also by a number of letters printed in the la-Mer publication.

The first determination- of the weight of a dying per.«on was made hy Dr. MacDougal'l ua early as April, 1901, and he has repeated the test whenever opportunity offered since that time, tie ia euro (that ihe has aytablisbed "a loss of suibstance from the ixxiy, not acooumted tor by known ciuiinols of loss," oocuiring either at or jiibt after death., and ainountaii*; to from -j ounce up to 1, ounces. He believes that Uiis is caused, by the ab--straction of something tlhait he calls "sou'i-fiiiustance.' iai a letter to i>r. Hiciiaixt xi*K4p>on, written in 1901, he sayt>, in response to a suggestion, of the latter that mc eoul wuao retseurible tiie ether rat-he r tuan pouueiaul© nia-tier:

"1 tiiniK. we are uu-re jusuhed in us sumiug mat tnat winch is the concainer or the totality ot the psychic iunctions, including consciousness and pei-H>uaUt<y, ana still persisting alter mc oeuth of our bodies, is much more lirvely u> he a material, organically linked with th© body, tnan 'tho hyipauneiio.l, yet iiooiUbiary ettiti*-6Ui>dtance, ; which hai> never been deiuonsiuiiated to be "a neovsiary pare ot our 1-vnn-g oigautism, aitlujugli iit-cassary to our Hi©as ot ■jp-io© and the action of energy, interplanetary and interstellar." •scientific interest evidently attaches rather to the accuracy of Dr. MaclJou galls experiments than to his iiieorios ot soul substance. He laments greatly the premature publicity given to his re•earohes, which he tears will now put an end to the possibility of carrying them further, .bven in the six cases where he waa able to weigh a dying person he had much trouoie with hospital officials and others. (This is not ■uirprisrng.) Fifteen dogs showed no appreciable loss of_ weight at death. Dr. 'UacDougall says in. his article: — "If it is definitely proven that there is in th© human being a loss of substance at death not accounted for by Known channels of loss, snd that such kz-ss of substance does not occur in the dog, as my experiments would seem to show, then we have here a physiological difference between the human and tbe canine at least and probably between the human and all other fbrtms of animal life. lam atwtare that a large number of experiments would require to be made before the matter can be proven beyond any possibility of error, but if further and sufficient experimentation proves that there is a loss of substance occurring at death, and not accounted for by known channels of loss, the establishment of such a truth cannot fail to be of the utmost importance." In an article by Here-aard Camngton, also published in the "Journal of the American Society of Psychical Research," we road:—

"It has very frequently been asserted that this experiment has been ttried, and in Hibbert's Life and Energy will bo found a chapter entitled Is Life Matter? in which this question is considered, and th© author comes to the immediate conclusrion that life is not matter owing to this very fact - that tlie dead body does not weigh less than th© same body .alive. I am unaware of any first-hand account of such a scries of experiments having been •■ade. hrwever. and it would be amusing if it should turn out that such experiments never had been mad©—after science has stated so dogmatically c or so many yeais that the question had already' been settled past all dispute." Mr Carrington quotes instances of apparent mysterious losses and gains of weielit by "living j-creoms, which cer tainly cannot be accounted for by any soul-sub tance hypothesis. His coiolud'ng paraeraph states tbe matter a-, it will probably appear to most intelligent nersons. In it be says:— ••"While .... I think that Dr. MncDfMigall has certainly made some most interest in <r n'*d i*"TV riant disco v-

-'-*«■. and that further experiment along these lines is greatly to be de-*ii-ed. v.c cannot hold out much hope that w© rhall. by such means, ©v©r V"on«trat© that the human soul •vei-ihs an ounce—even though the reality ©f the loßoes be proved. The conditions attondant upon death aro so little kr.own. and th© human organism is subject to such queer variations in weicht. even when alive, that many ait-1 positive proofs will have to be foithcoming before his interpretation of the fact*—even though they themselves should be ct-*t a Wished—can be accepted by science.

And there this weird and perhaps unprofitable subject rests for th© present.